10 WordPress Plugins You Can’t Do Without

WordPress is the most popular blogging platform, and with good reason. It’s easy to use, free, and powerful enough to run some of the biggest websites on the internet. However, with all of this power comes complexity, and sometimes WordPress can be overwhelming to set up if you’re new to it – or if you’ve never installed any plugins before!

1) Jetpack

Jetpack is a multipurpose plugin that’s free to use. It has its own set of features, including social sharing buttons and Google Analytics support, but it also allows you to access a number of features created by other developers. Some users find that they need extra plugins in addition to Jetpack; others never touch them. We recommend trying Jetpack out and taking advantage of whatever seems most useful; there’s no point in paying for plugins if you’re not going to use them regularly.

2) Snatch

Snatch lets you grab posts by other WordPress users and publish them as your own, making it easier for everyone to share content and remove duplicate efforts from SEO. If you’ve ever wanted to link to someone else’s great post, but didn’t have time to track it down, Snatch is for you.

3) Yoast SEO

SEO stands for search engine optimization, and Yoast is one of many SEO plugins out there. But what makes it so good? Quite simply, it makes your life easier.

4) Contact Form 7

Use Contact Form 7 to easily create contact forms for your WordPress site. It works with MailChimp, Aweber, GetResponse, and Campaign Monitor, among others.

5) Google Analytics Dashboard for WP (GADWP)

If you want to really get a grip on who your users are and where they’re coming from, installing Google Analytics is an absolute must. With GADWP, your analytics will be set up automatically—no code required. And if that wasn’t enough, you also get visitor counts, charts and social media integration with Facebook Likes and Twitter Followers. It even supports AdSense! In short: all you need to know about who is visiting your site and what they do when they get there.

6) SumoMe

SumoMe is one of our favorite go-to tools for newbie marketers and small business owners. Free to use, SumoMe makes it incredibly easy to add lead generation boxes (or squeeze pages) to your website, even if you have little to no experience in code. We recommend starting with SumoMe before moving on to more complex solutions like Optimizely or Unbounce.

7) FeedBurner Subscription

Feedburner is a free service that you can use to track visitors who subscribe to your feed and send updates. This is helpful for monitoring which of your posts get read, allowing you to know what’s resonating with readers and what’s not. When someone subscribes to your feed via Feedburner, they will receive an email notification whenever you post something new.

8) Wp GDPR Compliance

The GDPR is coming into effect on May 25th, 2018. This is a massive overhaul of data protection laws and could land you with a fine of up to £17 million (or 4% of annual turnover) if you don’t comply. To get your site ready for GDPR in time, install Wp GDPR Compliance plugin to enable you to collect visitor information such as email address.

9) VaultPress

Don’t try to deal with all of those updates on your own; use VaultPress to keep your site secure. If you’re running multiple blogs, there’s even a plan that allows you to manage several sites from one dashboard. It comes with backups, security tools and monitoring, too.

10) Broken Link Checker

Broken links are a quick way to lose readers. A broken link checker is a must-have plugin for any WordPress site with a high volume of content. The Broken Link Checker scans your posts and comments, helping you find dead links quickly and easily before they become an eyesore or worse, affect site functionality.