In this article we will see a large selection of WordPress plugins, both free and paid, and sorted by theme, so you have them all.
I have focused more on what I consider to be absolutely essential WordPress plugins for any project.
I will discover all the WordPress plugins that I have installed in my Blog, as well as some more that I think can be very useful.
How to Install Plugins to WordPress?
There are 3 ways to install WordPress plugins and which I describe below:
1. Performing a search from our WordPress.
2. Uploading a plugin to WordPress that we have previously downloaded.
If you look at the previous capture, at the top you have an «Upload Plugin» button, which will allow you to upload a plugin that you have previously downloaded to your WordPress.
Remember to only download WordPress plugins from official and verified sites and thus avoid taking a bad experience.
3. Through FTP.
I recommend you use Filezilla, it is a free program and you can upload a plugin to your WordPress with just dragging.
There is another way a little more professional, which is using the FTP of our hosting and upload all the plugin folders in zip and then unzip format, so we can upload many plugins in a few seconds.
Breaking Myths About WordPress Plugins?
One of the most repeated myths and errors in a Blog is to think that we must install a small number of WordPress plugins to ensure a very fast loading speed, but it is NOT true.
This is because each plugin has a different loading speed, it can be a slower plugin than the sum of 10 plugins, or for example, we have the bad luck of choosing a plugin that is not well programmed and has an error that generates an infinite loop, which can cause the loading speed to be reduced.
In my case, I use 32 WordPress plugins, you have heard correctly, 32, you can see it in the following image capture that I just made of my Blog.
To show you what I am telling you what I have done is to test my blog’s loading speed to see how it affects the one with 32 plugins installed.
As you can see in the image, the page speed of the Blog is 87/100, a highly optimized score that clearly affects a better web positioning of the entire Blog.
Best Practices of WordPress Plugins
1. Never install a plugin that has not been updated for a long time
If you install WordPress plugins that have not been updated for a long time, you will be generating a security problem, since we do not know for sure if the plugin has any vulnerability by which some malicious person can access our Blog.
2. Always update to the latest version
We must always have updated the version of each and every one of our plugins, but before updating a plugin always remember to make a backup, so that in case of problem or incompatibility, you can undo the change.
3. Update the plugins always one by one
It is always convenient to install the WordPress plugins one by one so that in case of failure or incompatibility it is much easier to identify the cause or cause.
4. Do not install plugins that you did not download from an official site
At present, and although it is very sad for the blogger world, thousands of altered plugins circulate on the Internet and contain malicious scripts, with the aim of opening a backdoor to the person who created the malware, and being able to access and make changes that you want in your blog as if it were the administrator himself.
5. Configure all plugins correctly
The vast majority of plugins need us to spend a few minutes to configure it correctly, so do not fall into the error of thinking that installing and activating the WordPress plugin is all done.
Now we start with the list of the best plugins so you can get the most out of your WordPress Blog.
Best WordPress Plugins (2020)
Best WordPress Plugins for SEO
It is the most essential and basic WordPress plugin for any blog, as you could also say that it is a multi-plugin since there are many plugins in one.
This plugin is mainly for us to edit the HTML tags for the On-Page SEO of each of the web pages. Yoast SEO will also give us a series of tips related to the On-Page SEO of each of the pages, in addition to creating the sitemap of the web and others.
Characteristics:
- On-Page Optimization.
- Content readability.
- Robots.txt configuration
This plugin will allow you to add a bar at the bottom of each article with related posts, with the aim of increasing visits and improving SEO.
It is a very easy to configure and launch WordPress plugin, you just have to decide the visual aspect and the number of related posts that you want to display.
Characteristics:
- Helps internal link building.
- Increases traffic.
- Raises the number of page visits.
Without a doubt the best WordPress plugin to cache and optimize the loading speed of any web page or blog. A few months ago I succumbed and since then I am delighted to use this great plugin in my blog.
Follow the recommendations offered by my friend Álvaro Fontela, who is a WordPress consultant very specialized in the optimization of page speed.
It is, without a doubt, the best WordPress plugin to manage the cache of our Blog. An essential plugin for any blog.
Technical knowledge is required to be able to extract the full potential that this WordPress plugin allows you.
You only need 10 minutes to configure this plugin. Follow this video tutorial that explains it step by step.
A very good plugin to manage the cache and much easier to configure than its predecessor (W3 Total Cache).
Not because it is the second most used cache plugin, it means that it is not a fantastic plugin, since it is present in very important blogs and internationally famous.
You only need 5 minutes to configure the WP Super Cache plugin.
WP Fastest Cache is one of the most balanced free cache plugins that exist, discarding WP Rocket because it is paid.
The configuration is not simple, you need some technical knowledge if I choke you I recommend WP Rocket that is easier to configure.
One of the classic SEO plugins that have resisted the arrival of new plugins these last two years.
It is compatible with multisite WordPress and we can specify the indexing priority of each content, as well as what we want to index and what not.
This is my choice to create the sitemap that Google reads to index my Blog contents.
Simple plugin and automatically scanning our entries and pages for broken links.
When you find broken links you can notify us through WordPress and / or email.
We must remember that this aspect is very important and we always have to try to eliminate all the broken links that we have.
The size and weight of the images you upload directly influence the loading speed of your website and a great plugin to speed up your WordPress is Imagify.
What I like most about this plugin is that:
- Automatically optimizes your images.
- Reduces the weight of the images but without losing quality.
- Resizes your images directly.
This plugin is a very fast way to improve the speed of our Blog, in a very simple way and that is to delay the loading of the images until the user reaches the area where it should be visible.
BJ Lazy Load will allow you to improve the page speed of your Blog with a single mouse click.
A good one to optimize in WordPress all the images and thus help to improve the loading speed. Without a doubt, a very complete plugin that will surely convince you.
The only downside it has is that it does not compress as much as the plugin that comes next.
Have you ever wondered why some Google results show stars and others, right?
Surely you get more attention, it can also positively influence the CTR so it is also an SEO plugin for WordPress to take into account.
A very good plugin to fully compress the images of your Blog in WordPress, the only downside is that we can only compress 500 free images per month, but it is the plugin that compresses them the most without losing any quality.
A very simple to use plugin and with which you can add 301 redirects to pass authority from an old post to a new one or to correct 404 errors that appear in the Search Console program.
A real wonder and bomb for your WordPress Blog, since you can significantly improve the user experience and retain it longer, thanks to the navigation menus.
Also if you have a domain with authority you can insert links to bookmarks within the SERPs in Google, something impressive, and that will logically increase your CTR,
It allows you to customize your links and is widely used for example with affiliate links so you have a URL that converts more.
Google Analytics for WordPress
In any blog or web page, you need to integrate it with Google Analytics to be able to follow the evolution of the traffic that we are receiving and surely through this plugins, you will have it “sucked” since you will only have to add the tracking code and that’s it.
Best WordPress Plugins for Social Networks
Let’s now with the list of Social Media plugins that are essential in any WordPress.
There are few plugins that are as complete as Sumome because it practically does everything but the aspects or features that I would most like to highlight are:
- Social integration with your Blog.
- Get subscribers.
- Improve accessibility and usability.
If you manage advertising campaigns on Facebook you have to have the Facebook Pixel installed yes or yes.
If you do not want to complicate your life or if you are afraid of the technical part of WordPress there are several WordPress plugins so you do not have to worry.
In addition, its installation is very simple, you just have to create your Pixel on Facebook and select the ID you give and paste it into the plugin.
Disqus will allow you to replace the archaic WordPress comment system and make it more social, I recommend it for many reasons:
- Users can comment using their favorite social network profile.
- The management of the comments is facilitated allowing you to approve and answer the comments from the email.
- Users can follow you from Disqus and thus access your Blog conversations more easily.
- It does not harm the loading speed since this load just at the end of the loading process and after the page is already visible.
Remember that you will have to import the comments to this new tool, and be patient to see all the comments on Disqus since this process can take a few minutes and will depend on the hundreds or thousands of comments we have on the Blog.
With this plugin, you can significantly increase the number of social bookmarks of content.
This can be useful for use in a free course or a very complete guide.
WordPress Social Sharing Plugin – Social Warfare
Social Warfare is one of the best plugins to share on social networks that exist because of the different functionalities it has and because it “weighs” less than other plugins such as Sumome.
In addition, it also allows you to share your content on Twitter in the “click to tweet” style so you could save yourself another plugin.
And it has a very interesting option to create a widget in WordPress with your most popular articles.
Of course, this plugin is paid.
Vcgs Toolbox is another plugin for sharing on social networks created by Víctor Campuzano that also allows you to share phrases from your own articles.
In addition, it also has another series of extra features such as:
- It allows you (previously adding a JavaScript code) to analyze the scrolling that users do in your publications or pages.
- Know the best commentators of your blog.
Revive Old Posts – Auto Post to Social Media
It manages to attract traffic from social networks to old posts automatically.
Characteristics:
- Attract traffic to your blog automatically.
- Very easy to set up and startup.
This WordPress plugin is one of my latest additions as we can highlight a phrase within a post so it can be shared on Twitter.
I mainly like the Click to Tweet plugin because:
- It allows you to add visually appealing text that you can share on Twitter.
- It captures readers’ attention better on the phrase.
- Users will be able to see the social bookmarks of the phrase.
- You can add a link to another post and track the activity of each link.
Add a button bar so that your content can be easily shared on Social Networks.
There are many social media tools of this type, it is about finding the one that best suits your project.
Add in your blog widget or web page icons of your social networks to increase your social community.
Best Plugins for WordPress Security
Better Wp Security is one of the best plugins to protect WordPress.
In a few minutes, we can add complete security to our WordPress.
Some of its features are:
- Detects vulnerabilities in WordPress; in the theme or in the plugins and automatically corrects them.
- Automatically prohibits bots and malicious programs.
- Hides some information from the administration to fool hackers.
- After several attempts to access the same IP, the plugin automatically prohibits that IP address and adds it to a blacklist.
It is used by more than 200,000 users, and the vast majority of them are very happy with the performance.
It includes Firewall, antivirus and is one of the best plugins to protect WordPress. In addition, it has the following features:
- Analyzes the files that are usually targeted by hackers.
- Explores the site for malware.
- Scans the site for backdoors.
- The firewall protects against bots and other attacks.
- Avoids repeated attacks on the home page.
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin
Backup and restore easily.
Full backups: manual or scheduled (backups in Dropbox, S3, Google Drive, Rackspace, FTP, SFTP, email and more).
Duplicator – WordPress Migration Plugin
Duplicator is a plugin to make backup copies but it is also a plugin to duplicate a web page (as its name indicates)
If you are a web designer, it is one of those essential WordPress plugins that you should keep in mind because it allows you to make a clone of your website in case you want to make a design change.
One of the best free WordPress plugins that helps you completely forget about comment spam.
We are all tired of the said spam, at the beginning when you start with the blog you do not have so many problems but as the blog starts to become known these automatic comments appear in different languages, so protect yourself from them as soon as possible.
A very basic aspect in any Blog is to periodically make backup copies of our project so that at all times we are safe and can use one of these copies.
Limit the number of accesses allowed for the same IP, in this way we prevent repeated attempts to log in the same IP address.
Essential WordPress plugin for any personal blog, since you can use the most popular antispam service for free.
Other Very Useful WordPress Plugins
If you want to layout your pages quickly, easily and visually, Elementor is one of the best free WordPress plugin (it also has a paid version).
These are all the features that it has with its free version, so if you are starting with your blog this visual WordPress layout will be able to take advantage of it.
Another visual layout with it we can create a web page without programming.
I recommend that you only use to layout the pages and landing of your website, not to layout articles from your blog.
Would you like to be able to layout your articles in a more beautiful and visual way but you don’t know CSS?
Do not worry, because this can be solved thanks to shortcodes and there are different plugins for it.
It is that I have used on occasion and has a lot of possibilities to be able to layout your articles in a very visual way.
For example, you can create boxes with different colors to highlight different phrases or create lists in a much more visual way.
It is one of the most professional and complete plugins in terms of attracting leads or subscribers.
It is a paid WordPress plugin but I am sure it will be a good investment if you know how to take advantage of its full potential.
If you are going to accept guest blogging in your blog you will need to create a box for guest authors in which you can show the photograph, the website and the social networks of the person who writes.
And this you can do in a very simple way with this plugin, you only have to install it and go to the WordPress users section
You will get an option in each user that will put: WP Author Box User Fields add the author’s social profiles and that’s it.
In addition, the image that takes you is the same as the profile they have created in Gravatar.
Would you like to set a widget in the sidebar of your blog?
If you have a course, an affiliate banner or want to set your subscription box, this plugin will fix it for you.
In addition, its installation is very simple.
You just have to download the plugin, activate it and go Appearance, Widgets and at the bottom of which you select you will get a new option that is Fixed Widget, activate the option and voila.
This is the most popular WordPress plugin to make contact forms since you don’t need technical knowledge to include one or more forms in our Blog.
This plugin has a javascript that reduces the page speed of our Blog in WordPress considerably, to solve it you will have to tell WordPress that it only loads that javascript when you need it, for example on the contact page.
A simple WordPress plugin that will allow you to easily customize the popup that will show in your Blog the use you make of cookies in it, for the correct compliance with the law.
The best WordPress plugin to have a multi-language web page and is a paid plugin but if you want to avoid having duplicate content problems this is the best and the most professional option.
I hope that this list of those that I personally consider the best WordPress plugins will be the same or more useful than they have been for me.
It has become the preferred plugin for most users to create their WordPress online store.
It has evolved a lot and today is a very complete e-commerce solution.
A fantastic plugin with which you can make advanced management of your DNS, as well as you can have a totally free CDN and thereby improve your loading speed.
It also has the possibility to improve security in WordPress.
With this plugin, you can promote services, products, courses or info products in a very visible way on your WordPress blog and totally free.
Thrive Leads
I have left for the end a plugin with which I have totally hallucinated since I use it and with the managed to increase my lead list growth by 300% from 400 leads to 1200 leads per week.
Conclusion
I hope this list of essential WordPress plugins for 2020 will be very useful for your projects
Surely they will have told you that the fewer plugins you install on your blog or web page, the faster your page will load, but that is not the case. If you want to improve your loading speed and your page speed you have to follow a series of recommendations that are summarized in:
1. Optimize images. You can choose a WordPress plugin for this purpose or get used to always optimize the images before uploading them, but WordPress makes thumbnails from this image, you have to know that these thumbnails are not compressed, so having a plugin gives you greater security of all the images on your website are compressed to the fullest without losing image quality.
2. Cache your website or blog. I use Wp rocket and I always recommend it to my students and clients, today it is the best cache plugin for WordPress.
3. Reduce external file upload. Think that external files not being on your page can not be cached and therefore will be your biggest headache to optimize the page speedwell.
4. Have a good hosting. I have been with Raiola Networks for 3 years, and the truth is that I am delighted with the evolution of my blog just exceeding 1,400,000 visits per month and continues to grow and approaching 1,500,000 visits per month. Having a hosting like this gives you guarantees that your project can prosper and continue to grow.
5. Choice of WordPress theme. It may seem that it is not important but it is, we have to have WordPress templates that give us a good result and for example, the themes Enfold, Avada, Bridge are very good options to optimize the page speed of your project.
We could use a CRC and improve more aspects but I only wanted to summarize the most important ones.
Now I would like to ask you what you thought about the article. I currently have 30 plugins installed and active in my blog, and you?
Would you add any more WordPress plugin to the list?
What are the best WordPress plugins for 2020 for you?
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