6 Essential WordPress Plugins : Plugins that you definitely need
In this short article you are going to learn about some of the very essential or necessary plugins that you will definitely need to start and grow your website.
I have made up a list of types of plugins that you will definitely need to run your website. I call these plugins Essential plugins.
Essential plugins means you will need these plugins regularly to carry out important tasks.
Reason behind writing this article :
I have seen many people using more and more amount of plugins and then due to more number of plugins they keep on facing performance and security issues.
I am hoping that after reading this article readers will understand the relation between the number of plugins used and the performance of your site.
So my only advice is that use plugins only as per your needs. Try to bring down the number of plugins you are using. Don’t keep unused plugins or deactivated plugins on your site.
The more number of plugins reduce your total website performance. Further the more plugins you have on your site the more security vulnerabilities you will have to face.
So the more number of plugins may cause performance and security issues.
So in this article you will get a list of Essential plugin types that you will need on regular basis. I don’t think that most of the beginners will need more number plugins than essential plugins.
So you can think of selecting these plugins. But decide yourself that apart from these essential plugins what extra plugins you will need for your website.
In this article by giving the list of essential plugins I have tried to simplify the things for you. It is just that I have tried to give a proper idea of how much lesser plugins we actually need and on the other hand how much more plugins we are actually using.
First of all let’s discuss about plugins relation with your website performance :
How the number of plugins on your site affect your website performance :
It is like the lesser number of plugins you use the less heavier your website is going to become.
Lesser heavy or light websites are easy to be fetched by the browsers. So the thing is that you will get higher performance with lighter website.
So how to keep your website lighter !!
Well, there are (many ways to keep your website performing at higher levels.) Moreover there are (many factors that affect website performance) and we are going to talk about one of the factors that affect website performance and that’s the number plugins used.
With more plugins on your site you give extra load of codes to your WordPress website. More and more plugins make the code structure of your website more complex.
Your database becomes heavier and heavier with more and more plugins.
The heavy website takes more time to load.
So this how unnecessary plugins will definitely make your website performance go down.
So obviously by keeping the number of plugins down you can expect to have higher website performance for sure.
Benefits of using lesser number of plugins on your website :
- There are lesser chances of facing white screen of death for your website if you have lesser plugins to deal with.
As we see many plugin updates don’t go well and it can lead to White Screen Of Death. So using lesser number of plugins on your site you are minimizing the risk of facing WSOD. - You can simply select from quality plugins and due to lesser plugins there are lesser loads to manually manage plugins. Many of us select manual updates for plugins and there are always chances to forget about managing timely updates.
- Each and every plugin brings certain security risks with itself. So it is better you have lesser plugins on your website. Your website will be stable with lesser number of plugins used on it.
- Lesser plugins means lesser codes added to your website. The more codes means the more complex codes. Lesser complex codes means less heavier website overall which brings extra loading speed.
- Lesser number of plugins means lesser vulnerability to external attacks.
We read many times that with plugin updates also many websites get hacked. In these kinds of cases you cannot do anything. It is just that you can reduce the possibility of getting attacked.
If you want to stay away from malwares and attacks then it is better to select a number of high quality plugins only.
How to lessen down the number of plugins used on your website :
1) Try to choose the plugins that are of prime importance to you only. Try to choose plugins with multi features so that for each and every feature you don’t need an extra plugin.
If you think there are alternative ways to any plugin. You can manage or handle without any plugin then first it is better to find the way without the plugins.
For Example :
Wordfence security plugin already gives 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) security feature. So there is no need to specially find a plugin that is used for 2FA. This is how you can save on a plugin requirement.
2) Don’t rely on plugins for everything. Utilize the available features efficiently.
Since in WordPress you get plugins for almost every task but it doesn’t mean you can totally rely on plugins for everything.
For Example :
I need to show my affiliate disclosure on every page so do I need a plugin for that ?
Of course there is a plugin for that but I will just use my theme header for this task. So this is how I reduce a burden from WordPress since I utilize the available features in an efficient manner.
Now let’s see which are the essential plugins you definitely need to run a website.
Essential Plugins :
According to our need we need a few types of plugins :
1) Security plugins :
Security plugins are essential to have and these days it is hard to survive without them.
Everyday 30000 websites get hacked and security plugins have become a necessity these days.
Here is an article on security plugins that you should be looking for.
There are a few security plugins that are very popular and widely used.
Some of the best Security plugins are :
Wordfence, iTheme Security (affiliate link), Sucuri.
Use one these security plugins and get enhanced security.
2) SEO plugins :
SEO plugins are not only helping in SEO but many tasks like making sitemap etc is also done with the the help of SEO plugins. So one SEO plugins are highly required.
You will need the SEO plugins to guide you in properly writing your articles as well so that you get advantage in ranking as well.
Popular SEO plugins :
RankMath (affiliate link), Yoast, All in One SEO.
You can start with any of these SEO plugins and you will get your SEO related tasks covered.
3) Caching plugins :
However I am not a big fan of caching plugins because it can break your site but many people use it and it can be essential for greater speed of your website.
Caching plugins have the code minimization technique. So basically your website code gets minimized. Due to minimized codes it is easier for browser to fetch your website which will eventually increase the performance.
Popular Caching Plugins :
WP Rocket
4) Database cleaning plugins :
Database cleaning is important from time to time and Database cleaning plugins make it very easy to do the task for you. So one good Database cleaning plugin is good to have.
Generally database cleaning becomes difficult to do manually. You will need to clean up your database regularly to keep it optimized so a Database Cleaning Plugin is a must.
Best Database Cleaning Plugins :
Advanced Database Cleaner (affiliate link)
5) Backup plugins :
Backup is always important and it is of prime importance when you want to recover your website easily.
Without a backup you might lose all your data and hard work. So always have a good back up plugin.
A back up plugin gives you a back up of your website in just a few clicks.
Popular Backup Plugins :
UpdraftPlus (affiliate link)
6) Gutenberg Blocks Plugins :
Gutenberg based Blocks like Kadence Blocks (affiliate link), Ultimate addons or Ultimate blocks etc. give you the ability to publish your content in a top class way.
So blocks plugins you will need for sure.
Mostly it will depend on your theme that which blocks you will use. But many times you can use different blocks with different themes as well.
Popular Blocks :
Kadence Blocks (affiliate link), Ultimate Addons for Elementor from Astra (affiliate link), Otter blocks from Themeisle.
7) Mojo Market place :
This allows you to download and activate any plugins in your website and it comes already installed with the WordPress. So you will need it frequently.
Conclusion :
As you have seen various types of plugins have been shown in this article.
You just need to select just one plugin from each type. So if you select one plugin from each type then the number of plugins you really require to start or run a website is around 6 or 7.
So this how we require very few plugins to start or run a WordPress website.
Now see your website. Study your needs for your websites and decide which plugins you really need and take your decision regarding keeping or discarding any plugins.
So that’s it for Essential Plugins and using lesser number of plugins on your website.
I hope this article will be helpful.
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