Most of the Websites out the use WordPress websites which makes them a very attractive technology to learn and use. Developers use WordPress for almost all kinds of websites. The reason why WordPress is so popular among its users is its ability to incorporate any feature into itself using a plugin system.
WordPress comes with an in-build plugin system that enables the developers to add the desired features to the website. There are tens of thousands of plugins available to developers for website development but, here in this article, we will list out 10 Must-Have WordPress Plugins for your WordPress website.
WordPress websites heavily rely on plugins to increase the website functionality which is the biggest advantage of using WordPress for website development.
Here, is a list of must have WordPress plugins for your website.
W3 Total Cache
Caching is a technology that enables the website to load fast and deliver better service to the user.
Your website seed is one of the most important factors when it comes to Google Ranking. If your website does not load in time then there is a chance that your visitors might drop from your website.
These negative website engagements might cause your website to go down. Using W3Total Cache, you can reduce your website size and increase your website speed and processing ability.
Contact Form 7
Having a contact form on your website is a must especially if you are a business. Contact Form 7 helps you in capturing the contacts of your website visitors. It comes with other email-related services as well like autoresponse email, attaching files, multi recipients, and much more. There are various add-ons available for the Contact Form 7 that can enhance its features.
WP Mail SMTP by WPForms
You are working hard to generate leads from your website. Every lead comes as a potential customer.
What if you have been waiting for leads for days or even months and one day you come to know that the mail function to send form data is not working?
In most of cases, the hosting server allows you to send email via PHP mail() Function which is not reliable.
To make sure, your email goes through and is delivered to inbox, you should use SMTP mail function which authenticates user email and password through the SMTP mail server.
The WP Mail SMTP by WPForms is a free SMTP mail configuration plugin. Once configured, it automatically sends out each email from the website using the SMTP server.
I use this plugin in all of the websites we run digital marketing campaigns for.
UpdraftPlus
Losing website data is the worst thing that could happen to a developer or owner of a website. The reason could be anything but plugins like UpdraftPlus are useful for backing up entire WordPress websites within the hosting space or for remote servers like Google Drive, Cloud, Dropbox etc.
You can schedule backup frequency like every 2, 4, 8 or 12 hours, daily, weekly, monthly or fortnightly.
You can also set how many backups to remain.
Redirection
As our website page structure keeps changing, it’s the best practice to redirect old pages to new ones. This is helpful for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and better user experience.
Developers use .htaccess files for this purpose too but the Redirection plugin makes it easy to manage from WordPress admin panel.
The Redirection plugin also saves the statistics of each redirect.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO makes on-page SEO easy and doable. A lot of people cannot do on-page SEO which deprives them of performing well in the search rankings. But, with Yoast SEO a non-techie can also do on-page SEO like a professional.
Yoast Duplicate Post
Yoast offers one more useful plugin called Yoast Duplicate Post. There are many duplicate page or post plugins available but I personally like this one.
Duplicate post plugin saves lots of time by replicating the existing pages or posts. With one click, you can just create a clone and re-use it.
Broken Link Checker
Broken links kill SEO efforts. The Broken Link Checker plugin keeps track of all your links on the WordPress website and notifies you, in case any broken link is found.
It does a simple but really helpful task. Digital marketers know the importance of it.
Smush
Images can take up a lot of processing power when it comes to your website loading and reducing the size of the image can significantly improve your loading time. We previously mentioned the importance of website loading speed and how it can impact your website ranking. This tool also deals with the same technology. Smush compresses your website images without losing any definitions which ensures you get the highest performance.
Wordfence Security
As of January 2025, approximately 43.6% of all websites worldwide. WordPress is an open source CMS platform. To stop attacks on your website, you need good security.
Wordfence Security plugin offers firewall protection, malware scanning, login security and much more.
Conclusion
So, these are the 10 Must-Have WordPress Plugins that every website should have no matter what the website type. You can be a blogger, business owner, or any other website but, these plugins are something that you would like to install on your website.
I am Sunil Tarwara, a seasoned IT professional with over 13 years of hands-on experience in Website Development and Digital Marketing. With a deep understanding of the challenges faced by businesses, I have been trusted by hundreds of clients to achieve their digital goals. I have Master’s degree in Information Technology.
Apart from websites, I like hill stations.
