In this blog, I’ll share with you some of my very best WordPress plugins; the 5 best WordPress plugins for your website.
Plugins like Jetpack, Elementor, Yoast SEO, Wordfence and WooCommerce will cater to your e-commerce, security, optimization, design and other needs for your WordPress sites.
These are tools I’ve tried and tested, and they have proven the test of time in my 5-year WordPress journey.
Let’s get right to it…
1. Elementor
Elementor just came not more than 4 years ago but the brand sounds like it has existed for the last 10 years!
Elementor is a theme WordPress page builder plugin.
If you’ve heard of page builders in the WordPress ecosystem, think of Elementor as one but out of the box.
Before my journey set off with this amazing page builder plugin, I used Divi and WP Composer for several client sites.
To be honest, as a non-developer, I literary had to install a couple of other plugins to be able to do simple tweaks that these tools wouldn’t offer.
Don’t get me wrong, Elementor is not an ultimate install once-and-go.
But I’m trying to give you a picture of how easy it is to use a page builder plugin where you don’t have to switch canvases, tweak displays separately, build a header or footer separately and allocate it to a special page and all.
That’s where Elementor came in and changed the whole drag-and-drop game in WordPress.
I have now redesigned my blog with Elementor and will switch a couple of other sites I run in the background.
Elementor and the team have mastered one thing; they keep their ears on the ground. They listen to user and developer feedback and ask questions accordingly.
In the recent past, Elementor has released an update where you can create pop-ups and opt-ins.
This is a real game-changer. And for an Elementor Pro user, there’s more on quality yet keeping the same expense on a tool.
Long story short; if you’re on the lookout for a page-building WordPress plugin, then Elementor is the absolute solution you need. Â
2. JetPack
On the other hand, is JetPack.
This is an all-in-one WordPress security and performance plugin, it stands in for you when you’re not there.
I have found JetPack very useful in times when a hosting provider switches off the servers for some reason.
JetPack notifies you of every event as it unfolds.
Furthermore, I’m always impressed when I get a downtime notification showing even the number of minutes or hours my sites were down.
On performance still; this amazing plugin monitors your website traffic performance.
It tracks how your site visitors come, what they read and where they access your website from.
I find these stats very helpful as I’m not a daily Google Analytics fanatic.
So through a WordPress synced account with JetPack, I can see how my sites perform on the go.
JetPack provides site security in cases where unauthorized logins are attempted. It locks out the visitor and prompts them to log in using their WordPress user account details.
3. WooCommerece
If there is one plugin that am very thankful for in the WordPress repository, it’s definitely Woocommerce.
Imagine how long and how much it could cost you to turn your existing WordPress website into an online store or eCommerce website.
Of course, the costs are countless.
But hey, with WooCommerce, turning your existing or newly created WordPress website into an online store is just a click away.
Woocommerce has made selling online simple, easy and seamless.
It makes small and big businesses create, manage and thrive online selling products and services.
The other beauty of WooCommerce is that it’s super extendable; you can easily make/change it to how you want it to be.
You can help other businesses extend their micro-services through already-enabled WooCommerce websites.
Just a case in point; Cashleo is a payment gateway company based in Uganda that supports WooCommerce-enabled website businesses to collect payments.
With Cashleo’s WooCommerce plugin, website owners only have to install and start to receive payments which would have otherwise required them to build a separate platform just to process payments.Â
So by Cashleo extending WooCommerce, it makes business and life simpler.
4. Yoast SEO Plugin
So, I put in the time to write original content that brings value to my visitors, and Yoast SEO has been that plugin that enables me to optimize every piece of content on my blog for the search.
If you’re reading this blog due to a search query you made in the search engine, the results showing up where I appear are partly because of this awesome WordPress SEO plugin!
Yoast makes technical things simple and accessible to non-techies and beginners.
With the free version of the Yoast SEO plugin, you’re able to optimize your pages and blogs for the search engine and get your website indexed among others.
If you want to play the SEO game, then Yoast SEO is the best SEO plugin/tool you should consider checking out to help your website ranking.
5. WordFence
How can I end this article without mentioning WordFence; the king of securing our WordPress websites?
This plugin was launched not so long ago by Defiant Inc. but it has turned out to be the ultimate WordPress website security research and defence tool.
I’ve used WordFence security on all my websites including this blog, and the features I love most are:
1. The ability to detect and stop attacks before they reach me (on my blog).
2. The ability to block unknown users or login attempts by brute force.
3. The ability to blacklist and/or whitelist specific IP addresses from specified attackers.
4. The ability to have a dashboard to see all these reports as they happen.
These among many others are interesting features WordFence brings to the WordPress website security table.
Consider checking it out and their frequently updated security and well-researched blog for updates on security, attacks and reports as they unfold.
In closing
This list would be endless but I’m considering these MAJOR plugins a WordPress user would equip themselves with.
Let me know in the comment box your favourite WordPress plugins.
