The only 10 WordPress plugins you need!

We all want to get the best out of our WordPress websites. The best design, the best functionality and the best SEO.

With the WordPress plugins I present to you in this article, you can do just that. You won't need any other plugins. Your WordPress site will work perfectly and rank in Google.

Opinions are currently divided on plugins 5 and 6. for a long time, #5 was considered the best, but now it has a challenger that has gained over 300,000 active users in just a few months. It's best to take a look and decide for yourself.

Many WordPress sites use too many plugins!

If you take a look at the official WordPress directory, you can currently find more than 56,000 free WordPress plugins for free use.

If you add to this the more than 7,300 paid plugins from Codecanyon and estimate the many other plugins from various sources, you reach a figure of well over 60,000 plugins available for WordPress.

Yes, you read that right: well over 60,000 WordPress plugins.

And from these plugins, often several hundred of which add the same feature to your blog, you now have to choose the right one.

Some of the programme extensions are very useful for integrating new applications into the website or making the website perform better. Others, on the other hand, are characterised as unreliable or faulty.

Special care must therefore be taken when selecting the required plugin in terms of quality.

As we can draw on a wealth of experience in this regard, I will show you which plugins we have had the best experience with (our customers' WordPress sites work perfectly and rank in top positions in Google).

And it doesn't take more than a handful of plugins. Namely the following:

• Those that add useful functions to the original WordPress installation (e.g. to integrate a contact form into your website)
• Those that ensure the security and data protection of your website (e.g. to ward off hacker attacks or create regular backups)
• Those that serve SEO (search engine optimisation).

Let's first look at the plugins that add some useful features to your WordPress site.

WordPress plugins for adding useful functions

Antispam Bee for defence against spam comments

Have you ever received an email with the subject "New comment on...", and you're happy about this new comment on your blog? But when you open the email, all it says is rubbish and incomprehensible babble. A spammer or spambot has probably been at it again.

To prevent this, you should urgently install an anti-spam plugin. WordPress installs Akismet for this purpose by default, but this does not comply with German data protection guidelines.

I recommend Antispam Bee from the probably best-known German WordPress plugin developer Sergej Müller. It filters out spam without adding an unattractive and annoying captcha query and complies with German guidelines. In addition to spam protection for comments, this plugin can also protect your contact forms from spam.

You can get Antispam Bee for free in the WordPress plugin directory.

Subscribe To Comments Reloaded

Comments fill your blog with life and lead to personal contact with your readers. They increase the number of visitors to your blog as well as the time spent on the site.

A reader often drops by, comments and then disappears again. If you reply to their comment, they won't notice (unless they check back on their own). It must therefore be possible to activate notifications for further comments on your blog.

The Subscribe To Comments Reloaded plugin adds a small one-liner with a checkbox under your comment box free of charge. If the checkbox is ticked, the commenting user will receive an email notification for all subsequent comments on this article.

Of course, the subscription must be confirmed by double opt-in and therefore complies with German law.

You can monitor and view all subscriptions via the plugin's dashboard. Your readers can also view and, of course, cancel their subscriptions.

You can also get this useful plugin for free in the official WordPress plugin directory. It can be used in numerous languages, including German.

Contactform 7

Unfortunately, some WordPress templates do not have an email contact form function. With the WordPress plugin Contactform 7, you can easily integrate this function.

With the contact form plugin, you can not only use ready-made standard forms, but also create your own form templates. You can choose from all the important functions that a good contact form should have. This includes, for example, creating text fields that can be filled in.

You can also define the text fields so that they must be filled in, which can be particularly useful for fields such as email, telephone number, address or name.

It is also possible to integrate multiple or single-choice fields, which can be very useful when it comes to a questionnaire or a diary, for example.

Another feature of this WordPress plugin is the option of an automatic response.

Imagine a customer writes you an email via your contact form. With the automatic reply from Contactform 7, you can now automatically send any text to the sender of this email. For example: "Thank you for contacting us! We will get back to you shortly!".

Thanks to these numerous features, this WordPress plugin is indispensable for us on some templates!

Security and data protection plugins

Since the GDPR came into force, the topic of data protection has become particularly important. To protect your data and the data of your readers, you should make your WordPress website more secure and data protection-compliant. With the following plugins.

Cookie Notice

One of the best plugins in terms of cookie notices is Cookie Notice. It allows you to activate tracking codes (e.g. Google Analytics) only after readers have agreed to the cookie policy.

I strongly advise you to install this plugin, as the provisions of the GDPR are very strict. If you do not adhere to them, you could face a warning and, in the worst case, even heavy fines. Most WordPress websites use cookies by default - including yours - so a GDPR-compliant cookie plugin is a must-have plugin.

Wordfence

Wordfence is one of the most successful WordPress security plugins with more than 3,000,000 active installations and over 3,200 5-star ratings.

The security solution combines a number of valuable functions that guarantee almost 100 per cent security.

The Wordfence firewall

The firewall is always up to date with the latest firewall rules and malware signatures, as it updates itself in real time via the threat defence feed. As a result, Wordfence recognises and blocks unwanted data traffic promptly and thus protects the website even in the event of existing security gaps.

The real-time IP blacklist blocks all requests from IP addresses that have become conspicuous.

As the plugin runs on the endpoint of the user's server, it offers better protection than cloud alternatives. Wordfence utilises the user's identity information, which means that encryption cannot be interrupted and bypassed, as is the case with cloud solutions.

The malware scanner from Wordfence

The integrated malware scanner blocks requests containing malicious code and prevents so-called brute force attacks by restricting login attempts. Spam, unauthorised redirects and unauthorised access to the code are prevented. The security tool checks files, designs and plugins for malware in real time. Even comments that link to conspicuous URLs or contain suspicious content are recognised.

The good thing about it: Wordfence continuously checks the website for known security vulnerabilities and warns of problems with an email.

Password protection from Wordfence

The password protection of the security solution offers a Captcha-protected login page and two-factor authentication. This makes it impossible for bots to log into the backend and manipulate data and codes there.

All-in-one WP migration

When uploading websites, it is important to always create backups.

All-in-One WP Migration is a very useful tool for this. With this WordPress backup plugin, you will find a very simple user interface. There are only 3 options: Import, Export and Backups.

With Import, you can import old, existing backups onto your site. This is done, for example, if you want to restore the initial state of a specific date.

With Export, it is possible to create a data backup of the existing website.

In Backups you will find all existing backups that were created with All-in-One WP Migration. However, we recommend that you also save the required backups locally, just in case.

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SEO plugins

Yoast SEO

Of course, an SEO plugin is a must. My personal favourite is the free Yoast SEO. It offers you exactly the functions you expect from a plugin for search engine optimisation.

After installing the WordPress SEO plugin, you will find a new box below the editor for pages and posts. Here you will see a preview of your snippet of the search results page. By clicking on the respective elements, you can define your title and meta description tag.

The plugin also offers you the option to set images for sharing on Facebook and Twitter, as well as descriptions and titles for these.

You can also define settings for the meta robots and even store a canonical URL if necessary. The readability of a text is also assessed by this WordPress plugin.

So you have all the setting and control options you need for good search engine optimisation.

You can get the Yoast SEO plugin for free in the WordPress plugin directory.

Yoast SEO is a very useful add-on module to optimise your website according to Google ranking standards.

If you want to learn more about it, we recommend reading our blog article about Yoast SEO!

If you would like to try something new, you can test the following plugin.

Rank Math

Rank Math describes itself as the Swiss army knife of SEO tools for WordPress. You have complete control over the on-page SEO of your entire website.

Furthermore, the developers of the plugin say: We developed Rank Math, a WordPress SEO plugin, to help every website owner get access to the SEO tools they need to improve their search engine optimisation and attract more traffic to their website.

The tool has only been on the market since November 2019 and still has its teething problems. For example, t3n.de reported on 04.04.2020: Two security vulnerabilities in the WordPress plugin Rank Math allowed unauthorised users to grant or revoke user rights, among other things. The gaps have now been closed.

The tool is currently completely free, a premium version is planned.

Broken Link Checker

The more articles you publish on your blog, the more internal and external links (hyperlinks) you will have set. Of course, it's easy to lose track in the link jungle.

However, you want to make sure that readers really do find the right page when they click on one of the links.

You should regularly check whether all links are still working. You could open each article individually and click on all the links it contains and test them manually. The Broken Link Checker plugin makes it much easier and, above all, faster.

This link checker plug in does all the work for you. It checks all links on your blog at a predefined interval and displays so-called broken links. What's really great is that you even receive an email notification when a broken link is detected.

In addition to the links, the plugin also checks your blog for missing images - two birds with one stone.

The Broken Link Checker is available for free in the WordPress plugin directory.

Redirection

You need the Redirection add-on module above all when it comes to changes on your website.

With this plugin, you can avoid 404 errors (pages that no longer exist). Neither the reader nor Google likes these 404 errors.

You can also use Redirection to redirect from one link to another. This small but important point helps you to maintain your Google rankings.

But why does creating redirects help?

It's quite simple!

If you have content on an existing website that is only to be given a new design, it is important to inform the search engines about this if you want to continue to be ranked.

So if the menu structure changes in the course of a redesign, use the redirect plugin to let the search engines know under which link the menu item was initially accessible and under which link it can now be reached.

WP Rocket

WP Rocket is a plugin to optimise the loading time of a WordPress blog without much effort. It not only offers caching for your blog, but also other useful functions.

But the WP load time optimisation plugin cuts a fine figure when it comes to caching alone. With the help of WP Rocket, you can simulate a user's visit to your blog to fill the cache.

The second great function is the so-called lazy loading of images. This means that when a page is called up, not all images are loaded, but only the visible ones. All images that only come into view by scrolling are loaded subsequently. This significantly reduces the loading time.

WP Rocket also offers a third feature with the minimisation and merging of static files. It reduces the size of the programming code in HTML, JavaScript and CSS files and, if possible, summarises them in a few files.

The plugin is well configured by default and reduces the loading time even without additional settings after installation. However, if you familiarise yourself a little with the easy-to-understand settings, you can get even more out of it.

You can subscribe to the plugin on the official developer page for $49 per year. Easy to configure, lots of functions and it makes your blog faster. It's well worth it!

Autoptimise + WP Super Cache

Autoptimize and WP Super Cache in combination are a free alternative to WP Rocket.

Autoptimise

Autoptimize optimises loading time by aggregating, minimising and caching scripts and styles, inserting CSS into the page header by default, embedding critical CSS, moving scripts to the footer, minimising and moving HTML, etc. Images can be optimised and loaded with a delay, Google fonts optimised, non-aggregated JavaScript asynchronised, WordPress core emoji cruft removed.

As Autoptimize does not include caching, caching must be taken over by another plugin: WP Super Cache.

WP Super Cache

WP Super Cache generates static HTML files from dynamic WordPress pages and makes them available instead of the more complex WordPress PHP scripts. This saves a lot of loading time.

WP plugin for design

Basically, you define the design of WordPress by selecting the appropriate WP theme (template or design template). Many of these themes have a so-called page builder integrated by default, which you can use to customise the design of the individual pages.

Nevertheless, I would like to introduce you to the page builder that we like to use in our daily agency work. Elementor.

Elementor

Elementor is a page builder that you integrate into your WordPress installation as a plugin. With more than 5 million active installations and over 4800 5-star ratings, it is one of the most widely used design plugins.

The basic version of Elementor is free and already offers many useful functions. You can use it to create complex designs using drag-and-drop and a live preview.

With the paid version - Elementor Pro - you can even create your own WordPress theme in the same way.

I've now shown you the 10 WordPress plugins that we use on our clients' WordPress websites. These ensure that the pages work perfectly and still remain nice and slim.

If you still need one or two functions, I'll now show you the 5 criteria you can use to check the quality of these WordPress extensions.

The 1st step in selecting the required plugin

Before you start the quality check, you need to think carefully about which function/additional module you really need on your WordPress site.

Some plugins are needed to extend the functionality of your WordPress site. You should install these without hesitation. But...

Avoid gimmicks!

I mention this explicitly because you should only install the most necessary plugins.

Almost every additional tool has a negative impact on the loading time of your website.

As a short loading time is an important ranking criterion for Google, you definitely want to avoid this.

Which WordPress plugin do I need?

The choice of a plugin depends primarily on the requirements and needs of the website operator. We mainly need additional tools that help with search engine optimisation and the flawless functionality of our customers' websites.

So think in advance about which functions you would like to add to your WordPress site. You can then start a search in the WordPress plugin directory by entering your search term in the search field.

WordPress will give you the best results. You can then check the individual plugins for quality and up-to-dateness and select the one that suits you best.

I'll now show you how to check the quality of the plugins.

5 infallible criteria by which you can recognise the quality of a WordPress plugin!

Of course, you only want to install the best plugins on your WordPress site. To help you judge the quality of the tools, pay attention to the following points:

• Description
• Frequency of updates
• Frequency of installations
• Ratings and reviews
• Support

Description of the plugin

First and foremost, you should take the time to read the description of the plugin. This will help you to recognise whether it is right for you.

Of course, this is self-promotion by the developer. However, the more detailed and comprehensive the description of the individual features is, the better you can get an idea of whether the WordPress extension is right for you.

Frequency of updates

A high-quality plugin is constantly adapted by its developer to the new challenges and dangers of the internet. Security, i.e. the avoidance of security vulnerabilities, is particularly important.

It can also happen that non-updated applications ruin the entire blog or database. That's the last thing you want to experience as the operator of a website. Right?

So before you install a plugin, check how often it is updated. There should be an update at least every few weeks. The more often, the better.

Frequency of installations

How often has the plugin been downloaded and installed? The best plugins are used most frequently.

Of course, it may well be that a new, innovative programme comes onto the market. Naturally, this has not yet been installed so often and there are not yet many reviews.

To ensure that you only use the best on your WordPress blog, you should use a well-established tool for the time being.

Reviews

A good indication of quality is also the reviews of the WordPress plugin's users. Read the latest reviews before installing and then decide whether the plugin is suitable for you.

Good support is also a good indicator. As most plugins are free, at least in the basic version, you shouldn't expect too much in this respect. Although there are some notable exceptions.

Here are all 5 quality criteria and where you can check them.

Conclusion on WordPress plugins

You have now got to know the 10 WordPress plugins that we use to equip our customers' WordPress sites. Of course, these depend on the respective requirements, but in most cases they are sufficient to ensure the optimal functionality and search engine optimisation of the pages.

You may need other or additional plugins. That's why I've provided you with evaluation criteria to help you get everything right when assessing the quality of your tools.

Now it's your turn. Check the plugins, try them out and see for yourself.

But always remember: don't overdo it. Every plugin makes your site slower.