12 Must Have WordPress Plugins Every Website Needs

Regardless of the purpose of your website, there are must-have WordPress plugins I recommend to every website owner. These plugins will take care of things like website security, image optimization, connecting to Google Analytics, improving your SEO, legal compliance and so much more.

Of course, depending on the purpose of your website, you may need other plugins (I share additional recommendations below); however, you’ll find the initial core plugins I like to use on the sites I build for myself and my clients.

👉 Make sure to also check out the end of the post for tips on uploading and configuring plugins in your WordPress dashboard.

What are WordPress Plugins?

Think of plugins for WordPress like apps for your smartphone. They provide additional functionality to your WordPress website.

Did You Know? WordPress is the largest content management system in the world, powering 43.2% of all websites. Due to this, there are over 60,000 free plugins currently available (not to mention thousands of paid plugins).

Due to the popularity of WordPress and the vast number of plugins, you’re able to make your website do anything you like – with ease.

The Best WordPress Plugins I Recommend for All Types of Websites

1. WordFence – Security (Free & Paid)

WordFence is number one on the list for a reason, as we all need to protect our websites from potential online threats.

The free package includes:

• Scheduled security scans – every 3 days
• Plugin/Theme vulnerability monitoring – with email updates on when you need to update a plugin
• Login security – 2FA & RECAPTCHA for your website users
• Firewall protection – block unauthorized access, prevent cyberattacks, and protect sensitive data
• Malware Scanner – checks your website for viruses, spyware, or code hackers use to steal information
• Brute Force Protection – stops hackers from guessing your password

The free plugin is ideal for: Entry-level sites that need basic WordPress security. If you need more protection, you can go for one of their paid plans.

2. Yoast – SEO (Free & Paid)

Yoast SEO is a lightweight plugin that guides you when writing your content. It helps in two key areas:

1. SEO
2. Readability

When writing a post or creating a page, the Yoast SEO plugin will appear at the very bottom, under the post.

It provides recommendations to improve both SEO and readability… below is an example of some SEO recommendations.

3. Site Kit by Google (Free)

Using Site Kit by Google is by far the easiest way to set up and connect Google Analytics and Google Search Console to your website.

These are the tools needed to track where your traffic is coming from as well as what pages and posts people go to, how much time they spend, where they live and so much more.

Site Kit also makes it easy to directly set up your website with other important Google tools needed to track your business success.

4. Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA (Free)

The Cookie Notice plugin allows you to create a simple website banner to help your website comply with certain cookie consent requirements under the EU GDPR cookie law and CCPA regulations.

These regulations require websites to inform users about their cookie usage (collecting personal data) and provide options to manage their preferences.

Note: This is a legal requirement for all websites, regardless of where you are located as a business. Non-compliance can potentially lead to fines and penalties.

Cookie Notice plugin allows you to:

• Customize your banner notice – Messaging, link to privacy policy, have multiple cookie expiration options, etc
• Be compliant with all current and upcoming regulations – GDPR, CCPA, etc
• Use the recommended formatting guidelines of various countries
• Provide consent duration options to your readers

All in all, think of Cookie Notice as a way to protect your website and business – providing you with up-to-date formatting guidelines and technical compliance for 100+ countries and legal jurisdictions.

👉 If you do not have a cookie notice legal page on your website you can access this FREE Cookie Notice Template.

5. Imagify – Image Optimization (Free & Paid)

You may or may not be aware that many images that are too large can dramatically slow down your website.

Why does this matter? Well, a slow website means a poor user experience and search engines only like promoting sites with a strong user experience.

Using the Imagify plugin allows you to optimize images automatically upon upload or manually within the Media section of your WordPress dashboard.

• WebP files are a best practice to use and Imagify automatically updates your file upload to WebP 🙂
• You can also choose what compression level you want on your photos – whenyou’re setting the plugin up.
• Bulk optimize with no need to edit beforehand
• The free plan allows you to use 20MB per month (about 200 images), or you can upgrade to one of their affordable plans…
  • $4.99/month for 500 MB (roughly 2000 images)
  • $9.99/month for unlimited

Check out more about how it works here.

6. Ninja Forms (Free & Paid)

There are many form plugins out there, but I’ve always loved the free version of Ninja Forms.

It is easy to set up and customize, and you have the ability to create multiple forms for different needs – all under the free plan.

• Easily create any type of form imaginable
• Add any email address to each form
• Customize auto-responses and email notifications
• Anti-spam protection

7. UpDraft Plus – Backup Plugin (Free)

Before you consider using a backup plugin, check with your website host to see if they do automatic updates.

Most website hosting plans do include daily automatic updates; however, if this is not included in your package, you’ll need to install a backup plugin.

I recommend the UpDraft Plus . It’s easy to back up to your preferred storage location (i.e., Google Drive) and restore in just three clicks.

8. Hubbub Lite – Social Sharing Plugin (Free)

I have tried A LOT of social sharing plugins over the years, but in the past 3 or 4 years Hubbub has been my go-to.

I like it because:

• It’s easy to customize
• It looks great on your website – sleek design (see below)
• It works! (You’d be surprised how many other social sharing plugins have glitches)

On the free plan you can:

• Choose from 4 social networks
• See analytics by post and page
• Customize in-content sharing buttons and/or floating buttons on the side
  • Show total share counts (or not)
  • Show on posts and/or pages (I prefer showing on posts only)
  • Adjust to your brand colors (I like to keep the social network colours as I feel it’s easier for people to see it)
  • Adjust spacing sizing, placement and more

Other WordPress plugins to consider based on your business needs

9. WP Tasty Pins (Paid)

If you are focused on driving traffic to your website from Pinterest, I HIGHLY recommend the WP Tasty Pins plugin.

It allows you to set up and optimize the pins you’ve designed on your website – to increase Pinterest performance.

You see, Pinterest places a higher value on pins that people share directly from your website. This is a key indicator for them that the content is good. Pinterest will then push these shared pins out more on Pinterest, resulting in more impressions, saves and clicks.

All key features:

• Easily set your pin title & description for each pin (I recommend having different pin titles and descriptions for each pin)
• Disable pinning of specific post images
• Force pinning of certain images
• Pinterest hover button to encourage more shares
• Add a Pinterest Follow Box to grow followers

WP Tasty Pins is not free, but very affordable at $49/year for 1 website, with other offers for more websites.

👉 Read the full review of WP Tasty Pins here to learn more

10. Akismet – Anti-spam (Free)

If you are creating blog content and want to have comments turned on, Akismet will do a few important things:

• Blocks spam and puts it into a ‘spam folder’ so you can delete later – this means you don’t have to worry about any spammy comments being left on your blog posts and articles
• Easily delete all spam messages in one go

11. PrettyLinks – Affiliate Link Management (Free & Paid)

If you are an affiliate marketer, blogger, podcaster, content creator or anyone who regularly promotes affiliates to your audience, PrettyLinks is a game-changer.

It allows you to create a user-friendly link that’s easy to remember and isn’t a mile long.

Example: I am an affiliate for Blogging for New Bloggers Legal Bundle Value Pack.

This is the link generated by their affiliate platform… https://fullcircledigital–bloggingfornewbloggers.thrivecart.com/legal-bundle-value-pack/ (too long)

And this is the pretty link: https://fullcircledigital.ca/legalbundlevaluepack (pretty, right?!)

👉 Apart from making user-friendly links, the main reason Pretty Links is a must-have:

• If an affiliate link changes (this can happen a lot over time) all you need to do is update the original affiliate URL within the plugin. This way it’s updated across your website and all communications. Otherwise, you’d have to spend time searching for places you shared your original link (nightmare!)

Note: Always choose ‘301 Permanant’ in the redirection section. Also, if you need to update the original URL, simply add the new URL to the ‘target url’ section.

12. WooCommerce – eCommerce (Free)

For those who want to sell on their website, WooCommerce is a free plugin you can use alongside your shop to start making money quickly.

You’ll be able to:

• Set up a storefront
• Add products (physical and digital) and services
• Include multiple images per product
• Provide Instant downloads
• Set up coupon codes and sales
• So much more!

To set up payment, I recommend using Stripe to accept credit cards, and the easiest way to set this up is with this additional free plugin: Payment Plugins for Stripe WooCommerce.

How To Install & Configure Your WordPress Plugins

To install free plugins, you can access them when logged into your WordPress dashboard. Here are the steps to access, install, and activate.

1. Log in to your WordPress Dashboard
2. Go to ‘plugins’ in the left menu
3. Select ‘add plugin’ from the dropdown
4. In the search bar, look for your desired plugin
5. Once found, click on the ‘install now’ button
6. Next, click on ‘activate’
7. To see your installed plugin, click on ‘plugins’ in the dashboard left menu, and you’ll see what plugins you have currently installed

Note: Each plugin will have different configuration settings, so you’ll need to go through these individually to set up your preferences.

How To Update Your WordPress Plugins

Why Update These Plugins?

Firstly, think of the plugins on your WordPress site like apps on your phone – they need updating from time to time.

Plugin developers will add new features and security updates, so it’s essential to update your plugins to receive these updates.

Apart from getting these new features, it’s imperative to keep your plugins updated to prevent any security issues.

👉 If you don’t update your plugins, it can be easier for hackers to hack – and we don’t want that. nNot to worry though, it’s easy – just follow the steps below…

Steps to Update Your Plugins

1. Back up your website (with a plugin or through your website host). This allows you to restore the website before you did the plugin update in case anything goes wrong.

• Note: If you have backups set up daily and you haven’t made changes in the past day, this will be automatically taken care of for you. Just make sure to double-check the time of your last backup

2. Go to the plugin section of your WordPress dashboard and click on ‘installed plugins’

You’ll see in the above screenshot there is a red number beside the plugin section. This shows how many plugins need updating. If you don’t see this, there is nothing to update.

3. Go to the plugin that needs updating and click on ‘update now’.

Note: There is an enable auto-updates feature however I strongly advise against this. The reason is: Sometimes a plugin update can cause a problem on your website. It’s rare – but if it happens, you can then go to your backups (with your host or the updatedraft plugin) and revert back to the backup – which will fix the issue.

If this happens wait another few days before updating – in most cases this is due to your WordPress theme not yet being updated.

That’s it!

Final Thoughts & Recap

After 9 years of blogging, building websites, working with dozens of clients and running 2 online businesses, these are my go-to WordPress plugins I recommend to everyone, regardless of the type of website they have.

Most are free or have free options and are designed to enhance your WordPress website, improving:

• Security & Spam Protection (WordFence, Updraft Plus & Akismet)
• SEO (Yoast SEO)
• Analytics (Site Kit by Google)
• Sharing functionality (Hubbub Lite & WP Tasty Pins)
• User experience (Imagify)
• Legal compliance (Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR / CCPA)
• Contact forms (Ninja Forms)
• Affiliate Marketing (Pretty Links)
• Online Shop (WooCommerce)