How many plugins do you need for a high-performance WordPress site?
This is a question almost every WordPress owner struggles with at some point in his/her online career. To be honest, there is no straight answer to this question.
If you were to do a quick search on Google about the must-have plugins for a WordPress site, you will probably come across hundreds of articles explaining the 20, 15 or even 10 must-have WordPress plugins. However, do not be tempted to take every of their word to be true.
The thing is, the WordPress plugins topic is one that receives thousands of monthly searches on Google. Every blogger wants a share of the traffic (apparently, I included), which is why everyone wants to write about it. Some of the people who have written such articles don’t even own WordPress site. Would you want to trust their information?
How many plugins should I install?
To cut the wrong story short, this is what I would like you to understand. There is no proven number of plugins/ right or wrong list that a WordPress site must have to run efficiently. While you may be tempted to think the bigger the number of plugins you have the better, it might be the direct opposite. The fewer, the better, and here is why.
Installing too many plugins on your site means that all those plugins have to load before the site can actually load on the search engine. Consequently, your site will end up taking too long before it can fully load; hence your SEO drops eventually leading to loss of traffic and potential customers. The maximum number of plugins you should have is 20. More than 20 is too many unless you really need them for specific functionalities.
So, the better question now should be, what plugins do I need for my WordPress site? Below is a list of all the plugins you must have on your WordPress site.
Should you trust this list? Absolutely yes. This list contains only the plugins that we use ourselves on our website. We have tried and tested all of them, therefore, be guaranteed this is a genuine review for you. Additionally, we do not have any monetary affiliations with the developers of any of the plugins in this list. All we want is to honor you as our reader with genuine and helpful information.
The Must-Have Plugins for every WordPress Site
SEO Plugin
By now you probably have an idea of how crucial SEO is to your site’s success. SEO is what makes your site visible to your customer targets on Google, Bing, or other search engines. While you can do the optimization yourself, an SEO plugin makes the entire process easier and fast for quick results. It is also an excellent option for beginners who don’t know how to SEO.
The best SEO plugins I would recommend you to check out are Yoast or SEO Press. However, you can skip these plugins if you are using StudioPress themes. Read more about SEO in this article.
SEO Plugin
Despite WordPress being the best website-building platform on the internet, it is the most vulnerable to security breaches and hacking. If you don’t believe me, you can read these two articles ( Thousands of WordPress Sites Backdoored with Malicious Code, WordPress Security Statistics 2018).
I’m not trying to scare you, forgive me if I sound like I am. All I want to put across is the need for you to install a plugin that will protect your site from breaches or even potential site theft. Some of the best security plugins to consider are; WordFence, Ithemes security, or Succuri.
Cache Plugin
Having a site that loads fast is essential for both positive Google ranking and customer retention. Research has it that 53% of internet users usually leave a website if it takes more than 3 seconds to load. Read more here.
The role of a cache plugin is to speed up your site’s loading time. While an SEO plugin can achieve part of the optimization, it does not have a cache optimization included in its functionality. Combining both a cache plugin and an SEO plugin will benefit you big time with a high ranking, more traffic, and low bounce rates. Wouldn’t you want that?
The best cache plugin to consider is WP Rocket. It is the plugin that we use on all our websites.
Contact Form Plugin
A contact form plugin is a must-have for every site. Its purpose is to collect emails from your visitors, which you can advertise to in the future. You can check out this article (link to the other article) on the best plugin to use. However, do not use Contact Form 7 plugin.
Image Optimization Plugin
Adding raw images can make your site load slowly due to their large storage sizes. This is where an image optimization plugin comes in. Its work is trimming all your site’s image sizes, and without affecting their quality.
An excellent plugin you should consider checking out is ShortPixel. Nevertheless, you can use any other plugin of your choice.
Page Builder Plugin
The majority of WordPress themes are integrated with page-building capabilities. However, if you ever find yourself in need of a page-building plugin, you should consider Elemento Pro.
WordPress SMTP Plugin
An SMTP plugin allows you to use the SMTP server when sending emails instead of the usual PHP server, thereby increasing deliverability. You should consider conducting further research on the best plugin to use for this option.
Cookie Notice Plugin
With the introduction of GDPR, your site needs to have a cookie notice for your visitors. You can select any plugin that is available on the internet; however, do not forget to do some background research.
A Back-up Plugin
How would you feel if you woke up one morning and realised you’d lost all your site’s data? You would probably want to kill yourself after all those years of hard work. Well, to protect yourself from any such incidents, you should install a backup plugin. Some of the best plugins for this function are; Updraftplus, BackWPup, and Allinone migration.
Google Analytics
If you are running an online store or in any way you would want to track your visitors, you should install a Google Analytics plugin. We do not have any plugin suggestions for this function since we do not track our visitors. You can conduct online research to find the best plugin to use.
Final Words
This is a comprehensive list of all the essential plugins that you need for your site based on what we use. You might at some point find yourself needing to add more plugins which is okay. However, If you use a good lightweight theme such as oceans or Studiopress themes, you are covered for most of the things and the above list combined with good hosting is more than enough to build a high-performance WordPress website.