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12 Must-Have Plugins With a New WordPress Site

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10 Best (And Free) WordPress Plugins Every Blog Needs. thinkmaverick

12 Must-Have Plugins With a New WordPress Site. thinkmaverick

Wondering what are the best WordPress plugins you should have on your blog/ website?

 

After you’ve picked a domain name and created a blog, you’ll then need to customize it by installing a plugin.

 

Plugins, as we all know, extend WordPress’s functionalities and capabilities.

Using the best plugins will help to enhance your blog such as improve SEO and build a bigger following.

 

With over 54,820 plugins (and counting), choosing the right WordPress plugins can be time-consuming and overwhelming.

 

Due to that, I thought it would be helpful to share some of the best WordPress plugins for your website. No matter which blog niche you’re in, these plugins could help you grow your blog more efficiently this year.

 

All of the 12 WordPress plugins listed below are completely free to use. And some of them offer premium packages for advanced features.

 

Without further ado, let’s explore the 12 best plugins that every WordPress blog needs.

 

Related reading:

 

Best and Free WordPress Plugins For Every WordPress Blog and Website

 

Athemes

Every Blog Needs a Theme!

Your website design can either make or break your business. It’s the first thing that your audience will see when they visit your website.

Don’t worry, you got this. 

 

Athemes is all you need for creating a unique website, blog or eCommerce store that reflects your goals, business and brands. I love how simple it is to use, with a collection of professionally designed, fully customizable themes to choose from. 

 

It’s great for absolute beginner. In case you need help, you can be assured that you’ll get fast, friendly and great technical support

 

Before you get started with “Must-Have Plugins“, check out the best-selling Sydney Pro-business themes and its free version.

 

1. OptinMonster (Best Lead Generation Plugin for WordPress)


OptinMonster is a popular plugin that can help you to grow your email list by converting visitors into subscribers, effortlessly.

 

No matter what niche or industry are you in, to achieve long-term success in your business online, you need to start focusing on building your list from Day 1.

 

Whether you’re running an eCommerce store, a personal blog or business website, you can use OptinMonster to help to convert your website traffics into leads.

 

More targeted leads>more customers>more sales.

 

With the drag and drop builder, this feature-rich plugin is pretty easy to use.

 

Use it to create high-converting opt-in forms, pop-ups, sidebar forms, floating headers, welcome gates and more.


Not only that, all the forms are responsive and mobile friendly, creating a great user experience and increasing conversions for smartphone and tablet users.

 

You should definitely include OptinMonster in your email marketing arsenal.

 

 

 

2. MonsterInsights (best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress)

Knowing exactly how your visitors find, use and interact with your website is essential for any WordPress blog to get more traffic and sales.

That’s why you need MonsterInsights.

 

MonsterInsights, is a must-have plugin that allows you to connect your site with Google Analytics. 

 

With this plugin, you can easily track your website metrics, data and stats right inside your WordPress dashboard!

 

This detailed reports can help you better understand your audience, make important decisions and find a new solution to increase blog traffic, sell more products, grow your email list and much more.

 

You can use MonsterInsights for absolutely free.

 

However, if you’re looking for more advanced features like Author tracking, eCommerce tracking etc, get the MonsterInsights Pro.

Use this MonsterInsights coupon to get 50% off your purchase and discount will be applied automatically.

 

To help you get most off of MonsterInsights, check out my helpful guides below:

 

Personally, I use MonsterInsights free version for this blog. It works like a charm.
I think this tutorial- How to Set Up Google Analytics in WordPress might be helpful for you.

 

 

 

3. WPForms (Best Contact Form plugin for WordPress)

Every website needs a contact page for audience to contact you.

 

There are many contact form plugins on the market, and one of the most powerful and beginner-friendly ones is WP Forms.

 

With this plugin, you can easily create contact form for your website. Also, it lets you manage multiple contact forms, create customized form and include CAPTCHA to prevent spam bots.

 

Adding a contact form on a page/post can be as simple as copy and paste a short code. It’s pretty similar to how Gravity works except that its WPForms Lite version is 100% free.

 

If you’re looking for advanced features such as Conversational Forms, Signature Forms, Payment Forms, you can upgrade to their Pro version. 

 

Recommended:

 

Conversational Forms by WPForms will turn your boring static forms into more human conversational forms quickly, reducing form abandonment, boosting your form completion and growing your business in the long run. You can learn more here.

 

 

 

 

4. Akismet (Best Anti-Spam WordPress plugin)

No one likes comment spam. It’s really annoying.

To protect your site from spam, you might want to use Akismet.

It’ll automatically checks all of your incoming comments and filters out the spam.

So now you can focus on writing quality content and let Akismet takes care of the unwanted spam.

If you’re running a personal blog, you’re free to use Akismet. And paid subscriptions are available for businesses and commercial sites.

 

5. Jetpack (Best All-in-one WordPress plugin)

If you’re not so tech-savvy and are looking for a power-packed solution for your blog, then you’ll love this plugin.

 

Created by the people behind WordPress software itself, Jetpack is a must-have plugin for every WordPress site from day one.

 

This plugin takes care of almost all aspects of maintaining a blog. From theme customization, to search engine optimization, security, backups, performance, and social media promotion.

 

It’ll make your life lots easier. You don’t have to search around and download a heap of other plugins.

 

Offering more than 30 features, here’s are a few main things you can do with Jetpack plugin that’s worth mentioning:

 

The best part is you can use the Jetpack WordPress for 100% free!

 

If you’re looking for more features and functionalities (eg. daily automated backup, support etc), you’ll want to upgrade to their paid options that start as low as $3.50 per month.

 

 

6. Pretty Links (Best WordPress Link Tracking Plugin)

Wouldn’t it be great if you can manage, track and shorten all your links, all in one place? 

 

Pretty Links is a powerful tool which lets you clean up your affiliate links, create simple links as well as tracking clicks.

 

That said, it’s especially great for bloggers who are using affiliate marketing to monetize a blog.

 

Instead of using link shrinking services like bit.ly and tinyurl, you can now use Pretty Links to shorten links using your own domain. That’s “yourdomain.com/product_name”.

 

For example, here’s a link named pretty link that direct to my affiliate link for fiverr.com:

https://thinkmaverick.com/fiverr

 

Besides that, you can even track the number of clicks each link receives, when and where the hit came from and other useful data.

 

Use this free WordPress plugin to track clicks from emails, promote your affiliate products, post links on forums, Instagram and Twitter to increase exposure.

 

7.  WP Smush (Best Plugin for Image Optimization)

The fastest, easiest and best-performing image optimization plugin for WordPress! 

 

Images not only spice up your website, they also make it more appealing to visitors and convert better.

While it’s a great idea to include relevant images, images can also take up lots of storage space and slow down your site.

The slow loading time not only hurts your site’s SEO, but it will also turn your potential visitors away.

 

To solve this problem, all you need to do is install WP Smush on your site.

 

This plugin will automatically compress and optimize all of your images without reducing the quality.

 

It scans and optimizes images in PNG, JPEG and GIF files to save you valuable storage space so that your site continues to perform at optimal speeds and offer better user experience at the same time.

 

Furthermore, the plugin lets you smush your images manually in the media library. By running this smush bulk option, you can optimize up to 50 images with one single click.

 

As you can see, I use at least one or two images on every post. I found this plugin to be very useful in making my site look attractive while maintaining its speed and performance.

 

8. Insert Headers and Footers (Best WordPress Header and Footer Management plugin)

The easiest way to add code into a site’s header and footer without having to edit the actual file is using a plugin.

 

Among the many choices out there, Insert Headers and Footers is the simplest plugin to setup and use.

 

It’s very useful and easy to use. Simply copy any code or script and paste it into the box,  then click “Save”.

That’s it.

 

The plugin will do the work for you.

For example, you can use it to insert code for Google Analytics, Facebook Pixel, custom CSS, HTML and Javascript, in one simple interface.

 

9. Social Warfare (Best Social Media Sharing Plugin for WordPress)

Any Website or Blog is incomplete without social sharing buttons.

 

A social sharing plugin is basically, where your readers can share and promote any page or post of yours that interest them to friends, family and the world.

 

This will ultimately bring more customers to your blog.

 

There are many social sharing related plugins on the market. And Social Warfare is one of the best sharing plugin for this purpose. 

 

It offers attractive buttons without slowing down your site.

 

The free version lets you create inline and floating social share buttons for top social networks, including:

If you’re looking for more powerful sharing features, you’ll want to upgrade to the Pro version at $29 for one site.

 

 

Note: We use the free version of Social Warfare here at Think Maverick. You can see it in action on the top of this page.

 

10. WP Optimize (Best Plugin to Optimize Database)

In order to run your site efficiently, you need to clean your database regularly.

Every time you create or edit a post/page, WordPress will automatically create a revision.

 

As I’m writing, I’ve updated this post 5 times. This means that another 4 copies of this same post will be saved to the database.

 

As your blog starts to grow, more old revisions, spam comments, trashed and other unwanted content will take up valuable space.

 

You don’t have to understand all the technical aspects, WP optimize will take care of it.

 

This plugin will automatically remove all useless data, trackbacks and pingbacks to ensure that your site run at maximum efficiency.

 

11. Yoast SEO (Best SEO WordPress Plugin)

Looking to get more free traffic and rank higher in search engines?

Yoast SEO can help!

 

Yoast is a must-have for every WordPress site when it comes to improving your search engine optimization (SEO) and maximizes your blog’s SEO rankings.

From the readability and keyword analysis, Yoast makes sure you cover the essential requirements to boost your SEO score.

 

Above all, it helps you to write better content, making sure your site is perfectly optimized through on-page content analysis and real-time feedback.

 

Other important features of Yoast SEO:

The best part is you can use this powerful SEO plugin for absolutely free!

There’s a pro version in which you get to unlock advanced features for a fee.

 

12. Broken Link Checker (Best Broken Link Checker WordPress plugin)

As its name suggests, Broken Link Check is a free WordPress plugin that automatically scans and monitors your blog for broken links.

 

It checks all your posts, pages, comments and other content for broken links and immediately sends you a notification (via email or WP dashboard) if any are found.

 

This plugin also reports on missing images and links that no longer work on particular images so you can fix them quickly.

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

There you have it!

 

Based on my personal experience, as well as the many reviewers at WordPress, these 12 plugins are some of the most helpful and the top choices for any kind of WordPress site.

 

Arming yourself with these handy plugins will reduce lots of work on your part in no time.

 

What plugins do you find the most useful? 

Do you have any favorite free WordPress plugins that I didn’t mention in this post?

 

Do share with us in the comment below. 

 

Last but not least, if this post was of any help to you, please share it on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

A quick share from you would seriously help the growth of this blog.

Thank you so much!

I live and breath making an income online. 

I’ll be sharing more of ideas and guides soon. Stay tuned.

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If you’re interested in starting your own self-hosted blog, take a look at my step-by-step guide. I’ll show you everything you need to do to start a successful money-making blog.

Here’s a list of best resources and tools for your blog! I use them to manage, optimize and grow my blog. I’m sure they’ll help you as much as they’ve helped me.

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