Best WordPress Plugins | The 5 plugins every WordPress site needs to have

We are going to dive into some of the very best WordPress plugins I use and what I think every WordPress user should have on their website. Y’all let me tell you, I love a good plugin. Probably more than one human should love things that aren’t able to love them back…

I have a whole laundry list of the best WordPress plugins I recommend for specific themes and needs, but these top 5 plugins are something every single WordPress site should have because they make a difference in the performance and protection of your site and that’s important stuff.

BEST WORDPRESS PLUGIN #1: YOAST SEO

The one plugin I’d recommend to someone who asked me what they should install right now is Yoast SEO. This handy plugin helps you beef up your SEO pronto. Once you pick out your key terms for a post or page, Yoast ensures that you’re using them enough and optimizing them on your site. I’ve talked before about how to use Yoast, so clearly it’s a big deal.

BEST WORDPRESS PLUGIN #2: POPUPALLY

PopUpAlly is a plugin from AmbitionAlly which is run by the fantastic Nathalie Lussier. I love this plugin, friends. It allows you to create your own pop ups and have them look however you want them to look. You can have them link to your mail delivery service, use what buttons you want, and more. Y’all know I have a new content upgrade with about every single blog post, so it’s super important to me to have my upgrades and opt-ins look however I want. There is a free version of this one, but I am totally addicted to the paid version. PopUpAlly really gets it done.

BEST WORDPRESS PLUGIN #3: THRIVE LEADS

Along the same line, I also recommend Thrive Leads. Some might argue that PopUpAlly and Thrive Leads do kind of the same thing, but I use Thrive Leads for more than just pop ups. I use it for the welcome mat that takes up the whole page and asks users for an action they can easily turn down. I also use Thrive Leads for top bar announcements to promote certain workshops or courses. It really helps me streamline the process and get more people on my email list.

BEST WORDPRESS PLUGIN #4: PRETTY LINK

If you love bit.ly or any other link shortener, you’ll love Pretty Link. I use this one all the time. There’s a free version and paid version, and I actually use the free version on this one. Pretty Link is basically a link masking system. Just like you’d go to bit.ly and put in your long link and get a shorter bit.ly link for it, you can do that for Pretty Link except that it’s your name that will be in the url. I use this especially for affiliate links. There’s nothing cool about some crazy url with /394847*34*&-334. I use Pretty Links to create a link I’ll remember that also looks pretty when I share it. I use it for links to my Facebook group, Youtube channel, anything I want to make the process prettier and more fun.

BEST WORDPRESS PLUGIN #5: UPDRAFTPLUS AND BACKUPBUDDY

Every single WordPress user needs a backup plugin like UpDraftPlus or BackUpBuddy. Yeah, I cheated and included two here, but let me tell you why. UpDraftPlus basically allows you to backup your website to your own server or Dropbox with a free or paid version. It backs up automatically and that is the key thing to look for in a backup plugin.

I use BackUpBuddy. It is a paid plugin, but it is seriously worth the money especially if you ever want to move your website from one host to another. The back ups are sooooo seamless and everything is easily packaged.

BONUS BEST WORDPRESS PLUGIN: 404-301   

I just had to tell you about 404-301, friends. 404 pages can kill SEO. If you have a lot of dead links or wrong links somewhere they can kill your SEO. Literally kill it. This plugin tells everything that would normally be a 404 to go to a specific 301 page. A 404 page is a page that doesn’t exist. It throws an error on the interwebs and panics into a 404. A 301 page is a temporary redirect similar to a pretty link. You’re redirecting a link to another page and it saves your SEO.

With 404-301, you’ll set up a blanket 301 page and tell the plugin to send anything that would normally be a 404 to this page. This helps you look like you have your crap together even if someone clicks on a broken link. It also allows you to not get points taken away for SEO by having a bunch of 404 pages. 404-301 gives you the chance to grab your audience even if it’s a wrong link and send them to things they might really want to see.  

Those are my absolute best WordPress plugins I think every WordPress blog or website should have. Go get downloading, Y’all!