Must-Have WordPress Plugins With Alternatives For New WordPress Blog

After setting up your blog or website on the WordPress platform, the first thing that is required is to install and set up the necessary plugins. Plugins are additional additions or add-ons to WordPress. This can make your blog more powerful and effective.

You must install the required plugins to get benefits like traffic analysis, search engine optimization, blog security, contact form, e-commerce features,   etc.

Below are all the plugins you need for your new blog. 

Do a trial analysis and understand which is a must for your blog or website.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Plugins

First of all, you need to introduce the new website and various pages of the website to the world with search engines like Google, and Bing. This is called indexing. And this task is made easy by various search engine optimization (SEO) plugins. 

Some of the popular WordPress plugins are -

1. Yoast SEO, 
2. Rank Math SEO, 
3. SEOPress, 
4. All-in-One SEO, etc. 

These plugins offer both free and premium options. You have to choose any plugin of your choice. Installing multiple plugins will harm your blog. 

These SEO plugins create various files required by search engines such as sitemap, robots.txt, and schema so that when someone searches something in search engines like Google, they also get your blog in the search results. 

So understand how important these plugins are for you.

Traffic Analysis Plugin

How many visitors are coming to the blog every day, where are they coming from, and complete traffic analysis and report of course we need to know our visitors. 

Google Analytics is popular for this tracking. But WordPress plugins make Google Analytics more interesting and easy. Because installing the plugin displays reports and analytics beautifully in your blog dashboard. 

Therefore, you need to install and set up the necessary plugins by creating a Google Analytics account. 

These plugins include -

1. Site Kit by Google, 
2. MonsterInsights, 
3. Analytify, etc. 

Among them, Site Kit by Google is Google's official free plugin, which not only supports Google Analytics but also features Google Search Console, Google Adsense, etc. for your blog. 

On the other hand, the MonsterInsights plugin is also great for displaying its reports, but to get the full features, you need to subscribe to their premium service.

Security Plugins

Ensuring security is very important for website security and data protection. Because as much as online has made our lives easier, it has also created challenges in information security. 

There is no shortage of good people online, but unfortunately, there are also bad people who misuse technology to hack websites and steal information.

So it is important to install and configure security plugins to keep your website free from vulnerability.

WordPress has a variety of free and premium security plugins that will protect your website and files. Make the blog safe and strong with a firewall, brute force attack prevention, optimize file permissions, limit logins, etc. 

Some of the popular plugins are - 

1. Wordfence Security, 
2. All-In-One Security (AIOS), 
3. Shield Security, etc. 

But definitely don't install multiple plugins. Either one is fine.

File Backup Plugins

It is very necessary to keep a complete file backup of the website. Because data hazards can occur at times due to various unforeseen reasons. 

The blog that you've worked hard to build can lose all its content in an instant. Even sometimes WordPress updates, plugins, or theme updates can cause various problems. Or file backup is important for quick restoration in case of hacking. While you can do this manually from your server, the WordPress plugin system makes it easier and more automated. 

For this you need to install and setup the file backup plugin. You can do Daily, Weekly, and Monthly auto backups through settings. 

Some popular plugins are -

1. UpdraftPlus, 
2. Backup Migration, 
3. Duplicator, 
4. WP STAGING, etc.

Contact Form Plugins

What if anyone could contact you by email from the form on your contact page? The contact form plugin will make this task easier. 

Through this plugin, you can create a form with a name, email, subject, and message on the contact page. 

There are several popular free and premium contact plugins for WordPress. 

Among them -

1. Contact Form 7, 
2. Contact Form by WPForms, 
3. Forminator, etc. 

You need to install and configure it first. Then insert the form on the contact page.

Cache Plugins

Cache plugins are important for improving your site's user experience and page loading speed. The cache plugin basically saves your site's essential files in the visitor's browser so that the page can load faster on repeat visits. 

There are many free cash plugins in WordPress. Among them -

1. LiteSpeed Cache, 
2. W3 Total Cache,  
3. WP Fastest Cache

But remember, you can only use one plugin for your blog. Using multiple plugins can cause conflicts.

SSL Plugins

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) is an additional layer protocol that handles website transactions and operations through data encryption. 

You may have noticed that some sites have HTTPS before their domain names and some have HTTP. The one with https basically has SSL installed and the one with http doesn't. 

Most hosting providers offer free SSL for 1 year when purchasing domain hosting. If not, then you have to buy it with extra money. And SSL is important for any website or blog. Even after installing SSL, sometimes browsing from HTTP does not load the website. The solution to this problem is to install an SSL plugin. 

WordPress has a number of free SSL plugins. Like - 

1. Really Simple SSL, 
2. WP Force SSL & HTTPS SSL Redirect, 
3. SSL Zen, etc. 

Some of these plugins also offer free SSL certificates. 

These essential plugins serve as the cornerstone of a robust and feature-rich WordPress blog. 

With careful selection, installation, and configuration, you can fortify your online presence, enhance user experience, and safeguard your blog against potential threats.