My 10 Favorite Free WordPress Plugins
An updated version of this post can be found here: 19 of My Favorite Free WordPress Plugins
WordPress plugins enhance and protect the performance of your website in amazing ways. Each plugin has a specific function, take literally seconds to install and usually just a few minutes to configure.
There are free plugins, and there are premium plugins available for a nominal fee. Today my list consists of my favorite “no cost” plugins that I trust and recommend.
You can find literally thousands of plugins at the WordPress Plugin Directory, and also within your WordPress admin area itself.
But rather than send you on a wild goose chase for the best WordPress plugins for Internet marketers, I’ll share my Top 10 favorite plugins here today.
I personally use these plugins and they help me save time, make money and even give me peace of mind. You want to use only the plugins that show they are updated frequently and recently. Every once in a while, after a WordPress core update, a plugin will interfere with how your site works. Be sure to complete a backup of your site before you do either plugin updates or a core WordPress update to the new version.
For that reason, I highly recommend this plugin that is not included in the list below! It allows you to do quick back up files and save it to your computer as well as many other places. It also reinstalls the site easily should you need to. All-In-One WP Migration
Now on with the list of my top recommendations…
This peace of mind plugin is an anti-virus, firewall and malware scan plugin rolled into one. It is probably my favorite plugin of all time. It keeps my WordPress sites safe from hackers and even alerts me to whenever I need to update any other plugin as well as other issues on the website.
#2: Akismet Anti Spam
Akismet checks your comments and contact form submissions against our global database of spam to protect you and your site from malicious content. For one website, you can use the free version.
I’ve used a lot of contact form plugins to build simple “contact us” pages at my sites, including Contact Form 7. But this beginner-friendly WordPress contact plugin called WP Social Contact is my new favorite. It gives your visitors multiple ways to contact you without having to use a boring old contact form.
#4: WP Fastest Cache
I stumbled upon this slick plugin when I started offering 100% done for you blogs. One of the sites was loading slowly so I hired a fiverr gig to fix the problem. After she was done the site load time went from 4 seconds to about 1 second! So I went in and saw what she did. She installed WP Fastest Cache. Since then I’ve been adding it to all my blogs and my clients’ blogs. Remember, Google loves fast sites so this plugin can help your ranking!
This little plugin gives you lots of traffic stats without any setup work. Just add the plugin and activate it and it starts capturing and displaying your traffic info right at your dashboard.
#6: Elementor
A live page builder, with no limits of design. A page builder that delivers high-end page designs and advanced capabilities, never before seen on WordPress.
#7: Yoast SEO
This is an all-in-one SEO solution for WordPress that includes on-page content analysis, XML sitemaps and much more. It lets me easily check each post to make sure it is optimized well for Google and other search engines, and even makes simple recommendations for me to follow.
#8: Free Images by Pixabay
Download royalty free images/photos under CC0 public domain for your own blog. Select images/photos from 1.4 million royalty free stock photos.
#9 -10: Smash Balloon – 3 Social Media Plugins
Smash Balloon for Instagram and Facebook
Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed
Display Instagram posts from your Instagram accounts, either in the same single feed or in multiple different ones.
Smash Balloon Social Post Feed
Display Facebook posts on your website. Completely customizable, responsive and search engine crawlable.
Custom Twitter Feeds
Display completely customizable, responsive and search engine crawlable versions of your Twitter feed on your website.
