Top WordPress Plugins for SEO, Analytics, and Beyond
This blog post was updated on August 25, 2023, to reflect the current number of WordPress plugins, the current top-ranked plugins in the categories noted below, updated totals for plugin users and reviews, and an additional category for contact forms plugins.
There’s a reason WordPress is the most popular web content management system in the world-- it’s open-source (free for anyone to use and modify), and you don’t have to be a software engineer to use it. But it does take a little savvy, and the sheer volume of plugins (58,000 and counting!) might seem a bit daunting to the casual user. So we’ve compiled a list of the top WordPress plugins for some of the most frequently used applications.
SEO
Yoast SEO is by far the highest-rated WordPress plugin for search engine optimization (SEO), with 5 million users and nearly 26,000 5-star reviews. The free version offers a score for SEO and readability and other guidance for improving your content, such as site maps and meta tags. The premium version offers additional tools, insights, and one-on-one email support.
Security
Wordfence is the most popular WordPress firewall and security scanner for blocking malicious traffic, scanning for malware, and two-factor authentication (2FA). Bonus: the Wordfence team is devoted solely to WordPress security.
Google Analytics
Monster Insights is a Google Analytics plugin for WordPress that allows you to take advantage of all those juicy tracking features without the help of a developer or the need to add complicated tracking codes to your site. It also offers integration with the WordPress WooCommerce plugin, as noted below.
Social sharing
Social Media Share Buttons by UltimatelySocial make it easy for users to share your content with share icons for all the top social media platforms. You can also use your own customized icons. The free version is pretty robust, and the premium level offers options for design, placement, and functionality. You can try it out on this dummy site for free.
eCommerce
WooCommerce is “the world’s most popular open-source eCommerce solution.” Built-in tools and options for customization make it easy to handle payments, configure shipping options, and calculate fees and sales tax.
Email and newsletter publication
Mail Poet is a newsletter plugin that allows you to create and send newsletters, all from your WordPress dashboard. Free users can have up to 1,000 subscribers, and they also offer scaling paid plans for additional subscribers and enhanced functionality.
Contact Forms
Contact Form by WPForms has more than 12,000 5-star reviews, and it's well known as the best drag-and-drop tool for creating contact, feedback, subscription, and other types of forms--without the assistance of a developer.
WordPress provides plenty of widgets, templates, plugins, and tools, but it doesn’t tell you what’s missing or what your website visitors expect. Our Indianapolis web design team can develop a beautiful, custom WordPress website to enable customer engagement and either hand you the controls or manage it for you so you can focus on other tasks. Drop us a message in the contact form below to start a conversation about it today.