One thing is for sure; without smart and useful WordPress plugins you can\u2019t use your website to expand your business.<\/p>\n
I myself have become somewhat addicted to the Plugin catalogue<\/a>. This is where all of the WordPress plugins have been collected. There are thousands. THERE ARE SOME REAL GEMS AMONGST THEM!<\/p>\n Look at it this way; WordPress plugins are like car accessories. The radio, spoilers, navigation. They give your website extra functionalities.<\/p>\n A good website rises and falls with good plugins.<\/p>\n Without a good SEO plugin your website can\u2019t be found easily.<\/p>\n There are security plugins which you can set in a way that hackers from China or Russia can\u2019t get access to your website.<\/p>\n Yes, there is even a WordPress plugin which creates snowflakes on your website. Great for around christmas time.<\/p>\n In this article you will read all about The 60 best WordPress plugins<\/strong> which are in the Plugin directory. Which are the most popular ones, most downloaded, and which plugins should you beware of?<\/p>\n When I started this The 60 best research, I came across various plugins which I hadn\u2019t used before. Even some I had never even heard of.<\/p>\n But they are oh so useful. And good. They are not in the top 60 of most downloaded plugins for nothing.<\/p>\n First a little something about the Plugin Directory. It used to be called the WordPress repository.<\/p>\n The Plugin Directory contains more than 40.000 WordPress plugins, with a recent milestone, because there have been more than 1 billion downloads<\/strong> this year.<\/p>\n The last two years there have been a lot of improvements to the Plugin Catalogus.<\/p>\n In this ultimate overview I have described the 60 best WordPress plugins<\/strong>. Some are great to work with. I will also tell you about plugins with \u2018hidden defects\u2019, which can slow down your website.<\/p>\n Do you want to know how to install a plugin? Take a look at the article Install WordPress plugin on your website.<\/p>\n There are other places where you can download or buy plugins. Read more about it in this article about Codecanyon WordPress plugins<\/a>.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t covered all of them, like the Multibyte functionality enhancement. Which is a plugin to show Japanese signs, so not really interesting for you, but it is part of the top 60 with 1,8 million downloads.<\/p>\n And Hello Dolly, one of the first WordPress plugins made by Matt Mullenweg, a WordPress co-founder. You can\u2019t do anything with it, but it comes standard within the Plugin Directory when you install WordPress. Most people remove this plugin straight away, but you should know:<\/p>\n “This is not just a plugin, it symbolizes the hope and enthusiasm of an entire generation summed up in two words sung most famously by Louis Armstrong: Hello, Dolly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n okay, hou je vast, we gaan van start!<\/p>\n Ok, hold on to your hat, here we go!<\/p>\n \ufffcThe absolute number 1 of the plugin directory, Akismet. With more than 50 million downloads and downloaded more than 100.000 times each day. Try and beat that! This is the plugin with which you can block spam, so a necessary evil. This plugin needs to be installed on every website. \ufffcWith this you can add a signup form to your website. You can add different input fields, like email address, name, but you can also have something checked. Very popular with more than 30 million downloads. And there is a Dutch translation. I use it for almost all of my websites. \ufffcThis is a Yoast SEO competitor, and has a couple million more downloads. All in One SEO Pack is a SEO plugin which can optimize your website for search engines automatically. Personally I would rather stick with the Dutch plugin, because off course I am a little chauvinistic. But this plugin is basically as good as Joost. \ufffcThis is a plugin witch which you can optimize every article on your blog or website. When you install Yoast SEO, a block appears underneath every article with all kinds of indicators. Is the keyword used often enough, is it mentioned in the header, is the article long enough? If you meet these indicators, you will get a green light. Too much orange and red lights means your article hasn\u2019t been optimized enough. A very clear system. This makes optimization a piece of cake. I use this plugin for all of my websites, and those of my customers. Also because it\u2019s easy to work with. Most of the time your article is SEO proof within 5 to 10 minutes.<\/p>\n There is also a premium version which for example makes the website even faster. But the free version already offers a lot of options for the average website owner. \ufffcJetpack is so popular, because it is basically a collection of plugins. It has multiple functions like securing the website, keeping up with statistics, caching to make the site faster and much more. In total there are more than thirty functions. This is a lot more useful than installing separate plugins. At first, Jetpack was only available for WordPress.com websites, but now the plugin is also available for WordPress.org. Great! \ufffcThis plugin creates a XML map of your website, with which search engines like Google, but also Bing and Yahoo can index your website better. It basically creates a structure of your website. This is the best reviewed plugin of the complete WordPress repository with more than 1200 5 star reviews. Still the amount of downloads has decreased lately. The reason for this is that the XML map is also built-in, in a plugin like Yoast SEO. If you already have this plugin, you really don\u2019t need to use Google XML sitemaps anymore. \ufffcWith more than thirteen million downloads this is the most used photo plugin of this moment. With this you can place really nice photo galleries on your website, which you can show with a slideshow or with thumbnails (small photos).<\/p>\n It is a great tool, but you need to look into it on how it all works. \ufffcThis is a plugin designed by WordPress.org and you need it when you renew a website. This plugin moves all the old comments, pages, categories, etc. from the old to the new website. Instead of having to cut and paste every message on the new website, you can do this automatically. You download (export) the xml file from your old page and you upload (import) it to your new website. And tadaa, all the messages have been transferred within minutes.<\/p>\n This plugin should actually be standard to the core download of WordPress, because it is used a lot. \ufffcOne of the best known plugins is WooCommerce. You can sell all kinds of things with it, and there have been more than 10 million downloads. WooCommerce was taken over in 2015 by Automattic, for roughly thirty million Euros. That says something about the potential of this plugin. In the future, Automattic will be developing the webshop<\/a> module further. In the meantime many extensions have been developed, which are supplementary functions that give more options for your webshop<\/a>. Not all templates are compatible with WooCommerce, so first check if this is the case. \ufffcThis is the absolute winner amongst security plugins. Securing your website is a top priority and with this plugin you are well secured against hacks and other dangers. The premium version is worth considering if you have a large website. You could than for example also block login attempts and attacks from certain (obscure) countries. This plugin has a lot of really good reviews, an indication that this is a nice plugin to work with. WordFence Security is also easier to configure than it\u2019s competitor iThemes Security. And for example immediately starts scanning for malware on your website. But which one is the best, that\u2019s hard to say. I use both, also not to be dependant on one security plugin. If for example a leak occurs in your security plugin, than not all of your websites are threatened.<\/p>\n Another benefit: the plugin has a kind of cache function which can make your site a lot faster. \ufffcThe Google Analytics MonsterInsights has become extremely popular in a very short time and is placed high within the Plugin Catalogue. With this plugin you can monitor your own website with Google Analytics measuring information. And these are live in your cms, so you don\u2019t need to keep switching between your website and the Google Analytics website. There is also a premium version with extra functionalities. \ufffcSince Automattic, the owner of WordPress, has taken this plugin under her wing, the amount of downloads has really increased. Because at first, WP Super Cache was just as popular as W3 Total Cache. But Automattic is a strong party which radiates a lot of trust. And this has its effects on the amount of downloads. WP Super Cache is also less difficult to configure. You install the plugin and check the caching – and done.<\/p>\n BEWARE: should you decide to delete Super Cache (for another cache plugin) than deactivating and deleting alone is not enough. You need to delete a few other files through ftp. Detailed descriptions of this can be found on the internet. \ufffcUnbelievable, what an amount of users! And rightfully so, because this is a plugin which turns your website into a mobile friendly version. Although maybe not every website will look as good after using this plugin, it is one of the best options if you don\u2019t have the budget to build a completely new mobile friendly website. WPtouch is also recommended by Google itself!<\/p>\n If you need help with this, than opt for the paid version, because it comes with good support. Often on a website, at the bottom of a blog, you see a referral to older comments. WP Pagenavi is an advanced page navigation and can show a detailed page navigation. A simple solution, but downloaded more than 6 million times. \ufffcThis plugin is the new editor by WordPress, introduced in 2018. It gives a whole new dimension to editing your articles in WordPress. You can download Gutenberg separately, but the plugin has been added to the WordPress \u2018core\u2019 in 5.0. More about this plugin you can read in Important questions about the Gutenberg WordPress plugin. \ufffcThis is the other large caching plugin, which ensures that your website will become faster. Typical for W3 Total Cache is that it has a lot of options to set up the plugin. So if you really get into it, you can get a lot more out of this plugin. But as beginner you can also easily use the plugin. Basically you can use the standard settings and you won\u2019t have any problems.<\/p>\n BEWARE: should you decide to delete W3 Total Cache (for another cache plugin) than deactivating and deleting alone is not enough. You need to delete a few other files through ftp. Detailed descriptions of this can be found on the internet. \ufffcWith this you can create an email program newsletter within WordPress itself.<\/p>\n Most of the mail programs, like Mailchimp, are handled outside of your own website. For this you need to login with Mailchimp to consult statistics or to create a new newsletter. With MailPoet Newsletter, you can monitor and create all of this in your websites cms. \ufffcThis plugin is used a lot by website builders. The WordPress cms has a steady amount of input fields, like for the header, text and the featured image. With Advanced Custom Fields you can add extra fields to your cms to add more functions to your message or page. Like extra text, an email address, a subheader, a photo gallery, page link, radio buttons, you name it. You do need to find your way around getting to know this plugin. But\u2026 there is a premium version and here you can consult all kinds of tutorials about how it works and how to add a custom field. \ufffcThis plugin will show you your Google Analytics and real time statistics in a simple way, in the WordPress cms. You can also easily put in your own Google Analytics tracking code. \ufffcIt is a problem which occurs over the years, links on your website that no longer work. Many websites for example cease to exist and so the link no longer works. There is a simple solution for this: the broken Link Checker. This locates \u2018broken\u2019 links and places them in a row. In the instance that a link no longer works, the plugin will notify this. You can also easily change the broken link, because you get an overview of all the pages containing broken links and you can click through to them directly to repair it.<\/p>\n This is not only for broken links, but – and I also had this problem with a website recently – also photos\/images which are not displayed can be traced. \ufffcTo show Google Analytics directly in your WordPress cms, Google has also developed its own plugin. Here you can look at all of the reports on your own website. \ufffcThis is a plugin to prevent spam in your comments. There are so called active spambots, which can add automated comments to your comment form. Really Simple Captcha prevents this. Because you need to add an extra digit or letter to prove you are \u2018human\u2019. A spambot can\u2019t see this. You need to for example calculate something or enter a few hard to see letters. It is an effective way to prevent spam on your website. But: to be completely spamfree is not possible. Perhaps this plugin can be combined with other spam preventings plugins. \ufffcMost website templates often have blocks with related articles underneath every article. Often with subjects related to the article. But if you want this in a different layout, then you can use YARPP, which offers more options. It is by far the most popular plugin for related articles.<\/p>\n The plugin also offers the option to show sponsored content. \ufffcThe WordPress community<\/a> plugin. There is a separate team which is further developing this plugin, so you may expect it complies with the latest standards. You can build a community<\/a> with this plugin, where your visitors can place messages, comment on others and create a group on a specific topic. There are all kinds of add-ons, functionalities to get more out of it, like a chat function. You can read more about it in another article BuddyPress the sleeping giant awakes.<\/p>\n My personal preference is to buy a template which already has BuddyPress built in. Because the plugin is quite hard to build in and not all themes are compatible with BuddyPress. In this case you can install the plugin, but the look and feel of the community<\/a> does not have the same layout as the website. And this could look a little clumsy. \ufffcWith this you can create a contact form on your website. You can add multiple fields and also use shortcodes to place the contact form on a page or in a message. \ufffcOne of the most popular backup plugins is UpdraftPlus, with which you can make backups of your website. Very important off course, because should something happen to your website (and it will happen eventually) then you need to have a good backup. This plugin is also popular because for example, if the website has crashed, it can repair the website. The plugin ensures that an older backup is re-installed so your website will re-appear. \ufffcDo you want to move a website to another location? This plugin will export your website with the database, media files, plugins and themes from one server to another. You don\u2019t need any technical knowledge for this! In the free version however, you can only relocate a limited amount of files, there are many paid extensions to relocate really large websites. But it is one of the best migration plugins of this moment. \ufffcI use this plugin on almost every website. There are different plugins for linking through pages or messages, but this is the most downloaded plugin. You can use it when you for example change all your weblinks whilst building a new website. You enter both your old an new webadres and the plugin will automatically redirect the link to the new page. Also search engines realise quite fast that the old link is no longer working, and they will stop indexing it. \ufffcThis is the most popular free slider within the Plugin Directory. With the Meta Slider you can create a slider with multiple photos (moving images) and place it on your website.Plugin catalogus<\/h2>\n
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![\"wordpress](\"https:\/\/wpjournalist.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/wordpress-plugins.png\")
Top 60 WordPress plugins<\/h2>\n<\/a>1. Akismet<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/akismet\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>2. Contact Form 7<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/contact-form-7<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>3. All In One SEO Pack<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/all-in-one-seo-pack\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>4. Yoast SEO<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wordpress-seo\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>5. Jetpack<\/strong><\/a><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/jetpack\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>6. Google XML sitemaps<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/google-sitemap-generator\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>7. Nextgen Gallery<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/nextgen-gallery\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>8. WordPress importer<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wordpress-importer\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>9. Woocommerce<\/strong><\/a><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/woocommerce\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/h5>\n
<\/a>10. WordFence Security<\/strong><\/a><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wordfence\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>11. Google Analytics MonsterInsights<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/google-analytics-for-wordpress\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>12. WP Super Cache<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-super-cache\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>13. WPtouch Mobile<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wptouch\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>14. WP Pagenavi<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wp-pagenavi\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>15. Gutenberg plugin<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/gutenberg\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>16. W3 Total Cache<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/w3-total-cache\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>17. MailPoet Newsletter<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/wysija-newsletters\/stats\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>18. Advanced custom fields<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink: <\/strong>https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/advanced-custom-fields\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>19. Google Analyticator<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink: <\/strong>https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/google-analyticator\/stats\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>20. Broken Links Checker<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/broken-link-checker\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>21. Google Analytics for WordPress<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink: <\/strong>https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/google-analytics-dashboard-for-wp\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>22. Really Simple Captcha<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/really-simple-captcha\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>23. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/yet-another-related-posts-plugin\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>24. BuddyPress<\/strong><\/a><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/buddypress\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>25. Contact Form by BestWebSoft<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/contact-form-plugin\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>26. UpdraftPlus Backup and Restoration<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/updraftplus\/stats\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>27. All-in-one migration<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/all-in-one-wp-migration\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>28. Redirection<\/strong><\/a><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/redirection\/<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>29. Meta slider<\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
\nLink:<\/strong> https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/ml-slider\/<\/a><\/p>\n