WordPress plugins are tools that enhance your site’s functionality without requiring code snippets. One of the best things about WordPress is that it gives you access to a huge library of plugins, many of them free. However, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the different options.
In this post, I’ll show you the best free WordPress plugins to optimize your site at an affordable price!
Note: having more plugins can slow down WordPress. Each plugin adds extra functionality to your website, which can increase the server load and the time it takes to load your web pages.
Therefore, I have considered the most useful plugins that a website should have. So, whatever you are planning to do with your website, you will eventually require these free WordPress plugins or their alternatives.
If You’re interested about having your own blog, Click here to read this step by step guide on how to start a blog.
Let’s get started
How to download free WordPress plugins
You can install a new plugin using the plugin search tool in your WordPress dashboard.
- In your WordPress dashboard, choose plugins then Add new plugin
- Use the search bar in the top right corner to find the plugin you’re looking for
- After finding the plugin in the results, click Install Now
- When the plugin is installed you will need to activate it, simply click activate to start using it.
Best free WordPress plugins
Whether you’re creating a new WordPress site or looking to expand your existing one, here are 8 recommended free WordPress plugins that you might find useful.
1.Elementor
WordPress has a very simple page editor. Therefore , if you’re not a skilled coder, you’ll need a page builder plugin such as elementor to quickly build the designs you want.
Elementor is a front-end drag-and-drop page builder. This means that you can create complicated-looking pages without knowing a single line of code.
With Elementor, adding text, photos, buttons, and other elements to your website is as simple as dragging and dropping. In addition, plenty of awesome templates are included to help you get creative.
Besides that, it supports mobile editing. You can even revert to the previous version with a revision history.
2.Yoast for SEO
Yoast SEO is a WordPress plugin that improves your website’s search engine ranking. with a variety of features.
The plugin offers a great set of tools that helps you to improve your position in search engines.It allows you to add XML Sitemaps, and OpenGraph data and also makes it easier to make your posts or pages SEO friendly. Besides that, it provides an SEO score which is very handy
In other words, having good SEO helps your site get found when people look for it on Google and other search engines. All in all, Yoast is quite a useful plugin to have and this is why I recommend it for new bloggers.
3.Jetpack
As a WordPress user, Jetpack is an essential plugin that offers lots of advantages.
It’s an all-in-one security, optimization, and marketing plugin developed by Automattic.
The plugin offers features including security, content tools, visitor engagement, social sharing, comments, spam protection, related post and also improves your site performance.
In addition to this, Jetpack provides a lightweight and highly responsive mobile theme option. It’s made for phones and tablets.
It’s very easy to use. Once you install and activate the plugin, simply use the toggle switches to enable the settings.
4.Akismet anti spam
Akismet is a plugin designed by Automattic and it uses AI to filter out spam comments, form submissions and other bots in order to block spam on WordPress sites.
One of the best things about this plugin is that it analyzes user submissions in real time. Therefore, any genuine comments are immediately allowed through, while spammy ones are automatically blocked.
It’s user-friendly, effective, and a true time-saver! So, if you want to keep your website’s comment section and contact forms spam-free, you’ll want to check out Akismet.
5.Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed
Smash Balloon is a social media feed plugin that allows you to display your Instagram posts on your website. This can help you drive more traffic to your social media page.
Different Instagram accounts’ photos can appear in separate feeds or in the same one. Choose a layout for these feeds that complements the style of your website.
There are several customisation options available with this free plugin. Subscribe to its premium plugin for even more filter choices.
6.Smush image compression and optimization
Smush is another free plugin that can improve your site’s performance , by compressing and resizing the images you upload to your WordPress site.
The plugin automatically resizes, compresses, optimizes, and lazy loads images that you upload to your website without sacrificing quality. You can specify individual photos to optimize or perform a bulk compression of all the images in
your WordPress media library.
Smush doesn’t just compress your photos. You can also use it to enable lazy loading and set maximum image dimensions.
7.Google XML Sitemaps
An XML sitemap is an index of all the pages on your website. It makes your site easier for search engines to navigate and comprehend. Installing it helps in proper crawling and indexing of your website by search engines?
With over one million downloads, Google XML Sitemaps is the most popular dedicated sitemap plugin for WordPress.. Google XML Sitemaps makes the process of creating sitemaps easy because it shouldn’t be difficult.
This plugin, as its name implies, helps Google and other search engines index your pages and posts by creating XML (and HTML) sitemaps. For WordPress users who want sitemaps without the hassles of a feature-rich SEO plugin, it’s an excellent option.
8.WPForms
Whether you run a WordPress blog or an e-commerce store, you’ll probably need some type of form on your website.
WPForms is one of the best plugins for creating forms. It comes with a drag-and-drop form builder that you can use to create contact and subscription forms, collect feedback, and accept payments.
With this plugin, you can create your first form in just a few minutes.
WPForms has a user-friendly drag-and-drop form builder. Even if you’re new to WordPress, this allows you to effortlessly create forms that suit your specific needs. Without needing to code, you can build contact forms, surveys, newsletter sign-ups, event registrations, and more!
Conclusion
Free WordPress plugins can do it all, from designing and maintaining a website to optimizing it for search engines to enhance user experience.
Everything from building and managing a website to search engine optimisation it to improve user experience can be done using these free WordPress plugins.
Make sure you choose top-rated free WordPress plugins that receive regular updates.
You don’t have to break the bank to create a beautiful WordPress website with these. So, get started today and turn those digital dreams into a reality!
