Although every website is different than the other depending on the industry it serves, there are some plugins that every website needs. According to wordpress, there are over 55,000 plugins covering every function or feature your website needs, which is ultimately a big win for the not so technical entrepreneurs that need a website to get their business started. 

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But what is a plugin? The simplest explanation is that, it’s an app that can be added to the backend of your website that adds a new feature to your existing website that wasn’t included in the original version. 

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Those are the top most important plugins all WP websites should have: 

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1- Wordpress SEO by Yoast 

Whether you run a personal blog or you’re an SEO professional managing a website, Yoast helps making the website as search engine friendly as possible. 

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Check out the step by step guide from MOZ on the installation process 

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2- Shortpixel Image Optimizer 

One main factor that affects your SEO ranking is your website’s loading speed and the main reason for those long waiting times are the unoptimized images.

Shortpixel is a great way to reduce your images size by 85% without compromising the image quality. 

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3- Bloom 

Bloom allows your website to display email signup forms from over 100 templates. By filling in and subscribing to your newsletter or marketing service you can later email them as you like in compliance with GDPR. 

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4- Monster Insights 

MonsterInsights allows you to connect Google Analytics to your website so you can measure your website’s performance while also showing you those results inside Wordpress dashboard and accordingly optimize your website for the desired result (traffic,sales or leads) 

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5- WooCommerce 

Responsible for more than 30% of ecommerce stores as it took the most difficult aspects of running an online store with wordpress and made it as easy as it can get.

WooCommerce was acquired by the company that runs Wordpress in 2015 so it all makes sense here. 

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6- BackUpWordPress 

Nothing is ever safe on the internet and Murphy’s law states that whatever can happen will happen so it’s better to always be ready for catastrophes and security breaches.

It allows you to backup your entire website including your database according to the schedule that suits you.