There are several standard plugins I install on all my websites. These are the types of plugins you should consider installing, along with my personal recommendation for each. All of these plugins can be found by searching in the WordPress plugin repository.

Important note: if you’re new to WordPress, please note that plugins do NOT automatically start running right out of the box. After installing each plugin, you’ll need to go into each plugin individually to configure its settings.

Though I’m a WordPress pro now, when I first started, I had plugins for SEO, speed, and security installed on my site, thinking they were ~automatically~ improving my SEO, speed, and security… 🤦🏼‍♀️ when in fact the plugins were just sitting there, not doing anything at all. Whoops. So don’t make the same newbie mistake as me!

SEO Plugin

SEO plugins can help you optimize your posts and content to improve your ranking in online search results. Learn more about SEO in the next lesson.

My recommended plugins: AIOSIO or Yoast SEO

Cookie Notice

It is a best practice to include a cookie banner on your website – that little banner that pops up at the bottom of the screen on basically all websites you visit these days.

My recommended plugins: Cookie Notice & Compliance for GDPR/CCPA or Complianz

Speed/Caching Plugin

Because we are not hand coding our website from scratch, it’s inevitable that our website is not going to have perfectly clean code or be perfectly optimized for speed and performance. These plugins help adjust the way your site runs to improve its overall speed and performance.

My recommended plugins: W3 Total Cache or Siteground Speed Optimizer (only for sites hosted on Siteground)

Security

Security plugins keep your site safe from would be hackers and spammers. Use security plugins to set up a firewall, malware scans, login security tools, and more.

My recommended plugin: All-In-One WP Security

Backups

If there is ONE plugin from this list that you download and configure, please, make it a backup plugin. A backup is a complete copy of your site that’s stored elsewhere. In case your site gets hacked or otherwise messed up, you will be VERY glad to have the whole thing backed up. With my favorite plugin, I’m running automatic backups of my websites every 1-2 weeks, with the backups stored in a Google Drive.

My recommended plugin: Updraft Plus

Spam Blockers

If you have comment boxes and contact forms on your site, you’re going to get spam submissions. SOME spam is inevitable, but you can greatly decrease the volume with the use of spam blocking plugins.

My recommended plugins: Antispam Bee (for blog post comment spam) and WP Armor Honeypot Anti Spam (for contact form spam)

Install Custom Fonts (optional)

Kadence has Google Fonts installed automatically which offers us a huge variety of fonts to choose from. If your branding requires a custom font however you can upload that to your site with a plugin.

My recommended plugin: Use Any Font or Kadence Custom Fonts (only available with paid Kadence plans)