Top 8 Best WordPress Plugins Which Offer You The Most Benefits

The best plugins for WordPress, in my opinion, are the ones which are best for you and your blog. With this in mind, i thought i’d write a quick post on what i think are the best for this site.

I’ll also link them to individual posts so you can read more about them if you want. If you’re brand new to WordPress, here’s a simple explanation on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Here’s the list of the plugins i use at the moment which i rate as the best because they offer the functions i need for my site.

IQ Block Country

iQ Block Country is a plugin that allows you to limit access to your website content. You can either allow or disallow visitors from defined countries to (parts of) your content. This plugin helps you avoid plagiarism and online content theft, most of which comes from countries who don’t have laws to easily stop theft of intellectual property like India, Spain & Australia.

Since i started WP SITES in 2010 most content theft has come from these 3 countries where spam sites can outrank you in the search results for your own work!

Spam sites generally, but not always, are hosted on anonymous domains where domain owners use multiple sites and/or different names with similar content taken from all over the internet.

WP Super Cache

This is one of the best plugins because it is so easy to setup. Simply install it and enable to experience a faster loading site for you and your site visitors. WP Super cache is co authored by the owners of WordPress, Automattic.

WP Super Cache will also reduce the amount of CPU, RAM and resources your server uses which reduces your hosting costs. If your homepage, posts or pages take longer than 5 seconds to load, you’ll not only lose readers, you’ll possibly suffer a penalty from Google effecting your search engine rankings. Read more about WP Super Cache.

Jetpack

This WordPress plugin is a bit of a luxury and isn’t totally essential but i love it for many reasons. Its offers WordPress.com stats which i love as its so easy to monitor important stats and quickly see whats popular and what’s not. Read more about Jetpack.

WordPress Seo by Yoast

This Seo plugin offer a large range of features but is also easier to use than some of the other big ones. Its a very practical plugin which integrates perfectly with the theme i am currently using and therefore improves Seo this way.

Not many plugin sites outrank the official WordPress plugin page (where the plugin is available for download), in the search results. WordPress Seo is one of them.

I like the built in 301 redirection, site maps and a big range of Seo features which i use from time to time. All included within the one plugin, these features integrate perfectly so you don’t need to add other SEO plugins to achieve the same result. Read more about WordPress Seo by Yoast.

MailChimp Widget

Form code can cause problems and conflicts depending on which theme you are using. The MailChimp plugin always seems to work perfectly and i have never suffered any problems with it. I can same the same thing about embedding form code into the content area of my site.

The MailChimp plugin makes it very easy to add a nice image of an ebook in your sidebar to build readership thru a list of subscribers. You won’t need any tech skills to use this plugin and its also very easy to customize for most users. Read more about the MailChimp Plugin.

WooDojo

This plugin is a bit like Jetpack because it includes other plugins and functions within the same plugin. Some of the features which will work on any theme include custom menu’s, Login Branding, ShortLinks, Social Widgets, Custom Code, WooSidebars and the excellent WooCommerce plugin.

WP Optimize

Awesome plugin that quickly and easily cleans up your database by deleting unwanted post revisions, spam comments and other unneeded junk. I use this plugin every couple of days and disable it when i’m not using it. Read more about WP Optimize.

Gravity Forms

Gravity forms is not an essential plugin, its more of a luxury in my opinion. Its one of the best premium plugins available for WordPress and offers the very best technology of any plugin out there.

Its not just a plugin for forms as it also offers  a great range of add ons for MailChimp, Aweber, PayPal to name a few. You can use Gravity forms to create an eCommerce site, Directory and membership site.

Highly flexible and jam packed with awesome features which enable you to customize solutions for your site like no other form plugin available. Read more about Gravity Forms.

I’m trying to reduce the use of plugins on this site to make it load faster and use less resources but i really think the best WordPress plugins don’t cause any problems either.

Want more? Here’s a list of some of the 50 best plugins i’ve used at some time or another.