A WordPress website cannot be properly managed and improved without using WordPress’ extensive and readily available library of plugins. After all, the WordPress Plugin Directory is populated by over 59 thousand free plugins that any website owner can install and test.
Must-Have Plugins for SEO
As such, it goes without saying that some of these plugins are almost mandatory, especially those with millions or even tens of millions of downloads and installs. But why are such plugins required?
Simply put, they can truly make it easier for you to increase website traffic, optimize SEO, and enhance user experience, among others. The use of plugins is a highly strategic approach that every website owner must rely on to maximize visibility and traffic in 2024!
Certain SEO plugins should be installed on any WordPress website. Even if WordPress has a solid SEO foundation, especially when it comes to slug adjustment and meta titles, there are several plugins that can make search engine optimization a walk in the park even for those who know little about SEO.
Two of the most important plugins in this regard are Yoast SEO and Rank Math.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a comprehensive plugin that focuses primarily on on-page SEO. It has both free and premium versions and provides essential features such as keyword optimization, readability analysis, meta title editing, as well as XML sitemap generation.
Recently, more and more AI-powered tools have been incorporated into this plugin. They help users generate SEO titles and meta descriptions automatically. It is an incredible tool, as it provides real-time content analysis with actionable recommendations.
Naturally, as a comprehensive solution, Yoast SEO also offers technical SEO features such as permalink cleanup, suggestions for internal linking, social media integrations, as well as breadcrumb navigation support.
Yoast SEO is one of the best WordPress SEO plugins, and most people actually consider it the best solution for both beginner and advanced users in terms of SEO knowledge.
Rank Math
Rank Math is a powerful plugin that can be used as a more user-friendly alternative that offers users advanced SEO insights. It features comprehensive elements and AI-optimization capabilities to offer extensive functionality even in its free version (which includes unlimited keyword optimization, schema markup integration, as well as Content AI for extensive writing assistance).
It is well-known for its user-friendly setup wizard that has multiple modes fit for various types of users. Rank Math also offers real-time content analysis, as well as integration with Google Search Console and Google Analytics (directly in WordPress).
Last but not least, the plugin also provides various technical SEO features, such as XML sitemaps, 404 monitoring, internal linking suggestions, and breadcrumb navigation. As one of the best WordPress SEO plugins, Rank Math can generate detailed website health reports and offer users actionable recommendations to further improve/boost website traffic.
Plugins to Improve Site Speed and Performance
More often than not, site speed and performance are more important than SEO itself. All SEO efforts are futile if your website loads in more than 5 seconds or can’t properly display images or videos to users.
Fortunately, WP Rocket and Smush are two plugins you can rely on to boost site speed, thus reducing bounce rates and enhancing user engagement long-term.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket is a caching plugin that significantly improves loading times through several automated features. Caching and performance optimization plugins are almost mandatory for WordPress websites, as they tackle issues such as suboptimal code and features that can impact user experience. Installing and activating WP Rocket also implements roughly 80% of all the plugin’s web performance best practices - in short, it requires no technical expertise and is very user-friendly.
Page caching is the star of the show and a technology used by most caching plugins. It creates static HTML versions of pages that can be easily and quickly accessed by users anywhere in the world. These pages reduce server processing time, thus improving website load speeds.
Smush
Smush is one of the best image optimization plugins available out there. It automatically compresses, resizes, and optimizes every image uploaded by the user, and, on top of that, it retains visual quality. The plugin offers the possibility of both lossless and lossy compression, as well as lazy loading and WebP conversion features. These can drastically improve website loading speeds and performance.
For ease of use and user-friendliness, Smush supports bulk image optimization, automatic compression upon upload, incorrect image size detection, as well as directory-wide optimization features.
In other words, Smush is the ideal solution for every single website owner who wants to boost website speed and performance without sacrificing image quality. The plugin has both free and premium versions, accommodating various needs perfectly.
Best Plugins for Enhanced User Engagement
SEO and speed/performance are crucial, but user engagement matters just as much for most online businesses. To enhance user engagement and drive conversion, website owners rely on social sharing, interactive content, as well as unique and attractive design elements.
Two of the best WordPress plugins for user engagement are Monarch and WPForms.
Monarch
Monarch is a powerful social sharing/following plugin that pretty much revolutionizes how websites and social media interact with one another. The plugin provides different sharing locations, such as floating sidebars, media sharing, inline buttons, fly-ins, as well as popups. It also offers comprehensive social following capabilities that include over 30 different social networks.
This is one of the best WordPress plugins that can be used to increase content reach as it relies on intelligent trigger systems to increase engagement (for example, displaying sharing options based on various user indicators).
According to users and experts, the best aspects of this plugin are detailed analytics, extensive customization options, and especially its ability to display share/follow counts while preventing negative social proof (through minimum count settings). Monarch is a must-have for websites rich in visual content, as well as for websites looking for responsive user engagement WordPress plugins.
WPForms
If you have a form builder on your website, it’s probably WPForms. It is the leading drag-and-drop form builder equipped with over 1,800 pre-made, ready-to-use templates with advanced features that allow users to create virtually any type of form without using any code whatsoever.
As such, WPForms has become a powerhouse when it comes to enhancing user engagement - it has multi-step forms and form interactions boosted by conditional logic, as well as comprehensive polls and survey capabilities (star ratings, Likert scales, to name a few).
Naturally, WPForms integrates seamlessly with most email marketing platforms and payment gateways for increased ease of use. It also packs innovative features like offline form submission and, more recently, AI-powered form generation. Reportedly, this plugin helps businesses save tens of hours weekly thanks to automated processes and enhanced customer support capabilities.
Conversion and Analytics Plugins
These plugins boost the efficiency of WordPress SEO plugins and all the other plugins listed so far. While conversion plugins help improve user journeys on a website, analytics plugins help track traffic and user behavior, thus providing vital information that can be used to further optimize a website.
Some of the best WordPress plugins in this regard are MonsterInsights and OptinMonster.
MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights is the best WordPress plugin for seamless integration with Google Analytics - it provides advanced analytics tracking directly into your dashboard, thus eliminating the need for users to implement code manually (technical expertise). MonsterInsights, just as its name implies, offers extensive insights into user behavior, website traffic, as well as content engagement - all done via customizable reports, advanced tracking features, and, most importantly, real-time statistics.
The plugin pairs nicely with WordPress eCommerce plugins as it can track the performance of both eCommerce and affiliate links.
Moreover, MonsterInsights empowers businesses to make data-driven decisions by presenting complex analytics information/data in a more digestible format for the website owner. In this regard, we must mention the plugin’s AI-powered conversation feature that allows users to simply ask questions regarding their website statistics and receive a straightforward answer.
Last but not least, this plugin has numerous integrations with other WordPress plugins and tools to make conversion improvement and analytics tracking a walk in the park!
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is one of the best plugins for lead generation, helping websites convert visitors into subscribers and customers via various customizable popup campaigns and forms. The plugin comes equipped with advanced features and technologies such as Exit-Intent (detects when visitors are about to leave a website), A/B testing capabilities, as well as real-time analytics integration (Google Analytics).
OptinMonster offers users more than 400 pre-designed templates that can be further customized using a drag-and-drop builder. As such, users can easily create various campaign types - from floating bars to lightbox popups and even gamified wheels. The plugin features targeting options as well, based on device type, user behavior, and geolocation.
Is OptinMonster really one of the best WordPress plugins for conversion and analytics? The answer lies in the companies that use it - Pinterest and American Express, among many others.
Security Plugins to Protect Your Website and Users
Last but not least, you should have at least one security plugin on your website. Speed, performance, and, most importantly, sensitive data can be negatively affected if you don’t protect your platform against hackers, spammers, and even unwanted traffic from other countries/locations.
Two of the best WordPress security plugins are Wordfence and Sucuri.
Wordfence
Wordfence is a comprehensive security plugin that provides robust protection by employing multiple defense layers. For example, it’s equipped with an endpoint firewall that blocks malicious traffic and attacks before they actually interact with your website. There’s also an excellent malware scanner in place that checks core files, plugins, and themes regularly, making sure there are no threats, backdoors, or malicious code injections being performed.
Other key features include advanced login security, real-time traffic monitoring, IP block, as well as a continuous update of malware signatures and security rules. One of the best advantages of Wordfence is the fact that it can check your website’s source code integrity against the official WordPress repository - every single change can be identified this way. A similar thing is performed for files, comments, and posts, as Wordfence compares them to Google’s Safe Browsing list.
Sucuri
In the world of WordPress security plugins, Sucuri stands out as a comprehensive tool for malware scanning, file integrity monitoring, security hardening, as well as activity auditing. Its free version provides users with robust security tools, while the paid version includes an advanced Web Application Firewall that is excellent against brute force attempts, DDoS attacks, phishing, malware, as well as ransomware.
Among its key features, we should mention real-time monitoring, post-hack security actions, email alerts, and ease of implementation of protective rules.
Sucuri also excels at automated scanning and enhanced manual threat removal tools that make it easy for users to eliminate threads and drastically reduce their website’s downtime in case of a security breach.
Final Thoughts: Choosing the Best WordPress Plugins for Your Traffic Goals
Selecting the right WordPress plugins for your website can be very difficult. After all, there are thousands and thousands of plugins available - but only some of those can truly help your website.
While there are various plugin categories, it is vital to focus on the essential ones first - in short, you need WordPress SEO, security, performance, engagement, and eCommerce plugins if you want to improve traffic and protect your website. These plugin categories will drive sustainable traffic growth for your website in 2024!
Make sure to at least consider the ones mentioned in this article. They are the best WordPress plugins available out there, as well as the most installed ones worldwide. In short, they’re worth their spot on this list!
Frequently Asked Questions About WordPress Plugins for Traffic
- Which plugins are best for boosting website traffic?
Website traffic is influenced by multiple aspects - SEO, site speed and performance, user engagement, as well as conversion and security features. As such, a single plugin won’t boost website traffic, but a comprehensive suite (Yoast SEO, WPRocket, Monarch, MonsterInsights, Wordfence) will certainly do so.
- Are free plugins effective for SEO and traffic growth?
Free plugins are the ideal solution for boosting SEO and traffic growth in the early stages of business development. These are perfect even for medium-sized businesses. For scaling businesses, the paid and premium versions of the plugins mentioned above will almost always provide optimal features and capabilities.
- How many plugins should I use on my WordPress site?
Ideally, you should use only the essential plugins to avoid cluttering your website and potentially negatively impacting site speed and performance. In other words, keep a plugin only if you rely on its capabilities, functionalities, and features on a daily basis. While there is no limit to the number of plugins, more plugins can slow down your website.
