WordPress, the most popular blogging system on the Internet, is used by more than 60 million websites. WordPress’ plugin architecture enables developers to create custom functions that users download to tailor their sites to their needs.
There are over 26,000 plugins in WordPress’ database; here’s a list of the most popular plugins, most of which you have heard of.
The following includes 10 plugins that you may not have heard of, but they are just as essential for your WordPress site. These plugins are all free, and in no particular order.
10 Underrated WordPress Plugins Worth Downloading
Search Meter
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Total Downloads: 181,952
5 Star Reviews: 42
Last Updated: September 2012
Search Meter is great for websites that have a search box. This plugin records what your users are searching for, and indicates whether they found their answer. You can view a list of both successful and unsuccessful searches, and filter searches by days, weeks, or months.
Limit Login Attempts
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Total Downloads: 523,411
5 Star Reviews: 231
Last Updated: May 2012
WordPress allows unlimited login attempts from their login page. This means passwords can be solved easily by hackers, especially if your username is “admin” or your first name. Limit Login Attempts does exactly what it says: blocks an Internet address from attempting to login after a specified limit that you set. Everyone should download this just to make it that much more difficult to gain access to your account.
WordPress Backup to Dropbox
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Total Downloads: 765,615
5 Star Reviews: 105
Last Updated: February 2014
WordPress Backup to Dropbox is pretty self-explanatory. The plugin creates peace of mind by uploading a backup of your entire website to Dropbox. This includes all files and the complete database. Pick a day, time, and how often you want a backup created. Obviously, you are required to have a Dropbox account for this to work.
WordTwit
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Total Downloads: 279,759
5 Star Reviews: 21
Last Updated: February 2014
Every time you publish a new article, a Tweet automatically goes out on Twitter when you use plugin WordTwit. The links in the Tweet are also converted to tiny URLs so you save space for your title, and you can choose which words to hashtag.
Announcer
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Total Downloads: 21,380
5 Star Reviews: 41
Last Updated: October 2013
Announcer is awesome for when you need to display breaking news, a new notification, selling a product, and so on. You can place this announcement anywhere on the page. Check out screenshots to see what Announcer looks like and the different styles to choose from.
SEO Rank Reporter
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Total Downloads: 92,014
5 Star Reviews: 39
Last Updated: April 2014
Pick a list of keywords and the SEO Rank Reporter plugin tracks your Google rankings for these keywords every 3 days. You can view this data in a graph that the plugin provides. Receive e-mail notifications when your ranking has changed. The plugin was just updated last week to compliment nicely with the new WordPress update. Watch the video to see exactly how it works, and the features included:
Head Cleaner
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Total Downloads: 142,131
5 Star Reviews: 20
Last Updated: May 2013
Head Cleaner cleans tags from your header and footer, automatically. Simply install and it works its magic. As a result, your JavaScript and CSS loading should be faster. This is a no-brainer if you want a speedier website.
Lazy Load
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Total Downloads: 72,123
5 Star Reviews: 40
Last Updated: September 2012
Another plugin to help with speed is Lazy Load. This will save you tons of bandwidth by only loading images when they are visible to the user, which will improve your page load time. This is another plugin that you just install without needing to do anything else. The downside to this plugin is that it hasn’t been updated in a year and a half.
Amazon Auto Afflilate Linker
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Total Downloads: 2256
5 Star Reviews: 1
Last Updated: April 2013
Amazon Auto Affiliate Linker comes to us courtesy of WordPress genius Joost de Valk’s website Yoast. The simple plugin finds relevant keywords on your site and posts, and then automatically hyperlinks them with your Amazon affiliate link ID for your commission.
TablePress
Download Link
Total Downloads: 363,257
5 Star Reviews: 1091
Last Updated: December 2013
One of the most frustrating things in my life to do is creating a table online. Luckily TablePress exists to create and manage tables into your posts, on your pages, or in text widgets. These tables can include any type of data.Best of all, HTML knowledge is not necessary. If you do run into problems, the support board is very active.
Wp125
Download Link
Total Downloads: 485,511
5 Star Reviews: 47
Last Updated: December 2013
For those of you that sell ads on your website, you know what a pain it is to constantly edit your template to manually put the ad in, and then remind yourself when the ad needs to be removed, only to do it all over again. The plugin WP125 attempts to fix this by easily displaying ads once you customize and tweak the settings to your liking. Then input how many days the ad should run, and the ad will disappear at the end of the cycle.
That’s it for now. Share the WordPress plugins you rely on in the comments below.
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HostDime.com specializes in premier global data centers. Follow HostDime on Facebook and Twitter.
Jared Smith is HostDime’s Content & SEO Strategist. Follow him on Twitter.
Hi Jared,
Thanks for putting this together. This is a much better post then all of these people writing about the best plugins. I will check out all of them throughout the week. Announcer looks like something we could try out. I recommend that you check out our plugin Feedweb.
Benchmark Email has a new easy to use plugin called Benchmark Email Lite that combines your WordPress site with the traffic-generating benefits of email marketing. You can install an email sign-up form onto any page (it actually scans the colors of your page and adjusts itself so that it blends seamlessly into your theme), track down analytics, and even send email-friendly version of your blogs posts straight into your readers’ inboxes. And all straight off your WordPress dashboard.
Definitely a two-in-one program that will save your time, let you exercise your creative, and increase engagement with your followers 🙂
Great list, thanks!
If your blog has become slow to load, I also recommend using cache plugins!
This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic wordpress blog. After a html file is generated your webserver will serve that file instead of processing the comparatively heavier and more expensive wordpress PHP scripts..