10 Must Have WordPress Plugins For Beginners [2024]

Starting a new WordPress blog is the easiest task ever. The only difficult task is to manage it. If you start a new blog, there are some very important things you need to do to optimize your WordPress blog. It may consist of different settings and plugins. In this article, I am letting you know about the 10 must-have WordPress plugins for beginners in 2024.

However, as the need comes, you can search for the required plugin and install it from your WordPress dashboard (Plugins » Add New) but there are some WordPress plugins that must be installed in your WordPress blog from the very beginning. Let’s know about these plugins in detail.

1. SEO Plugin

An SEO plugin is one of the most important WordPress plugins that must be installed in every WordPress blog. We all know if any of our content does not appear in the search results is just a waste of effort and time. So, if you recently started a WordPress blog or website, it’s very important to install an SEO plugin to optimize all your articles and pages for search engines.

And I think every webmaster must have an SEO WordPress plugin from the very beginning.

There are different SEO (Search Engine Optimization) plugins available for WordPress such as All in One SEO Pack, Yoast SEO, RankMath, SEO Framework, etc.

On this blog, we’re using the RankMath SEO plugin and it’s working great. Other than the RankMath plugin, you can also try the All in One SEO or Yoast SEO plugin for your WordPress website because they are also great. RankMath SEO plugin offers many advanced features for free that All in One SEO and Yoast SEO plugins offer in the premium version.

2. Caching Plugin

Caching is very important to speed up your website. For WordPress, there are many caching plugins available on the WordPress Plugins Repository.

Some of the most popular free WordPress caching plugins are Litespeed Cache, WP Super Cache, and W3 Total Cache. These two plugins work great to fulfill your caching needs. You can install any of these two caching plugins on your WordPress blog to increase the speed.

If you have some budget and can afford a premium caching plugin, WP Rocket will be a great choice for you to completely optimize your WordPress blog for not only caching but for other things like Heartbeat control, database optimization, and more. The price starts at $34.30 for one website.

3. Sitemap Plugin

A sitemap is another very important thing to consider when starting a new blog. It is very important to set up your website’s sitemap of posts and pages on your website and submit it to Google Search Console. This helps fast indexing of your pages.

Now, the question arises, how to create a sitemap for my blog posts and pages? When you’re working with WordPress, everything is very simple. All you need to install a sitemap plugin and it will take care of everything for you.

One of the best and highly recommended sitemap plugins is Google XML Sitemaps but if you’re using Yoast SEO or All in One SEO Pack plugin, you’ll get a built-in feature to add a sitemap. So, you won’t need any additional plugins for creating a sitemap.

4. Image Optimization Plugin

Image optimization is another important thing every webmaster should take care of. Every image you insert in a blog post must be well-optimized to speed up the page loading.

You can however optimize every image manually from outside of WordPress with the help of any photo compressor or optimizer but if you don’t want to do it manually for every image, you may use an image optimization plugin to get it done automatically for all the uploaded pictures in the WordPress.

There are many image optimization plugins available on the WordPress plugins repository but only a few of them are worth using. WP Smush and ShortPixel are the best image optimization plugins you must try if you’re looking for one.

5. Form Builder Plugin

Whether you’re setting up your WordPress for a blogging site or a business site, you’ll have to create different forms for different purposes. If you have a “Contact Us” page on your website, it’s a great practice to have a contact form on that page so that your visitors can easily interact with you.

There are many form-builder WordPress plugins available and some of them are very popular and trustworthy. I would recommend WPForms, Forminator, Ninja Forms, and Contact Form 7 to create different kinds of forms on your WordPress website.

6. Security Plugin

Security these days is the primary thing to consider. As the internet has become one of the most effective mediums to generate money these days, things are not as secure and safe as before.

There are different kinds of cyber-attacks being performed on the internet such as malware injection, brute force attacks, phishing attempts, choking, and more. Due to these kinds of attacks, Google and other search engines might block your website from showing in the search results.

To stay safe from these security threats, you can safeguard your WordPress blog with the help of a WordPress Security Plugin. WordFence Security, MalCare, and Really Simple Security are some effective plugins to help you out in this regard. Some premium WordPress hosting providers like WPX Hosting, Rocket.net, Kinsta, etc. provide hosting-level security features to secure WordPress websites hosted on their servers.

If you’re using professional WordPress hosting, you may also ask your hosting provider about the built-in security features included in your plan and you can also seek their suggestions on the best WordPress security plugin to safeguard your website.

7. Social Sharing Plugin

To encourage your visitors to share your articles on their social media handles, it’s very important to put social media sharing buttons below/above your blog post. And for this, you may use a social sharing WordPress plugin.

Among hundreds of free social sharing plugins available for WordPress, you need to choose the best one for your blog. Some of my favorite social sharing plugins are Social Warfare, AddToAny, and Ultimate Social Media Icons. You can install these plugins for free from the WordPress plugin repository. This plugin also offers a premium membership for advanced features.

8. Comments Plugin

Generally, every WordPress theme comes by default with its built-in comments section. So, why do you need a WordPress plugin for showing comments on your blog or website? It’s because the default comments system lacks some advanced features.

There are many WordPress comments plugins available that upgrade your default comments system and help encourage more visitors to comment on your posts. Two of my favorite free comments system plugins for WordPress are Disqus and wpDiscuz.

If you want to know about any premium WordPress plugin for the comments system, the Thrive Comments plugin is one of the best choices. I’m also using Thrive Comments on one of my blogs.

9. Spam Protection Plugin

For security threats like malware, bruit-force attack, and blocking you may use any of the above-suggested security plugins but how will you protect your WordPress blog from spam comments and form submissions?

To protect your site from spam comments, pingbacks, and form submissions, you will need to use an anti-spam or spam-protection WordPress plugin. Spam Protection by CleanTalk and Akismet are the two best options to try.

10. Popular Posts Plugin

Showing the most trending articles in the sidebar of your blog or website is a good signal to boost user engagement, reduce bounce rate, and enhance the overall website SEO.

There are many WordPress plugins available for this purpose. The plugin that I’ve tried on some of my blogs for showing popular posts is WordPress Popular Posts by Hector Cabrera. I think this is one of the best easily customizable WordPress plugins to display popular posts on your website.

That’s all. These 10 are the must-have WordPress plugins for beginners as well as professional bloggers to use in 2024. I’m sure all of these 10 WordPress plugins will give your new WordPress blog a good start in 2024.