WordPress powers around 14.7% of leading 100 websites in the world. So, if you are running a WordPress website then you are in the good company. WordPress is the most popular platform for creating websites. It has ton of features, most customizable CMS software, numerous themes, and lot of flexibility.

However, to extend the functionality and add new features to your site, the platform also offers an overwhelming variety of WordPress plugins. From close to 40,000 plugins sorting can be a tough task. To make it easier for you, in this blog we have covered 5 free and must-have plugins for every WordPress website.

These 5 plugins will take your website’s  performance from good to great.

1. W3 Total Cache

No matter how well-designed your website is, if it loads slowly then it is going to increase your bounce rates. W3 Total Cache is a free plugin, loaded with all caching features to improve the overall performance of all wordpress websites. The plugin reduces download times and immediately increases your site’s overall speed and performance.

If you have a larger website with heavy images, detailed logos, and heavy scripts then I strongly recommend you to download this free plugin and see the results. It can greatly reduce your page load time and make your site rank climb up in the search engine results.

Bonus: When fully configured, it results in minimum 10x improvement in overall site speed and performance. Besides, it also provides you with caching statistics for better performance insights.

2. JetPack

This powerful plugin acts as an ultimate toolkit and is a must-have for every WordPress website and is embedded with awesome features to make your website a success. This tool helps you keep check on your website performance, overall look & feel of the website, site security, image optimization, and more. With this free plugin, you get all essential features in one package.

Bonus: Unlike other WordPress plugins,it does not have a typical user interface rather comes with a refreshing and attractive interface. Install it now and find out which of the features your website needs the most.

3. Yoast SEO

If you want your website to climb up in the search engine results, you cannot miss this WordPress plugin. It allows you to optimize your posts and pages for up to five keywords to improve your website visibility. So far, yoast is the best SEO plugin for WordPress and gives you complete control over your SEO process including meta descriptions, page titles, and regulating rules for search engine robots like index, no index, follow, no follow, and more. Besides, you can also customize the Google+ and Facebook descriptions for your posts and pages, in case you don’t want the default meta description.

Bonus: With this tool, you don’t have to worry about canonical tag. The plugin takes the headache away and adds dynamic URL string variations to every post and page. So, you can be sure that Google will never penalize your site for content duplicacy.

4. Akismet

Everyone hates spam but they always find their way in the website. Thankfully, to combat spam, we have an effective plugin in place such as Akismet.This plugin has been created by parent company of WordPress named Automattic. It is one of the most popular anti-spam plugin, with over 35-million downloads.

It is a free plugin and setting it up on your site is quick and simple. To get started, you need to visit Akismet.com and register over there. Once you have successfully installed it, you will get an API key to start this service, follow instructions, and you are good with it.  If you are not using this service yet, download it today and bid goodbye to spam.

Bonus: Though this free plugin is superb, but if you are looking for higher security & good defense then you have the option to go for a premium package. Go for it and stay on top of your security game.

5. 404 Redirected

Nothing is more frustrating for a user than landing on a 404 error page on the website. It can dramatically hurt your conversions. This plugin takes the headache away for all the broken links on your website. This free plugin identifies all broken links on your website that no longer work and show 404 errors. Using this tool, you can fix this and redirect all error pages to actual pages on your website. Besides, it enables you to pass PageRank to the valid pages. Download this tool and increase the performance of your website.

Bonus: If it fails to provide an automatic redirect then it provides your website visitors with a list of suggested pages.

Which one is your favourite WordPress plugin? Do you think we have missed any essential WordPress plugin? Please share in the comments.