My Most Used Wordpress Plugins

It's that time of year again. No.. not the time to start eating too many mince pies, or the time to pick up the old 'Die Hard is a Christmas movie' debate (which, it most definitely is). No, it's time to take a look back at some of my most used Wordpress plugins of 2023.

ACF

No surprise here really. This is easily my most used plugin - one that I use on 99% of Wordpress projects. ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) is an awesome plugin that adds so much functionality to Wordpress. Pages or post types can be totally customised to fit the content, through the addition of custom fields.

Yoast SEO

My number one SEO plugin. There are a lot of Wordpress SEO plugins - and some are great (like the SEO Framework plugin) - but I've always just used Yoast. It does everything I need, and a lot more. The basic free version is usually enough, but the pro version offers a lot of great features including automatic 404 redirections, and access to their SEO academy.

Wordfence

If ever I have the need for a security plugin, I tend to use Wordfence. It's free, and is a great reminder to clients on the steps they should be taking to improve their site security.

Contact Form 7

I like this plugin because it's simple and allows you to use your own markup for forms. It's not as easy to use as some other form builder plugins, but it is very lightweight.

Caching

Caching can't solve all performance issues, but if the need arises - I tend to use WP Super Cache, or if the server supports it, the Litespeed plugin. I've used WP Rocket a couple of times, but tend to find this a little heavy.

Redactor

Occasionaly, a client has had a requirement for a page builder plugin to be used. Though this isn't my preferred way of creating a Wordpress site, I can understand the benefits they can bring. When this has been the case, I've always preferred to use Redactor. I find it more intuitive, and clients seem to agree.