The primary objective when creating a WordPress site is to use as few plugins as possible. That being said not everyone that uses WordPress is a PHP expert. The following WordPress plugins won’t slow your website down. In fact, some might help your site run more efficiently. These plugins help you manage otherwise difficult tasks and they provide features that are needed for the success of WordPress website.

WordPress SEO
WordPress SEO is not just an SEO plugin, it is the complete website optimization package. Apart from adding titles and descriptions to your articles, it also allows you to add open graph meta data, do page analysis, publish xml sitemap, and so much more. It is easy to install and setup and that’s why we use it on all our websites.

Backup Buddy
BackupBuddy is the easiest and most beginner friendly WordPress backup plugin. It allows you to quickly setup automatic backup schedule for your website. You can store your backups on the cloud and sleep easily, knowing all your content is backed up.

W3 Total Cache
Your site’s speed plays an important role in search engine rankings. W3 Total Cache helps you optimize your WordPress site for speed and performance. It allows you to easily setup page and browser caching, compress pages for quicker downloads, and setup a content delivery network for your static files.

Limit Logins
By default, a user can try to login into your site with as many incorrect attempts as they want. Most hack attempts usually rely on breaking into your site’s admin area by using password lists. Limit Login Attempts simply puts a limit on how many times a user can try to login. After a given number of login attempts it locks down the admin area for a limited time.

Wordfence
Wordfence starts by checking if your site is already infected and can make your site up to 50 times faster. Wordfence Security is 100% free

Google Anaytics by Yoast
Do you want to track how many visitors you have? Do want to know where they come from and what they do on your site? Google Analytics is the de-facto standard for measuring visitors on your site, and much more. Adding Google Analytics to your website is as easy as pie with the Google Analytics by Yoast WordPress plugin. • Simply add the Google Analytics tracking code to your site • Track 404 error pages and user searches • Get easy dashboards in your WordPress install • Set up specific reports for all sorts of actions

Facebook Conversion Pixel
Facebook's recommended plugin for inserting Facebook Conversion Pixel code into Posts, Pages, or any other post types. Conversion tracking helps businesses measure the return on investment of their Facebook Ads by reporting on the actions people take after the ads are served.

Akismet
An advanced hosted anti-spam service designed to thwart the under belly of the web. You can say goodbye to spam if you use this plugin.

WP Smush It
This plugin in compresses all the images stored on your WordPress. This can save you space. It can save 30% to 40% per image.

Contact Form 7
This is a contact form that users of your site can fill out to contact you. You can customize each field to fit your needs. You can place it anywhere on your site with a short code.

WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a free eCommerce plugin that allows you to sell anything, beautifully. Built to integrate seamlessly with WordPress, WooCommerce is the world’s favorite eCommerce solution that gives both store owners and developers complete control.

With endless flexibility and access to hundreds of free and premium WordPress extensions, WooCommerce now powers 30% of all online stores -- more than any other platform.

Sell anything, anywhere:

With WooCommerce, you can sell both physical and digital goods in all shapes and sizes, offer product variations, multiple configurations, and instant downloads to shoppers, and even sell affiliate goods from online marketplaces.

With premium extensions, you can offer bookings, memberships, and recurring subscriptions. Perhaps you’d like to sell monthly subscriptions for physical goods, or offer your members a discount on digital downloads? It’s all possible.

Ship wherever you like:

Offer free shipping, flat rate shipping, or make real-time calculations. Limit your shipments to specific countries, or open your store up to the world. Shipping is highly configurable, and WooCommerce even supports drop shipping.

Extensive payment options:

WooCommerce comes bundled with the ability to accept major credit cards, PayPal, BACS (bank transfers), and cash on delivery. Need additional options? More than 140 region-specific gateways integrate with WooCommerce, including popular choices like Stripe, Authorize.Net, and Amazon Payments.

You control it all -- forever:

WooCommerce gives you complete control of your store, from taxes to stock levels to customer accounts. Add and remove extensions, change your design, and switch settings as you please. It’s all under your control.

One of the biggest risks of using a hosted eCommerce platform is what happens to your store if the provider closes up shop. With WooCommerce, you have complete control, so there’s never any reason to worry. Your data belongs to you -- and it’s kept secure, thanks to regular audits by industry leaders.