Protect Your Site. Speed It Up. And Never Lose Your Work.
Your WordPress theme controls how your site looks — but plugins control how your site behaves.
Think of plugins as small tools that add new features to your website. Some block hackers. Some make your site load faster. Others help you create backups, improve SEO, or connect forms to your email.
There are thousands of plugins out there. But don’t get overwhelmed — you only need a few essential ones to start.
Below are the core categories every serious site needs, especially if you want to protect your content, keep your site running smoothly, and avoid expensive mistakes. Install these from within your site, do not try to install these remotely, by downloading outside of your site. You want to make sure to install official sources from within your site. By downloading plugins from within your site WordPress will alert you if a plugin is compatible or not, so you do not destroy your site with conflicting or ‘broken’ or malware plugins.
1. Security Plugin (Block Hackers and Malware)
WordPress is powerful, but because it’s popular, it’s also a target for constant daily attacks. You need a security plugin to protect your site 24/7. Ideally you should run multiple types of non-conflicting security plugins, to catch overlaps in capabilities.
Recommended options:
- Wordfence Security (free version is great for most users)
- iThemes Security
- Sucuri Security (has a free version and premium firewall)
These help block brute force login attempts, scan for malware, and notify you of suspicious activity.
2. Backup Plugin (So You Don’t Lose Everything)
Mistakes happen. Hosting companies go down. Plugins break things. Hosts get hacked at a high level, affecting all users within the hosting system. These are very real problems.
A backup plugin makes it easy (easier) to restore your site with a few clicks than rebuilding from scratch if the worst should happen — no stress, no lost content.
Recommended options:
- BackWPup
- UpdraftPlus (simple and free for most use cases)
- WPVivid Backup
Most allow you to back up your site to Google Drive, Dropbox, or email.
I recommend setting backups to run at least weekly. Or run backups daily if your site changes often. Highest levels of sites are backed up in real time. That is generally overkill for small or medium businesses.
3. Performance Plugin (Speed Up Your Site)
A fast site = better user experience + better search rankings.
Performance plugins help your pages load faster by caching content and optimizing delivery.
Recommended options:
- WP Super Cache (easy to set up and free)
- W3 Total Cache (more advanced, but powerful)
- LiteSpeed Cache (best if your host supports it)
Install only one caching plugin to avoid conflicts.
4. Optional But Helpful Plugins
These aren’t required, but they’re helpful for most small business websites:
- SEO: Rank Math or Yoast SEO (helps Google understand your site)
- Spam Protection: Akismet (helps keep junk out of your contact forms)
- Contact Forms: WPForms Lite or Ninja Forms (free versions may be limited)
- Maintenance Mode: SeedProd or ‘Maintenance Mode’ (for hiding your site while it’s being built)
How to Install a Plugin
- Log in to your WordPress dashboard
- Go to Plugins > Add New
- Use the search bar to find the plugin name
- Click Install Now, then Activate
Once activated, most plugins will add a menu option to your sidebar so you can configure them.
What’s Next?
You’ve now got a secure, backed-up, and performance-ready website. Next, it’s time to create the main pages your visitors will expect to see — like your homepage, about page, services, and contact info.