According to WordPress.org plugins are ways to extend and add to the functionality that already exists in WordPress. These all range from numerous types of services. Everything from search engine optimization, custom contact forms, to social media sharing and basic website backups. These awesome add-ins can really pack a punch on a WordPress website. We’ll provide 4 must have plugins that all WordPress websites should include. Whether your site is just starting out or has been on the net for awhile, these plugins are sure to help.

#Yoast SEO

The Yoast SEO plugin has been around for quite some time. The plugin provides more than just optimizing title tags and descriptions for search engines. It easily allows webmasters to optimize entire websites for search engines. Services like snippet preview and page analysis that assist optimizing web pages, images titles, meta descriptions, and tons of optimization options in between. The plugin has been downloaded more than 13,000,000+ to this day. The plugin has grown to just more than a SEO optimizing tool, the plugin incorporates other services like video & local optimization as well as a premium version of the plugin. Get started with the free version of the plugin today!

#Contact Form 7

Contact forms are crucial for websites. How else would you collect leads on the web? There are a plethora of contact form plugins that compare to Contact Form 7. From experience working with the plugin, Contact Form 7 is a simple, clean, and functional contact form that integrates well with most WordPress themes. If you were on a WordPress theme recently, there is a solid chance that the form on the page was programmed with Contact Form 7. Speaking of the form, were there is forms, spam will follow. The great feature about about Contact Form 7 the plugin plays nice with Akismet, which is a comment spam prevention service. This will help in keeping spam at ease. Check out the plugin and let us know what you think.

#Shareaholic

Social media is one of the most prominent marketing channels of today. With blogs containing sharing options for the big social networks, every WordPress blog should include the option of sharing content. Not only does this plugin work with the biggest social media network, Facebook, the list includes social channels such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest. This type of link juice will assist in your social media strategy and search engine optimization. Search engines view social signals as a way of ranking websites on the search engine result page. The more content the website’s audience shares, the higher probability the website will rank higher. Take the Shareaholic plugin for a test drive and let the content sharing begin!

#VaultPress

Every website needs to have a secure backup with security monitoring the website on a daily or real time basis. VaultPress is both. A daily or real time back up solution that provides website owner’s peace and comfort. The VaultPress plugin connects your website to VaultPress servers. Backups and security scans take advantage of WordPress and are optimized for WordPress-powered sites. The good news is if something were to happen to your WordPress website, VaultPress would have a clean backup copy. The process of restoring is easy as clicking the restore button. The other plugins mentioned in this post are free, VaultPress on the other hand is a premium plugin. An annual cost of $55 is well worth it for the plugin.