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References to Use from Other Sources concerning WordPress and its growing use
WordPress is the top CMS in the world, and to date, it boasts of using more than one-third of all websites globally. These factors of use, versatility, and vast support for plugins make it a blogger, small business, and large enterprise favorite. From making a simple blog to building an online store, WordPress has all that can make a professional website without including requiring expertise.
Importance of Plugins in Adding Functionality to WordPress
Web developers are fond of the center options WordPress – the plugin framework is one of the reasons for choosing WordPress. WordPress plugins are utilities that you activate in your site to allow it to offer a wider range of choices and functionality. At the moment, the main directory of WordPress plugins contains more than 58 thousand plugins, many of which can be useful for solving various tasks, starting with security or search engine registration and ending with site optimization for purchases. Therefore, plugins allow to receive more functionality necessary for a site, as well as to enhance the performance and practicality of the web resource.
Purpose of the Blog: Introducing the First List of Plugins to Newbies
Even for the absolute beginner the process of getting started is as simple as selecting a plugin from a list of thousands. This blog is designed to help you by acquainting you with some of the must-know basic WordPress plugins for a beginner. In part, these plugins will assist in site security, site optimization for search engine indexes, site performance boosting, data backup, the creation of forms for communication, integration with social networks, site traffic analysis, creation of sites for online sales, as well as protection from spam. At the end of this guide, you will be conversant with some of the top essential plugins that will help you in setting up a WordPress site.
Table of Contents
Security Plugins
Wordfence Security
Features and Benefits:
Wordfence Security is also very popular and among the most highly-ranked security plugins for WordPress users. Furthermore, it includes a list of measures concerning the security of the site and all its components about possible threats and vulnerabilities. Key features include:
- Firewall: Kills bot traffic and helps to protect against brute force attacks.
- Malware Scanner: Simmers your site for viruses, trojans, worms, backdoors, rootkits, etc, that is for the security of your site.
- Login Security: Two-factor authentication and the number of login trials are restricted.
- Live Traffic Monitoring: Gives current information concerning the traffic and attempts to break into the website.
- Email Alerts: Provides alerts by sending emails for security-related problems and important incidents.
How to Set It Up:
- There is a WordPress plugin that can help in solving this problem; this is the Wordfence Security plugin for WordPress; you can find it in the WordPress plugin repository; be sure to activate it.
- On your WordPress admin area kindly go to Wordfence and click on the option of Dashboard.
- Since it is a new installation one should go to the setup wizard initially and then enable the basic services which include the firewall and the anti-malware scan.
- Enable 2FA by going to “Wordfence” > “Login Security” and following on-screen steps.
- Customize Email Notifications by going to Wordfence -> All Options -> Alerting and filling your Email Address.
Sucuri Security
Features and Benefits:
Sucuri Security can also be recommended as a reliable plugin, which provides full security for the WP site. Key features include:
- Security Activity Auditing: Records all the other occurrences relating to security on your site.
- File Integrity Monitoring: This looks after your site’s basic files for modifications and warns of threats to the site’s security.
- Remote Malware Scanning: Uses the remote Sucuri scanners to scan your site for malware presence as well as the blacklisting status.
- Blacklist Monitoring: Go to the Google Safe Browsing and the Norton Safe Web and type the site Address or URL for checking.
- Security Notifications: Includes email notifications of security threats and important occurrences.
Setup Guide:
- Scuri Security: Use the WordPress plugin repository to download and activate the Sucuri Security plugin.
- Go to the WordPress admin area, and select “ Sucuri Security ” > “ Dashboard ”.
- Go through the setup wizard to complete the basic configurations, such as turning ON the security activity audit as well as the file integrity.
- To set up email alerts go to ‘Sucuri Security’ > ‘Settings’ and input your email here ‘Alerts’.
- Perform periodic malware scans by going to “Sucuri Security” > “Malware Scan” and choosing a scan interval.
SEO Plugins
Yoast SEO
Features and Benefits:
Yoast SEO is amongst the highly preferred SEO plugins for WordPress out there in the market. It assists you in enhancing or making suggestions on the web design by offering options that will make your website friendly to browsers the search engines. Key features include:
- Content Analysis: Vital to your content creation, it checks the quality and SEO compatibility of your texts as you write.
- XML Sitemaps: Creates XML sitemaps that are useful in helping the search engines crawl your site easily.
- Meta Tags: For posts and pages you can set up unique meta titles and descriptions.
- Breadcrumbs: This adds breadcrumb navigation to enhance the site map and user interface to make navigation easy.
- Social Integration: Integrates with social media to improve your social media accounts.
Basic Setup and Usage:
- The Yoast SEO plugin should be acquired from the WordPress plugin directory and then set up.
- To get to this section, go to your WordPress admin area, and click on “SEO” followed by “General”.
- Provision of initial preferences is provided via the setup wizard where the user undergoes a choice of the site type, corporate data, and social networks’ references.
- Todos os posts e páginas podem ser aprimorados indo no metabox do Yoast SEO e rolamos até a parte inferior da página. Type in your focus keyword, alter the meta title and description and then the program tells you how exactly to enhance your site’s SEO.
- To create the XML sitemap, go to “SEO” > “General” > “Features” and make the “XML Sitemaps” option enabled.
All-in-One SEO Pack
Features and Benefits:
Another free SEO plugin that can help you better position your site on the internet is All in One SEO Pack. Key features include:
- XML Sitemaps: To support the crawling of a website, automatically creates and submits XML Sitemaps to search engines.
- Meta Tags: Helps enable a user to set specific meta titles and descriptions and simple keyword tags for your posts and pages.
- Social Media Integration: Connects you to your social applications to improve your social experience.
- Schema Markup: Helps to install schema markup on the website to increase its visibility on search engines and use rich snippets.
- Advanced Canonical URLs: Assists in improving the SEO of a site as it can minimize duplicate content problems by controlling the canonical URL.
Basic Setup and Usage:
- All in One SEO Pack is available from the WordPress Plugins directory and should be downloaded and activated on the site.
- Open your WordPress admin area and go to “All in One SEO” in the side menu then click on “General Settings”.
- After launching the primary setup wizard for fundamental configuration of the basic website details like the title and the description of the home page, web master’s verification details, and social networking details.
- You can fine-tune your content by going to any post or page of your blog and moving down to the All in One SEO Pack meta box. You need to type in your meta title, description, and keywords, additional, it indicates directions on how you can enhance your SEO score.
- Create an XML sitemap by going to “All in One SEO” > “XML Sitemap” and enabling the tick on “Enable Sitemap”.
Performance Optimization Plugins
WP Super Cache
Features and Benefits:
WP Super Cache is a proficient caching plugin that is used to enhance the speed of the site by converting the dynamic contents of WordPress into HTML. Key features include:
- Page Caching: Retrieves data from the database, converting data into static HTML files thereafter to serve on the web page reducing server response time.
- Compression: It compresses the pages thus lowering the file size and making it easy to load the pages.
- Cache Preloading: Before activation, cache all the pages in the cache and make them ready to provide a fast delivery of all pages.
- CDN Support: Integrates with CDN to enhance site functionality and performance for the users.
- Garbage Collection: It has an auto-clear cache feature that clears out all the files that are not in use anymore in the server to create more space.
How to Set It Up:
- From the WordPress plugin directory, download the WP Super Cache plugin and activate this plugin on your blog/website.
- In your WordPress admin area, you should go to “Settings” and then to “WP Super Cache”.
- Toggle the switch under ‘Easy’ to ‘Caching On’ and click on ‘Update Status’.
- To do so, click on the “Advanced” tab where you will be able to adjust advanced settings. Authorize options like “Enable Compression,” “Cache Rebuild,” and “CDN Support” depending on your site.
- To establish the cache preloading, go to the “Preload” tab, turn on the “Preload mode” option, and set the value of the preload frequency.
- Cache files can also be checked and managed by going back to the “Contents” tab, where users can find the cache stats and can also remove cache files if so desired.
W3 Total Cache
Features and Benefits:
The next plugin that is worth considering is W3 Total Cache which is also one of the most widely used caching plugins and enables you to enhance your site in several ways. Key features include:
- Page Caching: Creates HTML files that are static for the simple reason of cutting down the work that the server has to do, and hence improving the time it takes to load a page.
- Browser Caching: Exploits browser cache to ensure that subsequent visits by visitors are characterized by faster loading.
- Minification: It compiles HTML, CSS, and JavaScript which decreases the file size and enhances the loading time.
- CDN Integration: CDNs can be integrated to enhance the performance of a site further on top of the specific solutions mentioned above.
- Database and Object Caching: Storages the queries that are used to access the database and the objects that those queries return so that the server is not overloaded.
Setup Guide:
- Go to ‘Plugins > Add New’ in the WordPress backend and search for the ‘W3 Total Cache’ plugin in the WordPress plugin directory install it and activate it.
- To access the WordPress Pro General Settings, go to the “Performance” > “General Settings” in the WordPress admin area.
- Enable page caching by checking the “Enable” box under “Page Cache” and selecting the appropriate caching method (e. g. , Disk: The argument here is that the accuracy of the census data is the major difference between the Basic and Enhanced investigations (Enhanced).
- Leverage the browser cache by ticking the “Enable” check box under the “Browser Cache” and then setting up the leverages for the browser cache.
- For minification to occur, go to the “Minify” setting and tick on the “Enable” option where one can also set for minifying HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.
- Configure with a CDN through accessing “Performance” > “CDN”, and then, filling in your CDN information.
- In “Performance & Setting,” you can go for “Database Cache” and enable the options in “Object Cache” as well.
Backup Plugins
UpdraftPlus
Features and Benefits:
UpdraftPlus is also one of the most recommended backup plugins, it is used to perform backup and restore operations for WordPress sites. Key features include:
- Automated Backups: Policies should be developed concerning the frequency of the backups to be safe from loss of data.
- Cloud Storage Integration: The backups should be stored in common-use cloud storage like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3.
- Incremental Backups: Do not back up all the files but rather back up only the files that have changed since the last backup to save space and time.
- Easy Restoration: You simply navigate through the options from your WordPress admin and restore your site within a few clicks.
- Backup Encryption: It is recommended to encrypt the backup to support the security of the data.
- Download and activate the UpdraftPlus plugin from the WordPress plugin directory.
- Go to the WordPress admin area and click on “Settings” and then click on “UpdraftPlus Backups”.
- To do this, go to the “Settings” tab and set up a schedule for files and databases’ backups (for instance, daily/weekly).
- Choose the most suitable remote location of your choice (for instance, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. ) and click on the option to connect and authenticate your account.
- To set the backup schedule and the specific settings presented within the Preferences dialog box with the desired options, tap the save changes button.
- To invoke the manual backup, go to the tabs and click on the button “Backup Now” under the Backup/Restore section.
- Complete Site Backups: Just like any web server, back up your entire site- the database, media files, themes, and plugins.
- Scheduled Backups: Backups should be scheduled to guarantee the data is safe and this should be done often.
- Remote Storage Integration: Back up your files in the commonly used cloud storage services like Amazon S3, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
- Easy Restoration: You can restore your site with some simple clicks in your WordPress or by importing a backup file.
- Migration Tool: It also can move your site from one domain or server to another easily through the Site Tools Migrator.
- Navigate to the URL; www. themes. com/plugins/backup buddy/ and purchase and download the plugin.
- Go to your WordPress admin area, download the BackupBuddy plugin, upload the plugin files to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory, and activate BackupBuddy on the Plugins page in the WordPress admin area.
- Go to “BackupBuddy” > “Settings” to enter your backup schedule and/or remote storage location.
- After you have set up the backup schedule and options, click on the “Save Changes” button to save the changes.
- If you want to perform a backup by hand, go to “BackupBuddy” > “Backup” and press the button “Complete Backup”.
- To restore your site, go to the “BackupBuddy” tab, and click on “Restore/Migrate”. Here you are given a set of steps to follow with options for source to upload and Destination to create the backup file.
Contact Form Plugins
Contact Form 7
Features and Benefits:
Contact Form 7 is, indeed, the most popular and flexible contact form plugin in the WordPress repository. Key features include:
- Easy Form Creation: sing a simple mark-up language, it allows the creation and management of multiple contact forms.
- Customization Options: Customize your forms with various input fields, including text, email, URL, and file upload.
- Spam Protection: Integrate with reCAPTCHA and Akismet to protect your forms from spam submissions.
- Email Notifications: Configure email notifications to receive form submissions directly in your inbox.
- Ajax Submission: Enable form submission with an Ajax-powered smoother user experience.
How to Create a Contact Form:
- Install and Activate Contact Form 7 From WordPress Plugin Repository.
- Step into your WordPress admin area, then “Contact” > “Add New”.
- Give your Contact form a name, and change the form fields to your likings using the markup language.
- Configure email notifications under the “Mail” tab with your email address and specify the message format.
- Click “Save” to create your contact form.
- Copy the shortcode provided and paste it into any post, page, or widget where you want the form to appear.
WPForms
Features and Benefits:
WPForms is a user-friendly drag-and-drop form builder that allows you to create various types of forms for your WordPress site. Key features include:
- Drag-and-Drop Builder: Easily create and customize forms using a visual drag-and-drop interface.
- Pre-Built Templates: Start with pre-built form templates to save time and effort.
- Responsive Design: Make sure your forms look good on all Devices.
- Spam Protection: Protect your forms from spam submissions with built-in reCAPTCHA and other anti-spam measures.
- Conditional Logic: Enable dynamic mode to show or hide fields as per the user’s input for live and interactive forms.
Setup Guide:
- On the repository of WordPress, install and activate the WPForms plugin.
- Navigate to “WPForms” > “Add New” in your WordPress admin area.
- Enter a name for your form and select a pre-built template or start from scratch.
- Use the drag-and-drop builder to add and customize form fields as needed.
- Configure the form settings, including notifications and confirmations, by navigating to the “Settings” tab.
- Click “Save” to create your form.
- Copy the shortcode provided and paste it into any post, page, or widget where you want the form to appear.
Social Media Plugins
Social Snap
Features and Benefits:
Social Snap Fully Featured Social Media Plugin with which you can safely share and promote your content easily on lots of social media outlets. Key features include:
- Social Sharing Buttons: Add customizable social sharing buttons to your posts, pages, and media.
- Social Follow Buttons: Display social follow buttons to increase your social media followers.
- Click to Tweet: Let your content be tweetable quotes for sharing on social media.
- Social Login: Your users can now log in to the website from their social media accounts.
- Analytics: Track and analyze social media performance with built-in analytics and reporting tools.
How to Integrate with Social Media:
- Install and activate the Social Snap plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
- Navigate to “Social Snap” > “Settings” in your WordPress admin area.
- Configure the general settings, including social media profiles, button style, and placement.
- Enable and customize social sharing buttons by navigating to the “Share” tab and selecting the platforms and positions for the buttons.
- Enable and customize social follow buttons by navigating to the “Follow” tab and selecting the platforms and positions for the buttons.
- Activate and set more features like Click to Tweet and Social Login from the tabs.
- Click “Save Changes” to apply your settings.
Monarch
Features and Benefits:
Monarch is a powerful social media plugin developed by Elegant Themes that offers a wide range of social sharing and following options. Key features include:
- Social Sharing Buttons:Include attractive social sharing buttons on your posts, pages, and media.
- Social Follow Buttons: Display social follow buttons to increase your social media followers.
- Automatic Pop-Ups and Fly-Ins: Create engaging pop-ups and fly-ins to encourage social sharing.
- Inline and Sidebar Buttons: Add social sharing buttons inline with your content or as a floating sidebar.
- Social Media Insights: Track and analyze social media performance with built-in analytics and reporting tools.
Setup Guide:
- Purchase and download the Monarch plugin from the Elegant Themes website.
- Install and activate the Monarch plugin in your WordPress admin area.
- Navigate to “Monarch” > “Settings” in your WordPress admin area.
- Configure the general settings, including social media profiles, button style, and placement.
- Enable and customize social sharing buttons by navigating to the “Social Sharing” tab and selecting the platforms and positions for the buttons.
- Enable and set up social sharing buttons under the discretion of the “Social Sharing” tab to select which platforms to share on and where they should appear.
- Activate and configure advanced options like Automatic Pop-Ups and Fly-ins under their separate tabs.
- Click “Save Changes” to apply your settings.
Analytics Plugins
MonsterInsights
Features and Benefits:
MonsterInsights is a popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress that allows you to easily connect your site to Google Analytics and gain valuable insights into your traffic and user behavior. Key features include:
- Google Analytics Integration: Connect your site to Google Analytics with just a few clicks.
- Real-Time Stats: Real-Time statistics and reports directly from your WordPress dashboard.
- Enhanced eCommerce Tracking: Track eCommerce performance and gain insights into product and sales data.
- Custom Dimensions: Track custom dimensions such as author, category, and post type.
- GDPR Compliance: Ensure your analytics tracking complies with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
How to Connect with Google Analytics:
- Install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
- Navigate to “Insights” > “Settings” in your WordPress admin area.
- Click the “Connect MonsterInsights” button and follow the on-screen instructions to connect your site to your Google Analytics account.
- Configure the basic settings, including tracking settings and data-sharing preferences.
- Navigate to “Insights” > “Reports” to view real-time statistics and reports directly from your WordPress dashboard.
- Enable enhanced eCommerce tracking by navigating to “Insights” > “Settings” > “eCommerce” and following the on-screen instructions.
Jetpack by WordPress.com
Features and Benefits:
Jetpack is a versatile plugin developed by Automattic that offers a wide range of features, including analytics, security, performance, and social media tools. Key features include:
- Site Stats: View detailed statistics and reports on your site’s traffic and user behavior.
- Security Features: Protect your site with features such as brute force attack protection, downtime monitoring, and spam filtering.
- Performance Optimization: Improve your site’s performance with features such as lazy loading images and a content delivery network (CDN).
- Social Media Tools: Automatically share your posts on social media and display social sharing buttons.
- Customization Options: Enhance your site’s appearance with customizable themes, widgets, and shortcodes.
Setup Guide:
- Install the Jetpack plugin, and activate it from the WordPress plugin repository.
- Connect your site to your WordPress.com account by following the on-screen instructions.
- Navigate to “Jetpack” > “Settings” in your WordPress admin area.
- Configure the analytics settings by navigating to the “Traffic” tab and enabling the “Site Stats” module.
- Configure the security settings by navigating to the “Security” tab and enabling features such as brute force attack protection and downtime monitoring.
- Configure the performance settings by navigating to the “Performance” tab and enabling features such as lazy loading images and the CDN.
- Set your settings for social media under the tab “Sharing” and allow automatic sharing or with a social sharing button.
- Click “Save Changes” to apply your settings.
E-commerce Plugins
WooCommerce
Features and Benefits:
WooCommerce is the most popular e-commerce plugin for WordPress, allowing you to easily create and manage an online store. Key features include:
- Product Management: Add and manage physical, digital, and variable products with ease.
- Payment Gateways: Accept payments via multiple gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and credit cards.
- Shipping Options: Configure various shipping options, including flat rate, free shipping, and local pickup.
- Inventory Management: Track and manage your inventory with built-in inventory management tools.
- Reporting and Analytics: See how your store is performing with reporting and analytics.
How to Set Up an Online Store:
- Install and activate the WooCommerce plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
- Follow the on-screen setup wizard to configure your store settings, including currency, payment gateways, and shipping options.
- Add your products by navigating to “Products” > “Add New” in your WordPress admin area and entering the product details, including name, description, price, and images.
- Configure your store’s settings by navigating to “WooCommerce” > “Settings” and adjusting the general, products, tax, shipping, payments, and advanced settings.
- Customize your store’s appearance by selecting a WooCommerce-compatible theme and adding widgets and shortcodes to your pages and posts.
- Launch your online store by publishing your products and promoting them through various marketing channels.
Easy Digital Downloads
Features and Benefits:
Easy Digital Downloads (EDD) is a powerful e-commerce plugin specifically designed for selling digital products. Key features include:
- Digital Product Management: Easily add and manage digital products, including software, ebooks, and music.
- Payment Gateways: Accept payments via multiple gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and credit cards.
- Discount Codes: Create and manage discount codes to offer promotions and incentives to your customers.
- Customer Management: Track and manage customer information and purchase history with built-in customer management tools.
- Reporting and Analytics: Gain insights into your store’s performance with detailed reports and analytics.
Setup Guide:
- Install and activate the Easy Digital Downloads plugin within the WordPress plugin repository.
- Follow the on-screen setup wizard to configure your store settings, including currency, payment gateways, and email notifications.
- Add your digital products by navigating to “Downloads” > “Add New” in your WordPress admin area and entering the product details, including name, description, price, and files.
- Configure your store’s settings by navigating to “Downloads” > “Settings” and adjusting the general, payment gateways, emails, and miscellaneous settings.
- Customize your store’s appearance by selecting an EDD-compatible theme and adding widgets and shortcodes to your pages and posts.
- Launch your online store by publishing your digital products and promoting them through various marketing channels.
Spam Protection Plugins
Akismet Anti-Spam
Features and Benefits:
Akismet Anti-Spam is a powerful plugin developed by Automattic that helps protect your site from spam comments and trackbacks. Key features include:
- Automatic Spam Detection: Automatically detects and filters spam comments and trackbacks.
- Comment Moderation: Review and moderate comments flagged as spam before they are published.
- Spam Statistics: View detailed statistics on the number of spam comments and trackbacks blocked.
- Integration with Contact Form 7: Protect your contact forms from spam submissions by integrating with Contact Form 7.
- GDPR Compliance: Ensure your spam protection complies with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
How to Configure:
- Install and activate the Akismet Anti-Spam plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
- Navigate to “Plugins” > “Installed Plugins” in your WordPress admin area and click the “Activate” link under Akismet Anti-Spam.
- Click the “Set up your Akismet account” button and follow the on-screen instructions to obtain an API key.
- Now you should enter your API key in the input field and press “Connect with API key”.
- Navigate to “Settings” > “Akismet Anti-Spam” and configure the settings, including comment moderation and spam statistics.
- Click “Save Changes” to apply your settings.
Antispam Bee
Features and Benefits:
Antispam Bee is a free and efficient spam protection plugin for WordPress that helps protect your site from spam comments and trackbacks. Key features include:
- Automatic Spam Detection: Automatically detects and filters spam comments and trackbacks.
- Comment Moderation: Review and moderate comments flagged as spam before they are published.
- Spam Statistics: View detailed statistics on the number of spam comments and trackbacks blocked.
- GDPR Compliance: Ensure your spam protection complies with GDPR and other privacy regulations.
- Customization Options: Customize the spam detection settings to suit your needs, including trust-approved commenters, and block comments from specific countries.
Setup Guide:
- Install and activate the Antispam Bee plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
- Navigate to “Settings” > “Antispam Bee” in your WordPress admin area.
- Configure the spam detection settings, including trust-approved commenters, block comments from specific countries, and mark spam comments as spam.
- Click “Save Changes” to apply your settings.
Conclusion
In this blog, we have explored a comprehensive list of essential WordPress plugins for beginners. These plugins cover various aspects of website management, including security, SEO, performance optimization, backups, contact forms, social media integration, analytics, e-commerce, and spam protection. By incorporating these plugins into your WordPress site, you can enhance its functionality, improve user experience, and protect your valuable data.
As you begin your WordPress journey, it’s important to select plugins that best suit your needs and regularly update them to ensure compatibility and security. Don’t be afraid to explore and experiment with different plugins to find the perfect combination that works for you.
Frequently Asked Questions
WordPress plugins are tools that add specific functionalities to your WordPress website. They are important because they help enhance the performance, security, and usability of your site without needing to write any code.
To install a WordPress plugin, go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to "Plugins" > "Add New," search for the plugin you want, click "Install Now," and then "Activate."
Yes, many of the plugins mentioned in the blog have free versions with essential features, and they also offer premium versions with additional functionalities.
To ensure a plugin is safe to use, check its ratings and reviews, the number of active installations, and whether it is regularly updated. It's also good to look for plugins developed by reputable developers.
Yes, you can use multiple plugins at the same time. However, be cautious of using too many plugins as they can slow down your website and potentially cause conflicts.
To update a WordPress plugin, go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to "Plugins," and if an update is available, click the "Update Now" link under the plugin name.
If a plugin causes an error, deactivate it immediately. You can do this from the "Plugins" menu in your WordPress dashboard. If you cannot access your dashboard, you can deactivate the plugin by renaming its folder in the wp-content/plugins directory via FTP.
Choose the best plugin by considering your specific requirements, reading reviews, checking the number of active installations, and ensuring it is compatible with your WordPress version.
While some hosting providers offer backups, having a dedicated backup plugin gives you more control over backup schedules and restoration processes. It’s a good practice to use a backup plugin in addition to any hosting provider backups.
Switching from one plugin to another can sometimes lead to data loss, depending on the plugins involved. Always backup your site before making any changes and check the new plugin’s documentation for guidance on migrating data.
