Plugins increase the functionality of a WordPress site by embedding some features in them. Though ideally, the lowest numbers of plugins you can use on your WordPress site, the better – however, not everyone is an expert and neither will any of the plugins listed below bog down your site. Some of the most helpful and must have plugins for every WordPress site is listed below:

1. Akismet- If spamming is an area which you are most concerned about, then this plugin will be your best friend.

It helps you to get a complete history of the status of comments and highlight links in the body so that spam links can be deleted as well as get you accurate reports of unspam and spam messages.

2. WP-DB Manager-

An area of concern when running a WordPress site is handling extra posts drafts and revision. This plugin will help you in keeping your database organised and in good state.

3. WordFence- This is a free plugin used by nearly 4 million users to protect their WordPress site from being hacked. The installation is followed by a scan to check the existing situation of the site and then eventually the plugin will be on the borders to check any unwanted visitors attempting to break into your site. A caching tool is also available with this plugin.

4. WordPress SEO by Yoast - Excellent for handling all your SEO requirements, this plugin is a must, especially if you aren’t too good at these things.

Once you have created a post with a focus keyword on your website, this plugin will give you a rating along with various signals – if the one arriving at the end is a green one then you have done a good SEO job. It is greatly helpful in completing SEO tasks such as dealing with meta descriptions, robots.txt files, etc.

5. BackWPup Free -

This free back up plugin transmits your back up files to external destinations such as SugarSync, Dropbox, etc. A regular back up plan can be set and your site can be recovered from the back up anytime you want.

6. Disqus Comment System - Readers comments are the most valuable aspects of your WordPress site, spreading the news of your posts and generating interaction between you and your readers. Disquss makes it easy for readers to log in using their social networking site or Disqus ids and comment on your posts.

7. Google XML Sitemap- A special XML sitemap is generated with the help of this plugin using which search engines find it easier to go through the complete structure of your site and retrieve information with ease.

8. WP Smush.it- Running a WordPress site at high speed is one of the most difficult things to do with it. The size of images is to be controlled to a great extent for ensuring this. That is what this plugin does with just a click.

9. Visual Form Builder – A feedback form helps both the reader and you – you are able to understand what the readers are feeling about your posts and the reader feels respected that there is some space for his or her thoughts. This plugin allows you to create custom forms with all fields that you want as well as send the readers a copy of their submitted form.

10.  Floating Social – Easily visible buttons for sharing your blog posts on their social networking profiles makes this plugin useful. Major social networking sites are covered by this.

So if you are planning to host a WordPress website, then do give these plugins a try. We would also love to hear of any other interesting plugins that is worth a mention here.