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Top 5 Must Have Plugins For A Better WordPress Optimization

Making our blog readers having a good user experience is what all blog owners are striving for. Believe it or not there are much more work in blogging than just writing – apart from the writing part of blogging, there is still the maintaining part of it, like; optimizing your database, cleaning those unwanted plugins, editing some CSS codes and more…

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Optimizing our blog for a better performance is what every blogger should think of before facing other aspect of blogging.

Must Read: 5 Key Ingredient On How To Become A Better Blogger

Why do we need to optimize our blog?

√ First we all need a faster blog for all search engines to love and care for our blog :).

√ With a slow blog, your readers are bound to leave your blog the same way they came and they might never come back.

√ A slow blog suck bandwidth

√ Running a slow blog will always use up your CPU usage which might lead to your account been ban or suspended by your hosting provider.

√ A non-optimized blog is bad for any bloggers health and I know you must have notice by now :).

Top 5 Must Have Plugins For A Better WordPress Optimization

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You can actually reduce your blog work load with the help of some few plugins that I am about to show you today. So without wasting much of our time, I’ll just run into the matter at hand.

Must Read: How To Backup Your Blogger blog Posts, Comments and images The Best Way

Ok! The first plugin on my list should be:

1. W3 total cache: – W3 total cache is one of the best caching plugin I have ever laid my hands on. W3 total cache also known as W3TC is one plugin I will advice all bloggers to have for a better blog performance.

W3TC has enough advance options to optimize any WordPress blog. But to be honest with you, it is a little bit difficult to configure properly if you’re not tech inclined :). But do not worry because I have written a post on how to set it up, you can your self by following the link: How To Speed Up Your WordPress Blog With W3 Total Cache (W3TC)

Incase you still find the W3TC hard to touch, you can try out WP Super Cache but I assure you that W3TC Is more matured and works better 🙂

2. Smuch It: – Smuch.It plugin is a product from yahoo, which I know most of us must have known by now.  What smush.it really does is – it takes your images and hosts them on yahoo server so your blog won’t have to load some extra MB.

I will definitely advice any blogger that uses images on their blog to use this little but effective plugin.

3. Clean Option: – Ahhh… this plugin has helped me countless of times to battle the war between me and my databases.

When we delete a plugin that is not useful to us, the remnant will still be in your databases and if you do not delete this remnant, with time it will cause great harm to your blog. That’s where clean option comes in – with clean option plugin, you can delete all your deleted plugins leftovers so your databases will be free…

4. Wp-optimize: – I know that almost all bloggers uses these little but most powerful plugin. If you are not using it let me tell you what it actually does:

→ It allows you to remove all post revisions

→ It repairs your databases

→ It clears all auto draft posts, spam comments and many more…

Now tell me why haven’t you added it to your collection :)?

5. MobilePress/Wptouch: – We all want a fast and responsive blog, right? What these mobile themes do is; it compresses your blog by making it easier and friendlier for your mobile visitors.

Must Read: How To Create And Setup A Google Custom Search For Your Blog

But nowadays most premium themes do make their themes responsive so it can be viewed on both mobile and pc. In case you’re not using responsive theme, trying mobilepress or wptouch wouldn’t be a bad idea 🙂

Conclusion:

The plugins above have seriously helped me in speeding up my blog, reduced my CPU usage and many more… If you are not using any of the above mentioned plugin, I’d advise you to start using them but do remember that too much of plugin is bad for your blogging health, so keep it simple and keep it minimal 🙂

Back to you

Ha… it looks like I have said so much about so much, now it’s time to pass the ball to you :).

I just gave 5 plugins that is great for optimizing any blog on the WordPress platform. Now, can you mention any other plugin aside the ones I mentioned above? If yes, then please do share with us by using the comment box below.

Must Read: 7 Major Reasons Why I Love And Use WordPress

Do you have comments, questions and thoughts you’d love to share with us? Then do use the comment box below to drop them. Remember that your comments, questions and thoughts are highly welcomed and much appreciated.

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62 thoughts on “Top 5 Must Have Plugins For A Better WordPress Optimization”

  1. Hi Babanature,

    You are absolutely right – these are indeed the main five, though there are a lot more we all use. Yet again, just as you mentioned, you need to be very careful that you don’t have too many plugins or it makes your blog load pretty slow.

    I think from your list, I use all of them except for Clean Option that I’ve heard about but not used so far, or perhaps you can use it to clean your database and then uninstal the plugin or use when required. I also don’t use the Mobile Press option as mu theme is a responsive one, but I know certain tweaks can be made in that too.

    Thanks for sharing this with us. Have a nice week ahead, whatever is left of it 🙂

    1. Hello Harleena,
      There is no better blog than a fast one right? By keeping that much plugin, it will surely slow your blog down and won’t allow it to perform as expected.

      It is good to know that you use all of the plugin i mentioned and that makes me feel relieved :). Yeah, clean option is only for cleaning your database properly and removing it after use is also not a bad idea ;). Since you are using a responsive theme and a responsive themes are lite, it is also recommended…

      Thanks for the loving comment my friend and you too have a peaceful weekend 🙂

  2. Hey babanature, I found some good plugins in there I am not using yet. and I am using quite a lot. W3 Cache though was killing my blog lately. I analysed it on a few sites like Pingdom and the javascript caching was taking so much time. I removed it and my blog runs faster. I think I might go back to a cache plugin that just caches the HTML. That way I am safe. I also added a revisions limiting plugin recently, but not WP optimizer. Maybe I need to take a look at that.
    Thanks for the tips
    ashley

    1. Hello Ash and welcome to my blog 🙂
      You know, one of the best plugin i have used on any of my blog is the W3TC, it makes any blog run faster than normal. Maybe when you were using the W3TC, you activated something that your host does not like….

      Ahhh… I have not used revision limiting plugin before but it sounds nice 🙂

      Thanks for for adding your thought to the topic at hand, do have yourself a sincere weekend

  3. Hey Babanature,

    Nice article! There’s nothing I could literally add to this ones here but I will also suggest WordFence, Harleena and Sue Neal both have suggested it and I think it will be a blow for us bloggers.

    Thanks for sharing yet another great post boss! Do have a magical day ahead 🙂

    Sam

  4. Hi babanature,

    This is really another brilliant post from you, I have known your habit of sharing only useful content to your readers.

    Although I use only two plugins among your list above I must commend your effort in coming up with these useful plugins.

    Simple optimizer plugin already have 5 star rating coupled with how light it is, hence my not using Wp-optimize plugin.

    Hope you do have a brilliant mid-week buddy.

    1. Hello Obasi,
      Thank you for the complement, it is much appreciated :).

      I have not used “simple optimize” before but since you mentioned it, it might do some good work as well as the others mentioned here :). Thanks for the contribution and do have your self a nice weekend…

  5. Hi Babanature,

    Although there are thousands of plugins for wordpress bloggers to make with but these five plugins seems to be the top-most ones blogger on wordpress love using. Although I don’t know much about wordpress but still learning fast about it since I just move my blog from blogger platform to wordpress but I discovered all these plugins except clean option were installed and this is to tell me all these plugins are most for me to have a better blogging experience on wordpress..

    1. Hello Adesanmi,
      First let me welcome you to the wordpress platform, migrating to wordpress feels great right?
      The clean option is one nice plugin that truly do help our wordpress blog function faster by deleting those undeleted plugins stuck in your databases.
      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your lovely comment. do have a good week ahead 🙂

    1. Hello Nirmala,
      Ahh… W3tc is one popular plugin every blogger know and loved right?

      Do add plugins but do remember that too much of it can slow down your blog… 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by Nirmala, do have yourself a blessed week ahead…

  6. Hi Baba !
    I have already installed all the plugins that you’ve mentioned in this list . Smush.It and W3TC are simply awesome .They work really well and while i was blogging through the blogger platform , i never thought WP can be as powerful as these. Thanks for sharing the information .

    -Pramod

    1. Hello Pramod,
      Wp can be as powerful and can be shaped to as how you want it to be with the help of plugins. While there are thousands of pluggins, it is best to use limited ones so your blog wont slow down.
      Thanks for the comment and do have a good weekend ahead

  7. Hi Babanature,

    We definitely want our blogs to run smoothly and load rather quickly. I’ve learned that this can be a process at times.

    I use all but the first two. I’ve only run into problems with caching plugins and my current hosting service says I don’t need one. My blog is loading quite fast these days so I’m just going to continue to take their word and pray for the best. Actually, I’ve never had one if you can believe that.

    I used Smush.it for a little while but wanted to get rid of as many plugins as possible so I now compress my images before I upload them so I don’t really need this plugin to do that for me. We all know one less plugin can definitely help.

    I only upload Clean Option when I need to clean my database, I use it like CommentLuv’s Broken Link Checker. I don’t leave them installed on my blog since I don’t need to use them daily.

    I do have WP Optimize and WP Touch though and highly recommend those as well.

    Great list here and I’ll agree with you for the most part. Glad your blog is loading quickly.

    ~Adrienne

    1. Hello Adrienne,
      Your blog is indeed loading faster compared to before. Do you still use cloudflare? Just wanted to ask :)?

      smush.it can really do its work but it looks like the latest versions are not working as it used to. I also do compress my images before uploading but i still use smush.it to compress it even more 🙂

      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your wonderful comment. Do have a good weekend…

      1. Hi Babanature,

        Wanted to come back and answer your question. No, I’m not using Cloudflare, I’m not using anything. I know, ridiculous right!

        I used Cloudflare with my old hosting service but then they bumped me up to the pro account and no longer offered it. I had nothing but problems so I moved to this new one and don’t use anything.

        Smush.it started having some issues with me as well so I just thought I’d rather do it manually anyway since that’s the route I was having to take.

        Thanks Babanature and have a good weekend.

        ~Adrienne

        1. Hello Adrienne,
          Thanks for coming back and dropping your reply.
          You know, your new hosting provider did really improve your blog speed and it is unbelievable to here that it is working as fast as that without any CDN or caching plugin :).

          I am using the old smush it and i have not upgraded it since then because if i do, it will not work.
          Thanks for the reply, i did appreciate 🙂

  8. Great list of plugins to improve our sites. I use the cache plugin. I have never used WP Optimize, I use the better delete revision plugin, I delete the revisions on my site every time I write a new post.

    It also optimizes my database. I read about it on another blog somewhere. As for optimizing my images, I do that manually before I use them on my site. I think I have more than enough plugins…don’t really want to add anymore that will possibly slow down my site.

    These plugins will definitely help anyone improve their site. Thanks for sharing.

    1. Hello Susan,
      You know, what works for you might not work for another, we all have different views and kinds of plugins we want.
      Like i’d always say; do not use too much plugins or you might slow down and cause harm to your blog.
      Thanks for stopping by and do have a nice weekend… 🙂

  9. Nice post babanature, i must say i learn something new anytime i visit your blog and i find your posts very helpful. Smuch it and wp-optimize are very nice plugins and they are pretty cool i use both of them i will check out the other three. tnx for sharing boss.

    1. Hello Olili,
      Good to here that you find new things here at my blog :).
      You should indeed try out the rest plugins, they will indeed help your blog. but remember too much plugin is bad for your blog.
      Thanks for stopping by, do have a good weekend there 🙂

  10. Hi Babanature,

    I want you to know that I appreciate very much your efforts. You have a lot of experience and tried many things. You did a lot of research and are willing to share it with us. Great thing. Thank you.
    I am interested in Clean options and wp-optimize. These are the two I want to try.
    Now, one thing that interests me very much when it comes to blog optimization is the gzip compression. I read Google’s article but, well, Google is Google and they don’t impress anybody with their teaching abilities. This method is very important and can speed up a blog significantly. Unfortunately I am still trying to find a way to implement it.
    Do you know about gzip compression? How to implement it?

    Have a beautiful day

    1. Hello Silviu,
      Thanks for the complement, i sure do appreciate it :).
      Clean option and wp-optimize is clearly a wise choice when it come to optimization of any wordpress blog. i am sure you are going to love them.
      Seriously, i have not used gzip before and do not know much about it because i have not used it before :). I only use my cloudflare and W3TC to speed up my blog by reducing its js, html, css files. you should try them out and see how it goes
      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your comment, do have a good weekend 🙂

      1. Hi Babanature,

        I have tried WP-Optimize. I installed it, activated it and used it. It works great. I like it. Excellent weapon in a blogger’s arsenal. In fact, I liked it so much that I wrote a whole article about it. Thanks to you.

        Have a wonderful day

        1. Hello Silviu,
          It is good to know that wp-optimize is worth the addition. I also do love the plugin, it is one of my favorites :). You can try out the others and i am sure you’re going to love it.

          Thanks stopping by and letting us know the update… 🙂

  11. Must have list is around 10, I never heard about Smuch IT by the way, but if you say it works than I believe you.

    Thanks for updates, see you next time man. Regards!

  12. Aah Great!

    I’m using W3 total cache and I think it’s the best way to increase speed! If our site speed is slow then it can also leave a bad effect on our blog’s SEO! And As You Mentioned that most people leave slow web without reading even I also do. But one thing must keep in mind that Plugins can also be harmful if we use too much!

    Thanks!

  13. Hello Baba,

    I’m using wordpress.com for my latest blog and I find it very satisfying. The plugins you mentioned look really interesting but I’m not sure if it’s authorize for wordpress.com. We all know that wordpress.com is different from wordpress.org. I learned this on a hard way when I can’t monetise my blog using wordpress.com unlike wordpress.org. Anyway, thanks for sharing these plugins. I will try using these. 😀

    1. Hello Ronaldo, and welcome to my blog 🙂
      We all know that wordpress.com does not allow plugins except you’re applying the code manually. but i am sure that you’re enjoying the wordpress.com platform…
      Thanks for stopping by. Do have a great week ahead…

  14. Hi, Babanature,
    The reason for blog optimization what you have given are genuine. No one like to wait for a blog loading slow. Optimization is the way to get through it.

    You have mentioned five plugins. These are really cool plugin. I have heard about these plugin. I am using the fourth one, WP Optimize. It pretty cool and helpful. 🙂
    It is very nice know about these all plugins.
    Thank you for sharing such a beautiful post. 🙂

    1. Hello Kumar,
      The plugins i mentioned here are great and they can help speed any blog. you should try the other out and see how it goes.
      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your comment. do have a joyful weekend 🙂

  15. Hi Babanature,
    Again a good post from you having so much information regarding this plugins. I am going to use the all these plugins as in the past I was not aware such a good plugins.Thanks for such an informative blog . It’s really helpful for me every time I read your post.
    Have a beautiful day and enjoy the weekend .

  16. I’m thinking to switch to WP very soon…and nowadays I’m doing the pre-research works for that…I think these plug-ins are great especially I love the functionality of W3 Total Cache and WP touch….

  17. Hello,

    All the mentioned plugins are really quite popular and essential for every blog, Seo yoast plugin is really awesome plugin to make our blog seo enriched.

    thanks

  18. Hey Babanature,

    You’re right on time with this post! I had problems with my blog this weekend and had to call tech support. It was advised that I get rid of some plugins, which I did. At least I thought I did. I still saw the remnants of those plugins.

    After seeing Clean Option, I see this as the answer to my prayers! I’m always looking for ways to clean up my blog and make it faster and it looks like this, as well as other plugins I have, will do the trick!

    Thanks for sharing!

    1. Hello Sherman,
      Glad you find the post good enough to comment :). It is kind of funny when we think we have successfully deleted a plugin and at the long run, we discovered that it is still in our databases eating our precious space and causing harm to our blog.

      Clean option will definitely help you with your blog. Also other plugin will definitely help your blog in giving it that speed :).
      Thanks and do have a good week…

  19. Really a nice set of plugins, i never heard about smuch it and clean it before visiting your blog. smuch it is really helpful and if it can take load from server. i am definitely going to use it. will also share my experience with this plugin.

    thanks great sharing

    1. Hello Sunidhi,
      The mentioned plugins will definitely help your blog increased in speed. you should definitely try it out…

      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your comment. do have a great week ahead…

  20. Hi Babanature,

    This is such a great post! Thank you very much for sharing these top 5 must have plugins for a better wordpress optimization. The plugins you mentioned here are great and they can help any blog including my blogs 🙂
    Bloggers should try one of those plugins. Again, thank you for sharing.

    Regards,
    Abby

  21. Hi babanature,

    W3 Total Cache is hands down the best and most complicated WP plugin. Haha. Setting could be a huge thing in it but once you set it up, it will save you a lot of … time and load speed.

    Smush.it is okay but I don’t use the plugin as it uses too much server resources. I usually use the one from the web.

    You have a great list there mate. For me, compress image is vital and there are afew more such as JPEGMini and PunyPNG. Both are not plugin so it could save some of your site load speed.

    Thanks for sharing and keep it up!

  22. Hi Babanature!
    I’m augustus a Nigeria blogger, I have received lots of complain from my blog reader concerning the load time of my blog. Pls can you pls suggest the plugins that will help me fix this, I have tried my of those plugins but the problem still remain. Looking forward to your fast reply.

    1. Hello Augustus,
      First, you will have to reduce your plugins to its minimum and then install the above plugins to help clean your databases and it will improve your blog load time. I am also writing a post on how to improve blog speed, you should stay tuned for the post…

  23. Hi Baba,
    Going to install MobilePress plugin. I was searching for this type of free plugin. Find it here. you write a very informative & helping Article.

  24. Great list, Babanature.

    I tried all of the plugins, except for Smush.it and Clean option (I used some other plugin for image optimization, but I don’t quite remember the name). I will surely give them a try when I start a blog 🙂

    W3 Cache is a great tool, but it didn’t work well with many other plugins (I am not sure how it is now; The developers must have fixed all the issues). I have had several experiences in which I had to remove the plugins to bring the blog online.

    Anyways, thank you for sharing the list! Appreciate it 🙂

    1. Hello Jeevan,
      Good to have you here at onenaijablog 🙂

      Clean option is one plugin every blogger should have as well as smush it to better optimize their blogs. If and when you try them, you’ll definitely love them 🙂

      W3TC is still the best wordpress optimization plugin that i have ever seen. It is compatible with all plugins except its in minify mode and i wouldn’t advice anybody to use the minify mode.

      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your comment. Do have a blessed week 🙂

  25. hello babanature i really liked this post …
    since i an a new user on wordpress..
    i will surely be looking forward on all the points you narrated in this post
    and install the plugins recommended ..
    🙂

  26. Hi Babanature,
    Thanks for sharing the list of plugins specially W3 total cache. Clean Option is another useful one. I have used it before. Keep sharing this kind of plugins all are extremely useful.

    1. Hello Sarmista,
      Most welcome, glad you liked the plugins :). Clean option and W3 total cache are indeed a great tool every blogger should use. Thanks for the comment and do have a beautiful weekend.

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