There are tens of thousands of WordPress plugins to help with websites of all subjects. But some plugins are essential for all websites. They are all free. They all offer upgrades to paid versions. We have not needed any paid versions.

Our essentials:

• 404 – To redirect visitors to your home page if they click on a link in a search engine that you have since renamed. (There are several plugins do this).
• All in one SEO – To help your position in Google. This works the same way as Yoast which may be more renowned. But it also gives points out of 100 for each web page. We found this very helpful to see how our changes one by one improved the score. We used AIO SEO to get a one product website on to page 1 of Google. We competed with Amazon and other large websites selling millions of products.
• Hummingbird – To efficiently cache your pages so that they load faster. It also minifies CSS and JS files. We found it out performed other similar plugins.
• UpdraftPlus – To backup your website from within WordPress. This can be more convenient than going back to cPanel.
• Ajax Search Lite – To replace the WordPress Search box. Looks nicer and shows results of searches in a fast dropdown with images.
• Classic Editor – To make easy editing. (Just us. We find the classic editor easier to use).
• Classic Widgets – To make widgets easy to install and edit.(Just us. We find the classic widgets easier to use).
• Optimize Database after Deleting Revisions – To take the bloat out of your database. This can reduce the size of your database by several megabytes. Then any access to the database is faster,
• Wordfence – To make your website more secure from hackers. We all need this type of security and Wordfence does a good job.
• Favicon – to show the world that you care. Create a favicon from one of your own images to replace the wordpress favicon at the top left of your browser. (There are several plugins to do this).