Having built Elementor sites for several years I’ve settled upon a set of plugins that I feel get the best out of the builder, both in terms of design and performance. Here I’ll outline the plugins I use and my reasons why.
Most of these are free and if they’re not I’ve given current prices (correct as of 19th August 2024) in the descriptions. The free ones often have premium versions that add more features, but I tend to just manage with the free versions.
- Elementor Pro
- PowerPack
- Yoast
- WP Fastest Cache
- Updraft
- WP Advanced Database Cleaner
- Shortpixel
- WordFence
- GDPR Banner
Elementor Pro
Let’s start with the one you’re probably familiar with – Elementor Pro. This is the paid-for version of Elementor and expands the number of widgets available. It’s made by the same people as Elementor and therefore works with the main plugin.
You won’t find this on the Add Plugin page as it requires a paid for licence, so to download it go to Elementor.
Elementor recently changed their subscription options so the cheapest one won’t get you the full suite of widgets so it will depend on your budget which subscription you go for. For 1 site with limited widgets it’s currently $59 a year or if you want all the widgets it’s $99 a year.
Once you’ve paid and downloaded the plugin it’ll need to be manually installed. Instructions here.
Highlights of what it gets you:
- Header and footer template creation which is key if you’re looking to build a custom site;
- More widgets including contact forms.
PowerPack
This is a other paid plugin but for me, this really fills in some of the gaps that Elementor Pro doesn’t cover so is the perfect addition as my standard plugin stack for clients.
Subscription for one site is $49 a year, which isn’t bad for what it’ll get you.
To subscribe and download go to PowerPack.
Highlights of what it gets you:
- A better, more flexible mobile menu (which is one of the main draws for me);
- More advanced widgets that often have more customisations than their Elementor Pro equivalents.
Yoast
Yoast is my go to SEO plugin as it’s lightweight and easy to use. It also sits well with Elementor and you can access it directly from the Elementor editor panel.
The basic plugin is free and can be installed through the plugins section in your WordPress back-end. The Premium version can be found here and is £99 + VAT a year.
If you’re unfamiliar with SEO plugins they basically tell Google what to show to the world when you come up on a Google search. You can also set how the site looks when someone shares your site on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media platforms. I talk more about Yoast and SEO setup here.
WP Fastest Cache
If you’re not sure what cache is, don’t worry. Simply put, when browsers load your site they talk to the server and download all the files they need. To speed things up though you can use a caching plugin like WP Fastest Cache to instruct the browser not to download everything each time, but to show the user a saved version if they’re visiting the site more than once. The benefit of this is that your site loads quicker which is great for SEO and keeping your users happy.
I talk in more detail about the settings I use here.
UpdraftPlus
UpdraftPlus is a back-up plugin I use when I’m updating sites. With a few clicks it’ll back-up all the site files for you to either download or sync with cloud storage. In the event of an update going wrong you can roll-back to the update point so nothing gets lost. Super important.
For a run through of the settings, check out this blog.
WP Advanced Database Cleaner
Ever had the dreaded “Server error 404” when trying to update you page in the Elementor editor? This can be caused by a few things but one thing that does cause it is having a bloated database. That’s where this plugin comes in.
Every time you make changes to your site it stores what are called Revisions. Over time these revisions take up more and more space and eventually cause issues. With WP Advanced Database Cleaner you can flush out these revisions (and other stored items) and get everything running smoothly again.
This is a more advanced plugin and a might be a bit daunting. I’ve discussed it more here.
Shortpixel Image Optimizer
Shortpixel Image Optimizer takes all your images and optimizes them automatically. It’ll also crate webp versions too. It’s best to make sure you’re uploading pre-automized images (check out this blog for hints) but this plugin makes them even smaller for a quick loading site.
WordFence
Hackers are annoying. For some reason even the most simple of WordPress sites get attacked by hacking bots from random parts of the world. If all your plugins are up to date you should be fine but it’s always best to be covered and that’s where WordFence comes in. This is a trusted plugin that sets up a firewall against hackers trying to inject malicious code into your site and blocks brute force and incorrect login attempts, amongst other things. There are A LOT of settings, so I talk about it more here.
GDPR Cookie Compliance
If you’re using Google analytics to track your users then you’ll legally require a GDPR banner to allow them to opt-in to tracking. GDPR Cookie Compliance by Moove is my go-to banner. It’s super slick and customisable and I love the pop-up feature that provides the details.
It’s recently added the function to paste tracking IDs for some services into the plugin settings so you won’t need to bother with the full tracking code. Works with GA4, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads, and Meta Pixel. Otherwise you can add the full tracking codes into another section of the banner settings.
Once set up the banner will appear on your site with buttons to either accept or reject cookies, and only when your user accepts will the tracking be loaded.
Other plugins I like
- Duplicator – if you need to move your site to a new host this is a great plugin to use. There’s a free version and a paid version, but the free version has everything needed to move a normal sized site. I talk more about moving sites here.
- Autoptimize – I used to use this a lot on sites but with recent changes to Elementor I’ve found it’s not quite so necessary. It’s an optimizing plugin that works really well. I’ve talked about optimizing sites here.
- Yoast Duplicate Post – sometimes it’s easiest to duplicate posts and this is the plugin I’d recommend for that. It’s lightweight and does the job.
- WP SMTP – if you’ve got a contact form anywhere on your site you might want to consider this plugin. WordPress has a built in email sender but it can sometimes just stop working, so this plugin allows you to connect to your email via an SMTP protocol and send that way. It links up with Google and other providers and unless you use Office 365 you shouldn’t need the paid version.
- WooCommerce – if you’re looking for e-commerce with Elementor then this is the one. It’s a great plugin with it’s own library of plugins to create the shop of your dreams. I go into more detail about e-commerce here.
- Really Simple SSL – if you’re having some trouble getting the site to recognise your SSL certificate then this plugin can help set it up for you. Simply install the plugin and activate and it’ll find the certificate automatically and install it fully on your site.
