As we all know, people rely heavily on the internet, many of them using it to choose who they hire and do business with. An online presence is vital and your website is a major key to success!
WordPress is the most popular content management system for websites across the globe. The best part about using this content management tool is that you can customize your website and add functionality using 3rd-party plugins. These plugins can add and update various features and are a good way to boost your search engine optimization and set up security for your website against spammers.
While every business has unique needs, there are certain WordPress plugins that every small business website needs, regardless of the nature of your business. Here are some must-have plugins you should consider for your website.
1. Yoast: It is every business owner’s dream to have a higher ranking on the search engine. However, this process is rather a complex affair that requires time and effort. To smoothen this entire process, you can install the Yoast SEO plugin designed to streamline your on-page SEO efforts. With this tool, you can select specific keywords in your content and optimize the page around it. Yoast uses a traffic-light system to break down the SEO process and give you pointers on boosting your page. If you are looking to optimize your page based on more than one keyword, you can upgrade to the premium versions that give you access to more functions and optimize your page using up to five keywords. This plugin comes with a user-friendly interface that allows you to make changes as you see fit.
2. Smush Image Compression and Optimization: Images are a very key part of your content. Without images to back up some of your content, the information becomes blunt and unengaging. Various research studies indicate that visual marketing is one of the most effective content for any business. However, quality images usually come in large sizes and take longer to load. You can choose to manually compress each image before uploading, something that will definitely consume a lot of productive time
This is where smush comes in. With this plugin, all your images are compressed automatically. This way, you can upload several images without worrying about the loading time. After installing smush, all you have to do is follow the prompts to set it up. Be sure to enable Automatic smushing which is found at the top right-hand corner of your window. This plugin gives you an option to upgrade to the pro version that gives better compression while removing the restriction on bulk-smushing.
3. MonsterInsights: To improve your website and create better content for your viewers, you need to keep tabs on various data. This way, you can make informed decisions based on facts. Most businesses rely on Google Analytics to boost user experience, and content and even optimize their websites. This tool gives you an insight into the various campaigns that are actually generating traffic and raising your conversion rates. With MonsterInsights, you can customize, add and manage your Google Analytics services from your WordPress dashboard.
These WordPress plugins give you access to data on aspects such as bounce rates and sessions. You can as well use it to track outbound links, downloads, and internal links. Users who opt for the premium version are given access to more features such as e-commerce tracking through mobile apps. These include Easy Digital Downloads and WooCommerce. This plugin is user-friendly. After installing, all you need to do is to link it to your Google account to start using its features.
4. WP Rocket: This is arguably the best caching plugin for your website. It is designed to boost the speeds and performance of your small business websites with little or no technical skills. WP Rocket works by automatically turning on WordPress caching settings such as page cache, gzip compression, and cache pre-loading. With this plugin, you can also turn on other features such as CDN support, DNS prefetching, lazy loading images, and other features that help improve your page loading time. To boost performance, this plug automatically saves your website cache onto a user’s device.
5. Sucuri: This is one of the highly recommended options, especially for online retailers. Sucuri is designed to provide users with a web application firewall, which is one of the best securities you can set up for your website. Sucuri monitors and protects your website from brute force attacks, malware threats, spam comment attacks, XSS attacks, DDoS, and many other attacks directed to your website. It also comes with the added advantage of adding a CDN layer that helps boost your website speeds.
6. PushEngage: PushEngage is one of the best options when looking for a web push notification plugin. With this plugin, you can send customized messages and announcements to your website users through the browser push notification system. Push notifications work effectively alongside email newsletters. This way, you can boost website traffic and improve customer engagement. PushEngage comes with amazing features such as a/b testing, dynamic user segmentation, opt-in reminders, drip campaigns, powerful analytics, and goal tracking, among many others.
When used for an e-commerce website, the plugin automatically triggers an alert for cart abandonment, price drop, inventory, and many others. The best part about PushEngage is that it can be used with multiple web builder platforms.
7. WooCommerce: This is one of the most popular options among online retailers for WordPress. This plugin is currently being used by over five million websites across the globe. WooCommerce is designed to provide you with all the necessary features you need to set up an online store. Over the last few years, WooCommerce has risen to become one of the most dominant and popular WordPress plugins. It was originally built by the team behind Jetpack and Automatic, which are some of the most popular services.
This plugin comes with its very own ecosystem that is made up of
- WooCommerce Hosting
- WooCommerce themes
- WooCommerce plugins
Small business owners looking to start an online store for their products are advised to go for the eCommerce plan. This version gives you access to various extensions for free. Some of which include subscriptions, books, and even deposits.
8. Bloom: Bloom is an ideal choice for an email list plugin for WordPress. It comes with several design options and templates you can use to create emails for your website users—Bloom features over one hundred email subscription templates that can be customized to fit your brand. One of the greatest advantages of using bloom is that you can adjust it to target specific posts for your email opt-in pop-ups, forms, and fly-in. It is also designed with a user-friendly interface. This means you don’t have to worry about hiring technical personnel to help you operate it.
9. Redirection: WordPress helps to manage a host of things on your website, including URL changes. However, when users or search engines can locate content within your website, this spells doom and could easily reduce your traffic. This is where Redirection comes in. It is designed to help you manage URL redirects manually. The redirection plugin helps to ensure users and search engines find what they are looking for using the correct URL. However, you need to disable the 404 error monitoring feature since it slows down your website significantly. This plugin is best used to manage 301 URL redirects on your website.
10. Ninja Forms: Ninja Forms is arguably one of the best contact form plugins, especially for small businesses working on a limited budget but looking for the best service. This plugin comes with several customizable templates that allow you to design your forms to your taste and needs. Users who enjoy a little bit of code can go for this plugin as it is developer-friendly. When you upgrade to premium versions, you are given add-ons such as discounts on other products, faster support, style, and layouts, among many other amazing features. Ninja Forms have proven to be a pocket-friendly option for users looking to customize their contact forms.
In conclusion, there are several plugins for WordPress that are important and beneficial. Here at Upward Digital Marketing, we specialize in building and designing beautiful WordPress sites for our customers. Our main focus is generating results so we will determine what plugins make the most sense for you and your business. Reach out to us to hear how we can help your business thrive today!
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Upward Digital Marketing Group is your professional website designer and SEO agency near Columbus, Ohio. We work with local small to medium-sized businesses to improve their online presence and conversions via effective web design, SEO, online ads, social media management, logo design, and more. Contact us today.
