Dealing with the tech behind websites can feel more than a little daunting, can’t it?
Don’t worry! There are many useful tools you can use without writing code…
Here’s my simple guide to some of the best plugins to make your life easier when it comes to managing your site.
What is a plugin?
A plugin is a piece of software that integrates with your website, adding new features or enhancing its operation.
Plugins help to create and operate all sorts of websites, from blogs and directories to online shops and portfolios of work.
WordPress is a versatile web operating system that has more than 60,000 plugins to download.
That helps you create a website truly tailored to your business needs.
How can plugins on your WordPress website help your business get organised and grow?
Here are the top ten of the most useful WordPress plugins and how they can help your business:
- OptinMonster – This hugely useful plugin turns website visitors into newsletter subscribers and, ultimately, customers. It also helps you recover abandoned cart sales. This is one of the key ways businesses can nurture leads. Attractive customised opt-in forms with targeted, personalised messages are created to grab attention when someone clicks out of a cart or on or off a page, for example.
- MemberPress – Create a community of members and subscribers with the help of this plugin. Ideal for bloggers, paid forum owners, and course content creators. This plugin allows you to create subscriptions and restrict content. It links to all the popular payment options.
- Constant Contact – This helps businesses to build an email list and is great for non-tech users! The plugin allows you to create eye-catching newsletters to reach potential customers after they’ve left your website.
- Pretty Links Pro – Such a useful plugin for affiliate marketers, podcasters, and business owners. It helps automate your affiliate marketing strategy. This plugin adds affiliate links to your blog posts or podcast transcripts automatically, it creates QR codes, and it allows split testing.
- WP Rocket – This plugin helps speed up the performance of your site without you having to have advanced technical skills. It turns on the recommended cache settings and has optional features that improve page loading speeds. That way, you lose fewer site visitors.
- SearchWP – This is an advanced search plugin that helps your users navigate smoothly around your website. It indexes everything and allows you to give things relevance. Fewer frustrated website visitors = fewer lost potential customers.
- Uncanny Automator – This gets all your plugins to work together and talk to each other without you having to write code. It allows you to automate routine tasks to save your time and money. It works with more than 160 of the most popular WordPress plugins and is based on simple ‘triggers’.
- RafflePress – This is an efficient giveaway builder to help you build your online community and grab some attention. It gives website visitors incentives to follow your social media accounts and share your content, and signs them up to your newsletter.
- Sucuri – This is an advanced security plugin to help monitor the site and defend against denial-of-service attacks, malware, and spam comments. It creates an effective firewall for your website and helps to speed up your site.
- Yoast – The most popular WordPress plugin helps to get your website content found by search engines like Google and Bing. It allows you to set relevant keywords and measure your content’s effectiveness for search engine optimisation. Yoast ensures your keywords are in key places like the online page description, blog title, and image alt text. It’s a key plugin we recommend to all our website owners.