Kim’s Website Design & Marketing
The 5 Plugins That Every WordPress Website Needs
Plugins are an essential part of any WordPress website due to the extra layer of functionality they add to these sites. Some plugins help improve the back-end functionalities like search engine optimisation, whereas some are meant to enhance the front-end look and performance of the site.
With over 50,000 plugins available in WordPress’ plugin directory, it might be challenging to know which ones you need at the start. In the next couple of paragraphs, I will share the top 5 plugins that will significantly enhance the functionality and performance of your website right after installing them. Let’s get into the list.
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Elementor (FREE or paid from $49 USD per year)
Elementor is one of the best page builders for WordPress sites. It is also the most popular page builder with over 5 million installations on WordPress. Its easy-to-use UI and a broad range of webpage elements are among the reasons why this plugin is so special. Fortunately, it is supported by most of the top-rated themes on WordPress.
Elementor also has a free version, which comes with a couple of useful features that you can use to get started creating basic pages for your new website.
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Yoast SEO (FREE or paid from $89 USD per year)
Organic traffic from search engines is the lifeline of any website that wants to sustainably get traffic without paying for direct Ads. If you are looking for a plugin to help you achieve that, Yoast SEO is the plugin you need. Yoast SEO will help you optimize your posts to boost their chances of ranking high in search engine results pages.
It is currently the most popular SEO plugin on WordPress with over 5 million installations. Yoast SEO works by offering users suggestions for improving their content to boost its performance in search engines. Some of its key features include keyword suggestions and suggestions of how to phrase your page title, meta description, and other content elements.
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WPForms (from $39.5 USD per year)
It is the most popular form creator on WordPress. It comes with drag and drop tools that you can use to create any form, including contact forms, feedback forms, subscription forms, payment forms, and many more in just minutes. With this plugin, you don’t have to hire a developer to create forms for your website.
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W3 Total Cache (from $99 USD)
This plugin enhances the speed of your website by caching the most requested data on the site. This makes it much faster to provide this data the next time a user requests it. Having a faster website will boost your SEO rating and can potentially increase your conversions. If you want to boost your website’s page loading times, this is one of the first plugins you should install.
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WooCommerce (free)
If you want to sell any products or services on your website, WooCommerce is the plugin you need. Some of the eCommerce features WooCommerce comes with include; templates for product listings, configuring shipping options, Sales analytics, and integration of over 100 payment platforms, including Stripe, PayPal, Square, AfterPay, ZipPay and many more. WooCommerce also allows you to customise these features to give your eCommerce store a unique look from the rest.
To get your WordPress website up in the looks, performance and functionality food chain, let us help! We can not only advise on plugins that may be suitable for your goals but advise you on whether plugins are even needed at all. Some WordPress websites can use very minimal plugins. Plugins do take up space and can sometimes cause conflicts resulting in errors on your website or changes in the performance of the website so having a balance and having only what is necessary is important. Also, plugin security is super important. Make sure to keep your plugins updated!
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From your friendly, local, website designer.
Kim – Kim’s Your Local Website Designer & Marketer