One of the great things about using WordPress to build your website is the available customization options. You can not only customize your website quickly with a new theme but you can add in some great features easily with new plugins. There are thousands of free WordPress plugins available, each of which can add some new features to your site. However, some of these plugins are more useful than others. To build the best WordPress site possible, make sure you have the following essential plugins installed.
A SEO Plugin
The first type of essential plugin you need is an SEO plugin. An SEO plugin allows you to take more control over the elements of your site that impact your search engine rankings. With an SEO plugin, you can change things such as the title tags and meta description for each page, which will hopefully increase your traffic from search engines.
While there are many SEO plugins available, one of the best is called All in One SEO. This plugin is free to use and adds practically every SEO feature you could want to your WordPress site. Even better, it’s easy to use, so you can get started even if you don’t have a lot of search engine optimization experience.
A Contact Form Plugin
Most websites want to provide an easy way for their visitors to contact them. Rather than listing a contact address or phone number on your site, you can provide your visitors with a contact form that sends their message directly to your email account. This helps you avoid spam emails and can keep your inbox a little more organized.
WordPress offers a way to add forms to your website, but they are somewhat limited. To produce a better contact form you’ll want a plugin like WPForms. This plugin provides you with plenty of configuration settings so that you can determine exactly what the contact form looks like, how it operates, and what the emails look like when they reach your inbox. If you plan on having a lot of people contacting you, it’s essential to have a good contact form, so be sure to explore this plugin.
A Help Desk Plugin
Another commonly desired feature is a support feature. Website owners want an efficient way to provide support to their customers in a timely manner. For this, you’ll want a WordPress support plugin. A WordPress support plugin can take on several forms, each of which will add support features to your website, depending on what you need.
For example, you may opt for a support plugin that allows visitors to submit a support request ticket. Another option is a live chat feature, in which your customers can instantly connect and chat with your support team. Think about the best ways to support your customers, then look for a WordPress plugin that provides this feature. Chances are you’ll find plenty of plugin options to fit your needs.
A Payment Processing and Recovery
If you plan on selling things through your WordPress website, you’ll want a way to process payments. Using an eCommerce or shopping cart plugin will allow users to add items to a shopping cart and complete the transaction using a credit card or online payment service. Some popular options for payment processing plugins include WooCommerce and Stripe.
Another thing to consider is using a payment recovery plugin. Too many businesses lose out on sales because of a failed payment. Maybe the customer typed incorrect credit card information or didn’t have enough funds on their card. With a failed payment recovery plugin, you can gain back some of these sales and complete the transaction you worked so hard for. The payment process is one of the most important things for any eCommerce website to think about, so be sure you have the right tools on your site.
A Social Media Integration Plugin
Most websites these days rely on social media to drive traffic and increase brand awareness. If you have social media channels for your website, it’s important that you integrate them for maximum efficiency. A good social media integration plugin will provide you with a few benefits.
First, it can automatically post updates to your social channels, such as your latest blog posts. Another advantage is allowing customers to share their recent purchases on their social channels, which can increase your brand reach. Finally, with social media integration, you can display your latest posts on your website and encourage more people to follow your social channels. This can help increase your social following and encourage brand loyalty.
A Membership Plugin
If you plan on having a membership feature on your website, such as a section that’s only available for paid subscribers, then you’ll want a plugin that can help you with this. Trying to create this type of service on your own requires a lot of programming knowledge, work, and time. You can avoid all this by making use of a simple plugin.
Some popular options for membership plugins include MemberPress and LearnDash. When exploring possible options, consider what type of membership you are offering and how you want it to operate. It’s also a good idea to look at plugins that have a free trial so you can test them out before releasing them to your customers.
A Security Plugin
Finally, it’s important to keep your WordPress site safe. There are numerous plugins available that can protect your site from unwanted intrusions. WordPress safety plugins will protect you against other people logging into your website, stealing your customer information, or spamming your comments. Having a good security setup is essential if you want to protect both your business and its customers.
Make Use of WordPress Plugins
WordPress plugins exist to make your life easier. With most of them, you can install them in a matter of minutes and have them running after just a few steps. This makes it easy to try out new plugins and see which ones work best for you. Hopefully, this guide was able to suggest some good plugins to get you started and you’ll be able to take your WordPress website to the next level.
However, if those WordPress plugins seem to not meet your requirements, you might need a more advanced solution than a CMS, such as a Digital Experience Platform. An example of a DXP tool is Liferay. You can read this Liferay tutorial to know more about it.
