10 of the best WordPress plugins your site needs

WordPress is a great tool for creating an SEO friendly website that will increase your site’s visibility. Plus, with an incredibly user friendly interface, people of all skills can create a professional website. However, if you really want to get the most out of WordPress, there are tons of optional plugins that you can download to enhance your website even more.

Whether you want to upload content or create your very own eCommerce shop, there are WordPress plugins for every need. Here are 10 of the best plugins that you can use to elevate your WordPress site.

Akismet

Akismet is the most popular WordPress anti-spam tool that will automatically block spam comments from your site. It filters your comments and contact form submissions so that you can keep your blog running smoothly and looking professional. This plugin is also great for security, as it will prevent suspicious malware from being posted via your site.

Akismet is easy to install and can be used straight away to keep those pesky spam comments far away from your website. Like anything, the software isn’t 100% accurate, but it’s definitely easier than sorting through spam manually.

Elementor

The landing page is the first part of your website that visitors will see, so it’s paramount that it looks professional for a great first impression. Not everyone has the web expertise to create a beautiful custom page – this is where plugins like Elementor come in handy. With a library containing lots of free templates, Elementor is a great starting point for website building.

Elementor also has a WYSIWYG interface – the acronym stands for ‘What You See Is What You Get’. This interface allows website creators to see the webpage the same way that it’ll appear once it is live. Creators can drag-and-drop different features onto the page, such as text, images, links and more. Not to mention, there’s absolutely no coding necessary!

HubSpot

The HubSpot WordPress plugin prides itself on being a marketing focused plugin that’s easy to use and allows websites to utilise automation for maximum organisation. When a user fills in a contact form or sends a live chat on your website, the plugin sends them an automated email to acknowledge that their query has been sent. HubSpot also helps you create custom newsletters from over 20 pre-designed templates, and will send them out to your contact database.

As well as its handy automation features, HubSpot includes analytics tools to see how well different components of your site are performing.

Jetpack

If you don’t want to overwhelm your WordPress dashboard with loads of plugins, then Jetpack’s multipurpose plugin might be the way to go. Providing options for site analytics, spam filtering, malware scanning, and login security to name a few, Jetpack is a good all-rounder for help with security, design, and marketing.

Jetpack is also developed by Automattic – the same team behind WordPress – so it’s incredibly well made and guaranteed to work flawlessly with your WordPress site.

PushEngage

PushEngage allows you to send push notifications to visitors of your site. You might find push notifications a bit of a hindrance in your daily life, but from a business perspective, they’re an effective way to increase your website traffic.

Crucially for eCommerce websites, PushEngage gives you the option to send automatic push notifications for price drops or cart abandonment notifications. This is a surefire way to drive sales and engagement by reminding users to pick up where they left off. The plugin also sends out notifications for new blog posts, so that loyal customers can access new content straight away.

SearchWP

If your website is full of fabulous content, you’ll want an easy way for visitors to find what they’re looking for. SearchWP lets you create custom search engines with no coding necessary. You can also view your site’s search metrics to see what people are searching for and how easily they’re finding their desired content. You can even adjust the algorithm of the search function by choosing which results are more relevant to each search entry. For example, if someone searches ‘marketing’ on your website, you could adjust whether content for ‘digital marketing’ or ‘content marketing’ appeared higher on the search results, depending on what you wish to prioritise.

As well as this, SearchWP lets you index your posts by keywords, content type, or description, which is what makes the search functions so effective. You can even create multiple search engines, e.g., one for products and one for information.

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is one of the most popular plugins for eCommerce websites, and for good reason. This handy addition to your WordPress site can completely transform it into an online store, allowing you to sell virtually anything online. The plugin allows you to display multiple product images, set currencies, and have product reviews and ratings.

WooCommerce lets you accept major credit cards and has Paypal compatibility for quick and easy payments. If you’re setting up an eCommerce site, this is one plugin that you need to download.

WP Rocket

No one likes waiting for webpages to load, and a slow website can be really frustrating for customers and drive them away from your site. To keep your website running quickly and efficiently, WP Rocket uses several methods to optimise your website’s loading speeds, such as minification, lazy loading images, and preloaded content. If you don’t understand this terminology, don’t worry – WP Rocket works automatically to optimise your website, so there’s basically no work needed.

WPForms

Contact forms are important as they provide a secure way for users of your website to provide feedback or request more information about your services. If you want a website that’s interactive and provides a great user experience, a contact form plugin is a great place to start.

WPForms is one of the more advanced contact form plugins, that has over 300 pre-built templates for any form you could possibly think of. From polls and surveys to job application forms, this plugin is both dynamic and customisable. It’s also incredibly easy to use, featuring a drag-and-drop system for building your custom forms. Once you’ve created your form, it’s easy to embed into your page either using a shortcode or the included WordPress block formatting.

Yoast SEO

A firm favourite here at TAL Agency, Yoast SEO is the most popular WordPress plugin of all time. Like it says in the name, this plugin is incredible for SEO as it contains an array of features that will optimise your content for search engines. You can add meta descriptions, edit your slug, optimise keywords, and even analyse the readability of your blog post from an SEO standpoint. These are all small additions that will help you to rank higher on Google and in turn increase your website’s visibility and traffic.

Yoast SEO also works to prevent dead links on your page, as it keeps up to date with any new content that you upload to avoid pesky error messages. It also makes internal linking easy, providing link suggestions or even ready made blocks.

All of our teams have experience using WordPress, from content marketing to web design and development. If you’d rather let us handle the ins and outs of your website, get in touch with us for top quality digital marketing services.

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