Having a website is great – and if you’re reading this post, we’re going to assume your website (or at least your blog) is on WordPress, which is even better!
So how can you make sure your awesome, beautifully-designed website is also user-friendly, protected and appealing to your visitors?
Enter: plugins.
If you’re using WordPress, you’ve most likely seen the area on the Dashboard called “Plugins”.
Plugins are SUPER important because they allow you to expand the functionality of your WordPress website.
Now, before you go plugin-crazy and add every plugin WordPress offers (but really, don’t do that because there are 50k+ plugins available and that could actually hurt your website more than help it!), we have created a list of the top 6 plugins that you should consider adding to your website.
1. Yoast SEO
This is the OG SEO plugin on WordPress. Created in 2008, Yoast gives you a toolkit that helps your site aim to win the top spot in terms of search results for viewers.
This is super important because no business wants to be on page 3,4,5 in search right?
Right.
This is where Yoast comes in.
Yoast will help you optimize your pages and posts for SEO by giving you specific ideas and recommendations for how to improve.
For example, it may tell you that your copy is too short or long, or that it isn’t the easiest to read.
It’s also a GREAT tool for customizing the meta title and description for each of your pages and posts! This is super important when it comes to how your pages and posts show up in searches.
The best part? It’s totally free!
Aka adding Yoast is a clear #winwin.
Related Blog Post: What is Alt Text and How Does it Impact Your Seo?
2. Leadpages
When you are running traffic to a course, webinar, or evergreen content, it is important that you give visitors the EXACT information they’re looking for, RIGHT when they need it.
It all comes down to sharing relevant content – which means sending a customer to your website’s homepage and leaving it up to them to find what they are looking for is not a great marketing strategy.
Cue: Landing pages.
Landing pages are a great way to provide clients information all in one place. We personally love and use Leadpages, because it connects with our email automation system, Drip and integrates incredibly well with WordPress. This is important so that you can still keep the “vanity URL” of your site.
For example, instead of having a landing page with “Leadpages” in the URL and whatever we named it inside of the builder, we can use this Leadpages plugin to make our landing page look like it’s built with every other page on our website (aka peteandjordan.com/landing-page-name-here). This is SO much better for branding and user experience!
See how to install the Leadpages plugin here.
While you can totally build landing pages within your own WordPress site, Leadpages is incredibly easy to use with it’s drag-and-drop builder, allows you to split-test (huge help for marketing strategies!), and is super easy to optimize for mobile.
Related Blog Post: The 23 Best Business Tools For Creative Entrepreneurs
3. Tracking Code Manager
We’re ALL about helping you make the most of your website – and the people who are visisting it.
Which means collecting the data and traffic so that you can analyze, retarget, and optimize your marketing strategies is super important!
From Facebook pixels to Google Analytics to Live Chat tools, the Tracking Code Manager plugin allows you to add and manage all of your tracking codes all in one place!
The Tracking Code Manager allows you to gather every single tracking code you wish to display on your website with the option of placing those codes on the entire site or only on specific pages.
What once seemed like a daunting task, is now made easy with this plugin!
The free version includes up to 6 spots – which is a great place to get started.
Related Blog Post: 4 Easy Ways to Add Your Facebook Pixel to Your Website
4. Jetpack
Jetpack is your “get it all in one place” WordPress plugin for those looking to make their lives a little easier.
Jetpack allows you to choose a theme, schedule social posts, protect your site, improve your site speed and so much more!
Google analytics support is also available on Jetpack. Jetpack offers statistics of their own but the advanced statistics that Google Analytics provides are a great compliment to those offered on Jetpack!
See how to enable Google Analytics on Jetpack here!
This plugin is great for those who are not very web creation/coding savvy, but need to make sure their website is protected, promoted and easy to navigate!
5. Askimet
Tired of getting spammed? We were too.
Spam hurts your sites credibility, but constantly staying on top of controlling it takes your time away from other business tasks.
Askimet controls around 7.5 million pieces of spam EVERY HOUR. Yes, you heard that right, every hour. That’s a whoooole lot of spam and that’s why they have become such a trusted plugin on WordPress!
Installing Askimet is your go-to option for reducing spam on your site.
6. Prettylinks
This one is probably a little less well-known, but it’s still one of our favorites!
Let’s be real: links can be super unattractive (maybe not yours – but definitely other website’s links!). This is especially true of affiliate and referral links. We know that sounds strange but really, think about it. Most of the time, these links include a ton of random numbers and symbols that make them a little sketchy to share, not to mention hard to remember.
Insert: Prettylinks
Prettylinks allows you to alter any link and make it, well, pretty.
See an example below of some of our affiliate links:
A lot *prettier* right?
Not only does it make our referral links branded and easier to share, but it also makes it WAY easier for us to remember what the link is!
No more digging into each partner or referral’s page to grab a link to share. We can store and find them all in our Prettylinks plugin. They’re also super easy to remember on their own (ex: peteandjordan.com/honeybook will share our 50% off code for your first year of Honeybook!)
Finding the Best Plugin for Your WordPress Site
It’s no secret that creating and managing a website can be an extremely tedious, time consuming part of your business – but it’s also completely necessary in today’s digital world.
As you can see, if you have a WordPress site, plugins make it easier to manage your website, allowing you to spend less time on the nitty gritty things and more time on actually RUNNING your business!
Now it’s your turn: What plugins do you have installed on your website? Are there any that we missed that you can’t live without?
LEAVE A COMMENT
Comments