WordPress is the most popular CMS (Content Management System) due to its ease-of-use, flexibility, and scalability; especially for entrepreneurs, aspiring bloggers, and businesses looking to expand online. But one feature of WordPress where it really stands out from other content management systems is the sheer availability of different Plugins. Some are well known, others are diamonds in the rough. Certainly, there are plenty that are more trouble than their worth. But by using Plugins selectively you can achieve better results more efficiently than without them.
Without further ado, here are 37 of the best WordPress plugins will want to consider for your business website:
The Yoast SEO plugin covers everything you need for on-page SEO. It helps you optimize ranking factors such as meta descriptions, breadcrumbs, page analysis, XML sitemaps, and so on.
SEOPressor takes on-page SEO to the next level. It is a premium plugin that handles advanced SEO factors such as rich snippets, automated internal linking, and in-depth page analysis.
Submitting your sitemap will help search engine “crawlers” with the indexation of your web pages. You can use the Simple Sitemap plugin to generate quickly an XML sitemap you can submit to Google webmaster tools.
This particular plugin helps you create a schema markup to improve the search engine visibility of video content.
Rank Reveal helps you by identifying all the keywords you’re currently ranking for—useful if you need to find low-hanging fruit keywords for a quick SEO boost.
Tags and categories help web crawlers identify and index related pages in your site. Term Management Tools offers you a faster way to merge and manage these categorizations.
Since the WordPress editor lacks a table feature, you’ll need the TablePress plugin to help you create organized tables without resorting to HTML.
Perfect for photography blogs—Envira Gallery helps you create a beautiful gallery to show off your images with optional special effects and design elements.
Display Widgets is a plugin that allows you to show or hide specific plugins in certain pages.
Disqus helps you get rid of the subpar, in-built commenting system on WordPress and replace it with something more comprehensive.
Other image slider plugins pale in comparison to Soliloquy, which offers a “lightbox” feature, interactive product sliders, and responsiveness.
Remember that forms are critical for the conversion process. You can take advantage of OptinMonster’s advanced features such as split testing forms, page-level targeting, and popup forms for exiting users.
You can replace WordPress’s clunky monthly archive feature with Compact Archives, which helps you organize and manage your archives in a compact content box.
While a lot of plugins focus on design elements above the fold, Footer Putter focuses on placing great-looking content in your site’s footer.
If you want a professional-looking, full-screen slider for your site, then you need this plugin to help you build it.
The WP Review plugin helps you create product reviews with star ratings, percentages, custom scales (quality, performance, etc.), and color schemes.
Blogging is a great way to build your reputation as an information provider. You can improve this effect by using Starbox to show an author box in your content and “humanize” your site.
WPForms is an alternative to OptinMonster that features a drag-and-drop builder. It’s slightly more user-friendly than OptinMonster and comes with a free version.
Although most WordPress themes offer responsive design, none of them makes full use of mobile devices’ touch interface. WPTouch helps you maximize the user experience of mobile users by building a fully customized mobile version of your site.
A form builder that specializes in creating contact forms. Contact Form Clean and Simple offers captcha, Akismet spam filtering, custom fields, and mobile optimization for your forms.
Types is a powerful custom fields and post types management plugin. It affects not only your blog content but your user profiles as well.
Edit Flow improves the collaboration of your editorial team with tools like a calendar, workflow statuses, user groups, notifications, and private discussions.
To protect your WordPress accounts, you can use the Login Lockdown plugin to stop brute login attempts by hackers. It also logs the IP addresses of the perpetrators to help you address the security issue (or unblock an IP address in case of accidental lockdowns).
The Editorial Calendar plugin allows your team to plan content or delegate blog-management tasks using a visual interface.
Creating remote backups enable you to recover quickly from any possible security breach. BackupBuddy automates this process to make sure your site data is always protected.
Better WP Security—now known as iThemes Security—is by far the most popular security plugin for WordPress. Its comprehensive platform includes two-factor authentication, scheduled malware scans, user action logging, and online file validation.
Wordfence protects your site with a Web Application Firewall, real-time security monitoring, and additional login security features.
All In One WP Security and Firewall is a great alternative to the other security plugins mentioned. It is frequently updated and has got you covered from WP user account security to backups.
This plugin allows you to create a neat social sharing bar that “floats” over on-page content for maximum visibility.
A much quicker way to add social sharing buttons is to use the Social Share Button plugin. You simply need to install the plugin and it will be rolled out automatically to all your posts.
To save time in your content promotion efforts, you can use Social Networks Auto-Poster to automatically share your blog content on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and a host of other social networks.
Pinterest Pin It Button is different from a standard social sharing plugin because it allows users to pin directly images—perfect for blog posts that are centered on a featured image.
WooCommerce is perhaps the only e-commerce plugin you need for your WordPress site. It helps you with everything from payment options to online store themes that will help you close more sales.
The WordPress Calls to Action plugin allows you to create quick CTA buttons to help you generate more leads and build a large following for your WordPress site.
Google Analytics is a must-have for any online marketer. It helps by keeping track of your web traffic, bounce rate, and a bunch of other metrics you need to gauge the effectiveness of your current strategy.
Speed is an essential factor that boosts user experience and increases the conversion rate of your visitors. That’s why you need plugins like WP Super Cache to speed up your site's loading speed with static HTML.
Speed can become an issue for websites that utilize a lot of images. With WP Smush, you can quickly compress all your images without compromising quality to save bandwidth and make your site load faster.
Do you have everything you need for your WordPress site? There are tons more available in WordPress’s official repository as well as third-party resources. Be sure to dig deep and find the best ones that fit your business blog’s needs.
Thanks to Christopher Jan Benitez for sharing their advice and opinions in this post. Christopher Jan Benitez is a professional content marketer and writer. He has helped small businesses achieve their goals by implementing a strong content strategy that emphasizes their unique selling points and promoting created content using effective online channels and methods, in particular social media marketing and search engine optimization techniques.
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