Plugins are one of the many things that make WordPress great, that’s why it’s important that you leverage these additional assets as best you can. To help you in that regard we have collected these 7 Must have WordPress Plugins for Web Creators.
Yoast
If you want to rank on google the first plugin you should install is Yoast. In fact, even if that isn’t your main goal I still highly recommend you install Yoast. It gives you tips for producing SEO friendly content right on the WordPress editor. If you forget an h1 tag, it will tell you. If you missed your meta-description, it will tell you. It’s basically dummy proof and its an essential tool that I use personally on a daily basis.
My favorite feature is the keyword tool. Just plop in the keyword you’re focusing on for a given page or article, and it spits out recommendations. It also splits these suggestions up into “Problems” and “Improvements” to display the level of importance for each suggestion. When I’m in a hurry, or if an article isn’t very high volume, I’ll just focus on the “Problems” section when optimizing my articles and it saves a good amount of time without sacrificing SEO.
For most, I won’t need to explain the importance of Yoast, but those of you who still don’t have it. Seriously, go install it. I promise it doesn’t bite.
Updraft Plus
I hope that you never have to deal with a website being hacked, or data being corrupted, but the truth is stuff happens sometimes. The only thing we can do is be prepared. That’s why its extremely important that you back up your website. Lucky for us, there are plenty of tools and plugins out there to help make that as simple as possible. Updraft Plus is my favorite backup plugin for a number of reasons. The main reason is convenience. It only takes a few clicks to set up and you can have backups sent to any of the major cloud providers like google drive, Dropbox, and Amazon.
It’s also never failed me and has tons of great reviews. The last thing you want is for your site to go down unexpectedly, only to find out that your backup plugin failed to save your data.
The options in Updraft let you set up different levels of backup on an automatic timer. You can only backup your database if you want to save storage space, or you can back up your database and content if you don’t mind a bit more space being used. Whenever I create a new site I create a schedule that backs up my database daily and my posts/content weekly. This keeps my site safe, and on the rare occasions that something has gone wrong, Updraft has always pulled through.
Autoptimize
Optimization of your WordPress site is extremely important. Google pays close attention to page load times on both desktop and mobile when determining search engine position. If your site takes longer than three seconds to load than you will rank worse than those sites that load quicker. Load times can also be affected by what host you use, so make sure to use the fastest host available that still provides all the services you need. Siteground is the fastest hosting service that I’m currently aware of, but make sure to compare all available hosts to find the one that fits you best.
Autoptimize is a really easy way to lower load times. It compresses CSS, Javascript, and helps stop “render blocking” which is when a file stalls loading of a webpage. Not only does it compress these files automatically, but it also allows you to defer the loading of less important functionality for those with a bit of development experience.
It’s one of the few plugins that, not only helps less experienced users get the most out of their site but also allows developers to further optimize their pages if they so choose.
Thrive Editor
Thrive is one of the most robust front end editing tools available for WordPress. It streamlines the process of creating a good looking front end without the need for coding. Even I, as a professional front end developer, will often use the Thrive editor instead of making direct changes to my site’s code. It’s just easier, and it does a great job of allowing you to carry over designs from page to page. If you make a super nice page layout, you can easily save it as a template and use it in the future without the need to recreate it.
Props to the developers of this plugin for their user interface. It’s one of the easiest to use tools I’ve ever encountered, and it’s simple drag and drop mechanics mean even the most inexperienced of users can produce professional grade designs.
Not to mention, if you don’t have the time to create a page from scratch, they have a library of pre-created templates for you to use.
Amazon Link Engine
Now, this plugin is for anyone who runs an affiliate site, or those who want to add a little bit of extra revenue to their blog. After a quick setup, this plugin automatically replaces all amazon links on your site, with affiliate links. Removing the need to manually add and replace links found around your site.
It’s easy to set up, and if you already have your Amazon affiliate account set up it might be worth checking out.
Woo Commerce
Woo Commerce is essential for e-commerce sites. It a great platform but its a little bit intimidating at first. It’s a very complicated tool, there is no way around that, but it’s for that very reason that it’s so powerful.
Its popularity means there are tons of resources out there for learning how it works. A quick google search and you’ll be greeted with a plethora of videos and articles that cover all sorts of functionality.
WPForms
Having a proper contact form on your WordPress site is a good way to get feedback from users, but it also helps to give visitors a professional feel. Nothing screams “Red Flag” like a site with no contact method unless it’s an extremely well-known brand. People are less likely to bounce off your site if you include a contact form.
That being said, if you don’t know how to write PHP creating a contact form can be difficult without help. That’s where WPForms comes in to play. It allows you to create any type of form you like within it’s easy to use system. Integration is as simple as copy and pasting.
Conclusion
Any of these plugins on their own could change the way your site operates, but together they really help solidify all of the peripheral things that most people end up ignoring. From site speed, to SEO we covered just about every major plugin category.
We hope this article helped, have a wonderful day 🙂