Are you ready to start adding plugins to your WordPress site? One of the main selling points of using WordPress for the creation of a website is the ability to easily tailor the site to your business needs through the use of WordPress plugins. There are thousands of WordPress plugins, designed by professional web developers and independent coders.
There are three pricing categories:
- Free (completely free)
- Free with optional paid add-ons
- Premium (requires a fee)
Based on the overall needs of your business and the features that you want to add to your WordPress site, I can help you determine which plugins will work best for you and your business. Below, you will find what I refer to as my beginner “recipe” for building a WordPress site. While every business has different needs, the following are a good starting point; and as we come to understand your individual goals – we can adjust the ingredients.
The Best WordPress Plugins
- WordFence
- MainWP
- Google Analyticator
- Gravity Forms
- WP SVG Icons
- Widget Manager
- Shortcodes Ultimate
- WP Super Cache
WordFence Security
The security of your website is important, whether your website will be handling sensitive information or not. This is where WordFence Security becomes useful. It is a quality security plugin with additional features that can help speed up your site. WordFence will scan your entire website for any signs of malicious attacks or viruses. It also provides real-time protection against attackers, so that you get the peace of mind that comes with knowing that your website is thoroughly protected. In addition to security, WordFence includes Falcon Engine – which caches your WordPress site in order to deliver static webpages to your visitors, speeding the performance of your website.
MainWP
If you are going to have multiple WordPress sites, either for different branches within your company or for promoting various products or services, then having a plugin that allows easy multi-site management is a must. MainWP allows you to manage all your WordPress sites from a single dashboard. Handle theme and plugin updates, user management, content creation, and other WordPress features without having to login into different WordPress accounts.
Google Analyticator
Google Analytics is one of the most used analytical platforms for tracking visits to your website and the behavior of your visitors. With Google Analyticator, all of your stats can be accessed directly from your WordPress dashboard. It also allows you to automatically insert the necessary Google Analytics tracking code in all your pages and new posts.
Gravity Forms
How are your clients or customers going to contact you? Every website needs a contact form and Gravity Forms makes it simple to add them to any post or page on your site. It integrates with a large number of different WordPress plugins and has an easy to understand user interface.
WP SVG Icons
One of the biggest drains on website performance is the use of images. Unlike standard image files, SVG files contain a series of points that are read by a web browser to create a scalable image that does not degrade in quality when resizing. WP SVG Icons provides over 400 icons that you can safely without any worry of slowing down your website. Use the included icons or upload your own custom icons. Icons can be used as navigational buttons or to help provide more interest to a bland page or post.
Widget Manager
A major part of designing the layout of a WordPress site is the use of widgets. The WordPress theme that you have installed will determine where and how you can use widgets on your site. By adding Widget Manager, you have more control over how your widgets are used and which pages they appear on. Quickly remove specific widgets from a page or post or add a widget to an individual page.
Shortcodes Ultimate
Shortcodes are small lines of text contained inside brackets that let you instantly add one of your installed WordPress features to a specific part of a page or post. For example, with a shortcode, you can instantly add a pre-built contact form to a page. Shortcodes Ultimate provides you with an additional set of shortcodes to make the process of adding buttons, sliders, videos, or other features to any part of your WordPress website.
WP Super Cache
When adding an abundance of plugins to your WordPress website, you run the risk of slowing down your website. Part of the reason for this decrease in speed is the fact that every time a visitor goes to a new page, WordPress creates a dynamic webpage by gathering information from the website, the specific page the user is visiting, and all of the plugins and widgets that appear on the page. WP Super Cache can eliminate this problem by delivering a static HTML version of the page. WP Super Cache will cache all of your WordPress pages and create static HTML pages from them, for faster page loading times and a better user experience for your visitors.
By utilizing these plugins, you can get a lot more out of your WordPress site, without needing to shell out big bucks on expensive plugins. The majority of the plugins discussed are free to use, with premium upgrades for additional features; and they are some of the most useful WordPress plugins; though, each website is different. Working together, we can go over all of your business needs and goals to come to an understanding about what you want to get out of your website. Based on your criteria, we can come up with the perfect recipe for a spectacular WordPress website to showcase your business and start increasing your online presence.