With WordPress, there’s a plugin for everything. And even some of the ones that carry out most complex functions are free of cost and easy to install.
Unfortunately, with over 40,000 plugins to choose from, though, it can get quite overwhelming. I’m here to lift the fog with this list of some of the most useful and best-performing plugins you’ll need to amplify your marketing efforts.
1. SEOPressor
SEOPressor performs similar functions to Yoast SEO but comes as a premium paid offer. It actually also has more features than the basic Yoast SEO provides and allows usability across multiple websites with the premium package.
This plugin gives you the ability to optimize your web content for a total of three keywords where Yoast only allows one. This improves your chances of being discovered in a search.
The key functions include overall reports for your website geared towards helping you gauge how successful your SEO efforts are. This plugin also helps you identify and resolve broken links and manage the way your link structure is set up. The foremost function of an SEO plugin is to ensure readability so that your site can be ranked well, and SEOPressor does that for you as well and more.
You will also be able to view the statistics for semantic IQ, keyword density, and readability, which you can then use to improve or tweak your content.
2. Bloom
Bloom is a free plugin that makes building an email list a breeze with its various opt-in form designs and templates.
You can customize the exact moment the form appears by either setting the amount of time elapsed or based on when viewers get to a particular location on the page. You can further customize when it will appear based on post types or categories and even use this plugin with other services built for email marketing to fine tune them.
3. Monarch
Monarch allows you to share social media buttons in five different positions on your page. This will allow your readers to share information to any of those popular social media sites, expanding your reach and boosting your chances of conversion.
You will have access to buttons for over 20 social media networks, a choice of automatic triggers which will determine when buttons should be displayed, and also get detailed reports on the performance of these social media platforms to use in the streamlining of your marketing strategy.
4. Inline Related Posts
The Inline Related Posts plugin seeks to maximize the time an interested visitor will spend on your site by strategically positioning related content in boxes right within the content visitors are currently perusing. This piques interest and lets them realize that what they are looking for is right there on your site. Inline Related Posts achieve this through its more than 20 designs and the customizable multiple or single post boxes. This genius plugin increases the chances of conversion for you.
5. Leadin
Leadin is free and gives you valuable insight into who your individual site visitors are, tracks their activity, and helps you to determine the social media sources which are most profitable for you.
This plugin comes with its own opt-in form. Therefore, you would not need to use, for example, Bloom along with Leadin, as it would become redundant.
Once your visitors convert, this plugin will add them to your existing contact list and create a unique profile for them, which will help you to keep abreast of their pattern of visits to your page.
6. Askimet
Askimet is an essential plugin because spammers abound. If you have a blog component to your website, chances are that you may have been plagued with or affected by spam comments in the past. Askimet goes to work by filtering out and discarding any comments and links identified as spam to allow greater control over the type of comments displayed on your blog.
In the event that spammy comments do get past Askimet, you can mark those as spam. Askimet learns from this, reviewing similar comments more stringently.
7. W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache optimizes the way your website performs by improving the rates at which downloads occur, boosting the speed of the server, and allowing integration with content delivery networks. For site visitors to have a seamless experience when they visit your site, this plugin is a great option.
8. Wordfence
Wordfence does just what its name suggests: It builds a protective “fence” around your content. Just as fences keep unwanted elements out, Wordfence protects your site from hackers.
It would definitely fly in the face of all your hard work and marketing efforts to have your website hijacked by hackers and infiltrated by malware. More than just wasted time and money, the effect on your site ranking could be crippling and it could take quite some time to recover your rankings on Google. This plugin comes highly rated and provides immediate scanning for your site after installation to detect breaches of security.
It continues to work hard for you by offering secure logins, continuous security scanning, a firewall, blocking capabilities, caching, and the flexibility to use it on multiple sites. With Wordfence acting as the “site police” in your behalf, security is one less concern you have to worry about.
9. Pretty Link
Particularly beneficial for marketers with affiliate links on their websites, Pretty Link allows for the creation of “pretty” or reputable looking links which will allow site visitors not to have pause when they are encouraged to click on a URL.
As an example, would you feel better about clicking on a link which looked like this – http://www.llfngitd9944900//##ngngoojornur996?pla<klmno> or this – http://www.prettylink/safeclick? Get the point? It allows you to shrink or reduce the length of the link by adding your web domain name.
This plugin further enables you the convenience of creating these ‘pretty links’ right from your website without having to use external services. Pretty Link also equips you with the ability to track links hits via its dashboard. Of course, there are many other applications to use this plugin other than for affiliate links.
10. Table Maker
Tables enable statistics and information to be conveniently arranged and compared. For marketers, using tables on their sites, this plugin assists greatly when several items need to be compared and contrasted to highlight obvious pros and cons and other elements rather than a sole lengthy text article.
Table Maker gives the marketer flexibility to create different types of tables with extremely broad functionality. Some of the capabilities of this plugin include the ability to include icons, import and export tables, use of images, utilization of short codes to embed tables within an article, inclusion of subheadings if required, and so many other features, all in an efficient and simple design for easy interpretation of the information.
This list of must haves is by no means exhaustive since there are over 40, 000 plugins to cater to any and every function you require of your website. With all of these plugins, there is no need to have more than one plugin performing similar functions. That is superfluous and can lead to problems, so choose plugins that provide the best array of functions.
The plugins I listed here should be near the top of your list, providing some essentials which should be at every online marketer needs.