Are you looking to start a new WordPress Website? Or maybe you already have a WordPress Website. There are so many plugins in the repository that allow for different functionality on your website. With that being said, how do you know which are the right ones to choose from? We have handpicked what we believe to be the best WordPress Plugins. These plugins should go on every one of your sites no matter what the purpose of your website is.
Let’s get started!
Google Analytics - This plugin definitely comes first in all WordPress Installs. It is very important to be able to track what's going on with your website. I mean how can you make adjustments if you don't know where to make those adjustments, right?
Google Analytics comes equipped with a dashboard that is on the main admin page of your site once logged into your backend. Your able to see most of the things that you can see when logged into your actual analytics account which is why it's really good. It has settings that allow you to see Real-Time Stats as well as select a date range and see what happened in those dates selected. From how many sessions to how many views you were able to get as well as the bounce rate.
Yoast SEO - With SEO being the most important part of any web build, you can only imagine how popular these plugins are within WordPress. Although there are a couple of different known SEO plugins, we feel personally that Yoast has done an outstanding job with what they have created. It’s a free plugin and does have an extended version (Paid) that offers a few more features. For getting basic SEO needs completed, the free version does well.
One thing that's helpful with this plugin is that it’s good for those who don’t know a lot about SEO. Yoast will tell you exactly what you need to do in order to get a ‘Green Light’ (Good SEO Score). Don’t worry if there are things that it asks you to do and your not sure how to accomplish them. Yoast has a link to their site to explain everything in more detail.
All-In-One Migration - The All-In-One Migration is definitely a must-have on a website. One of the main things that come in handy with this plugin is the option to backup your WordPress Website. We all know how important having a backup on your website can be, and this plugin makes it extremely simple to do just that.
Once installed you will have a new custom field on the admin bar back in your dashboard, hover over it and hit the export button. There are multiple options to export your site but the most common would be ‘File’. It will then export your site as well as the database into a ‘WPRESS’ File, in which you can later import this if need be.
WP Fastest Cache - This is also one of my favorite plugins as it ensures your visitors are getting the most up-to-date version of your site each time it's loaded up. This, of course, helps with your website speed making things load a lot faster each and every time.
It comes equipped with a toolbar on the top of your screen as well as a custom field on the left-hand side on the dashboard. From the dashboard select the field on the left side. You will be taken to a screen in which you can select to clear the cache from the entire site. You also have the option to clear any minified JS and CSS files.
Gravity Forms - Almost all websites have some type of form on them, rather it's just capturing emails or grabbing all contact info from your visitors. After using a few different ones some time ago, I’ve found Gravity Forms to be the best one. It has so many things you can do with it besides just creating a form.
If a cost calculator is something you may need on your site, then this could be your all in one solution. One great feature this plugin has is the ability to see every form submission. It has its own database that saves all your submissions to and you can then later go and review that information.
If you have multiple forms you can select the desired form and then review all submissions for that specific form. Have you ever needed an address field? There is an addon that allows the address to be pre-populated. The user won't be able to enter an incorrect address as its pre-populated by google.
Though there are plenty of Plugins that your site can have to add different functionality. These plugins tend to be on every site that we build, no matter what type of site it is.
Let us know what plugins you tend to use on all your websites!
