A blog post republished today by Elegant Themes reminded me that this is a topic I’ve been meaning to write about for awhile. Their post entitled “The Essential Plugins for WordPress Business Websites“, posted July 24, 2015, offers a great start. I recommend you read it first and find the links to the websites. There are hundreds of plugins available to you and many are free. But, It is helpful to hear from the experts what they have tried and trust. I downloaded several of these via the article that I thought would be useful to try out. Here is the ET recommended list with my notes attached. (Not all of these are free.)
- SEO by Yoast. Yoast has been trouble for Divi users lately. I recommend All In One SEO.
- Speed: WP Rocket. This would be worth trying if you notice your site loads slowly. First make sure all your images are optimized, meaning small enough for the web at 72 dpi.
- Social Media: Monarch Social Media Sharing. This adds buttons for people to share your content. I find them messy, but great for the right business.
- Page Builder: I use Elegant Themes builder theme, DIVI by Elegant Themes.
- Security: IThemes Security Pro. I use Sucuri and WordFence also recommended by ET.
- Backup: VaultPress. Use this if you don’t use my service, Manage WP.
- List Building: Bloom Email. Worth looking at.
- Email Newsletter: MyMail. Also try Mail Poet.
- Contact Forms: Contact Form 7. Very popular. The one I use is Caldera Form Builder. The one that comes with Divi Theme is good for light use. Sometimes the forms are blocked by the server in which case you add on Send Grid.
- Live Chat: Pure Chat. Would love to add this to someones website. Are you game?
- First Impressions: Video Intro. Worth looking at.
- Maintenance Mode: Anticipate. While your site is under construction. Worth looking at.
- Broken Links: Redirection. I’m going to try this.
- Editorial Calendar: CoSchedule. Preschedule your posts. Lots of great marketing tips on their email letter.
- Boost Conversions: WordPress Calls to Action. I’m going to try this. Will let you know.
But, don’t get too excited and import all of these plugins at once! I generally like to keep my sites lean. Too many plugins can cause conflicts in your design. I have experienced seemingly impossible problems caused by a plugin. Best practice is to update your plugins and themes when called for and remove the ones you no longer use after turning them off.