Creating a website for your business is only the first step in promoting yourself and attracting customers.
Since 71% of small businesses have a website, this is often the first step for everyone. But you don’t simply create a website and be done with it. A business website is a serious investment that requires website optimization. You’ll need to invest time and money to ensure the site is up and running.
But there’s an easy way to achieve this and that’s by downloading website plugins. Plugins are software additions that can customize certain aspects of your website. This way, you can make your business website your own without web development expertise.
What are the website plugins you need for your website? Here are our 8 recommendations.
1. Anti-Spam
Spam is everywhere, and you will find spambots in more places other than your email inbox. Yes, your website can get spammed. This often comes in the form of comments, where spambots will leave comments on your blog. At worst, they attach a link that can infect your computer with malware.
There are many spam-prevention methods out there, one of them is to download spam plugins. These plugins immediately recognize spam comments and will discard them. If you’re looking for anti-spam WordPress plugins, an example is Akismet.
2. SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is an integral yet affordable marketing strategy. SEO encompasses all strategies that will make your website appear at the top of search engine results. In order to make the SEO process easier, you can download various SEO plugins to ensure your content is easy to read, contains all of the right keywords, and finishes with expert linking strategies.
If you have WordPress, Yoast is the most famous example of an SEO plugin. But there are many different options available for all CMS platforms. You can find these plugins for free and available at various price points.
3. Sitemap
Back onto the SEO topic, the best way for Google bots to crawl your website is through your sitemap. When you submit your sitemap to Google, the bots can crawl your website quicker. But submitting your sitemap manually is challenging. That’s why you can download sitemap plugins.
Fortunately, Google offers its own plugin called Google XML Sitemaps. This plugin and similar ones will create a sitemap for you and will notify search engines of any changes in your website. You can find sitemap plugins compatible with all search engines, not just Google.
4. Website Load Speed
The average time it takes to load a website on desktop is 10 seconds and 27 seconds on mobile. If your website takes longer than this to load, you’ll lose visitors which will ultimately lead to fewer sales, compromised SEO results, and more.
How do you ensure your website loads quickly? There are various plugins available that help with website load speed, such as ones that delete temporary files.
5. Contact Forms
There’s a chance that your website visitors will need to contact your website. Don’t make them go an extra step in emailing you. Let them contact you directly through your website. How do you do this? There are plugins that will install a contact form on your website.
WPForms is the most famous contact form for WordPress. But there are a variety of contact form plugins that offer ready-made templates, customization, and more.
6. Image Compression
Images are an important part of any website. eCommerce business owners will want to include pictures of their products, bloggers will want to use images to make their content more engaging, and if you have a photography business, well this one is obvious.
But there are issues when uploading images on your website, such as slow website loading times. And compressing every individual image is very time-consuming. So, what do you do? Fortunately, there are a variety of image compression plugins that will immediately compress all pictures on your website. Smush for WordPress is the most common example.
7. Data Tracking
How do you know your marketing efforts are successful? What’s the easiest way to track website sales? Tracking data can answer these questions and more. But collecting and analyzing data has largely been done manually. While this is essential, manual data tracking is very tedious and time-consuming.
Instead, download data tracking plugins. There are various plugins that track specific data and others that give you a full insight into your website. For example, MonsterInsights is a plugin that attaches to Google Analytics where you track your website data, website visitor demographics, and more.
8. Email Marketing
Email marketing is a tactic that no business should ignore. 4 billion people use email daily, so you’re tapping into a huge market when you use email marketing. How do you start an email marketing strategy? Start by downloading email marketing plugins.
These plugins help you build an email list and send newsletters directly through the plugin. Constant Contact and Mailchimp are two examples of effective email marketing companies with plugins.
When Do You Need a Professional?
These plugins will help many aspects of your website, including marketing, safety, website loading, contact, data, and more. But there may be a time when you need a professional. For example, if your website is down, no plugin can help you. If this happens and you have a WordPress website, you’ll need WordPress expert help in order to get your website back up and running.
Other reasons to hire a professional are for website updates and maintenance, they can be there if you are away, and website support can also help your customers.
Download These Website Plugins Today
Business websites are integral. But creating a website is only the beginning. These website plugins can customize the unique features you need, help with marketing, data tracking, website safety, and they also make life easier for your website visitors.
There’s a plugin for practically everything, so this isn’t a complete list. In addition, every CMS platform has unique website plugins, so pay attention to the ones that your CMS platform offers. However, plugins are no alternative for an effective website support team.
Continue reading our blog for more business advice and more.
