WordPress powers some of the most notable users and fortune 500 companies like TechCrunch, SONY Music, PlayStation Blog, and Microsoft News. Since the internet nowadays sees an incredible traffic rate, there's a definite need to stand out from the competition. WordPress allows you to customize your site quickly and stick out above the rest, even if you're less tech-savvy.

This simplified full customization is made possible by plug-ins, a piece of software containing a set of functions that you can add to design your WordPress website. It's easier to add new features and extend functionality to your site, and you don't need coding knowledge.

What Are Plug-Ins and Why Do They Matter?

In essence, WordPress plug-ins are your site's building blocks. They add crucial functions to your site to help you achieve your goal, whether you want to improve SEO, add contact forms, secure your blog, speed up your website, create an online store, grow your email list, offer email opt-ins, or schedule automatic backups.

WordPress plug-ins are designed to enable developers to write or add their code to customize the website. Furthermore, they come with robust filters and hooks which allow them to modify your site's current functionality or add something new.

Notably, you have many options when looking for something to customize your website and achieve the most significant returns. For this reason, it's essential to know the best plug-ins to deploy to your site to grow your online business and achieve your goals.

Game-Changer Plug-Ins to Enhance Your WordPress Website

You're probably aware of the numerous WordPress plug-ins from the system software developer and third-party developers. Obviously, you can't' (or shouldn't) use them all, but only focus on those that are worth your time. Your overall goals will determine the most suitable plug-ins for your WordPress site. However, several of them stand out and apply to pretty much every type of website. Let's explore

WordPress SEO by Yoast

This is arguably the most recommended WordPress SEO plug-in and for a good reason. WordPress SEO by Yoast optimizes your site for search and comprises a built-in content analysis capability for content optimization. The plug-in generates XML sitemaps and updates automatically to publish new content.

WooCommerce

This is a must-have if you wish to sell services or products on your WordPress site. Once installed, your blog will become a fully functional online store.

‍WooCommerce offers virtually unlimited customization, allowing you to sell stuff, show ratings and reviews, include filtering and sorting functions, enable tired pricing and subscriptions, set currencies, and much more. Best of all, its core functionality is free.

nRelate

One way to keep your audience reading your content is to display related posts, which is what nRelate does. The highly customizable plug-in lets you adjust features like how many posts to show, thumbnail size, relevancy level, and categories to include. Optional plug-ins include nRelate Flyout and nRelate Most Popular.

Jetpack

This is a collection of incredible tools and capabilities to supercharge your WordPress site. Jetpack is a brainchild of Automatic, the WordPress team, and offers the capabilities of several plug-ins. Its features let you run your site smoothly, allowing you to add contact forms, share buttons, email subscription forms, CDN services, and many other services.

WPForms

A popular form builder for WordPress sites, WPForms is a beginner-friendly resource to help you include forms on your site. You'll use the drag-and-drop builder, which is code-free, to add your preferred form field in any order.

Its free version offers basic contact form capabilities like CAPTCHA, form fields, and email notification. The premium version includes additional capabilities like multi-page forms, survey functionality, and integrations.

W3 Total Cache

Catching entails storing site content in the user's browser to identify them faster when they return to the site, and the W3 Total Cache is the best plug-in for this. The plug-in reduces your site's loading time to boost user experience, search engine rankings, and conversion rates.

Vaultpress

A website crash can be chaotic, and nothing beats adequate preparation. Vaultpress, a premium WordPress backup service, offers automated daily security scans and backups, as well as apt support from WordPress experts. It'll cost you $15 every month, but you'll have peace of mind in a website emergency,

HubSpot

It's hard to grow your company without practical marketing campaigns, but the HubSpot plug-in simplifies this. It allows you to follow leads, manage contacts, track conversations, engage with site visitors, and build email newsletters. The analytics and dashboard let you gauge your efforts to inspire informed decisions and business growth.

Wassup

Analytics enthusiasts rejoice! Wassup is the perfect plug-in to monitor your site traffic in real-time. It offers a great-looking dashboard and detailed information about your site visitors' activities. This is an excellent supplement to WordPress Stats and Google Analytics.

All in One SEO

Also known as AIOSEO, the All in One SEO plug-in lets you manage comprehensive on-site SEO and enable optimization to rank your site in search results. You can also carry out site-wide audits to review your current site's health and identify areas that require updates. Each page allows you to adjust elements like title tags, meta descriptions, and more.

If you wish to get up and running fast, the plug-in offers a setup wizard that allows you to adjust settings to match unique industry needs.

WP-Touch

The world is surging towards the mobile web, and you shouldn't lag. According to Pew Research Center, 85% of Americans own smartphones and use them to access the internet daily.  WP-Touch WordPress plug-in can create a fluid, touch-friendly, and responsive mobile site with ease. The premium version lets you add your embedded ads and branding.

DigiWidgets Plugin

Another popular WordPress plug-in, DigiWidgets, can turn your dashboard into an advanced image editor. It has transform options, zoom, filters, text boxes, and a cropping tool. You can use it to add image borders and create templates for consistent visual content.

Fluid Video Embeds

If you own a video-intensive WordPress website, you'll find Fluid Video Embeds helpful. The plug-in lets you adjust Vimeo and YouTube auto embedded sizes while keeping the aspect ratio. It's easy to install and use, perfect for customizing your video embed and maintaining clean playback.

Elementor

A leading WordPress CMS page builder, Elementor lets you place various page elements with a WYSIWYG drag-and-drop interface. Creating your ideal site will be as simple as clicking and dragging your preferred details into the builder interface. It's easy to use and compatible with many WordPress themes, hence perfect for beginner site owners.

TablePress

Downloaded over 500,000 times and rated five stars, TablePress makes it easy for you to create and manage great-looking tables on your site. You can embed tables onto pages, posts, and text widgets and edit table data in a spreadsheet-like interface, so you don't need any coding knowledge.

Really Simple SSL

Nowadays, Google tags websites that lack an SSL certificate as "Not Secure." But with the Really Simple SSL WordPress plug-in, you can convert your website from an insecure HTTP to secure HTTPS in a single click. The plug-in automatically updates your site's URLs, supports security and manages redirects. Before installing and using it, you must have a free SSL certificate.

Social Plug-Ins

Drive engagement with your content and website by making shares, comments, and likes easier using WordPress social plug-ins. By linking your social media pages, creating a community, streaming posts, and letting your audience share content, they'll engage easily.

Here are the top social plug-ins to consider on your WordPress website.

  • Instagram Feed – This plug-in lets your site display Instagram pics from any public Instagram account through single or multiple feeds.
  • Facebook Widget – The popular plug-in displays Facebook page likes on the sidebar simply and aesthetically.
  • Custom Facebook Feed – It lets you display a responsive, search engine crawlable, and customizable version of your Facebook feed on your website.
  • Ultimate Sharing – This social plug-in lets you add icons for Email, RSS, YouTube, social media pages, and "Share," covering over 200 social media platforms.
  • Contact Widgets – They let your site display contact and social media details in straightforward and easy-to-use widgets.
  • Feed Them Social – This popular social plug-in lets you come up with engaging social feeds of family, favorite personalities, your company, or yours.
  • WP Instagram Widget – This no-fuss WordPress plug-in showcases users' latest Instagram pics without requiring login details.
  • Social Media Feather – The plug-in supports social buttons for following or sharing. These are automatically added to all pages and pots.

Final Thoughts

Plug-ins are a boon if you wish to get the most of your WordPress website. But don't be too plug-in haply. Your site can slow down if you install too many of them at the same time. Furthermore, some may conflict with each other. While you may be spoilt for choice with WordPress plug-ins, the ones above are certainly worth your attention.

Choose your WordPress host and plug-ins wisely to enjoy the tremendous potential results for your website. Even better, you can partner with the award-winning system integration and web development team from Brightscout to build a highly polished WordPress website to accelerate innovation and transform your business.

Have questions? Talk to us, and we'll guide you through WordPress plug-ins and help you get the most from your site.