WordPress is one of the simplest-to-use platforms for businesses who understand how important it is to maintain a regular stream of relevant content, both to attract new customers and to maintain their current clientele. One of the most attractive features of WordPress is its flexibility; even though the basic platform is – well, basic – there are plenty of additional features, or Plugins, that can help you create a more customized user experience as well as gather the data you need to make sure your site is on target. Today, there are dozens (OK, thousands) of Plugins to choose from, and it can be easy to become overwhelmed. Instead of jumping in head-first, dip a toe in by trying these seven Plugins that can provide essential functionality for your small business’ website:
WordPress SEO by Yoast
Even with recent changes in Google’s search engine, SEO remains critical for making sure your website is found by your customers. SEO by Yoast provides simple tools for optimizing your page so it can be found by major search engines, which means more traffic for your site.
Akismet
Comments are an important engagement tool for customers, but spam-generating robots can ruin the fun for all. In fact, spambots generate millions of messages each day. Keeping a close eye on comments to filter out spam isn’t always possible, but luckily, Akismet does it for you, filtering out millions of pieces of spam each hour.
404 Redirected
If you’ve ever visited a site and clicked on a link only to be taken to a 404 “dead link” error message, you know how unprofessional that looks. Worse, Google doesn’t look kindly on pages with errors, so your ranking could suffer as well. 404 Redirected makes sure that when a broken or dead link does occur, visitors are automatically redirected to a live page.
Digg Digg
During the first quarter of 2015, content-sharing social site Digg netted about 12 million active users per month. Digg Digg lets you share your pages on Digg – and Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google+ and more – with this simple Plugin.
W3 Total Cache
Photos and graphics can help you increase your readership and make your site more attractive, but they can also cause your site to load slowly or result in sluggish performance. W3 Total Cache provides all the caching capabilities you need to help your site run more quickly while still preserving those good-looking graphic features.
Gravity Forms
Forms provide a good way to gauge interest in your product and, of course, to gather customer information. Gravity helps you create forms that are easy to use, with custom features that let you collect the information that’s most important to your business.
Simple Sitemap
Simple Sitemap generates sitemaps in different formats to make it easier for engine crawlers to find and list your pages, and also to help site visitors see all the content pages your site offers in one quick glance.
Web marketing is essential for the success of businesses of all sizes and all types. If you’re serious about web marketing, we can help. Visit www.SoMoLocal.com or call 732-564-7227 and learn about how we’re helping businesses just like yours be more competitive – and more successful.
