WordPress is a great platform to build your website and there are hundreds of plugins to choose from depending on your site needs; from ecommerce plugins to social network community plugins – as you’re reading this article from my site, I’ll talk you through what I have installed on my site and give you my take on 10 must have WordPress plugins for your business website.
All in One SEO Pack is simple to use and has many functions that I would not be without. Firstly, it allows me to specify the SEO meta data; title, description and keywords that help my site in the search engines. It is the information that is displayed in the search results.
The plugin also has an option for specifying what text and image is displayed when I share my articles on social media.
For analytics, I can add my verification information for Google, Bing and Pinterest – I can also insert my Google+ profile for Google Authorship purposes, plus it creates a Google XML sitemap.
It has tons of other features and is simple to use – I use the free version, which does all I need, and there is also a pro version with yet more features such as video data and advanced WooCommerce support.
2
Antispam Bee helps me keep spam comments at bay – it can be adjusted to suit your requirements and I have not had any problems with it.
As I have a fair number of pages because that it how my site is set up – my personal choice – the Comment Form Shortcode allows me to insert a simple shortcode on specified pages so that I can have my readers comment on pages as well as posts.
4Contact Form 7
Every website needs a way for reader to make contact with the site owner. This is a simple, yet powerful contact form plugin that I love.
5Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress
Social signals make Google happy these days and my preference is Easy Social Share Buttons for WordPress. This is a premium plugin that is full of features but very simple to set up. It allows sharing on over 40 of the major social networks and comes with all the like, follow and subscribes buttons. It also has analytics and tons more stuff.
Magic Action Box is an optin box creator and a lead generation plugin that lets you create a focused and high converting feature box in minutes.
I have a fair number of promotions and links to products I promote on my site and Pretty Link Lite allows me to change not very user-friendly, or nice, affiliate links, into a url that matches my website and can also be tracked from my WordPress dashboard. Pretty Link Pro
This plugin adds CAPTCHA anti-spam methods to the comments sections on my site. Users have to type in the code shown on the image before a comment will be accepted. This prevents spam from automated bots and adds security.
This is a premium and a free, list building WordPress plugin – I use the free version and some of the tools I use include: the SumoMe List Builder, Google Analytics and the Share & Image Sharer. The premium version is even better and removes the branding but I do ok with what I have.
As I write product reviews on my site this plugin is great; it allows me to rate the product from 1 – 5 using a star rating system. It also supports Google rich snippets, which show up in the search listings.
This is just my list, there are 100’s of plugins out there to choose from. A lot is based on personal preference and I edit and tweak my site on a regular basis.
What plugins do you use? It would be good to hear your view so please begin a conversation by commenting below.
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12 Comments on “10 Must have WordPress Plugins for your Business Website”
Some great ideas here, I never been to keen on the social media plug in I use so I’ll give this one a try. I’ve been looking for something like the magic box for a while too.
Apparently gage loading time can be slowed down by too many plug ins, is there any truth in this? If so how many would you recommend?
Many thanks.
It has been said that too many plugins slow down your site…I try to stick to between 10 and 15 but it depends on the type of site you have and what your particular needs are.
In regard to social media, it’s widely known that Google takes social signals into account when ranking a website, so a good social sharing plugin is really important.
thanks for the comment Dan.
regards
Suzanne
Some great plugins, I have most of them. Although recently I replaced All in one SEO for Yoast SEO, it’s really good when writing articles as it helps you tick all the boxes you need for SEO for a post
Hi Bren,
I did have Yoast for a while myself but found it conflicted with my theme so I stick with All In One SEO.
regards
Suzanne
Hey Suzanne,
Thanks for sharing such a helpful article on the different types wordpress plugins you must have. Some of the plugins you mention I had, but some I don’t. I’m gonna dl the rest now! Thanks again 🙂
Samuel
Good stuff Samuel, let me know how you get along with plugins.
regards
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne
You have some fantastic suggestions there in regards to plugins.
I have a couple of those listed, and you’ve encouraged me to take a look at some of the others.
Thanks for a great post
Glad you liked the post Andrew.
regards
Suzanne
Hi Suzanne
Extremely useful information about the type of plugins available as there appears to be a huge range for WordPress. I myself will be testing some of these plugins out that you have mentioned in your post.
Great Paul, let me know how you get along with testing out the plugins.
regards
Suzanne
Great site, very informative. I am very new to this business and this information is very helpful. I will be looking into the plugins you have referred, thank you.
Glad you like my site Yasmin, please do visit again.
regards
Suzanne