5 Plugins You Need for Your WordPress Website
WordPress is a free-to-use, open-source content management system that allows just about anyone to start their own website or blog. Constant upgrades and a user-friendly interface have made WordPress one of the most popular content hosting sites in the world.
WordPress also supports a vast universe of plugins which allow users to enhance an entire range of functions – from search engine optimization, to improved security. In this article, we have listed 5 of our favorite must-have plugins for any WordPress site.
Sumo
Sumo is a WordPress plugin that aims to help you reach out more efficiently to customers and visitors, increase the flow of traffic to your website and finally, help you track your success more effectively.
Rather than aggressively pestering visitors to sign up for your mailing list, Sumo has a different approach: the Scroll Box. Scroll Box is a discreet, fully-customizable pop-up that invites visitors to sign up to be part of your mailing list without being overly intrusive.
If you’re looking to increase the number of visitors to your site, or just dying to share some of that quality content with the world, Sumo will be able to help you with that. With the Sumo plugin, sharing content becomes as easy as pie, by allowing visitors to share articles, pictures and videos on all platforms with a simple click of the share button.
Wordfence
Wordfence is a specialized security plugin that provides you with an arsenal of tools to defend your website from hackers, malware attacks and spam. With more than a million users worldwide, Wordfence is by far the most popular option when it comes to security.
One of the features offered by Wordfence is the inclusion of a web application firewall that blocks malware intrusions and hackers before any damage can be done. Powered by the Threat Defense Feed, Wordfence’s web application firewall is constantly being updated with the latest firewall rules to keep you protected.
Another unique feature offered by Wordfence is spamvertising protection. Being flagged for spamvertising can be detrimental to your website’s performance. Wordfence can help you determine why your URL has been flagged.
The SEO Framework
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is all about improving your website’s organic i.e. unpaid search engine visibility. In a nutshell, Search Engine Optimization means producing quality content that can be easily picked up by search engines.
While there is no substitute for high quality content, The SEO Framework is a great way to get you started in the world of SEO. The SEO Framework helps you produce better quality content by automatically generating titles according to your chosen settings, with archive prefixes and also structure data for Google Search and Chromium – to name just a few features.
To put it simply, The SEO Framework is a simple-to-use plugin that is packed with features, completely free-to-use and is totally free of advertising of any sort. Hence, this translates to a very efficient and user-friendly tool to help you produce high-quality SEO content.
Antispam Bee
Spamming is the practice of sending unsolicited messages with the purpose of advertising (or causing a headache). Scroll through the comment section of just about any website, forum or blog and you will be inundated by endless streams of annoying spam comments.
This is why you need an effective anti-spam plugin like Antispam Bee. Antispam Bee is a specialized plugin for WordPress that works by effectively blocking any and all spam comments and trackbacks on your site without the use of captchas.
Antispam Bee provides web administrators with an effective and easy-to-use solution to combat spam. Among some of the features offered are: the ability to allow comments in a certain language only, validate the IP addresses of commenters in order to eliminate spam bots and also the option to categorize certain comments as spam – thus, allowing for immediate deletion.
The plugin is also free to use as well as ad-free, with the developers of the plugin working closely with members of the WordPress community.
UpdraftPlus
Having a website crash and be lost is the biggest nightmare of any web administrator. Be it data hacks, system crashes, natural disasters, or even simple human error, you need to be constantly prepared for any sudden and unexpected loss of data.
UpdraftPlus offers a simple-to-use WordPress backup plugin that regularly backs up your data to a Cloud server to prevent any unexpected loss of data. Among some of the features offered are scheduled automated data backups, encrypted transport to Cloud storage as well as data restoration.
All of these plugins are a great way to make your blog or website a success. Protect yourself with Wordfence, Antispam Bee and UpdraftPlus, while you grow your following with Sumo and The SEO Framework.
We can help you build your new website with all of these plugins and more! Reach out if you’d like to chat.