10 Best WordPress Plugins in 2018

WordPress websites are amongst the quickest and easiest web properties users can set up and then maintain. While some people are more concerned about getting the best WordPress themes installed, your actual focus should be on the meat and potatoes.

Having great WordPress plugins will improve functionality and keep your visitors engaged. Without further ado, here are the best 10 WordPress plugins for 2018 that you need to have installed.

1. Yoast SEO

If you want to get better at on-site SEO then you absolutely need to have this plugin installed. Yoast SEO enables you to analyse your web pages so that they can get indexed right away. What’s better, Yoast SEO suggests the kinds of changes and improvements you should make to your site to get it listed higher within search engine results.

2. Defender

WordPress blogs are simple and straightforward enough to set up that a complete novice can take them independently. Unfortunately, lots of unscrupulous people also target WordPress blogs because they are relatively easy to access from the backend. Defender is a plugin that keeps your WordPress site safe by pointing out areas that look weak while also keeping hackers out.

3. Askimet

This oldie but goodie is necessary for anyone who has a WordPress blog set up where visitors are capable of submitting comments. Comments are crucial if you want visitors to stay engaged whenever you put out a new blog post. On the other hand, the more popular your blog gets, the more spam it is going to attract. Askimet enables you to control how blog comments are posted. You can go in and approve all awaiting comments in one fell swoop or block them all at the same time.

4. Ultimate Branding

When you find a great WordPress theme, you sometimes have to do a lot of work to get the header, footer, company logo, and photos all lined up. In fact, after hours of fumbling around you might end up scrapping the project altogether and either end up finding a different WordPress theme or a designer who can make the appropriate tweaks. With Ultimate Branding, you get to customise each part of your business site’s appearance in real time. This plugin takes away the need for you to make changes to any part of the code manually.

5. Jetpack

This is another WordPress plugin that has been around for a long, long while. Jetpack is really one of the first plugins that you should have on your site. It helps WordPress powered websites to operate more efficiently by keeping the riff raff out and helps with sending increased traffic. Users are in complete control over what Jetpack can do for their web properties - there are really that many features.

6. BJ Lazy Load

BJ Lazy Load helps to eliminate one major problem that some WordPress users have - slow loading speeds. It could be because of your web host or even the theme that you have installed. In any event, BJ Lazy Load will have your website loading super fast so that visitors end up staying around for longer.

7. MailChimp for WordPress

Are you planning on having a mailing list in 2018? Well, you are going to need to have all of your subscribers opt in the right way if you want them sticking around and not quickly unsubscribing. MailChimp is one of the best mailing list management services around, and this plugin will aid you in getting more website visitors to sign up automatically. With this plugin, you only have to check a few boxes in order to get an opt-in form generated on your website.

8. Floating Social

Sometimes you may spend more time writing out a succinct 280 character tweet or taking photos at just the right angle to include on Instagram. Without viewer engagement, your social media efforts can stall out quickly. Floating Social is a WordPress plugin that enables your visitors to share all of your latest posts with a single click.

9. Woocommerce

Anyone who is going to sell items or even have a checkout form on their website needs to download the Woocommerce plugin. If you accept payments online then you have to be concerned about payment gateways and online security. Woocommerce enables you to install a completely encrypted online store onto your WordPress site within minutes.

10. Broken Link Checker

Those who have WordPress websites or blogs that are made up of hundreds of pages have to spend some time sorting through their broken links. Doing this manually can take you hours, but if you fail to do this kind of maintenance your website rankings can suffer. Broken Link Checker takes the work out of finding and eliminating broken links. What’s even better is that this plugin can help to make broken links functional again.

Work with Matter Solutions if you want to work with a company that specialises in developing web content with a modern edge. Contact us today and speak with an expert.