We love working with WordPress because of the customizable opportunities that exist for our clients and the websites we build. If you’ve been wishing your website could do more to support your sales and marketing goals, we have good news – there’s probably a plugin for that, as they say. Here are our recommendations for three popular categories of plugins.
SEO
When it comes to supporting your Search Engine Optimization goals, WordPress is a great tool itself, providing a number of tagging and organizational tools. However, for even more customization we recommend the following:
Yoast SEO – We like this plugin because it serves as a human trainer of sorts. As you use it, it will teach you how to write better for the web. The red, yellow and green light icons help you see how effective your content is as you add pages and content.
All-In-One SEO – If you’re ready to go deeper and have more finite control over keywords and metadata, etc., we recommend you check this one out.
Events
If you don’t want to add a plugin for events, you can just add “Events” as category in your blog, but to keep track of sign ups or integrate calendar features, we recommend the following:
The Events Calendar – There are many reasons to love this plugin. It’s visually appealing, useful right out of the box, and compatible or adaptable for most themes. And there’s a free version. You can also add ticketing and integrate with other extensions like eventbrite.
Time.ly – There is a product web service for this, but there is also a plugin for hosting on your server. Again it’s visually appealing with a variety of theme options and a slick design. If needed you can also allow third party submissions to the calendar features.
E-Commerce
In this case, WordPress doesn’t come with a built-in way to sell products on your website, but there are great options we recommend.
WooCommerce – This is the most popular and most well supported option for sales. It allows for a full stand alone store, including any number of products, different extensions and payment processors. You can go even further with referral codes, membership models, or subscriptions. It’s quite user friendly once you get the hang of it. It can be overwhelming initially because there are so many options, but the learning curve is quick for many.
Third Party Payment Platform – This isn’t a plugin, but if you’re selling a one-off product or limited line, this is a simpler solution. Check out something like such as PayPal’s cart or buy now buttons or SamCart.
Give – If you’re a nonprofit needing a donation plugin, we recommend this. It’s pretty and allows for functional forms for donations, including different amounts, etc.
Ready to make your website work even harder for you? Feeling overwhelmed? Want to go even more custom? We would love to hear more about your marketing technology goals. Drop us a line anytime.