25 Must Have WordPress Plugins To Grow Your Small Business
One of the best things about having a WordPress site is the ability to customize and enhance it using plugins. That is why I wanted to share some of my top picks for WordPress plugins for small business owners.
I did this last year as well in my post, Top 21 WordPress Plugin Picks for 2014, and a few of those plugins have made it on to the list again.
So without further ado, here are 25 must have WordPress plugins to grow your small business!
1. Facebook Comments
Have you ever wondered how some websites have their blog comments integrated with Facebook? A WordPress plugin like Facebook Comments allows you to easily accept Facebook comments on your WordPress site.
2. Simple Share Buttons Adder
This WordPress plugin lets you easily add social share buttons to your site. Want to customize your buttons? The developers even offer a free tool for changing the colors of your buttons!
3. 404 to Start
Rather than using your site’s default 404 page, this WordPress plugin lets you redirect all ‘not found’ pages to a custom page (for instance your homepage or another page of your choosing).
4. WP Smush.it
Images can take up A LOT of space on your site! This free WordPress plugin ‘smushes’ your images to ensure your site loads quickly and easily.
5. Google XML Sitemaps
Having an XML sitemap is important for helping the search engines properly index every page of your site. This plugin allows you to easily create an XML sitemap…no coding or HTML knowledge required!
6. All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets
Using rich snippets on your site is more important than ever for SEO.
Including this markup on each page of your site lets Google know exactly what your content is about. Google states, “[T]he snippet for a restaurant might show the average review and price range; the snippet for a recipe page might show the total preparation time, a photo, and the recipe’s review rating; and the snippet for a music album could list songs along with a link to play each song. These rich snippets help users recognize when your site is relevant to their search, and may result in more clicks to your pages.”
This WordPress plugin allows you to easily add rich snippets to your site, which can improve your rankings and increase your click-through rates.
7. CommentLuv
This plugin helps create a sense of community on your blog by automatically finding and linking to your blog commenters’ last blog post.
8. BackupBuddy
If you have ever lost a portion of your WordPress site (or worse, the entire thing!), you know how frustrating and devastating it can be. BackupBuddy ensures you always have an up-to-date backup of your WordPress files and database.
9. Contact Form 7
If your WordPress theme does not come with a built-in contact form, Contact Form 7 is a great free option. Allows you to easily add multiple, customizable forms.
10. Broken Link Checker
Broken links can be harmful in terms of SEO as well as user experience. This WordPress plugin will check your content and let you know if any broken links are found.
11. BBPress
Adding a forum to your website used to be a complicated and expensive endeavor. Not any more! BBPress lets you easily add a fully customizable discussion board without any coding knowledge!
12. Business Directory Plugin
Do you want a Yelp-like review section on your site? Or maybe just a simple resource list for your website visitors? The Business Directory Plugin lets you easily create an interactive directory on your site. They even offer a premium module that allows you to accept Paypal payments…great if you want to charge businesses for getting themselves listed.
13. Tweet This
Choose a ‘tweetable quote’ from your blog post, and then encourage your readers to tweet it. This WordPress plugin lets you do this quickly and easily, and can have a significant impact on your Twitter traffic. I wrote about this plugin here: Increase Twitter Traffic by 100% Using This One Simple Trick.
14. OnePress Social Locker
There may be times when you want to ‘lock’ certain pieces of website content until a user clicks a social button. This WordPress plugin lets you easily add this functionality to your site.
15. Hello Bar
The Hello Bar lets you add a bar to the top of your WordPress site where you can collect emails, add social share buttons or direct visitors to click a link.
16. Fancier Author Box by ThematoSoup
If you have a multi-author site, or just want to include a call to action at the end of every post, this plugin can help. It allows you to easily add an attractive, customizable author box to each blog post or page.
17. WP Popup Plugin
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, there is no doubt that pop-up opt-in boxes work. If you would like to test one out on your own site, try out the free WP Popup plugin.
18. Zopim Live Chat
Zopim lets you provide live chat on your site so you can provide real-time customer service to your website visitors. Packages range from the free basic version up to $20 per agent/month.
19. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin
Offering visitors related pages or posts is a great way to increase time spent on your site.
This WordPress plugin is the industry-standard for businesses wanting to display a list of related content…and it even allows you to add sponsored content!
20. WooCommerce
Add e-commerce functionality to your site – for free! The company also offers a variety of paid ‘gateways’ that will allow you to accept a variety of payment options on your site.
21. W3 Total Cache
How fast is your site? Find out by entering your website URL in Google’s PageSpeed tool.
If your site is under performing in terms of speed, a plugin like W3 Total Cache can help by increasing server performance and improving user experience.
22. WP Simple Adsense Insertion
If you use Google Adsense on your site, this plugin will allow you to easily insert Adsense code into your sidebar or content using shortcodes. Perfect for non-techy types!
23. NextGen Gallery
Upload and manage image galleries so you can display eye-catching image slideshows on your site.
24. Image Watermark
Ever had your images stolen and used on other websites? The Image Watermark WordPress plugin automatically inserts a watermark onto all your images. You can even go back and have them added to already uploaded images!
25. Appointments+
Easily schedule and manage appointments right from your WordPress site! Even lets you accept Paypal payments and deposits.
There you go: 25 must have WordPress plugins to grow your small business! I hope you’ve found some new plugins to try out on your site.
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