As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you have a seemingly endless list of expenses to juggling against a sometimes fluctuating income, while trying to keep cash flow heading in the right direction.
In this context, and given the cost of website design, it is not surprising that many startups and businesses owners decide to build their own website rather than paying a designer to do it for them. Luckily it has never been easier to do this thanks to easy-to-use platforms like WordPress. These user-friendly platforms mean you can teach yourself to build a professional-looking website without too much effort, albeit with the help of a few online tutorials and YouTube videos.
However, not being a professional designer means you may be missing some key tools and tricks which will help you to create a truly polished site that will promote your business in a meaningful way, attract new customers, drive sales and deliver significant growth in profits. This is particularly true of WordPress plugins: as a lay-person, it is difficult to keep track of the thousands of plugins on offer, and which could be useful to you.
That’s why we’ve put together this list of the best WordPress plugins for entrepreneurs, startups and small businesses in 2019 to help you take your website to the next level!
Table of Contents
WordPress SEO by Yoast
One of the most downloaded WordPress plugins of all times, this simple and easy-to-use plugin helps you cover the basics of SEO to improve your site’s Google rankings. Specifically, it lets you add and edit each page and post’s SEO title, meta description and meta keywords, which are all essential SEO elements. The plugin sits at the bottom of each new post meaning you can quickly and easily add these elements when you add a new post. It also has other features such as letting you write a custom title for your site, category, archives and tag pages.
WP Booking Calendar
There are plenty of reasons why you might want your site visitors to book an appointment with you – whether you are a health or beauty business looking to book in client or patient appointments, or any kind of business wanting to set up a sales meeting or discovery call. In any of these situations, having a calendar on your site is an instant way to convert your site visitors to customers, or at least bring them that vital step closer. WP Booking Calendar is a scheduling plugin which allows users to schedule 1-on-1 appointments, as well as integrating payments directly in WordPress and set up group meetings, once you sign up for add-ons.
WooCommerce
This WordPress plugin is essential for any e-commerce business looking to build an online store. The WooCommerce plugin lets you add product listings and a shopping cart to your website, meaning you can convert your already built site into an online store. This plugin was all the options you’ll need from a basic e-commerce platform, including multiple shipping and payment method options for your customers, as well as opening you up to the large online community of WooCommerce users.
WPForms
Having forms on your site is essential. Every site needs a contact form, for example, as this is a professional interface which visitors can reach out to you, the first step on their journey to becoming your customer. WPForms is one of the best for this function and its user-friendly functionality makes it great for WordPress beginners. It has an easy-to-use drag and drop interface which means you can whip up all kinds of forms with the free version, or upgrade to the Pro version for extra features.
I’ve already shared a series of articles on getting started with WPForms, Make sure you check them out:
WPForms Vs Gravity Forms: Which is the best option?
How To Turn Website Visitors Into Subscribers Using WPForms?
WPForms: Best Alternative to Google Forms in 2019?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll know that security threats are everywhere in today’s online world, and cybersecurity is vital for organizations of all sizes. If you do not yet have an “https” site (rather than one with the traditional “HTTP” URL), now is the time to move to this more secure kind of domain. Not only does this make your site and your business more secure, but it also signals to your customers that you are a legitimate, professional organization that looks after its own and its clients’ security. In case you need an extra incentive, this is also better for your site’s SEO: https sites rank better on Google. This plugin enables SSL on WordPress sites, helping you to migrate from Http to https.
Remember sitemaps? But in the early stages of the internet, every site had one of these. They may seem like something of the past, but sitemaps are still alive and well and many sites still use them. They make it easier for users to get around your site, but more importantly, they help search engine bots navigate and “crawl” your website. This is important as it is essential for SEO.
Adopting some of these simple, easy-to-use plugins will help you improve your site’s SEO, its usability, improve its professionalism and, most importantly, convert more users into customers!
These were some of the essential WordPress plugins that every blogger/website owner should use on their website.
