5 Must-Have Plugins With a New WordPress Site that retain site speed and provide useful support to your Post or Page without causing harm.
Do plugins slow down your website?
I use Wealthy Affiliate as my WordPress host because I pay one price for all my sites and receive critical support when ever I need it.
Wealthy Affiliate believe that just five plugins should be used on any page or post. Overuse creates site slowdown which is a critical impacting feature of WordPress.
This is an eternal battle that I can't quite manage as you can see from the above ranking.
We all need an SEO Plug in and most choose between All in One or Yoast. The jury is out however I am a Yoast SEO fan and indeed use the pro version when I can justify the cost.
What is my second choice plugin?
There will be no argument that Google analytics is essential in every case. Understanding traffic is a necessity for every site whether it be new or old.
However ignoring these figures can be the easy choice because it is a manual task to upload Google and sort through all your posts to find the one you want.
I find that a constant reminder is necessary to spot trends early and make the necessary changes early in the life of the page.
I chose a Plugin by MonsterInsights. This provides current statistics, using a link to my Google Analytics page.
This is just a part of what appears as soon as you open your website, you know at any time exactly what is happening.
Headline analyser by Monster
This is my all time favourite tool that has made a huge difference to my headlines.
The headline analyser takes all the work out of writing compelling attention words.
Ever wish you had an easy way to write headlines that get more clicks and attract tons of visitors? Now you do!
Today we’re excited to announce the release of MonsterInsights 7.12 with a new headline analyzer tool. You can use it to create compelling copy to get more clicks on your headlines and improve your search engine rankings.
Did you know that 36% of SEO experts think the headline is the most important SEO element?
Yet many website owners don’t know how to optimize their headlines for SEO and clicks, instead they write copy and hope for the best, only to see disappointing results.
Sign on forms
This is a product of Monster insights and is more an add-on than a new plugin.
People want to chat, share or get more information and building a list is adding value to your business. Once someone has bought from you or even made contact that level of trust is made they will buy again.
Pretty links
This is essential for tracking all your main links to see how much action you are getting. I run a monthly report so I can see what links are performing best so I can concentrate on them and ignore the poor performers. The basic Pretty links is free and will do everything you really need.
Getting your traffic in place
I long struggled with not having a good SEO report. This is essential for Google that your page views and time onsite are all inline with what is required. All traffic is not the same however including virtual traffic can really kick your figures in line .
I used Spark Traffic to achieve this and am very happy with the results. Of course you get a free trial and it's only a small amount to make Google happy.
A million more opportunities
You may need others and not be able to conform to the rule of 5. For instance I have an online calculator that I must have and video storage so I exceed the variable every month.
My point is to choose your plugins with care and limit them down to as few as possible.
Conclusion
Every small factor on your website contributes to the whole production and site speed is certainly one of them. However using the correct plugins provides the opportunity to grow your business. They are wonderful little creatures that make WordPress work and make your life easier along the way.
if you want to check your sites go to the Google speed check and see what they have to say.
5 Must-Have Plugins With a New WordPress Site by Peter Hanley
