WordPress powers 29% of the web and their next goal is turning that 29% to 50%. It is one of the easiest platforms to get into the online world.
The biggest reason for its popularity is – it is free to install, use, and upgrade. Moreover, it offers countless customization options through plugins making it the most preferred content management platforms in the world.
If you’re planning to run a WP site or a blog, here are the 5 best WordPress plugins for 2018 you must add to your site. All of these plugins are absolutely free and can get your site more traffic, more functionality, and more revenue.
UpdraftPlus
Your website is your biggest investment. Therefore, it is important for you to keep regular backups of your website data. You must have a proper plan for recovering from a system failure or website crash.
UpdraftPlus is the world’s most popular scheduled backup plugin having over a million active installs. This simple yet useful plugin allows you to backup your website data. You can simply restore all your data and files at the click of a button as it creates data backups into the cloud system.
In case anything happens to your server or if your site crashes, you can restore your data straight from the cloud-based server.
Using this plugin, you can schedule backups for your data every week. Moreover, you can link backup data to a free Dropbox account that lets you receive backups automatically to your Dropbox account.
Features-
-It restores as well as backs-up.
-It has more cloud options than any other backup plugins.
-It offers automatic backup features and backup schedules for your convenience.
-It has been tested on more than 1 million websites.
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iThemes Security
Your website is not just a ‘website’- it is a medium of your first contact with your audience and if it is not safe and secure, customers may hesitate to use your website and suspect credibility for your brand as well.
Today, online threats may come in different forms. For instance, malware, website crash, information hijack. No matter how big or small your brand is, security should be your primary concern.
iThemes is a free WordPress plugin which can make the website much more secure as it gives more than 30 ways to secure a website. Its advanced security features prevent hackers from breaking into your account and stealing confidential information.
Though you have a web hosting that provides advanced security yet this plugin can add multiple layers of security to your website. Its main function is IP address blocking. Let’s say if someone is trying to log into your account more than 5 times without success, it will block his IP address.
Features –
-It automatically scans your website for lethal threats like malware.
-It generates strong passwords straight from your profile screen.
-It uses Google reCAPTCHA to protect your site from spammers.
-It tracks user action logging. For example- when a user edits content, logs in or logs out.
-It lets you manage necessary tasks such as running system scans and disabling website access after multiple failed attempts.
-It supports wp-cli Integration which helps you manage your site’s security from the command line.
Yoast SEO:
Search Engine Optimization plays a crucial role in the success of an online business. For those who are not aware of SEO, it is a technique that brings organic traffic towards a website. SEO involves various strategies that give a boost to the web traffic and search engine ranking.
Yoast SEO is popular WordPress plugin that can help you rank in the search engine results. The plugin was launched in 2008 by the company Yoast and since then it has turned into a favorite SEO plugin for millions of WordPress users.
The plugin allows you to edit a page’s meta description, meta title, and add your focused keyword in your content.
It analyzes your entire post or content and gives you suggestion on improving SEO readability.
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Features-
-Yoast plugin gives you most advanced XML Sitemaps functionality in just one click.
-By simply adding the piece of code, you can take full control over site breadcrumbs.
-To avoid duplicate content, you can set canonical URLs.
-As said above, it enables you to edit the titles and meta descriptions for better branding.
-You can upgrade to the advanced version to perform Video SEO, News SEO, Local SEO, etc.
SumoMe
To take your brand to the next level, it is important you invest in a quality marketing. And, SumoMe is one that does it for you. Along with strong security, SEO and backup, marketing of your site is also necessary for the success of your website.
SumoMe is a pop-up email collector that can help you accomplish your marketing goals. It collects visitors email address via different forms, including Welcome Mat, List Builder, etc.
Features-
-It provides an easy platform for your reader to join your email list.
-You can place it anywhere on your website as an activation link.
-It makes it easy for your audience to share your content on the web or mobile.
Contact Form 7
Although it is easier to showcase just an e-mail address yet a contact form is crucial. It not only makes your site look more professional but also provides reachability, availability, and clarification of your business or brand.
Above all, contact form also provides security. Many contact form plugins eliminate spams and provide more security to your website.
Contact Form 7 is a renowned WordPress plugin for Contact Forms. The plugins allow you to create a professional contact form for your site within few minutes. You can also customize fields (Name, Phone Number, Email, Subject, etc.) of your contact form according to your requirements.
Installing this plugin is quite simple, you just need to copy and paste a shortcode on your website.
Features
-Easy customization of contact form fields.
-It allows you to use different add-on features such as dynamic Text Extension, MailChimp, etc.
Well, these are the 5 most popular WP plugins. Hopefully, they will help you create a fully-functional and professional WP site in 2018.