WordPress is safe, stable, and easy to use. However, what really makes it stand out are its plugins.
WordPress plugins are pieces of software that change, to a lesser or greater degree, how you interact with WordPress.

Plugins can make WordPress easier to use, faster, safer; they can enable you to track relevant metrics, make it easier to integrate new tools, improve user experience, and we can go on and on and on.

There are literally thousands of WordPress plugins to choose from, and in this article, we handpicked some of the best ones. You should definitely find at least one that can help you improve your website.

A big part of running any website is keeping an eye on your analytics. This means gathering and observing information relating to the performance of your pages and the behavior of your users.

Gathering information lets you understand your websites and your audience better.

For example, analytics shows you your most and least visited pages. Then you can see what the high-performers are doing right and apply that to your weaker pages.
With MonsterInsights, you get to connect Google Analytics with WordPress. Instead of going back and forth between Google Analytics and your pages, MonsterInsights gives you all the data you want right in your WordPress dashboard.

Pageviews, bounce rates, average session duration, it’s all at your fingertips, all in one place. Furthermore, you also get a look at target demographics data, like the gender of your users, their age.

Roughly 48% of the population uses social media. Now think about that number. That’s almost four billion users. So even the smallest piece of that number is substantial when it comes to traffic and visitors.

Setting up social media pages for your website and updating them regularly is vital. And Shared Counts makes managing social media easier. It’s a very simple plugin, actually.

Shared Counts gives you customizable, sleek social media buttons that let you share your content more easily, directly through WordPress.

This may not seem like such a big deal, but when you’re managing dozens of pieces of content over just one site (not to mention multiple ones), little things like this help you make fewer mistakes and can actually shave off hours of work time.

Finally, a nice little benefit that this plugin provides is that the share buttons have share counts (i.e., the number of times a piece of content has been shared). It helps users get a sense of just how popular an article is (and might motivate them to share a low share-count article they really liked).

Running a website takes a lot of time and effort. Delegating at least some of that work means more time to focus on other aspects of your site and your business. And delegating that work to an automated system is even better.

Uncanny Automator is probably the best plugin for automating boring, routine tasks. It helps you connect the WP plugins you already have, as well as certain third-party platforms to automate certain aspects of your work.

The best part is: you don’t have to write any code!

Here’s how it works. You have a list of roughly four hundred actions and triggers. So, you have a specific trigger that, once activated, leads to a specific action. Here are some examples:

● Create specific, custom attributes for your users’ profiles based on their previous actions on your site.
● Connects two plugins, where the action in one can trigger the other.

And yes, this really sounds like Zapier – it works in a similar way, just for WordPress. And yes, you can connect it to Zapier and get even more automation options!

People don’t really trust modern brands. In fact, 21% of users don’t believe a global brand will keep their data safe.

Keeping the information on your audience safe is your duty, so Succuri is a plugin everybody should use.

Furthermore, having the misfortune of getting your site hacked or suffering a DDoS attack can lead to significant headaches. You will lose visitors and pageviews due to this instability, not to mention the time and effort needed to recover from an attack.

So, here is how Succurri works.

It’s both a plugin and a web application firewall. It helps your site against malware, XSS attacks, brute force attacks, DDoS, spam attacks, and basically anything that can jeopardize the safety and stability of your site.
In addition, Succurri adds a content delivery network layer that helps speed up your site.

People like websites that load quickly. Think about it – how much time are you willing to spend waiting for a website to load before you just drop it. Users are almost three times as likely to stick to pages that load in just 2 seconds, compared to ones that have load times of 8 seconds.

WP Rocket is all about speed and performance.

Without going into too much technical detail, WP Rocket is a WordPress caching plugin. When you set it up, it turns certain WordPress settings on, like page cache, cache preloading, as well as gzip compression, among many others. All of these are supposed to intensely improve page load times.

While you can customize it, you just need to install and activate this plugin in order for it to work.

Local SEO and Google My Business matter. Google My Business, in particular, has many benefits, improving your visibility on Google Search and Google Maps being just some of them.

So, let’s say you own a web design agency based in New York. First, set up Google My Business for your company. You fill in your company name, address, and all other relevant information. Then, you want to optimize your blog content with local info to promote your NYC web design company.

With the Post to Google My Business plugin, you can integrate WordPress with Google My Business. This helps you create and share posts from the platform through your WordPress dashboard.

Post to Google My Business also automatically sends any articles you posted through WordPress onto your Google My Business page.

The importance of search engine optimization cannot be overstated. While creating high-quality content should be your primary area of concern, you should still invest in a good SEO strategy.

Without going into too much detail, a good SEO strategy is there to help your website rank better. It includes techniques, tactics and content modifications that make it easier for Google’s algorithms to find you and push you closer to the top of a SERP.

And now, let us introduce you to the All in One SEO plugin (AIOSEO).

AIOSEO is pretty popular, and for a good reason. First of all, it helps you connect to the Google Search Console instantly through WordPress. Then, it assists in adding meta descriptions, keywords, an SEO-friendly title and more.

This plugin gives you a thorough analysis of the content you want to publish through WordPress, assessing whether your content is SEO-friendly and easy to read. It then gives a rating, helping you fix the things you might have missed.

On average, 15% of site visitors use its search features. However, 45% of all site revenue comes from this 15%. Therefore, having a good search plugin obviously matters.

SearchWP is a great plugin for better search functionality. The aspect that makes it stand out is flexibility. First of all, you can adjust the “relevance” scale and its algorithms without tinkering with any code.
In other words, you’re going to be able to filter what people can actually find.

For example, if you want to go all out, you can have SearchWP allow users to search for custom fields, the contents of PDF documents, custom tables, custom post types, custom fields, ACF fields…

It also has a search metrics feature that can show you what people search for when checking out your website.

Do you want to implement an online course or build a community around your website? Well, with MemberPress, you can do that easily and quickly, directly through WordPress.

With MemberPress, you can set up subscription plans and limit access according to the plans people have bought. It can have automation features, group memberships, course management and more.

Finally, MemberPress can easily be connected with email apps like MailChimp. This makes email marketing communication much more intuitive.

Around 44% of online consumers state that live chats help improve their website experience. And the LiveChat plugin gives you exactly that.

Besides its many customization options, LiveChat really stands out when it comes to the integration possibilities. It connects with CRM, your support software, as well as your email marketing apps.

Furthermore, LiveChat actually loads pretty quickly, despite its many features.

Lastly, LiveChat also has a mobile app, so if needed, you can provide real-time support to any user who’s about to make a purchase. Quickly and easily.

You know what’s scary? Losing all of your website’s data. Things happen, servers crash, malware shows up, developers mess up. So having a backup to protect you is very important for your peace of mind. And this is where UpdraftPlus helps.

UpdraftPlus creates automatic backups of your website’s data and stores them on Dropbox, Google Drive, and a variety of other safe and protected cloud-based locations.

This list of WordPress plugins is far from comprehensive. There are thousands of WordPress plugins online, and books can be written about them.

However, the plugins we listed above are essential for any website manager and developer.

Victor Baldin is a digital marketing specialist, currently working as a freelancer and at Find Digital Agency. Love to explore the newest web trends, tech, and marketing tools.

It’s no secret that every single business out there has its own set of unique goals it’s working hard to achieve. But it’s also no secret that every business shares a common goal as well, and that’s attracting more customers their way.

Simply put, the more visitors you manage to attract to your business website, the greater the odds that some (if not all) of them will turn to leads.

Naturally, more leads oftentimes result in more customers, and more customers lead to greater revenue.

But how exactly can businesses ensure greater web traffic and attract new visitors their way?

Here are 15 simple ways any business can boost its website traffic.

1. Advertise

Starting off with the most obvious way, investing in all sorts of advertising will help any business boost exposure.

Luckily, nowadays, there are so many ways you can advertise your business – both online and offline – you will only need to take your pick.

Online business promotions, such as social media advertising and paid search, to name a few, will not only result in greater visibility, but they will also help any business establish itself in the online world.

On top of that, both paid searches and social media advertising will help businesses build credibility, which plays a key role in business success.

A great thing about online promotion is that you can easily create campaigns that focus on achieving different goals.

So, first, determine what you want to achieve with your advertising efforts – more visitors, more sales, more qualified leads? – and then create a marketing campaign that will help you reach those goals.

2. Use the power of social media

Social media is a great tool, not only for promoting your business but for connecting with your audience as well. When creating any type of content, you can simply get it “out there” and hope that people will instantly engage with it.
Instead, you can use social media to your advantage and hype up your content. Share it, encourage your audience to engage with it and even share it with their friends and contacts and interact with people through the comment section.

Make your content easily shareable on various social media platforms to ensure that it reaches as many eyes as it possibly can.

Since about 57.6% of the entire world’s population uses social media today, not promoting your business on these platforms doesn’t make much sense.

3. Don’t be scared to experiment

Since marketing is not a one-and-done type of deal, you can’t really expect to find a “magic formula” that will instantly work. Instead, you need to keep a close eye on all of your marketing efforts and see which of them brings the most visitors.

Additionally, you shouldn’t only rely on the methods that currently seem to work.

Instead, feel free to experiment a bit and try out new approaches and strategies. If they end up working – great! If not, you can always go back to what you were previously doing until you come up with a new idea.

4. Create killer headlines

The headline of your posts is the thing that will grab your audience’s attention and encourage them to click on it and read the content further. That’s why you need to make sure that you create headlines that your audience will find simply irresistible.

However, make sure you steer clear of clickbait titles and actually offer your audience something of value.

On top of that, do know that writing headlines can sometimes be even more difficult than creating the rest of the content itself. That’s why many professional writers sometimes create up to a dozen different headlines before they settle with the one that feels best and hit “publish.”

5. Turn your business into a brand

Branding a business is so much more than simply choosing a logo and starting to refer to your business as a brand. Here, you will get the opportunity to create a business persona that the audience will be able to relate to more easily.

And with the help of a reputable agency that offers creative branding services, you will be able to turn your endeavor into something that’s so much more than just a business.

Generally speaking, people vibe with brands far more than with simple businesses, as they have so much more they can relate to, such as your brand message and values, brand persona and identity, etc.

6. Don’t neglect on-page SEO

SEO is and has been crucial for business success for quite some time now. That’s why you need to make sure not to neglect it if you’re trying to boost your website traffic.
By making sure that all of your content is well optimized for search engines, you will instantly boost the chances of your website reaching the top of the SERPs.

Needless to say, the closer to the top you are, the greater the visibility you can expect. Generally speaking, web users rarely ever visit the second page of Google when looking for something online.

So, you need to make sure that your website is among the first results they’ll be presented with when looking something up.

7. Go back to guest blogging

For some reason, there’s a common misconception that guest blogging has become irrelevant. Of course, this couldn’t be further from the truth. If you manage to secure a place for your blog post on some relevant and reputable site, you can expect plenty of good things to happen.

First of all, your business will be perceived as much more trustworthy as it is being promoted by a reputable source.

Secondly, this is a great way to introduce your business to a wider audience and spike interest with people who haven’t already heard about you or your brand.

Finally, this will also positively affect your SEO efforts, which is only another thing to look forward to.

8. Guest blogging – a two-way street

Along the same lines as our previous point, make sure you not only post your blogs on other websites but accept guest blogs as well.

Since guest blogging works best when it’s done both ways, you really need to open your website up to other businesses from your industry. This will not only bring numerous benefits to both parties involved, but it will also present a great means to work towards referral traffic.

But pay special attention to both where you share your blogs and the type of blogs you’ll end up promoting on your website to avoid potentially associating your business with a less-reputable or trustworthy party.
So, make sure you do your research and get into the cross-promotion with only the parties that are actually worth it.

9. Be precise with your keyword targeting

Whenever there’s any talk about keywords, it’s often advised that businesses focus on high-intent keywords. This, of course, is extremely important as without securing those keywords, you can’t really expect to advance.

But do keep in mind that the majority of web searches actually consist of more than just a few simple words.
Instead, online users most commonly google entire phrases when looking for things online. That’s why you should expand your keyword targeting to account for long-tail keywords as well.

Long-tail keywords are the most similar to actual inquiries people type in search engines when looking things up online, so try to identify the ones that will work best for your business.

10. Rely on email marketing

Nowadays, when talking about online business promotion, many people forget to mention email marketing. And since it’s safe to say that email marketing was one of the first forms of online promotion, this can be understandable to a certain point.

Many businesses (wrongly) believe that email marketing has become obsolete. Luckily, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Email marketing is still an extremely powerful tool for business promotion and one of the best ways you can increase your website traffic. And since email marketing is basically free, yet it offers significant ROI, there really is no reason to ignore it.

11. Ensure that your site is responsive and fast

Since the technology has advanced so much, the days of slow-loading and unresponsive websites are over. What this means is that there’s no longer a place on the internet for websites that are performing poorly.

According to research, one in every four visitors will abandon your website if it takes more than 4 seconds to load fully.

Additionally, every 1-second delay will result in diminished customer satisfaction, while as much as 64% of shoppers will choose to shop somewhere else if they weren’t satisfied with the experience on your website.

That’s why you need to make sure your website’s loading speed and responsiveness are at least optimal, if not excellent.

Of course, you also need to account for mobile shoppers as well, since nowadays, almost every single person owns some type of mobile device, and a great percentage of them has made at least one online purchase via those devices.

12. Make your website a safe place to be

Due to the fact that online security is everyone’s top priority these days, you can’t really expect to experience an increase in website traffic if your website isn’t safe to begin with.

Simply put, unless your (potential) visitors can see right from the first glance that your website is properly secured, they won’t be inclined to click on it and explore it further.

So, make sure you invest in all the necessary security measures that will help you keep both your business and your visitors safe. This is particularly important in case your visitors don’t simply browse your website but also leave any type of personal or sensitive data.

13. Offer more than just products or services

Naturally, every online business has the ultimate goal of boosting its sales and increasing its revenue. But businesses that focus solely on the sales aspect of their endeavor don’t always get what they want, as they can often come off as too money-grabby.

So, instead of simply bombarding your audience with various products/services promotions, think about offering something more to them.

Webinars, video guides and tutorials, presentations and similar content can offer great value to your audience without necessarily expecting anything from them in return.

In short, don’t make your visitors feel like the only reason to visit your website is to spend money.

14. Check what your competition is doing

In the business world, it’s not only important to focus your attention on your side of the fence, but also peak a bit over. What we mean to say is that you need to know what your competition is doing in order to be able to beat them.

So, make sure you research your competitors and see how they’ve approached the matter of increasing their website traffic. See what they’ve done and what seems to be working for them. That way, you can get the idea of how you can try and do the same in hopes of achieving the same results.

15. Don’t just speak but listen

This may come off as a bit of a surprise to some, but audiences really like businesses that are interested in feedback. So, one of the easiest ways to bring more traffic to your website is to encourage your audience to help you find ways to improve it.

Simply ask your current audience what they would like to change about your website and how they would improve it. Additionally, encourage them to ask their friends and family to join in as well.

But, most importantly, don’t let all the gathered data simply slip away. Instead, make sure you actually do listen to what your audience is saying and don’t be scared to make some changes – at least the ones that make sense for your business.

Final thoughts

As you had the opportunity to see, boosting traffic on your website really isn’t that difficult.

The most important thing you need to decide upfront is what you want to achieve with your efforts. Once you answer that question, it will become significantly easier to identify the ways in which you can reach your goals.

Authors bio:

Victor Baldin is a digital marketing specialist, currently working as a freelancer and at Digital Strategy One. Love to explore the newest web trends, tech, and marketing tools.