Today, competent web design is more important than ever. With more and more of the world’s commerce going online, businesses with a competently-made website, a user-friendly storefront, and good branding can expect to see an increase in their eCommerce revenue year-over-year for the foreseeable future. 

A recent study has shown that the post-Covid-19 landscape will show unprecedented growth for specific key progress indicators in as little as five years. Areas like the number of young adult shoppers, eCommerce saturation for in-demand markets, and total dollars spent online have all shown meteoric shifts upwards, reinforcing the need for companies to circle the wagons, improve their local SEO, and shore up areas of their website that needs improvement.

WordPress and the Perfect Plugins

According to WordPress, over 409 million people view more than 20 billion of their pages each month. With total internet sites surpassing 1.197 billion, the need for better plugins that allow domain owners to exert more control over their security and search engine optimization is key. This is no secret, and in response, more than 58,000 plugins have been created to optimize WordPress to handle all the responsibilities these websites have to bear. Below are a few of the most important plugins that cover functions like security, search engine optimization, and commerce.

Search engine optimization

  • Yost SEO: This plugin is used by Gravitate Online on many of the WordPress sites that we manage, and we couldn’t recommend it more. It is one of the easiest ways to optimize SEO on a sitewide or page-by-page basis by giving you greater control over the metadata and keywords, as well as user-friendly data on strength of your website. 
  • All in One SEO: Another favorite of Gravitate Online’s programming department, All in One is a great plugin for beginners in local SEO. Not only does it connect to the Google Search Console, but it can be optimized for social media as well.

Security

  • Google Authenticator: Website security is no joke, and this plugin takes it seriously. It will help you install dual-factor authentication on your pages that works in tandem with an app you can download to your phone. 
  • Sucuri: Perhaps the most robust security option you can get for your WordPress site, Sucuri will help you install a firewall on your pages that will help filter out harmful agents and malicious attacks. This plugin will help you sleep at night knowing that you and your users are protected from those who would compromise personal information.

Commerce

  • OptinMonster: If you’re concerned that traditional advertising is too broad of a basket to rely upon for sales generation, OptinMonster is the best plugin to supplement all your other efforts. Designed to help you gather email addresses and increase the engagement of the people already on your site, this plugin gives you far more creative tools to make eye-catching buttons and opt-in forms that will eventually help drive sales on your website.
  • WooCommerce: If you’re looking for the most-used eCommerce plugin on WordPress, WooCommerce is it. Not only will this plugin help you create a user-friendly storefront, but it has reached such monolithic proportions that many of the most popular plugins have been optimized for it. 

For many, WordPress is like an extension of their office, for all the control it gives them over their domain. Finding the best plugins will help you save time, money, and effort, as most of them are constantly being improved for better performance and wider implementation. If you know that web design is important but are confused about how to start (or even if you’re up for this, yourself), our team at Gravitate Online would love to help you take your business to the next level.