WordPress is an open-source content management system that uses themes and plugins to tailor your website to your needs. It is also the most popular platform on the web powering 40% of all websites on the internet.
Why is WordPress the leading website platform? We can’t speak for everyone, but as a Vermont web design company that designs and builds many WordPress sites for clients, we have a few ideas. Learn why we love to create WordPress websites and why we recommend it to many of our clients.
WordPress Features
WordPress enables you to customize every part of your site easily using themes and plugins, so you don’t need to be a coding expert to manage and edit your site.
Themes make designing a professional, navigatable, and attractive site simple. Beginners can even find beginner-friendly themes for those who aren’t sure where to start.
You can always go back and edit your site later; in fact, you want to keep your site updated to bring your viewers the most up-to-date and authentic representation of your brand, and WordPress makes it easy to make changes and expand capabilities.
Your website is best utilized with the right plugins. Plugins allow you to quickly add special features to your site and expand its functionality without needing an expert developer.
5 Ways You Can Use WordPress Plugins
1. SEO
Search engine optimization is going to be one of your most effective strategies for driving leads and sales.
Yoast is one of the most popular WordPress SEO plugins and offers many important features for free and the option for premium extensions. Free features like Page Analysis will show you where you can further optimize so you don’t forget any of the important details.
We use Yoast on all of our clients’ sites because it is comprehensive and effective.
2. Contact Forms
When you get a new site visitor, you don’t want to lose contact once they leave the page. Contact forms are another essential plugin for your site to keep you in conversation with your target audience.
WP Forms is a paid plugin that helps you easily create contact forms, email subscription forms, online order forms, payment forms, surveys, and polls so you can get the information you need without the hassle of complicated coding.
Contact Form 7 is another popular plugin available for free that uses a form template system, which may be less intuitive to some compared to the more modern drag-and-drop system.
3. Google Analytics
Many businesses of all sizes are using Google Analytics to track their website traffic. To learn more, check out our blog on measuring website performance here.
MonsterInsights allows you to make the most of Google Analytics by providing you with more in-depth information and is one of the most popular plugins for Google Analytics.
Plugins like Dashboards will allow you to better analyze the data your collect from Google Analytics by clearly presenting the information you are most interested in. Analytify offers a free and premium dashboard plugin that will show your data in an easy-to-read format.
4. Images
Imagery is a major component of a website, but images can often slow down a site or display improperly.
Free plugins like Envira Gallery Lite allow you to easily drag and drop your images and optimizes images for SEO and site speed. Mobile responsivity is also a must-have for every site, so plugins like Responsive Lightbox can help ensure a smooth customer experience on any device.
5. Backup and Security
Your website is a central part of your digital marketing strategy, so you want to make sure your information is safe and secure.
Use UpdraftPlus Backups to backup files to a number of sites including Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, and email available for free with the option for paid upgrades.
Similarly, security should be a top priority, and plugins like Sucuri will protect your data with web application firewalls, virus scanning, and malware removal and suggestions for changes to better protect your site.
Why We Offer and Recommend WordPress
At Breezy Hill Marketing, we work hard to create customized, high-performance websites that are tailored to meet our clients’ unique needs.
As our clients’ brands evolve, we must manage a site that meets all of their growing needs, and WordPress is our go-to website platform because with 50,000+ plugins and attractive themes it makes creating a beautiful and powerful website easy.
Thanks for reading,
Christine
