When it comes to WordPress plugins, one look at the screen to add more plugins and it’s straight to overwhelm. And with over 54,000 plugins that’s understandable. The sorting feature is well… let’s just say it’s lackluster at best. The only other option is to search by a keyword. But unless you know what to search for you’ll probably be lost there. So let’s make things easier and go over some of my must have WordPress plugins for online business websites.
Over the years I’ve amassed a collection of what I consider to be the best must have WordPress plugins for an online business website out there. So let’s dive in.
You know, if you’re interested in the first plugin on the list (it’s about SEO), then you should know something. How your website looks has an impact on making an impression and keeping people on your website. And if you can keep people on your website, then you’ll look better to search engines like Google.
If you’re totally unsure about designing a website that looks good so you can keep people on your site and help your SEO out… you need to check out Simple Site Secrets today.
Simple Site Secrets is a 5 day workshop to give your current or next website a makeover and improve your reader experience.
Now let’s get back to that list of my must have WordPress plugins for online business websites.
This is a must have WordPress plugin for a business website. Your goal with SEO is to get your website found and ranking on search engines like Google. And even better, it’s free.
That’s right, it’s a free WordPress plugin you can install on your website. Sure, there’s a paid version of it, of course. But I’ve yet to purchase the paid version… even after all these years.
It’s very user friendly, and walks you through optimizing your blog posts for SEO. Plus it works with plugin number 11 on my list too.
It may not be on your radar to even worry about website security, but it should. It’s a whole other blog post topic to list all the things you can do to make your website more secure. But, one way you can make things more secure… use the Wordfence plugin.
It’s an easy free WordPress plugin you can install to manage your website. It’s as simple as install and activate and it’s already working. Again, how to use it would be another blog post in itself.
But, just setting it up is an improvement.
It will email you when any admin logs into your website. And, if someone tries to reset a password it will do the same as well. It also lets you know when you have a plugin out of date that needs to be updated. (As a side note bonus tip… one reason for updates is to fix security issues in previous versions. Hackers can exploit these issues to try and hack your site. So you should always keep it up to date.)
Plus, it sends a weekly report to you of the IP address it’s blocked that have tried to do something to your site or log into it as well. It’s a great set it and forget it easy thing you can do to protect your website.
I have to say that this is probably my number one must have WordPress Plugin to manage your WordPress website. It’s my absolute favorite!! After all, It’s at the core of my business.
Elementor is more than just a page builder. It’s an entire theme builder. It integrates with things like WooCommerce and more to help you really customize your website.
Every WordPress website is going to have a theme. This is the foundation of what it looks like. But Elementor let’s you go beyond that limiting theme and build your website in any way you can imagine. And the best part, you don’t have to be a web designer to use it.
Related Reading: Not all page builders are made the same. Click here to find out why.
At this point I feel like a broken record almost. I feel like I’m starting to repeat myself. But when I say that this is a must have WordPress plugin for a business website… I mean it.
For a very low cost every year, I get access to the updates of the plugin all the time. And, it’s how I manage my Pinterest Pins. And we all know there’s so many Pins and so little time. But this plugin is how I manage to make sure my pins always keep that magical SEO pin description when they get pinned.
So this is a new gem I found recently. I had heard of Thrive Suites in the past, but I hadn’t ever had a reason to dive into using it. But wow… I’m so glad I finally had a reason. I almost feel like I was missing out on this amazing tool.
So Thrive does a bunch of things. It’s got everything from a website theme builder to a course platform and more recently a membership option too. Plus more things I haven’t mentioned here.
The beauty of this is that they’ve created all the plugins for you here, so they all work together beautifully. It’s an affordable way to build a course platform on your own domain that you control.
So when it comes to your website… and blog more specifically… there’s gonna be a ton of images you have to sift through.
One of the worst things is to have to scroll through pages of images looking for that one image you know you uploaded to your website… or worse… uploading it again and adding more unnecessary files to slow down your website.
Plus I also have to be organized because that’s what makes things easier in my life. I love organization… Sometimes I think I should have gone into the organization field as a profession. But I wouldn’t change what I do for anything in the world.
And this plugin is what helps keep all those images cleaned up.
I searched high and low for a plugin that would do what I wanted, and I finally found it.
In essence you have categories, and you can even nest categories. So you can set a parent category of Blog Posts, and you can nest a category below that for each blog post.
Then you upload your images to your website, and you label those images with the category for that specific blog post.
This way when you go to add them to your blog post or reference them later, you can easily find them and sift through all the images.
The only caveat with this plugin is that you have to add the category label to each image individually. You can’t do it in bulk, but you can make as many categories as you like.
You can even make a category for the images on your website for each of your products, lead magnets, or courses, the possibilities are endless.
This plugin builds off what I mentioned in the security plugin. Having a regularly updated backup of your website on hand to use anytime is essential. If anything should happen, you need to make sure that you can quickly recover it.
Allowing for less down time, no extra work, and less stress too.
You can download your backup, set it to upload the backup to a tool like Google Drive, and you can even restore the backup with a click of a button.
One thing you’ll come across in a more technical side of things is adding a bit of code to the header (usually the header, sometimes the footer) of your website.
The header and footer section of your website is something that isn’t seen on the page, but it holds some essential information for the browser. It’s a place to preload some information so it loads first even before the website does.
Usually you’ll have to add a snippet of code for things like Google Analytics, Pinterest, and Facebook Pixels.
This plugin lets you easily add the code to your website without having to stress.
Plus, as a bonus tip… add some comments to the code so you know what each piece of code goes to when you look back through it years later.
You can add a comment by simply copying and pasting the following line of code into your header or footer section. Then paste in your snippet of code and you’ve got a handy note for later. Just make sure to put this on it’s own line and paste your code on the next line. To keep it clean and easy to read.
<!–Your Note or Label Here–>
One of the best things you can do for your blog is to share some more related posts at the end. That way your readers want to keep exploring and reading your blog.
I know I’ve personally clicked on a ton of these related posts images at the bottom.
And this is a great free WordPress plugin to install on your website. It’s easy to install but it does take a little bit more work to get used to. It keeps it very light weight and doesn’t slow your website down, but this means you’ll have to do a little reading before you go using it.
If you’ve ever heard of what a shortcode is on your website then good, this is what this plugin uses. If not, it’s okay. A short code is a small block of code. Either way, dig into the documentation on this plugin before you go using it. They have a ton of documentation to help you figure it out.
I know I’m a web designer, I’m a techy person… I should love Gutenberg… but the absolute truth… I hate it. To be blunt… it can burn for all I care.
I’ve never liked it, not from day 1. I’ve tried to use it, and it’s just not intuitive or user friendly.
I prefer the good old classic editor on WordPress. I don’t feel like I have to fight some space age thing just to make a post or a page on my site.
It’s a great free plugin you can install that will revert the Gutenberg editor to the Classic editor. So, if you struggle with Gutenberg, try the Classic version. I know I prefer it much better to the new one.
And not having to use Gutenberg has made this one of my must have WordPress plugins for online business websites. Let’s make things easier, not harder.
If you’ve got a shop of any kind this is a must have WordPress plugin for your online business website. It’s one of the most popular plugins out there for building a store on your website. Plus, it works well with plugin number 3 on this list. Helping you make a more custom looking store.
Plus as another bonus, if you’ve ever thought about creating a course platform on a website of your own and not relying on one of those course creation platforms. Then I have some cool news!
If you’ve never heard of Thrive Themes, do I have something to share with you. It’s a pack of WordPress plugins that you can use on your website. They do a ton of things. From a theme builder to a course platform and even a Membership site too. You can use WooCommerce and Thrive Themes to manage selling your courses.
And That Is My Ultimate List of Must Have WordPress Plugins for Online Business Websites
I know that may seem like a lot of plugins but they’re all ones I use for Behind the Scenes Genius in some way or another.
So the next time you take a look at that list of plugins on your website, check out this list of must have WordPress plugins for online business websites. You just may find the perfect solution to what you’re wanting to make happen.
And speaking of making things happen on your website, you have to take a look at Simple Site Secrets. It’s just 5 days and you’ll learn a ton of things to give your website a makeover.
