Numerous WordPress plugins cater to specific website types and niches. However, some plugins enhance any site, irrespective of its audience or industry. Below are six of the best universally applicable WordPress plugins that can benefit every WP website.
WP Table Builder
Irrespective of the niche, engaging and retaining website visitors requires dynamic content. When explaining a product or service’s benefits, illustrating return on investment, or presenting quantifiable aspects of an offering, using table-based information and showcasing raw data is often beneficial.
Installing the WP Table Builder plugin would be wise for any website. It enables CSV and XML file imports, allowing customers to view structured data directly from your Excel sheets. A free and a premium version are available, with the premium costing $40 annually. With advanced excel skills, you can create impressive spreadsheets that present data informatively for your site visitors’ purchasing decisions.
Applicable WordPress Plugins: Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO, a universally applicable plugin for any site, ensures your content is SEO optimized, including readability checks. Your blog posts’ and website content’s SEO optimization significantly impacts their ranking in search engine results pages (SERPs), influencing the organic traffic you can anticipate.
The Yoast plugin identifies your content’s shortcomings before publishing and recommends improvements for a better SEO score. It also provides a “readability” score, which Google considers for page rank, indicating the ease of reading your writing. Since web writing differs from long-form writing, tools like Yoast can be beneficial.
WooCommerce
Any eCommerce business requires a plugin like WooCommerce for its online store. WooCommerce integrates seamlessly with numerous other universally applicable WordPress plugins necessary for eCommerce, offering a viable alternative to Shopify. Abundant themes and free customization options allow you to swiftly begin selling physical products, affiliate products, and digital products.
Askimet
Askimet, arguably one of the most popular, if not the most popular, spam filter plugins for WordPress, can save you countless hours. It constantly monitors your blog comments, eliminating anything appearing spammy. Askimet is free for personal use, with monthly paid plans offering more comprehensive features.
Website ownership inevitably involves dealing with spam, potentially a significant amount. Blogs with comment sections, for instance, will invariably attract spam comments from individuals and bots attempting to exploit your site. Some spam links can even be malicious, directing users to harmful websites or triggering spyware or malware downloads. In reality, up to 95 percent of all comments on blogs, message boards, and chat rooms are spam or malicious.
Applicable WordPress Plugins: Jetpack
Jetpack, one of the most versatile plugins available, is used by millions of WordPress websites globally across a wide array of industries and niches. It is highly trusted due to the publisher’s continuous service improvements and expanding offerings. It bolsters security by thwarting brute force attacks, optimizes content, enhances engagement, monitors your website, provides site backups, and much more.
This plugin, often standard with many WordPress themes, encompasses everything you might need. Both free and commercial plans are available. If your chosen theme lacks Jetpack, it should be one of your initial installations.
WP Forms
WP Forms is another indispensable plugin for any site, as all websites require a means for customer contact. Contact forms, ubiquitous online, are an essential part of your customer service. This applicable WordPress plugin enables visitors and customers to reach you with questions and inquiries. WP Forms, likely the most widely used and intuitive form tool, facilitates the rapid creation of functional and effective contact forms for any audience.
Universally Applicable WordPress Plugins Conclusion
While an excessive number of activated plugins can hinder your site’s performance, not everyone possesses the coding expertise to develop the aforementioned functionalities from scratch. Consequently, most individuals will need to install some of the many valuable WordPress plugins available. The plugins discussed above represent just a fraction of the hundreds of excellent and helpful WP plugins available to optimize your site, but they are likely essential regardless of your niche or industry.