WordPress is undoubtedly one of the most widely used content management systems (CMS) on the market.
One of the great benefits of WordPress is the wide variety of plugins you can add to your website to increase functionality, SEO value, and much more.
Here are some of our favorite plugins that we think you should be using on your WordPress site.
All in One SEO Pack
From metadata to social media meta tags to XML sitemaps, this plugin does it all – and for free! Metadata is an essential part of a website, as it denotes what will display as the preview of your page in SERPs (search engine results pages).
Not only does this plugin let you add metadata to all of your pages and posts, but it has a ton of free add-on features that allow you to enhance your website from an SEO standpoint.
With the ability to noindex pages, remove aspects from your sitemap, and choose featured images for social media, this plugin is loaded with premium features with no cost.
Classic Editor
After WordPress recently rolled out their Gutenberg update, many avid WordPress content managers fled to the web to share how much they missed the classic editor interface.
Thankfully, this free plugin allows you to revert back to the classic editor so you can go back to updating your content the easy way!
WP Rocket
Does your website load slower than a snail? Then it might be time to invest in a caching plugin, such as WP Rocket.
In short, caching helps browsers and servers retain memory of the files on a website, meaning that every time the site is loaded, it uses the files that it has saved so everything can load quicker.
With this paid plugin, your website speed can increase exponentially, as it does a lot of fancy behind-the-scenes work such as:
- Page and browser caching
- Database optimization
- Cache and sitemap preloading
- Minification and lazy loading
- GZIP compression
- Much more
With a one-time purchase of just $49, you will be able to add WP Rocket to your website and also receive a year of support and updates.
Schema Pro
Adding structured data markup for search engines to read can give your website a much-needed boost in the eyes of Google. Introduced back in 2011, schema has been widely popular ever since, allowing webmasters to add to many websites through some complicated code.
With the help of Schema Pro’s plugin, however, they take the work out of coding and provide a user-friendly interface to add in important information about your website. While this plugin is also paid, it has a great return on investment as it easily allows you to add in data for:
- Reviews
- Services
- Recipes
- Software applications
- Video objects
- Books
- People
- Products
- Local businesses
- Articles
- Courses
- Job postings
- Events
If you have ever seen the gold star ratings that appear for some websites in search, it’s all thanks to schema markup:
AMP for WP
As mobile has only become more important for Google, giving your pages the ability to be AMPs (Accelerated Mobile Pages) can further enhance your site’s capability to be found in mobile searches.
With this plugin, your content will automatically be turned into AMPs that will be visible on Google – not to mention, it is free to download!
Need Help with WordPress?
At Sixth City Marketing, we are WordPress experts, and with locations in both Cleveland and Columbus, we serve all of Ohio, the Midwest, and beyond.
So if you have a WordPress site and need help implementing any of the above plugins, or just need assistance with SEO marketing in general, don’t hesitate to reach out for a free website evaluation!