Every website needs special features that make it easier to manage, autonomous and of course, avoid constant headaches. For this reason, all CMSs have extensions or plugins that allow to implement functionalities and improve both management and user experience.
In the web application stores of each manager there are many options but which one is the right one, are they worth the price, why do I need to have them?
We will answer all these questions in our post:
What is a plugin, module or extension?
They are applications developed with the objective of implementing new features to those already existing on your website. They can be to improve performance, logistics management, enable payment methods, optimize your feed, etc.
There are as many functions as there are plugins available, so, among this large number of options, we will tell you the most profitable and useful ones according to your needs. CMS type, and today it's WordPress' turn.
Configuration plugins for WordPress:
There are indispensable functions for any type of websiteWhether it is an e-commerce site made with Woocomerce, a lead site or a simple blog. These are, of course, cookie management, web analytics, caching and security systems.
Plugin for Google Analytics:
Data without control over it is nothing. It is very important that you set up from the very beginning an Google Analytics account to be able to measure the most vital metrics such as users, revenue, traffic source, leads, etc.
With GTM4WP you can configure it easily and you will also have the possibility to integrate it through Tag Manager, which facilitates, for example, the management of events with Google Analytics 4 (GA4). This makes it one of the most versatile, being suitable for simple websites as well as for businesses and online stores.
Plugin for Cookies management:
It is very important to comply with the RGPD Law. To do this, you must know the legal aspects that apply in your country and provide the user with all the necessary information on how cookies are handled on your website. There are plugins created specifically to configure this warning on your website, although you should always make sure that they are updated.
We recommend one that provides customization options, both in terms of design and content. It is about CookieYes | GDPR Cookie Consent & Compliance Notice (CCPA Ready) which is very complete for sales in different European countries and offers versatility for websites with different languages.
Cache and performance:
An essential aspect of any website is the cache and the speed of response of your website. Nowadays, Google values positively when you offer a good user experience, as we explained in our latest SEO webinar.
For this reason, we recommend you to count with a good caching system to improve web speed which you can complement with other performance plugins, but be careful! It is recommended that you consult with your development expert to assess the best option based on your server and web requirements. Otherwise there may be problems of compatibility or effects on some of the resources you use, among others.
Many of these plugins take into account the Core Web Vitals, metrics that Google uses to measure web performance and that are vital to the user experience.
Here are some of our recommendations favorites:
–WP RocketThe most compatible with the different themes and plugins available in WordPress.
–Siteground Optimizer: ideal if you have your website hosted on a server of the same developers.
–NitropackA very powerful option with a free version available for websites with low traffic.
Something to keep in mind, and that we personally don't like so much, are those plugins with constant monitoring. Keep in mind that if a module is constantly running analytics on your website, this will affect the performance and in the long run it will be a problem. For this reason, we recommend you to have plugins that will to have control over them and incorporate advanced customization options.
Security plugins:
If your hosting does not offer advanced security settings, you can always supplement the configuration with WordPress security plugins. These serve to prevent malicious traffic, ensure connection to a secure protocol and analyze any other point of attack on your website.
The most commonly used today are Wordfence, AIOS y iThemes Security to name a few.
IMPORTANT: security is a vital aspect of any website. Data are a valuable resource, but they are also susceptible to and therefore must be protected. However, many servers have their own protection system so before installing a plugin, consult with your developer to see the best security alternative for your website.
SEO Plugins for WordPress:
The purpose of a The ultimate goal of the web is to get people to access it, so that organic positioning is of vital importance. This is based on improving the user experience and offering quality content, but it is also subject to some technical aspects. When Google enters your site, it will value aspects such as content quality, authority, performance, usability, etc., but for this it also needs to understand your website.
In this sense, we would like to recommend our favorite SEO modules:
Structured data:
Indispensable for Google and others search engines understand our website. By implementing them, each page will automatically have the following features structured data on product pages, categories, brands, etc.
Our favorite plugin is Schema & Structured Data as it has a wide variety of data types to add to the different pages of your site. Its configuration is very simple and compatible with other plugins. Even, if it is well combined with the design, it can be automated quite easily, ideal if we have many pages or product catalogs.
Canonicals and hreflang:
If you have problems with duplicity of contentcanonicals are one of the most important technical implementations since it is an HTML tag that indicates what is the original content of your page.
On the other hand, if you have several languagesIn addition, it is essential that Google shows users the correct version based on their geographic location, something that is achieved thanks to the hreflang tags.
The widely known Yoast SEO includes various functionalities for content and others, but among them we highlight the possibility of implement canonicals in a customized way. With regard to hreflang, plugins such as WPML o PolyLang allow multiple languages to be configured and automatically generate the labels, which is very useful for web internationalization.
Optimization of titles and meta descriptions:
Optimizing meta titles and meta descriptions can be a headache. In online stores with more than 1,000 product urls to do this task becomes unfeasible, and for this there are plugins that allow you to automate the generation of these tags. The most used and our favorite option is Yoast SEO to the one mentioned in the previous point.
It is a simple plugin that allows you to generate titles and descriptions on each page, thus facilitating the correct generation of the same based on the keyword main of that content. In addition, it provides support with other aspects to take into account when preparing them and gives us an example view of how our page would be displayed in the search results.
IMPORTANTRemember that all automation must have an SEO manager or specialist to verify the changes, nobody would like to lose all the work because of a badly implemented change.
Redirection plugins:
Finally, we would like to mention a complicated but very important task within SEO and web management in general: redirections.
When a URL ceases to exist or is modified, Google is no longer able to access it, and this generates the well-known ERROR 404. To solve this, temporary or permanent redirects must be performed (depending on each case).
To do this, you can implement a redirection plugin that allows you to create new or edit old redirects. We recommend the WordPress plugin Redirection. It is quite simple to use and allows you to have control over all the errors that may be generated on your site.
IMPORTANTThis task requires knowledge of SEO and development. We recommend that you consult your SEO manager or your IT specialist before using this plugin.
Do you need help to include plugins in your website?
What do you think of our recommendations? It is important to say that we always warn of the need to rely on a SEO expert or a developer to be able to implement and work with these plugins correctly as well as get the maximum possible performance. With all this you will achieve much better performance, analytics and your positioning on the Internet, a big push to work better and achieve greater results.
If you need support, our SEO specialists are always available to advise and support you in this kind of tasks. In Geotelecom we dominate the work with websites developed in WordPress and other CMS whether stores, businesses or media. So do not hesitate and contact with us.
