If you’re going to start your very own site, it’s hard to argue against using WordPress. It’s the most used platform for blogs but has seen significantly more applications for all sites across the board. The main thing that sets WordPress apart is the myriad of plugins that enhance the base platform making it highly versatile. These are some of the best plugins to use when starting a site (no coding required).
An SSL certificate is something every site needs to operate on the web – it functions as an encryption guarantee. WP Force SSL lets you obtain a valid SSL certificate and automatically keeps track of the certificate’s expiry and any other issues that may arise that would designate it as not valid. Apart from the automatic monitoring, you’ll also be able to run manual scans for elements on each of the pages individually.
Upon starting a new site, there are bound to be pages that don’t lead anywhere because you’re still setting it up. It’s important for your visitors to always have a page to land on, so a plugin like WP 301 Redirects can work wonders. Automatic redirects will take care of things like typos in the URL. You can set up manual rules (permanent or temporary) for individual pages or use a site-wide redirect to an “under construction” page if you’re working out some kinks.
WP Sticky will enable you to make any element on the page stick, emphasizing it in the parameters you’ve set beforehand. Usually used for headers that contain menus, or footers that contain other notable links, you can also make important multimedia content constantly visible. Through advanced filter settings, sticky elements can be assigned to individual pages, posts, categories, etc.
Here are a couple of must-have plugins for webshops that run WooCommerce with WordPress.
Organizing product shipping has become increasingly more complex recently. It’s therefore important to give yourself and your customers numerous options to ship their products. WooCommerce Table Rate Shipping enables you to create highly customizable solutions with calculations taking into account fixed and variable costs pertaining to weight, total price, item count, and many more.
- WooCommerce Order Export
The WooCommerce Order Export plugin enables you to export reports within selected data ranges, only for specific attributes (like currency), only new orders, etc. Within these reports, you’ll have hundreds of fields to choose from that can be included or excluded from the final table. You can even set up scheduled exports according to your needs that will run automatically.
Summary
There are so many plugins to choose from when starting a WordPress site. Therefore it is hard to separate the good from the bad. The five we’ve highlighted are applicable universally or in specific situations, but with their mix of a user-friendly interface, significant enhancements to the default features, and overall usefulness, each should easily slide into your top site management tools.
