Content Management Systems, CMS’s are the holy grail of the internet, there is no question about that. The reason for this is pretty straightforward; they have gone a long way in making it possible for anyone who has absolutely no idea how to code to be able to have a website up and running in no time at all. This in turn has increased the total number of published blogs to an estimated 152 million in 2013 (currently estimated to 200 million in the year 2016) according to Quora.
Of this number, there are 211 million new pieces of content created every single minute, according to Little Jack Marketing. A whopping 409 million people view more than 22.2 billion pages on WordPress, WP, CMS blogs every single month. Picture those statistics they are quite amazing. CMS have made it possible for potential and existing customers to concentrate on the important things, which in this case is to create compelling, original and valuable content for their audiences.
They have shortened the time to publishing on the internet considerably since you can have a blog running in 5 minutes flat on free hosting form WP in no time at all. However, the thing that is worth noting is that these CMS come bare-boned. They come bundled with minimal functionality, the bare essentials, for you to submit and publish content, so that if you need added functionality, you have to invest in linking your website with plugins, most of which are freely available on the website of the creator of the CMS of your choice.
For instance, WP has more than 46,000 plugins, which have downloaded 1.3 billion times, at last count as of August 2016 and the vast majority of these plugins are free to use and even easier to install. In all cases, within your user dashboard (after you have logged into your WP administration panel, to install a plugin, you simply click on the plugin menu (located on the left hand side of the panel), choose the plugin of your liking, click install, activate it and you are good to go.
The fact though is that if you are faced with too many choices, the likelihood of making a dumb choice increases exponentially. So, as a brand new owner of WP website, you need all the help that you can get to install the best plugins that will make your website’s User Interface, UI and Usability, UX, stand you apart from the maddening crowd. You need to know which plugins you must have in order to help your website take off from the blocks.
Here is a curated list of the top plugins that you must have, if you are to have a WP website that will fulfill its purpose of being engaging, fully functional and aesthetically pleasing. To have these plugins installed professionally, you can always talk to the folks at engage the crowd OC;
OptinMonster
The sad statistic is that up to 70% of website visitors who visit your website will never come back, that is the sad reality. Do not lose hope yet, as they is something that you can do, using this cool WP plugin, to make sure that they stay engaged with your blog or website. In effect, you will be able to convert your traffic to loyal readers (and convert them to buy your service or product).
This OptinMonster plugin allows you to create a beautiful optin form that is proven to convert. It comes packed with exit-intent technology, page-level targeting and behavior automation. This has been proven to increase the conversion rate by 785%,whichis a sevenfold increase in conversions, not bad.
Monarch Floating Social Share
On average 79% of the time spent online is spent on social media. Therefore, it is a no brainer that you need to be to have your content shared on social media if you are to engage these large segments of the population.
Monarch allows your users to share your content on all the major social media platforms easily and quickly, by the use of a floating button. You can choose the layout and the number of websites that you wish to have your content shared on.
Mail Chimp
This plugin allows you to create lists of subscribers to effectively manage your subscribers, whilst adding others. You can embed this to your contact form, checkout or comments forms, seamlessly. The forms are not only good looking but also fully functional.
Sucuri
With the continued rise of the internet and with an active user base of 3.5 billion in 2016, the rise in cybercrime has sky rocketed by the same margin. In this case, you need a security plugin, which will take care of security integrity monitoring, malware detection and security hardening. Sucuri is the plugin for the job.
The advanced functionality that this plugin offers includes file integrity monitoring, blacklist monitoring, post-hack security actions, security notifications and website firewall. This has a superior positive effect on your overall security posture, which is integral in making sure that your website is always up and running.
Yoast SEO
Search Engine Optimization, SEO, is the big difference between being found on the internet or sinking into oblivion. If you prefer the former (and who doesn’t), you must have a way in which all your content is optimized and easily searchable (easily findable) on the internet.
The Yoast SEO will help you to not only increase the rankings of your website, but it will also increase the click through rate for organic search results. It offers advanced functionality, such as page analysis, technical SEO, meta and link elements, xml sitemaps, RSS optimization and much more, you can read all about the Yoast SEO here.
