Are you looking for the «whys» you should use WordPress plugins for your website? Then your search ends here. As we are going to share 10 immense benefits of WP plugins, they will surely encourage you to use them right away.
There is no doubt that WordPress is the leading CMS platform, with over 810 million websites as of 2023. This makes up around 43% of total websites across the globe. Huge, right? Also, it is pretty evident that the number of features, functionality, and kind of ecosystem it provides to users is great.
However, to get the most out of this platform, every website owner needs a third-party plugin or extension. These WP plugins provide over-the-top performance whether you are building an eCommerce, blogging, portfolio, personal, business, or NGO website. From creating an engaging website with unique styling elements to managing comments or feedback from a single place to creating ready-to-use section blocks, there are a lot of things a WP plugin can do for you.
At this point in time, there are 58,000+ plugins in the WordPress repository. These are the free plugins that we mentioned. Not even to get us started on the paid plugins, which are altogether another world.
Enough about it?
Let’s dive into the perks that WordPress plugins are ready to deliver to make your website a success.
What are WordPress Plugins?
WordPress plugins are software elements that are scripted in the PHP language and are built for adding one-of-a-kind functionality to your WP website. They simplify the process for you without requiring you to enter the coding world.
Speaking of the difficulty level of using them, that differs from simple to complex based on your site’s requirements. In such cases, having a brief technical knowledge gives you an upper hand over those who don’t have it. And even if you find a bit of difficulty, you can always take a helping hand by hiring a WordPress plugin developer.
Additionally, the plugin API lets WordPress developers add new features from time to time. So, there will be monotony if you think so, and we will keep upgrading you with the new add-on content. For instance, in addition to posts or pages, you can use taxonomies or custom files to store different sorts of content.
Now, that you have a glimpse of what WordPress plugins are, let’s jump onto the advantages of using them.
Why should you use WordPress plugins?
A WordPress plugin can do more than just the aforementioned points. Let’s have a close look at them:
Tightens up the security
Similar to a computer that is protected via anti-virus software, a website’s security depends on two crucial elements: the hosting you choose and the plugins you integrate. For example, there are security plugins available in both the WordPress repository and WordPress.com. These plugins help you protect your data from breaches and continuous malware attacks.
Buy yourself more time
Another great advantage of using WP plugins is that you already have everything ready on your plate. As an example, consider a scenario where you need to create a contact form for your site so that your customers can directly reach out to you and clear their doubts.
Now, with plugins like Contact Form 7, you just need to install and activate them. You no longer need to invest hours or days to build it from scratch. Just click a few times, and you are good to go.
Integrate social media buttons
As we all know, social media is a powerful marketing tool these days to reach out to your targeted audience, create awareness about your products or services, and build strong credibility among your followers.
With the integration of social media buttons plugins at the right place in your post or page, your visitors can share them on the respective social platforms like LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Twitter, and more. And this will drive more traffic to your site.
Make your website GDPR compliant
GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, states how you collect the user’s data from your website and use it. As per this law, your website has to be GDPR-compliant if you are collecting data from European Union (EU) residents. Here are some of its basics that you must be aware of:
- You can only gather data that is necessary.
- You need to provide a complete privacy policy to your users, explaining how their collected data is going to be used. And this needs to be available on every page of your website.
- And if you are gathering any personal data of theirs, then you need explicit consent from them.
With the GDPR plugins available in WordPress, you can accomplish all these factors while maintaining a robust base for your privacy policy.
Boost SEO performance
SEO is one of the essential marketing strategies that help you improve your site’s visibility among search engine results. And this results in driving more traffic to your website, which ultimately results in more sales. This is how a WordPress plugin can enhance your website’s SEO:
- By optimizing your site’s content.
- By optimizing your site’s structure.
- By optimizing the infographics and media elements (images and videos) of your site.
- By optimizing your site’s metadata.
- By making your site’s devices responsive.
Increase your website’s page loading speed
Do you know that if your webpage takes more than 3 seconds to load, you are likely to lose 53 percent of your site’s traffic? Shocking, right?
That is where the WordPress plugins come in as a rescuer for you. There are a couple of WP caching plugins that will catch your page’s data so that it can load faster every time a visitor clicks on it.
And they are very helpful, especially when your site has a lot of fluid content that needs to be updated on a daily basis. Moreover, there are some caching plugins that only let you cache specific elements of your site so that it can load even faster.
Increase conversions with email leads
Do you know email marketing has a 4000% ROI for businesses? Big, right? No wonder, email marketing comes on top of effective strategies to boost your marketing campaigns. With the WordPress email plugins, you can capture leads via email from your website and create a list of them.
Once you have your list ready, you can use it to promote your blogs, new product launches, and services you are offering to a targeted audience. You can even send them personal, professional emails to let them know about your upcoming offers as per your brand’s voice.
Easy customization
Thanks to the drag-and-drop page builder plugins for WordPress like Elementor, Divi, and more, you no longer need to go out of your budget to customize different elements of your website. With these, you can easily add whatever block you want to add at any place, style it according to your brand’s theme, add visually appealing animation or hover effects, and more. Thus, it helps you create a valuable presence for your website, all with a simple drag-and-drop facility.
Prevents cart abandonment
Cart abandonment is a major issue that eCommerce companies are facing these days. Customers are adding tonnes of items to their carts, and at the time of checkout, they are leaving them there. There are several reasons behind this psychological behavior, such as complex payment systems, unexpected shipping charges, unforeseen taxes, or intricate checkout pages.
But all these can be eliminated with the WP WooCommerce plugins that let you send your customers a personal reminder email with better discount offers. This increases the likelihood of their going back to your site and completing the payment process, thus resulting in more sales.
Offers advanced customer support
Searching is most likely the first thing a visitor does once they land on your website. With the help of an advanced search tool option, you can direct your customers in the right direction, thus improving their overall experience. The WP offers a number of advanced AI search tool plugins that come with different features like multi-lingual customer support, auto-correcting typos, and some even in-depth insights and analytical tools. You can choose any of them as per your requirements.
How many WP plugins are too many plugins for your website?
There is no such thing as «how many plugins are ideal». Always remember the general thumb rule that quality matters over quantity. The poorly designed and coded WP plugin is good for nothing. In fact, they will occupy unnecessary memory and lower the performance of your website.
The next thing to consider is that the more plugins you deploy on your site, the more it will strain your servers. Thus, again, leading to poor performance.
So how do I decide?
Well, for starters, you can always do an in-depth analysis of your website’s purpose. This will help you decide the features and functionality that you need and guide you accordingly in installing only the needed plugins.
Wrapping-up
WordPress plugins are great add-ons for any professional website. They provide great ease, higher efficiency, and next-level customization options as per your site’s theme.
Moreover, incorporating only the required plugins is a good way to maximize your site’s performance without wasting resources here and there.
And that’s all you need to know, and you are good to go!
