A well designed website should serve as a pillar for your business online. Your website has the daunting task of introducing new visitors to your brand, delivering your message and values, and fueling movement along your sales funnel. This is a tall order on its own but each business is unique, and that means their approach to lead generation and conversion optimization through web design is going to be somewhat different as well. 

One way to customize your website in a way that better connects you with your audience is through the use of plugins. There are hundreds of plugins that can be installed on your website, each with the intent of optimizing its overall performance. Nobody has the time to sit and pour through an endless list of plugins, trying to decipher which is going to perform best for their business. That’s why we’ve done the research for you and chosen seven that are a must for most businesses today. 

1. WP Forms

An often-overlooked element of lead generating and conversion optimizing website is the contact form. You’d be hard-pressed to find a website today that doesn’t have at least one contact form somewhere. Forms are important because they enable your visitors to supply you with the necessary information to move your relationship with them one step further through your sales funnel. 

Creating forms on it’s own is an extremely challenging process, but it’s nice to have a tool that makes it even easier – especially one that focuses in on user friendly formats that encourage engagement rather than turn visitors away. WP Forms is a plugin that enables you to easily create all types of forms – from simple contact forms to more complex order forms, payment forms, and even surveys, all in just a few clicks. 

2. Yoast SEO

No list of essential plugins would be complete without the mention of Yoast SEO. With minimal effort on your part, Yoast SEO makes it easy to optimize your search engine optimization strategy for functionality and overall effectiveness. 

One of the best things about Yoast SEO is that it removes the intimidation factor from SEO. The plugin essentially takes you by the hand and walks you through each step of optimizing every piece of your content to attract a favorable nod from the likes of Google and other search engines. In other words, Yoast SEO is the plugin you need to make SEO an effortless, intuitive process. 

3. Constant Contact

So, you know email marketing still remains one of the most effective tools for engaging a target audience and generating conversions. The benefits of an email marketing campaign sound great but it also seems to be a little time consuming. Constant Contact relieves some of the pressure and busy work involved in successful email marketing campaigns. 

Constant Contact enables you to build target email lists and send the right communication to them at exactly the right time. This plugin also works seamlessly with others designed for lead generation, like WP Forms and OptinMonster – both of which also made it onto our list of best website plugins. 

4. OptinMonster

It’s an unfortunate fact of life that not every visitor that lands on your site is going to stay around long enough to even learn more about your business, let alone convert. It’s impossible to recapture each of those visitors and aiming to do so is an ineffective use of resources. However, there are those visitors that are worth the extra effort and finding a way to recapture their interest can set them on the path to conversion. 

OptinMonster is a conversion rate optimization plugin that helps you do just that. It helps you recapture those abandoned visitors and turn them into subscribers and eventually customers. OptinMonster features conversion focused forms that are highly customizable to appeal to your target audience. 

5. WooCommerce

For retailers who have chosen a route other than Shopify for their e-commerce platform, WooCommerce is the plugin that offers all the perks you need to optimize your operation. It’s an open source e-commerce platform for WordPress users and comes with many features that will streamline your operations. 

There are tons of various features and customizations built into the plugin, including seemingly endless themes that each come with their own unlimited customization options. Plus there are other advantages like conversion optimization tools to help boost the success of your e-commerce business. 

6. Google XML Sitemaps

Sitemaps make it easier for search engines like Google to crawl and index your site for improved rankings – making them a crucial element of successful SEO. There’s no reason to go through the trouble of creating a sitemap yourself when a plugin like Google XML Sitemaps can take care of everything for you. 

Creating an XML sitemap is as easy as installing and activating the plugin. As soon as you do, search engines can get in there, get a more detailed look at your site and index your pages for rank more appropriately – and favorably.  

7. WP Smush

Speed is one of the most important factors of your site’s overall health. Even a few extra seconds in the time it takes for your site to load can turn off droves of visitors, costing you new customers and eventually revenue. It’s important to continually look at how your site is performing from a speed standpoint, and to do what you can to eliminate anything that slows it down. 

Images are notorious for taking a well-functioning website and slowing it down to a snail’s pace. Visuals are important in web design, so you don’t want to eliminate them completely but there is something you can do to help things load much faster. 

WP Smush is the plugin that does the work of image compression and optimization for you. WP Smush allows you to compress and resize all of your images for optimized performance. The best part? No matter how many images you currently have on your website, this plugin can easily have them all optimized quick and easily. 

Work With an Experienced Boston Web Design Agency 

Is it time to start seeing improved performance from your website? There’s no one better to trust than the Massachusetts web design experts and GoingClear. We’re the web design company that can help transform your website into the conversion magnet you deserve. Contact GoingClear to learn more today.