WordPress is an extremely popular online blogging platform. It has a simple to use interface and allows for quite a bit of customization for the sites it hosts. A basic WordPress site is free, although you can pay for better designs, additional plugins or applications, and numerous other items. If you are one of the millions of professionals or companies already using WordPress, here are seven apps you should be using in order to leverage the site to it’s fullest capabilities.
1. Google Analytics For WordPress
This app enables you to easily track how your blog is doing. It also offers you a ton of meta data so you can determine what is working, what isn’t, and what you should be doing to better your blog or company. Google Analytics is an invaluable marketing tool that no small business should be without.
2. Akismet
Akismet reviews the comments left on your blog and analyzes them to see if they are potential spam. If the app decides a comment is spam, it files it away out of sight. You are able to review these comments, of course, before deleting them permanently. This can help to save you a lot of time and effort in keeping trolls and spam comments off your site.
3. Conditional CAPTCHA for WordPress
This app actually goes hand in hand with Akismet. If a user has previously had their comments deemed spam by either you or Akismet itself they will be prompted to enter a CAPTCHA prior to posting their comment. This is another valuable tool in saving you time keeping spam off of your site.
4. Co-Authors Plus
This is a neat app which allows for multiple authors to be given credit for each article. Every person’s input is valuable, and this tool allows every individual to receive due credit. If you only have one person creating your articles this app isn’t necessary. If you have more than one content writer, however, you need to be using this.
5. Back Up Buddy
Back Up Buddy allows you to back up your WordPress site so that if, for some reason, everything was lost you could retrieve it again instead of redoing everything from scratch. Every business with any kind of website needs some kind of online backup. This happens to be one of the best back up apps for use on WordPress.
6. WordPress SEO By Yoast
This is a free app which allows for complete control over page titles and meta descriptions on a per post basis. Additional features include 301 redirection, setting up rules for search engine robots, and customization of social media descriptions on individual pages.
7. WordPress Live Chat
This is a free app which allows you to instantly reach out to your visitors in real time should they need you. This is a great customer service idea that can help to quickly answer questions or solve disputes. As a bonus, the live chat box which appears comes in a variety of colors in order to fit in with your site’s design.
