TL;DR Key Takeaways

While there are dozens of SEO plugins available, choosing the right one comes down to your specific needs, technical comfort level, and budget. Don’t forget: SEO is about useful, firsthand content – not a plugin. If John Wick were an SEO plugin, he’d still need you to deliver great content!

Choose Rank Math if:

• You want more features in the free version.
• Need integrated schema markup options.
• Want a more technical, faster-performing plugin.

Choose Yoast SEO if:

• You want a popular solution with the most comprehensive features.
• Need both basic and advanced SEO tools.
• Prefer an intuitive interface with clear recommendations.

Choose All-in-One SEO if:

• You’re migrating from another platform.
• Need strong WooCommerce integration.
• Want comprehensive social media optimization.

Choose SEOPress if:

• You prefer a lightweight, fast-loading option.
• Need white-label capabilities.
• Want EU-based support.

Choose The SEO Framework if:

• You prioritize site speed.
• Want an uncluttered, focused interface.
• Need enterprise-level features.

SEO 101: Take the Content, Leave the Plugins

Just a reminder not to exhaust yourself with AI tweaks, expensive plugins, or blackhat voodoo. The bedrock of great SEO hasn’t changed: get yourself in front of people who don’t know your name.

Search engines, at their core, are answering machines. You ask a question, and they answer. Even AI is really just answering questions. Answering machines aim to connect people with the most relevant, useful content that solves their problems.

While technical optimization of your website matters, and a good plugin can help, nothing beats high-quality, well-structured content. 

The real heart of SEO is how to create the best answer to a question. No plugin can replace great content.

“Stop trying to outsmart search algorithms. Focus on creating content that serves your audience’s needs.”

Rocket.net – How to Rediscover SEO and Recover Organic Website Traffic

Why These 5 WordPress SEO Plugins Made Our List

After testing a dozen different SEO plugins, these five stood out for their reliability, feature sets, and actual impact on search rankings. But before we dive deep, let’s address the elephant in the room — yes, Rank Math tops our list in 2025, but the competition is closer than ever.

RankMath: The King of WordPress SEO

If Yoast is the preferred choice on the market, we feel RankMath is the most comprehensive solution for most websites. Their free version offers features that others lock behind premium paywalls. We even use it here at Rocket.net because of its reliability and robust feature set.

Key Features:

• 40-factor SEO analysis for in-depth site optimization
• Google Search Console integration for real-time data
• Built-in 404 monitoring and redirection
• Advanced schema options in the free version
• Great dashboard with .htaccess and robots.txt at your fingertips

Yoast SEO: The King’s Champion

If RankMath retired, Yoast would be King. There’s a reason Yoast is active on over 13 million WordPress sites. While some argue it’s gotten bloated, our testing shows it’s still a good solution for most websites. Plus, it updates every few weeks, ensuring it may stay ahead of Google’s algorithm changes.

Key Features:

• Real-time content analysis with actionable recommendations
• Advanced schema markup options
• Full control over site breadcrumbs and XML sitemaps
• Robust meta title and description templates
• Perfect entry-level choice!

All-in-One SEO: The Versatile Veteran

Don’t let its age fool you – All-in-One SEO has kept pace with modern SEO requirements while maintaining its reputation for reliability.

Key Features:

• Excellent WooCommerce integration for eCommerce sites
• Strong social media optimization tools
• Easy migration from other SEO plugins
• Advanced robots.txt editor

SEOPress: The Performance Champion

For those who prioritize site speed and clean code, SEOPress offers a compelling alternative to the bigger names.

Key Features:

• Minimal impact on site performance
• RGPD compliance for privacy-focused users
• 75+ developer hooks for full customization
• Video and Google News XML sitemaps built-in

The SEO Framework: The Hidden Gem

While it might not have the name recognition of Yoast or RankMath, The SEO Framework delivers enterprise-level features without the bloat.

Key Features:

• Fastest-loading SEO plugin in our tests
• AI-powered content optimization for better rankings
• Advanced security features
• Local SEO capabilities for brick-and-mortar businesses
• Originated from WPMUDEV, ensuring top-tier development

Making Your Choice: Which WordPress SEO Plugin Is Right for You?

Choosing the right SEO plugin isn’t about picking the one with the most features – it’s about finding the right fit for your specific needs.

Go with RankMath if:

You’re looking for more features in the free version and don’t mind a slightly steeper learning curve for access to advanced capabilities.

Consider Yoast SEO if:

You want a proven solution with excellent documentation and support. It’s particularly good for content-focused sites and beginners who appreciate clear guidance.

Choose All-in-One SEO when:

You need strong eCommerce integration or are migrating from another platform. It’s also excellent for social media optimization.

Pick SEOPress if:

Site performance is a top priority, or you need white-label solutions for client sites.

Select The SEO Framework if:

You want a lightweight, focused solution that doesn’t compromise on features.

The Bottom Line

While all these plugins can help improve your WordPress site’s SEO, the “best” choice depends entirely on your specific needs and technical comfort level. Our recommendation? Start with Yoast SEO if you’re new to SEO or jump straight to Rank Math if you want more advanced features without the premium price tag.

WordPress provides basic SEO features like custom permalinks, meta descriptions, and alt text, so a plugin isn’t strictly necessary. However, if you’re looking to enhance your site’s optimization and maximize its potential, an SEO plugin can make a big difference.

Need More Help With WordPress SEO?

Setting up your website content and your SEO plugin is just the first step. We offer managed WordPress hosting that’s optimized for SEO performance right out of the box. Our servers are configured to deliver lightning-fast page loads — a critical factor in search rankings. Speed matters!

Launching a new website isn’t easy. Getting the word out about your new website? We’ve got 8 effective SEO strategies for new websites to help. Check them out!

Fast & Secure Hosting? Yes, Please!

Grow your business with lightning-fast, secure, and optimized websites that are easy to set up & manage. Top-tier agencies and online businesses choose Rocket.net as their trusted managed WordPress hosting provider – why shouldn’t you, too?

While your specific requirements will largely dictate your choice – such as opting for an eCommerce theme over a marketing theme — certain fundamental aspects remain consistent.

WordPress is a platform for various websites, including niche blogs, online shops, portfolios, and lifestyle magazines. Each theme is tailored to cater to specific markets, and your selected theme should enhance your website’s content – not compete with it.

Your WordPress theme serves as the public face of your website and greatly influences how users and search engines perceive it. Your theme has a lot to carry on its shoulders. Choose wisely.

Free Themes vs Paid and Developed Themes

WordPress is Open Source = Free Themes

With so many amazing free WordPress themes in the WordPress library, they are more than adequate if:

• you want to start a personal blog,
• you don’t mind if your website is very similar to many others,
• you only need basic functions, and;
• you can get by with little support.

There are also cowboy themes – nulled themes. Nulled plugins and themes are unauthorized copies of premium WordPress products, often obtained for “free.” 

Nulled themes pose significant security and ethical issues. You might unknowingly install malware through these nulled products, which can lead to serious problems for your website. Compromised site security, poor performance, and removal from search engine results due to being flagged as unsafe are just a few potential problems you might face.

“Generally, the core version of a WordPress Plugin (or theme) the freemium model thrives. Meaning, there are more features available for a yearly licensing fee. So, you can download Beaver Builder, fork it for yourself, and use it even commercially. But that doesn’t mean that you or your customers are getting security patches and updates. That’s the security risk for using a nulled plugin”

Rocket.net – Why Rocket.net Prohibits Nulled WordPress Themes and Plugins

Purchasing a WordPress Theme

Many free themes offer upgrades for a monthly or one-time fee. That’s one way to go. Another option is to purchase a theme outright from one of the many vendors. Some of the larger vendors for WordPress themes are ThemeForest, Envanto, Elegant Themes, and TemplateMonster.

You should opt for a premium WordPress theme if you

• need a business website,
• want to expand it in the future to include major functions such as eCommerce,
• want the website to look unique, or;
• need a dedicated support team.

The advantages of purchasing a theme include support, security, and a much-reduced price over a custom-developed theme. 

The flipside of purchasing a theme is the chance that someone else’s website may look like yours. It can happen. Neve, a popular theme offering starter packs of ready-made site designs, is active on over 300,000 websites. You do the math.

Building Your Own WordPress Theme

Many WordPress folks develop their own, custom WordPress themes – which is a pretty good idea for most business websites. Developing a theme costs you either time, which is money, or you need to pay a developer. Either way, it isn’t free. The advantage of a custom theme is complete control and a unique design.

If you haven’t developed a theme, but are interested in trying it out, our friends at codeable have a great Step-by-Step Guide to creating a WordPress theme. Check it out!

If you purchase a theme, develop one, or use a free theme, make it your own. Create a unique website experience for yourself and your clients.

What About Page Builders?

Before page builders came along, customizing WordPress themes required in-depth CSS knowledge. Most people had to hire a front-end developer to customize their themes. This changed with the introduction of tools like Visual Composer, Beaver Builder, and Elementor, which offered drag-and-drop interfaces for easy website creation.

Don’t forget the fundamental principle: themes are for design; plugins are for functionality. While both are essential, page builders excel at providing design flexibility for those who want to go beyond a theme’s default options. This makes them particularly attractive to small business owners, bloggers, and others seeking to add a personal touch to their websites. However, their misuse can lead to suboptimal user experiences.

“If you’re a small business owner, and you’d like to customize your website appearance more than what is available with a theme, then a Page Builder is a good option. Well, until a non-designer just starts using elements that make the customer experience poor. But, frankly, that’s another blog post.”

Rocket.net – Should I Use A WordPress Page Builder or Not?

Given the time-saving benefits, page builders remain a valuable tool even in the era of WordPress Blocks and Full Site Editing. While these native options offer increased flexibility, many users and agencies still find page builders to be more efficient and effective for their needs.

Before deciding to use a page builder, clarify your goals. What do you want users to do when they get to your website, for example. Page builders can simplify website design for those without coding skills, but they may lead to poor user experiences if misused.

5 Essential Factors to Consider When Selecting the Right WordPress Theme

1. Does the Theme Fit Your Budget?

Your budget is a crucial factor in choosing the right theme. WordPress themes are available across a wide price range. There are also tens of thousands of free options. Premium themes can be quite costly, especially for large eCommerce sites. 

Your budget will help you decide if you choose a free or a paid theme. Before you start exploring themes, establish a budget. Your selection process should exclude the temptation of choosing an expensive theme solely based on aesthetics.

2. Does the Theme Align with Your Website’s (and Your Business) Goals?

Every website serves a unique purpose, whether it’s a simple blog, a corporate site, or an eCommerce store. So does your business. Your chosen theme should align with your business goals. A blog theme should prioritize readability and typography. An eCommerce theme should streamline the purchasing process for users. 

There are many multipurpose themes, like Elementor, Avada, or Divi. They are highly versatile and frequently updated, but not all multipurpose themes are created equal. Some may slow down your site or lack regular updates, so it’s essential to evaluate them based on all the criteria here.

3. Is the Theme Responsive? 

It’s 2024. The mobile moment happened more than a decade ago. Enough said about mobile websites. However, responsiveness should also be understood as being accessible. An accessible website is even more important than a fast one.

Is the Theme Compatible with Different Browsers?

Your website should function flawlessly across all major web browsers and contexts. It needs to be accessible. 

Ensure you choose a theme compatible with popular browsers to provide a consistent user experience. What browser are your customers using? How will they access your site?

“When websites and web tools are properly designed and coded, people with disabilities can use them. However, currently, many sites and tools are developed with accessibility barriers that make them difficult or impossible for some people to use.”

www.w3.org

4. How Fast Does the Theme Load?

This one is a deal-breaker. Does 200 milliseconds sound fast to you? Speed wins! Starting with fast WordPress hosting, website speed is a critical factor for search engine rankings and UX. 

Users expect websites to load immediately. Selecting a fast-loading theme – and not cluttering your website with 1 MB images – is imperative. However, many people only realize their theme’s sluggishness after purchase. Conduct some due diligence before making a decision.

5. Is the Theme Easy to Customize and Use?

You, and your clients, will be using the website. Maybe even logging into the backend. A good theme should offer sufficient customization options to tailor it to your preferences without overwhelming you. 

Too few options can feel restrictive, while too many can lead to confusion and frustration. Determine in advance which customization features are essential for your needs.

Bonus Tip: Is the Theme Developed by a Reputable Developer?

This is a big one, so we saved it for last. WordPress is open-source, meaning themes are created by a wide range of developers. While not all beginner-developed themes are subpar, opting for themes from established developers can help mitigate security and support issues.

Does the Theme Work with Common Plugins?

Most WordPress websites rely on plugins for various functionalities, such as SEO, backups, social sharing, and contact forms. Ensure your chosen theme is compatible with popular plugins (like Yoast, Gravity Forms, and WooCommerce). If you have crucial functionality, ensure that any other plugins that are essential to the website’s purpose are compatible as well.

Is Documentation Included?

Comprehensive documentation is crucial for configuring theme options effectively. Look for themes that provide clear, accessible documentation to save time and avoid errors going forward.

Does the Theme Developer Offer Support?

Even with good documentation, you may occasionally need assistance. A reliable developer should offer support. Find out how responsive the developer is to inquiries to ensure you have help when needed.

Is the Theme Updated Regularly?

WordPress Core frequently updates its software (3-4 times a year) – plugins can be more often. It’s essential to choose a WordPress theme that keeps pace with frequent Core and plugin updates.

Investigate how often the developer releases updates to address issues and maintain compatibility with the latest WordPress versions.

Is There a Better Way to Go Instead of Themes?

A theme is the overall design style of your website. It sets the foundation for how the site looks and feels. Templates, on the other hand, are specific page layouts within that theme, allowing for customization of individual pages or posts.

With our SiteTemplates feature, you can create pre-configured templates that can be reused across multiple projects. This significantly reduces the time spent on setting up themes and plugins for new websites. Saving time means saving money!

“Rather than creating a new site every time and manually installing these plugins and/or themes you work with, you can now do it once with Site Templates and can reuse it over and over again on new installs going forward.”

Rocket.net – Introducing: Site Templates

Choose The Future of WordPress Hosting!

By investing in WordPress hosting, you’re equipping yourself with the tools and resources necessary to build a robust, secure, and high-performing online presence. Spend your time captivating and engaging with your audience. Let your hosting take care of the rest!

Why have a Wishlist in your online shop?

We’ve all used them: Wishlists let you save products for future purchases. This is great for enhancing user experience and potentially increasing sales. Wishlists also provide data on customer preferences and help with inventory management.

What to look for in a Wishlist plugin:

• Sharing and privacy settings
• Support for multiple Wishlists
• Customizable Wishlist buttons and layouts
• Direct purchase options from Wishlists
• Access to Wishlist data for marketing purposes
• Individual Wishlist pages
• Compatibility with product variations and grouped products

Considerations when choosing a Wishlist plugin:

• Compatibility with your WooCommerce version 
• User-friendliness and ease of setup
• Customization options
• Support and documentation
• Pricing (free vs. premium options)

Top WooCommerce Wishlist plugins:

• WooCommerce Wishlists (official WooCommerce premium extension) 5000 + installs
• TI WooCommerce Wishlist (free with premium add-ons) 100 000 + installs
• WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce (free version) 80 000 + installs

“Allowing customers to save and manage their own Wishlist can increase your sales and conversions. Plus, customers can share lists with friends and family via social media and open the door to potential new customers and visitors.”

WooCommerce

What is the Wishlist function in WooCommerce, and what are the benefits?

WooCommerce’s Wishlist function allows your customers to save products they’re interested in for future reference or purchase. It’s a great tool to have in your shop – especially as we get closer to Black Friday with every minute. Wishlists enhance the shopping experience and can even drive sales in several ways:

• Improved User Experience: Customers can easily save and revisit products they like without cluttering their cart. The keyword here is “easy.”
• Increased Engagement: Wishlists encourage users to spend more time on your site and return for future visits.
• Social Sharing: Many Wishlist plugins allow users to share their lists, potentially attracting new customers.

“Social media isn’t a nice-to-have for your business; it’s become indispensable. Social media crosses every demographic and use case.”

Rocket.net – Top 3 WooCommerce Pre-Launch Social Media Tips To Explode Sales

• Valuable Data: Wishlists provide insights into customer preferences, which can inform your marketing and inventory decisions.
• Reduced Cart Abandonment: Who likes cart abandonment!? By offering an alternative to adding items directly to the cart, you may see a decrease in cart abandonment rates.

“Cart recovery is an important part of recapturing revenue lost from the distraction of digital life. Cart abandonment is freakishly common – 7/10 people abandon a cart.”

Rocket.net – Top 3 Woo Cart Recovery Tips to Maximize Conversions

• Personalized Marketing: Use Wishlist data to create targeted email campaigns or personalized product recommendations.

A Wishlist feature is more than a convenient tool for your customers. Adding the function creates opportunities for increased sales and customer loyalty. You’re also saving them time.

Whether you choose a plugin-based solution or opt for custom development, adding Wishlist functionality to your WooCommerce store can pay dividends in customer satisfaction and your bottom line.

How do I add the Wishlist option in WooCommerce?

If you’re adding a Wishlist function, make sure it’s easy for your customers to both find and use – especially on mobile. Adding a Wishlist option to your WooCommerce store is a straightforward process that can be accomplished with the help of third-party plugins. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide:

Step 1. Choosing a Wishlist Plugin:

There are several popular Wishlist plugins available. Here are three we like:

WooCommerce Wishlists (official WooCommerce premium extension) 5000 + installs

If you’re in search of a premium extension for your online store, WooCommerce Wishlists is a great option. This plugin allows both registered customers and guests to create unlimited wishlists on your website.

Why Choose WooCommerce Wishlists?

This plugin is especially useful for registry-related sites. It offers a wide array of customization options and administrative views tailored for shop owners.

Key Features

• Guest and registered users can create and manage wishlists.
• Guest wishlists are stored for up to 30 days, while registered users can save theirs indefinitely.
• Users can create as many wishlists as they like.
• Full control over who can view the wishlists.
• Easily share wishlists on social platforms.
• Seamlessly manage different product types.

Pricing

A license for WooCommerce Wishlists is $79 per year. This includes one year of support and updates, along with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

TI WooCommerce Wishlist (free with premium add-ons) 100 000 + installs

The TI WooCommerce Wishlist freemium plugin offers essential features that allow your customers to easily create and manage multiple wishlists.

After installation and activation, the plugin adds an “Add to Wishlist” button next to the “Add to Cart” button on product pages. It includes basic settings for wishlist creation in WooCommerce, along with a premium version that unlocks more advanced features.

Key Features:

• Products are automatically removed from the wishlist when added to the cart.
• Upload custom icons for the wishlist.
• Modify the look and feel of the wishlist.
• Share wishlists on social platforms.
• Users can create multiple wishlists.
• Control the visibility of wishlists.

Pricing:

The TI WooCommerce Wishlist is available in both free and premium versions. The premium option starts at $79 per year for a single site license which includes a 14-day money-back guarantee and one year of updates and support.

WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce (free version) 80 000 + installs

WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce is a good choice if you’re seeking a simple wishlist solution. It doesn’t offer extensive features like other wishlist plugins but can be very useful for small businesses.  If you only require basic wishlist functionality, such as a wishlist button and icon, this plugin is for you.

Setting up this plugin is simple, too. After installation and activation, select a single page to display your wishlists.

Key Features

• Add additional action buttons and link classes for more functionality.
• Organize wishlist buttons by categories.
• Tailor the design of your wishlist to match your site.
• Automatically remove products from wishlists when they are added to shopping carts.
• Use shortcodes to easily integrate wishlist features into various parts of your site.
• Allow users to view their wishlist in a pop-up without leaving the current page.

Pricing

The WPC Smart Wishlist for WooCommerce is free to use. If you need more advanced features, a premium version is available. A single-site license starts at $29 and includes a seven-day money-back guarantee.

Regardless of the plugin you choose, do your due diligence before installing; use a plugin that’s been vetted. “Bargain Basement Wishlist Plugin” may not be your best option. Check out the WordPress plugin depository or ask your partners. What are people using that’s working best?

Step 2. Installing and Activating the Plugin:

Once you’ve chosen your plugin, head over to your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the “Plugins” section. Here, you can search for the plugin by name, install it, and activate it. Sounds obvious, but everyone deserves an easy task.

Step 3. Configuring the Plugin:

Plugins come with settings that allow you to customize how the function works on your store. This might include things like:

• Where the “Add to Wishlist” button appears on product pages.
• How the Wishlist page is displayed.
• Whether guests can create Wishlists.

Step 4. Using the Wishlist Feature:

With the plugin activated and configured, your WooCommerce store will now have Wishlist functionality. Typically, a “Wishlist” button will appear next to the “Add to Cart” button on product pages. And don’t forget to optimize those button colors for conversion and accessibility. Clicking this button allows users to add products to their Wishlist for future reference or sharing.

How do I add a Wishlist in WooCommerce without plugins?

You might want to reduce your plugin bloat, and simply build a Wishlist function without adding another plugin, right? We get it.

If you’re comfortable with PHP and WooCommerce templating, you can develop a custom solution to create a wishlist functionality. This involves creating a custom shortcode or template file to handle saving and retrieving wishlist items, along with displaying the wishlist button on product pages.

If you don’t have the in-house resources, look for an experienced WooCommerce developer to help get everything running properly.

Choose The Future of WordPress Hosting!

Want white glove service? No problem. Regardless of the plan you choose, we help you migrate your website and start building your own personal brand. Need to migrate several? We got you. 

Streamline your workflow by choosing a reliable, performant platform for websites of all sizes. The only question is when you’d like to get going.

Sometimes too much of a good thing turns bad. We’ve all eaten too many wings, listened to too much Taylor Swift, and logged in to those websites with 75 plugins, none of which are up to date, right? 

So, when it comes to WordPress plugins, just how many is too much? Well, most people agree: as many as it takes.

WordPress Plugins – and the Living is Easy

WordPress plugins make life easier for the user in both the front and the back end, but how many are a good thing, and when does plugin bloat start to show? The answer depends on your website’s needs. But even here, like in many things, quality is more important than quantity.

If you ask around, most WordPress sites have between 20 and 30 plugins. Some sites run just fine with five plugins while other sites need 50 to function. What’s the best number for your own website? How many do you need for your client’s site? 

Here’s the Golden Rule for WordPress Plugins

• only use as many plugins to offer essential functionality, 
• get those plugins from a reputable source – like the WordPress library or maybe develop them yourself,
• and keep them up to date. 

It’s when you don’t follow the Golden Rule trouble might set in.And hey, review your needs going forward too. Just because you needed an image optimization plugin when the site started, doesn’t mean it still does. Deactivate and uninstall any you no longer need – after backing up of course.

Install the essential WordPress plugins you need, get them from trusted people, keep the plugins up to date, and get rid of them when your site and hosting change.

“Many non-essential WordPress plugins add functionality or style in a way that slows a website down. Often, there are better ways of accomplishing the same without a plugin.”

Search Engine Journal

The Double-Edged Sword of WordPress Plugins

WordPress Core is like LEGO. You need certain add-ons to create that representation of your city in your basement. Since there are numerous free and premium plugins, you’re confident in WordPress’ lifetime extensibility. However, installing too many may lead to compatibility issues which may potentially impact your site’s performance.

Each plugin adds new code to your site, increasing the likelihood of conflicts between plugins. These conflicts can result in various errors, from minor glitches to site-wide crashes. And don’t forget, uninstalling a plugin doesn’t delete the table.

The Consequences of Plugin Bloat 

Excessive plugins can harm both your site’s performance and security. Risks include security vulnerabilities from low-quality plugins, outdated plugins, lack of support leading to potential downtime, as well as the presence of malicious code.

Additionally, too many plugins may slow down your site and cause compatibility issues, while neglecting plugin updates can leave your site vulnerable. Opting for well-supported, maintained, compatible, and secure plugins is crucial for a smooth-running website.

WordPress plugins can impact your website’s performance and security in several ways:

Additional HTTP Requests: Plugins often add scripts to your website, increasing the number of HTTP requests. Well-optimized plugins and capable web hosting can manage additional requests without significant slowdowns.

Increased Database Requests: Each plugin connects to your website’s database, potentially leading to more database queries. Excessive queries can slow down your site, although database optimization plugins may offer limited improvement.

Security Risks: Poor-quality plugins or outdated ones create security vulnerabilities that hackers exploit to access your site data. It’s also not uncommon for plugins to contain malicious code that harms your site or exposes it to viruses and malware.

Consider plugin support: Using plugins that lack reliable support can lead to downtime if issues arise.

Plugin Bloat: The more plugins you have, the more resources your site requires to load, which may result in poor load times and a negative user experience.

Compatibility Issues: Incompatible plugins can cause conflicts with your theme, leading to various website errors.

Maintenance Exhaustion: Failing to keep your plugins up-to-date can result in site vulnerabilities, as regular updates address security issues and bugs. You also lessen the learning curve for your team and your clients.

Ultimately, the number of plugins on your WordPress site is less significant than their quality. A well-coded plugin is invaluable, while a poorly coded one can be detrimental, regardless of its apparent usefulness.The plugin debate revolves around finding the right balance between leveraging plugins’ benefits and minimizing their drawbacks.

If you want your site to run smoothly, choosing plugins with a proven track record of support, maintenance, compatibility, security, and performance is vital.

A Reminder About Nulled WordPress Plugins

Or, better yet, forget them. Nulled plugins and themes are a significant concern. These are essentially pirated versions of premium plugins or themes, available for free. While they may seem like a great way to save money, they can pose serious security risks, which is why we at Rocket.net do not allow them in our hosting packages.

“Nulled plugins often contain hidden malicious code that can lead to malware infections, data breaches, and other security issues.”

Rocket.net – Why Rocket.net Prohibits Nulled WordPress Themes and Plugins

What is the Ideal Number of WordPress Plugins?

There’s no definitive answer to the question of how many plugins are too many. Some websites run smoothly with 50 plugins, while others start experiencing issues with just five. It all depends on the quality of the plugins and your hosting environment.

• Themeisle says you need these 10 plugins
• WordPress says you need these 17 plugins
• WordPress Beginner says you need these 24 plugins

Asking around, it seems that 20 to 30 is the number most people are using on their site. 

At the end of the day, how many plugins you need really comes down to knowing what functionality your website requires.

What Functionality Does Your Website Need?

Your website needs to be found, it needs to load, and it needs to work. That’s it. That’s everything in a nutshell. How many plugins would that take? Three? Five? How about ten?

1. Security (and Backup)
2. Optimize / Cache / Image compression
3. Forms and Spam prevention (perhaps a newsletter)
4. Data protection and Cookies Acceptance
5. Search Engine Optimization / Open Graph / Schema
6. Analytics (we’re on the fence here)
7. Transactional Emails

Then there’s UX to consider. Your website may require extra functionality, especially if you have an online shop.

1. Shopping functions like WooCommerce.
2. Payment Gateways
3. Page Builder
4. Social or Chat support

“Maybe your question is: how many plugins can I install on my website or store without worrying about consequences? What’s the maximum number of WordPress plugins I can have installed? You might find yourself surprised by the answer.”

codeable.io

How Many Plugins? Decide by Reviewing the Website Functionality

Still unsure? Identify your website’s core needs. Make a list of the core functionalities your website requires. This could be things like contact forms, galleries, SEO optimization, security measures, or specific features required for your niche (e.g., bookings for a restaurant).

Match Features to Plugins: Look at your installed plugins and see if they directly address a need on your list. If a plugin provides a feature you don’t use, it’s likely not essential.

Consider Alternatives: For some functionalities, there might be built-in WordPress features or free alternatives that can replace paid plugins. Explore these options before keeping a premium plugin.

How Many Plugins? Review Your Technical Considerations

Compatibility: Ensure your plugins are compatible with your current version of WordPress. Incompatible plugins can cause website malfunctions. And don’t use overlapping plugins. If you’re using RankMath Pro, for example, you don’t also need a custom Schema plugin.

Resource Usage: Some plugins can be resource-intensive, slowing down your website. If you notice performance issues after installing a plugin, investigate if it’s the culprit.

How Many Plugins? Here’s Some Additional Factors

User Ratings and Reviews: Read user reviews on the WordPress plugin directory or other trusted sources to get insights into the plugin’s reliability, functionality, and support quality. Some plugins work better with others and some alone.

Support Availability: Having access to good support is crucial, especially for complex plugins. Check the plugin’s website or documentation to see what kind of support they offer (free, paid, etc.).

Keeping a Lean Setup: The more plugins you have, the higher the risk of conflicts and security vulnerabilities. Aim for a streamlined setup with only the plugins you truly need. So, do you have the ability to keep an eye on the backend? How about your client’s websites?

Determining the ideal number of WordPress plugins is subjective, but efficiency, functionality, and your capabilities should guide your choices. Quality, relevance, and maintenance are key factors; excessive plugins aren’t inherently problematic if you can manage them properly.

Hot Tip: Don’t forget to choose a performant web host. Managed hosting offers many advantages. When it comes to plugins, you may find yourself actually saving time and money.

Case Study: The WordPress Plugin Diet Plan: How to Trim Fat & Boost Performance

Fewer Plugins (or none at all)

Raj Shah is an enterprise SEO manager who has led high-performing teams at companies like AutoZone, Staples, and Oriental Trading Company.

Reducing the number of plugins was Raj’s mission, not only from a cost savings perspective but to also improve performance & reduce the complexity of managing multiple plugins across multiple WordPress sites.

“Before migrating to Rocket.net, Raj spent on average $250 per year on various plugins to help optimize and protect an individual site and about 2 hours per month updating, configuring, learning, and tweaking settings.”

Read the case study on Rocket.net

Let’s Wrap it Up: How Many WordPress Plugins is Too Much

You’re always striking a balance between functionality and performance when it comes to your websites. Like any tool, it’s not about the number, it’s about the quality. Always opt for well-coded plugins from reputable developers, keep them updated, and avoid nulled plugins at all costs.

So, how many WordPress plugins are too much? The answer is as many as your sites can handle without compromising on speed, security, and manageability. 

Choose The Future of WordPress Hosting!

Want white glove service? No problem. Regardless of the plan you choose, we help you migrate your website and start building your own personal brand. Need to migrate several? We got you. 

Streamline your workflow by choosing a reliable, performant platform for websites of all sizes. The only question is when you’d like to get going.

How many newsletters do you receive each day? Probably far too many. How many do you open? How many do you read? But here’s the thing – email newsletters work.

Email works better than your social media marketing, paid or organic. It also works better than your paid or organic SEO, webinars, or AI-influencer affiliate programs. Email conversion rates trump any other online marketing. B2C or B2B. They’re lightweight, device-agnostic, and they’re paperless.

Email has always been the gold standard when it comes to digital marketing.

Here’s Why Your Website Needs an Email Marketing Plugin

Let’s call it what it is. A newsletter is a must-have marketing. Helpful, personalized, content marketing. Add a WordPress website, and you are a rockstar. Running a WordPress website opens doors.

While WordPress offers plenty of robust features, it lacks an email newsletter feature out of the box. An email newsletter plugin allows seamless integration within your dashboard. It eliminates the need for complicated workarounds or external services. It just makes things easier.

If you aren’t already using your website to support your email marketing, here are four reasons why you should.

Email Marketing is Effortless

Can you code? Probably. Can your marketing team? Can your client? Perhaps. It’s not a knockout if they can’t. Some people say WordPress developers aren’t real developers, but that’s a conversation better left to Twitter. Whether you can fork Python snippets left-handed with your eyes closed really doesn’t matter. What matters is that you have a website, that it works, and that people can find it.

Newsletter plugins bridge the gap between your website and your email marketing and sometimes even act as a built-in tool. It’s your call. This translates to time saved for every campaign. Time you can spend with your clients. Time you can spend learning Python snippets.

Imagine adding subscriber forms with a drag-and-drop interface. Well, not you, you can code, but your client, your email team, anyone else. No more mess. No code chaos. Going beyond convenience.

Email Marketing Builds Relationships

Time-saving no-code is fine, but the true value of a newsletter plugin goes beyond technical ease. A well-crafted newsletter keeps people engaged. It’s a lifeline that prevents them from being yet another untethered prospect floating from website to website.

By nurturing this connection with targeted, useful, great content, newsletters drive repeat traffic – and that’s the lifeline of any website. Strike that. That’s the lifeline of your business.

“Not every email you send customers should involve selling them products or services. Instead, focus on providing value. When you can demonstrate the value you provide your customers, they’ll look forward to hearing from you every week.”

Business News Daily

Email Marketing is Cost-Effective Communication

Let’s talk about money. Do you have money? Would you like more? Then start marketing smarter. Compared to other marketing channels, email is very easy on the wallet. How much do you spend on your marketing each month?

According to Gartner, marketers spend about 8% of their budget on email marketing. A recent Deloitte survey says that companies allocate about 13% of sales to marketing.

That means if you have annual sales of $100,000 and devote $13,000 to marketing, you are spending about $1,000 a month on email marketing. That’s considerably less than you are probably paying for any other online marketing, right?

Anything more expensive than $50 is out of the question? No worries. Many email marketing tools offer low-cost or free tiers to get you started. Plus, email gives you complete control over your communication; unlike social media platforms where algorithms dictate your reach.

Email Marketing Lets You Measure, Analyze, and Improve

If you’re going to do anything, you need insight. Data rules. If you can’t measure it, you can’t effectively use it. Email lets you segment. It lets you get granular. Really granular.

Newsletters offer a treasure trove of data too (just don’t forget privacy regulations). With the tools available, you can track metrics like open rates and click-throughs, allowing you to refine your strategy and deliver content that doesn’t just resonate with your audience, it grounds them.

More than grabbing their attention, email offers you the chance to get your audience excited.

Newsletter marketing is easy, it connects, it’s low-cost, and it works. Newsletters simplify the marketing process, empower you to build relationships, and provide valuable insights. WordPress newsletter plugins are a game-changer.

So, let’s cut to the chase. Which newsletter plugin is right for you?

What About WordPress Newsletter Plugin Options for Your Agency?

Sure, everyone loves a new feature, but before you install a newsletter plugin, do your BMW due diligence: Does your Business need it? Does your Marketing need it? Does your Website need it?

Just because a plugin can be installed, doesn’t mean it should be installed. Install the right tool for the job.

Choosing the Right Newsletter Plugin: Our BMW Checklist

Business Questions: Will this plugin make/cost my business money?

• Will your client require extensive training to use the plugin effectively?
• Does the plugin offer good customer support in case you encounter any issues?
• What is your budget? Are there any freemium options with features that meet your needs?
• Considering a paid plugin? Are there pricing tiers with features that scale to your budget?
• Does the plugin have a positive reputation and good reviews from other users?

Marketing Questions: Will this plugin help me achieve my marketing goals?

• What are your email marketing needs? Consider what features are important to you, such as email automation, list segmentation, and analytics.
• How many subscribers do you currently have? Is the plugin designed to scale and efficiently manage a growing subscriber base?
• Are there integrations with any existing platforms you or your client use (e.g., CRM, email marketing)? What about an online shop?

Website Questions: Will my website run smoothly using this plugin?

• Do you really need the plugin? There might be alternative ways to achieve what you want without adding another plugin. Avoid plugin bloat.
• Some plugins are easier to use than others. Choose a plugin that you are comfortable using and can support.
• What specific features are most important to you or your clients? (e.g., automation, marketing integrations, analytics)
• Does the plugin offer all the desired features, or are there any workarounds needed?

“So you’re managing your clients’ eCommerce site. Why aren’t you also managing their WooCommerce Email Marketing Campaigns? Sure you can use Mailchimp to do WooCommerce email marketing, but that’s not the only game in town. Pick your poison: HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, Groundhogg, Salesforce, ConstantContact — the plays are the same.”

Rocket.net – Top Winning WooCommerce Email Marketing Plays

Our Favourite Five Newsletter Plugins – and Two More

A great newsletter plugin for WordPress is easy to use, creates beautiful emails, and scales with your subscriber list. It offers features like automation and analytics to boost engagement. This is important because email marketing lets you directly connect with your audience and grow your business. 

Email marketing is key for reaching customers directly, building relationships, and driving sales.

WordPress has almost 60,000 plugins, of which 25% – almost 15,000 – are email-related. While we couldn’t check all of the plugins available, we do have our five favorites – and two others we really like.

WordPress Newsletter Plugin Tip #1 – MailPoet

Free Version: Yes. The Starter Plan begins at $10 a month.

700,000+ active installations – 4.5 stars

MailPoet is a powerful newsletter plugin designed specifically for WordPress. It empowers website owners to create and manage email campaigns, engage with subscribers, and enhance communication. It’s trusted by over 700,000 websites worldwide, making it an excellent choice for WordPress-powered email marketing and communication.

Pros:

• MailPoet seamlessly integrates email marketing features directly into your WordPress dashboard, eliminating the need to switch platforms.
• Benefit from a responsive support team with prompt email replies and comprehensive documentation for self-service troubleshooting.
• MailPoet offers a comprehensive email marketing suite at an affordable price, including form creation, subscriber management, email automation, analytics, and GDPR compliance – eliminating the need for separate tools.
• The free plan allows you to collect unlimited emails, send to 1,000 subscribers monthly, and utilize pre-designed templates for newsletters and automated emails.

Cons:

• MailPoet is exclusively for WordPress websites and doesn’t function as a standalone SaaS platform.
• Advanced scheduling options are missing in the free and basic plans.
• While MailPoet offers templates, some users might desire a wider variety.
• MailPoet currently doesn’t support multisite functionality or Right-to-Left language layouts.
• Sending emails through MailPoet requires a paid plan; integration with third-party email marketing tools is available in premium plans.

Overall:

MailPoet is a user-friendly and cost-effective email marketing solution ideal for WordPress users. Its free plan offers valuable features, and paid plans provide advanced functionalities like sending limit removal, detailed analytics, and priority support. However, the lack of a free-standing platform and limitations in advanced scheduling and template options might be drawbacks for some.

WordPress Newsletter Plugin Tip #2 – Newsletter Glue

Free Version: No. Basic Plan starts at $79 a month.

Newsletter Glue simplifies sending blog posts directly to email subscribers, mimicking Substack functionality. It integrates with popular email marketing services for list management and delivery.

You can leverage the familiar WordPress block editor to design content for both website and email newsletters. Optionally create email-only content without publishing it on your website.

Pros:

• Utilize the existing WordPress block editor for crafting newsletter content. No need to duplicate work!
• Effortlessly publish content to both your website and newsletter simultaneously.
• Connect with various email marketing services (Mailchimp, MailerLite, etc.) for streamlined management.
• Send specific content exclusively to email subscribers.

Cons:

• No free tier and the paid plan (starting at $79/month) caters to high-volume publications.
• Requires a separate email marketing service for list management and delivery.
• Currently, no WordPress depository plugin

Newsletter Glue caters to users comfortable with the WordPress block editor and seeking a streamlined solution for managing website and email newsletter content in one place. However, the lack of a free tier and reliance on external email marketing services might be drawbacks for some.

WordPress Newsletter Plugin Tip #3 – Brevo (formerly SendinBlue)

Free Version: Yes. Basic Plan starts at $19 a month.

100,000+ active WordPress installations – 4 stars

Brevo offers a powerful all-in-one email marketing plugin for WordPress. It’s user-friendly with robust automation features, SMS marketing capabilities, and a free plan.

Pros:

• Brevo offers a clean and user-friendly interface with a drag-and-drop editor for emails and forms.
• Brevo provides a variety of beautiful and responsive email templates to jumpstart your campaigns.
• Create automated email workflows with pre-built templates or from scratch. Personalize the journeys based on user data.
• Reach your audience directly through SMS campaigns in addition to email.
• Segment your contact list and personalize your emails with dynamic content for better engagement.

Cons:

• The pricing plans are based on the number of emails sent, and some advanced features require additional purchases. This can be expensive for small businesses.
• Landing pages are only available in the pricier Business plan, and you can only create one without additional costs.
• The free and starter plans offer limited reporting features. Advanced analytics require upgrading to a higher plan.
• Brevo’s email deliverability scores have shown fluctuations and could be improved.
• Compared to other platforms, Brevo offers a smaller selection of third-party integrations.

Overall:

The pricing structure with add-on fees, limited free plan features, and basic reporting can be drawbacks for some users. Consider your budget, email marketing needs, and desired integrations before choosing Brevo.

WordPress Newsletter Plugin Tip #4 – Groundhogg

Free Version: No. Basic starts at $20 a month.

2,000+ active installations – 5 stars

Groundhogg is an award-winning WordPress CRM, Email & Marketing Automation plugin that empowers website owners to streamline communication, automate marketing tasks, and enhance customer relationship management.

Pros:

• Groundhogg integrates flawlessly with your WordPress site, leveraging existing user data and forms.
• Create automated email sequences triggered by user behavior, purchases, or other events.
• Targeted Audience Segmentation: Segment your audience based on various criteria to deliver highly relevant email campaigns.
• Groundhogg’s pricing scales with the size of your list, making it cost-effective for businesses with large subscriber bases.
• Offers a REST API and webhooks for customization and integration with other tools.
• GDPR and CASL Compliant: Ensures compliance with major data privacy regulations.

Cons:

• While it integrates well within WordPress, it may have limited connections with external tools and platforms.
• Groundhogg, as a comprehensive plugin, might impact the performance of your WordPress site, especially on shared hosting.
• New users, especially those unfamiliar with WordPress, may find it challenging to master all features.

Overall:

Groundhogg is a powerful email marketing and marketing automation tool for WordPress users who want advanced features and deep integration with their websites. However, the learning curve can be steeper, and there might be limitations with third-party integrations and website performance. Consider your technical expertise, budget, and need for external integrations before choosing.

WordPress Newsletter Plugin Tip #5 – HubSpot

Free Version: Yes. The Starter plan starts at $15 a month.

300,000+ active installations – 4.5 stars

HubSpot is a global CRM platform that integrates marketing, sales, and customer service tools. This allows you to manage customer interactions across various departments in a centralized way. With 300,000 newsletter plugin installations, it is second in size only to MailPoet.

Pros:

• Easy to navigate, even for beginners, with a drag-and-drop editor for building emails.
• Includes A/B testing, marketing automation, detailed analytics, landing page creation, and social media marketing tools (with paid plans).
• Integrates with various marketing and business tools you might already use.

Cons:

• The free plan has restrictions on contacts, emails per month, and features. Sending test emails also requires a paid plan.
• HubSpot’s pricing can be expensive compared to some email marketing services, especially for smaller businesses.
• HubSpot offers email marketing as part of its larger marketing hub platform. You can’t purchase email marketing tools alone.
• Basic automation features require a paid plan.

Overall:

HubSpot Email Marketing is a powerful tool for businesses looking for an all-in-one marketing solution. However, the cost can be a barrier for smaller businesses or those just starting with email marketing. Consider your budget and email marketing needs before committing to HubSpot. If you only need basic email marketing features, a more affordable option might be a better fit.

WordPress Newsletter Plugin Bonus Tip – Beehiiv

Free Version: Yes. The Grow plan starts at $49 a month.

Beehiiv is an email service provider (ESP) specifically designed to help creators build and manage newsletters. Here’s a breakdown of its pros and cons to help you decide if it’s the right tool for you:

Pros:

• Beehiiv offers a free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers, and its paid plans are cheaper than competitors, especially for larger audiences.
• The email editor allows you to create beautiful and engaging newsletters without needing pre-built templates.
• Beehiiv provides insightful analytics to track subscriber acquisition sources and email performance.
• There is a Slack community where newsletter creators can connect, share experiences, and ask questions.
• There are various ways to monetize your newsletter, including co-registration (Boosts), paid subscriptions, and sponsored posts.

Cons:

• Beehiiv’s automation features are still under development compared to some competitors like ConvertKit.
• Landing pages offer less customization compared to other platforms.
• Beehiiv has a growing list of integrations, but it’s not as extensive as some competitors.
• Currently no WordPress depository plugin

Overall:

Beehiiv is an excellent option for most smaller-list newsletter creators, especially those looking for an affordable and user-friendly platform with a powerful email designer. However, if you need advanced automation features or extensive integrations, ConvertKit might be a better choice. Beehiiv is a strong contender, especially for those on a budget and those who prioritize a beautiful email design experience.

WordPress Newsletter Plugin Bonus Tip – ConvertKit

Free version: Yes. Creator plan starts at $25 a month

40,000+ active installations – 5 stars

ConvertKit is a popular email marketing plugin specifically designed for creators and bloggers, allowing you to design newsletters, manage subscribers, and automate email sequences, all within a user-friendly interface. The accessible pricing and integrations with WooCommerce, GravityForms, and WPForms make it a great fit for most businesses.

Pros:

• ConvertKit has a clean and user-friendly interface that’s easy to navigate – even for beginners.
• Create automated email sequences with a visual builder and pre-built templates. Segment your audience based on behavior and tailor your messaging for maximum impact.
• Organize your subscribers with tags and segments for targeted campaigns.
• Easily create and customize signup forms to capture leads from your website.
• Sell digital products with WooCommerce directly through ConvertKit, eliminating the need for third-party apps.
• Connect ConvertKit with a wide range of tools you already use to streamline your workflow.

Cons:

• The email editor is basic and lacks drag-and-drop functionality. It can be limiting for users who want more creative control over their email design.
• Advanced personalization options require coding knowledge.
• While ConvertKit offers some email and landing page templates, the selection is small compared to other platforms.
• Landing page creation offers limited design flexibility.
• ConvertKit only provides basic email analytics. Advanced reporting features are available only on the higher-priced Creator Pro plan.

Overall:

ConvertKit is a user-friendly platform with powerful automation features and built-in sales functionality. However, the basic email designer, limited templates, and lack of advanced analytics may be drawbacks for some users. Consider your budget and design needs before making a decision.

Email Marketing is Alive and Well

Regardless of where people are in your funnel, email marketing is a powerful tool. From personalized recommendations and fostering stronger relationships to boosting business growth, email marketing is alive and kicking!

To stay ahead of the curve, you need to be a part of the evolution. It’s not enough to simply have the newsletter plugin, you need to be able to use the newsletter plugin.

Regardless of which newsletter plugin you choose, stay on top of some of these trends:

• Personalization is no longer enough. This means emails tailored to individual preferences, past behavior, and real-time needs.
• Static emails are a thing of the past. Create a more engaging experience for subscribers if you want to boost click-through rates and create subscribers who look forward to your newsletter.
• Got data? Make sure you can use it. With growing privacy concerns, email authentication is a necessity. Enough said.
• Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection made open rates less reliable. What other engagement metrics are you using to gauge campaign success?
• AI is no longer just for personalization. It can now generate compelling subject lines, email copy, and even entire email campaigns. This frees up your time. And time is money.

Grow Your Business with a Growing Platform

Want white glove service? No problem. Regardless of the plan you choose, we help you migrate your website and start building your own personal brand. Need to migrate several? We got you. 

Streamline your workflow by choosing a reliable, performant platform for websites of all sizes. The only question is when you’d like to get going.

Sometimes we run across a type of WordPress plugin or WordPress theme being used by one of our customers: nulled plugins and themes. Those are a giant no-no from a security standpoint and an ethical one, too.

Before anyone thinks I’m criticizing people in this post about using nulled themes and plugins, the truth is most don’t even know they’re doing it. For those that are fully aware of it, the lure of free is powerful.

My personal ‘nulled’ story is a cautionary tale. I knew what I was doing and willing to take the risk of using a nulled theme and plugins!

A few years back between jobs, I was looking to start up a hobby blog (and maybe even make some money from it). I had a ton of spare time and I wasn’t making a paycheck… Why not?

It always starts with picking a great domain and then immediately go theme hunting before you start the process of designing everything.

I knew that I didn’t have tons of money kicking around to spend on a new hobby site that likely wasn’t going to make me rich, but I started looking at other similar sites and noticed a few that looked fabulous.

Figuring out what themes they used, I went to find out that it was going to cost me probably around $70 (USD) for the theme. I live in Toronto, and after dealing with the currency conversion it was going to be outside of my budget ($0) at that time at least.

Determined to have that theme, I Googled nulled versions instead with the thought that I could always go back and buy the official version at some point down the road.

I had to sign up for some program, can’t remember exactly now — but that’s what I needed to do in exchange to get my coveted theme for free.

Everything went incredibly smooth without incident, I was able to install everything and all the premium plugins were also included for free. My site looked exactly how I wanted it, life was good and I was thrilled with my newly designed blog.

Until things started getting weird. I would notice things out of the normal when checking Google Search Console as there were traces of content that I couldn’t figure out why it was there. I didn’t see any evidence of it on my end at the beginning, but there was a hidden backdoor that was running malware behind the scenes the entire time.

I tried cleaning things up, but it kept coming back. My hosting company at the time had to remove everything and I ended up abandoning the site a few weeks later.

Despite knowing better and thinking I got a great steal of a deal, you can see the dangers of using nulled WordPress themes and plugins. Just don’t do it.

For these reasons and more, we prohibit all nulled WordPress themes and plugins. Neither are allowed to exist for all websites hosted on the Rocket.net platform. For those who’d like more information, we’re presenting our case.

Also, for brevity, we’re using the term “WordPress plugin” or “WordPress plugins” to also include themes.

Aren’t WordPress Plugins Supposed to be Free?

Before talking about nulled WordPress products, we need to understand how the ecosystem works. In order for plugins and themes to be distributed on the dot org directory, they need to adopt the General Public License. This policy allows users (including you) to freely use and distribute software.

“Free software can come with a price tag. In other words, you can create a GPL theme and sell it for $50, and it would still be free software. Why? Because the user is free to run, modify, and distribute the software or any modifications of that software.”

WordPress.org

Because the code is open and can be studied and improved upon, WordPress plugins are quickly created and ready for use. For example, the famous donation plugin GiveWP was forked from Easy Digital Downloads in about 6 months, co-Founder Devin Walker says in his WordCamp Los Angeles talk. But GiveWP isn’t a nulled plugin.

Fantastic! Fork a plugin and sell it? Sounds Good. 

Then what are nulled plugins and why are they bad?

What are Nulled WordPress Themes and Plugins?

Nulled Plugins are exact copies of existing plugins and present security and ethical issues just like any other pirated software. Because of this, they are not allowed to be listed on the official WordPress Plugin Directory.

“While the GPL and it’s compatible licenses allow for forking, we have an ‘above and beyond’ rule for hosting here, that means your plugin must be a substantial change of the original. We do not allow direct copies of other plugins to be re-listed under somebody else’s name, we allow changed forks.”

Mika Epstein

Even though the code can be open, the support and updates may not be free. Generally, the core version of a WordPress Plugin (or theme, for the rest of this article) the freemium model thrives. Meaning, there are more features available for a yearly licensing fee. 

So, you can download Beaver Builder, fork it for yourself, and use it even commercially. But that doesn’t mean that you or your customers are getting security patches and updates. That’s the security risk for using a nulled plugin.

Nulled WordPress Plugins Hurt Core Web Vitals

Nulled WordPress Plugins, especially when they inject malware, can hurt your core web vitals and overall performance. This is a major SEO issue. Meaning, your site can be potentially removed from SERPS.

“You will not know that is what is going on until Google simply removes your website from the search results because it is ‘unsafe.’”

Michael Wells

If you’re feeling confident that your nulled WordPress plugin doesn’t have malware, then consider the performance issues. Nulled plugins and themes aren’t updated. That’s essentially what you’re paying for when you support a developer by purchasing a license. 

WordPress Core changes so frequently, it’s important to choose professionally-created WordPress themes and plugins that are continuously tested and updated. 

What Should You Do Instead?

Always install official WordPress plugins and themes.

Look for the “tested with” designation that shows a plugin or theme is compatible with the current version of WordPress. This is shown in the Official WordPress directory with over 60,000 plugins. Otherwise, go straight to customer reviews. Read the good ones and the bad ones. 

We know this since we often work directly with theme and plugin providers to find solutions to customer issues and seamless integrations. Official WordPress Plugins help us help you.

Always use a reputable WordPress developer.

Don’t go to Fiverr for your website build, hire a WordPress developer who has been vetted.

We don’t have anything against Fiverr, they have thousands of really talented people that offer gigs there.

Back when I was running a Core Web Vitals agency, I saw far too often people that hired people from Fiverr to optimize their site with the hook of including premium caching plugins like WP-Rocket for free as part of the gig. The problem was that those ‘free’ premium plugins were actually nulled and presented huge security issues or eventually broke the sites. These same issues will often come up with ‘too good to be true’ site redesign gigs where premium themes and plugins also turn out be offering nulled versions, and people have absolutely no idea that’s the case…

I would have to explain that they were using a fake copy of their caching plugin and that they would need to buy the official version before my team could start working on it. I sure as heck wasn’t going to fix things down the road for them, I refused to improve performance on any website until they were using licensed themes and plugins.

When someone offers you to optimize your website for Core Web Vitals and they charge $100 to get the job done — run the other way, because they’ll likely hurt your site more than help it. Good optimizers generally charge an absolute minimum of $500 to do it right, but that’s another post for another day.

If you don’t know a good resource, check out he largest marketplace for developers: Codeable.io. Just like potentially expired milk in your fridge: when in doubt, throw it out.

Always Support Developers for their work.

Supporting developers for their work is the ethical and responsible way to make WordPress sustainable. And, since your business depends upon WordPress working properly and performantly for your business to succeed online, it’s well worth the money spent.

SaaS subscriptions add up, it’s true. You must be willing to invest in your website if you expect to gain leads online. No pain, no gain.

Ready for a Change? Let’s chat!

Let us do a FREE test migration for you so you can see the difference yourself on a temporary URL, without updating any domain settings! It’s time to change your WordPress hosting company right now and experience the difference the Rocket.net Platform means to your business.

Do you like tennis? Perhaps you play, or perhaps you’re an armchair player. You probably heard that Carlos Alcaraz just became the youngest world No. 1 player after winning the US Open in New York. He’s only 19, so that’s pretty impressive.

Do you know what else is like playing tennis? Deciding on what system to use for your online shop. Sometimes the decision-making process can go back and forth like a tennis ball during a long volley. 

Incidentally, the longest tennis volley in professional tennis was over 600 shots and lasted almost 30 minutes. Not quite as long as some team meetings, but still pretty impressive.

Are you still sitting on the net wondering about eCommerce? Are you unsure about WordPress? Are you perhaps not yet familiar with WooCommerce?

It turns out that you don’t need to be a tennis champion to run a successful online store or battle a 5 set match to figure our your best option here, let’s look at some of the advantages of all three!

Advantage: Offering Your Customers an eCommerce Solution

What are the benefits of eCommerce?

So, what exactly do we even mean by eCommerce? An online shop probably, right?

ECommerce is usually defined as the sale or purchase of goods or services, through electronic transactions conducted via the internet or other computer-mediated (online communication) networks. Sounds like an online shop, right?

However, an important characteristic of eCommerce is that it’s not really a distinct sector at all.

Instead, it’s a diversification of the supply of traditional so-called ‘bricks-and-mortar’ shops into ‘clicks-and-mortar’ shops.

If you want to open up a new distribution channel or sell your products around the country or globally, the consideration of offering your items online quickly comes up. 

But why should you enter the online trade? Here are some good reasons:

• eCommerce increases efficiency
• Fast and independent of store opening hours and location
• Online shopping is convenient for customers
• Provide more customer service offers
• eCommerce is easier than a bricks and mortar shop
• Good online stores go beyond just selling products and services
• Transaction and initial costs are lower

An entry into online retailing is, of course, highly dependent on the industry and often linked to the question of the benefits for one’s own company. But as a viable model for the future, it also holds great potential for expanding one’s entrepreneurial opportunities and capabilities.

Advantage: Using WordPress for Your Online Shop

Why should you use WordPress?

Suppose you want to create an online store so that you can sell your products online. While searching for the best website builder, you come across the well-known provider WordPress. Now you ask yourself, “WordPress for eCommerce – is it a good idea?”

WordPress for eCommerce offers these advantages

The popular content management system can be used for online stores and offers numerous advantages. These include:

• WordPress offers thousands of template options
• WordPress is really SEO friendly
• WordPress is free of charge out of the box
• WordPress has dozens of plugins for additional eCommerce features (like WooCommerce)

Advantage: Using Woocommerce in Your WordPress Shop

Is WooCommerce a good WordPress plugin?

WooCommerce is the world’s most popular open-source eCommerce solution. It allows you to design your online store exactly as you imagine it. 

Thanks to an almost endless list of extensions and more than 50 themes, WooCommerce is a great place to start your eCommerce journey.

• WooCommerce is as easy to use as the WordPress CMS itself.
• There are many compatible themes that you can use out of the box or customize.
• The plugin offers a wide range of functions from payment to fulfillment and affiliate.
• Additionally many extensions to design your individual store and services.

Aside from all the great things you can do with WooCommerce, one of the main reasons this plugin is so popular with online sellers is that it’s free. WordPress, the CMS running your shop, is also free. The only costs you have are your managed hosting costs.

Putting Your Shop Together: The Top 15 Features Your Online Shop Needs — and the Best WooCommerce Plugins to Help

You already know why you need an online shop as part of your business.  You can sell goods and services easier, cheaper, and faster. So let’s do it! Your shop is going to be unique! The best! Your online shop is going to rock your customer’s world!!

Email marketing, social media reviews, online payment systems, shipping, and returns … Hmmm. Sounds like your shop is going to take a lot of programming. Where do you start? 

What features should your shop have? How does WordPress have you covered? What about WooCommerce? Where do you need to lay out some cash, and where can you sit back and relax?

Let’s get the ball back in our court for a moment and ask a simple question: What features does your online shop need, how can WordPress and WooCommerce help, and what are the best WooCommerce plugins available?

We’ve broken it down for you. Take a look through the list and decide what features and plugins your shop might be missing:

Must-Have Features for Your Online Shop:

• Detailed Product Descriptions
• Product Customization
• Up-Selling and Cross-selling
• Promotions
• Social Marketing
• Payment System
• Customer Journey Management
• Integrated Shipping Solution
• Speed and Storage
• Affiliate Selling
• Third-Party Integration
• Ready-to-Use Templates
• Mobile Friendly
• Search Engine Friendly
• Reports and Analytics

Detailed Product Descriptions

If important, purchase-deciding information is missing from your product descriptions, the customer leaves the store without completing the purchase. 

As a rule, customers only click on the “Buy” button when they have all the information they  need to be sure that the product chosen corresponds exactly to their ideas and needs.

Good product descriptions not only increase conversions. They also reduce the rate of returned goods by ensuring in advance that the merchandise is exactly what the customer wants. 

WooCommerce understands the importance of product descriptions, so they offer a lot of space for that out-of-the-box. Not only basic descriptions either. Tags, categories, and related products help your customers connect the dots. 

If you need something more than the out-of-the-box solution, what about featuring product descriptions on other pages? WooCommerce has you covered with their Product Description plugin.

“Good copy isn’t easy to write, but it’s worth making the effort or hiring a professional because product descriptions have such a profound impact on the conversion process. According to data shared by OneSpace, as many as 98% of consumers have been dissuaded from making a purchase due to a lack of product information.”

(WooCommerce)

WooCommerce Plugin: Product Description on Shop Page
Price: $39

Product Customisation

Sometimes it’s nice to offer add-ons to your products like gift wrapping, special messages, or other special options. After all, personalization is the key to customer retention.

Does your shop let customers customize products online? Product customization has made a name for itself in the eCommerce market. This might be just what sets you apart from your competition. Check out WooCommerce’s Product Add-Ons plugin.

WooCommerce Plugin: Product Add-Ons
Price: $49

Up-Selling and Cross-selling

This is where the money is really made on your online shop! Besides all that extra revenue, there are many other positive points that speak for the use of up-selling and cross-selling:

• You improve customer loyalty by anticipating their needs
• Lower your acquisition costs because the customer is already there
• You can sell otherwise unknown or older products
• It helps decrease price sensitivity
• Helps you get to know buyer behavior
• Don’t forget SEO! Interlinking is an important factor.

The WooCommerce Up-Sells and Cross-Sells for Variations plugin allows you to customize the promotion of products for individual variations.

WooCommerce Plugin: Up-Sells and Cross-Sells For Variations
Price: $49

Promotions

Blue light special! Two for one! Coupons! Everyone loves getting something on sale.. 

WooCommerce’s out-of-the-box SALE function is both practical and easy to use. It categorizes your sale products and flags them with a nifty SALE tag you can customize in your CSS. 

They also offer one of their best-selling plugins: Smart Coupons. This plugin has everything you need to grow sales and customers using discounts, coupons, credits, vouchers, product giveaways, offers, and promotions.

WooCommerce Plugin: Smart Coupons
Price: $99

Social Marketing

We could write an entire post about social marketing. Where do we start? 

What can social media do for your online store? The short answer: attention equals interaction. Nowhere else is marketing required that relies primarily on genuine, two-way interaction with prospects and customers. 

Social media marketing is about much more than conveying information or merely cultivating an image. It’s about building customers. Happy customers. And happy customers leave happy reviews.

WooCommerce offers 16 different social extensions for Facebook, Pinterest, TrustPilot, and more. From their free Facebook plugin to their Followup Plugin for $99, WooCommerce understands how important being social is.

Check out the WooCommerce website for all their social plugins.

Payment System

E-wallets, such as PayPal or Apple Pay, are the leading payment methods in eCommerce. But mobile payment systems in particular continue to establish themselves. This is because customer needs are increasingly moving in the direction of convenience and choice. 

A checkout process with the customer’s desired online payment method is probably one of the most important criteria when making a purchase. Your customer is usually closing the browser if your online store doesn’t offer their preferred payment method.

In addition to the free, easy-to-use, out-of-the-box payment solution for your online shop, WooCommerce offers 79 other extensions. Stripe, Paypal, Amazon Pay, and Klarna among others.

WooCommerce Plugin: WooCommerce Payments
Price: Free

Customer Journey: Shopping Cart and Reviews

Cart Abandonment Plugin

What’s one of the biggest pain points, both for us and our customers? Right. Checkout and Cart Abandonment. Often the reason most people leave their cart – or the checkout – is the design and flow of your process. They are unsure about what to click next. Or they aren’t happy with some aspect – often payment or shipping options. So they leave.

Enter the best Abandoned Cart plugin there is. This one is by Addify, and it may be one of the better investments you make for your shop.

WooCommerce Plugin: Abandoned Cart Recovery
Price: $59 

Ratings and Reviews Plugin

Online customer reviews are particularly important for most shoppers. Didn’t we just talk about Social Marketing? However, the fact that people are influenced more by ratings and reviews than expert opinions or even personal recommendations from friends or acquaintances when making a purchase decision may be surprising. Don’t leave this feature off your list!

Customer reviews can have a positive influence not only on brand perception and sales but initially also on visibility in search engines. Indirectly, this means search engine optimization with the help of reviews.

Reviews were part of the general WordPress comments system, but since WooCommerce 6.7 they now have their own section. This is an out-of-the-box feature so it costs you nothing.

Enabling Product Reviews in WooCommerce

WooCommerce Plugin: Product Reviews Pro 
Price: $79

Integrated Shipping Solution

Shipping is one of the most important success factors in online retailing. From the retailer’s point of view, the costs incurred by compiling the order (picking), packaging, franking, and the actual dispatch, as well as the costs that can arise from returns, must be kept as low as possible.

From the customer’s side, well, free overnight shipping is almost the standard, right? People want it fast, they want it cheap, and they want to choose their carrier. WooCommerce offers one of the best shipping plugins, so can help soothe the pain you might incur by offering free shipping.

WooCommerce offers out-of-the-box shipping AND specific plugins that connect with your preferred carrier. UPS, FedEx, Canada Post, DHL, and more.

Shipping Option 1: Paid
Check out WooCommerce’s plugin page for all their paid plugin options: WooCommerce Shipping Plugins

Bonus – For other great WooCommerce shipping options, PluginHive offers a variety of plugins to meet all of your needs.

Shipping Option 2: Free WooCommerce shipping is free and built right into the plugin too. Print labels, connect with a free carrier, and more: https://woocommerce.com/woocommerce-shipping/

Speed and Storage. The Rocket.net Difference!

Speed wins. This is really where the difference between a successful online shop and the others is really made. People want it fast. They also want it to look good. Often, great design means a slower website. An online shop has a lot to offer — but that means a lot of weight too. Shops need to balance great-looking design, with great speed.

Does your website have a lot of interactions? Are you running eCommerce or eLearning platforms? Check out our latest post on Google’s Core Updates

If you’re looking for the best combination of speed, security, and storage, then we’re going to toot our own horn for a moment!

It’s been proven that faster websites not only rank better in search engines but ultimately lead to higher conversion rates. The Rocket Platform is designed to automatically scale and optimize your store in over 275 cities around the world so it’s as close as possible to your shoppers and search engines. If you’re looking for managed WooCommerce hosting — we’ve got you covered!

“How much money am I losing due to slow website speed?” The answer, unfortunately, is much more than you think.”

(The Search Engine Guys)

Affiliate Selling

We’re big on affiliate selling here at Rocket.net! In fact, you can join our WordPress Hosting Affiliate Program today!

Reseller hosting is when you purchase server space from a web host at a wholesale price, and then offer it to your agency’s clients at retail pricing. You’re not creating your own bank of servers, you’re reselling existing hosting platforms as if they were your own.

If you want to build an online business to generate passive income, you can and should look into Affiliate Marketing. Affiliates help to sell third-party products. This principle works equally well for services. And because affiliates recommend other products, so to speak, this business model is also called referral marketing.

WooCommerce Plugin: Affiliate For WooCommerce
Price: $129

“The affiliate marketing industry has an estimated value of $12 billion globally. The U.S. market holds 39% of the global affiliate market share.”

(SimilarWeb)

Third-Party Integration: Multilanguage & Email Marketing

Multilanguage Plugin

While there are a lot of integrations available, two are particularly important: language and email marketing. 

Not everyone speaks your language or uses US dollars, and you don’t want to miss out on a sale because you didn’t cover your bases. 78% of the population speak English in the USA, but do you really want to miss out on 22% of your potential customers? Not to mention the Canucks!

WooCommerce Plugin: WooCommerce Multilingual & Multicurrency with WPML

Price: Free
WPML $99

E-Mail Marketing Plugin

E-mail marketing can be an important success factor for your online shop too. Why? Because content and products can be tailored to each individual email contact. At the same time, e-mail is one of the most cost-effective and effective channels for customer retention and customer acquisition. Don’t leave money on the table by not plugging in your email!

WooCommerce Plugin: Mailchimp for WooCommerce

Price: Free
Mailchimp Free up to 500 contacts

Ready-to-use Templates

We already said how important speed is to your success. We also don’t need to say that your templates and themes need to be mobile-friendly either. A ready-to-use template for your online shop means saving time so you can begin to sell. Say no more!

WooCommerce offers more than 50 themes and 14 storefronts along with a huge cache of documentation so you can optimize whenever your store needs a revamp.

“WooCommerce offers numerous practical functions such as the individual design of your store, the legendary “You might like this” feature, and the integration of product filters for a better shopping experience. WooCommerce styling and design is also a breeze to manage!”

(Rocket.net)

Search Engine Friendly

If people can’t find your shop, they can’t buy your products or services. That means your shop needs to be easily found on search engines. SEO makes your online shop visible.

WordPress has you covered here right out of the box. Starting with a built-in sitemap.xml to get you connected with Google Search, WordPress offers a lightweight, SEO-friendly structure so Google won’t raise an eyebrow.

WooCommerce offers various SEO and SEM extensions ranging from $29 to $79.

What do the SEO companies say? 
While Yoast offers a WooCommerce add-on for $80 (annual fee), Rank Math is not lost for words when it comes to the importance of WooCommerce and SEO. AIOSEO offers an SEO plugin for WordPress plugin for $49 annually.

“Some of the leading e-commerce platforms such as Wix, WordPress, Shopify and Magento, also happen to be the most SEO-friendly ones. This means that using one of these platforms for your e-commerce business would better attract potential customers and provide your customers with a great user experience while shopping at your online store.”

(DHL.com)

Mobile Friendly

WooCommerce has always been serious about making your online shops mobile-friendly. They were already posting about optimizing your store for mobile devices back in 2015. 

Why is a responsive site important for sales? Purchase over mobile devices hit 360 billion dollars in 2021.

That’s a 15% increase over 2020. It’s expected that figure is going to double by 2025. Half of all shopping revenue in the US will be over mobile devices. So your shop better darn well be mobile friendly!

WordPress has you covered here too. Not to mention the ease of mobile styling available in most theme customizations so you don’t even need to touch the media queries if you don’t want to.

WordPress and WooCommerce working together allow you to integrate all aspects of your customer’s journey easily and cheaply. Both offer great, ready-to.use templates for whatever our plan to do with your shop!

“Mobile phones are the new personal computing devices. They have all your personal information. That is where the data is collected to make shopping truly delightful.”

(Forbes.com)

Reports and Analytics

Imagine having to control an airplane without a dashboard. Most likely, it would be a mess. The same is true for online sellers. To decide on your next step, you need to understand what’s going on in your online store:

• Where your customers are coming from
• How much they spend
• What products are popular
• How you run your promotions.

You may already be using Google, Adobe, or Magento analytics for your website and storefront. What about your other processes? WooCommerce has your shop covered.

WooCommerce Analytics Out of the Box Documentation

Note: WooCommerce Analytics only works with WordPress 5.3+.

WooCommerce Plugin: WooCommerce Google Analytics

Price: Free

“Knowing and understanding your store performance is key to growth, and the more you expand, the more important it becomes. The WooCommerce Analytics dashboard provides all the essential metrics you need and presents them in a visually-pleasing, easy-to-understand way.”

(WooCommerce)

Rocket.net are WooCommerce Experts – We’d Love to Show You What The Fastest WordPress Hosting Actually Means for Your Online Shops!

Customer delight means excitement from the time your visitors land on your shop page. You can’t deliver the air-conditioned mall experience, but your styling skills can turn an online shop’s tired Dollar Store look and feel into an Apple Store wow! Let us show you how all your CSS craftsmanship needn’t be lost to slow page load.

Let’s talk about how we can migrate your portfolio of client sites to Rocket.net, the fastest WordPress hosting in the world.

If you’ve been driving yourself nuts trying to manually do it all – stop!

Thankfully, there are hundreds of thousands of WordPress plugins to help you. In fact, the problem is not finding a plugin with the features you want. It’s identifying the BEST plugin from the thousands of options.

That’s why we’ve created this list of the top 26 WordPress Digital Marketing plugins that every marketer needs.

Whether it’s localization, scheduling content, managing engagement, or increasing performance – we’ve got something for everyone.

We’ve based our picks on user experience, features, and reputation to bring you only the best.

1. GTranslate

Localization is a key ingredient in a successful website that opens you up to a global audience. GTranslate uses the power of Google to translate your site to any of the 103 available languages. The plugin is SEO compatible, has over 300,000 downloads, and has an excellent 5-star rating.

2. Broken Link Checker

Dead links can seriously impact the user experience and SEO of your site. However, finding and checking links can be a tedious chore. This plugin automatically scans your site and points you straight to any dead links. It even generates reports and you can set scheduled scans for regular checking.

3. SEMrush

SEMrush is one of the most popular full-service SEO platforms today. The SEO Writing Assistant makes it easy to use these tools on your WordPress website. The plugin rates readability, keywords, plagiarism, linking, and more of your post.

4. Sender – Newsletter, SMS and Email Marketing Automation for WooCommerce

Sender is one of the most affordable email marketing tools that’s powerful for growing business and sales. This plugin helps you manage email and SMS marketing automation within one dashboard. It also has a great drag-and-drop email builder with plenty of premade newsletter templates, smart segmentation and personalization, high-converting popups, and much more! 

5. Schema – All In One Schema Rich Snippets

This plugin helps you generate Rich Snippets for your page’s search results in Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Facebook News Feed. These snippets can contain photos, text, star ratings, pricing, author, and other crucial information. With interactive and attractive snippets, this plugin will help you boost CTRs and search rankings.

6. Subscribers – Free Web Push Notifications

Web push notifications are an effective marketing channel to engage and update your visitors. With this plugin, you can ask users to opt-in to your push notifications. It’s compatible with Chrome and Firefox browsers with more browser support coming soon. It even comes with real-time reporting and tracking so you can see how your notifications are performing.

7. YARPP – Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Showing your readers related posts is a great way to get more eyes on your content and improve bounce rates. YARPP uses customizable algorithms to identify and share relevant posts. You can also choose many different templates and styles that suit your taste.

8. WordPress Robots.txt optimization

The Robots.txt file is the first thing search engines check when indexing your website. By optimizing your Robots.txt file, this plugin will help you rank highly on search engines. At the same time, it will help block most popular malicious bots from crawling and scraping your data.

9. Editorial Calendar

If you run a large publication, keeping track of your publishing schedule can be a headache. This plugin provides you with an interactive calendar to manage your publishing schedule. You can drag-and-drop items to reschedule them, view the status of articles, and use automatic publishing.

10. Hustle – WordPress PopUp

Hustle lets you create professionally designed opt-in forms and targeted marketing popups. The ultimate goal is to help you generate leads and build your mailing list. You can build Black Friday, giveaway, COVID notice, newsletter signup, and more. Hustle even provides smart popup triggers and eye-catching animations.

11. CallRail Phone Call Tracking

CallRail’s priority is to give users result-driven insights into their digital marketing efforts. This plugin gives you detailed information about the source and web session of every caller from your website. For example, you can see precisely what a user did before calling to identify where you’re marketing effectively.

12. Redirection

Missing pages and 404 errors will negatively impact the search engine rankings and user experience of your website. Redirection allows you to easily detect, manage, and solve these issues. It will pick up where you have 404 errors and allow you to create 301 redirects. This will ensure that you still get the full ranking juice from the redirected page.

13. Easy Social Sharing

We all know that social sharing is key to driving engagement, impressions, and exposure. This plugin enables you to easily add various social sharing buttons to your pages and posts. It also comes with added handy features like sharing count, layouts & designs, custom colors, and more.

14. WP Rocket

Website performance is now vital, not just for user experience but as a ranking signal. WP Rocket allows you to speed up your pages without any coding. WP Rocket caches your pages on various servers so that they will load much quicker for visitors. It also uses compression and preloading to accelerate your pages further.

15. Sumo

Sumo is one of the world’s top email capture and marketing tools. Now, you can use this plugin to create email lists, increase conversions, and generate more sales on your WordPress website. It lets you create timed popups, schedule emails, abandoned cart recovery emails, and more. You can also track important data, such as your ROI from individual leads.

16. Accelerated Mobile Pages

AMP is a Google initiative to create faster and better mobile pages for your website. This plugin enables you to generate AMP pages from your default WordPress website. It is compatible with popular plugins, such as Divi, Elementor, and many others. AMP also comes with great support and documentation.

17. JetFormBuilder

JetFormBuilder is a free and versatile WordPress plugin that allows you to create, edit and style basic contact us forms, but powerful enough to even build advanced booking forms. With this plugin, you can build the form from scratch or ready-to-use form patterns, style WordPress forms visually in Gutenberg, or any other page builder.

18. Disqus for WordPress

Disqus is a comment system you can use to increase reader engagement, grow your audience and traffic, and monetize content. It replaces your default WordPress commenting with a more modern and user-friendly alternative. Comments can be made via various accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google.

19. Fixed Widget

With this plugin, you can create sticky widgets that stay visible whether the page is scrolled up or down. This is great for important information, ads, notices, or lead capture elements. It’s a very popular marketing tool with over 100,000 users and a 4.5-star rating.

20. LiveChat

Live chat support on your website is a superb way to convert 50/50 sales and boost customer confidence. You can set up live chat support on your website within minutes by installing this plugin. This plugin even features chat initiation triggers and integrates with help ticketing systems.

21. MailChimp

MailChimp is the #1 most popular email marketing service in the world. This plugin makes it simple to integrate MailChimp with your lead capture forms. It seamlessly connects with your MailChimp account and integrates with various marketing plugins. It’s also developer-friendly and comes with an extensive knowledge base.

22. OptinMonster

With 1+ million users, OptinMonster is one of WordPress’ most popular popup builders and marketing plugins. Build email lists, increase sales, and grow your business through its advanced, yet easy-to-use, popup builder. You can use smart targeting and individual personalization to effectively convert visitors.

23. Akismet

Spam is a persistent issue that can ruin the commenting experience on your website. Akismet automatically checks and approves your comments against their global spam database. This will help keep your comments clean and improve user engagement. You can also set your own filtering, moderation, and discard rules.

24. Google XML SiteMaps

A proper sitemap lays the foundation for search engines to crawl your website. This plugin generates special SiteMaps optimized for Google, Bing, Yahoo, and Ask.com, etc. It will help you get found by search engines and improve your rankings. With over 2 million users and a 5-star rating, you can’t go wrong.

25. Jetpack

Jetpack is the ultimate multi-tool to build and run a better WordPress website. It helps you manage and optimize various aspects of your site. This includes security, performance, backups, design, and marketing. It’s a must-have general-purpose tool for any type of WordPress website.

26. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is perhaps the most widely used WordPress SEO plugin, and with good reason. It’s an all-in-one solution to help improve your technical, on-page, and content-focused SEO. For example, Yoast SEO can automatically optimize canonical URLs and meta tags as well as generate an XML Sitemap. You can also use it to improve your content writing with an SEO and readability scanner as well as a SERP preview.

The Wrap-up: 26 WordPress Digital Marketing Plugins That You Can Use

As you can see, times are good if you’re a digital marketer. You’re spoilt for choice with a huge variety of highly-rated marketing tools for WordPress. It’s important that you weigh all your options to find the best plugins for your needs.

For any serious WordPress website, you’ll most likely need multiple plugins from this list. However, many will have overlapping features and capabilities. You should carefully compare their features and user experience to see which suits you best.

Also, pay special attention to integrations with other plugins so that everything works together smoothly.

Even though security plugins do notify the user of any security breach, there is no guarantee that the security plugin itself will not be hacked. Yes, attackers of a website know all about the working of security plugins and have devised ways to disable them.

Attackers have previously tried to reverse the security hardening measures provided by these plugins that held website data in place. Even though they might have been temporarily successful, the notifications received by the plugins allowed the users to harden the security measures again. To counter this challenge, attackers devised a novel way to break through security plugins, which is, the PHP malware.

The PHP Malware

The PHP malware is notorious and a boon to the attacker because it strikes at the source, which means, instead of undoing the security measures, it disables the security plugins themselves. As a result, when an attacker tries to steal your WordPress website data, the security plugins can no longer send you notifications about something going wrong.

The only way a user can find out is if they happen to check the status of the plugins and see them as disabled. Even then, simply reactivating the security plugins will not solve the issue. The PHP malware is built in a way that as soon as you reactivate a plugin, it deactivates it again promptly. No matter how many times you reactivate it, the malware will continue to disable it.

Another way in which the PHP malware has an advantage over other attacking methods is that it only disables the security plugins, leaving the others intact. So, you could continue to work on your website without any hindrance for a long time without even knowing that its security has been compromised.

How Does it Disable the Plugins?

This malware begins by attacking the root directory of your WordPress website. It typically is generated within the file ./wp-includes/IXR/class-IXR-cache.php. It then assigns the root directory to DIZIN’, which changes how the file wp-load.php loads. As this is a core WordPress file, confusing its direct loading technique is the attacker’s primary motive. The malware achieves this operation through the require_once’ function.

The attacker then uses two functions, of which one is called findinSecurity’, which sorts the array of all the plugins. The second function, called secList, is an array of plugins that the attacker is looking for, which are the security plugins. This list contains popular WordPress security plugins such as Security Ninja, Ninja Firewall, Better WP Security, Wordfence, and many more.

In the next step, the malware uses WordPress’s built-in get_option (active plugins’) command to see a list of the active plugins. It then runs the functions findinSecurity’ and secList to find the targeted security plugins that are active.

Then, using the command deactivate_plugins’, it disables the security plugins. Because the malware was injected into the core WP file and goes through the require_once’ function at every page load, even if you re-enable the plugins, they automatically get disabled at the next page refresh.

What You Can Do to Avoid Data Leaks

Where this kind of PHP malware is considered, relying on simple WordPress security plugins is not enough. To offer complete protection to your website, you must have a robust security process in place that works outside the WordPress interface.

A great way to take care of this is to use a server-side scanner. These scanners identify malware at the server end before they reach your website. The best part is, you can use these scanners irrespective of whether you use WordPress or any other website building platform.

Can the attacker disable a server-side scanner? They most certainly can. But the advantage of using a server-side scanner is that if it gets disabled, the connection between your website and the server will be lost. This means that you are informed that something inappropriate is going on at the server end. In such a scenario, you can protect your website from inadvertent data leaks by temporarily shutting it down while technicians investigate the issues on the server-side.

Implementing a robust security system for your WordPress website is crucial to keep hackers at bay. Unfortunately, security plugins do not always do a thorough job as PHP malware can easily disable them. It is, therefore, best to use server-side scanners and monitoring software to protect your website from falling victim to unauthorized access.

The No Plugin Option

Rocket.net (that’s us) provides fully integrated and ready to use CDN/WAF, powered by CloudFlare Enterprise is pre-configured and ready to use, meaning without much knowledge you can deploy a scalable WordPress installation to 200+ pops, enjoy full page caching and be protected by an enterprise WAF, without the need for a single plugin!

Hackers can cause damage on your site by stealing user information, installing malware, deleting your content, distributing malware to your visitors, and exposing sensitive data. You might even have to pay the ransomware. This is why, it is vital to pay close attention to your business website because security breaches come at considerable costs. Utilizing a security plugin is the best way to prevent security breaches in the first place.

Why You Need Security Plugins

While WordPress offers a measure of security, security plugins offer a wide range of features that serves to keep your WordPress blog secure from threats. The best security plugins are built to help you tackle a variety of security threats from login security to access restriction while reducing the need to install more than one. They increase the security of your website by offering the following:

• Scanning(site, malware, file)
• Regular security scans and monitoring
• Site firewalls

The 5 Best WordPress Security Plugins

Here are the five best WordPress security plugins out there.

• iThemes Security: iThemes security is a feature-packed WordPress security plugin that is available in both free and paid versions for WordPress sites. The paid version is the better version because it provides access to a horde of great security features like strong password protection, securing your databases, protection against brute force attacks, and providing two-factor authentication, among others. You also get dedicated support and website monitoring.
• Wordfence Security: WordFence Security boasts of an extensive database of criminal IP addresses, and it is excellent at protecting your site from brute force attacks and real-time security monitoring. Besides, you get a firewall protection, login page protection, and IP blacklisting, among others.The free version is excellent, but the paid version offers dedicated support, two-factor authentication, spam protection, and geographic protection.
• Sucuri Security: Upon installation, this plugin will automatically scan your site looking for any infected files or any known sources of security weakness. It then helps you restore or repair your site to keep it secure. It also offers malware scanning, strengthens existing security protocols, and provides regular website monitoring. In all, the Sucuri Security plugin keeps your site protected from online security concerns.
• All In One WP Security & Firewall: This tool is free but not precisely beginner-friendly but it offers a lot of features like user account monitoring, site firewalls, IP protection, malware scans, and a lot more
• Wordfence Security: This security plugin has great ease of use and is quite affordable. The free version offers malware protection and scanning, two-factor authentication real-time monitoring, and protection from brute force attacks. The paid version offers even more advanced features.

Each of the security plugins described in this article has unique features. So, what works for your website depends on the nature of your website. It is always advisable to opt for the paid versions due to the functionalities they offer.