When I started my first WordPress website it was overwhelming to see how many plugins were available. Just in case you’re wondering, a Plugin is a piece of software that allows you to add functionality to your website. These functions include security, SEO, analytics, etc. There definitely is a plugin for everything.
I am often asked by new clients what plugins they need for their coaching website, so here is a list of WordPress plugins that I use on a regular basis for my website and websites that I create for clients. This is a basic list to get you started. You will add more as your business needs increase.
If you’ve taken my ‘Create your Coaching Website in a Week‘ free training, you will be very familiar with these plugins already, as they are the ones we installed on your website.
Titan Anti-spam and Security
Titan Anti-spam and Security block spam comments on your website. It does this in the background, invisibly so you don’t have to worry about it. Easy!
The other great thing about Anti-Spam is it takes away the need for your readers to prove they are humans. You know those annoying captcha boxes where you either have to solve a basic maths equation or select all of the images with cars in them. Super annoying! Anti-Spam take that off your website so your readers don’t have to jump through hoops just to fill out a form.
Disable Comments
Disable Comments does exactly what it says. It disables comments from your website. It’s great if you’re a set and forget kinda gal like me. You choose what areas of your website you don’t want people to comment on. Depending on how you run your business, you may choose not to allow anyone to comment on anything on your site including blog posts. Disable Comments allows you to do that. I usually set it so that comments are allowed on blog posts but nowhere else on the site.
If you like to allow comments for some posts and not others, then this wouldn’t be the plug-in for you and you can manually set that up in WordPress.
Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights
You know you need Google Analytics and have already set it up, but if you’re being honest, you don’t check it much. Probably not at all.
Wouldn’t it be great if you didn’t have to go anywhere else to check it? Well, ya don’t! Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights allows you to connect your WordPress site to your Google Analytics. Once connected you don’t have to leave WordPress to check your Analytics, it’s all there.
The free version has all of the reports you need under the ‘Insights’ tab and the paid version allows you to view your analytics in your WordPress Dashboard.
Smush
Don’t let large images slow you down, well your website anyway. Smush resizes, optimises and compresses all of your images that slow down your website. A slow-loading website is not good for your customer or for SEO so Smush does the work for you.
According to the developers “their super servers to quickly smush every single one of your images and cuts all the unnecessary data without slowing down your site.” I like the sound of that!
WordFence Security
According to WordFence they are the most popular firewall and security scanner plugin. WordFence takes care of your website security so you don’t have to worry. You can customise the setting to your specifications, save it and then let WordFence do its thing.
WordFence will email you with any alerts and you can customise these alerts. You can be alerted for everything or for major security alerts, it’s up to you.
Cookie Notice
If you are doing any business in the European Union, including people from the EU on your email list, your website needs to comply with the GDPR. If this is new to you and you have no idea what I’m talking about head on over to this article where Shannon Mattern breaks it all down for you. You should also be aware of the CCPA regulations that came into effect in January 2020 which may also affect your coaching business. To check what’s required of you – check out this article from Nicole Cheri Oden.
So how do you put all of this information onto your website? Enter Cookie Notice plugin. Cookie Notice allows you to elegantly inform users that your site uses cookies and helps you comply with the EU GDPR cookie law and CCPA regulations.
WP Retina 2X
Not all devices are created equal and if people are viewing your site on a high dpi device then images on your website will not appear crisp or sharp. WP Retina 2X creates the image files required by the High-DPI devices and it displays them to your visitors accordingly. Your website will look beautiful and crisp on every device!
Its easy to install and most of the default settings are fine.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is the best plugin for your SEO needs and “is the favorite tool of millions of users, ranging from the bakery around the corner to some of the most popular sites on the planet, according to them. Even if you know nothing or very little about SEO, Yoast SEO gives you a toolbox to use with help prompts along the way to improve your SEO.
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin
UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin allows you to backup your website on a schedule that you can set and forget! A great thing about this plugin is that you can store your backups in your Google Drive, Dropbox, and email. You have control of your backups and don’t have to contact your web host to reinstall a previous version of your website if something goes wrong. Set your backups to daily, weekly, or monthly, whatever works for you.
Monarch*
Monarch is a social media sharing plugin for WordPress. You can use Monarch to create and add the social sharing buttons to your blog posts to make it easier for your readers to share accross their social media platforms. Monarch also allows you to customise the social follow icons that you can add to the footer and sidebar of your website.
Monarch is a premium plugin that is available from Elegant Themes. If you purchase a subscription to Elegant Themes, you will have access to Monarch as well as Divi.
These are only ten of thousands of plugins, so tell me what plugins you use? What essential plugins have I missed? Let me know in the comments.
*Affiliate Link
