You have a WordPress site, and you have never used a plugin before?
Impossible!
Plugins are actually an important part of running a successful WordPress site. From marinating a healthy site and boosting user experience to improving visuals and making everything seamless, you literally need a plugin for your WordPress site. In fact, for building and editing your site, you will also need a good plugin.
This simply means, plugins are essential for running a WordPress site.
As a beginner, the very first WordPress plugin I came across was Yoast SEO. This plugin mainly helped with SEO, blog optimization, pages, pictures, and videos.
However, things are changing now. Technology is becoming advanced, user experience has transformed, and Google is looking for sites that are more user-friendly. All these things collectively affect the ranking of the site.
So, if you have a WordPress site and you are looking for ways to boost the speed of your site, this write-up will look at some of the best WordPress plugins that you can find.
What Is Site Speed?
Site speed is literally the speed at which the browser is able to load a fully functional webpage. Previously, site speed was not that important. The internet was not fast enough, and videos and pictures would take minutes and hours to load. Eventually, everyone got used to the waiting.
However, as the internet became faster, accessible, and affordable, even residential internet providers like Xfinity Internet started offering high-speed internet. This availability eventually helped in making sure everyone gets the best user experience, regardless of their online activity.
Now, people expect the website to load in less than a second! In fact, a few seconds delay is noticeable as well. Considering all these details, there is no doubt that users expect the site to load much faster. Ideally, your site should load in less than 2-3 seconds. Even a few seconds delay means your site will have a much higher bounce rate and very low engagement.
Why Is Site Speed So Important?
There are multiple reasons why site speed is important. Although the biggest reason behind the use of site speed is Google ranking. However, site speed mainly helps with user experience, which ultimately contributes to Google ranking and more.
Here are some of the main reasons you need to invest in site speed:
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Conversion Rate
Site speed directly affects the conversion rate. This means that users prefer staying on a website with better speed, they are more likely to purchase from there, and they even end up using that site more often.
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User Experience
When a user lands at a site with good speed, this means they have a much better load time. Images and videos load in real time, and the site will be able to maintain its format.
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Bounce Rate
Websites that are slower generally have a much higher bounce rate. When the website loads slowly, the visitors generally leave the site, click away, or close the window. A higher bounce rate means the customer is not satisfied, which eventually means Google’s ranking will be much lower as well.
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Engagement Rate
Engagement rate is also a very fun performance metric for websites. A website with a decent loading time or speed will have a much higher engagement rate because the site will offer a better response, and customers will be able to stay longer.
Now that you know the importance of site speed, let us explore some of the best plugins that can help boost the site speed and SEO.
Best Plugins for Site Speed and SEO
1. Rank Math
Recommended for: complete SEO optimization of the site
Price: free with limited features
Features:
If you are looking for a Yoast SEO alternative, Rank Math is an ideal tool for you. Rank Math mainly offers a set of features, including an AI-powered assistant for content optimization, keyword suggestion, SEO analysis for overall content analysis, and suggestions for internal linking.
Moreover, Rank Math also includes a schema markup generator, along with an XML Sitemap generator, a tool for Google Search Console and Google Analytics for tracking performance, a Redirection Manager tool, a role manager, keyword ranking tracking, and more. Through advanced features, most of these tasks can be automated so the user does not have to do everything manually.
2. UpdraftPlus
Recommended for: website backup and retrieval
Price: free version for basic backup
Features:
For a website, backup is very important because you can never predict when you may lose your data. To avoid this, there are WordPress plugins that can help you automate backup at different intervals, i.e., daily, weekly, and monthly.
With the help of UpdraftPlus, users can automate the backup, store backup on the cloud, run manual backup, restore files from backup to the database, encrypt the website database, migrate data backup from the command line, and more.
For premium user, there are more features, including pre-update backups, multiple remote storage options, incremental backups, multisite backup, as well as file backup beyond the standard WordPress installation and advanced control. Apart from this, users also get detailed reports, premium support from the UpdraftPlus team, and an integrated storage option of up to 1GB.
3. WP Rocket
Recommended for: Caching web pages
Price: $59+ annually
Features:
Site cache is one of the best ways to make your site load faster. A cache stores a static image of the page that pops up right after someone opens the website. WP Rocket ensures that your WordPress site has a simple and easy-to-load version ready for the users. Eventually, the user doesn’t have to wait for the whole site to load; instead, they can focus on images and the static version that is already available.
WP Rocket has some of the best and most advanced features like page caching, mobile cache, browsing cache, cache preloading, sitemap preloading, cache lifespan, and file optimization. The user can also access some other features like reducing the size of files, combining multiple files, loading files, delaying execution of JavaScript, removing unused CSS, enabling lazy loading, optimizing fonts for easy loading, and more.
4. Divi builder
Recommended for: Visual editing in WordPress
Price: Starting from $89 annually
Features:
If you want to custom build your site, edit any part, or just want to remake the whole thing, Divi Builder is a perfect plugin for you. This plugin allows you to customize your site code for free. So even if you don’t know anything about coding, you can still change the visual interface of your website within a few minutes. This plugin comes with an extensive layout library along with a responsive design toolkit, some easy customizable options, a theme builder, AI-powered content creation tools, and some marketing tools as well.
Apart from this, if you are running a business with multiple team members, this plugin offers team collaboration options as well as advanced marketing features, social sharing, ecommerce features, workflow tools, developer tools, and third-party plugin integration as well.
5. WP forms
Recommended for: improving the Login Flows
Price: free with limited features
Features:
If you want to create forms for your WordPress site, WP Forms is perfect for you. This plugin helps the user to create forms without coding. This plugin has a drag-and-drop builder feature that allows 100% responsive forms that are also GDPR compliant. For beginners who are still struggling with the basic features, this plugin comes with pre-built templates that can help you get started.
The plugin also has other features like file uploading, spam protection, multiple page form, entry management, email notification, custom confirmation, payment gateway integration, email marketing integration, and form automation. Overall, the user can easily pick the kind of form they want to create and design the form from scratch.
FAQ’s
What is the ideal loading speed of a website?
The idea loading speed of a site is nearly 2 seconds.
Do WordPress plugins affect the speed of the website?
Yes, WordPress plugins can affect the speed of the website. While some plugins can directly make the site sluggish, others help in optimizing the speed by compressing files and using lazy loading.
