Necessary Plugins: WordPress For Business Websites

Why would you want to use a “blogging platform” like WordPress for your business website?

– Easy: because it has an extensive library of FREE plugins that make putting a “static”, information-based website together really easy.

Not to mention the adding blogging capabilities.. AND all the other perks you may not be aware of (yet).

Advantages Of WordPress For Business Websites

The following advantages are really for WordPress in general, but as business blogging and the need for easy to manage content grows, they are starting to apply more and more to the corporate world.

1. It’s an easy to use Content Management System (CMS) — you already knew that
2. Great for blogging as well as running a “static” information based website
   1. Can be used as BOTH a static website + have a built in blog – all built into one CMS
   2. Strengthens your main domain, not yourwebsite.blogger.com or blog.yourwebsite.com
3. Built in user roles with privileges & tracking of page revisions
   1. Have each employee set up as an “author” to write blog posts
   2. Easy to revert to old versions
4. Super expandable and customizable
   1. Written in PHP/MySql with extendable functions to be customized and built on top of.

As you can see, WordPress is very well suited for small to medium sized businesses who want to take advantage of blogging and easy content management.

We now know why WordPress is great as a standalone, static, information-based website CMS – as well as that it has blogging capabilities built in, which is great for sharing interesting and valuable content.. but let’s talk more about HOW it does this.

WordPress Plugins That Make Business Websites WORK

For SEO & Content Architecture Purposes

All In One SEO Pack – Used to customize the meta keywords, description, and title tag of each page and/or post.  Also controls what the text says in the navigation menu for each page, as well as the title attribute of that menu item (see our business website for an example: Hover over our “Services” button and notice how “Internet Marketing Services” comes up as the title attribute.. this plug-in controls these as well, great for SEO).

Custom Permalinks – Used to customize the URL of any give page and/or post.  URL is one of the most important SEO elements of a page, keeping them specific and clean is a plus in Google’s book.

Exclude Pages – Provides a check box which controls whether or not to include the page in the navigation menu – GREAT for excluding custom, track-able “Thank You” pages from navigation menus & hiding gated content

XML Sitemap Generator / Submitter – Automatically updates the xml and xml.gz sitemap upon any change being made to the site (page or post).  More importantly, this plug-in pings Google, Yahoo, Bing, and Ask to notify them about the change to your website.  Very customizable to exclude pages, categories, or posts, as well as set priorities and change frequencies.

HTML Sitemap Generator – Automatically generators a HTML based sitemap (mostly for user experience, but proven to have SEO significance as well).  Very customizable to exclude pages, categories, or posts.

The two sitemap generators combined are really what make WordPress for business websites really effective.. because the XML sitemap notifies the search engines when you make a change on  your site (for faster indexing) – and the HTML sitemap make it really easy for your users to find what they want (or need).

For Ease Of Use & Expandability

Gravity Forms – Easy to create forms! Custom make data forms with drag and drop ease.  Customize input fields or use built in fields.  Tracks the number of views each form has as well as databases every entry.  Automatically calculates and displays conversion rate.  Easy to set up email notifications per form.  BEST PART: Set up forms that when submitted will create a “draft” post in your WordPress CMS (user generated content)!  This is great for businesses who want to hear back from their customers (surveys) – or for those who do email blasts regularly and want to get their readers to engage with them.

Flash Video – Embed add videos (hosted on your server – YouTube is slow sometimes) to your page or post.  Customize color, size, layout, and skin.  Supports almost all video formats using same player.

Nextgen Gallery – Photo gallery with built in light box picture viewing functionality.  Automatically creates thumbnails and opens full size images in a light, on-page popup.

Audio Player – Easily upload and embed audio (pod casts) into any page or post.  Customizable colors to match

Exec-PHP – Allows PHP to be executed within specific pages or posts – great for customizing a page or post with dynamic data or server side calls.  Some business websites need extra functionality, and WordPress (being easy to build on top of) allows you to do this with less development hours than otherwise needed.

For Social Media/Blogging & User Experience

Yet Another Related Post Plugin – Puts a list of related posts at the bottom of each blog post.  If the user reads your entire blog post, chances are they were interested in what you had to say.. therefore, this plugin is great for readers as it gives them similar material to read (which keeps them on your site longer, always a good thing).  Customizable on several variables – but the main way it works is by creating a match score based on the post title, content, tags, and categories.

What Would Seth Godin Do – Creates a call out box requesting the user to engage.  Uses cookies so new visitors see a different message than those who are returning.  Great for business blogging.

SexyBookmarks – Modern social media sharing buttons customizable to which networks you would like the reader to be able to easily share your content on.

Twitter Widget Pro – Connects your blog to your twitter account.  Post tweets from your blog as well as have your twitter stream on your sidebar.

Simple Facebook Connect – Allows readers to sign up as subscribers (or whatever default user role you wish) using their Facebook account.

Facebook Like Button – Now that Facebook rolled out the “like” button API – websites everywhere are installing an app like this one to add the Facebook like button to their posts.

For Rainy Days

WP DB Backup – The name speaks for itself

WordPress Looking Good Yet?

All of the plugins mentioned above are FREE!

WordPress for business websites used to be unheard of .. but with that kind of extendability, how could you not want to use it for your business?

Now all you need a good looking WordPress business theme that doesn’t look like a blog.

I hope this post helped you become a “WordPress believer” !

Do you have any questions? – feel free to post them below…

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Topics: Business Blogging Web Strategy WordPress SEO