According to codeinwp.com, WordPress is currently the most popular CMS in the world. And, WordPress offers 50,000+ downloadable plug-ins that can be added to web pages with more being added every day. Clearly this is a popular system with a strong following. We at Cazbah use WordPress too!
With so many available plug-ins for WordPress, it can be mind numbing to try and search through them all. I haven’t even searched through half of the available plug-ins WordPress supports, but what I have found so far I’ll share with you!
Check out the following 4 Free WordPress (WP) plugins you’re going to want to include on your website to view your Calendar, Analytics, and your completed online forms. Whether you’re a manufacturer, retailer, dealer/distributor, or service based company, this list is for you!
The Google Calendar WordPress Plug-in
If you’re a business that hosts or attends several key events or a salesperson that meets with new prospects and clients regularly, it’s important to stay organized. But, apart from just staying organized, you want your target audience to be aware of your calendar events to increase your brand reach.
There’s a Google Calendar plug-in available through WordPress that you can install and include on your web pages. Once you create your new Google calendar, you can add it to several key pages of your website where searchers are most likely to find it.
For example, include your Google calendar listing any charity events, trade shows, major store events and so on so customers know where you’ll be. You can also include a calendar listing your business meetings, so searchers can easily see your availability and suggest a meeting time that would work for both parties.
Including a Google Calendar on your website takes connecting with prospects and customers a step further! It shows that you’re an open business who’s looking to actively connect with their target audience.
Google Analytics WordPress Plug in
First thing’s first, for this WordPress plug-in you need to have a Google Analytics account created for your small business. If you don’t yet have a professional account, you really should. BUT WAIT, if you already have a Google account for your business (or a Gmail Account), then you’re halfway there to having a Google Analytics account.
Setting up a Google Analytics account can be a little confusing, but Moz has a great article walking you through step by step.
When you download the plugin, Monster Insights will properly connect your WordPress site to your Google Analytics account. It enables the two to work together easily, sparing you from the headache of integrating it yourself. However, you can also download the plugin straight from WP if you’re comfortable installing it yourself.
With Google Analytics, you can view reports that provide key information about your your site. More importantly, you can view the performance of every page on your site. Having a Google Analytics account will give you key data and information on how your pages are performing online.
For example, if a product isn’t selling, look first to the exact web page that has that product on it. Then look at the statistics for the related pages. How are they performing? You need to have knowledge of your business history, the product history, your industry, and your website history to properly interpret and pinpoint the issue. Then you can work on a solution.
Using that data, you can make any necessary changes to your website and make a note of it in Google Analytics. Overtime, see if your changes have made a difference for the good of your business.
Gravity Forms WordPress Plug-in
Forms are a key part of website success. You can create advanced forms for your WordPress website with Gravity Forms. Select your fields, configure your options, and easily embed forms on your WordPress site using the built-in tools. This plug-in integrates with PayPal, Mailchimp, Authorize.Net, and more…
Forms such as Contact Us, Quote Request, and surveys give your viewers opportunities to voice their questions and opinions without having to call you. We know you want them to call you, but they might not trust you yet and sometimes doing it online just seems easier. A very brief Contact Us form, for example, can quickly provide you with the name, email, phone number, and comment from someone who has an interest in your business. A brief form is important. The more you ask for, the less likely potential customers will fill it out.
Gravity Forms’ plug-in provides an easy way to set up those forms. Now you have a contact that came to you without the added cost of promotion and salesmen.
You can also “Test Drive” Gravity Forms with their demo on their home site to get a better feel for how it work.
Event Tracking for Gravity Forms WordPress Plug-in
Our group at Cazbah was very happy when we found this plug-in for WordPress. This plug-in took away the need to add all the forms to “Goal Tracking” in Google Analytics, freeing up a lot more of our time. With the click of a couple buttons, “Event Tracking” is set up for any form. The website says it also supports Pagination events, JS only events, Google Tag Manager, and Matomo (formerly Piwik).
Watch a demo video on everything the plug-in does HERE.
This plug-in can be extremely helpful if your website does have several forms with information you need to keep track of. If you’re not familiar with how everything in Analytics operates, this plug-in eliminates a headache for you and will free up your time by automatically adding analytics tracking to your forms.
In Conclusion
There are many plug-ins for WordPress out there you can use to better the management of your web pages. The plug-ins I reference in this article will not only help you to manage your potential customer contacts, but will help you manage and analyze your website success as well.
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