Small business owners may be looking for a way to improve themselves this year, whether that’s through their online presence, their customer experience, or their marketing strategy. One way that companies can focus this year is their company website and really making it the best it can be. 

Once you’ve done that, your online presence will improve and marketing will be easier than ever because you’ll have a website to direct clients to that will allow them to interact with your brand easily. When you use WordPress, you get the excellent opportunity to upgrade your site with plugins and small businesses will definitely want to take advantage of this in 2016. 

From plugins that will help you in the SEO world to plugins that will give you a gallery to put those images, here is a look at the top 14 WordPress plugins that will benefit you in 2016. 

<h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/envira-gallery-lite/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Envira Gallery</a></h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/EnviraGallery.png" alt="Envira Gallery" width="737" height="238" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9839" />

Start the year off right by updating your company website with plugins like Envira Gallery, the plugin that lets you create an image gallery easily. You can already do this without a plugin but without the plugin, it’s going to be very basic and lacking the beauty and responsiveness of the Envira Gallery plugin. Create multiple galleries, albums, lightbox popups, and much more, anywhere on your site. 

<h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/optinmonster/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">OptinMonster</a></h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/OptinMonster.png" alt="OptinMonster" width="731" height="215" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9842" />

Check out the OptinMonster, one of the most popular plugin options for WordPress. What makes this one so special? This one is a must for small businesses because it’s the most popular conversation rate optimization software allowing you to make your old website visitors into email subscribers. This is ideal when you want to grow your email list, which would help with this year’s marketing efforts. 

<h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/google-analytics-for-wordpress/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Analytics</a></h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/GoogleAnalyticsForWordPress.png" alt="Google Analytics For WordPress" width="758" height="223" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9840" />

If you want something comprehensive when it comes to analyzing your site’s stats, get the Google Analytics plugin this year. It’s a free way to help you determine how your website is performing. Use this tool to see where your visitors come from and what they do on your site. This tool could help you optimize your site so that earnings increase this year. 

<h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/sucuri-scanner/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sucuri</a></h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Sucuri.png" alt="Sucuri" width="747" height="224" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9845" />

Do you worry about your online security? Make this year the one that focuses on improving security online. The Sucuri plugin for WordPress is the perfect place to start because its web application firewall is one of the best ones you could have on your site. They will protect you from any type of threat such as brute force attacks, malware threats, and DDoS. 

<h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/mailchimp-for-wp/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MailChimp</a></h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/MailChimp.png" alt="MailChimp" width="748" height="232" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9841" />

Do you have a good marketing strategy in place online? One of the best ways to reach your customers is through email lists and MailChimp is the perfect place to go for that. It’s a leader in online email marketing services allowing you to build your list and send emails to those on your list. It’s great for the beginner with an easy and quick setup. 

<h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Yoast SEO</a></h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/YoastSEO.png" alt="Yoast SEO" width="750" height="233" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9846" />

Perhaps this year should be a focus on how to improve your search engine rankings. Yoast SEO is a great plugin for this purpose as its going to help you optimize your site for search engine rankings. It’s become one of the most popular plugins for WordPress because it optimizes your site as a whole and helps you add meta tags. 

<h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/slack/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Slack</a></h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Slack.png" alt="Slack" width="731" height="220" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9844" />

Does your team struggle to work productively together online? Check out the Slack plugin on WordPress. It’s a tool for teams that need better managed that helps them to communicate and be productive. It’s great if you work in different locations because it allows you to do so much more than email. 

<h2><a href="https://www.birchpress.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BirchPress</a></h2>

For businesses that run on appointments, set up the BirchPress plugin to make sure your clients can easily book and pay for their appointments. What a great way to implement an online booking system this year. 

<h2><a href="https://www.semrush.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SEMRush</a></h2>

How do you stack up against the competition? SEMRush is a great tool for learning what your competitors are doing on their websites. You can search keywords to see their rankings, find out about their paid keywords, and their organic traffic. Then use that to decide how you want to optimize your strategies for this year. 

<h2><a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/quick-and-easy-faqs/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Quick and Easy FAQs</a></h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/QuickAndEasyFAQs.png" alt="Quick And Easy FAQs" width="721" height="226" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9843" />

Do you wish you had a great FAQs page to help your customers find answers more easily? When you get the same questions over and over, sometimes you can eliminate some of those phone calls by clearly posting it on your website. If you are launching a new product or website, add a new page for your frequently asked questions and add to it as new questions come up. Use the Quick and Easy FAQs plugin to make this happen.

<h2><a href="https://www.maxcdn.com/one/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">MaxCDN</a></h2>

MaxCDN is a great plugin for those that need to work on their page speed this year. Images and static content cause slower page loads, but you can optimize the speed of your website by using CDN to deliver the static files. It’s one of the most reliable options out there and works perfectly with WordPress. 

<h2><a href="https://ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">BackupBuddy</a></h2>

<img src="https://itxdesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/BackupBuddy.png" alt="Backup Buddy" width="496" height="221" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-9838" />

You don’t want to run into a risky situation this year by having no backups of your website. Get the BackupBuddy plugin for WordPress that will help you feel secure again. This plugin will help you backup and restore your site with just a few steps. 

<h2><a href="http://www.gravityforms.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gravity Forms </a></h2>

Gravity Forms are a great method for incorporating a contact form into your website. Get this plugin if you want to make it easier for customers to contact you in 2016. 

<h2><a href="http://www.csshero.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CSS Hero</a></h2>

Does your website look its best? The CSS Hero plugin is the perfect way to fine tune your visual appearance of the company website. Make a customized WordPress theme without having to write code using this plugin. 

Your small business is always looking for ways to improve online and otherwise. Make this year the year to improve your WordPress website so that you can focus on other things afterwards. From improving your SEO ranking to making your site look better than ever, these plugins are the perfect way to make your company perform at its best this year. 

