Note: This blog post is a continuation of our website design blog series for spray foam and petroleum contractors and assumes you have followed along with the previous posts in the series.
If you haven’t read our other posts on this topic, we recommend starting with the first post and working your way back here. Cheers!
Website design can be intimidating if you don’t know where to start or which questions to ask – but don’t fret!
That’s what Freedom Consulting is here for!
Are you a spray foam contractor or a petroleum contractor designing your own business website?
Fantastic!
We created our website design blog series for you!
If you follow this blog series, you can design a professional, beautiful, and functional website for your business…
…and you can do it all yourself!
(If you’re new to the series, check out the first post here!)
What’s next on the website design “To-Do” list?
In this post, we will discuss plugins, website backups and security, and legal pages.
Let’s jump in!
What are WordPress Plugins?
Plugins for WordPress websites are similar to apps on a smartphone, and each one serves a specific function on your site.
There are plugins for most things – from adding contact forms to your site to making sure your site is optimized for search engines. As such, it can be easy to get carried away when adding plugins to your site.
However, adding plugins to your website is a balancing act – and generally, less is more.
The more plugins you have, the more cluttered the code of your website can become, and bloated code takes longer to load on your customers’ computers.
Overall, you want your website to be as fast as possible, while still providing a functional, attractive user experience.
Don’t let this scare you away from using the plugins you find necessary – just make sure you need each one you choose to add to your site. Savvy? Cool.
Now, let’s discuss how to add a plugin to your WordPress website!
How Do You Add Plugins to Your WordPress Website?
To add a plugin to your WordPress Website, sign into the back end of your site, then click “Plugins” and “Add New” on the dashboard menu.
Then, search for a plugin in the search bar!
(Tip: A list of plugins will automatically populate after you start typing in the search bar – there is no need to press “Enter” or “Return” when searching in this area.)
When you find a plugin you wish to add to your site, click on the “Install Now” button next to the plugin’s name, and then “Activate” it to use the plugin on your site.
After you install and activate a plugin, you will likely need to visit the settings page for that plugin to configure it for your site. Most plugins have descriptive instructions on the settings page, so don’t worry too much! (WordPress is designed to be as intuitive as possible for users!)
If you run into issues, exercise a little patience…and use Google to your advantage! (Thanks, internet! Lol.)
We recommend setting all your plugins to update automatically, because you don’t need to worry as much about the security and functionality of your site if your plugins are all up to date (yes, please!).
Just make sure you set up website backups, too, to prevent unforeseen integration issues that may occur with new plugin updates!
But we are getting ahead of ourselves…
So let’s move on to Freedom Consulting’s list of essential plugins for your spray foam contracting or oil and gas contracting website!
Which Plugins Are Essential to a Spray Foam or Petroleum Contractor’s Website?
Millions of plugins exist for WordPress – both paid and free (and some with both free and paid versions).
To keep their sheer numbers of from becoming overwhelming, we’ve made a list of plugins whose functions we believe to be essential for every website.
All of the plugins we will suggest today are free to use (although paid versions may be available). However, we believe that each suggested plugin will serve you well on your business website no matter what your budget is.
First up is our recommended plugin for backing up your website data: UpdraftPlus!
UpdraftPlus – Freedom Consulting’s Recommended Backup Plugin
There are many ways to back up your WordPress site data, but the we suggest using the UpdraftPlus plugin.
The backup feature on UpdraftPlus is free and (after setup) will automatically send backup files to your chosen remote storage method (i.e., your Google Drive or DropBox account)!
Why backup your site data? Because websites crash sometimes, (no bueno!) and there’s no need to lose all your hard work to the ether. Instead, back up your site data to a remote storage location so you rest easy at night!
With regular backups, if something happens to your site, you can fix it easily.
We recommend setting up weekly backups with UpdraftPlus and keeping 5-6 of those backups in remote storage. (This is an automatic process, so you don’t need to worry about it after getting the ball rolling.)
If ya need ‘em, there your backups will be – safe and secure in remote storage.
What other security measures should you take on your website? Well, we recommend keeping your bank info separate from your website…and installing the WordFence plugin!
WordFence – Freedom Consulting’s Recommended Security Plugin
Many factors come into play when talking about website security, and there are plugins for most of them.
However, we have found that one of the best free plugins for overall security on your WordPress site is WordFence.
WordPress and most plugins are updated regularly to help keep websites as secure as possible – but it is vital to remember that NO security precautions are 100% perfect.
That’s why we also recommend keeping your bank info separate from your website if at all possible. If there’s no money directly connected to your site, it won’t be as tempting to hackers.
If you’re looking for more protection than the free version of WordFence offers, there is a paid version of the plugin, as well as many other paid security plugins that may fit your needs.
Do what you need to do to sleep well at night! But there’s no sense in worrying yourself sick over website security – just do the best you can.
Also, use strong, unique passwords for your website, okay? Okay.
One last security measure that needs to be discussed: Legal Pages.
Legal Pages for your Spray Foam or Petroleum Contractor Website
No one wants legal action taken against them.
For any reason.
But sometimes, it happens.
To protect yourself and your business from website-based legal disputes as well as you can, make sure you have well-written legal pages on your website that are customized to fit your business!
Remember when we added Terms & Conditions, Disclaimers, and Privacy Policy pages to our back end and footer menus?
(If you haven’t, find out how here!)
Now it’s time to discuss what to put on those pages!
Some WordPress plugins offer free templates for your legal pages, and there are free templates online that you can customize for your website as well.
However, we recommend finding a paid alternative.
Stick with us, here – you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on this!
What we recommend you do is find easily-customizable legal page templates online that were written by a lawyer with proven credentials.
Make sure these legal templates come from a reputable source and have high reviews!
Your legal pages help ensure your compliance with governmental requirements for websites (such as GDPR and CCPA), and can help protect if any legal battles arise. So, you want well-worded documents on your site!
This is a “better safe than sorry” thing.
We won’t mention any specific template providers, since everyone’s legal needs vary, but you should expect to pay somewhere around $150-$300 for the templates, including Privacy Policy, Terms & Conditions, Disclaimers, and Cookie Policy templates.
Also, since regulations change periodically, it’s essential to keep up with the times on our website’s legal pages! Look to purchase templates that will be updated over time. Any updates should be sent directly to you when their creator makes them.
One last thing to mention about compliance: adding a cookie banner to your site.
(Note: Every website is different and legal requirements change. Make sure you research how to stay compliant with your site!)
Your website will automatically use cookies essential to a good customer experience on your site, so you should add a cookie banner to your site (along with the cookie policy in your Privacy Policy) to be GDPR-compliant.
Cookie banner plugin functions vary, so we won’t suggest a specific one. Instead, let’s discuss how to find good plugins through the WordPress search feature!
How to find a good plugin for other purposes
The above-mentioned plugins we consider must-haves for any WordPress website – but that doesn’t mean they will be the only plugins you decide to add your site.
So how do you find a good WordPress plugin?
Simply search for the purpose you want your plugin to serve – like SEO, for instance – and look for a plugin that is marked as “Compatible with your version of WordPress,” has high user ratings, and a large number of “Active Installations.”
It’s also a good idea to check when the plugin you’re considering was “Last Updated.” You’ll want the plugin creators to keep up with their plugin and make sure it is optimized to perform well on your site.
So, look for a “Last Updated” time of no more than ~1-2 months.
Keep in mind that – generally speaking – the fewer plugins you have on your site, the better.
You need great website functionality but don’t want to overcrowd your website code with unnecessary plugins.
As we said earlier, this website design process is a balancing act!
And that’s okay…
Life is too. (We just blew your mind, didn’t we!? Knew it! Ha!)
Conclusion
Freedom Consulting is here to help you create the website of your dreams so that you can operate your spray foam or oil and gas contracting business to the best of your ability!
Now you know how to find and add the essential plugins to your website, as well as how to tackle legal pages.
Great work!
If you have any questions about this process, don’t hesitate to reach out! We always look forward to hearing from you.
Next time is gonna get artsy-fartsy! We will be discussing the nitty-gritty details of making your site look nice using a website builder.
Until then, have fun exploring WordPress plugins!
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