WordPress is a fantastic tool to use for small business web design. But, despite all of its capabilities, WordPress might not provide all the functionality that you may need for your site. That’s where WordPress plugins and integrations come in. Integrations are a handy way to easily add more features and customization to your WordPress website and make it serve you and your business better. Integrations can range from simple optimizations to vital tools needed to track website performance and integrate your marketing efforts. The following is a list of some of the most effective and useful integrations that you may want to consider adopting for your business’s website.
GA4 (Google Analytics)
GA4, better known Google Analytics 4 or simply Google Analytics is an indispensable asset for any small business with an online presence. Installing GA4 on your WordPress site will allow you to view and track a wide array of metrics including pageviews, session duration, and bounce rate. Additionally, GA4 enables its users to better monitor their Google Ads campaigns. The capabilities GA4 provides are invaluable when looking to improve the marketing performance of your website and will come in handy no matter what your business specializes in.
If you’ve already installed some form of Google Analytics as part of your WordPress website but are confused as to what GA4 is, you may be using an outdated version called Universal Analytics. If this is the case, it is recommended that you update your site to instead use GA4 and gain access to all of the increased functionality that comes with it. GA4 is Google’s new version of Universal Analytics, taking its place. As of July 1, 2023, you will no longer be able to track data through Universal Analytics. You will instead need to acquire GA4 to continue tracking site metrics.
Google Search Console
Google Search Console (GSC) is another key service that provides immeasurable benefit to any website integrated with it. Similarly to GA4, GSC enables users to view and track a variety of data points and statistics relating to their website. However, instead of GA4’s more generally focused metrics, GSC is heavily centered around search engine optimization (SEO) data. Such data includes tracking how many times you appear within organic search results (impressions), how many times users click into your site from organic search results (clicks), page indexing, and other valuable insights to help improve your SEO efforts.
There are several ways to set up Google Search Console with your website. Set up will require that you add tracking code to your site to pull data into GSC. WordPress plugins can also help you monitor GSC data within the dashboard of the backend of your site. The most common WordPress plugin for integrating Google Search Console with WordPress is through Google Site Kit.
Google Adsense
Google Adsense is a service that allows you to monetize your
website by enabling ads to be run on it. This is a simple way for your website to start generating revenue for you. Adsense is also highly customizable, allowing you to choose how ads are displayed and where on your website to display them.
As with the previous Google integrations, Adsense comes along with a suite of analytical features, giving you plenty of detailed information about ad performance and earnings, allowing you to further optimize ad placements and improve revenue over time. Additionally, Adsense will automatically adjust ad placement for compatibility on various devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as show ads that it detects as being contextually relevant for your website. This will aid in the user experience of those who visit your website, as users will be shown ads relevant to their interests.
Email Marketing Platforms
Vital to the success of any digital marketing plan is deploying effective email marketing strategies. By integrating the email marketing platform of your choice with WordPress actions such as building an email list and automating emails to be sent with certain website actions.
WordPress also makes it easy to integrate your preferred email marketing platform, with plugins for popular platforms such as Mailchimp, Kaviyo, and Privy already available. New methods of lead generation and building your email list open up via integration, such as pop-ups on your website asking for email addresses, or a section for a newsletter signup or email contact form.
WordPress CRM Integration
Another straightforward and impactful update to make to your WordPress site is that of integrating your CRM (customer relationship management) platform. Doing so can enable a host of advantages such as centralizing customer data and automatically capturing leads from your WordPress forms and website interactions. You’ll gain a comprehensive view of leads and customers, enabling more personalized interactions and improved engagement. Pre-existing WordPress plugins exist for many of the top CRM platforms such as Hubspot, Pipedrive, Salesforce, and ClickUp, making it a breeze to begin integration with your website.
Setting Up Your ECommerce Storefront
Although many popular
ecommerce platforms such as Shopify and Woocommerce will provide basic templates for your storefront, they can’t quite compare to the vast functionality and customizability that comes with a WordPress website. But WordPress alone can’t support a bustling ecommerce business, and so once again integrating the two is a simple and effective way to get the most out of the tools and platforms you use. The powerful content management WordPress provides alongside the efficient management of orders, catalog, and inventory is a surefire recipe for a long-lasting, successful ecommerce business with plenty of room for expansion.
