Plugins are a large part of WordPress websites. You have the core WordPress CMS, and then there are thousands of plugins available to solve any problem. Typically plugins are free, but there are three plugins at this time that I pay for: Rank Math SEO, WP Rocket, and Gravity Forms. These plugins have a license that allows me use them for all of my clients. When you hire me to work on your website you also have access to these three tools for your site. Not every client is going to need Gravity Forms. It is useful for my clients who need complex forms or are making transactions. But, for any client who values great search engine optimization, Rank Math SEO and WP Rocket are extremely useful.
Gravity Forms
I used to build my own contact forms, but now a plugin is simply faster and more secure. If you just need people to contact you, most any form will do. But, Gravity Forms expands far beyond simply sending you a message. You can use Gravity Forms as a simple shopping cart for products. You can use it for ongoing membership payments. You can use it for signing up kids for a summer camp. It has complex conditional logic that allows you to send particular forms to particular people. I does questionnaires. It’s a relatively expensive plugin and I offer this to all my clients at no cost to them.
Rank Math SEO
Figuring out the specific tasks I need to address improving my client’s Search Engine Optimization became too complicated using just Google Analytics and Google Search Console. I’ve tried other SEO services, but they were either too expensive or didn’t do a good job guiding my decisions. Rank Math SEO is costly, but may be my most valuable plugin. It generates income for my clients by pointing out specific tactics I can use to increase traffic to my client’s website. For any client who wants better SEO, I will apply this plugin to their website with my standard SEO package. This package includes 10 Hours of SEO work applied over the course of one month for $500 (2025 prices). Rank Math SEO transparently shows the progress of your SEO right in the WordPress dashboard.
WP Rocket
Another task as a web designer is making sure my clients sites load fast. I used to do the required work manually, but it was an organizing and coding headache. WP Rocket is the best at speeding up sites. As a paid for plugin, they even have tech support to help explain what more I could do to speed up my clients’ sites. Google search will actually punish you if your site is slow, lowering you down the search engines. I apply this plugin to all of my clients who request it and are needing competitive search results.
Approximately, if your content is 70% of the deciding factor of how your site does in searches. And, inbound links have 10% effect on your search results. And, title tags and another meta coding have 10% effect. If I was to estimate just how important speed is, I’d say it has 10% of the deciding factor for where your site displays in searches. I can have control over the other 90%. I bought WP Rocket so that I no longer had to worry about that 10% that I can only successfully control when using this plugin.
Why Do It Alone?
WordPress websites can get expensive if you are buying plugins on your own. If you are looking for complex forms, improving your search engine optimization, or simply building a site, Schildbach Design has the skills and a tool chest of WordPress plugins that make building a website easier and SEO success just a couple of months away. Ask about Rank Math SEO and how I use it in my Standard SEO Package.