WordPress is the undisputed champion of content management. There are many reasons for that, not the least of which is that it’s extensible.

That means you can customize it with software modules (called “plugins”) to give you the exact set of features that you need. Even better: countless plugins, like WordPress itself, are offered free of charge.

You can find plugins to give you just about any type of functionality that you need, such as improving your SEO, enhancing your menu, and providing you with additional sidebar widgets.

There are also plugins that will help you maximize your conversions. Here are a few of the best.

  1. P3 (Plugin Performance Profiler)

If you’re serious about conversion rate optimization (CRO), then you need to make sure that your site loads as fast as possible. That’s because, according to KISSMetrics, 40% of people abandon a website that takes longer than three seconds to load.

Unfortunately, the plugins that you already have installed on your WordPress site could be affecting your load time considerably. If that’s the case, then you might be losing traffic (and therefore conversions).

Fortunately, a plugin exists to tell you how each of your plugins are contributing to your site’s load time. It’s called P3.

Just install the P3 plugin let it scan your site as a visitor. After it’s done visiting several of your pages, it will present you with a report in pie-chart format that shows you how long your site takes to load and how much each of your plugins contribute to that load time.

It’s a great tool because it shows you which of your other plugins might be causing bottlenecks. Once you’re armed with that information, you can decide if you should deactivate the slow plugins and look for speedier alternatives.

  1. OptimizePress

I mentioned at the beginning of the article that many WordPress plugins are free. OptimizePress, sadly, is not one of those freebies.

But if you’re interested in turning your WordPress site into a money-making powerhouse, then OptimizePress might be just what you’re looking for.

It’s offered in both plugin and theme format. Whichever you select, it will enable you to quickly and easily create landing pages, sales pages, membership portals, and conversion funnels.

The tool helps you rapidly launch your website by offering more than 30 templates you can tweak to suit your business model. There are also over 40 design elements you can add to your page to give it just the look and functionality that you need.

The cost ranges from $197 to $297 and depends on the number of sites that you want to create.

  1. W3 Total Cache

As we’ve seen, speed matters when it comes to conversions. W3 Total Cache is a plugin that claims to increase your site speed by as much as 10 times.

It must be doing something right. The plugin has been downloaded more than a million times and is rated 4.3 out of 5 stars.

According to the author, W3 Total Cache offers:

  • “Instant” subsequent page views
  • Faster rendering of pages
  • Improved web server performance
  • As much as 80% bandwidth savings with minify and compression technologies

If you want to limit lost conversions because your site isn’t loading fast enough, give W3 Total Cache a whirl.

Keep in mind: if this plugin doesn’t work for you, Super Cache might be a viable alternative. There have been some reported issues with this plugin that break sites, so watch out.

  1. Simple Page Tester

No conversion rate optimization effort is complete without split testing. Fortunately, there’s a WordPress plugin to help with that as well.

Simple Page Tester lives up to its name. It makes it easy to conduct A/B testing on your WordPress site.

To start your test, just go to the edit screen of the page you want to test and click on “Setup Split Test.” Then, create your variation and start testing.

If you want the full functionality of this plugin, though, you’re going to have to fork over some cash. The premium version starts at $59 and offers a more detailed analysis of your split testing, including the conversion stats that you want to track.

The good news is that you have a chance to test drive the free version before you decide to make the purchase.

  1. Icegram

There are plenty of WordPress plugins that will help you capture leads. One of the best is Icegram.

As a bonus: it’s free.

Sure, there are premium options that you’ll probably want. You’ll have to make an investment for those.

But, once again, you get the option to try before you buy.

Icegram gives you the ability to capture leads with popups, header and footer bars, toast notifications, and messengers.

It’s also compatible with autoresponders such as Aweber, MailChimp, GetResponse, and a number of others. That gives you the ability to integrate your email collection efforts with your favorite email marketing solution.

The plugin offers great functionality right out of the box, including:

  • 20 themes that you can use to capture leads
  • Maximum flexibility in how, where, and when you display your lead capture messages
  • The option to segment your lead collection efforts with fine-grained targeting

The premium addons provide additional features, such as:

  • Enhanced analytics
  • Different options for message display
  • Geo-targeting capability
  • Additional message types

Wrapping It Up

There are numerous great WordPress plugins available to help you maximize conversions on your site. Be sure to include one or more of them in your upcoming optimization campaigns. Also, before you install any of these make sure you make a backup of your site, there is always a chance installing a plugin can make your site crash.