WordPress is growing with each passing day. New version updates, new themes and plugins, and new developers are joining its ecosystem all the time. We are all riding the popularity of the world’s #1 CMS and have made it our livelihood.
Like many of you, we learn new things about WordPress every day. Working with 50+ agency partners gives us a unique perspective into the world of WordPress, so we’re starting a bi-weekly WP Roundup to deliver the information every agency owner should know.
Read on for premium theme suggestions, information on new plugins, and other valuable resources that will help you make your agency thrive.
News to Know
- Hosting company group. ONE has acquired WP Media, the developers behind the popular WP Rocket caching plugin. This is just the latest example of a continuing trend – the acquisition of a WP product by a hosting company.
- Matt Mullenweg, the developer behind WordPress and Automattic, says the new Wix mobile app is based on WordPress. Shocked? The fight between Wix and WordPress goes on.
- WordPress 5.7: We’re accustomed to seeing small and not-so-small changes added to WordPress Core every time a new version is released. WordPress 5.7 is no exception, and it’s great to see how each new release brings us a little closer to the Big Picture.
Useful Themes and Templates
- One of our favorite themes at UnlimitedWP is Astra. This incredibly low weight and highly customizable theme is better than ever with the new Astra 3.0 release. The theme runs even faster than before and offers more out-of-the-box customizations than ever – especially the flexible new Header Footer Builder.
- “2035Themes” author on Themeforest has one of the simplest Podcast website WP themes we have ever used. Check this one out – it could be the perfect solution for any client who wants a simple podcasting website on WordPress.
- Our agency clients often ask us what the best WooCommerce theme is. We have always trusted one of the seven themes offered by CommerceGurus. Our current favorite is the Adrenaline theme.
Useful Plugins
- Managing 301 redirects and keeping track of 404 errors is valuable for SEO purposes, but not the best use of your development team’s time and expertise. You can save tons of time by managing those loose ends using the Redirection plugin. This is WP Engine’s plugin of choice for managing redirects and errors, in part because it supports bulk uploads with a single .CSV file. Bulk uploads are a valuable time-saving feature!
- Have a client who wants a WordPress-hosted job boards site built? WP Job Manager can get the job done with its free core plugin. This plugin offers an entire suite of useful add-ons to extend your job openings page into a full-fledged job board.
- Creating an affiliate program on WordPress is a common request for agency owners. We get it a lot. In most cases, we turn to AffiliateWP as our top choice for enabling full-featured affiliate marketing tools on WordPress.
Agency Growth Tools and Resources
- We love InVision, but you can’t beat Presentator.io’s completely FREE and open-source design presentation and collaboration tool. If you are looking to reduce some monthly software costs, this is a must-have tool. It’s also a great place to start for people using a design presentation tool for the first time.
- Creating a funnel to get more clients? FunnelPacks makes it easier with ready-made landing pages, lead magnets and follow-up email sequences. It actually gives you a page template code you can add right to your agency’s WP website. Couldn’t be simpler.
- Every agency owner I speak with says recurring revenue is on top of their list. Check out this FB group dedicated to agencies looking to productize their service and find out how you can start managing your cash flow more efficiently.
Thank you for reading this edition of UnlimitedWP’s WP Roundup. We do not have an affiliate relationship with any of the third party sites, services or products mentioned in this email.
