WordPress now powers 30% of websites. They’re the market leader, powering the publishing process for many journalists, producers, creatives and more.
The appeal of WordPress is the engine’s flexibility, built on the foundation of themes and plugins. Themes construct a webpage’s skin or design, whereas plugins are individual tools used to improve site performance or provide additional functionality as needed.
When you’re publishing articles, videos, photos or any other type of media regularly, consider these ten plugins for the best experience.
Improve your site’s look and feel.
Custom Sidebars: make widgets work harder.
Having the same sidebar or widget area on every page of your site gets really boring, especially for the users clicking around to multiple pieces of content. Custom Sidebars allows you to configure sidebar widgets dynamically.
It integrates into your widget menu, so you don’t have to dig for it on the back end. You can set up unlimited configurations. You can categorize them, or keep them custom per page.
Ultimate Branding: keep it consistent.
If you’re using an out-of-the-box WordPress template, you’re likely going to get stuck with WordPress’s branding in a prominent place on both your website’s front and back end.
Ultimate Branding makes it easy to make your site yours—you can add your logo, site name, colors and brand messaging to the login screen and dashboard.
Monetize your content.
Taboola: drive more revenue from visitors.
Of course, we can’t let you go without mentioning the Taboola WordPress plugin. You can easily integrate our content recommendations onto your site using our quick installation tutorial, and get instant access to our personalized sponsored content.
Engage with visitors on-site.
Sumo: drive more on-site actions.
Sumo makes it easier for visitors to share your content and provides a suite of tools to help you capture subscribers.
It includes the option for lightboxes that prompt user subscription, full screen calls to action (CTAs), floating CTAs, a highlighter to make tweeting your article easy, and many more user friendly features.
Disqus: comments just got better.
Disqus is a major improvement on the out-of-the-box comment functionality that WordPress provides. It makes is easy for publishers to stay agile in their comment sections and build true communities.
You can capture visitors emails, monitor analytics, monetize, and of course, interact with comments that are left by visitors.
Distribute your content faster.
Click to Tweet: engage Twitter users.
Written content usually contains a few tweetable tidbits, and with Click to Tweet, your web visitors can share them right from your webpage.
It’s fully customizable and helps you stay SEO conscious even as new visitors take liberties with your URLs.
Yoast: drive traffic from Google and Bing.
Yoast is such a popular tool for search engine optimization (SEO) that it’s now way more than just a plugin. The makers provide multiple WordPress plugins, SEO training, courses, blog articles and a support team for premium users.
Their flagship plugin helps you acquire more visitors from Google and Bing by guiding you through keyword optimization and keeping your social cards beautiful.
Constant Contact: grow your email strategy.
Capture email addresses and grow your list seamlessly with the Constant Contact WordPress plugin—it allows you to integrate forms right on the page.
They’re one of the most popular email providers, and they make collecting visitor information easy with their customizable forms.
Track your success.
Coschedule: distribution strategy and publishing come together.
CoSchedule is your all-in-one editorial calendar for planning, promoting, and executing your entire distribution and marketing strategy. Their plugin allows you to manage all of this from your WordPress dashboard.
You can do things like create workflows, schedule social and view your analytics while logged into WordPress.
MonsterInsights: integrate with Google Analytics.
Identified by WordPress as the best Google Analytics (GA) plugin, this is a must for publishers looking to keep track of their success using Google’s web suite.
You can optimize your site using MonsterInsights recommendations to improve engagement, monetization, and much more.
WordPress plugins work best when they’re regularly updated, your site is secure, and you’ve done the research to ensure you’re not downloading conflicting tools.
The right mix of design, engagement, distribution, analytical and monetization WordPress plugins can be the foundation for success. Find the right mix, and get your site working harder for you.