10 Best WordPress Plugins To Help You Create Awesome Content
WordPress is a great platform to build your blog/website, and one of the best features is the ability to download and install external plugins. Plugins allow you to expand the features that WordPress offers. There are two types of plugins, premium and free. In this article, I am going to show you 10 of the best WordPress plugins that can help you create amazing content.
1.) Shortcodes Ultimate
Shortcodes Ultimate is a plugin that provides you with a TON of shortcodes. You can easily create tabs, buttons, boxes, sliders, responsive videos, and so much more.
Shortcodes Ultimate Features:
- Shortcode Generator
- Custom Widget
- Works With Any Theme
- 50+ Amazing Shortcodes
With Shortcodes Ultimate, you can make your posts stand out have so many extra tools at your disposal.
2.) Disqus Comment System
One of the things that WordPress doesn’t do as well is the comment system. The native WordPress comment system is ok, BUT if you want to take it to the next level, the Disqus Comment system is the way to go. Disqus makes commenting on your posts easier and more interactive, it connects websites and commenters and creates a unique and fun discussion community. Comments are always a good thing for a blog; audience interaction is key to building a community that trusts you that you can eventually sell to.
Not only is the Disqus system easier to use, but it also looks better than the native WordPress commenting system.
3.) W3 Total Cache
Caching is the ULTIMATE method of making your WordPress site load faster. W3 Total Cache stores the already static image of your site, instead of forcing WordPress to generate it as a visitor comes to your site. This is a must have plugin to make your site run faster. It is critical to have your site run fast when visitors come to your posts/pages. If a site is slow, the visitor will just click the back button on their browser before the site even loads.
W3 Total Cache improves the user experience of your website by increasing the server performance and reducing the download times when visitors come to your site.
4.) Wordfence Security
This is the must-have security plugin for your WordPress website. It will keep track of everything, including logins that occur on your site, and will alert you whenever anything fishy happens. Security is important when talking about your content and website. Using Wordfence will allow you to rest easy in knowing that everything on your site is being monitored at all times.
Wordfence provides your site with a WordPress Firewall, Blocking Features, Login Security, Security Scanning, and Monitoring Features.
WordPress is already a great platform out of the box for SEO, but the Yoast SEO plugin allows you to take it much further. I am an SEO nerd, and love to dive into the small details that can be done on posts that will have them rank higher in search, BUT this may not be you. Yoast SEO has been one of the most downloaded WordPress plugins for a long time, and for good reason.
Yoast will analyze your post as you are creating it and give you a rating for each post on how well you are doing with your SEO tactics.
As you can see below, it will give you tips and actionable things you can do to make your post better SEO optimized.Ā
Green is Good — Yellow is Ok — Red is Bad šĀ
They make it visual and so easy to understand what you need to do to improve the SEO on your posts. It starts by typing in your focus keyword, and then will develop from there as you construct the post. It will analyze your Titles, Sub-Headings, Paragraphs, Images, Links, and so much more.
If you are someone who wants to make sure you’re are optimizing your content to rank high in search this is the plugin for you.
6.) Pretty Link
Pretty Link allows you to shrink, track, manage, and share any URL on or off your WordPress website. This one is my favorite plugin that I use on a daily basis. Pretty Link is ideal for making your links look better, BUT it is also a fantastic tool to take your affiliate links and wrap them in a pretty bow. It also keeps the people who click on your affiliate links in your ecosystem because the link will be branded with your website.
As you can see in this image, I have a link from my website that I can say on my podcast that will take people directly to my podcast’s iTunes page.
Now, when I record my podcast and want to tell people to subscribe and rate my show, all I have to do is direct them to www.onlinebusinessrealm.com/podcast. This is so much easier to say and has a much better success rate. I recommend this plugin to anyone who is going to use their site for their business or brand.
7.) Shareaholic
As we all know Social Sharing is an important part of any content, not just blog posts. Shareaholic is my “go to” social media plugin that makes it easy for my audience to share my posts on their favorite social network.
Shareaholic, also provides you with the option of providing related content on your posts, and the ability to make money from the visitors who click on these posts.
The ability to place social icons on any page or post on your site, and edit the location, sizeĀ and color is so easy to use.
8.) Ninja Forms
Ninja Forms is a plugin that allows you to manage forms easily with a simple drag and drop interface. You can create contact, subscription, or any other form for your WordPress site. The form builder within Ninja Forms is intuitive and simple to use, allowing you to create forms with a drag and drop editor. The level of customization provided by Ninja Forms, even in the free version allows you to create forms that look professional and convert.
Here is a video showing you the basic features of Ninja Forms
9.) WooCommerce
WooCommerce is a powerful eCommerce plugin that helps you sell anything on your WordPress site. It is extremely easy to setup and use, and it looks amazing. If you want to sell actual physical products on your site, this is a must have plugin.
WooCommerce powers over %30 of all online stores.
WooCommerce allows you to ship anywhere, has extensive payment options, and you can design the syle of your WooCommerce store any way you like.
10.) OptinMonster
If you are looking to grow your email list, which by the way you should be, OptinMonster is a great plugin that allows you to create beautiful optin forms and boxes that will increase the conversion rate of any optin you have on your site.
OptinMonster provides you with templates to choose from and then edit them to work for your products and email lists.
As a business,Ā building an email list should be your number one priority. A plugin like OptinMonster allows you to do this in a way that is not over the top BUT still successful.
In conclusion, Worpress plugins are great and can add another element to your site. I will say, that it is easy to go crazy with Plugins. I would highly recommend that you find a few 10-15 that work for your blog and stick with those.
