Marketing 8 min read

Best Plugins for WordPress That Content Marketers Must use

IB Photography / Shutterstock.com

IB Photography / Shutterstock.com

If you are a digital content marketer, you should be well-versed in a wide array of WordPress plugins.

What plugins exactly? All kinds: formatting, social, SEO, lead generation, form builders, and more.

But, much like everything else, the market is so saturated that it can be hard to find the right ones. While nothing replaces your research, we’ve compiled a list of the best plugins your WordPress site needs.

Best Plugins for Content Creation

Start With the Best Plugins for Formatting

Before writing content, you should probably brainstorm how you want things to look.

The overall web page design is not what we are discussing here. WordPress plugins are designed to improve on the base product and tailor the experience to your needs.

If you need a “Read More” function for your long-form content, there’s the Read More plugin for that.

Need to save space and improve page speed with SEO optimized images? ShortPixel Image Optimizer is the plugin for that.

Do you use ads on your WordPress site and need to manage them better? You’ll need AdSanity with its widgets, easy setup, insights, and ad calendar.

Speaking of things that might be on your site sidebar, Inline Related Posts can help there. You can encourage users to spend more time on your site without distracting them from the current page.

You can even easily integrate A/B testing into your WordPress process. Test different landing pages, e-commerce products, and more with Nelio A/B Testing for WordPress.

But the one you need to incorporate is Akismet Anti-Spam. This plugin helps to filter comments that might be spam. Pro-tip: it does require the Akismet.com API key to use.

Follow up With WordPress Content Tools

The biggest thing people notice about your site is probably (hopefully) the content of it. As such, that is the first place you should start when considering what plugins to use.

First, consider something like INK for drafting, editing, and optimizing blog posts or articles. Without added distractions and using intuitive controls, creativity can flow freely.

Speaking as a writer who has worked with many types of CMS platforms, WordPress is preferred. But only when you have a plugin such as INK to assist the standard interface.

Proofread Bot also does a great job of finding pesky syntax, grammar, and clerical errors. You can use its standalone site or have it integrated into various platforms such as WordPress.

For some meta-knowledge that veers into SEO, I would recommend FD Word Statistics. Except that it doesn’t have support anymore and hasn’t been updated since 2016. A similar plugin called Word Stats also helped improve readability. But it hasn’t been patched the last three major WordPress updates.

Chances are another key plugin that helps readability could have been a catalyst for this.

image of Yoast SEO for WordPress for article What Plugins Every Content Marketer Should be Using on WordPress
Yoast SEO for WordPress | WordPress

Next, Add In the SEO Plugins and Web Tools

Yoast SEO for WordPress is a mainstay for any content marketer worth their salt.

It combines the functionalities of many plugins all-in-one, but its SEO integration may be most helpful. You can set multiple keywords, and Yoast reviews your post, pointing out errors. Recent updates also include tips for improvement and recommended keywords.

But Yoast SEO isn’t the only powerhouse plugin you need on your radar.

Jetpack for WordPress offers a host of features:

  • Marketing services such as insights and analytics
  • SEO tools for various search engines
  • Automated social media posting
  • Comprehensive ad program
  • All kind of themes for every website
  • Customization tools
  • “Lazy” image loading to optimize the mobile experience
  • Security features to spot malware, add daily/real-time site backups, and more

With over 5 million active installations, JetPack is a definite plugin competitor.

Most SEO related plugins are so comprehensive that you only need one. The only other plugin in this category that I’m recommending is a rich snippets plugin.

Rich snippets can help you own that Google snippet real estate. The plugin All In One Schema Rich Snippets can help with many SEO related facets such as:

  • Ranking higher in search results
  • Parsing relevant information for search engines for snippet results
  • Allowing for interactive snippets
  • Ensure the right information gets displayed on Facebook

There is more that this plugin does, but with these few bullets, you can see its merit. Given the increasing importance of Google questions and snippets, it is an in-demand plugin.

image of MailChimp for WordPress for article What Plugins Every Content Marketer Should be Using on WordPress
MailChimp for WordPress | WordPress

What Plugins are Good for Email Content Marketing and Forms?

When it comes to email marketing, MailChimp has a significant chunk of the market. It seamlessly integrates with many programs and platforms. And it has one of the cutest icons of all time, I’d say.

But it isn’t the only game in town when it comes to email marketing and form building.

WPForms is probably one of the simplest to implement and use. The drag and drop form builder is mobile-ready, has lots of templates, and is easy to embed in posts, sidebars, etc.

Though Contact Form 7 has more than 5 million active installations, it isn’t quite user-friendly. At least, not for an average user looking for basic features. For an expert content marketing genius like yourself, it might be just what you need, amirite?

Lead Generation and Marketing Plugins

Turning site visitors into customers is simultaneously easier and harder than ever. But this isn’t a time to talk strategy; we are dealing strictly with tools now.

Elegant Themes offers the Bloom plugin for lead generation and email opt-in. The goal: to convert site visitors into loyal fans and up your email subscribers. But again, this isn’t the only plugin that does this particular thing.

OptInMonster offers another conversion optimization option to bolster sales. They also have an adorable mascot that resembles Mike Wazowski from Monsters, Inc.

For WordPress users who also use affiliate marketing, there’s a plugin for you, too.

Though the name ThirstyAffiliates sounds dubious, it is a unique tool to manage affiliate links. It integrates seamlessly with WordPress as “just another button on your Visual editor.”

For someone like a cosmetics brand or even a home improvement brand, it could be life-saving.

image of Blog2Social Interface for WordPress
Blog2Social Interface | WordPress

Social Media Plugins You Can’t Live Without

This is the big one every content marketing dreads: social media plugins.

Speaking as a former content marketer myself, the ever-changing social landscape is tough to maintain. Harder still is keeping up with each new social media plugin update.

Given Facebook’s recent algorithm change, you might expect your plugin needs to change, too. Fortunately for you marketing pros out there, you are g2g with your B2C. I’ll see myself out.

Let’s start easy with the Custom Twitter Feeds plugin. It will display a responsive and highly customizable version of your Twitter feed on your site that search engines can crawl.

The Social Media Share Buttons & Social Sharing Icons plugin offers a variety of features to help you customize your site’s social media buttons. It will allow people to follow your social networking accounts without leaving your site.

Revive Old Post allows you to auto post to various social media platforms. It is integrated with Google Analytics, allows for lots of post customization, and is compatible with URL shorteners.

Blog2Social works similarly to Revive Old Post with a few differences. Most notably is that it has a higher rating, but lower user base. It might require some testing to figure out which one works best for your needs.

WordPress to Buffer does exactly what it says: updates the Buffer app with WordPress posts. If your content marketing team uses Buffer, boom — this one’s for you.

You can also send web push notifications using plugins like OneSignal. With their 50,000+ user base, they send more than a billion notifications per day.

image of frog holding too many books
Alexas_Fotos | Pixabay

A Word to the Wise: Don’t Overdo It

This list is, by no means, totally exhaustive, but it is dense. But remember, as mentioned in various articles, quality over quantity.

While a plugin could be well-designed, it might not be what suits your needs best.

You also want to make sure that there isn’t too much feature overlap.

Does Plugin A do what Plugin B can and more? By process of elimination, you should use Plugin A over Plugin B then. It is a no-brainer, but you get my meaning as you extrapolate the concept further.

What are your favorite content marketing plugins for WordPress and other platforms?

Read More: How To Generate Endless Content Ideas For Your Website

First AI Web Content Optimization Platform Just for Writers

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Juliet Childers

Content Specialist and EDGY OG with a (mostly) healthy obsession with video games. She covers Industry buzz including VR/AR, content marketing, cybersecurity, AI, and many more.

Comments (4)
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  1. Bharat Mamtora March 08 at 8:08 am GMT

    Marketer also use cloud flare plugin. What you say ?

  2. BuildMyBlog March 08 at 5:28 pm GMT

    It’s a good list. But yeah…totally quality over quantity. Plugins take resources. Plugins need to be updated (which clients normally do not do.) And Plugins ‘may’ conflict with your theme or other plugins. Ain’t WordPress fun??

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    Amit Vaghela March 08 at 10:56 am GMT

    Great post thank you for sharing this is cool plugin
    a href=http://www.softomagic.com/Hospital management software development/a

  4. Profile Image
    soppa sarika November 09 at 12:01 pm GMT

    I don’t see the INK for ALL editor reviewed in this article but it’s my newest favorite partner: http://bit.ly/2IiHXlQ. I’m clueless about optimizing content for Google. This is the first AI-enabled app that I’ve worked with that helps me with this in addition to passive voice and sentence length, etc. Something like this is what I expect in 2019

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