The Top 5 WordPress Plugins To Boost Your Website Strategy

I’ve talked a lot about blog strategy lately. Why it’s important, where to start, and how to incorporate it into various parts of what you do. But I haven’t shared with you the tools I use tools to do so!

Today I’m sharing with you the top 5 WordPress plugins you can use to boost your blog strategy.

Simple Banner

Looking for a quick and easy way to create a call to action for everyone to see? SimpleBanner is perfect for that. You can see it at work at the top of my blog right now, linking to my course.

We all know the importance of calls to action and this plugin is nice and easy to use. All you have to do is select your colors and enter the text or HTML that you’d like displayed. The plugin will do the rest!

Jetpack

I don’t think I can ever say enough about how much I love Jetpack. There are so many built-in options that can help you with your WordPress site. Here I’m going to talk about two of those features that are perfect for your blog strategy.

First are the related posts. If you scroll down to the bottom of this post, you’ll see that I have three related posts displayed. Those are posts that share keywords with this one, which is great for your blog strategy. If someone makes it to the end of your post there’s a good chance they’d be interested in reading more. Recent posts are right there to help them do exactly that.

The second Jetpack setting that I use for my blog strategy is the social share buttons at the bottom of my posts (Sharing setting). Honestly, I don’t know how often those little buttons are used, but I like to have them there. Again, if someone makes it to the end of your post they probably enjoyed it so giving them an opportunity to share easily is a great idea.

WordPress Editorial Calendar

For those of you working to create a content strategy, this one is for you. WordPress Editorial Calendar is perfect for keeping track of your blog post topics.

I’m not sure about you, but I’m one to write down ideas in random spots as they come to me. Some end up in my phone, some in my planner, some in a random notebook I found on the floor. I love having this plugin as a central location to save and schedule my ideas.

Once you install it, you’ll find it under Posts –> Calendar (which took me forever to find). As you add ideas to your calendar the plugin will also create post drafts for you. (Sometimes helpful, sometimes annoying). The calendar is a great way to get a quick look at what you have coming up.

Also, if you forget to add a post to your calendar and just write it, that post will still show up in the calendar on the date that it was published. This is nice when you want to look back at what you’ve written recently!

SumoMe

SumoMe is one of my favorites and one I’ve recommended before. If you’re reading this on a mobile device you won’t see this plugin in action, but if you’re on a laptop or desktop computer you may see it in a couple of places.

First are the social share icons on the left side of the screen. I love that you can totally customize the color, shape, size, and spacing of these to fit your brand.

This second option I no longer use, but I previously had a scroll box that would appear in the bottom-right corner of the screen once you scrolled halfway down a page. This is a great, unobtrusive way to have your audience opt-in for a free course or other incentive. However, I highly recommend that you disable this popup for mobile devices since it takes up most of those smaller screens.

jQuery Pin It Button For Images

This is another plugin I’ve talked about before but really enjoy. With jQuery Pin It Button For Images you’re able to upload a custom button to use as the Pin It button on your blog post graphics.

How does this help with your overall strategy? Well for one, you’ll have a branded button, rather than the red or gray that probably doesn’t fit with your normal colors. And second, something out of the ordinary is more likely to stick out and grab your readers’ attention.