One of the best features of WordPress is that it?s open source software.
As a result people from all over the world have created an amazing library of plugins. No matter what kind of features you need for your website there?s probably a plugin for it.
In this post we?ll highlight 9 excellent plugins that you can use on your website to:
- Collect more leads
- Get more social media shares
- Increase your email sign-ups
- Create calls-to-action
- And more actions you’d like your visitors to take
Let?s get started.
1) Max Buttons
Buttons are usually a lot better than a plain text link, especially when there?s a specific action your want your visitors to take.
They stand out much more than text and people are already trained to know to click on them.
Max Buttons was the first button plugin for WordPress. It?s free and lets you create beautiful buttons without any code.
The plugin lets you create individual buttons and then insert them anywhere on your site using a shortcode.
Max Buttons also comes with a set of social sharing buttons as well as a nice bonus.
2) Sumo Me
Sumo Me is a set of tools and plugins that can add a lot of different features to your website.
Welcome mat adds a full-screen call-to action to your site. Visitors see this no matter what page they land on.
Sumo Me claims this plugin will double your email conversion rate. We?ve heard many people on this Internet confirm this as well.
Scroll box is another plugin that adds a nice polite email sign-up box when a user has scrolled to the bottom of a page.
This is a fantastic way to encourage readers to sign up for your email list without annoying them.
If someone has read through an entire post on your site that means they like your content.
They?re exactly the kind of person who you want on your email list.
They?re also very like to join your email list as well.
Smart Bar adds a bar to the top of your website where you can put any call-to-action you want.
It?s a simple and fantastic way to always remind your visitors to take action.
Highlighter lets your visitors highlight text on your site and easily share it on social networks.
This plugin has two major benefits.
- It gets you more social media shares and traffic
- It highlights popular sections of your content for your readers
Sumo Me has another similar feature called Image Sharer which works much like Highlighter.
There?s not really an easy way to share images on social media.
This plugin adds social sharing buttons on your images to make them very easy to share.
Sumo Me also has a collection of regular social sharing buttons you can add to your site as well.
Most of Sumo Me?s tools are free however there are pro versions that add additional features and remove the Sumo Me branding.
3) Monarch Social Sharing
Our favourite social sharing plugin is called Monarch.
We use this plugin to add the sharing buttons you see on the side of the page and at the bottom of posts.
It?s very easy to use and has an impressive amount of features.
We also think these are the best looking sharing buttons out there.
This is a premium plugin though and you?ll have to pay a yearly subscription fee to use it.
You do however get full access to all of Elegant Themes WordPress themes and plugins along with it however.
4) Image Widget
By default WordPress doesn?t have an easy way to add images to widgets in your sidebar or footer.
You pretty much have to use a text widget with HTML code unless you install a plugin like Image Widget.
Image Widget is exactly what it sounds like. It adds a widget that you can easily use to display images, no HTML required.
With Image Widget you can create your own graphics or image calls-to-action and easily add them to your site?s sidebar or footer.
Bonus) Q2W3 Fixed Widget
This plugin kind of fits in with the above one. It makes a widget in your sidebar ?sticky?.
This means that the widget will stay in place as the user scrolls down the page.
If you have a giant post you can easily have the last widget stick there instead of a ton of empty space.
Readers probably won?t remember a call-to-action in a sidebar or bother scrolling back up to see it when they finish reading a post.
This plugin can help prevent that.
5) WordPress Calls to Action
This plugin lets you easily create beautiful calls-to-action on your site.
It has a visual editor, conversion tracking, A/B testing and more.
The calls-to-action can easily be inserted anywhere on your website.
Here?s a video of the plugin in action.
6) Disqus Comments
Disqus is probably the most popular WordPress comment plugin and it has many benefits over the default WordPress comments such as:
- Design that adapts to your website
- Easy moderation
- Spam controls
- Word filters
- Commenter reputations
- Analytics
- Real time discussions
We?ve seen tons of websites greatly increase the number of comments they receive by switching to Disqus.
It’s also got one of the best anti-spam filtering we’ve seen. If you’re getting a ton of spam comments Disqus can probably completely end those.
7) Click to Tweet
This plugin lets you create beautiful click to tweet boxes within your content.
A reader simply has to click the box and they?re redirected to Twitter with the tweet already filled in.
8) Simple Side Tab
Simple Side Tab is another excellent option to display a call-to-action that won?t annoy your visitors.
This plugin adds a vertical tab to the side of your website where you can put any message you?d like.
9) Jetpack
Like Sumo Me Jetpack also comes with a ton of different features, several of which can be used to inspire visitors to take action.
Our favourite feature of Jetpack is probably their related posts option.
Showing a list of related posts at the bottom of a blog post is one of the best ways to get a visitor to read more of your content.
It also increases certain analytics like time on site, pages viewed and decreases your bounce rate.
There are a bunch of related post plugins out there but a lot of them include ads or posts on other websites.
The last thing you want your visitors to do is leave your website to visit another one.
Most related posts plugins also cost money and slow down your website.
Jetpack is free and it?s probably the best way to show related posts if your theme doesn?t already have this built in.
Jetpack also has a bunch of social media features as well such as:
- Social sharing buttons
- Social network buttons
- A Facebook like box widget
- Twitter timeline widgets
- Subscriptions that let users receive notifications of new posts
- A new comment system with social media logins
- Automatic posting of new posts to social media networks
Do you have any additional plugins you’d like to suggest for this list? Let us know in the comments!
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