In January 2016, WordPress is powering 39% of the world's top 10.000 sites according to builtwith. One of its major strengths is the extendability via plugins: As WordPress has become insanely popular, thousands of programmers developped a vital ecosystem centered around Matt Mullenweg's CMS software. Originally launched as a blogging-tool, the open source software has turned into a fully featured web publishing tool long since.
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While many great plugins are available as freeware / open source software, some of the most elaborate and useful extensions are premium plugins. Some developpers sell their software directly via their own online stores, most turn to various marketplaces. The third group is offering a “lite” version of their software for free, thus trying to convert curious parties into paying customers by pointing out the extra-features of the premium version. But with so many premium plugins available, which are really worth their money? I've tried and tested literally hundreds of premium plugins – this guide lists the ones every pro-blogger should use in 2016.
Pre-purchase considerations
Fear not, I will keep my plugin theory lecture super-short. Yes, such factors as complexity, performance, scaleability, number of features, UI, artwork and so on do come into play. But in the end only one question matters: Does this plugin make your blog stand out? Does it give you a competitive edge over your competitors in terms of SEO, social visibility, user exerience, design… Does it contribute to making your content stand out?
The Swiss army knife of social media integration
Integrating social media services into your blog isn't a one-way road. You want share buttons, you want counters, you want to display your social profile links in a sidebar widget? I bet you want open graph syntax, too. What about a floating vertical button bar? Easy social share buttons 3 is so powerful, that the developpers split the backend into “newbie” and “expert” mode. Beginners have their social sharing setup up and running in no time, while pros can fine-tune every single aspect imagineable.
Prize: $19 | Marketplace: Envato
The Swiss army knife of [German] SEO.
When it comes to WordPress SEO, I heavily rely on this one. wpSEO was on the radar long before anyone else thought about all-in-one SEO solutions for WordPress blogs. Finding a decent SEO plugin in 2016 should be easy – strangely though, it isn't. Yoast's free plugin doesn't quite do the trick, the premium is way too expensive and all other alternatives are either incomplete or maintainted an upgraded poorly.
CAVEAT: The sales pages is only available in German, the plugin itself supports multiple language, including German. The standard configurations work like a charm – give it a try, you won't regret your decision. Not a SEO pro? Just load the standard config and you're good to go.
Prize: from 19.99 (single site) to 99,99 (unlimited)
Hate Google Analytics, want realtime stats? Go for Clicky.
Clicky isn't exactly a WordPress plugin, but a premium online service which connects to your blog via a wide range of free plugins. You: “That sounds weird. Why would I need this?” Me: “Have you ever logged into Google Analytics? Clicky is the analytics tool for bloggers that works like GA was supposed to. Right before some mankind-hating coder designed the worst UI ever conceived. Also: realtime!” Try their demo. If you sport more than 1k uniques per day, you'll definitely be able to spare a couple of bucks, no matter your scenario:
Recommended plugins: Clicky Analytics [free] | Clicky by Yoast [free]
Prize: Free [1 website, 3k daily pageviews] | Pro [10 sites, 30k PVs] | … | Custom
Another Swiss army knife? YES. The most complete pop-up knife it is indeed.
Po-ups suck, right? We all hate bully bloggers who molest their focussed readers with ridiculous requests such as “Subscribe to my newsletter. NOW!” And we'd never use those dreaded unblockable pop-ups if they just didn't convert so well. Think like: “Look buddy, I'm totally different than all those other guys who are just looking to generate leads. Me, I'm all about freebies. Subscribe already, bro!” On-click, on-action, delayed, on-scroll… you name it, LP has got you covered. And AdBlockers will sing their sad song of failure, so cover those ears in time.
Prize: $19 [Can you hear the screams? “Grab me!!!”]
Tags are a vital part of any internal linking strategy.
Meta keywords have died so long ago, the stopped smelling funny in 2012. Why use tags? Because interlinking (aka your internal link structure) is a vital element of your SEO strategy. Tag research is a tedious task though and the imfamous SimpleTags plugin has stopped working long ago. Don't rely on WordPress' internal tag suggestions, because they suck badly. Don't drop tagging for this reason though, just switch to Extended Tags.
Prize: $6
Where vector icons are dancing in the street
The web is a visual media. Why restrict your eyecandy to images, when there's so many icons? Iconize lets you insert and animate a lot of vector icons into pages, posts, menu items and widget titles.
Prize: $18
Easy setup, integrated per-image sharing, 3 layouts and 8 lightboxes
S Still holding a grudge against NextGen gallery? Time to say goodbye forever. Author LCweb built GG with a self-explaining UI, ease of setup, mobile devices and social media in mind. Beautiful, responsive grids – a great addition to the built-in WordPress galleries.
Prize: $23
Did you ever wonder how to make these rating stars turn up on your Google result pages?
Ratings have gained immense popularity since Google is displaying those little rich snippets (the yellow review stars) on its SERPs. Taqyeem got you covered. Reviews are contributed by authors, readers can optionally cast their vote on anything, too. Rich snippets are included, typography and colors are freely adjustable. For heightened comfort and a higher conversion rate, I suggest you also buy the two available add-ons “predefined criteria” and “buttons“.
Prize: $36 for the full bundle | Taqyeem $23 | predefined criteria add-on $7 | Buttons add-on $6
A must-have for multi author blogs and guest postings
People are interested in blog authors. Make it easy to connect with the writer by displaying this stylish author box in the sidebar or below some or all postings. The light version is pretty powerful, too. But pretty powerful isn't enough for us distinguished guest bloggers, right?
Prize: $17
Is it a bird? Is it a plan? No, it's flock of slide-ins!
Slide-In, if well designed and planned, can make a website stickier and incrase conversion rates immensely. This plugin covers all slide-in needs – the ones you can imagine and even the ones you can't. Slide from left to right and choose from a wide variety of triggers. Also supports shortcodes and comes in responsive flavor.
Prize: $19
If I missed a great premium plugin, please let me know!
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