15 WordPress Plugins No Content Marketer Should Live Without

1. Security Tools

Limit Login Attempts: is a plugin that protects against brute force attacks by limiting the number ​ ​ of attempted logins and making it harder for hackers to guess your password on the login page.

WP Limit Login Attempts: which does the same thing but is current and updated through the most ​ recent core file update. As of the time of this writing, it enjoys a positive rating of 4.3 out of 5 possible stars.

Wordfence: is a comprehensive plugin, which manages all the critical site security issues. It can ban ​ IPs and IP ranges as well as scan your files for problems, on a schedule or on demand. A premium version is available and offers more control and security, though the free version may be all you need. iThemes Security: (formerly Better WP Security) is another comprehensive security plugin. It has ​ both free and premium “Pro” versions. It also provides two-factor authorization, which experts agree is a security “best practice,” and a strong password generator.

2. Caching

The two most popular caching plugins are W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache. Both of these ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ plugins deliver a crucial boost of speed to your site’s pages, and either of them will help decrease page load time.

3. Analytics

Google Analytics by Yoast, Google Analyticator, and Google Analytics Dashboard are all popular ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ choices for bloggers and site owners who want to tap into the powerful data that Google Analytics provides.

4. A/B Testing

Nelio AB Testing is a premium plugin that routinely gets mentioned in “best of” lists by WordPress ​ ​ bloggers. A full list of its features is available on the company’s website. ​ ​ ​

Simple Page Tester has both free and premium versions available. The premium version offers full ​ ​ conversion tracking and statistical analysis.

Title Experiments Free only tests article titles. The company does have a premium version, WP ​ ​ ​ ​ Experiments Pro, that gives more advanced testing for your content. ​

Marketing Optimizer for WordPress is especially useful for those who subscribe to the Marketing ​ ​ ​ ​ Optimizer software service but you don’t have to be a subscriber to enjoy its benefits. It integrates ​ ​ with Gravity Forms and is compatible with all the major caching plugins.

5. Email Subscription Form Management

WP Subscribe Pro is a highly recommended plugin that integrates with and supports MailChimp, ​ ​ Aweber, and Feedburner. It offers popup animations and color controls, doesn’t add to page load time, and is responsive on all platforms, including mobile, with no additional coding required.

Mailbag appears to work solely for MailChimp and Campaign Monitor users, but is fully ​ ​ customizable with CSS. You can also choose to have your form inherit styles from your current theme, or use the rather minimal style options that come with the download. You can place it anywhere on your pages with a shortcode.

Bloggers and marketers who use the default WordPress comment form will especially like Newsletter Sign-up, which prompts users to opt in your mailing list while leaving a comment. ​ Newsletter Sign-up works with most third-party email marketing services, like Campaign Monitor, Mailchimp, Aweber, iContact and more.

6. SEO & Sitemaps

The two biggest players in the WordPress SEO plugin game are Yoast SEO and All In One SEO Pack. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ You don’t need both, but either one is almost sure to satisfy your needs as a content marketer and blogger. Both Yoast and All in One are free.

Squirrly offers both a free version and premium version. The free version is sufficient for blogs ​ ​ publishing about five articles a month. If you publish content more frequently, you’ll need the premium “Pro” version, which offers more for a monthly subscription fee. ​ ​ ​ Google XML Sitemaps is the choice of many bloggers and WordPress site owners for sitemaps. It ​ ​ automates the process of sitemap generation with just a few clicks.

LinkPatrol monitors all outgoing links to let you know if a site you’re linking to is spammy, which ​ ​ can in turn damage your own SEO efforts. There’s a one-time fee for its use, which includes one year of support and updates.

7. Mobile Responsiveness

WPTouch is the way to go, if your theme isn’t responsive already. ​ ​

8. Editorial Calendar

Editorial Calendar is the plugin I’d recommend for those bloggers and content marketers looking ​ ​ for a full-featured solution that works in the WordPress environment. It’s well-reviewed with a rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars on the WordPress Plugin Repository.

Content Scheduler, helps you determine when content “expires,” what events take place when ​ ​ that happens, and what happens with the content after expiration. You can also use Content Scheduler to notify team members and content contributors when content expires.

9. Social Sharing

Share Buttons by AddToAny allows you to display share buttons in the sidebar as well as above ​ ​ and below every content piece. You can also customize the number of social networks you want to show your visitors.

Floating Social Bar lets you display buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, and ​ ​ Pinterest. It has a minimal impact on your page load time, since it doesn’t actually load the social media scripts from the start, showing instead only a “replica image” initially.

Digg Digg has long been a very popular choice. However, it doesn’t appear to have been updated in ​ ​ over 2 years.

AA Digg Digg Alternative claims to be faster than Digg Digg, in tests the developer ran on several ​ ​ sites. It supports shares to Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Reddit.

10. Social Account Buttons

The Social Links covers the main networks – Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, ​ ​ YouTube, Instagram. You can also purchase access to about 20 more social networks for $5 via The ​ ​ Social Links Pack. ​ Simple Follow Me Social Buttons Widget boasts dozens of supported networks. It also has a color ​ ​ picker to customize the background color of the icons. You can even change the color on hover for an eye-catching special effect.

Social Profile Linking integrates with about 20 sites, including the “Big 7” (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, ​ ​ Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn). You can add the buttons via shortcode, PHP, or a widget anywhere a widget is supported by your theme.

11. Comment Management

The two best-known commenting system plugins are Disqus and Livefyre. Both plugins sync all ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ comments back up to your database, so they won’t disappear if you decide to deactivate the plugin or try another option.

CommentLuv is developed by Andy Bailey, and has both a free and a premium version available. ​ ​ ​ ​ ​

12. Related Posts

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin was updated last in May 2015, not as recently as others on this ​ ​ list, and has a rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars. However, it also has a number of 1-star reviews, so you’ll want to test it out thoroughly to make sure it works for you.

Contextual Related Posts enjoys higher ratings and more positive reviews, and has also been ​ ​ more recently updated.

Editorial Assistant by Zemanta is definitely worth a look. It pulls related posts from your own blog ​ ​ and also from its network, so be aware that some of the results on certain pages could go to sites other than your own. However, it does feature some added benefits that could prove useful, including sharing your links on other people’s blogs as well as providing a library of free-to-use images you can include in your content.

13. Rich Snippets

Three rich snippets plugins you can try out are WPReview, Rich Snippets WordPress Plugin, and ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ Google SEO Pressor for Rich Snippets. ​

14. Calls to Action

MaxButtons is one of the more popular CTA plugin choices around. With it, you can craft attractive ​ ​ CSS3 buttons to be used anywhere on your WordPress site. It features a user-friendly button editor that makes it super easy to create beautiful CTA buttons in a snap.

Contact Form and Calls to Action by vCita isn’t as widely reviewed as Max Buttons, but it’s a solid ​ ​ choice. It helps you actively encourage your site users to engage with you, is fully mobile responsive, and can even double your number of generated leads.

WP Calls to Action not only helps you create calls to action on your site but also lets you monitor ​ ​ and track conversion rates, run an AB split test on your CTAs, and generate more leads.

15. Landing Pages

Zedity lets you create pages of any kind without any coding whatsoever, perfect for those who are ​ ​ new to WordPress or don’t know CSS and HTML. You can also use Zedity to add boxes or call outs anywhere on any page, even if your theme doesn’t natively support these features.