Best Wordpress Engagement Plugins: Make Users Read More Posts
I’ve just finished deploying my 6th theme in around six months, 4 on this blog and 2 free of charge for the charity Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation where I maintain their blog for free. I’m quite happy with the result and this template is definitely my best so far and I wanted to share the Best Wordpress Engagement Plugins I’ve found that will make users read more once they’ve visited my blog.
I think in my previous templates I wanted to implement all the funky plugins that I couldn’t on my old Blogware blog, rather than adding the ones that actually would increase the usage of my blog. I’ve focussed this time around on creating a layout and adding plugins that will encourage users to read more once they find my blog. Lots of posts have been written about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), and also lots of other posts giving ‘insightful’ tips on how to increase traffic by doing such things as writing more often… but very few seem to focus on how to Engage readers, and how to keep them on your blog for longer.
Just like in traditional retail there’s no point getting a good footfall from search engines or other blogs, or conducting a lot of advertising on other sites enticing readers or ‘customers’ with particular items or stories, if you then don’t cross-sell another item or turn them into a repeat customer.
Yes, I know that getting the footfall and SEO is important and should never be forgotten, but below are the Best Wordpress Engagement Plugins & Tweaks I’ve Found.
1. Readers Posts
Most blogs have hundreds and hundreds of posts and it’s hard to highlight all the ones that other users find interesting. The Readers Post plugin helps to bring old articles back to the top, by highlighting the last posts that have literally just been read by other readers.
Since I implemented it (the ‘Just Read By Other Users’ section on the right of the page), it’s stunned me how many articles I have written over the last 18 months that I’d forgotten about myself, that are still relevant and are still being found on search engines. Over the last day or so, more and more of my old articles are appearing once again in my traffic stats because of this plugin, which I think is fantastic. It’s a shame it doesn’t auto-refresh or scroll, but I’m sure that will come later.
More: Download Readers Posts
2. Most Popular
This plugin drives Engagement by highlighting to new visitors what are the best or most popular posts, based on how many times other visitors have read them. Although the Readers Post Wordpress plugin can also display the most viewed posts as an ordered list, I use the WP-PostViews plugin as it’s been running a bit longer on my blog and I’m vain and I like big numbers!
More: WP-PostViews Plugin
3. Translator
I’m astounded that more blogs don’t include a translator plugin. Take a look at my clustermap below showing where my visitors have come from over the last year:
The map clearly shows the global nature of blogging. Yes, English may be one of the most common languages but you shouldn’t take for granted that all your potential readers can speak it fluently. Plus, you can’t beat offering all of your pages in a reader’s mother tongue, particularly when it is as easy as installing the Translator plugin which takes one minute.
As an added bonus, the translated pages even get picked up by foreign search engines which will add even more traffic to your blog.
More: Translator Plugin
4. Related Posts
The Related Posts plugin returns a list of the related entries for the currently displayed post based on active/passive keyword matches to words in the actual post. It offers full dashboard control allowing easy customisation of the number of posts displayed, whether or not to include excerpts and also formatting. These can be displayed anywhere, but I’ve opted to put mine at the bottom of every post.
More: Related Posts Plugin
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Comment by SEM Basics on 6 November 2006:
Nice post - I’m going to consider using some of these plug-ins. Thanks. I’m also going to check out your other Wordpress Plugin related posts (which are listed in your related posts section). See, it actually works!
Be well,
Moshe
Comment by SEM Basics on 6 November 2006:
By the way, seeing that you like wordpress plugins, I thought I’d send you my post about my favorite wordpress plugins (perhaps there are some that you haven’t seen before). Also, make sure to check out the 2 lists at the end that I link to as they also may have some plugins that you are not aware of. Here is the URL:
http://sembasics.com/sem-blog/wordpress/sem-basicss-wordpress-plugins-list
Also, I wanted to let you know that I have added you to my Google Reader. I love practical, helpful posts like this (and the other ones I’ve noticed as I made my way through your blog). Keep up the good work.
All the best,
Moshe
SEM Basics
Comment by Everton Blair on 6 November 2006:
That’s a VERY long list! I’ll have a look later. I’m trying to stick to just plugins that help speed up the site or help users. I’m trying to steer clear of ones that are just ‘cool’ as I don’t want to slow the site down - I think I have a nice mix of speed and functionality at the moment.
I’m glad you like the blog btw. I’ll be looking out for your comments
Pingback by Anne 2.0 » Blog Archive » links for 2006-11-06 on 6 November 2006:
[...] Best Wordpress Engagement Plugins: Make Users Read More Posts » Connected Internet (tags: blogging plugins wordpress) [...]
Comment by Paul - SteelerDirtFreak on 9 November 2006:
How did you get Readers Posts to work in your sidebar? I just downloaded it after reading about it here, but I can’t figure out what to do with it (other than uploading to plugin folder and activating)
My php skills are, well NOT skills, and I couldn’t really understand much of anything on the plugin author’s site for the instructions, so I was wondering if you could possibly share how to get this to display in the sidebar, like you have it?
Much thanks if you can!
Peace,
Paul
Comment by Paul - SteelerDirtFreak on 9 November 2006:
Here is what I have tried (that did not work):
php _e('Just Read By Other Visitors'); ?>ul>php if (function_exists('last_posts')): ?>
php get_last_posts(5,70); ?>
php endif; ?>/ul>
Comment by Everton Blair on 9 November 2006:
I just added
< ?php last_posts(10,0); ?>where the ‘10′ is the number of articles to show. I can’t remember what the ‘0′ is for
Comment by Everton Blair on 9 November 2006:
Paul
I just saw your second comment, and realised you won’t lying when you said you needed help
If you want to wrap the function in an if statement then do the following:
< ?php if (function_exists('last_posts')): ?>< ?php last_posts(5,70); ?>
< ?php endif; ?>
Paste that in your sidebar or wherever you need it, and that should work.
Comment by Paul - SteelerDirtFreak on 9 November 2006:
Thanks! I used the first solution, and it worked perfectly. When trying to figure stuff out, I mainly copy and paste new code into something that is already working for me, and then hope it works…
Not the best, but often it does work…
Again, many thanks for the solution!
Pingback by Maria Langer, the Official Web Site* » Reader Engagement Site Improvements on 11 November 2006:
[...] I read an excellent article on Connected Internet today: “Best Wordpress Engagement Plugins: Make Users Read More Posts“. The author lists several plugins — some of which I already use or have tried in the past — that’ll help keep site visitors on your site, reading more content. I added two of them today. [...]
Pingback by Maria Langer, the Official Web Site* » Getting Regular Blog Readers on 15 November 2006:
[...] You can read it here: http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2006/11/04/1022/ [...]
Pingback by WordPress Visual QuickStart Guide » Getting Regular Readers on 27 November 2006:
[...] You can read it here: http://www.connectedinternet.co.uk/2006/11/04/1022/ Save This Page at Delicious [...]
Pingback by WordPress Visual QuickStart Guide » Reader Engagement Site Improvements on 27 November 2006:
[...] I read an excellent article on Connected Internet today: “Best Wordpress Engagement Plugins: Make Users Read More Posts“. The author lists several plugins — some of which I already use or have tried in the past — that’ll help keep site visitors on your site, reading more content. I added two of them today. [...]
Pingback by Estrategias para mantener vivos los artículos pasados | DigiZen: Un blogfesor aprendiendo on 8 December 2006:
[...] A medida que pasa el tiempo los artÃÂculos que publicas se van perdiendo en los archivos del blog. Usualmente los lectores que visitan exploran la primera página de artÃÂculos y no van más allá para beneficiarse de otros recursos. En un artÃÂculo de Connected Internet identifican una serie de plugins que tienen como objetivo estimular al visitante a ver los pasados artÃÂculos del blog. De esas recomendaciones he comenzado a implementar WP-PostViews Plugin para presentar una lista de los artÃÂculos más populares del blog. También, he comenzado a utilizar Related Posts Plugin para ofrecer una lista de los artÃÂculos anteriores que pueden estar relacionados al post. [...]
Pingback by WordPress Plugin: Readers Post - JohnTP.com on 9 December 2006:
[...] found via Connected Internet [...]
Pingback by 我爱wordpress » 四个没必è¦Â安装的wordpressæÂՊȦ on 12 December 2006:
[...] Despite singing this plugins praises, under load it was causing me major problems. I think what was happening was that because of the high load my site was under, the list of posts generated by Readers Posts was constantly changing which meant that my APC/WP-Cache2 caching combo wasn’t working as every page load was unique. [...]
Pingback by Best Wordpress Engagement Plugins: Make Users Read More Posts » OneTipADay.com on 29 December 2006:
[...] More: Connected Internet [...]
Pingback by How To Add Related Posts To Your Feed » Connected Internet on 5 January 2007:
[...] Whilst fixing my Wordpress installation, I lost a tweak I did, which I’ve just put back in, which added links from my favourite plugin, Related Posts, to my RSS feed. If you’re not using the Related Posts plugin yet, then hang your head in shame, as it’s one of the best plugin for driving more page views. [...]
Comment by Robert McCulloch on 17 January 2007:
Do you think the domain name is as important for SEO as the title tag of a webpage? I know that MSN puts a lot of value on the domain name. But what about Google and Yahoo?
Thank you,
Robert McCulloch
http://rpmsol.info/
Comment by Everton on 17 January 2007:
I don’t know how important it is to Google and Yahoo, but it is such a quick think to optimise I can’t see any reason why a person shouldn’t.
Comment by gsm on 3 February 2007:
This is a very useful post, I think the fear and not knowing what’s out there is what’s holding back people from using this. Thanks for showing us what great plugins you can use!
Pingback by MyBlogLog Avatar WordPress Plugin - Manuel Viloria.com on 1 May 2007:
[...] If you want your visitors to read more pages in your site, then check out ConnectedInternet’s Best Wordpress Engagement Plugins: Make Users Read More Posts, where you’ll learn about which posts were recently read by your visitors, which are popular, and [...]
Comment by Vic on 3 August 2007:
Thanks for such a great list of plugins, this list are so helpful for the new guy.
Thanks
Vic
Comment by DavidTan on 28 October 2007:
This was a nice read, thanks!
Comment by Technograph on 2 April 2008:
You might wanna try Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. From experience, it’s been a lot easier to implement than Wasabi’s Related Posts.
Comment by Everton on 6 April 2008:
@Technograph
I swithed to YAPP a few months ago - I’m a believer too!
Comment by zaki blogjer on 2 June 2008:
Cool, I like the most readers post.