DiscoverResources and Automating Tools for WordPress
Creating and running a WordPress website is genuinely easy with WordPress, but the more traffic the website records, the more time consuming the process becomes.
With thousands of visitors to manage day per day, it will be almost impossible to reply to all comments, manage multiple social profiles, and keep up the good quality of your content in the meanwhile. And that’s without even considering security and server hiccups – once it is time for them, you will probably be completely lost and with no time or energy.
Luckily for you, the same as millions of other users, there is a variety of resources, plugins, and automation tools that can take at least some of the burden off your shoulders. Some of them can handle even all of your website’s heavy lifting.
Think how many operations are mundane and simple enough for a machine to execute? Why would you have to respond to general questions and inquiries, or share fresh content manually?
While it is absolutely justified to keep up the good work, there is no way to boost productivity without automating at least some of the basic tasks. In this article, we are going to suggest multiple tools that will not only simplify content management but improve the overall performance of your website.
Getting rid of comment spam
Interacting with your readers will often mean dealing with spam comments, in particular if your site is doing well and has some serious competition out there. You may find yourself overwhelmed by spambots posted every day, and end up missing some of the genuinely important comments in the worse scenario.
What we believe can help in such case is Akismet or Antispam Bee. Both plugins are amazingly powerful when it comes to filtering spam comments and reducing them, and won’t require even a minimal effort on your behalf.
It doesn’t matter how well your site is doing – with a comment section on, you must have Akismet or Antispam Bee turned on. They will be your handiest asset for monitoring comments and addressing spam with minimal human interaction.
Automating posting
While posting on your website is something completely up to you, sharing those posts on social networks is a task you can easily avoid and assign to automating software. The more posts you share, the bigger odds are to drive traffic and be exposed, which is why the task is cumbersome and requires a lot of time and responsibility. Regardless of what you think or how your site looks at the moment, posting few times per week won’t be enough.
Luckily, a tool for that is also available thanks to NextScript. The name of it is SNAP (Social Network Auto Poster), and it represents a nifty widget for sharing content on Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and of course Facebook.
What is really important about it is that it allows you to post multiple times and get promoted, both functions available for free. The only need to upgrade to a Pro version is when you post mainly on Google+ and Pinterest.
Jetpack is another handy alternative made by Automattic, which allows you to post on the top three social networks (Twitter, Facebook, and Google+) at no cost. Nevertheless, don’t expect the same styling options and update functionalities as the one of SNAP – Jetpack makes it easier to configure content, but for the full social control you should still use SNAP.
Planning a content strategy
For a well-performing website, you need to have an appropriate content strategy. Most of the time, this will mean planning and scheduling content in advance, avoiding the hassle of running late with your posts. With the appropriate plugin, you will never miss updating your website, and you won’t have to appoint dates on the schedule manually.
The solution for this problem is Automatic Post Scheduler, a plugin which schedules each of your drafts allowing you to focus on nothing more than quality. You will be required to set times and frequencies, and the plugin will handle the rest. Once installed, it will post automatically regardless of the number of posts you have at stake.
Optimizing SEO
Optimization is what matters the most to your content after its quality and the scheduling. While these plugins won’t help you automate tasks completely, they can still help you rate better on various search engines. For instance, you should consider SEO Smartlinks developed by Vladimir Prelovac, or Zemanta’s WordPress Related Posts.
The easier of the two is WordPress Related Posts, which once installed, automatically relates links to posts, and it requires nothing more than tweaking their behavior. Smartlinks is a bit more complicated to use, but offers much better results – it is a complete solution for internal linking optimization and proper configuration. Long story short, you will only have to focus on the quality of your content, and the plugin will make it popular.
Leadin
It doesn’t take much to understand that personalizing content depends on customer preferences and that you need to know your audience and understand their behavior in order to meet their needs.
Leadin makes it possible to understand lead behavior using browser cookies, as subscribing on your website means that the reader automatically reveals his data and makes it publicly available.
That data includes location, business information, working history, etc., all of them critical for you to determine the best performing content or traffic sources for both loyal customers and random visitors.
Title Experiments Free
Post titles are determinative when it comes to attracting attention, as they are the first thing readers notice when looking at your post. It is the title that drives their expectations, and can thereof make or break the content on your blog.
The creative bloggers out there may be really devoted to writing titles according to their instincts, but a much smarter method is to perform A/B testing for various titles and to see which one performs better.
For the purpose, you will need Title Experiments Free, a costless plugin that identifies outstanding performers in less than no time.
Personalization with InSiteFor WP
InSite for WP is a great choice for bloggers looking to convert visitors easily, by simply adjusting the content to their data (predetermined triggers including locations, times, visit frequency, and so on). The plugin records outstanding success when it comes to higher engagement rates, and personalizing popups and notification bars.
Developers will also like it because it allows them to enhance the experience of end users, and does so by simply accepting custom JavaScript actions and triggers.
YARPP
YARPP or Yet Another Related Posts Plugin is the current leader among related post plugins suitable for WordPress, and the reason is that it classifies posts in types, and displays only those relevant to your visitor’s background. At the end of the process, YARPP becomes the main driver of higher engagement rates and boosts the rankings of your blog.
ORBTR Ping
ORBTR was designed as a marketing automation plugin supposed to track lead behavior and distinguish the visitors that return on your website. The most important thing about ORBTR is that you don’t have to pay to use it.
CoSchedule
CoSchedule is another well-known tool for marketing automation with an all-in-one calendar for balancing between content and social media. Users like it because it works autonomously on every browser.
Simple URLs
Just as the name indicates, Simple URLs can be used to connect your content to external websites, and follow their usage there. You can also use it to manage affiliate links.
Zapier and IFTTT are third-party apps you can use to integrate a variety of your tools and automate their simultaneous application. For instance, they will make it possible to save Google Drive copies of the posts you’ve published on your blog.
The nicest side of these automatons is that they’re hosted in the cloud and maintained by their providers, and won’t slow down your website regardless of how often you’re using them.
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