WordPress Plugins for Functionality

Updated January 13, 2023

Adding Form & Function with WordPress Plugins

WordPress plugins can easily add spice to a website. With over 23,000 available in the WP plugin directory, businesses have tremendous choice in adding function to their website. There are plugins that affect the front-end (what visitors see) and on the back-end (how you manage a website). Many are free or low cost. Here are a few of our favorite WordPress plugins:

CMS Tree Page View

If you been at content marketing awhile, then you most likely have a robust website with hundreds of webpages. CMS Tree Page View can get tricky when scrolling through the Pages section of your WordPress dashboard. This handy plugin shows hierarchy, giving you an outline view of all your pages. You can use the tree view to edit, view, search and add pages. You can also drag/drop to rearrange the order of your pages. We find this plugin to be particularly helpful in order to stay organized as we manage both public landing pages as well as those specific to Google Adwords campaigns.

Edit Flow

If you have multiple people creating content for your site, there are WordPress plugins than help coordinate the collaboration process. Edit Flow lets you set-up specific steps to be completed – like content creation, editing, styling, optimizing. As the content moves through each step, email notifications are automatically sent alerting the next person (or department) in the collaboration chain that an assignment is waiting. This plugin offers customized status labels, allowing you to make the process as complex or as simple as necessary. Search engine optimization is a multi-step process; it spans content creation to styling to fine-tuned meta data. We find this plugin keeps us organized and more efficient.

Link Library

Most blogs contain content that span several categories. This technical plugin allows you to create a page that lists link categories that you’ve defined, including sub-categories.  The Link Library plugin also offers a mode where only one category is shown at a time, display a search box, find results based on queries, and generate RSS feeds for your link collection.

Gravity Forms

In all fairness, this plugin is really meant for website developers. Gravity Forms is a premium plugin, meaning it’s a paid service. In our opinion it’s well worth it as allows more flexibility and complex web forms. While there are free forms available, we prefer WordPress plugins where you can modify the look and feel to match a client’s online presence. We then do A/B testing to fine-tune and maximize online conversions.

Yet Another Related Posts Plugin

Content marketing helps make your website visible. Once you’ve attracted a visitor, you want to encourage them to stick around. YARPP plugin provides links to related posts. Statistics show that the longer a visitor hangs around and consumes content, the greater chance they’ll complete a form or contact you. Why not make it easy to sift through your great content?

What other WordPress plugins do you use to add functionality?