Top 10 WordPress Content Management Plugins

WordPress is pretty awesome for the fact that it has so many plugins that you can download and install. With these plugins, you can improve your website, change the way it works, and tinker with it to your heart’s delight.

So, which are the best WordPress content management plugins? Here are ten of the best listed in no particular order.

1. Smush

There is more than one Smush plugin. Both are fine, but the best is the image optimizer. Instead of web browsers having to load images and then resize them, the Smush plugin changes the sizes of the images so that the correct sized image is the only one that loads. This is especially good if you’re in the habit of uploading images that are too large.

The Google PageSpeed Insights tool says that if you don’t need a larger image, then you should opt for a correctly sized image to optimize your loading times. Sometimes you need larger images, such as with maps, art, and detailed image documents, but if you do need a larger-sized image, then you can let Smush handle it for you and resize it automatically.

2. Lazy Load for Comments

Let’s say that you want to allow all commentators to make their point right away so that discussions can be active and in real-time on your website (a bit like on YouTube). This may result in a fair number of comments and spam messages which may cause your pages to load very slowly. Install Lazy Load, so comments are loaded only when the viewer is looking at them.

3. WordPress to Buffer Pro by WP Zinc

A buffer is already a good tool for social media sharing and content marketing, but it doesn’t have an official WordPress plugin. There are one or two plugins that will suit, but the paid “WordPress to Buffer” plugin goes a little further to help you post to social media right away after completing your WordPress post. The plugin mirrors what Buffer offers, which means you can post on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

4. Yoast SEO Tools for WordPress Content Management

The SEO (Search Engine Optimization) promises they make are pretty lame, just like all SEO plugins. Yoast is the most useful almost by accident. It is the most useful because it makes it very difficult for you to forget to complete your on-page SEO. We all forget to add tags, or categories, or meta descriptions, and so forth. However, Yoast makes it very clear when you have forgotten something important. You don’t have to follow all of their advisories, but if they are giving you the angry-face symbol, then you know it is time to go back and double-check your on-page SEO.

5. Ads.txt Manager

There are many affiliate advertising and marketing plugins that offer to help you create your ads.txt page. Still, they all come with bloatware and/or numerous other functions that you do not want or need. The Ads.Txt manager cuts right to the heart of the matter by creating the page and letting you write on it. There are no extras, no bloats, no ads, and no website-breaking updates.

6. MC4WP: MailChimp for WordPress By ibericode

The unofficial “MC4WP: Mailchimp for WordPress” is better than the official MailChimp plugin and better than most all of the other MailChimp plugins. It helps you get people to sign up to your newsletter without bullying or harassing your viewers. If you are not 100% sure about this plugin, then there is another unofficial plugin called “Easy Forms for MailChimp,” which also does a good job.

7. Classic Editor by WordPress Contributors

Some people do not like the way that the WordPress interface works. They long for the old days when things were less guided. If you long for those days too, then you can install a plugin that recreates the classic editor.

8. Coming Soon Page & Maintenance Mode by SeedProd

If you have a strong and solid WordPress content strategy (read more), then the idea of a “Coming soon” and “Maintenance mode” function should appeal to you. It is especially good if you are laying the foundation for a series of strong pages using links from other web pages. You need a page so that your links from other pages do not look like broken links, so you have a “Coming Soon” page as a sort of placeholder.

9. AddToAny Share Buttons

Many social media WP content plugins are full of functions that you don’t need or want. Plus, some of them are trying to snipe your social media followers with the addition of their own taglines, logos or links. The “AddToAny Share Buttons” gives you tens of different social media buttons that you can easily add into your web page. It has no extras, doesn’t cost you anything, and works perfectly.

10. Broken Link Checker

There are many broken link checker plugins, so you can pick the one the suits you the best. It doesn’t seem like a big content management tool, but it plays a big part in the usability of your website. Plus, it highlights the websites that you have linked to that have gone out of business, which means linking to them is not helping your SEO.

Be Cautious as You Go

Conducting all of your WordPress content management is far easier with the ten plugins listed in this article. However, WordPress doesn’t have the resources to check and double-check every plugin that appears on its online store. It may check plugins as they are first listed, but it cannot check every single update to each plugin, ergo you cannot fully trust the plugins you use.

As a WordPress expert, you should also consider the various page builders see Divi vs Elementor and always make backups of your website just in case a plugin causes a site-breaking problem, and never give your financial details to a plugin unless you have thoroughly researched it.

There are even more eye-opening and thought-provoking articles on our site, so take a look right now, you may be pleasantly surprised.