Photo credit: nruboc
While providing great content is critical if you want to establish a loyal audience, it is only one of a variety of ingredients. Other factors come into play; most importantly, your visitors need to see that you’ve made every effort to accommodate their needs; that you’ve put much thought into their experience on your site.
To create a blog that stands out from the others, use this list of useful WordPress plugins to show your readers that you have made the effort, and you’ll be rewarded with return visitors and growth.
So what do your visitors really want?
Visitors want answers
Visitors turn up at your site through search engines or links. If they don’t find the answer to their question within your post – they’re off. You need to give them every opportunity to find what they are looking for through your site, rather than sending them back to the search engines – or worse – sending them away unhappy with both your site, and the site that directed them to you.
Although these plugins may ultimately send your visitor another site, they are useful because your visitor won’t need to go back to the search engine and start all over again – and they will remember you for trying to make life a little easier for them.
Search Everything
The default search utility in WordPress allows visitors to search your posts only. This may not always be enough; what if you have a resource page that holds the answer to the question posed? You don’t want your visitors to miss that.
Written by Dan Cameron, Search Everything gives your visitors more options in search by allowing them to search pages, attachments, comments, and custom fields.
Sphere Related Content
Sphere mixes content from mainstream media with content from blogs. Although this plugin will ultimately send your visitor to another site, it is useful because it means your visitor doesn’t need to go to the search engines and start all over again. They will remember you for making life a little easier for them.
By putting the widget on your site, your visitors get to see a list of related content from around the Web. This list is divided into two sections, one showing related content from the blogosphere, the other showing related content from mainstream media. Both provide the title, date, and source. The date is an especially nice feature – how often have you searched on something only to be directed to a page that is 3 years old and no longer current?
Note: Sphere can be used on most blogging platforms.
Visitors want an easy way to revisit a post
While many visitors will visit a site and add it to their favorites, more and more people are using online bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia, Furl, and Diigo to create links to posts they want to return to. And, while many of these folk have added the various buttons to their browser, some are removing them to make space for a larger viewable area on their screen.
Other visitors, who are not comfortable with bookmarking sites, may need a way to easily send themselves the link, or print the page up to keep a hard copy. Your job is to provide every option to your visitor in the most unobtrusive and simple way.
Consider these WordPress plugins to help your visitor refer back to your post:
Share This
Written by Alex King, the Share This plugin lets your visitors mark a post for revisiting by providing a link, at the end of each post, to various bookmarking sites. This plugin also offers your visitors the ability to send, via e-mail, a link to your post.
WP E-mail
Rather than just send a link to the post via e-mail, Lester Chan’s WP E-mail lets you send the entire post or page to yourself, or to a friend. This is particularly useful for less tech/Web inclined of your visitors – almost everyone knows how to use e-mail.
WP Print
Another great plugin by Lester Chan, WP Print displays a nicely formatted, printable version of your post. Once you enable the plugin, it will put a link to the printable page on each post.
This is particularly useful for readers that want to print up a tutorial or how to.
Visitors want to read replies to their comments easily
More people are commenting on the Web than every before, and most of them want a simple and easy way to see whether their comment has been responded to.
Additionally, if they have taken the time to comment, it means that they are interested in the subject matter, and may be interested in what others think about the same topic.
Rather than make them come back to your site regularly to check if there are additional comments, offer them the chance to subscribe to the comments only.
Subscribe to Comments
Subscribe to Comments is a plugin that allows visitors that comment, an opportunity to subscribe to e-mail notifications of subsequent comments. Written by Mark Jaquith, the plugin also allows your visitors to unsubscribe from specific posts, block all notifications, and change their e-mail address.
Visitors don’t like their mistakes broadcast to the world
How many times have you been to a site, submitted a comment, and just as you press the submit button (or while you are rereading your comment), you find a typo, or an incomplete sentence?
Give your readers the opportunity to edit their mistakes before their comment is published; there is no nicer way to show reader appreciation.
Edit comments TX
Michael Woehrer‘s Edit Comments TX plugin gives your visitors a 30 minute (customizable) time frame to edit any comment they leave.
Sexy Comments
Written by Matthew Batchelder, Sexy Comments lets your visitors preview comments, but offers you a whole lot more. It replaces the standard WordPress comments section with a much prettier one, and has additional features that include the option to highlight author comments, and a way to reply to specific comments.
Visitors like to be noticed
Not long ago, I left a comment on a blog I had not visited before. Within the hour, I received an e-mail from the blogger thanking me for visiting and commenting. It was a simple thing, one that I suspected was automated, but it still made me smile.
People like to feel important. They like to be acknowledged. If you don’t have the time to personally send an e-mail to each new commenter, consider Comment Relish.
Comment Relish
Comment Relish is a WordPress plugin developed to send an e-mail message to users who comment on your site who have never commented before. The message is defined within the plugin’s preferences, and numerous tags have been included that let you select the information for the message easily (e.g. timestamp, author name, comment, etc.). Written by Justin Shattuck.
Visitors like to contact you in a variety of ways
While most sites have a contact page that offers a contact form, e-mail address, telephone number, or physical location, few offer the ability for instant SMS.
Admittedly this is not for everyone, but you just may find that your visitors like to contact you this way. In any case, it is a nice extra to offer your visitors; the option to contact you wherever you are, and whenever they want.
Quick SMS
Quick SMS, written by Martin Fitzpatrick, lets visitors to your site send an instant SMS message to your mobile.
Good stuff – there are a couple on here that I didn’t know about. Cheers.
[...] 10 WordPress plugins that turn visitors into repeat visitors | BlogWell: “To create a blog that stands out from the others, use this list of useful WordPress plugins to show your readers that you have made the effort, and you’ll be rewarded with return visitors and growth.” [...]
[...] Do you know the secrets of turning your first time visitors into loyal visitors? I know a few plugins to do that. However, i have never found such a good list of plugins before. Please take a look at 10 WordPress plugins that turn visitors into repeat visitors [...]
@ Peter – thank you, it is so nice to hear – thank you for listing it in Externals too!
I also learned of a few new plugins that I hadn’t thought I’d need. But I’ll be checking them out. Great tips. Thanks!
some nice plugins just wondering if they work with 2.3.3
great info though.
Hey SciFiDriver
You got me interested in finding out more – so for your viewing pleasure:
Share everything
Requires 2.1 or higher
Compatible up to 2.3
Sphere
Matt Mullenweg is an advisor to Sphere so you would expect so
Share This
Requires 1.5 or higher
Compatible up to 2.3.1
WP E-mail
Requires 2.3 or higher
WP Print
Requires 2.3 or higher
Subscribe to Comments
Requires 2.0.6 or higher
Compatible up to 2.3.1.
Edit Comments
Requires 2.1 or higher
Compatible up to 2.2.1
Sexy Comments
Requires 2.1 or higher
Compatible up to 2.2.
Comment Relish
This one you’ll have to check out yourself – it is not part of
the WordPress extend list
Quick SMS
2.0.2 or higher
Compatible up to 2.1
While some list compatible up to 2.2.1 etc., you may find the only differences are small bug fixes for the rest of the series (2.2.2 and 2.2.3) – so it is worth investigation if you are interested
Good Luck
[...] well, has a list of WP plugins that you must use to convert a visitor to a repeating visitor. A good list of plugins and a nice read too. There were lot of contests announced at the [...]
Yeah, great list! I’ll be adding several of these to my blog. I really like the search everything plugin because the default WP search really is limited.
Thanks!
@ Bryan – Thanks – I hope they are useful!
A very cool post indeed. i have already installed a few, and hopefully those simple methods will help me expand my blog, and retain more visitors.
Thanks a lot.
Great plugins! Thanks!
-Mike
Hi Lid – what a FANTASTIC list of plugins! Thanks for all of your hard work in compiling this resource
Thanks – hope they are useful too
[...] 10 WordPress Plugins that Encourage Visitors to Return [...]
Thanks, these are some of the plugins I’ve been looking for.
Great resource Lid, but I think you could’ve also added the related posts plugin, that returns similar posts from within your blog, not other blogs and social media portals.
Huh! Didn’t think of that, but yep, it is good for visitors
Thanks Tibi!
Here’s a link:
Related Posts Plugin
Needs 2.3 +
Hi,
This is more a question than a comment: I’m really new at blogging, but decided to develop my blog (http://cloben.wordpress.com). As you can see, I started with a free version, but I think that I’ll need to upgrade it if I want it to be more efficient. So my question is: is it possible to install those plug-ins on my blog or do I need to have a blog on a server (worpress.org)? Or if I upgrade my version, is there a possibility to install those plug-ins?
Thank you in advance for your answer and thank you for all these useful tips!
[...] Have a look at 10 WordPress plugins that turn visitors into repeat visitors [...]
[...] 10 WordPress plugins that turn visitors into repeat visitors | BlogWell (tags: wp plugins) [...]
This list is quite helpful. I think I’ll try to implement some of these. Thanks! The idea of getting repeat visitors is very appealing indeed.
Claudia
Wow – don’t know how I missed this, sorry.
If you have a site at WordPress.com, you can only use the widgets they offer you, so no, you can’t load your own plugins.
If you have your own version, absolutely!
Neece – thank you
Thank you very much, Lid.
Actually, I decided to build my own blog, for business purposes, indeed, but I must admit that it is not so simple. I have someone that could create a nice design, but I just simply don’t know where to go to start. Maybe you could help me? If so, it would be great !
Thanks again,
Claudia
Claudia –
Yes, you are right. It is not so simple, yet so many people begin without giving it much thought because they assume it is. I am glad you realize there is much work to be done.
So. I have a proposal for you.
I help direct you so that you get your blog up. You let me document the process and share it with the BlogWell community so that others can use it as a foundation to create their own blogs.
What do you think?
Lid,
Thanks for sharing this brilliant collection and tips. I think i did see one like ‘comments Luv’ recently, would you recommend that?
Thanks
Thank you for this! It’s a one-stop shop for the most attractive plugins. Functionality is important but so is look. Your post saved me from combing the Internet.
I’m in search of a “Recommend” plug-in in case you might know of one. If not, I appreciate all you listed here.
Nice recommendations Lid. As am launching my new theme its very useful for me. Thank you very much.
hi , i think this information about plugins very useful and valuable.
thank you for taking time to write this article.
Reza Bavari
I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future. Feel free to check out my blog on the 36 Best WordPress plugins for 2009.
[...] 10 WordPress plugins that turn visitors into repeat visitors | BlogWell [...]
great tahnks to u keep writing
[...] 10 WordPress plugins that turn visitors into repeat visitors Posted by root 9 minutes ago (http://blog-well.com) Photo credit nruboc while providing great content is critical if you want to may need a way to easily send themselves the link or print the page up to keep a hard copy comment relish is a wordpress plugin developed to send an e mail message to users who p Discuss | Bury | News | 10 WordPress plugins that turn visitors into repeat visitors [...]
Such a usefule blog
J840DG thank you this topic,
Great list. Eagerly waiting for your revised list for WP 2.8.4.
It was an important post
Hey there,
thanks a lot for the nice wordpress plugin ideas.
Cyberhonk
thanks for sharing this plugins….
Thanks . I just installed the Edit Comments TX plugin. If you have no problem with Ajax, you can use the Ajax Edit Comments too.
Thanks for the great stuff you’ve shared. I’m going to install the ‘Quick SMS’ plugin right now
[...] 10 WordPress Plugins that Encourage Visitors to Return [...]
very nice suggestions… Thanks!
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Aiguillez-moi vers un site web dans le but d’acheter de articles total access.
Une copine m’a donne ces sites internet, indiquez moi si mon identite demeurera secret…
just starting to develop my site and found this plugin list very useful, many thanks.