• Tweet

• Tweet

What all would you try to keep your blog visitors engaged?

You’re definitely not prepared to dance the hornpipe on a moving ship’s mast, that’s for sure. How about using some great WordPress plugins to keep them engaged and make them want to come back for more?

Easier than the hornpipe? Definitely; and so much less dangerous too! Here are 11 of the top WordPress plugs for you to try.

1. Outbrain

Move more traffic towards your top posts by using the related links plugin from Outbrain to your blog. What Outbrain does is to automatically link your top posts content at the end of your current posts.

Outbrain also gives you the option of using text or thumbnail displays of your old posts to tempt readers. This plugin’s rating system gets you reader feedback, record your click-through rates and track top posts and so on.

2. SEO Smart Links

SEO Links is the perfect way to interlink your blog posts and to add affiliate links to other sites as well. SEO Smart Links searches for and interlinks your chosen keywords and keyphrases with corresponding occurrences in posts, categories, and tags.

You can also set up your own keywords and URLs for linking, set the nofollow attribute, and allow readers to open links in new window. The administration settings panel gives you full control over the plugin.

3. Contextual Related Posts

This plugin automatically displays Related Posts after your post. You can also edit your theme files to manually specify post placement on your blog.

The plugin automatically checks the relevancy of your post content while placing related posts under it. You can use it to exclude displaying posts from specific categories, use WordPress post thumbnails, display excerpts in your post and much more.

4. Where Did They Go From Here

If you’ve seen the “Readers who have bought this, also bought XYZ” notification on Amazon.com, then you know what this plugin does. It shows the reader which posts other readers read, after reading the current post.

This gives an automatic reference point for readers to go from here.  This plugin also displays Related Posts without any need to edit template files. You can also track visitors’ movement on your site, display thumbnails in the list and much more.

5. bSuite

bSuite offers a set of widgets to display recently commented posts, most popular posts, and related posts and so on. There’s also a set of short codes to help you organize content the way you want it.

You can use it to list subpages, or create a list of post headings on top. There’s also a shortcut to render your RSS feeds into a post, or page.

6. nrelate Related Content

nrelate continuously analyzes your blog’s content and associates your posts to related posts. It displays links to related posts for each post, increasing your page views and enabling enhanced user experience.

You can fine tune the display of your related posts and also enable advertising using this plugin.

7. Gravity Forms

You can create custom forms for anything on your blog, such as a contact form, survey form, and quote request and so on. Once the form is designed, all you have to do is insert it on the page you want, which takes only a couple of minutes. All you do is copy a small bit of code with the form number into your WordPress page editor’s HTML.

8. Wibiya Toolbar

This fun toolbar is a great addition to your blog. It allows multiple sharing options to your reader, such as Facebook likes, Facebook activity, Facebook recommendations, retweets and Twitter feeds.

With this plugin, you can enable sharing on any social media platform. The plugin is light and does not increase performance latency.

9. Social Slider

Social Slider is a sharing utility that adds a bit of visual interest to your site as well. It adds colorful floats on the sides of your page, which allow your readers to share and engage. These share options support several social media platforms. They can be moved around on the page and are cute and fun.

10. Billboard

You can create a set of icons for social sharing, bookmarking or linking using in a billboard format. You can select the icon you want, customize its looks and size and insert a custom URL.

After you’re done, drag and drop the widget you’re your theme widget and adjust its position and select the icons you want to display. Using this plugin, you can make unique billboards for each page on your blog.

11. Disqus

Disqus allows a faster and more intuitive commenting experience, which helps turn comments into real-time discussions. It’s also fully integrated to multiple social media platforms, allowing people to log in to their accounts and share your posts easily.

The Disqus Community Box provides a great way for your visitors to see other’s visitors’ activity and comment summary.

Have you used any of these Plugins? Do you think these plugins are a good way to increase engagement? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.