22 Mar 7 Ways to Come Up With Great WordPress Plugin Ideas in 2021

WordPress dominates the CMS market like no other platform, with more than 30 percent share in the top 10 million active websites using it to communicate with their audience. With so many clients with individual needs, it’s not difficult to imagine the spectrum of versatile feature requirements that developers need to fulfill by building various software plugins and add-ons. However, acting upon input is easy with the proper skill-set but coming up with an original idea for a plugin is a challenging endeavor and often takes a little push to find your inspiration. In order to help you, we have created a list of steps it takes to venture out and come up with useful WP plugin ideas.

• What makes a good WordPress plugin idea?

Authenticity is the foundation of every successful idea, therefore, if your plugin is the only piece of software on the market with a particular set of features – you have the potential to come up with a great idea once you develop it further!

Nevertheless, not all unique ideas have actual value. You can create a plugin that can provide the best writing services on a given topic by copy/pasting the existing online content. Because of plagiarism and a whole pile of other issues, you won’t see writing agencies knocking on your front door, looking to buy your software.

The practicality and usability of your plugin are also the building blocks of a great plugin idea, especially in today’s market where there’s almost impossible to think of a feature that already doesn’t have a plugin that enables it to its full extent. Let’s stay with a writing service as an example, and imagine you want to create a plugin that would allow the user to find the best writer without the need to browse through reviews and similar portals. 

• Follow the industry trends

Think about what are the dominant industries that are currently experiencing an upward-trending and visit a few of the top-rated websites for inspiration. Examine each website and try to figure it out from both user and publisher’s side of the street. If you can think of a way that would provide better user experience, go ahead and start developing that idea.

• Recycle

It’s always good to recycle materials and ideas, the largest business entities do it all the time, no matter which industry they belong to. If you know of a certain plugin that is widely used and exists on the market for a while, think about how you can make it more efficient, appealing, lighter, or improved in any other way. As the industry moves forward, the website requirements change and old solutions need to be improved. If you look deep enough, it’s inevitable to stumble upon a fresh idea that will up the existing game.

• Always keep SEO on your mind

SEO is always changing; evolving in ways we couldn’t even imagine when this technique was first started to develop. As such an important part of the web industry, search engine optimization is a never-ending pool of possibilities for new sorts of plugins that could improve or facilitate the implementation of SEO methods.  

• Process automation

Every time you add a new piece of content to a website, it takes a certain amount of resources, which are limited. Consequently, the website load speed suffers, functionality reduces, and overall user experience deteriorates. This is why automation of processes is important because adding one plugin that completes several requirements while taking a lesser amount of space increases the performance of the page.

• Forums and discussions

Speaking with your fellow developers could spark those plugs inside your head and give birth to plugin ideas you could change the online world with. Various topics included in online forums could send clear signals of the most pressing issues that you can take an interest in. Furthermore, it’s a great opportunity to find a partner that you can collaborate with if your project idea is too complex for a single person. WordPress Ideas is a good place to start your search, as there are numerous WP users that place their suggestions and requests for improvements within the WordPress itself so you can figure out a way to build a plugin that will deal with the issue until it’s implemented.

• A free version of a top-rated premium plugin

Premium plugins most often provide an extended list of features, which is what separates them from the free plugin solutions. Building your own free version of a plugin that provides all of the features listed with a popular premium option can also help you build your reputation. You could work on the improvement of the code or GUI if available, which would make your concept appear not just as a free option but also a better one. 

Conclusion

Finding inspiration in the digital world might seem challenging, but as the technology moves forward the requests for new software solutions grows. There will always be new ideas just waiting to be found, all that we need to do is look in the right places and try to dig beneath the surface of things to see what lies underneath – that’s where all the great ideas hide.