17 May Best WordPress Plugins & Tools for a Travel Blog That Will Make It More Attractive and Functional
Travel blogs are becoming very popular lately, and like any other blog, should have a strategy for improving and attracting as many readers as possible. Once you achieve that, you can create a strategy and plan to monetize your travel blog.
Below we will talk about which plugins every travel blog should have to improve their business. We’ll mention plugins for layout, better content overview, and a lot of others.
So let’s start!
Table of Contents
1. Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode
Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode is a great plugin that you can use to design a coming soon page to let visitors know your blog is in the making. Also, this plugin has a lot of themes customized and designed for travel blogs for individual and agency use.
The plugin has a database with more than 2 million free images. Furthermore, you can effortlessly rebrand them depending on whether you are doing a blog for yourself or a client.
Coming Soon & Maintenance Mode offers more than 170 themes, including travel blog themes, and will satisfy everyone’s taste. All themes can be previewed inside the plugin and are activated with just one click.
Check out some of the themes suitable for a travel blog below:
Please note that the Agency Lifetime package includes all 150+ themes for $199. There is also the Pro Lifetime package which has 60+ themes available and costs $79. Finally, there is the Pro Yearly package with 60+ themes available for $39.
2. Google Maps Widget PRO
Google Maps Widget PRO is one of the best plugins on the market designed to display Google Maps on your blog. The plugin is straightforward to use; you can have a map on your blog in less than two minutes after installing the plugin.
What makes this plugin unique is that you can create an unlimited number of maps and add an unlimited number of pins to each. This means you can have as many locations on one map as you want and need. This is an effective option offered by a minimal number of plugins on the market.
Also, it is essential to note that you can choose what kind of view you want, whether it is a street view, directions, or any other. Moreover, you can display the maps absolutely anywhere on the page, whether it is a post, menu, or sidebar.
It is possible to add maps as a widget or using a shortcode. Google Maps Widget PRO is a must-have because it has an infinite number of possibilities.
3. WP Reset
WP Reset is the best plugin on the market whose task is to keep the blog safe and functional. Although you may think it has nothing to do with a travel blog, you would be mistaken.
Imagine wanting to expand the capabilities of your blog and installing a few plugins. However, after installation, your website is not working. There could be several reasons for it, from an unverified plugin, incompatible WP version, database corruption, and more.
With WP Reset, each problem has a solution. The plugin allows you to create a snapshot before you make any changes, and in case of problems, brings you back to that time in just a few clicks.
You can save the snapshots on the cloud, so you will not burden your hosting servers while the security and functionality of your pages are at a high level. WP Reset is a plugin that you should have no matter what kind of blog you have.
4. WP Sticky
WP Sticky is an excellent plugin for creating sticky elements. Sticky elements are those elements that always remain visible no matter what part of your blog readers are on.
An example of such an element is a blog’s menu that stays fixed on the part of the page even as the visitors are browsing the website. That menu is called the sticky menu. With the help of WP Sticky, any part of your blog can become sticky, whether it is a menu, advertisement, or widget.
Wondering why this plugin is suitable for a travel blog? Well, since you can make any part of the blog fixed, try making a sticky map. That way, your visitors will always have an insight into the locations you’ve visited or are writing about. You can make a sticky prize game or a sticky advertisement; with this plugin, the possibilities are endless.
5. If-So Dynamic Content
If-So Dynamic Content is a fantastic plugin that helps visitors show content based on their searches, language, location, or interests. This way, you will give visitors the absolute pleasure of surfing your blog without the fear of overwhelming them with the information they are not currently interested in.
This plugin is compatible with any page builder, so you can rearrange any part of your blog and have an unlimited number of versions and options. Furthermore, If-So Dynamic Content is entirely coding-free.
With the help of the plugin, your visitors will get personalized content that interests them, significantly increasing your conversion rates.
Also, this plugin provides detailed analytics to keep you informed about what your visitors are interested in at any time. Thus you will be able to customize the content more easily.
6. WordPress Travel Booking Plugin – WP Travel Engine
WP Travel Engine is a great plugin that can create travel reservations and travel packages for travel agencies and travel organizers.
A very user-friendly interface and ease of management will allow you to create packages in less than 5 minutes.
The plugin comes in two versions, free and premium. The basic free version will suffice to start, but if you want to make your blog more professional, you will need the premium version. Within the premium version comes to a lot of options that expand the capabilities of the plugin.
The premium version of the plugin has three price packages, depending on the length of use.
The cheapest package is the Premium package which costs €85/year, followed by the Business package, which is €257 year, and the most expensive package, the Agency, which costs €1285 for a lifetime.
7. WP Airbnb Review Slider
WP Airbnb Review Slider is an excellent plugin that can make your Airbnb reviews visible to blog visitors. This is a great way to display original reviews directly from Airbnb, making the reviews come from a reputable source.
Visitors can see the reviews as static or in a slider. You have the option to specify the number of how many reviews to display per line and how many rows or lines you want. All reviews have the Airbnb logo displayed, and by clicking on it, the visitor will be redirected to the source.
WP Airbnb Review Slider is fully responsive and adapts to any screen size. You can place reviews anywhere on your blog using the widget or using a shortcode.
Also, there is an option to create an unlimited number of templates and change settings to integrate the plugin into your design fully.
The plugin comes in two versions, free and premium. The free version of the plugin has many options, but the Pro version offers extended and additional options that every serious blogger needs; its price starts at $29/year.
8. The Events Calendar
The Events Calendar is a great and free plugin that you can use to create a calendar of events on your blog. Whether it’s a virtual event or an actual event, this plugin will do a great job. The plugin is fully extensible, customizable to any interface, and easy to use.
Some of the essential options are creating a list of recurring events, making online ticket sales, and adding events submitted by users. You can get the most out of this plugin by expanding it with premium add-ons. Some of them are online ticket sales, crowdsourcing, email marketing, and many other exciting features.
The Events Calendar comes in two versions, free and premium. The free version is enough to get acquainted with most of the tools and the plugin itself; however, if you want a great and recognizable blog, we advise you to get the pro version.
9. AntRanks
AntRanks is a great tool that will allow you to track your blog’s ranking on search engines. With the help of this tracking tool, you can monitor your ranking and analyze the presence of your blog on search engines, thus devise a strategy for optimizing your blog.
The tool provides accurate information about the page ranking and analyzes it in detail, so you won’t have to do anything manually. The reliability of the information is guaranteed since the ranking is checked every few hours.
Another significant option is competition monitoring. Having a look at the competition will make it easier for you to see the advantages and disadvantages of your blog compared to the competitors.
AntRanks has a shared access option, allowing you to share projects with your team or clients so everybody can be in the know. Also, it provides detailed statistics on the ranking and analyzes the collected data daily.
Furthermore, you can see the history of how your search engine rankings have increased or decreased. Once you get all the information, you can start creating a strategy to position your blog in the top 10 in any search engine.
The starting price of the plugin is $19/month, and the most expensive variant is $99/month.
10. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is one of the oldest and best social media management tools. With this tool, you can automate many actions, such as scheduling posts and collecting key analytics data. You can perform these and many other tasks, all on a single control panel.
The platform is intended for everyone, from small businesses that have just started working to larger ones who want to have a better connection with customers through any social network.
One of the main features of Hootsuite is scheduling multiple posts at once. You can place them all in one CSV file and then transfer them to the control panel without working on each one separately. The plugin also has an outstanding and impressive list of applications.
Hootsuite has a great support system; you can ask for help via email, forum, through the knowledge base, in the support center, and via live chat.
The basic version of this platform is free, and we can’t recommend it enough.
11. Mailchimp
Mailchimp is the most well-known marketing tool for sending emails and communicating with customers. The service offers great, beautifully designed templates and campaigns that will satisfy even the most demanding users.
Also, Mailchimp boasts excellent data analysis tools, which puts it at the very top when it comes to communicating with clients. It is an application that runs in a web browser and does not require any download and launch of the application on the local computer. Moreover, it is highly responsive and adapted to all browsers.
Unlike other commercial tools, Mailchimp is quite generous because you can have most of the tools in a free package. The limit of the free package is sending 10,000 emails to 2,000 subscribers, which will be enough for small businesses or those who are just starting out.
Mailchimp can also be integrated into many applications, including WordPress. In terms of price, a free plan that offers a lot will suffice for many users.
Conclusion
Whether you are an experienced blogger or have just started doing this, you will need to use some plugins to improve your blog’s ranking and attract as many readers as possible. Without plugins, you may not have all the blog functionality you need to complete tasks successfully.
We have listed some of the best plugins to help you in your journey. You can use them individually or combine the functionalities of each to get the most benefits and achieve your goal. Many plugins on the market can help you create a great blog, and we’ve listed the best ones that are stable and the best in terms of price and quality.
Aayushi Jain
Posted at 07:33h, 10 JuneHey, I usually don’t comment on the blogs but I must say you have done a great job. Thanks for sharing this valuable information on the blog.
Jordi
Posted at 03:27h, 17 JuneI always use Mailchimp. I love how easy it is to use. Haven’t tried the other so I can’t say how good they work but for now I’ll keep using Mailchimp until I find something I don’t like. 🙂 Thanks for sharing tools, may try some in the future.