We have put together a guide to the best WordPress plugins for travel publishers and online destination magazines.
Are you interested in improving the look and functionality of your travel website? If you’re the publisher of a destination magazine, now is the time to start improving your digital footprint. As you know, having a modern website for your content is essential for growth. This is true among all publishing verticals, but especially so for travel and destination magazines.
Research shows that as a whole, travel media had missed the digital leap. While other industries were quick to embrace online media—building expansive websites and developing strong social media profiles—travel media was comparatively late to the game. The global guidebook market has shrunk over the past decade. Now, consumers are looking toward websites and apps, like Facebook and Instagram, for their travel information. If your destination magazine doesn’t have a strong online presence, you’re missing out on valuable opportunities.
At Web Publisher PRO, we spend a significant amount of time developing custom websites for publishers of destination magazines. Websites with a better user experience generate a stronger return on investment for publishers, especially when those websites are built to include the latest monetization tools.
One of the fastest ways for travel publishers to extend the functionality of their websites is by using WordPress plugins. These plugins give you the ability to upgrade your website—potentially adding new monetization features or other enhanced capabilities—with minimal downtime.
If you are a travel publisher who is interested in adding the latest features to your magazine’s website, consider trying these WordPress plugins for travel publishers.
Top WordPress Plugins for Travel Publishers
1. Interactive World Maps
A paid plugin that travel publishers will love, Interactive World Maps makes it easy to add region-based HTML maps to any WordPress-powered website. The feature can be used to give your online readers a better way to navigate through your website. For example, a reader who is interested in articles about Germany can click on the country in your interactive map to view all the articles with a “Germany” tag. The maps you generate using the Interactive World Maps plugin do not require Flash, so they should work on iPads and iPhones just as easily as desktop browsers.
2. PanoPress
If you plan to publish high-resolution travel photographs on your website, then you will want to try PanoPress. This WordPress plugin gives travel publishers a way to display 360-degree panoramas on their sites. Publishers can even add multiple panoramas to a single page. PanoPress supports 360 degree panoramas hosted on sites like 360Cities.net, ViewAt.org, and TourWrist.com. It is compatible with all modern desktop and mobile browsers.
3. Akismet Anti-Spam
If you publish reader comments below the articles on your website, Akismet is a WordPress plugin that you might want to try. The Akismet plugin blocks spam comments, along with contact form submissions. It does this by running comments through its own “global database of spam” and automatically filtering out any comments that look fishy. Although you still have the option to review comments that have been flagged, to prevent real commenters from getting caught up in Akismet’s filters, this is a plugin that can save you time and help you more efficiently moderate your comments section on a day-to-day basis.
4. Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a valuable WordPress plugin for any online publisher, including travel and destination magazine publishers. As the name suggests, this plugin helps with search engine optimization. Once it’s setup, the plugin will prompt your writers to include title and meta descriptions for their articles. Schema implementation is also useful for helping search engines make sense of your website. For travel publishers, specifically, the ability to automatically set canonical URLs to avoid duplicate content can be very beneficial.
5. Smush Image Compression and Optimization
One thing that travel websites have in common is an abundance of high-resolution photos. If you need to resize, optimize, and compress many images at once, then the Smush Image Compression plugin is a valuable tool. The WordPress plugin is completely free. Features include lossless compression, bulk optimization, and automatic image resizing. Travel publishers will also appreciate automated optimization and Gutenberg block integration. Smush is available with both multi-site and individual website settings.
6. Pretty Links
Travel publishers who generate revenue through affiliate links will appreciate the Pretty Links WordPress plugin. Rather than shortening links with generic link shortening tools, like tinyurl.com or bit.ly, Pretty Links offers publishers a higher-end solution. With Pretty Links, you can quickly shorten links using your own domain name. Not only does this make for cleaner-looking affiliate links, but it also helps publishers who want to track clicks from emails or track their links on Twitter.
To learn more about how to bring your travel publication to life on the web, get in contact with Web Publisher PRO today.
