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What exactly can a WordPress storytelling plugin do?
A WordPress storytelling plugin can enable you to easily create visual narratives for your blog posts and content.
You can engage your readers with animations and tappable interactions.
Using a WordPress storytelling plugin will help you to immerse your readers in your content through great and fast-loading full-screen experiences.
So instead of merely giving your readers blocks of texts with the odd image or video embed in between, you can provide them with short, bite-sized summaries that are filled with eye-catching imagery, short, succinct and to the point text as well as video clips etc.
WordPress storytelling plugins are ideal when your readers don’t have the time to read an entire post in detail.
As we all know, attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter.
People just don’t have the time nor the patience anymore of even skimming through content in order to get to the main points that they’re looking for.
This makes WordPress storytelling plugins an ideal addon or feature to your content..
Why would I need a WordPress storytelling plugin?
As we know, engagement metrics like time on page as well as bounce rates are an important part of SEO and the overall user experience.
The longer a user stays engaged and on the page, the better your post will do in Google’s search engine’s ranking algorithms.
In addition, more and more people are getting their information and accessing the internet from their mobile devices than on traditional laptops or desktop computers.
In fact, more people are accessing the internet from their mobile devices than any other device out there today.
What a WordPress storytelling plugin can do is allow you to summarize your blog post through bite-sized easily consumable content in a highly engaging and interactive way.
All you have to do is look no further than Facebook’s stories and the popularity of Instagram and their formats to see where and how people are getting their information from these days.
That’s why Google developed AMP. Although there has been some controversy over AMP, you can still use AMP and similar short form storytelling formats within your WordPress website’s posts.
This will not only help your readers who don’t have time, consume your content quickly. But also consume it in an entertaining way through eye catching imagery, videos, short to the point text through flippable and easily consumable content.
WordPress storytelling plugins are ideal, especially for mobile devices. This is a major reason why WordPress and Google have encouraged a creation of storytelling plugins.
When can I use a WordPress storytelling plugin?
We all want to not only attract visitors and readers to our blogs and websites, but we also want to give them a great user experience so they stay on our blogs and websites longer and consume more of our content.
As I’ve mentioned above, you can easily use a WordPress storytelling plugin to summarize your blog posts with an interactive interface that your readers can consume on their mobile devices.
I know what you might be thinking, “if I make my content so short that my readers can read it within a minute or two, then what’s the point of creating an entire blog post with sometimes hundreds or even thousands of words?”
Using a WordPress storytelling plugin can help you not only summarize the main points of your post, but also entice your readers to consume more.
You can think of WordPress storytelling plugins as a sort of clickbait for your blog post.
Also, WordPress storytelling plugins can be SEO optimized on their own. This will enhance the SEO on your blog post as well.
In addition, WordPress storytelling plugins are also shareable.
You can share them on social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. even Pinterest. They are a great way to attract readers to your blog as well.
What are the best WordPress storytelling plugins?
There are a variety of WordPress storytelling plugins.
Below are what I consider to be the best WordPress storytelling plugin options for your WordPress blog or website.
All these have free versions, one or two have a paid or pro version as well.
Web Stories WordPress plugin.
In my opinion, Web Stories is probably the most comprehensive and Google friendly WordPress storytelling plugin available.
It not only contains all the features you need in a storytelling format, but you can also track the analytics for each story through your WordPress dashboard, Google Analytics as well as Google Search Console.
In fact, if you haven’t done this already, then you should definitely consider installing Google Site Kit on your WordPress website so you can tie in all those useful Google tools and have access to them all in one place, on your WordPress website’s dashboard.
This way you can see the impact that these stories are having on your website and traffic.
WP Story.
WP Story is a great way to create your own Instagram type stories.
If you like the format of Instagram and want to make that a part of your WordPress website, then this plugin is for you.
It has a free as well as a Pro Version you should check out.
Aesop Story Engine.
Aesop Story Engine is similar to Web Stories in that it provides you with open-source tools and components that will allow you to create feature rich and interactive long form storytelling by using a variety of storytelling multimedia components.
You can create stories basically on the fly with a few clicks and embed them into your WordPress posts as well as themes.
Timeline Designer.
In addition to the WordPress storytelling plugins I’ve mentioned above, you might want to check out Timeline Designer.
Now Timeline Designer isn’t a storytelling plugin like the ones I’ve mentioned above, it’s more or less a timeline.
This Timeline Designer plugin allows you to create timelines within your blog post which is a great way to describe the history of a product, service or even an experience, but without all the flash of a storytelling plugin.
It’s also a great way to summarize the history of a story that your post is trying to tell.
You can use the Timeline Designer with a storytelling plugin or on its own.
MakeStories.
MakeStories is a simple drag and drop editor that allows you to make AMP compatible stories right from your WordPress dashboard.
It’s a simple, yet uncomplicated plugin without all the bells and whistles of the plugins above.
If you like the drag and drop format that comes with page builders like Elementor or Gutenberg’s block editor and a WordPress storytelling plugin that’s simple to use, then this might be the WordPress storytelling plugin for you.
WordPress storytelling plugin options, final thoughts.
There you have it. By adding a WordPress storytelling plugin you will not only help your readers consume your content on the go, but do so in a fun and interactive way.
WordPress storytelling plugins were built especially for mobile devices.
In addition, they can not only help improve your on-page SEO, but if done correctly, can also encourage your readers to continue reading the entire blog post that the storytelling feature highlighted.
Finally, WordPress storytelling plugins help make your posts very shareable on social media, which can of course attract more visitors, further helping you to promote your blog or website and grow your audience.
