ConvertKit

OpenRank Score

29 / 100

Company:ConvertKit
Overview:Email marketing for creators.
Plugin:ConvertKit version 1.7.2
Description:Automatic appending of email opt-in to posts and pages as well as manual insertion.

Scoring Factors

The following OpenRank scoring factors are based on an evaluation of version 1.7.2 of the ConvertKit plugin on WordPress 5.1.

User Experience (4 of 20)

  • Target Audience (2/4)
    • + Banner identifies “creators” as audience.
    • – Description is sparse with formatting errors, if not for the nice banner I might wonder if I was looking at the wrong plugin. Uses technical language (e.g. meta box, shortcode) and industry jargon (e.g. lead capture) that’s different from streamlined language on main site.
  • Onboarding (0/4)
    • – No “welcome” banner. After installation, it disappears.
    • – No setup walkthrough. API setup could be intimidating to a non-technical user.
    • – Bug: “Tools” screen in Settings showed blank system info and blank debug log.
  • Nativeness (2/4)
    • + Makes use of a “Settings” page.
    • – No Gutenberg block support
  • Friction Free / Feature Availability (0/8)
  • – Unable to create a new form within WordPress. (e.g. a default for my new site)
  • – Adding a new form via ConvertKit.com requires me to go to “Settings” and trigger the refresh.

Support (8 of 20)

  • Compatibility (0/4)
    • – Not tested with 5.1, 2+ weeks after release
  • Responsiveness (2/4)
    • + All issues in Support Forums marked resolved.
    • – Lack of follow-up on some items marked resolved. (Keep in mind that others will review topics to get their own help)
  • Bug Fixes (2/4)
    • + Issues being tracked on Github and progress is clearly visible.
    • – No clear path to reporting issues with the plugin.
  • Update Handling (2/4)
    • + A changelog exists.
    • + Recent releases.
    • + Changelog references bug fixes.
    • – Two releases (1.7.1 and 1.7.2) that appear to reference the same issue.
  • User Documentation (2/4)
    • + Reference to full documentation in plugin description.
    • + Documentation has illustrations and seems well organized.
    • – Not updated to correspond with new releases.
    • – No developer documentation.

Integration (4 of 20)

  • Hookability (0/7)
    • – No documentation references to hooks for extending.
  • Built-in Functionality (2/5)
    • + Offers widget.
    • + Category integration.
    • – No Gutenberg block support
  • Ecosystem Engagement (2/8)
    • + Extensions for WooCommerce and Gravity Forms exist.
    • – No references in the plugin to existing integrations (e.g. Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, WooCommerce, WP Fusion)
    • – No developer documentation to encourage extensions.

Best Practices (6 of 20)

  • Coding Standards (4/10)
    • – 1407 errors and 377 warnings in current version, according to Tide.
    • – 35 errors and 1 warning for PHP Compatibility, according to Tide.
    • + References to Coding Standards in changelog
  • Handbook Guidelines (1/5)
    • Unevaluated, point given for current developer having Core Contribution badge.
  • Accessibility Guidelines (1/5)
    • Unevaluated, point given for current developer having Core Contribution badge.

5 / 20 – Contribution

  • 5% for the Future (0/10)
    • – No public acknowledgement or policy that I’m aware of.
  • Participation (5/10)
    • + Current developer is an active Core Contributor

Recommendations

The following items are recommended as the clearest steps towards increasing the OpenRank score:

  1. Focus plugin messaging on “creator” audience to better match brand messaging.
  2. Improve onboarding flow.
  3. Offer to (or automatically) setup a default form on plugin activation, as part of the onboarding flow. (Sending them with a direct link to the form on ConvertKit.com is fine for customizing it)
  4. Post “conclusions” on resolved forum posts for the benefit of future readers.
  5. Pin a “read before you post” to the top of forum with clear guidelines / expectations.
  6. Update developer documentation with guidance on extending the plugin.
  7. Add references to supported third-party plugins in plugin documentation and in onboarding flow (e.g. if you detect Gravity Forms installed, suggest the add-on).