Are you looking for a WordPress theme for your app?
You can use WordPress app themes to promote your app or software. These themes showcase your product screenshots, features, reviews, and other useful information.
In this article, we will share some of the best WordPress themes for apps that you can use to grow your business.
Building a WordPress Website for Apps and Software
WordPress is the most popular website builder in the world. Many top brands use WordPress for their websites, including banks, enterprise businesses, and more.
There are two types of WordPress. They are WordPress.com, which is a hosted solution, and WordPress.org, which is a self-hosted platform.
For a software or app website, you will need to use self-hosted WordPress.org. It offers the most flexibility and features you need to promote your business.
Before you begin, you will also need to purchase a domain name and web hosting. A domain name is your site’s address on the web, like wpbeginner.com or google.com. Web hosting is the storage for all your website files.
We recommend using Bluehost. It’s the most popular WordPress hosting company and an official WordPress hosting partner.
For WPBeginner users, Bluehost offers a free domain name, a free SSL certificate (for your website security), and a huge discount on web hosting.
Astra is a powerful WordPress multipurpose theme for all kinds of websites. It comes with a 1-click demo content importer and a few dozen demo websites to get you started quickly.
It has multiple blog page layouts, global design options, header and footer options, and dedicated sidebars for pages. The theme is fast, lightweight, and easy to set up, even for beginners.
SeedProd is the best WordPress theme builder on the market. It isn’t a regular WordPress theme, but SeedProd makes it easier for anyone to design a custom website from scratch without writing code.
The best part is that SeedProd comes with dozens of ready-made theme layouts. You can import a pre-built theme and customize it with the powerful drag and drop builder to launch your site.
It includes WordPress themes for apps, landing pages, and more. The theme templates are built specifically for beginners with beautiful designs and complete content.
Ultra is a modern WordPress theme for any type of website. It has a built-in professional template for your app or software.
It comes with builder addons, custom page templates, pre-designed layouts, and more. Other notable features include section scrolling, a mega menu, archive layouts, image filters, and support for WooCommerce.
Divi is a popular WordPress theme and an ultimate page builder plugin. It comes with hundreds of ready-made website layouts for different business niches.
It has a highly flexible visual page builder to customize your website from the front end. The Divi theme offers multiple design elements, visual effects, fonts and text styling, and custom backgrounds.
Infinity Pro is a professional WordPress theme designed specifically for mobile apps and software. It’s built on top of the Genesis Theme framework, making it powerful and robust.
The theme has a fullscreen layout with an image slider, a call-to-action button, a navigation menu, and a custom logo. It comes with layout options and multiple custom page templates.
OceanWP is a free WordPress multipurpose theme. It comes with several demo websites and a 1-click content importer to launch your website right away.
The theme offers fast page load time, built-in SEO optimization, RTL language support, and more. It’s also fully compatible with WooCommerce to sell your apps.
Neve is a stylish WordPress multipurpose theme that you can use to create any website. It comes with a few demo sites, including one-page and multi-page templates.
It features header and footer layouts to create an engaging user experience. The theme integrates with all popular WordPress page builders for customization. It’s also eCommerce ready to start an online store easily.
Struct is a fantastic WordPress theme designed specifically for mobile apps, SaaS startups, and software websites. It lets you display screenshots, testimonials, team members, portfolios, and app features on the homepage.
Inside, you will also find backgrounds, color schemes, typography options, and more. Struct has WooCommerce integration to sell your mobile apps online.
Hestia Pro is a one-page WordPress theme for any kind of website. It comes with a sleek and modern design to let you build your app or software website easily.
It works great with all popular drag and drop page builder plugins. Hestia is easy to customize using the WordPress live customizer.
iTheme2 is a stunning WordPress apps theme. It comes with a fully customizable featured content slider on the homepage to showcase your apps and software.
It includes website templates, a header menu, a footer menu, custom footer text, and more. It also has a social media widget to add social icons in the header of your website.
Bramble is a beautiful WordPress multipurpose theme. It ships with a page builder that lets you customize your website and design custom landing pages of your own.
The theme comes with built-in homepage layouts to set up your website. It also includes an image slider plugin to display your apps beautifully.
Nozama is a classic WordPress eCommerce theme built for creating Amazon-style websites for mobile apps and software. It lets you display your apps, testimonials, and other products on the homepage.
You can use this theme to share professional screenshots of your app and maximize your sales. Besides professional shop page layouts, Nozama has unlimited color schemes, custom backgrounds, Google Fonts, and parallax effects.
Specialty is an excellent WordPress theme designed specifically for job board apps and software. It comes with flexible search functionality for instant search and complex filters.
The theme includes hundreds of customizer settings for color, typography, and layout. It supports drag and drop page builders to create custom landing pages easily.
14. Altitude Pro
Altitude Pro is a black-and-white WordPress app theme. It has a fullscreen layout with a custom background image, welcome text, and call-to-action buttons.
The theme has multiple homepage widget areas and layout options. Altitude Pro is eCommerce friendly and helps you sell your apps online.
Inspiro is a WordPress multipurpose theme built for any kind of website. It features interactive homepage elements to engage your users from the first click on your site.
The theme options include parallax scrolling, video backgrounds, 1-page and multi-page templates, page builder compatibility, and more. It’s easy to set up, even for absolute beginners.
Multi Mobile App is a free WordPress theme for apps and software. It lets you showcase your apps professionally in different categories.
If you are looking for a free multipurpose apps theme, then the Multi Mobile App theme is an ideal solution. It’s translation ready and offers powerful customization options.
Cousteau Pro is a WordPress theme for travel apps. It comes with video and image slider support on the homepage to create a powerful first impression on your visitors.
Inside, you will find a search and filtering system. The theme has a fullscreen background layout that looks beautiful and professional.
Venture is a WordPress portfolio theme to display and sell your apps. It has a dynamic homepage builder and custom widgets to set up your website quickly.
You can also use the built-in visual customizer for colors, fonts, and other settings. It includes a featured content slider to showcase your most important content on the front.
Mobile App is a free WordPress multipurpose theme designed specifically for apps and software websites. It uses bright colors that make your website highly attractive.
The theme features a fullscreen image slider, a products section, an about section, and more. It’s easy to set up using the WordPress live customizer.
Pinboard is a modern WordPress multipurpose theme. It has a Pinterest-like layout to create an app or software review website.
It supports WordPress multisite network and lets your users sign up to post reviews. The theme is fully responsive and adjusts to any screen size beautifully.
Listable is an excellent WordPress directory theme built specifically for small business websites. It has a fullscreen layout and parallax homepage sections.
The theme lets you add all your apps and allow users to submit apps from the frontend. Listable also integrates with popular WordPress page builders for easy customization.
FAQs About WordPress Themes for Apps and Software
If you are still unsure which theme is best for you, here are some frequently asked questions about WordPress themes for apps and software that can help you select the right theme for your website.
1. Which is the best WordPress theme for apps and software websites?
With so many options, picking the right theme to promote your apps and software business can confuse beginners.
We recommend Astra, SeedProd, Ultra, and Divi, as they come with multiple templates for apps, software, and technology websites.
2. Why is SeedProd included in the themes for apps and software?
SeedProd is included in the themes for apps and software because it’s a powerful theme builder for beginners. It lets you drag and drop features to design a custom theme for your apps and software website without writing code.
Moreover, SeedProd comes with ready-made coming soon and maintenance mode landing pages. You can use these pages to engage users while your website is in the development process.
SeedProd also includes hundreds of built-in theme templates that can give you a head start. You can import a template and customize it to launch your website right away.
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Do you want to perform a User Experience (UX) audit of your WordPress website?
User experience is an important factor in the success of a website. A good user experience can lead to more conversions and sales, while a poor UX can cost you money.
In this article, we will show you how to easily do a UX audit of your WordPress website step-by-step.
Here is a quick overview of all the steps we will cover to perform a UX audit on your WordPress website:
User experience or UX describes the feelings and opinions that users have while using your website.
A pleasant user experience means users find your website easy to use and helpful.
By contrast, a poor user experience means users find your website difficult to use and can’t do what they want to do.
Creating a good user experience allows you to help users make the most out of your website. This eventually leads to conversions, sales, and business growth.
On the other hand, a negative user experience can cause visitors to leave your website without signing up or buying something in your online store. This causes you to lose potential sales and customers.
How to Perform a UX Audit of Your Website
As a business owner, you need to regularly check your website to make sure that it offers a good user experience.
This practice is called a UX audit. You can perform a UX audit by yourself using a combination of tools (you may already be using some of them).
During this process, you will look for issues that may negatively affect user experience on your website. When you find a problem, you can document it and then start fixing it.
Ready? Let’s get started.
Step 1: Define User Goals and Objectives
First, you need to put yourself into users’ shoes to understand what they are looking for when they reach your website.
For instance, if your website is an online store selling pet toys, your audience’s goal is likely to look at pet toys, read customer reviews for those products, and make a purchase.
Similarly, if you run a how-to blog, then your audience’s goal would be to read a tutorial and learn how to do something.
Understanding what your users want to achieve will allow you to help them better.
This exercise allows you to better understand users and their expectations of your website. Most importantly, it helps you figure out the goals and objectives of your target audience.
You can then analyze your website using these personas to see how quickly your content, products, and services can help those users.
Step 2: Test Your Website for Usability Issues
Testing your website for usability helps you quickly find problems that could destroy the user experience.
However, many issues often go unnoticed by website administrators until a user reports them. Users are more likely to switch to your competitor’s website than tell you about issues on your site.
Luckily, there are plenty of excellent tools that you can use to quickly detect potentially harmful usability issues on your website.
PageSpeed Insights (Free)
Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool lets you quickly examine a URL for performance and usability issues.
It runs tests on your website and then presents the results for both mobile and desktop devices by assigning each one a score.
This score is given in four categories:
Performance
Accessibility
Best Practices
SEO
It also tests for Core Web Vitals, which are a set of website performance metrics that Google considers essential to a website’s overall user experience.
When you run the test, the language may initially sound too technical. However, you will also find links to resources explaining these concepts in beginner-friendly terms with tips on resolving each issue.
Automated tools can help you catch many problems. However, they are not perfect and may not be able to identify many common UX problems.
If you have a small website, you can go to each page to manually review it yourself. However, it is impossible for most medium to large websites to do this manually.
So, how do you find pages with poor UX?
One easy way to find these pages is by using MonsterInsights. It is the best Google Analytics plugin on the market that allows you to see where your users are coming from and how they interact with your website.
Note: There is also a free version of MonsterInsights that you can try. However, we recommend upgrading to the paid version and unlocking the full potential of the plugin.
Upon activation, the plugin will run the setup wizard and help you connect WordPress with your Google Analytics account.
However, you will need to enable it for your website manually.
Start by visiting the Insights » Addons page in your WordPress admin dashboard to install and activate the eCommerce addon.
Next, you need to enable enhanced eCommerce tracking in your Google Analytics account. Go to your Google Analytics dashboard and select your website.
From here, click on the ‘Admin’ button in the bottom left corner.
On the next screen, you will see different Google Analytics settings.
Under the ‘View’ column, just click the ‘Ecommerce Settings’ link.
On the next screen, simply turn on the toggles next to the ‘Enable Ecommerce’ and ‘Enable Enhanced Ecommerce Reporting’ options.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button when you are done.
Check Low Conversion Pages for UX Issues
Poor user experience is one of the main reasons for low conversions, abandoned carts, and high bounce rates.
You can view your conversion tracking reports in MonsterInsights to find pages with low conversions and higher bounce rates.
Simply go to the Insights » Reports page inside the WordPress admin area and then switch to the ‘eCommerce’ tab.
From here, you can see an overview of your top-performing products and conversion sources.
For advanced reports, you need to switch to your Google Analytics account and go to the Engagement » Pages and screens tab.
From here, you can sort the pages by conversion rate to see the pages with the least conversions.
Using Google Analytics, you can also track pages with the highest bounce rates, the least amount of time spent on them, and more.
For more conversion tracking options, you can see our complete guide on WordPress conversion tracking. It will also show you how to track form conversions, affiliate link conversions, and more.
Step 4: Ask For User Feedback
As you can see, many UX audit activities involve automated tools, analytics reports, and manual testing.
The entire point of the UX audit exercise is to improve user experience. So, why not just ask your users what they think?
Asking for user feedback can get you accurate input from real visitors about your website. It can help you find specific problems and fix them more easily.
Note: There is also a free plugin called UserFeedback Lite that you can try. We recommend upgrading to the Pro version to unlock the full potential of the plugin.
UserFeedback allows you to quickly run surveys and collect user feedback on your website. It also lets you show the surveys to the right users at the right time.
For example, you can show surveys to users on the pages with fewer conversions or display a feedback form to users on mobile devices.
Website speed is a major contributor to user experience. Slow sites cause poor UX and prevent users from moving forward and accessing your content.
The tools we mentioned earlier, like PageSpeed Insights and Core Web Vitals, can help you evaluate the performance of your website.
However, if you are using MonsterInsights, then you can also run a website speed test inside your WordPress admin area.
Simply switch to the Insights » Reports page and then open the ‘Site Speed’ tab.
The report will run the same tests as PageSpeed Insights and show you a report. It will also give you practical tips to improve website performance.
Fixing Performance and Speed Issues
The easiest way to fix most performance issues is by simply installing a WordPress caching plugin.
We recommend using WP Rocket, which is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market. It lets you easily optimize your WordPress website without learning the technical stuff.
Upon activation, WP Rocket will start caching your website’s content.
Unlike other caching plugins that generate a cache when a user visits your website, WP Rocket automatically starts creating a cache in the background.
This means each new user on your website will see a cached version that loads much quicker and improves user experience.
You can learn more by reading our tutorial on setting up WP Rocket with more detailed instructions.
If caching doesn’t immediately fix your website speed, we recommend following our complete WordPress speed and performance guide. It includes step-by-step instructions on how to optimize your website speed.
Step 6: Evaluate Website Navigation
Users expect your site to have a navigation menu with the links they need to find the information they want.
Sometimes, a website may not have a navigation menu that helps users reach the page they want. This leads to a poor user experience, and visitors may leave and try some other website.
You need to make sure that your website has a straightforward navigation menu that takes users to the critical areas of your website.
Adding a search bar to your website’s header or navigation menu can also improve user experience. If users can’t find a link quickly, then they can try searching on your website.
However, the default WordPress search is not very good.
Instead, we recommend using SearchWP. It is the best WordPress search plugin on the market and quickly improves the search experience on your website.
SearchWP allows you to make everything on your website searchable, including custom fields, eCommerce attributes, custom tables, categories, tags, and more.
A lot of the time, poor user experience is caused at the end of a conversion path.
For instance, you might have users trying to submit your lead capture form, but something is stopping them from doing so.
Luckily, you can run split tests and manually test elements on your website to identify and fix problems.
Run A/B Split Tests to Figure Out UX Issues
An easy way to test your conversion elements is by running A/B split tests.
An A/B split test allows you to create two or more versions of a page with slight differences. It then shows users a different version randomly.
You can then compare the results to find out which variation of the page performed the best among your users.
The easiest way to run these tests on your WordPress website is by using Thrive Optimize. It lets you quickly create and run A/B tests on your WordPress website.
First, you will need to install and activate Thrive Optimize plugin. You can purchase the plugin with Thrive Architect or get it with Thrive Suite bundle.
Next, install and activate the Thrive Product Manager plugin on your website. You can download it from your Account Dashboard on the Thrive Themes website.
Upon activating the plugin, you need to go to the Product Manager page in the WordPress admin area.
Next, you need to check the ‘Install Product’ box under the Thrive Optimize and Thrive Architect products.
After that, click on the ‘Install Selected Products’ button to continue.
After installing the plugins, you will need to create or edit a post/ page and then click on the ‘Launch Thrive Architect’ button at the top.
This will show a popup where you can choose how to edit the page.
You can edit the page as a regular page using your theme template or as a landing page with a custom template.
If you choose a pre-built landing page, then you will be asked to choose a template.
Thrive Architect comes with dozens of beautiful templates for various niches to choose from.
After that, you will be able to edit your page in Thrive Architect’s page builder.
It is an intuitive design tool where you can point and click on any element to edit it or click on the ‘+’ button to insert new elements.
Once you have finished editing your page, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Work’ button to store your changes.
After that, click on the ‘A/B’ button in the right column to create a new A/B test.
To run your A/B test, you need to have at least two versions of a page.
On the next screen, click on the Add New Variation button to create a new version of your landing page.
It will now create a new variation, and you can start editing it using the Thrive Architect.
Make the changes to the page you think will work better than the previous version.
After that, simply click on the ‘Save Work’ button to store your changes, and then click on the ‘A/B’ button again.
You can choose how much traffic you want to send to each page variation and then click on the ‘Set Up & Start A/B Test’ button at the top.
This will bring up a popup where you can configure the A/B test settings.
You need to give your test a title and description. Afterward, you can turn on Automatic Winner settings and set minimum requirements for a variation to win.
Click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.
Finally, you will be asked to choose a goal for the test. For example, if it is a product page, then you may want to choose ‘Revenue’.
Finally, click on the ‘Start A/B Test’ button to finish the setup.
Thrive Optimize will now start showing the two variations of the page to your users and keep track of user interactions on the page.
You can view the test results anytime by visiting the Thrive Dashboard » Thrive Optimize page.
Once the test has run its duration, you can see which page has performed better for conversions or the goals you set during the test. You will then be able to make changes to improve the UX on your website.
A lot of time, you may not be able to run A/B split tests for all your pages. Luckily, there are other ways to test whether conversion elements on your pages are working.
Website owners are often just looking at the static representation of their website and not interacting with it like a real user would. That’s why many interactive failures go unnoticed for a long time.
This is when you will need to do some manual work. You can try to imitate a user journey as best as possible to complete a conversion.
For instance, if you run an eCommerce store, you can start from the page where your users usually land. Afterward, look at product pages, add items to the cart, and complete the checkout.
Within your UX audit, you must test all your forms, cart functionality, and checkout experience by interacting with those elements like a customer.
A user flow is a customer’s journey across your website. A user will usually take a predictable path to different areas of your website until they buy something or submit a form.
The best way to track user flows is by using MonsterInsights. It comes with a User Journey addon that allows you to see every step of a customer’s journey throughout your site, including the pages and products they looked at and how long they were there.
Note: You will need at least the Pro plan of the plugin to use the User Journey addon.
After setting up MonsterInsights, you need to go to the Insights » Addons page. From here, locate the User Journey addon and then install and activate it.
Now, MonsterInsights will show the user’s journey on individual orders. For example, in WooCommmerce, you can go to WooCommerce » Orders page and click on an individual order.
On the order details page, scroll down to the MonsterInsights User Journey section.
This will show you all the user interactions on your site with their times and durations.
If you are not using an eCommerce platform, then you can still track the user journey for your WordPress forms.
If you are using WPForms to capture leads, then it comes with user journey tracking that helps you track which path a user took to submit the form.
Like conversion elements, other areas of your website could disrupt user flow and block the path that leads them to become a customer.
You will need to manually evaluate user paths in Google Analytics to see where their journey abruptly ends. You can also simulate the user paths to see if you can come across a usability issue preventing the user from going forward.
Step 9: Evaluate Website Content Quality
Visual elements are not the only things that create a good or bad user experience.
Your website content plays a significant role in convincing users to stay on your WordPress blog or website and look around. It also helps search engines find your content more easily and send more visitors to your site.
We recommend performing a complete SEO audit of your website and optimizing your content for SEO.
All in One SEO comes with built-in SEO analysis, a headline analyzer, and site-wide SEO audit tools. All these features help you improve the quality and discoverability of your content.
You will also need to evaluate your content. For example, if a particular page is not ranking or converting well, then consider making it more comprehensive by adding more helpful content.
Don’t forget to check your content for spelling and grammar mistakes. They could make your website seem unprofessional and create a bad user experience.
We recommend using Grammarly. It is the best AI-powered writing tool that helps you automatically correct spelling and grammar mistakes.
Grammarly also has a free forever plan with spelling and grammar checks. However, we recommend buying a paid plan to unlock more powerful features.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to add an alert bar to your WordPress site?
An alert bar or notification bar is a great way to let visitors know about important updates, special offers, new product launches, and more.
In this article, we will show you how to create an alert bar in WordPress with 3 easy solutions.
Why Create an Alert Bar in WordPress?
An alert bar is a great way to let your visitors know about something important on your website. That could be an ongoing sales event, an update to your opening times, or changes to your services.
Using an alert bar is better than just putting an announcement on your homepage. Your alert bar can appear prominently right at the top of every page across your entire site.
It’s easy to create an alert bar in WordPress. We will look at methods using the best notification bar plugins and a manual method using HTML and CSS code. Simply click the links below to jump straight to each option:
Method 1: Creating an Alert Bar Using OptinMonster
OptinMonster is the best conversion optimization and lead generation software on the market. It helps you convert more website visitors into subscribers and customers.
OptinMonster offers a drag-and-drop campaign builder. It comes with beautiful lightbox popups, welcome mats, countdown timers, and other dynamic overlays that help you increase subscribers and sales on your website.
You can also use OptinMonster to make an alert bar for your website. Their pre-built templates make it really easy to create an alert bar that looks great within minutes.
First, you need to visit the OptinMonster website and sign up for an account. You will need at least the Basic plan because it includes the Floating Bar campaign type.
This plugin lets you connect your WordPress site to the OptinMonster software.
Upon activation, you will see the welcome screen and the setup wizard. Go ahead and click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.
Next, a new window will open where you will need to connect your WordPress site to OptinMonster.
Simply click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button to move ahead.
You can now follow the on-screen prompts to connect your OptinMonster account.
Then, simply go to OptinMonster » Campaigns in your WordPress dashboard. Go ahead and click the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ button.
This will open the OptinMonster campaign builder.
From here, you need to select the ‘Floating Bar’ as your Campaign Type to create an alert bar.
Next, you will see a choice of campaign templates. Pick a template that you want to use.
You just need to bring your mouse over it and click the ‘Use Template’ button to select it. We are going to use the Coupon Code Promo template for our alert bar.
Next, you will be asked to give your template a name. Once you have named your campaign, just click the ‘Start Building’ button.
Now, you will see the campaign editor. This is where you can design your alert bar.
OptinMonster offers different blocks that you can simply drag and drop onto the template. For instance, you can add an image, text, button, and more to your alert bar.
You will see that your alert bar appears at the bottom of your screen by default.
To move it to the top of the screen, you need to click ‘Floating Bar Settings’ on the left-hand side. Next, just click the slider to move the floating bar to the top of the page.
To change the text on the floating bar, simply click on the area you want to change and type in any text you want.
You can also change the font, the size and color of the text, and more.
To change the countdown settings, simply select the timer.
Then go ahead and enter your desired end date and time. OptinMonster also lets you choose the countdown type. You can select the ‘Static’ type if you’d like to show a standard timer with your specified end date and time.
On the other hand, there is a ‘Dynamic’ countdown type. The timer will work based on each user’s behavior on your site. The countdown is set separately for each visitor to your website.
Once you are happy with the design of your alert bar, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top of your screen.
Next, you need to go to the ‘Display Rules’ tab to select when and where your alert bar will display on your site. The default rule is for your alert bar to display after the visitor has been on the page for 5 seconds.
We are going to change this to 0 seconds so that the alert bar appears instantly. To do that, just change the ‘sec’ value to 0.
Besides that, you can also select where the alert bar will appear. You can use the default setting, which is the ‘current URL path is any page’. This way, your alert bar will appear on all the pages of your WordPress website.
Then, click the ‘Next Step’ button to change the Action settings. You can leave the ‘show the campaign view’ settings as Optin and select whether you’d like to play a sound effect when the alert bar appears.
After you have made your changes, go ahead and click the ‘Next Step’ button once more.
Here, you will see a summary of your display rules. You can make final edits and changes to your alert bar campaign.
Once you are happy, simply click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen.
After that, you can go to the Publish tab at the top and change the Publish Status to ‘Publish’. Once that’s done, you will need to click the ‘Save’ button and close the campaign builder.
Next, you will see the Campaign Output Settings.
The final step is to activate the campaign on your website itself. Simply change the Status from ‘Pending’ to ‘Published’.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you are done.
Now, simply visit any page on your website, and you will see your campaign in action.
Method 2: Creating an Alert Bar Using Thrive Leads
Another way you can add alert bars to your WordPress website is by using Thrive Leads. It is part of the Thrive Themes suite and helps you generate leads through alert bars, lightboxes, slide-in popups, and more.
First, you will need to visit the Thrive Themes website and sign up for an account. Simply click the ‘Start Now’ button to get started.
Next, you will need to install and activate the Thrive Product Manager plugin on your website. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
You can find the Thrive Product Manager plugin in your account area.
Once you have installed the plugin, simply go to the Product Manager page from your WordPress admin area.
From here, go ahead and click the ‘Log into my account’ button.
After logging in to your account, you will see different plugins and tools offered by Thrive Themes.
Simply select the Thrive Leads plugin and then click the ‘Install selected products’ button at the bottom.
When Thrive Leads is ready to use, you will see a success message.
You can then click the ‘Go to the Thrive Themes Dashboard’ button.
Next, you will need to go to Thrive Dashboard » Thrive Leads from the WordPress admin panel.
Next to the Lead Groups heading, simply click the ‘Add New’ button.
After that, a popup window will now open.
You can enter a name for your new lead group and click the ‘Add Lead Group’ button.
Next, you will need to create a new opt-in form.
Go ahead and click the ‘Add New Type of Opt-in Form’ button.
After that, Thrive Leads will ask you to select a form type.
You can select the ‘Ribbon’ type to add an alert bar to your website.
After adding the Ribbon opt-in form type, you will now need to add a form.
Simply click the ‘Add a form’ option under Lead Groups.
On the next screen, you can choose from any of your existing forms.
Since this is your first time making a form, go ahead and click the ‘Create Form’ button.
Now, you will see a popup window appear on your screen.
You can enter a name for your form and click the ‘Create Form’ button.
Your form will be added to the Ribbon lead group.
To edit the design of the form, just click the pencil icon.
Next, Thrive Leads will show multiple templates to choose from.
Simply select a template and click the ‘Choose Template’ button at the bottom.
This will launch the visual builder with a live preview, where you can customize your alert bar.
For instance, you can select the text in the template and change it according to your needs. Or click on the image in the alert bar and change it.
Once you are done editing, click the ‘Save Work’ button at the bottom.
You can now close the visual editor and head back to the form settings. Here, you will see options for settings the alert bar trigger, display frequency, and position.
By default, the alert bar will appear at the top when a page loads. However, you can change these settings.
For instance, if you click the Trigger option, you’ll see more options, like showing the alert bar after a certain time, when a user scrolls down a certain amount, or when a user reaches the bottom of the page.
Besides that, you can also change the display frequency. The alert bar will appear all the time by default to all the users.
However, you can edit this and display your alert bar to the same visitor after a certain number of days.
Next, you can head back to the Thrive Leads page from your WordPress dashboard.
After that, simply click the cog icon to open the Display Settings.
From here, you can choose which posts and pages the alert bar will appear on.
For instance, you can show it only on the front page or choose all posts and pages. There is also an option to exclude some pages and posts from showing your alert message.
When you are done, simply click the ‘Save & Close’ button.
The last step is to click the toggles to display your alert bar on desktop and mobile devices.
Once that’s done, your alert bar is now ready to collect user email addresses and build your email list.
You can visit your website to see it in action.
Method 3: Manually Create an Alert Bar Using Custom HTML/CSS
What if you don’t want to use OptinMonster or Thrive Leads? In this method, we will show you how to create a notification bar using HTML and CSS code.
Note: We don’t recommend this method for beginners. If you are new to WordPress or don’t feel confident adding code to your site, then we suggest using either of the methods above instead.
First, you will need to copy the following custom CSS code for the alert bar:
An easy way to add CSS code to your website is by using WPCode. It is the best code snippet plugin for WordPress that helps you add custom code to your website.
Note:WPCode is one of WPBeginner’s own plugins. We created it to make it really easy to add scripts, HTML code, and more to your website pages. It comes with features like a built-in code snippets library, conditional logic, conversion pixels, and more.
Upon activation, you need to head to Code Snippets » + Add Snippet from the WordPress dashboard and select the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
After that, enter a title for your snippet at the top and paste the CSS code into the Code Preview area.
You will also need to change the Code Type to the ‘CSS Snippet’ option.
Next, you can scroll down to the Insertion section. This is where you can choose where the code will run.
Since we want the alert bar to appear across the entire website, you can use the default ‘Auto Insert’ method. You can also keep the ‘Run Everywhere’ setting.
Once that’s done, you can click the ‘Save Snippet’ button at the top.
You will also need to click the toggle on to activate the code.
After that, go to Code Snippets » Headers & Footer in your WordPress admin dashboard.
Just copy and paste the following line of HTML code into the ‘Header’ box:
<div class="alertbar">We are currently closed due to Covid-10.</div>
Here’s how that code should look in the ‘Header’ box in WPCode:
You can change the alert text to anything else you like. Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the top of the page once you are done.
Now, you can visit your WordPress blog to see the alert bar. It should appear at the top of every page like this:
Tip: In a few WordPress themes, your alert bar may overlap your menu. You can alter the height of the bar to 40px or 30px to avoid this. You will also need to reduce the line height accordingly so that your text stays centered vertically in the bar.
Bonus: Add Custom Alert Messages to WordPress Pages
If you want to add custom alert messages to different parts of your website, such as product pages, checkout pages, and shop pages, then you can use SeedProd. It is the best website builder and landing page builder for WordPress.
The plugin offers a drag-and-drop builder to create a custom theme and website pages without editing code. It also offers an Alert block that you can place anywhere on your site.
This Alert block can warn customers that your stock is running low, particular items are on sale, or other time-sensitive warnings.
You can simply add the Alert block to your page and then add a title and description. The plugin also lets you add dynamic content, which allows you to insert dates and other query parameters.
There are also more customization options for the Alert block. For instance, you can change its alignment, adjust the font size, and edit the icon.
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The text you enter into the chat window is called a ‘prompt’. Writing a descriptive and well-thought prompt helps you get a more detailed and informative answer.
Bard is Google’s AI tool based on their LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) technology. Similar to ChatGPT, Bard can be used to get answers using an interactive chatbox.
However, it is a little different than ChatGPT. For instance, it is trained on a more extensive data set consisting of code and text. It also has internet access, allowing it to find and use more up-to-date information than ChatGPT.
It also shows relevant Google searches, which enables you to further extend your research. Instead of typing, you can also enter your prompt using voice.
Bard is currently available as beta in select countries and languages. However, in terms of capabilities, it is on par, if not better, than ChatGPT.
Bing Chat is based on the newer ChatGPT (version 4), making it much better than the free ChatGPT, which currently uses GPT-3.
It comes integrated into the Microsoft Edge browser and can be used in the sidebar. This sidebar chat can also be used to research the topics displayed on the web page you are currently viewing.
However, a more extensive version of Bing Chat is available on Bing search. You can start a new conversation from here in the full browser tab.
Bing Chat uses a newer dataset, which makes it faster and more accurate than ChatGPT’s free version.
Powered by the You.com AI search engine, YouChat provides an alternative to ChatGPT and Bard.
It is trained on large datasets and uses open-source technologies with in-house enhancements to create the AI bot chat experience.
One distinguishing feature that YouChat applies to the conversation is adding material from popular sources on the internet. It also adds citations and mentions the sources below its responses.
The popular sources include only English language content from websites in the United States, such as Wikipedia, StackExchange, Amazon, and more. You can add these sources to your preferred apps, and YouChat will prioritize responses from preferred sources whenever possible.
YouChat can also write code based on the text input and will also include a description to help you extend or study the code.
Currently, it is free to use and is a good alternative for users who want to use something faster than ChatGPT.
Need to generate images instead of text? Midjourney is the best AI-powered visual images and graphics generator.
Like ChatGPT, Midjourney is powered by generative AI and machine learning technologies. It allows you to provide instructions in natural language to generate images as the response.
Midjourney requires you to join their Discord server and uses Discord to input commands to the Midjourney bot.
Jasper is a collaborative AI writing assistant for businesses, marketers, and brands.
It can adapt to your brand’s voice and style to create marketing content, initial drafts, landing pages, and ad copy.
Jasper is trained on GPT 3.5 and its custom Natural Language Understanding models. It is designed for marketers and writers, and it can help businesses generate AI-powered marketing material on demand.
It also offers tools to generate AI images, translations for content in over 30 languages, a template library, and brand memory and style training.
Copilot by GitHub is a code-writing assistant powered by ChatGPT. You enter a prompt in plain language, and it will write code to match your instructions.
It can write code in the most popular coding languages and libraries. You can also integrate it into your existing code editor to generate on-demand code when needed.
CoPilot is trained on OpenAI Codex to suggest code and entire functions in real time. This allows developers to confidently troubleshoot code, look up examples, get real-time assistance, and more.
A free trial is available, after which monthly plans start at $10.
Character AI is a fun and useful ChatGPT alternative. It allows you to create different personas for the AI chatbot and interact with those characters.
The responses of the AI will be tailored to match the character you created. Users can make characters using the quick mode or select a more advanced mode that includes example chats and sample messages.
The platform also allows you to define character attributes and train your character based on chats. You can choose a voice and style for the character and keep it private or publicly available.
However, Character AI warns you that these characters may lie and confidently make things up, so their output should not be taken as factual.
Character AI can be very helpful for generating customer personas, writing with different tones and styles, developing dialogues, creating scripts, and more.
Replilka AI is a chatbot you can train to be your personal trainer, advisor, motivational coach, friend, listening partner, and more.
You can create an AI character, choose an appearance, and start talking. You can then coach the character and earn points by interacting with it.
Replika provides AI-based companionship that can be taken to the next level by joining the AI persona in augmented reality (AR). You can request the character to send you selfies too.
The AI doesn’t have access to the internet and is not trained on large datasets like some other AI tools. However, it is trained on human behavior and can provide friendly advice or act as a listening post.
It is trained on billions of lines of code and can help you write code faster and better. It works with the most popular programming languages, the AWS platform, and several popular integrated development environments (IDEs).
It is free to use for individuals and offers unlimited code generation. You also get up to 50 free security scans of your code each month.
Even though it is optimized to work with the AWS platform, it is not limited to just Amazon services. You can take your code and use it anywhere you like.
CodeWhisperer provides an excellent resource for individual developers to boost productivity and write code confidently.
Bonus Tools
ChatGPT is a generative text-based AI that uses Natural Language Processing. However, AI can be used for many more cases than just generating text responses.
Here are a few tools that can help you use AI in more ways than just plain text.
11. Bing Image Creator
Powered by Dall-E, the Bing Image Creator tool allows you to generate images using AI by providing simple text input.
You can use it for free to generate images. Each user gets 25 boosts each day, which allow you to create images more quickly. Once you run out of the boosts, the image generation will become slower.
Bing Image Creator is much faster than Dall-E, even when you run out of credits.
The quality of images depends on how descriptive your prompt is. Like Dall-E prompts, you can choose a style, provide a detailed scenario, set up the scene, and choose colors and artistic themes for the image.
Artificial intelligence doesn’t only help you come up with blog post ideas, create article outlines, and do research. It can also help you write better.
Grammarly is an AI-powered writing assistant that works everywhere, including inside the WordPress post editor.
It proofreads your content as you write, checks grammar, and autocorrects spelling. More importantly, it helps you adjust your writing style for different voices and emotions.
Grammarly also recommends changes to make your content more readable, avoid cliches, and make it sound more natural or conversational.
It has a forever free plan, and you can also upgrade anytime to unlock more powerful features.
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Are you looking for a way to connect Microsoft Outlook to WordPress and send emails from your WordPress site?
Connecting Microsoft Outlook with WordPress helps improve email deliverability by making sure that your emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes, even if you are sending a lot of them.
In this article, we will show you how to connect Microsoft Outlook to WordPress, step by step.
Why Use Microsoft Outlook to Send WordPress Emails?
Microsoft Outlook is a great option for business owners who regularly use Office 365.
You can use your existing Microsoft Outlook account to send emails to your subscribers from your WordPress website.
The best thing about using Outlook is that it allows you to send a lot of emails at once. You can send up to 10,000 emails per day, which is a much higher limit than other mailing services.
If you have a busy online store, this will help you send receipts, tracking info, and abandoned cart emails to all your customers.
Another benefit that Microsoft Outlook provides is that you don’t have to use the default WordPress PHP mail() function to send emails.
There are many issues with the default mailing method. Plus, many WordPress hosting services don’t have PHP mail properly configured, which leads to email deliverability problems.
Your emails can end up in the spam folder because email service providers like Gmail can’t detect the email sender.
However, you can easily overcome this issue using an SMTP service provider to send emails in WordPress through your Outlook account.
What Is SMTP?
SMTP, or Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, is an industry-standard technology for sending emails.
It uses proper authentication, ensuring that your emails reach your users’ inboxes and don’t end up in the spam folder.
That being said, let’s see how you can connect your Microsoft Outlook account to WordPress.
Video Tutorial
If you prefer written instructions, just keep reading.
How to Connect Outlook to Your WordPress Site
The easiest way to add Microsoft Outlook to WordPress is by using the WP Mail SMTP plugin. It lets you securely use the Microsoft API to authenticate your site’s emails.
We will use the WP Mail SMTP Pro version for this tutorial because it includes an Office 365 / Outlook.com integration.
There is also a free version of WP Mail SMTP with multiple integrations, but it doesn’t let you connect your Outlook account with WordPress.
Note: It’s important to remember that the Outlook mailer will only work if you have an SSL certificate on your website. You can check out our guide on how to set up SSL on a WordPress site.
Upon activation, you can connect your Outlook account by going to WP Mail SMTP » Settings from your WordPress admin area.
On the settings page, you will see the ‘From Email’ and ‘From Name’ settings. You can skip these settings because your Outlook account’s settings will override them.
Below that, you will see different options next to the Mailer settings.
Go ahead and select ‘Outlook’ as your Mailer option.
Next, WP Mail SMTP will show a new section with settings for your Outlook account.
It will look like this.
To find the Application ID, Application Password, and Redirect URI, you must create a web application within a Microsoft Azure account. Don’t worry; we will walk you through how to do this step by step.
We recommend keeping the WP Mail SMTP Outlook settings open in a separate tab or window, as you will need to return to this page to enter the information.
You can use your existing Microsoft email account (Live, Outlook, Hotmail, Office 365, etc.) to log in to Microsoft Azure. Keep in mind that if you do so, then all your WordPress emails will be sent from that email address.
If you don’t have a Microsoft Outlook account or prefer to send messages from a different email address, you can go to the Microsoft Azure website and create your account. Just make sure that the account you create includes the permissions to send emails.
The account is free to create, and you don’t need any paid services to set up the mailer. However, Microsoft will ask you to enter your credit card information to reduce spam signups.
After that, you can log in to the Microsoft Azure Portal using the email address you want to use.
Create an Application ID
Once you have opened the Azure Portal, go ahead and click the ‘All services’ option from the sidebar on your left.
On the next screen, you will see different services offered by Microsoft Azure.
You can scroll down to the ‘Identity’ section and click on the ‘App registrations’ option.
After that, you will need to click the ‘+ New Registration’ button.
This will create your application.
Now, you need to enter a name for your application. This is for your own use, so you can change the name whenever you want.
For example, you can name it something like ‘WP Mail SMTP: yourdomain.com.’
As for the ‘Supported account types’ section below, it is a best practice to select the ‘Accounts in any organizational directory (Any Azure AD directory – Multitenant) and personal Microsoft accounts (for example, Skype, Xbox)’ option.
However, if you don’t see this option in your account types, then you can also select the ‘Accounts in any organizational directory (Any Azure AD directory – Multitenant)’ option.
After that, scroll down to the Redirect URI settings.
You can leave the dropdown settings to ‘Web’ for the first field in the form.
For the second field, you will need to enter the redirect URI address given in the WP Mail SMTP Outlook settings.
To find the Redirect URI, simply return to the WP Mail SMTP settings tab or window from your browser. Then copy the web address that is given in the ‘Redirect URI’ field.
You must paste the URL into the Microsoft Azure app registration form.
Next, just click the ‘Register’ button.
Microsoft Azure will now take you to another screen where you will see the Application (client) ID.
Simply click the ‘copy’ icon to copy your application ID.
After that, you can enter the application ID into the WP Mail SMTP settings.
To do that, you need to head over to your WP Mail SMTP settings window and paste the value into the ‘Application ID’ field.
Create an Application Password
Once you have entered the application ID, the next thing you need to do is create an application password.
You can start by clicking the ‘Certificates & secrets’ option in the sidebar on your left.
On the next screen, you can skip the Certificates section and scroll down to the Client Secrets section.
Then, just click the ‘+ New client secret’ option to add a client secret.
You will now see a new overlay window slide in from the right. In this window, you can enter a description and select a time period for the app password to expire.
Microsoft Azure lets you select a preset expiry time (3 months, 6 months (recommended), 12 months, 18 months, and so on), or you can set a custom timeframe.
We recommend selecting one of the preset settings when you are first starting out. You can always change the password expiry time to custom settings in the future.
When you are happy with the settings, just click the ‘Add’ button.
Then, Microsoft Azure will generate an application password. You can click the ‘Copy to clipboard’ trigger to copy the password under the Value column.
Next, you will need to enter this password in your WP Mail SMTP settings.
To do that, return to the WP Mail SMTP settings and then paste the password into the ‘Application Password’ field.
Set Up API Permissions
After setting up the Application ID and Application Password in WP Mail SMTP, the next step is to add API permissions.
To get started, you can click on the ‘API permissions’ option from the menu on your left.
Next, go ahead and click the ‘Add a permission’ button.
You will find it in the top-left corner.
When you click the button, a new window will slide in from the right to request API permissions.
You will have to select the ‘Microsoft Graph’ option to set up API permissions.
On the next screen, Microsoft Azure will ask what type of permissions your application requires.
You can select the ‘Delegated permissions’ option.
Next, you will see multiple options to select permissions.
However, an easier way to find the right settings is by entering the term ‘send’ in the search bar under the ‘Select permissions’ heading.
After that, you will have to select the ‘Mail’ tab from the options that appear and then click the checkbox for ‘Mail.Send.Shared’.
When you are ready, simply click the ‘Add permissions’ button at the bottom.
You will have to repeat the API permission steps by clicking on the ‘+ Add a permission’ button and selecting ‘Microsoft Graph’. However, this time, you need to select the ‘Application permissions’ option.
Now, you can enter the same search term, ‘send’, in the ‘Select permissions’ search bar.
When you see the Mail tab, click on it and then select the checkbox for ‘Mail.Send’.
Next, go ahead and click the ‘Add permissions’ button.
After setting up the API permissions, you will have to go back to the WP Mail SMTP settings and click on the ‘Save Settings’ button to finish the Outlook mailer configuration.
When you save the settings, you will have to scroll down to the Authorization section in the WP Mail SMTP settings.
Then, click the ‘Allow plugin to send emails using your Microsoft account’ button.
As soon as you click on the button, you will be redirected to the Microsoft permissions form.
All you have to do is click the ‘Yes’ button at the bottom. This will allow WP Mail SMTP to connect to your Microsoft account.
After that, you will be redirected back to the WP Mail SMTP settings page.
A notice will appear at the top showing that you are ready to send emails through Outlook.
You can now send a test email to check if everything works properly.
To send a test email, simply go to WP Mail SMTP » Settings and then click on the ‘Email Test’ tab at the top.
When you are happy with the settings, just click the ‘Send Email’ button at the bottom.
After sending the email, you must go to your inbox.
Here, you can check whether you received the test email.
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WordPress 6.3 Beta arrived a few days ago and is expected to be released on August 8th, 2023. This will be the second major release of 2023 and will come with significant new features and improvements.
We have closely monitored the development and tried new features on our test sites.
In this article, we will look into what features are coming in WordPress 6.3 with details and screenshots.
Note: You can try out the beta version on your computer or a staging environment by using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin. Please keep in mind that some of the features in the beta may not make it into the final release.
Here is a quick overview of changes coming in WordPress 6.3:
The site editor in WordPress came out of beta in 6.2. The upcoming 6.3 will improve the site editor with several new features and enhancements to improve user experience.
New Navigation in Site Editor
WordPress 6.2 introduced a new navigator to the site editor. This allowed users to choose the template or template part they wanted to edit.
WordPress 6.3 will bring improvements to this navigator, allowing users to select not just template or template parts but also pages, styles, patterns, and navigation menus.
The search icon will open the command tool (more on this later), where you can look for the area you want to edit.
You can also quickly open your site in a new tab by clicking the ‘View Site’ button. The button only appears when you take your mouse to the site title and the search area.
Manage Patterns in Site Editor
WordPress 6.3 will also introduce a new and intuitive way to manage patterns. You can view all your patterns inside the site editor.
Clicking on ‘Patterns’ will show the patterns available on your site in categorized sections.
These will include both synced and unsynced patterns that you can use.
Unsynced patterns are standalone patterns that can be inserted at any time. After adding them, you can make changes, and those changes will not affect the original pattern.
Synced patterns can be used across your WordPress website. Changing them will affect the original pattern. They behave like reusable blocks, so all your reusable blocks will also appear here and now be called ‘Synced Patterns’.
At any time, you can click on the ‘+’ button in the Patterns menu to create a new pattern.
You can also manage your custom patterns by clicking on ‘Manage all of my patterns’ in the sidebar.
This will allow you to edit and manage your custom-made patterns and reusable blocks.
Quickly Edit Pages
The site editor will now allow you to easily select ‘Pages’ from the editor navigation menu.
Clicking on this will also show you the pages you edited most recently, enabling you to quickly resume edits on a page you have been working on.
You can also click the ‘+’ button in the navigation menu to quickly create a new page and immediately edit it in the site editor.
Preview Block Themes in Site Editor
When installing classic themes, you can already preview them without activating them on your site. This allows you to preview a WordPress theme without changing your live site.
WordPress 6.3 will also allow users to preview block themes inside the editor. This will help users test-drive a theme before activating it on their sites.
Note: This is an experimental feature that didn’t work well during beta testing on our test sites.
Style Revisions to Easily Undo Changes
WordPress makes it super easy to undo changes to posts and pages using a feature called Revisions.
The same feature will now be available for site editor styles. It will allow you to see the changes you made to your theme styles and undo them if needed.
Simply select a style or block that you want to edit in the Styles panel. Click on the ‘Revisions’ button and then select ‘Revision history’.
This will show you all the changes made to the style of the selected item.
You can then switch between different versions and click the ‘Apply’ button to undo a change and revert to a previous state.
The New Command Tool in WordPress 6.3
WordPress 6.3 will also introduce the new command tool. It will allow users to perform actions quickly using the keyboard.
Simply press the CTRL + K or Command + K keys on your keyboard. This will bring up the command tool, where you can simply start typing to search.
It will then show you matching templates, template parts, patterns, blocks, posts and pages, and more. Selecting an item from the results will open it in the site editor.
Block Editor Improvements
WordPress 6.3 will also bring several new features and improvements to the block editor.
Footnote and Details Blocks
WordPress 6.3 will ship with two new blocks called Footnote and Details.
Footnote Block
Before, the block editor had no easy way to add footnotes to a post. Users had to create footnotes or use a third-party plugin.
With WordPress 6.3, users can simply select the ‘Footnote’ option using the three-dot menu in the toolbar.
Details Block
Have you ever wanted a way for users to click on some text to reveal more information? The Details block lets you do just that.
Simply add the Details block and provide the text that will be visible to the users.
Below that, you can add the content you want to hide inside the hidden block.
This content could be text, images, media, and more.
The Details block could be a handy replacement for accordions, which are commonly used to add FAQs or information in a compact style.
Improved Padding and Margin Controls
WordPress 6.3 will also introduce improved padding and margin controls.
Previously, if you unlinked padding and margin controls, they took up a lot of space in the right column.
In WordPress 6.3, padding and margin controls will be more compact and easy to use.
Better Handling of Image Aspect Ratio
WordPress 6.3 will allow users to choose the aspect ratio for an image. This will enable users to easily select the image size while maintaining the aspect ratio.
This ensures that the images will look good in all sizes.
Color and Layout Support for Cover Block
The Cover block will get improvements in WordPress 6.3.
Users can now choose its layout options, similar to the Group block.
The Cover block will now support duotone filters.
Users will also find more design options for text inside the Cover block.
Link Control Enhancements in 6.3
Link control is the tool used by the block editor to add links. WordPress 6.3 will make some adjustments to improve it further.
Users can create a new page directly using the ‘Create Page’ button within the link control tool.
The toggle to open a link in a new tab is also unavailable when adding a link. However, you can edit a link and find the option tucked away inside the ‘Advanced’ setting.
Under the Hood Changes
There are also a ton of changes in WordPress 6.3 intended for developers. Here are some of the new features that you will find in the update:
Improved emoji loader to reduce the time spent on loading the emoji script. (#58472)
Defer and async support added to the WP Scripts API. (#12009)
We hope this article helped you get a sneak peek into what’s coming in WordPress 6.3.
Comment below to let us know what features you find interesting and what you’d like to see in a future WordPress release!
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Do you want to create a custom WordPress block for your website?
While WordPress comes with a lot of basic blocks for creating content, you might need something more specific for your website.
In this article, we will show you two ways to create custom Gutenberg blocks for your WordPress site.
Why Create a Custom WordPress Block?
WordPress comes with an intuitive block editor that allows you to easily build your posts and pages by adding content and layout elements as blocks.
By default, WordPress ships with several commonly-used blocks. WordPress plugins may also add their own blocks that you can use.
However, sometimes you may want to create your own custom block to do something specific on your WordPress website because you can’t find a blocks plugin that works for you.
With custom blocks, you can add unique features and functionality to your website that may not be available in pre-built blocks. This can help automate processes or make content creation for your WordPress blog more efficient.
For example, you could create a custom block to display testimonials and then easily insert and manage that block without any coding knowledge.
Having said that, let’s see how to easily create a completely custom block in WordPress.
For this tutorial, we will be showing you two methods to create a custom block. You can use the quick links below to jump to the method of your choice:
Method 1: Create Custom Blocks for WordPress Using WPCode (Recommended)
If you are a beginner and inexperienced with coding, then this method is for you.
WPCode is the best WordPress code snippets plugin on the market that makes it super easy and safe to add custom code to your website.
It comes with the block snippets feature that allows you to easily create custom blocks for your WordPress site without writing any code.
First, you need to install and activate the WPCode plugin. For detailed instructions, you may want to see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Note: WPCode also offers a free version that you can use to add custom code to your website. However, you will need the Pro version of the plugin to unlock the custom block snippets feature.
Upon activation, you need to head over to the Code Snippets » + Add Snippet page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Once you are there, click the ‘Use Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
This will take you to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, where you can start by typing a name for the custom block that you are about to create.
Once you have done that, just select the ‘Blocks Snippet’ option from the ‘Code Type’ dropdown menu in the right corner of the screen.
This will display the ‘Edit with Block Editor’ button in the ‘Code Preview’ box.
Simply click on this button to launch the block editor.
Now, a prompt will appear on your screen asking you to save the code snippet to load it in the block editor. Just click on the ‘Yes’ button to move ahead.
Now that you are in the block editor, you can easily create a custom block using the pre-made blocks available in the block menu.
For this tutorial, we will be creating a custom block for adding testimonials on your site.
First, you need to click the ‘+’ button in the top left corner of the screen to open up the block menu.
From here, drag and drop the Heading block into the block editor interface and name it ‘Testimonials’.
Next, you can use the paragraph, pull-quote, or quote blocks to add testimonials from different clients on your website.
You can even use the image, site logo, social icons, or site tagline blocks to further customize your Testimonials block.
You can also customize the size, text color, or background color of your testimonials from the block panel on the right side of the screen.
Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button at the top to store your custom block settings.
Next, just click on the ‘Return to WPCode Snippet’ button at the top to be redirected to the ‘Edit Snippet’ page.
Once you are there, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section and choose the ‘Auto Insert’ mode.
Upon activation of the code snippet, your custom block will be automatically added to where you choose to insert it on your website.
Next, you have to configure the location of the custom block you created.
To do this, simply click the ‘Location’ dropdown menu in the ‘Insertion’ section and switch to the ‘Page-Specific’ tab. From here, you can now choose the ‘Insert After Post’ option if you want to show your Testimonials block after the post ends.
Once you do that, you can also configure the number of posts after which the testimonial block should appear. For example, if you type in the number 3, then the Testimonials block will appear in every third post.
You can also display the block in between different paragraphs, after post excerpts, and more.
However, if you don’t find the block location that you are looking for, then you can also create your own conditional logic rule to add the custom block to your preferred place.
To do this, scroll down to the ‘Smart Conditional Logic’ section and toggle on the ‘Enable Logic’ switch.
Next, you must click the ‘Add New Group’ button to start creating a conditional logic rule.
For example, if you only want to show the custom block you created on a specific page or post, then you will have to select the ‘Page URL’ option from the dropdown menu on the right.
After that, you can leave the dropdown menu in the middle as it is and then add the URL of the WordPress page/post of your choice into the field on the left.
You can also configure your conditional logic rule to only display the custom block on a specific page, logged-in users, on WooCommerce store pages, Easy Digital Downloads pages, specific dates, and more.
Once you are done, scroll back to the top of the page and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’. Then, click the ‘Update’ button to store your settings.
Your custom block will now be automatically added to all the locations that you selected for the block snippet.
Keep in mind that the custom block you created won’t be displayed as an option in the block menu of the Gutenberg editor.
You will have to configure the block settings by visiting the Code Snippets page from the WordPress dashboard and clicking the ‘Edit’ link under the block snippet.
This will open the ‘Edit Snippet’ page, where you can customize the block or change its location and conditional logic rules easily.
Now visit your website to view the custom block that you created in action.
Here is our custom Testimonials block on our demo website.
Method 2: Create Custom Blocks for WordPress Using Genesis Custom Code Plugin (Free)
If you are an intermediate user and looking for a free solution, then this method is for you. Keep in mind that you will need to be familiar with HTML and CSS to follow the instructions in this method.
Made by the people behind WP Engine hosting, this plugin provides developers with easy tools to quickly create custom blocks for their projects.
For the sake of this tutorial, we will build a Testimonials block.
Step 1: Create a Custom Block for WordPress
First, you need to head over to Custom Blocks » Add New page from the left sidebar of your admin panel.
This will bring you to the Block Editor page, where you will be creating a custom block for your WordPress site.
From here, you can start by giving a name to your block.
Now on the right side of the page, you will find the block properties that you can configure.
Here you can choose an icon for your block, add a category, and add keywords.
The slug will be auto-filled based on your block’s name, so you don’t have to change it. However, you may write up to 3 keywords in the ‘Keywords’ text field so that your block can be easily found.
Now, it’s time for you to add some fields to your block. You can add different types of fields like text, numbers, email addresses, URLs, colors, images, checkboxes, radio buttons, and more.
We will add 3 fields to our custom Testimonials block: an image field for the photo of the reviewer, a textbox for the reviewer name, and a text area field for the testimonial text.
Just click on the ‘+’ button to insert the first field.
This will open up some options for the field in the right column. Let’s take a look at each of them.
Field Label: You can use any name of your choice for the field label. Let’s name our first field ‘Reviewer Image’.
Field Name: The field name will be generated automatically based on the field label. We will use this field name in the next step, so make sure it’s unique for every field.
Field Type: Here, you can select the type of field. We want our first field to be an image, so we will pick ‘Image’ from the dropdown menu.
Field Location: You can decide whether you want to add the field to the editor or the inspector.
Help Text: You can add some text to describe the field. This is not required if you are creating this block for your personal use but may be helpful for multi-author blogs.
You may also see some additional options based on the field type you choose. For example, if you select a text field, then you will get extra options like placeholder text and character limit.
Following the above process, let’s add 2 other fields for our Testimonials block by clicking the ‘+’ button.
In case you want to reorder the fields, then you can do that by dragging them using the handle on the left side of each field label. To edit or delete a particular field, you need to click the field label and edit the options in the right column.
Once you are done, just click on the ‘Publish’ button on the right side of the page to save your custom Gutenberg block.
Step 2: Create a Custom Block Template
Although you created the custom WordPress block in the last step, it won’t work until you create a block template.
The block template determines exactly how the information entered into the block is displayed on your website. You get to decide how it looks by using HTML and CSS, or even PHP code if you need to run functions or do other advanced things with the data.
There are two ways to create a block template. If your block output is in HTML/CSS, then you can use the built-in template editor.
On the other hand, if your block output requires some PHP to run in the background, then you will need to manually create a block template file and upload it to your theme folder.
Method 1: Using Built-in Template Editor
On the custom block edit screen, simply switch to the ‘Template Editor’ tab and enter your HTML under the markup tab.
You can write your HTML and use double curly brackets to insert block field values.
For instance, we used the following HTML for the sample block we created above:
This method is recommended if you need to use PHP to interact with your custom block fields. You will basically need to upload the editor template directly to your theme.
First, you need to create a folder on your computer and name it using your custom block name slug.
For instance, our demo block is called Testimonials, so we will create a testimonials folder.
Next, you need to create a file called block.php using a plain text editor. This is where you will put the HTML / PHP part of your block template.
Here is the sample template we used for our example:
Now you may have noticed how we used the block_field() function to fetch data from a block field.
We have wrapped our block fields in the HTML we want to use to display the block. We have also added CSS classes so that we can style the block properly.
Don’t forget to save the file inside the folder you created earlier.
Next, you need to create another file using the plain text editor on your computer and save it as block.css inside the folder you created.
We will use this file to add CSS needed to style our block display. Here is the sample CSS we used for this example:
Your block template folder will now have two template files inside it.
After that, you need to upload your block folder to your website using an FTP client or the File Manager app inside your WordPress hosting account’s control panel.
Once connected, navigate to the /wp-content/themes/your-current-theme/ folder.
If your theme folder doesn’t have a folder named ‘blocks’, then go ahead and create a new directory and call it blocks.
Next, you have to upload the folder you created on your computer to the blocks folder.
That’s all! You have successfully created manual template files for your custom block.
Step 3: Preview Your Custom Block
Before you can preview your HTML/CSS, you will need to provide some test data that can be used to display a sample output.
Inside the WordPress admin area, edit your block and switch to the ‘Editor Preview’ tab. Here, you need to enter some dummy data.
This data won’t be a part of your custom block and will only be used for previewing the changes you made using HTML and CSS.
Once you have added the data, don’t forget to click on the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.
If you don’t click the ‘Update’ button, then you won’t be able to see the preview of your custom block.
You can now switch to the ‘Front-end Preview’ tab to see how your block will look on the front end of your WordPress website.
If everything looks good to you, then you can update your block again to save any unsaved changes.
Step 4: Using Your Custom Block in WordPress
You can now use your custom block in WordPress like you would any other block.
Simply edit any post or page where you want to use this block. Then, click the ‘+’ button in the top left corner to open up the block menu.
From here, find your block by typing in its name or keywords and then add it to the page/post.
After you insert the custom block into the content area, you will see the block fields you created earlier.
You can fill out the block fields as needed.
As you move away from the custom WordPress block to another one, the editor will automatically show a live preview of your block.
You can now save your post and page and preview it to see your custom block in action on your website.
Here’s how the Testimonials block looks on our test site.
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Are you looking for an easy way to make a banner for your WordPress website?
A banner can highlight the products, services, or news updates offered by your website. It can increase user engagement, boost your click-through rate, and encourage visitors to take action.
In this article, we will show you how to easily make a banner for your WordPress website.
What Is a Website Banner?
A banner is a graphical display that stretches over the top, bottom, or side of a WordPress website. It often includes a brand name and logo, along with other visual elements, to promote a specific product, service, or event.
For example, if an online store has just announced a sale, then it can show a banner at the top of its pages to tell new visitors about the promotion and encourage them to make a purchase.
A well-designed banner can make a strong impression and invite visitors to explore the rest of your site. Plus, banners can also be used to promote affiliate products, increase brand awareness, build an email list by encouraging visitors to sign up for your newsletter, and drive traffic to other pages on your site.
You can also use banners to promote your social media accounts and encourage visitors to follow or like your pages.
What Is the Best Website Banner Size?
The ideal website banner size depends on the layout and specific marketing goals of your WordPress blog.
For example, if you want to display a rectangular and thin banner at the top of the screen, then you can use the Large Leaderboard size, which is 970 x 90.
Some of the other popular and most-used banner sizes include:
Medium Banner: 300 x 250
Leaderboard: 728 x 90
Wide Skyscraper: 160 x 600
Half-Page: 300 x 600
Large Leaderboard: 970 x 90
Billboard: 970 x 250
Large Rectangle: 326 x 280
Vertical Banner: 120 x 240
Full Banner: 468 x 60
Half Banner: 234 x 60
If you want to show a banner for an event in the sidebar, then you can use the Wide Skyscraper or Half-Page banner sizes. Similarly, you can also use the Medium banner size to display a square-shaped banner on your page.
Having said that, let’s see how you can easily make a banner on your WordPress website. For this tutorial, we will cover three methods to make a banner, and you can use the links below to jump to the method of your choice:
It is the best conversion optimization and lead generation tool that helps you turn website visitors into subscribers and customers.
Plus, many of OptinMonster’s banner templates have optin fields that allow you to collect the names, email addresses, and phone numbers of your website visitors.
Step 1: Install OptinMonster on Your Website
First, you will need to sign up for an OptinMonster account. To do this, simply visit the OptinMonster website and click on the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button to set up an account.
Upon activation, the OptinMonster setup wizard will open in your WordPress admin panel.
From here, you must click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button to connect your WordPress site to your OptinMonster account.
This will open up a new window on your computer screen.
From here, you have to click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button to move ahead.
Step 2: Create and Customize Your Banner
Now that you have connected your WordPress account with OptinMonster, head over to the OptinMonster » Campaigns page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
From here, you need to click on the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ button to start creating your website banner design.
This will direct you to the ‘Templates’ page, where you can start by choosing a campaign type.
For example, if you want to show your banner as a bar at the top of the screen, then you can pick the ‘Floating bar’ campaign. Similarly, you can select the ‘Popup’ campaign type to display your banner as a popup.
After that, you will also need to select a template for the campaign you chose.
For this tutorial, we will be choosing a template for the ‘Floating bar’ campaign type.
Next, you will be asked to give a name for the campaign that you are creating.
Simply type a name of your choice and click the ‘Start Building’ button to move forward.
This will launch the OptinMonster drag-and-drop interface on your screen, where you can start customizing your banner. From here, you can drag and drop fields of your choice from the sidebar on the left onto the banner.
For example, if you want to add social media icons to your banner to increase your followers, then you can drag and drop the Social Media block from the left sidebar.
After that, just click on the block to open its settings in the left column.
From here, you can change the button title, add your social media URL, and even change your social media platform from the dropdown menu.
You can also add other blocks to display videos, images, text, or CTAs in your website banner design.
After that, you need to select the position of your banner.
By default, the OptinMonster floating bar is displayed at the bottom of your website screen once you start scrolling.
However, you can easily change this setting by clicking on the ‘Settings’ icon at the bottom of the sidebar on the left.
This will open up settings in the left column, where you must expand the ‘Floating Bar Settings’ tab. From here, simply toggle the ‘Load Floating Bar at the top of the page?’ switch to display the banner at the top.
Step 3: Add Triggers for Your Banner
Once you have designed your banner, switch to the ‘Display Rules’ tab at the top. From here, you can add rules for your banner display.
Remember that you only need to switch to this tab if you want to add a specific display trigger for your banner. Otherwise, you can skip to the next step.
For example, if you would like to show your banner when the user is about to leave your site, then you need to choose the ‘Exit Intent’ option.
Once you have done that, just select the ‘On all devices’ option from the dropdown menu in the middle. If you wish to use this display rule for mobile devices only, then you can also choose that option.
After that, pick the Exit Intent Sensitivity according to your liking and click the ‘Next Step’ button.
This will take you to a new screen. Here, you need to make sure that the ‘Optin’ option is selected for the ‘Show the campaign view’ dropdown menu.
Once you have done that, simply click the ‘Next Step’ button.
Your display rule for the banner will now be shown on the screen.
If you want to change something here, then you can click the ‘Edit’ button to fix it.
Step 4: Publish Your Banner
You can now switch to the ‘Publish’ tab at the top and click the ‘Save’ button in the top right corner of the screen.
After that, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button to display the banner on your website.
Now visit your website to see the banner at the top of your screen.
This is what it looked like on our demo site.
Method 2: Make a Website Banner Using Canva (Free)
If you want to make a website banner for free, then this method is for you.
Canva is a popular web-based tool that allows you to create all kinds of graphics, including banners, logos, posters, book covers, and more. It also offers a free version that you can use to create a website banner design.
Step 1: Create a Canva Account
First, you will need to visit the Canva website and click on the ‘Sign Up’ button to create an account.
If you already have a Canva account, then you can simply log in.
Upon account creation, you will be taken to your Canva account home page.
From here, you need to switch to the ‘Templates’ tab from the left column and then search for banner templates using the search box at the top.
This will display all the banner templates available in Canva. However, some of these templates may be locked because they are paid features.
Step 2: Design Your Website Banner
Once you select a template, Canva’s design interface will be launched on the screen.
From here, you can customize your banner template according to your liking. You can change the existing content in the template by clicking on the blocks and adding your own text.
You can even add different graphical elements like stickers, photos, and videos by switching to the ‘Elements’ tab in the left column.
Upon adding an element, you can further change its animation, position, and transparency from the menu at the top.
You can also upload media files from your own computer by switching to the ‘Uploads’ tab from the left column.
To add some text to your banner, simply switch to the ‘Textbox’ tab from the column on the left.
Once there, you can use default text styles or different font combinations to add some content to your banner.
You can even add a call to action with a link by selecting the text using your mouse. This will display a link icon at the top of the text.
Simply click on that icon and copy and paste the link you want to add.
After that, click the ‘Done’ button to save it.
Step 3: Get an Embed Code for the Banner
Once you are happy with your banner customization, just click the ‘Share’ button in the top right corner of the screen.
This will open up a prompt menu where you must select the ‘More’ option at the bottom.
This will take you to the ‘All Options’ menu, where you have to select the ‘Embed’ option.
Once you do that, a new prompt will open up on the screen. From here, simply click the ‘Embed’ button.
Canva will now create an HTML embed code for you.
Once it’s displayed on the screen, click the ‘Copy’ button under the ‘HTML embed code’ option.
Step 4: Add the HTML Embed Code in WordPress
You can now display your banner on your WordPress page, post, or sidebar according to your liking. For this tutorial, we will be showing our banner on a WordPress page.
First, you need to open the page or post where you want to add the banner.
Once there, click the ‘+’ button in the top left corner of the screen to find and add the Custom HTML block to the page.
Once you have done that, simply paste the embed code you copied into the block.
Finally, click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button to save your changes.
Now visit your website to see the WordPress banner in action.
Method 3: Make a Website Banner Using Thrive Leads
You can also create a website banner using Thrive Leads. It’s a popular WordPress popup plugin used by over 114,000+ websites.
With Thrive Leads, you can design banners that will help you capture leads on your WordPress site and grow your email list.
Step 1: Install Thrive Leads on Your WordPress Website
First, you will need to visit the Thrive Themes website and sign up for an account. Once you have done that, head over to your member dashboard.
From here, go ahead and click the ‘Download and install the Thrive Product Manager plugin’ link.
Next, you need to visit your WordPress website to install and activate the Thrive Product Manager plugin. For detailed instructions, you may want to see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, head over to the Product Manager tab from the WordPress admin dashboard and click the ‘Log into my account’ button.
After entering your login credentials, you will be able to see your Thrive Product Manager dashboard.
From here, you can select the products that you want to install and use on your site. Simply choose the ‘Thrive Leads’ plugin and click the ‘Install selected products’ button.
Step 2: Create a Website Banner
After the plugin installation, you need to visit the Thrive dashboard » ThriveLeads page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Once you are there, just click the ‘Add New’ button next to the ‘Lead Groups’ option.
This will display the ‘Add New Lead Group’ popup on your screen, where you need to type a name for the lead group you are creating.
Make sure to name the lead group in a way that will help you identify it.
For instance, if you are creating a banner to build your email list, then you can name your lead group ‘Email List Campaign’.
After that, the lead group you created will be added to the screen. From here, you have to click the ‘Add New Type Of Opt-In Form’ button.
This will open a new prompt where you must choose the type of banner you would like to create.
You can create a slide-in, ribbon, widget, in-content, lightbox, or scroll mat banner according to your liking.
These banners will be like a form as they will collect data from your users, including email addresses, phone numbers, and more.
For this tutorial, we will be creating a ribbon banner for our site.
Upon choosing a website banner design type, the prompt will automatically disappear from the screen.
Now, to open your lead group dashboard, you must click the ‘Add’ button in the right corner of your Lead Groups tab.
This will take you to your Lead Groups dashboard, where all the forms and lead reports for the group will be displayed after your campaign goes live.
For example, if you want to create a banner to capture email addresses, then all the user information you collect through the banner will be displayed here.
For now, you just have to click the ‘Create Form’ button to start building your banner.
This will open up a new prompt where you must provide a name for the form and click the ‘Create Form’ button.
Once your form has been created, it will be displayed in your Lead Groups dashboard.
From here, you have to click the ‘Edit Design’ button in the right corner to start building your banner.
Step 3: Customize Your Website Banner
The Thrive visual editor will now be launched in a new tab on your screen.
From here, you can start by selecting a template for your banner from the ‘Thrive Leads Library’ prompt.
You can then use one of the pre-made template as it is or further customize it with the visual editor. Upon making your choice, simply click the ‘Choose Template’ button to move forward.
After adding a template for a ribbon banner, you can easily customize the elements in it by clicking on each one. This will open up the element’s settings in the sidebar on the left.
For example, if you want to change the button color in your template, then you simply need to click on it to open its settings in the sidebar.
If you want to add a completely new element to your banner, then you can also do that by clicking the ‘+’ icon in the right corner of the screen.
This will open the ‘Add Elements’ sidebar on the right, where you can drag and drop elements of your choice onto the banner.
For instance, if you want to add social media account buttons to your banner, then you will have to drag and drop the Social Follow element from the right sidebar.
Once you are happy with your banner, click the ‘Save Work’ button in the bottom left corner to store your changes.
After that, you need to return to your Lead Groups dashboard.
Step 4: Configure Banner Settings
Once you are back in your dashboard, you can change the position of your banner by clicking on the ‘Position’ option in the form row.
This will open the ‘Position Settings’ prompt, where you can choose your preferred banner position from the dropdown menu.
After that, click the ‘Save’ button.
Next, to configure the display frequency of the banner, click the ‘Display Frequency’ option in the form row.
This will open the ‘Display Settings’ prompt, where you can use the slider to determine the number of times the banner should be displayed on the screen.
If you keep the number 0, then the banner will be displayed at all times. Upon making your choice, click the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.
If you want to add a specific trigger for your banner display, then you need to click the ‘Trigger’ option in the form row.
This will display the ‘Trigger Settings’ prompt, where you can choose a trigger for your banner from the dropdown menu, such as after a certain period of time or when a user reaches the bottom of the page.
Once you are done, click the ‘Save’ button to save your settings.
Step 5: Publish Your Banner
After you have configured the banner settings, you need to exit your Lead Groups dashboard and head back to the Thrive Leads dashboard by clicking on the link at the top.
Once you are there, expand your Lead Groups tab and toggle the ‘Display On Desktop’ switch to ‘On’. If you also want to display your banner on mobile devices, then you can toggle the ‘Display On Mobile’ switch to ‘On’.
After that, click the gear icon in the top right corner of the Lead Groups tab to open up the display settings.
Here, you can select the website pages that you want the banner to be displayed on. For instance, if you want the banner to show at the top of all the pages and posts, then you can check the box next to these options.
Finally, click the ‘Save and Close’ button to save your changes.
Now, you can visit your website to check out the banner displayed at the top of the page.
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Adding FAQ schema can help boost your SEO rankings and organic click-through rate by making your frequently asked questions appear directly in Google’s search results.
In this article, we will show you how to add FAQ schema in WordPress and improve your rankings, step by step.
What Is FAQ Schema?
FAQ schema is a smart markup code, also known as structured data, that you can add to your website pages to help Google identify an FAQ section.
If you add FAQ schema, then Google may choose to reward you with an enhanced search result listing that also shows FAQs directly below the name of your WordPress website.
Here’s an example of an FAQ result. Google shows the questions, and you can click the down arrows to see the answers.
This increased visibility on Google means more traffic to your website. It also makes your blog look like an authority on the subject.
Plus, FAQ schema makes your content more helpful to users who prefer the question-and-answer approach.
With FAQ schema, you have control over the questions and answers. You can customize the content however you like. You can even add emojis to boost your organic click-through rate (CTR).
Your FAQs can also appear in Google’s ‘People also ask’ boxes, which is another potential visibility boost.
These boxes appear for many search queries and offer a list of additional questions, each linked to a website for more information.
It’s important to note, though, that adding FAQ schema in WordPress will not guarantee that your FAQs appear on Google. However, it will improve your chances of being seen.
You should only use FAQ schema if your page has a list of questions with answers. If your page only asks one question, then you should use the QA schema instead.
You should not use FAQ schema for advertising purposes or for questions and answers that contain violent, obscene, hateful, dangerous, or illegal language.
If the same question and answer appear multiple times on your page, then it’s important to only add FAQ schema in one instance.
The questions and answers in your FAQs must also appear in the content on your page.
Finally, make sure each question includes the entire text of the question and each answer includes the entire text of the answer.
How to Add FAQ Schema in WordPress
The easiest way to add FAQ schema in WordPress is to install a plugin that handles it for you, but you can also do it without a plugin.
We will cover both options and you can use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use:
Note: There is a free version of All in One SEO available, but you need the premium version to add FAQ schema in WordPress.
Upon activation, the plugin will run a setup wizard. You can follow the on-screen instructions to set it up. If you need more help, then please take a look at our guide on how to properly set up All in One SEO for WordPress.
Once you are done with the setup, you will return to the WordPress dashboard.
You can see a new ‘All in One SEO’ menu item in the admin sidebar.
If you had the free version of All in One SEO installed, then all of your settings will automatically transfer to the Pro version. The free version will be automatically deactivated.
Now that All in One SEO is installed and activated, you need to navigate to the page or post where you would like to add FAQ schema.
Simply scroll down to the bottom of the content editor, where you will see the AIOSEO Settings.
When you click on the ‘Schema’ tab, you can see that the schema settings are automatically enabled by default. Then, you can click on the ‘Generate Schema’ button to customize it.
This will bring up the Schema Catalog, where you can select the type of schema you want to implement.
Next, you need to find the FAQ option and click the ‘Add Schema’ button next to it.
Now, you can start entering your FAQ information.
Start by adding a name and description for your page or post. You can even use AIOSEO’s easy emoji picker to add emojis to these fields.
After that, you should scroll down to start adding the Question and Answer fields for your first FAQ question.
You can also click the ‘Add Another Question’ link to add more questions.
Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Add Schema’ button.
Start by adding your questions and answers on the left side of the tool. You can click ‘Add Another FAQ’ to add as many questions as needed.
As you type, the schema markup will update on the right.
Your next step is to paste the code you just created into WordPress. Simply click ‘Copy FAQ Schema’ to copy the code.
After that, navigate to the page or post where you want to add the FAQ schema.
If you are using the block editor, then you need to add a Custom HTML block and paste the FAQ schema markup inside that.
If you are still using the old classic editor, then you need to toggle to the text editor.
After that, you can paste the schema markup at the bottom of your post.
When you are finished, just click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button to save your changes.
Testing Your WordPress FAQ Schema
Since your FAQ schema code is specifically for Google, you can’t tell whether it’s working just by looking at your page.
To test whether your FAQ schema markup is correct, you can use Google’s Rich Results Test page. Simply enter the URL of the page with FAQ schema and click ‘Test URL’.
Google will analyze your page for all kinds of schema markup, not just FAQ schema. You may see multiple results if your page uses other kinds of schema.
Once the text is complete, expand the results under the “FAQ” heading.
You should see the actual question-and-answer pairs that you added to your FAQ section. If these are correct, then you are all set.
If they aren’t correct, then you will need to go back and double-check that you set up your FAQ schema properly.
If the correct items still aren’t showing, then we recommend clearing your WordPress cache because caching plugins may show an outdated version of your content to Google.
Are you looking for a way to sell car parts online on your WordPress website?
If you have an automotive business, then a website is a great way to reach new customers. It can also improve the customer experience by allowing car owners to look through your entire catalog and order auto parts online.
In this article, we will show you how to sell car parts online with WordPress.
Which Is the Best Website Builder to Sell Car Parts Online?
There are many website builders that you can use to sell car parts online, but we recommend using WordPress.
According to our blogging research statistics, WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world. It powers nearly 43% of all websites, including many of the top eCommerce websites.
WordPress is also open-source and free, so you will have bigger profit margins. For more on this topic, see our article on why WordPress is free.
However, just be aware there are two types of WordPress software. First, there is WordPress.com, which is a blog hosting platform. Then, there is WordPress.org, which is also known as self-hosted WordPress.
For an eCommerce site, we recommend using WordPress.org because it gives you complete ownership of your website and online store. You can also install third-party plugins, including the popular WooCommerce eCommerce plugin.
According to our WordPress market share report, WooCommerce is used by 8.8% of all websites, which makes it more popular than Shopify for online stores and eCommerce sites.
To learn more about why we recommend WordPress to all our readers, please see our complete WordPress review.
We will now show you how to sell car parts online with WordPress. You can use the quick links below to jump to the different parts of the article:
To start selling car parts online, you will need a domain name and web hosting.
A domain name is your store’s address on the internet. This is what customers will type into their browsers to reach your website, such as www.carparts.com or www.buyautoparts.com.
Web hosting is where your site lives online. To help you find the right hosting for your business, we have created a complete list of the best WordPress hosting that you can buy.
Although the WordPress software is free, hosting and domain names are where the costs can really start to add up.
A domain name typically costs $14.99/year, and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. This can make it difficult if you are a new business or have a limited budget.
Thankfully, Bluehost is offering our readers 60% off web hosting, plus a free domain name. Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an official WordPress-recommended hosting partner.
They are also offering our users a free SSL certificate. If you want to sell car parts online, then an SSL certificate is essential for keeping customer credit and debit card information safe.
You can click the button below to get started for as little as $2.75 per month.
Once on the Bluehost website, click the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.
This will bring you to the Bluehost pricing page, where you can choose a hosting plan for your auto part business.
We recommend choosing a Basic or Plus plan, as they are the most popular web hosting plans among our readers.
After selecting a plan, click on ‘Continue.’
On the next screen, you will need to choose a domain name.
Ideally, your domain name will be easy to pronounce, spell, remember, and relate to your business. The name of your auto parts business is a great place to start, but sometimes that domain may already be taken by another business website.
In that case, you can try extending the domain name by adding your location, what makes your auto parts business unique, or some extra keywords. If you need some inspiration, then check out our guide on how to choose the best domain name.
After choosing a name, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.
Now you will need to provide your account information, such as your name and business email address. After that, you will also see optional extras that you can buy.
We generally don’t recommend buying these extras straight away, as you can always add them later if your business needs them.
After that, type in your payment information to complete the purchase.
After a few moments, you will get an email with instructions on how to log in to your web hosting control panel. This is your hosting account dashboard, where you can manage your car parts website, including setting up email notifications and asking for WordPress support.
It’s also where you will install the WordPress software, so let’s do that now.
Step 2: Create a New WordPress Website
If you sign up with Bluehost using our link, then Bluehost installs WordPress on your domain name automatically.
If you want to create a different WordPress website, then go ahead and click on the ‘My Sites’ tab in the Bluehost dashboard.
After that, you need to click on the ‘Add Site’ button and select ‘Create New Site.’
The Bluehost wizard will now walk you through the setup process.
First, you will need to type in a site title and an optional tagline.
When you are ready, just click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.
After that, Bluehost will ask you to choose a domain name and path for your car parts website. If you already own a domain name, then go ahead and select it from the dropdown menu.
If you don’t have a domain name, then you can buy one by visiting the ‘Domains’ page inside the Bluehost dashboard.
After choosing a domain name, you can leave the directory path blank and let Bluehost fill it in for you.
The installer will also show a few plugins that you may want to install on your car parts website, including WPForms. Many of these are must-have WordPress plugins that can help you grow your business and get more sales, so we recommend installing them.
When you are ready, click on the ‘Next’ button, and the installer will set up your car parts website. Once it’s finished, you will see a ‘WordPress installed successfully’ message with information about your new website.
You can now go ahead and click on the ‘Log into WordPress’ button, which takes you to your site’s admin dashboard.
You can also log in to the WordPress dashboard by going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/ in your web browser.
Your typical automotive website needs special features, like the ability to show listings, support for popular eCommerce plugins, and a VIN decoder tool.
It even has a template that’s designed specifically for the car industry.
Once you have chosen a theme, check out our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress theme. After installing your theme, you can customize it by going to Appearance » Customize in the WordPress dashboard.
This will open the theme customizer, where you can fine-tune the theme settings and see your changes instantly, thanks to the live preview.
If you are using one of the newer full site editing themes, then you can customize your theme by going to Appearance »Editor. This launches the full site editor, which uses blocks similar to the content editor.
Pro Tip: No matter which theme you are using, you can’t edit it by default using advanced drag and drop. For that reason, we recommend using a page builder like SeedProd instead.
Step 4: Create a Custom Home Page
WordPress has two default content types called posts and pages.
You will typically use posts to create articles and blogs. By default, the home page will show these posts in reverse chronological order, so the newest content appears at the top of the home page.
Blogging can help you build a stronger relationship with your customers, improve your WordPress SEO, and get more traffic to your automotive website.
For example, you might share tips on how to diagnose common car problems or blog about the latest industry trends.
However, even if you plan to blog, you typically don’t want to show those posts on your automotive website’s home page. Instead, we recommend creating a custom home page that introduces your car parts business to potential new customers.
Once you are happy with how the page looks, it’s time to set it as your home page. To do this, head over to Settings » Reading in the WordPress dashboard.
On this screen, you need to scroll to ‘Your homepage settings’ and select ‘A static page.’
With that done, just open the ‘Homepage’ dropdown and choose the page you want to use.
After that, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes.’ Now, if you visit your auto parts website, then you will see the new home page in action.
If you are going to write blogs, then you should also make sure to create a separate blog page to show your posts.
Step 5: Set Up an eCommerce Plugin
WordPress doesn’t have eCommerce features by default, so you will need a plugin to sell car parts online. The easiest way to sell physical products is by using WooCommerce.
First, you will need to install and activate the WooCommerce plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you will see the WooCommerce setup wizard. The first thing you will need to do is type in your store’s location.
After that, click on the ‘Continue’ button.
On the next screen, you can select your industry. Since you are going to sell car parts online, you will typically want to check the box next to ‘Other.’
After that, type your industry into the ‘Description’ field.
However, since you are selling automotive parts, make sure to check the ‘Physical products’ box.
When you are happy with the information you have entered, click on ‘Continue.’
With that done, you can choose how many products you plan to sell and whether you are currently selling anywhere else.
After entering this information, just click on the ‘Continue’ button.
The setup wizard will now recommend some business features that you can add to your online store. These features are free, so we recommend selecting the following checkbox ‘Add recommended business features to my site.’
When you are happy with the information you have entered, simply click on ‘Continue’ to set up your online store.
Step 6: Set Up Shipping for Your Car Parts
Next, you can add shipping options by going to WooCommerce »Settings.
Here, you need to click on the ‘Shipping’ tab.
With that done, select ‘Add shipping zone.’
On the next screen, type in a name for the zone and select one or more regions from the dropdown menu.
Once you have done that, simply click on the ‘Add shipping method’ button.
Now, you will see different shipping methods in the dropdown menu. You can choose between a flat rate, free shipping, or even offer local pickup.
Select your preferred shipping method and click ‘Add shipping method.’
WooCommerce will now add your chosen shipping method to the shipping zone.
To configure the shipping method, simply hover over it and then click the ‘Edit’ button.
You will see a popup with more settings you can use.
The settings will vary depending on the shipping method you choose. For example, if you select ‘Flat rate’, then you can change the method title, add a tax status, and enter the total shipping cost.
After entering this information, go ahead and click on ‘Save changes.’
You can create as many shipping zones as you want by repeating these steps.
Step 7: Set Up Payments for Your Car Parts Business
Next, you need to add payment options so that customers can buy your car parts online. To get started, head over to WooCommerce »Settings and select the ‘Payments’ tab.
To add more payment methods, simply follow the same process described above.
Step 8: Create Product Attributes and Attribute Terms
By default, WooCommerce creates each product as a ‘Simple Product.’ However, you will probably want to offer the same car part for multiple models or brands.
The easiest way to do this is by creating a variable product. This allows customers to visit a single product listing and then choose the right product variation for their car, as you can see in the following image.
To create variable products, you will first need to set up attributes and attribute terms.
For example, if you are selling tires, then you might make a ‘Season’ attribute and then add ‘Winter’ and ‘Summer’ as the attribute terms.
This will allow customers to choose between winter tires and summer tires.
You might also create a ‘Model’ attribute and then add each car model as an attribute term.
By adding attributes and attribute terms to your online store in advance, you will find it easier to create variable products later.
With that being said, head over to Products »Attributes. You can now type a title for the attribute into the ‘Title’ field. This will appear on your product pages, so make sure you use something descriptive.
When you are happy with the information you have entered, click on ‘Add attribute.’
This attribute will now appear towards the right of the screen.
Next, go ahead and click on the ‘Configure terms’ link.
This brings up a screen similar to the main attribute screen, where you can start adding attribute terms.
To start, type the term’s title into the ‘Name’ field.
When you are happy with the information you have typed in, just click on the ‘Add new…’ button.
Simply repeat the above steps to create more attribute terms. You can also create as many product attributes as you want and then add unique terms to those attributes.
Step 9: Add Your Car Part Products
After creating some product attributes and terms, you are ready to start adding car parts to your online store. You can add each product manually or import WooCommerce products from a template, CSV file, or another service.
In this guide, we will show you how to add car parts to your store manually, so start by going to Products » Add New.
On this screen, start by typing in the product name. This will appear at the top of the product page, so visitors will be able to see it.
After that, type in a description and add a product image.
After that, it’s a good idea to add categories and tags to the product. These will help customers find the right products on your car parts site, like categories and tags for WordPress pages.
Simply click on the ‘Add new category’ link and then create a new category for the car part you are adding.
After that, you can type each tag into the ‘Product tags’ box and click on ‘Add.’
To add multiple product categories and tags, simply repeat the same steps described above.
After that, scroll to the ‘Product Data’ box.
To create a variable product, simply click on the dropdown that shows ‘Simple product’ by default. Then, select ‘Variable product.’
You can now select the product type, add pricing, shipping costs, grouped products, and other information.
After entering all this information, you are ready to create variations by selecting the ‘Attributes’ tab. Here, open the ‘Add existing’ dropdown menu.
You can now go ahead and select the product attribute you want to use.
In the ‘Value(s)’ field, type in each term you want to use. When the right term appears, click to add it to the product.
With that done, click on the ‘Save attributes’ button.
To add more product attributes and terms, simply repeat the above steps.
With that done, click on the ‘Variations’ tab.
On this screen, go ahead and click on ‘Generate variations.’
WooCommerce will now create variations using all the attributes you added to the product.
To set up each variation, click on its ‘Edit’ link.
You can now add the variation’s price, upload an image, set the shipping options, and more using the settings in this section.
Simply repeat this process to configure each product variation.
There are lots more settings you can use to fine-tune the variable product. However, this is all you need to add a car part to your online store.
When you are ready to make the product live, go ahead and click on the ‘Publish’ button.
If you visit your online store, you will see the variable product live.
To add more car parts to your online store, simply repeat these steps.
Step 10: Add a Contact Us Form
Customers might sometimes need to talk to you directly. For example, they may want to find out when a particular part will be back in stock or get some advice on a mechanical problem.
While visitors could call your business phone number, it’s still a good idea to add a contact form to your website.
Most of the best contact form plugins come with built-in spam protection, so you won’t get any contact form spam. A form will also collect consistent information, so you will have all the data you need to write a helpful reply.
The easiest way to create a contact form is by using the free WPForms plugin. This plugin has a built-in Simply Contact Form template that you can quickly customize using the drag and drop editor.
After that, just add the form to any page, post, or widget-ready area using the ready-made WPForms block.
After adding some content to your car parts website, you will want to help visitors find their way around those pages and posts by adding a navigation menu.
No matter which theme you are using, it’s easy to add menus and sub-menus to your automotive website.
Step 12: Create a Smart WooCommerce Product Search
WooCommerce has a built-in search feature, but it’s not very good at finding products. It doesn’t look for matches in product attributes, reviews, custom fields, or product descriptions.
By replacing the default search with a smarter and faster search, you can help customers find the exact car parts they need. This will improve the customer experience and help you get more sales.
The easiest way to create a smart WooCommerce product search is by using SearchWP. SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin on the market and puts you in complete control of the WordPress search algorithm.
By default, SearchWP will look at the product title, content (description), slug, and excerpt (short description) for matches.
Plus, you can customize the SearchWP settings to look for matches in custom fields, taxonomies, customer reviews, product tags, and more.
Reviews are some of the best ways to earn customer trust and convince visitors to buy car parts from your website. After all, we are more likely to buy things that we see other people buying, using, or recommending.
If you already have reviews on platforms like Facebook, Yelp, and Google, then it’s easy to display them on your WordPress site using Smash Balloon Reviews Feed Pro.
It will collect reviews automatically and then organize them into a nice layout on your automotive website. You can also completely customize the review feed so that it perfectly fits with your site.
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