Do you want to make sure that your WordPress site is properly optimized for search engines?
Going through a search engine optimization (SEO) checklist can help you follow best practices and ensure you don’t miss out on small details. This way, you can rank higher on Google and grow website traffic.
In this article, we will share a WordPress SEO checklist for beginners.
Why Follow a WordPress SEO Checklist?
Search engines are often the largest source of traffic for many websites. However, the idea of optimizing your site for WordPress SEO can be intimidating, especially for beginners.
There are many technical terms, SEO tactics, and new trends that can put off new website owners from optimizing their sites and ranking higher in search engines.
This is where a WordPress SEO checklist can help you out. It covers all the basics and makes sure you follow SEO best practices. Plus, there are many tools and plugins that can optimize your site and take care of technical SEO for you.
You can use the checklist by going through each point step by step. After that, make changes to ensure search engines can easily crawl and index your content.
That said, let’s look at the WordPress SEO checklist for beginners. Here are all the things we’ll cover, so you can simply click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:
An SEO plugin can help configure your WordPress site for search engines. It ensures that you follow the best practices and handles all the technical SEO optimizations.
It is also the SEO plugin we also use on WPBeginner.
AIOSEO offers lots of powerful features. For instance, you can use it to create an XML sitemap, add schema markup, integrate social media, breadcrumb navigation, TruSEO On-Page analysis score, robots.txt editor, local SEO, WooCommerce SEO, link assistant, track broken links, and much more.
You can also use AIOSEO to conduct an SEO audit. The plugin will monitor and highlight crucial issues. Plus, you’ll get actionable insights for resolving these issues and boosting organic traffic on your site.
Next, you’ll need to set up different search engines’ webmaster tools, like Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and Yandex Webmaster Tools.
These free tools help you track your site’s organic search performance. You can use them to see which keywords people are using to find your website, check rankings, submit sitemaps, uncover errors that might be preventing your site from ranking in search engines, and more.
For example, Google Search Console shows which pages are indexed in the search results. You can then find out why Google doesn’t index other pages, fix any issues, and submit pages for indexing.
You can follow these guides to add your WordPress site to each webmaster tool:
Another vital tool to set up on your WordPress website is Google Analytics. It is a free tool that shows how people behave on your site, where they’re coming from, which pages they view, and a lot more.
Google Analytics can help you track your WordPress SEO efforts and see the number of visitors that come from organic searches. It is an excellent tool for tracking website traffic and keeping an eye on all the traffic spikes and dips.
Besides that, you can use it to find high-converting pages and improve their SEO, look for opportunities to boost organic traffic, track 404 errors, and more.
The easiest way of setting up Google Analytics in WordPress is by using MonsterInsights. It is the best Analytics solution for WordPress, and you don’t have to edit any code or hire a developer to configure Google Analytics.
The best part, you can get started with the MonsterInsights Lite version for free to add analytics to your site. The plugin also offers a premium version and helps set up advanced tracking features like eCommerce tracking, form conversions, and more.
Keyword research is a technique that content creators and SEO experts use to discover topics your audience is interested in using search engine data.
Many beginners will use their best guesses to come up with topics that they think people might like. Instead, you should do proper keyword research and find search terms for each page on your website.
It is important that you define a primary target keyword for your blog post or landing page. Having too many different search terms can make it harder for search engines to understand the content.
You can use many keyword research tools to find a primary search term. We recommend Semrush because it offers in-depth keyword data, keyword position tracking, competitor analysis, related keywords, questions, and more.
5. Use LSI Keywords and Check for Keyword Stuffing
Now that you’ve found a focus keyphrase for your content, the next thing to do is find Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords. These are related search queries to your primary keyword.
The easiest way of finding LSI keywords is through Google Search. Simply scroll down to the bottom of the search results and see the ‘Related searches’ section.
You can then use these terms throughout your content and cover the overall topic in depth. This also helps search engines better understand your content.
That said, it is vital that you don’t stuff the keywords. Using the exact search term repeatedly doesn’t provide a great reading experience for users, and search engines are pretty clever at detecting keyword stuffing.
6. Optimize Your SEO Title and Meta Description
The next WordPress SEO checklist item is whether your SEO titles and meta descriptions are optimized.
The title of your WordPress blog post or product page plays an essential role in search rankings. A compelling title will encourage the user to click on the link.
The meta description also provides more information to users about the page and helps improve the organic click-through rate (CTR). As more people click on your site’s link, it will send a positive signal to Google and help you achieve higher rankings.
It is an SEO best practice to include the primary keyword in your SEO title, meta description, and URLs. Plus, you should ensure that your titles are not more than 55 characters and meta descriptions are not more than 155 characters. Otherwise, Google will truncate your headline and description.
If you’re using AIOSEO, then you can use the headline analyzer to create engaging title tags. It shows a score for your headline and offers tips for improving your SEO title.
You should also optimize the URLs of your blog posts and landing pages for SEO.
Creating short and descriptive permalinks helps searchers to understand what’s the page about in the search results. Besides that, it is also a good practice to include the primary keyword in your URL.
For example, here is what an SEO-friendly URL should look like:
On the other hand, here’s what a URL that’s not optimized for SEO would look like:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/articles/651472
You can change these in your WordPress permalink settings.
8. Make Sure to Add Alt-Text to Your Images
Optimizing your images for search engines is also important in WordPress SEO. One way of doing that is by ensuring that your photos have descriptive alternative or alt text.
Alt text helps Google and other search engines understand the image’s subject matter. This way, your pictures can appear in Google Images and help you get more organic traffic.
In WordPress, you can easily add alt text to your images. When you upload a picture in the WordPress content editor using the Image block, you’ll see the Alt Text option in the settings panel on the right.
You can also go to Media » Library from the admin panel.
After that, simply select any image and enter the ‘Alt Text’ in the right side panel.
Aside from that, you can also use an image compression tool to reduce the size of your pictures. This will help your site to load faster and provide a great user experience.
Note: Using the block editor to add alt text will only add it to that specific use of the image. If you want to add the same alt text to the image no matter where on your site it’s used, use the media library.
When going through the WordPress SEO checklist, another important thing to check is the internal links in your content. Internal links are pages you link from your own website.
Search engines use these links to find and index content on your website. It also helps pass authority from one page to another.
Additionally, it assists your visitors in navigating your website, reading related posts, finding sources for statistics, and discovering old articles and pages.
If you’re using AIOSEO, then you can use its Link Assistant feature to uncover internal linking opportunities. It will show orphaned pages with no internal links, provide suggestions and anchor text, and allow you to insert links in a single click.
When checking for on-page SEO, it is essential that your content is easy to read. It plays a massive role in getting higher rankings because blogs that are easier to read often rank higher than those that are hard to read.
Studies show that people spend less than a second deciding whether to exit or stay on the page. This means they scan through your content, and you have a very short time to convince them to stay on your website.
By improving the readability of your content, you can help users quickly scan your articles. A simple way of doing that is by grouping sections of your content under headings (H2, H3, H4, and so on).
Besides that, you can write short sentences, use bulleted lists, break long chunks of paragraphs into smaller paragraphs, and add a table of contents. Adding images, videos, and other multimedia can also enhance readability and make your content more engaging.
With AIOSEO, you can analyze readability issues inside the content editor and get suggestions on improving your content.
You can also use grammar checker tools like Grammarly to make sure your content is free from spelling mistakes, missing punctuation, and grammatical errors.
11. Ensure that Search Engines Can Easily Find Your Website
Now that your content and on-page SEO is optimized, there are a few technical elements you should also check as part of the WordPress SEO checklist.
First, you should make it easier for search engines to find your website and index your site. WordPress has a built-in option that stops search engines from crawling your site. If it is enabled, Google and other search engines will not list your site in the search results.
You can check this by heading to Settings » Reading from your WordPress dashboard, and scrolling down to the ‘Search engine visibility’ section. Just make sure that the ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ option is not checked.
Another way you can help search engines find content on your site for crawling and indexing is by creating a sitemap.
An XML sitemap tells search engines about the most important pages on your site, so they can quickly discover new content and index them in the search results.
With AIOSEO, it is very easy to create a sitemap. The plugin lets you set up sitemaps for videos, news, RSS feeds, and HTML.
Next, your WordPress website speed is critical in ranking higher in Google. That’s because page load time is now a ranking factor, and Google will rank faster-loading sites higher compared to slow-loading sites.
A simple way of checking load time is by using MonsterInsights. It lets you run a website speed test and shows a Site Speed report inside your WordPress dashboard.
You can see an overall score for mobile and desktop, along with other important metrics for measuring how fast your site loads.
The plugin also shows suggestions and benchmark goals for improving each metric. For example, you can use a content delivery network (CDN) to improve site speed,
The last WordPress SEO checklist item you need to check is whether your site is mobile responsive.
Google has now gone mobile-first. What that means is that it will use your site’s mobile version for indexing instead of the desktop version. You will lose out on higher rankings if your site is not mobile-ready.
The free tool will analyze your site and tell you whether the website is mobile-responsive or not.
You can simply enter your site’s URL in the tool and click the ‘Test URL’ button.
If your site isn’t mobile-ready, then you can start by changing the theme. There are many responsive WordPress themes designed for mobile. You can follow our guide on how to change a WordPress theme without losing data or traffic.
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 start a successful YouTube channel for your business?
YouTube is one of the biggest video-sharing and social media platforms in the world. It can help you bring more customers and sales to your business.
In this article, we’ll show you how to easily start a successful YouTube channel for your business with practical tips to promote and grow it.
Why Start a YouTube Channel for Your Business
YouTube is one of the biggest video-sharing and social media platforms in the world. With more than 2 Billion active users, it is also the second most popular search engine on the market after Google.
With such a huge user base, YouTube is the perfect place to promote your business and acquire new customers and followers.
Following are some of the top benefits of creating a YouTube channel.
Increased brand recognition – A YouTube channel helps you promote your brand and strengthen brand recognition among your audiences.
Increased sales – Videos are the most engaging content for any marketing strategy and engaged audiences are more likely to make a buying decision. This means more sales for your business.
Increased website traffic – YouTube videos can help promote your website on one of the biggest social platforms and search engines. You can add links to your products, services, landing pages, or blog posts in your video descriptions with a direct call to action.
Promote products/services – YouTube videos provide more opportunities to educate customers about your products or services. These videos can be embedded on your support docs which can reduce support requests while making sure that your customers make the most out of your products.
Build a loyal following – A YouTube channel helps you build a more engaging community around your brand and products.
Adds an extra source of revenue – YouTube Monetization options can add an extra source of revenue for your business. Your video content can also unlock many potential partnership opportunities with other businesses.
Starting a YouTube channel requires commitment. You’ll need to create a consistent content strategy and stick to it in order to make a successful YouTube channel.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily start a YouTube channel step by step.
Here is an overview of all the steps we’ll walk you through to create a YouTube channel.
YouTube makes it super easy to create a channel. You can make a channel by simply visiting the YouTube website and signing in with a Google Account.
Once signed in, you can click on your profile icon in the top-right corner of the screen and then select the “Create a Channel” option.
This will bring up a popup to fill out basic information for your channel.
You’ll need to choose a channel name and handle, and upload a profile photo.
Now, we want you to take a few minutes before choosing a channel name and handle.
Tips on Choosing The Perfect YouTube Channel Name
Your channel name and handle may help it appear in YouTube and Google Search results.
That’s why you need to use keywords in your channel name and handle. Keywords are the search terms that users would enter when looking for videos.
You may also want to consider what kind of videos you’ll be uploading when choosing a channel name.
For instance, will you be uploading tips & advice, general entertainment, infotainment, interviews, podcasts, documentary-style videos, and more?
Let’s say you want to create a YouTube channel for your gardening business. In that case, using gardening in the channel name and handle will increase the chances of YouTube algorithm displaying your channel in search results.
You can also use the existing brand name that you use on your business website. This helps strengthen your brand identity and keeps things consistent across different platforms (your website and social profiles).
For instance, we use our brand name for our YouTube channel with keywords that explain what our channel is all about (i.e. ‘WPBeginner – WordPress Tutorials‘).
Tips on Making YouTube Profile Photo
Your YouTube profile photo appears across the YouTube platform next to your channel name. This includes your channel homepage, below each video, and in the search results.
Many small businesses use their logo as their YouTube channel profile photo.
If you don’t already have a business logo that you can use, then you can create a YouTube channel photo using Canva.
This free online image editor comes with ready-to-use templates for different social networks including YouTube.
If you want to use any other image editing software or your own logo, then make sure that your channel photo is a square image with at least 800×800 pixels in size.
Once you have entered the channel name, handle, and photo, simply click on the Create Channel button to continue.
Youtube will now create the channel and redirect you to your new YouTube channel’s page.
2. Securing Your Brand Name
Before you upload your first video and start promoting your YouTube channel, it is important to secure your brand name.
This includes purchasing a domain name that matches your YouTube Channel name, making a WordPress website, and creating social media accounts for your channel.
Doing this protects your business from copyright infringement and blocks scammers from impersonating your brand on social media platforms.
Let’s start with a domain name and a website.
1. Making a Website for YouTube Channel
To make a website for your YouTube channel, you’ll need the following items.
A domain name. This is what users will type in their browsers to visit your website (e.g. wpbeginner.com)
Web hosting account. This is where all your website files will be stored.
Normally, a domain costs $14.99 per year and web hosting plans start at $7.99 per month (usually paid for a full year).
This is a significant amount and if you are just starting out then this may look a bit excessive.
Luckily, the folks over at Bluehost have agreed to offer WPBeginner users a free domain name with a generous discount on hosting.
Basically, you can get started for $2.75 per month.
Once you have chosen the domain name, click on the Next button to continue and finalize your purchase.
From here, you’ll first provide your personal information. After that, you can choose a plan duration (the 12-month plan gives you the best value).
Below that, don’t forget to uncheck all the options under Package Extras to further reduce the costs. Don’t worry you can always add them later when needed.
Finally, fill in your payment information to complete the purchase.
Bluehost will now register your domain name and set up your web hosting account. It will also automatically install WordPress, which is the best website builder on the market.
You’ll receive an email with instructions on how to log in to your hosting account.
For more details, see our step-by-step tutorial on how to make a website for beginners.
Remember, the goal here is to just get started with a basic website at first. You can work on your website later on as needed.
2. Securing Your Social Media Profiles
If your business doesn’t already have social media profiles, then it is time to create those and protect your brand.
Depending on your target audience you can choose which platforms would work best for your social media marketing strategy.
For instance, you would definitely want to create a profile on Facebook and Twitter. Optionally, you can choose to sign up for other platforms that may be useful for your businesses.
For instance, a business organization may want to sign up for LinkedIn, a lifestyle business may find Pinterest and Instagram more useful, and an educational website may want to build a community on Redditt as well.
It is important to choose the same brand name that you use for your business and your YouTube channel.
3. Making Artwork for YouTube Channel
Now let’s get back to your newly created YouTube channel which would be empty at the moment.
You can start working on your YouTube channel by creating channel art like a banner or cover image. This image appears at the top of your YouTube channel.
Once again, you can use Canva to create a very professional-looking cover art for your YouTube channel.
Canva comes with hundreds of built-in templates for YouTube channel covers to choose from.
Once you have found a template that matches your channel thumbnail and logo colors you can edit it using Canva’s built-in editor.
More advanced users can create their own cover images using image editing software like Photoshop, Illustrator, or Affinity.
Make sure that your YouTube banner image is 2048 x 1152 pixels in dimensions and no more than 6MB in file size.
Once your image is ready you can go to your YouTube channel page and click on the Customize Channel button.
This will bring you to the Channel Customization page. From here, you need to switch to the Branding tab.
You’ll notice that the channel profile photo you created earlier is already there. Next, click on the Upload button next to the banner image option.
Optionally, you can also add a watermark to your YouTube videos. It appears on your videos in the right-hand corner of the video player.
You can upload the watermark image from the Branding tab. Most channels typically use their channel profile photo or their business logo. Some also use watermarks as a reminder for viewers to subscribe.
You’ll need a square image with dimensions of at least 150×150 pixels. We recommend using a transparent image so that it doesn’t take up much on-screen space.
4. Creating a Featured Video and YouTube Channel Trailer
A YouTube channel trailer is an impactful way to introduce new users to your channel. A good channel trailer provides users with a glimpse into what kind of content your channel offers.
When enabled, this trailer appears at the top of your channel page and automatically plays for new users.
Similarly, you can also create a separate featured video for users who have already subscribed to your channel.
The downside is that they will not see this video at the top of your channel if they have already watched it.
These videos can be uploaded by visiting the YouTube Studio page.
From here, you can switch to the Customization tab and then upload your trailer or a featured video.
Not ready to make a video yet? Don’t worry we’ll talk more about making videos later in this article.
5. What Do You Need to Make Great YouTube Videos
You may have noticed the very high quality of videos uploaded by the most popular YouTube channels such as Mr. Beast, Lemmino, Veritasium, and more.
These videos are made using top-of-the-line cameras, professional lighting, custom-made graphics, and really good editing.
However, the vast majority of videos uploaded on YouTube are not as high-quality as you may think.
You can basically just shoot a YouTube video using your phone camera. Most modern phones are equipped with very capable cameras.
With a little effort and some inexpensive equipment, you can easily make very polished YouTube videos all by yourself.
Here is a list of equipment that you can use to get started.
1. A Good Camera
Digital cameras are becoming quite inexpensive and can shoot high-resolution 4k videos. If you are looking to spend some money then we recommend these starter digital cameras:
However, if you cannot afford a separate camera, then most modern phones come with very capable built-in cameras.
With an inexpensive tripod, some basic lighting, and an inexpensive microphone, you can easily use your own phone to shoot high-quality YouTube videos.
This brings us to other equipment that you may want to look into.
2. An Affordable Tripod or Camera Stand
A tripod or camera stand allows you to firmly place your camera or phone in one place to shoot videos.
There are hundreds of tripods, gimbal stabilizers, and selfie sticks available on Amazon.
Ideally, you would want to buy one that works with your camera or mobile phone and offers different heights and adjustments to shoot a variety of video styles.
For mobile users, Rode Vlogging Kit can be a good starting point. It comes with a 3.5mm audio jack to capture better sound quality and has a separate version for iOS devices.
3. A basic lighting setup
If you are planning to shoot most of your videos indoors, then adding some extra lighting can make a huge difference in video quality.
However, professional-grade lighting equipment can be very expensive. Luckily, there are a ton of inexpensive options that can do the trick.
For beginners, we recommend starting out with ring lights. These portable LED lights come in different shapes and sizes and include adjustments like tripods and extendable heights.
4. A Video Editing Software
Once you have shot your video, you’ll need to edit it to add graphics, background music, credits, and more. You may also want to cut out some parts or merge multiple video files.
Now you may have heard popular YouTubers talking about Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro. These are very powerful video editing software but they are also quite expensive and come with a learning curve.
Luckily, your computer may already have basic and easy-to-use video editing software installed on it.
Mac computers come with the iMovie app which is a very capable video editing software. It also has a trimmed-down version available for iOS devices.
iMovie includes some basic transition effects, the ability to add sounds and music overlays, trim clips, adjust the screen size, and more.
Similarly, Windows users can use Clipchamp which is a great free video editor and comes with dozens of ready-to-use templates for different video platforms including YouTube.
Alternately, the popular design tool Canva also comes with a built-in video editor. It includes a huge library of images, videos, transitions, and other elements that you can use in your videos.
Plus, it works on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices as well. It is extremely easy to use and a good option for absolute beginners.
All these video editing software options are beginner friendly and will allow you to create professional-looking videos for your YouTube channel.
6. How to Edit YouTube Videos
As we mentioned earlier that the vast majority of YouTube videos don’t have the production levels of the most popular YouTubers.
As a YouTube beginner, you just need to learn some video editing basics to polish your YouTube videos before uploading.
Let’s start with the shooting first.
Shooting Videos with Editing in Mind
When you are shooting your videos always record them in the highest quality settings available on your camera.
Use a tripod or gimbal to avoid shaky footage.
Use manual focus whenever possible to make sure that the subject of your video is always in focus.
Record in a quiet space or use a microphone to avoid background noise.
Editing Videos for Your YouTube Channel
Now that you have your video ready let’s bring it into your video editing software.
First, you would want to cut and trim the portions that you don’t want to include in the video.
Add background music when you need it.
Use transition effects to merge two video footage
Add text, images, and graphics to provide more context if needed.
Your video editing software will show you a live preview of your changes as you make them. Once you are satisfied with the changes you have made it is time to export your video.
Finding Media to Use in Your YouTube Videos
YouTube takes copyright violations seriously and can take down your videos or entire channel for any violations.
Make sure that all the media (images, video clips, sounds, and music) that you use in your video are royalty free or that you have written permission to use them in your video.
Luckily there are many open-source and royalty-free sources that you can use in your videos. Most video editing software choices we mentioned above include royalty-free media that you can add to your videos.
YouTube also has its own audio library with thousands of music and audio files that you can use in your videos.
You can find the audio library under YouTube Studio. From here, you can search or browse the audio files and download them to your computer.
After that, you can add them to your video using your video editing software.
Saving Video to Upload on YouTube
By default, YouTube allows you to upload videos of 15 minutes duration. Verified users can upload longer videos.
The video file size limit for YouTube is 256 GB or 12 hours duration, whichever is less.
Make sure that you export your video from your video editor software using the highest quality settings. Using H.264 (mp4 file format) for compression produces higher-quality results with a smaller file size.
Depending on your video duration and file size, it may take a while for your video editing software to process the video.
7. Video Editing Best Practices to Follow
As you edit more videos for your YouTube channel, you’ll be able to pick up new tips and tricks on the way to produce better results.
Following are just some of the very basic tips that you should keep in mind.
Always save your videos in the highest quality. This allows YouTube to display your video in the best possible quality to your users.
Longer videos take more time to process on your computer. Make sure that your computer is connected to a power source to avoid any interruption.
Similarly, video files are massive and may take some time to upload. Make sure you have a faster and more stable internet connection before you begin uploading the video to YouTube.
8. Making Thumbnails for YouTube Videos
A YouTube video thumbnail is the image used as a placeholder for your video across the YouTube platform.
They play the most significant role in boosting a video’s click-through rate.
Most experienced users spend a lot of their time creating and experimenting with different YouTube video thumbnail styles.
YouTube allows you to pick a thumbnail from your video after you upload the video. However, it is not recommended to use a video still as your thumbnail.
You’ll need to use an image editing tool like Photoshop or Canva to create your YouTube thumbnail. It needs to be at least 1280×720 in dimensions.
Here are some of the tips you can use when making a thumbnail for YouTube videos.
1. Use Hi-res Images – It is important to use high-quality images in your video thumbnail so that they look good in all sizes on all devices.
2. Grab user attention – You’ll need to make your images eye catchy by using bold colors, strong contrast, or emotional reactions. That’s why so many popular YouTubers have an image showing their surprised, amazed, disappointed, and other reactions.
3. Showcase Key Event – Show the main subject or event of your video in the thumbnail to build anticipation and provide users with a preview of the video.
4. Use Text Cleverly – Use text whenever needed to provide more context or insert an engagement hook for your audiences.
5. Keep it Simple – Avoid adding too many elements to your thumbnail to keep it clean and easy on the eyes. Cluttered elements in thumbnails can make it look unpolished to your users.
Once you have created a thumbnail for your video, you can add it after your video upload is complete.
You can also change the thumbnail for a video by editing it in YouTube Studio.
9. Uploading Your First YouTube Video
You can upload your video by visiting the YouTube Studio page.
Then, you just need to click on the Upload Videos button.
This will bring up a popup where you need to select the video file(s) you have saved on your computer.
Simply click on the Select Files button to continue. You can upload more than one video at a time if you want.
However, it is better to upload one video at a time to avoid any interruptions during the upload.
YouTube will now start uploading your video in the background. Meanwhile, you can fill in the video details such as the video title, description, thumbnail, and tags.
Once you are satisfied with the settings click on the Next button to continue.
Now, you’ll be asked to provide additional information about your video. For instance, you can add subtitles, choose an end screen, and add video cards to promote other content during your video playback.
All these video elements help you promote your videos and grow your channel.
After that, you need to click on the Next button to continue. YouTube will now check your video for common issues such as copyright infringements or inappropriate content.
If everything looks good, click on the next button to continue.
Now, you can choose how you want to publish your YouTube video. You can make a video private, unlisted, or public so that everyone on the internet can view it.
You can also schedule the video to become public at a specific time. This helps you schedule videos for the future and get ahead on your video calendar.
Finally, click on the Publish button to save your video. You can now preview your video on YouTube.
10. Mastering YouTube SEO
As we mentioned earlier, YouTube is not only a video-sharing platform but also the second most popular search engine.
It receives more searches than any other search engine on the market except for Google itself.
This is why you need to pay attention to YouTube SEO from day one.
This helps your videos and channel appear in YouTube searches more often.
YouTube SEO best practices will also help your channel appear in Google video results and you may even appear in featured snippets.
Following are some of the basic YouTube SEO tips that will help you optimize your videos for higher search rankings.
Use keywords in Title & Description – Keywords are search terms that users type to search for something. Using them in your video’s title and description increases its potential to appear for those search terms. You can also use your keywords in channel description, about page, and other areas to improve your YouTube SEO.
Add a custom YouTube Video Thumbnail – A good custom video thumbnail can provide search engines with more context about your video. It boosts your click-through rate which helps you rank even higher.
Add closed captions and subtitles – Subtitles and closed captions help you provide a video transcript for your video. This provides YouTube with plenty of context to match with the search terms.
Add Tags to Your Videos – Tags help you organize your videos into topics using them strategically has the potential to appear higher for relevant search terms.
Use Given Character Limit – YouTube has character limits for titles, descriptions, tags, and other fields. Make sure that you utilize these fields to provide more detailed information about your video. Here is a quick breakdown of character limits:
Video Title – 100, make sure that you use all of them and try to replicate the style of other popular YouTubers in your industry.
Description – 5000, use the description field to write a catchy but more detailed description of your video. You can also include links here to your website, relevant blog posts, products, affiliate links, and more.
Tags – 500, tags can help users find your content by categorizing it and letting YouTube know who to promote it to.
YouTube SEO is a highly sought-after skill and as you work on growing your YouTube channel you’ll pick up more tips and tricks along the way.
11. Growing Your YouTube Channel
Growing a successful YouTube channel takes time, some effort, and patience. In most cases success will not come overnight, rather your channel will grow bit by bit slowly and steadily.
Following are a few tips that will help you keep up the momentum and grow your YouTube channel.
1. Create High-Quality Videos
This goes without saying that users will abandon your YouTube videos if they don’t find your content useful or entertaining.
Producing higher quality content that answers users’ questions, provides them value (information, education, or entertainment), and keeps them hooked is the key to keep gaining subscribers for your YouTube channel.
2. Upload Regularly
Publishing regularly is one of the most common traits of almost all successful YouTube channels.
For beginners, this may seem hard at first. We recommend committing to at least one video per week. As you work regularly on your videos you will be able to pick up more tricks to produce higher-quality videos more quickly.
Whatever frequency you choose, you need to stick to it. This helps you keep your existing subscribers engaged which leads to acquiring new subscribers and more views.
3. Engage with Your Audience
YouTube is a social media platform as well. In the US alone, 62% of internet users access YouTube daily and the majority of them access it several times a day.
The easiest way to keep your audience engaged is through YouTube comments. Asking users questions in your videos or replying to them via comments helps you bring back those users. They are also more likely to view more of your content in the future.
4. Curate Your Content in Playlists
As your videos increase it will become harder for users to find all your videos on a similar topic.
For instance, let’s say you run a gardening channel with several videos about budget landscaping. You can help your users find them all by creating a playlist.
Creating playlists also helps with YouTube SEO as these playlists often appear in search engines.
5. Dig Down the Analytics
YouTube offers built-in analytics tools to track the performance of your videos. This helps you gain insights into your audience.
From here, you can analyze important data such as views, watch time, and demographics to improve your content and reach more viewers.
6. Promote Your Videos
To grow your YouTube channel you cannot just upload videos and wait for viewers to come.
You need to proactively promote your videos across all your digital marketing channels, email marketing, and through your website.
This brings us to our next section.
12. Using Your Website to Promote YouTube Videos
All popular YouTube channels have a website.
This helps them to continuously bring traffic to their business website from their Youtube channel which leads to more sales and growth for their business.
It also helps them send more users to their YouTube channel by promoting videos and helping new users discover their YouTube channel.
Here is a step-by-step playbook that you can apply to your website to grow your YouTube channel.
1. Start a Blog To Promote Your YouTube Channel
For many businesses, starting a blog allows them to consistently cover topics that their potential customers will be looking for in search.
This helps them gain free organic search traffic to their website which they can then convert into customers and subscribers.
Adding a blog to your website helps you repurpose content you have used in your videos and make them into articles. This increases your potential to rank for those particular keywords and get traffic to both your video and blog content.
Upon activation, the plugin will launch a setup wizard which will walk you through the basic setup.
Need more help? We have a step-by-step WordPress SEO guide for beginners, which will help you properly optimize your website for SEO.
3. Embed Your Videos in Blog Posts to Get More Subscribers
An easy way to get more views and subscribers for your YouTube channel is by embedding videos in your blog posts.
WordPress makes it super easy. Simply copy the URL of your video and edit the post or page where you want to embed the video.
On the post editor screen, paste the URL on the line where you want to display the video.
WordPress will automatically fetch the required embed code and display your video.
4. Submit Video Sitemaps for Better Rankings
Video Sitemaps are like regular XML sitemaps but only for your video posts. The include links to your WordPress posts or pages containing YouTube video embeds.
You can then submit this sitemap using Google Search Console. Google could then display your article with an enhanced snippet with a video preview.
Now adding YouTube videos to your blog posts and pages is quite simple. However, it is quite boring and doesn’t add any social sharing features to your video embeds.
SmashBalloon offers separate plugins for different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. You can also buy the all-access plan to get all plugins.
First, you need to install and activate the SmashBalloon YouTube Feed Pro plugin. Upon activation, head over to YouTube Feed » Settings page and provide your plugin license key. You can find this information under your account on the Smash Balloon website.
After that, you need to click on the ‘Add Source’ button to connect your WordPress website to your YouTube account.
Smash Balloon will ask for your permission to access your channel information under your Google Account.
Simply follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup and get your channel name added as the source.
Next, you need to visit YouTube Feed » All Feeds page and click on the ‘Add New’ button to add a YouTube feed that you want to display.
Follow the on-screen instructions to select a source, template, and style for your feed.
Once finished, Smash Balloon will show you a live preview of your YouTube feed.
If everything looks good, then you can click on the Embed button to continue.
The plugin will now show you a shortcode that you can add to any post or page to display your YouTube feed. Optionally, you can also add it directly to a widget or a page.
Here is how it looked on our test website.
We changed the video template color scheme from light to dark and used the carousel-style gallery.
Smash Balloon allows you to fetch video feeds for your own channel, any other public channel, search term, or favorite videos.
It also works great on mobile devices and will automatically adjust your Gallery width for your smaller screens.
You’ll need to consistently upload new videos in order to make a successful YouTube channel.
You can choose your own frequency which gives you plenty of time to make a video. Many beginners start with one or two videos each month and increase it gradually to one video per week.
You can choose a day and time to publish your videos. This way your users would know when to expect a new video from your channel.
Now the real challenge for most beginners is to come up with ideas for new videos.
Following are a few easy tips to generate video ideas for your YouTube channel.
1. View YouTube Analytics – You can see what kind of content your users like by viewing your YouTube Channel Analytics. Then branch out your most viewed videos into deeper and related topics.
2. Get Hints by YouTube Search – As you type a keyword in YouTube search it would start suggesting popular search terms. These are the search terms that users are already looking for and they can be immensely helpful in generating new video ideas.
3. YouTube Comments – Your users would often post questions in the comments section below your YouTube videos. You can convert the most common questions into separate videos.
4. Your WordPress Blog – You can repurpose your most popular blog content into YouTube videos.
5. Ask Your Users – You can ask your users on social media profiles about what topics they would like you to cover next. Similarly, you can run surveys and polls on your website to gather user feedback.
6. Online Communities – Forums such as Reddit, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn, and Twitter are the discussion hubs of the internet. You can join the communities covering similar topics as your YouTube channel and see which topics come up more frequently under discussion.
Advanced users can use third-party tools to perform deeper keyword research. Following are some of the most popular keyword research tools for YouTubers.
Semrush – It offers a keyword magic tool where you can sort ideas by SERP features and select Video to explore video ideas.
2. vidIQ – A keyword research and video ideas generator platform made specifically for video content creators.
3. TubeBuddy – Offers YouTube SEO, video optimization, and keyword research tools as a browser extension.
14. Experiment with Different Video Styles and Formats
A YouTube channel doesn’t become successful overnight. It will take some time and effort until you find out what kind of content strategy works for your audience.
Meanwhile, we recommend trying different video formats to see which one of them brings you more user engagement, views, or likes.
You can try YouTube shorts to experiment with shorter video formats.
You can also try how-tos, interviews, video podcasts, essays, commentaries, and more.
Switching styles will help you figure out what your audience finds more engaging and then you can create more such videos.
Similarly, you can experiment by changing thumbnails for your older videos that are not getting any views.
You can also try different video titles and descriptions to see if they help you grab user attention.
15. Frequently Asked Questions About Creating a YouTube Channel
Now that your YouTube channel is up and running following are some of the most commonly asked questions asked by beginner YouTube creators.
1. How many views do I need to get paid on YouTube?
You’ll need at least 4000 public watch hours or 1000 subscribers in 12 months period to be eligible for the YouTube partner program, which gives you access to YouTube monetization tools including ad revenue sharing. For Shorts, you’ll need at least 10 million views in the last 90 days.
2. Can I start a YouTube Channel with my phone?
Yes, you can start a YouTube channel using your mobile phone. YouTube app for smartphones makes it super easy to create a channel, record live videos, or upload videos from your phone.
3. How to make money online using YouTube?
The easiest way to make money online using YouTube is by joining the YouTube partner program. Once you are approved, you become eligible to get paid for revenue sharing on ads displayed during your videos.
4. Can I start a YouTube channel without showing my face?
Yes, you can start a YouTube channel and upload videos without showing your face.
5. Do I need an LLC to start a YouTube channel for my business?
No, you don’t need an LLC to start a YouTube channel for your business. You’ll automatically be considered a sole proprietor for the YouTube channel and all your earnings from YouTube will be subjected to local taxes like income tax. However, some YouTube channels may register as a limited liability company (LLC) to protect their business from potential liabilities, insurance reasons, and other legal and financial reasons.
We hope this article helped you learn how to easily start a successful YouTube channel for your business. You may also want to see our list of other popular online business ideas or learn how to create and sell online courses to generate passive income.
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.
Are you wondering about the proper way to use H1-H6 heading tags in WordPress?
When you use headings effectively in your posts and pages, you make your content more readable, improve user experience, and boost your website’s SEO.
In this article, we’ll show you how to properly use heading tags in WordPress.
What Are Heading Tags in WordPress?
Heading tags are HTML elements used to identify the title and headings on a webpage.
Both visitors and search engines will understand your content better when your posts and pages contain headings. When you add headings correctly, you can improve the post’s SEO, so it ranks higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
You add a logical structure to your posts by using different heading levels. Post titles will use H1 tags, and you typically use H2 tags for the main headings and H3 tags for subheadings.
When viewing a webpage as HTML, heading tags look like this:
<h1>Post Title</h1>
<h2>Heading</h2>
<h3>Subheading</h3>
<h4>And so on</h4>
However, you can easily add heading tags to your WordPress posts and pages without using code.
The sizes and colors of the different heading styles are controlled by your theme’s stylesheet, and we’ll show you how to customize their appearance below.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how to properly use H1-H6 heading tags in WordPress. Here is a quick overview of what we’ll cover in this guide:
1. Use Headings and Subheadings to Structure Your Content
Headings help you create a logical structure for a post or page. They guide your readers through the article by briefly describing the main sections of the topic and how they relate to one another.
You can use up to six hierarchical heading levels to structure your content:
H1 tags are the most important and there should be only one H1 heading in a post. This tag is used for the post title, and you can learn how to add and optimize your titles in our guide on SEO titles and H1 post titles in WordPress.
H2 headings are the main headings and are used in the different sections of a post. If you need to split these sections up into subsections, then you can use H3 tags. Most themes will display H3 subheadings in a smaller font than H2 headings.
Most posts only need two or three levels of headings, so you may never use heading tags H4 to H6 on your WordPress website. However, they can be used to provide further structure in very long posts or academic articles.
Structuring your posts in this way helps both website visitors and search engine crawlers quickly grasp the context of your content. A well-structured post may be ranked higher on search engine results pages.
Tip: Make sure you use heading tags to structure your article, and not simply for formatting, such as making a block of text larger. For more on formatting text, see our guide on how to easily change the font size in WordPress.
2. Customize the Appearance of Headings to Grab Attention
Using headings in your content is a great way to grab user attention with a larger-size font. In most WordPress themes, headings are in a larger font than regular body text. They allow you to break your posts and pages into sections.
You can also customize the appearance of your headings, so they stand out even more. For example, you can attract attention to your headings by adding color, especially with H1, H2, and H3 headings.
Some themes offer preset font choices that will change the font on your entire website.
Besides that, you can also change fonts for individual elements on your theme. For example, you can use a different font for the body text and headings. There are even options to use separate fonts for each heading level.
3. Use Headings to Improve Readability and User Experience
No one likes a wall of text. The easiest way to make your content more readable is by breaking it up using headings and short paragraphs.
This makes it easier to read and understand your content. It also helps your users scan through the article quickly and find the sections they want to read more thoroughly.
Checking the Readability of Your Headings Using All in One SEO
The best way to check the readability of your post is by using All in One SEO (AIOSEO). It’s the best WordPress SEO plugin that allows you to easily optimize your WordPress website for search engines and social media platforms.
Note: The free version of AIOSEO will show you if your post contains enough headings, and also let you set a focus keyphrase as we cover below. However, the extra features of the premium version will get your site ranking even higher on search engines.
You will find a ‘Page Analysis’ section that gives you a list of actionable tasks you can follow to make the post rank higher. It includes tabs for ‘Basic SEO,’ ‘Title,’ and ‘Readability,’ and each tab shows you how many errors you need to fix in that category.
The ‘Readability’ tab offers suggestions on how to improve readability, such as including images, shortening paragraphs and sentences, using transition words, adding subheadings, and more. Items marked with a red cross need more work.
Under ’Subheading distribution’, you will be given feedback on any steps you need to take to improve the headings in the post, such as:
‘1 section of your text is longer than 300 words and is not separated by any subheadings. Add subheadings to improve readability.’
‘You are not using any subheadings, but your text is short enough and probably doesn’t need them.’
‘Great job!’
You should aim to get a green checkmark next to every item under the Page Analysis section to improve the post’s SEO.
4. Optimize Your Headings for SEO by Adding Appropriate Keywords
Adding headings to your blog posts is great for your site’s SEO. That’s because search engines give headings more weight than normal paragraph text. Google will try to use the content of your headings to better understand the topic you are writing about.
You can optimize your headings for SEO by adding appropriate keywords. These are the keywords users will search for when looking for your content. You can learn how to find them in our guide on how to do keyword research for your WordPress blog.
But it’s important that you don’t just add random keywords to your headings. Only use keywords when they make sense and clearly describe what that part of the post is about.
Checking Whether Your Headings are SEO Optimized Using All in One SEO
You can use All in One SEO‘s SEO Analysis feature to check whether you have used enough keywords in your headings.
First, you need to add a focus keyword to your post. Simply scroll to AIOSEO Settings under the post content, then type the post’s most important keyword next to ‘Focus Keyphrase.’
The plugin will then analyze your content for the keyword, show you a score, and give suggestions on how to improve your ranking.
Among other things, All in One SEO will show you if your post has a healthy number of keyword-optimized H2 and H3 subheadings.
Besides adding keywords, we also recommend making your headline catchy and click-worthy. That’s because your organic click-through rate (CTR) plays an important role in SEO.
5. Automatically Create a Table of Contents From Headings
A table of contents is a clickable list of the headings contained in a post. They make it easier to jump between the sections of a long article, improving navigation through your content.
When your visitors click a link in the table of contents, they will be taken immediately to that heading in the article. This allows users to quickly move to the content they are interested in.
All in One SEO can save you time by automatically generating the table of contents based on your subheadings, while also making it completely customizable with editable links.
When editing your post, you’ll need to click the blue ‘+ ’ icon and locate the ‘AIOSEO – Table of Contents’ block. Simply drag the block onto the post or page where you wish the table of contents to appear.
The plugin will automatically identify the headings on the page and add them to your table of contents. If you use different heading levels (say H2 and H3), then lower-level headings will be indented to show the structure of your content.
If you are still writing the contents of your post or page, then any headings added to the document will be automatically added to the table of contents. Also, any changes that you make to the headings themselves will be reflected in the ToC block.
6. Optimize Headings to Rank for Google Featured Snippets
Organizing your heading tags well may help your content rank for Google featured snippets. These are highlighted results that are shown at the top of the search results page.
Google was able to pull the headings from the above post to create the number list you see on the search results page, earning this post a featured snippet.
This will help you get the maximum SEO traffic since a user is more likely to click on a featured snippet than a plain search result.
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions About Heading Tags in WordPress
Here are some of the most common questions our readers ask us about heading tags.
What is the difference between H1 and H2 in WordPress?
H1 is used for the post title, and this should be the only H1 heading in a post. H2 is used for the main headings throughout a post. For many blog posts, H1 and H2 are the only heading tags you will need.
What are the six types of headings in WordPress?
There are six types of heading tags in WordPress, and they are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6. The H1 tag is used for the title and H2-H6 can be used for different levels of headings and subheadings throughout the post.
You don’t need to use all six levels of headings in a post. However, you shouldn’t skip a level. For example, when you use H2 for headings, you should use H3 for subheadings, and not skip straight to H4.
What is the difference between H1 and TITLE in WordPress?
The title you type at the top of a post or page is an H1 heading. However, when search engines display the post in search results, they will use a different title identified by a TITLE tag rather than H1. This is known as the SEO title or meta title.
When you create a new post or page in WordPress, you will see the words ‘Add title’ at the top of the page. Simply type the post title on this line to add an H1 heading.
While it is possible to create additional H1 headings using Heading blocks, we don’t recommend using more than one H1 tag.
How many H2 headings should a WordPress post have?
H2 headings are used to break up a long post and make it more readable, and there are no rules about how many you should use. In fact, if your post is only a few paragraphs long, then you may not need to add H2 headings at all.
The All in One SEO plugin has a Page Analysis feature that can check your blog post for readability. In general, if you have 300 words of text or more without a heading, it will recommend adding more headings or subheadings.
Do heading tags affect your WordPress website’s SEO?
Yes, the title of your blog post is extremely important for search engine optimization (SEO). A powerful title can get people to click on the link to visit your website, so we recommend you use a headline analyzer to create engaging titles that get more clicks.
H2-H6 headings can also impact SEO. They improve user experience, and this improves SEO. Adding appropriate keywords to your headings may also help your post rank higher.
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Do you want to bulk convert your old content using classic blocks into the Gutenberg (block) format in WordPress?
After updating to any version above WordPress 5.0, your older post and page content will show up inside a Classic block in the new WordPress content editor. If you have dozens or hundreds of posts, then converting that Classic block content into individual blocks can take a lot of time. Thankfully, there is a bulk convert option.
In this article, we will show how to easily bulk convert classic blocks into Gutenberg blocks in WordPress.
Why Convert Classic Block Into Individual Blocks in WordPress?
If you have had a WordPress blog for a long time, then chances are that some of your posts were written using the older classic editor.
This older content will now appear inside the Classic block in the post editor.
By converting the classic block into individual Gutenberg blocks, you will gain more control and flexibility over your content.
You can easily edit your post by working with individual blocks. You will also be able to take advantage of the customization options available for each block.
This helps you easily edit the content within the block editor while allowing you to create beautiful content layouts for your posts and pages.
Note: In most cases, switching from the classic to the block editor will not affect your posts on the front end.
That being said, let’s see how to easily bulk-convert classic blocks to Gutenberg in WordPress.
Method 1: Convert Classic Block to Gutenberg Using Default Settings
If you want to convert a single post or page from the Classic block into individual blocks, then this method is for you.
First, you need to edit the post and page where you want to convert the blocks. You can do this by heading to Posts » All Posts in your WordPress dashboard and then clicking on ‘Edit (block editor)’ under the post.
This will open your post in the block editor. Then, click on the ‘Convert to blocks’ button in the toolbar at the top of the Classic block.
The Classic block will now be converted into individual Gutenberg blocks.
You can now access all the block settings for individual blocks from the right column. If you cannot see this panel, then click on the gear icon at the top right of the editor.
Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.
Method 2: Bulk Convert Classic Block into Gutenberg Blocks
If you want to easily convert the Classic block into Gutenberg blocks for all the posts and pages immediately, then this method is for you.
Important: Make sure to create a complete WordPress backup of your site before using this method because you cannot undo the conversion once it’s completed.
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Do you want to change the background color of the WordPress block editor for admins?
Sometimes when working on a custom client project, you may want to change the Gutenberg editor background color in WordPress to match their brand colors.
In this article, we’ll show you how to easily customize the background color of the WordPress block editor for admin area.
Note: This guide covers changing the editor color in WordPress admin. If you’re looking to change the background color in WordPress front-end, then please see our tutorial on how to change background color in WordPress.
Why Change the Background Color of the Block Editor in WordPress?
You may want to change the background color of the WordPress block editor for a number of reasons.
However, if your WordPress theme doesn’t use the same colors, then the appearance of your post inside the editor will look quite different from what your users will see on the live website.
Another reason for changing the background color could be personal preference.
For instance, by default, the block editor uses a plain white background. Some users may find it a bit stressful to look at the white screen for long hours. Eye strain can be a real issue for many people, and the default white background is not easy on the eyes.
That being said, let’s see how you can easily change the WordPress editor background color.
How to Change the WordPress Editor Background Color
You can easily change the WordPress editor background color by adding custom code to your theme’s functions.php file.
However, keep in mind that even the smallest error in the code can break your website and make it inaccessible. That’s why we recommend using the WPCode plugin. It’s the best WordPress code snippets plugin on the market and is the easiest and safest way to add custom code to your WordPress website.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Code Snippets » + Add Snippets page from the admin sidebar.
From here, you have to click on 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 your code snippet. This is just for you and can be anything that will help you identify the code.
Next, you need to choose ‘PHP Snippet’ as the ‘Code Type’ from the dropdown menu on the right.
After that, you need to copy and paste the following code into the ‘Code Preview’ box.
Next, you need to look for the following code in the PHP snippet you just pasted.
background-color: #bee0ec;
Then, you have to add the hex code of your preferred color next to the background color option. If you don’t want to use a hex code, you can use some basic color names such as ‘white’ or ‘blue’ instead.
After that, you need to scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section and choose the ‘Auto Insert’ option.
Next, you need to select the ‘Location’ of the code snippet as ‘Admin Only’ from the dropdown menu.
After that, you need to scroll back to the top of the page and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active.’
Finally, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Snippet’ button to save your changes.
Now, go visit the block editor from the admin sidebar.
This is how the block editor looked on our site after adding the CSS code snippet.
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Are you looking for an easy way to show a contact form popup on your WordPress website?
Contact forms are great for communicating with your visitors. Placing them in a popup makes it even easier for your customers to contact you about your products and services.
In this article, we will show you how to add a contact form popup in WordPress.
Why Use a Contact Form Popup?
Every WordPress website or blog needs a contact form so users can reach out with questions, feedback, or problems.
However, if your contact form is only on a single page, then it’s hard for people to find it.
As a result, your users may end up leaving your site before contacting you, and you could lose potential leads and conversions.
A contact form popup helps solve this issue by allowing your visitors to quickly view the form by clicking a button, so they can get in touch with you from whatever page they’re on.
It helps keep people on your website, as they don’t have to exit the page they are viewing. You can also grow your email list using a contact form popup.
That said, you will first need to create a contact form and then place it in a popup to display on your web pages. Don’t worry, we will guide you on creating a contact form and adding it to a popup in WordPress.
There are many free and paid options you can choose from, but we recommend using WPForms as it’s the best option.
WPForms is a beginner-friendly form plugin and offers a drag & drop builder that allows you to create a contact form in WordPress in just a few clicks. It also offers prebuilt form templates and lots of customization options.
For this tutorial, we will use the WPForms Lite version because it is free and offers a contact form template.
However, you can also use its premium version to unlock more features. For instance, WPForms Pro offers multiple form templates, more customization options, powerful addons, and lets you collect online payments.
To start, you will first need to install and activate the WPForms Lite plugin. If you need help, then see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once the plugin is active, you are now ready to create your contact form. All you have to do is go to WPForms » Add New from your WordPress dashboard.
After that, WPForms will ask you to enter a name for your form and select a template.
Go ahead and select the ‘Simple Contact Form’ template.
Next, you can add fields in the form using the drag-and-drop builder.
Simply drag the fields you want to add to the form from the options given in the menu on your left. You can also reorder the positions of each field in the form.
WPForms also lets you customize each field in the contact form.
For example, if you click on the Name field, then you’ll get different options, such as changing its label and format. You can even add a description or mark any field as required.
Once you are done, go ahead and click the ‘Settings’ option to configure the form notification and confirmation.
In the General settings, you can rename the form, change the submit button text, enable anti-spam protection, and more.
Next, you can go to the Notifications settings option. By default, the notifications are sent to the admin email that is set up on your WordPress website.
However, you can send your contact form notification to any email address you want. If you wish to receive notifications on multiple emails, then separate each email with a comma.
For the email subject line, WPForms uses the form name you entered earlier. However, you can edit the text of the subject line to whatever you wish.
After that, go ahead and click the Confirmations option.
WPForms will use ‘Message’ as the default confirmation type, where your visitors will see a thank you message upon submitting a form.
However, you can change the message type and redirect users to a specific page on your website when they complete a form.
Once you are done creating a contact form, make sure to click the ‘Save’ button at the top right corner to save your changes.
Next, click the ‘Embed’ option in the top corner next to the Save button.
When a new window appears, select the ‘use a shortcode’ option.
WPForms will display a shortcode for your contact form as soon as you click the link. We suggest that you keep this tab/window open as you will need it in the next step, where we’ll show you how to add your contact form in a popup.
We recommend using OptinMonster as it is the best lead generation and conversion optimization plugin for WordPress. Over 1.2 million websites use the powerful tool.
For this tutorial, we will use the OptinMonster Pro version, which includes a clutter-free template and advanced display rules to show the popup.
You will first need to sign up for an account by going to the OptinMonster website. Simply visit the website and click the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button.
After the plugin is active, you will see the setup wizard. Go ahead and click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.
A popup window will now appear, and OptinMonster will ask to connect to your account.
Simply click the ‘Connect To WordPress’ button.
Now that your account is connected, the next thing is to create a new campaign for your contact form popup.
You can start by going to OptinMonster » Campaigns and then clicking the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ button.
On the next screen, you will have to select a campaign type.
Since we will create a contact form popup, select ‘Popup’ as your Campaign Type.
After that, scroll down to choose a template for your popup. OptinMonster offers over 75 attractive and highly converting designs for your popups.
You can select any template that you like. Next, enter a name for your campaign and click the ‘Start Building’ button.
Now using the drag-and-drop builder in OptinMonster, you can edit your popup template.
You will now see different Blocks appear in the menu on your left. Simply head over to the ‘WPForms’ block and drag and drop it on your template.
After that, you’ll need to click the ‘Form Selection’ dropdown menu from the block settings in the left menu and select the ‘Add Shortcode Manually’ option.
From here, enter your WPForms contact form shortcode in the block. To find the code, go back to your WPForms embed settings and copy the shortcode.
An important thing to note is that you won’t see a preview of the contact form in the template when you add the shortcode.
This is normal, as your contact form will appear when the campaign is published.
Next, you can go to the Display Rules tab at the top to choose when the popup should appear on your website.
By default, OptinMonster will set it to when the time on the page is 5 seconds, and the popup will appear on any page.
However, you can change the display rule settings and select different triggers and targeting options.
We suggest using the MonsterLink (On Click) targeting. This way, your popup will appear when a visitor clicks a link or a button.
After that, you can click the ‘Copy MonsterLink Code’ button and add it to any text, image, or button on your website.
For example, let’s say you want to add a contact us button on your site. You can start by editing any page or post and go to your WordPress editor. Next, click the (+) plus sign at the top and add a ‘Buttons’ block.
After that, you can enter a text for your button and then click the link icon.
Now add the MonsterLink URL to your button.
Once you have done that, publish your WordPress post or page. The MonsterLink will now be added to your contact us button.
Next, head back to your OptinMonster campaign to complete the configuration.
After selecting MonsterLink as your target and showing it on any page, you can click the ‘Next’ button at the bottom.
On the next screen, you will see options to change the campaign view type, add a MonsterEffect animation, and play a sound when the popup appears.
Go ahead and click the ‘Next’ button when you are satisfied with the settings.
After that, OptinMonster will show a summary of your Display Rule settings.
This helps to ensure you have correctly set up when your campaigns will appear on your website.
Now, you are ready to take your campaign live and publish your contact form popup. To do that, go to the ‘Publish’ tab at the top.
Next, you can click the ‘Preview’ button before publishing your campaign. This will show you a live preview of how your popup will look on your website.
When you are happy with the appearance of your campaign, change the ‘Publish Status’ from Draft to Publish.
You can exit the OptinMonster campaign builder and check the status of your campaign from your WordPress dashboard as well.
Simply click the ‘Status’ dropdown menu on your right and change the status from Pending to Published.
Don’t forget to save the changes.
Next, go to the contact us button you created earlier with MonsterLink and see the contact form popup in action.
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.
Are you wondering how to use OpenAI and ChatGPT on your WordPress website?
OpenAI can help with everything from generating meta descriptions for your posts to writing email sales copy. You can use OpenAI on your WordPress site to save time, cut costs, improve your SEO and workflows, and grow your business!
In this article, we will show you 14 of the best ways to use OpenAI on your WordPress website.
A (Brief) Introduction to OpenAI
You have probably heard the terms “OpenAI” and “ChatGPT” used interchangeably, but they’re not exactly the same.
OpenAI is the research laboratory (read: a group of very smart people) behind the chatbot ChatGPT and the deep-learning, image-generating model DALL-E 2, among other AI-powered products.
The team over at OpenAI created ChatGPT which is an AI assistant to help streamline your workflows and save you time.
It can write email newsletters for you, suggest blog post ideas, do keyword research, automate your workflows, and so much more.
To improve your WordPress website workflows with artificial intelligence, you will first need to create an account with OpenAI. Getting signed up is FREE. All you will need is an email and a password.
1. Generate Titles and Meta Descriptions with AIOSEO
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best SEO plugin for WordPress, and it just got an AI-powered boost. After adding your keywords to your blog posts, let AIOSEO and OpenAI further optimize your content for search engines.
Then, from within the WordPress post editor, you can tell OpenAI to generate titles and meta descriptions that best fit your content with the click of a button.
Simply go to the ‘AIOSEO Settings’ at the bottom of your page and find the ‘Post Title’ box.
Next, you need to click on the robot icon. If you hover your mouse over it, you will be able to see a ‘Use AI Generator’ message.
Now, you can see 5 post title suggestions. Simply click on the ‘+’ icon next to one to use it for your post.
If you don’t like any of the suggestions, you can also click ‘Generate New Titles’ to see new ones.
Then, simply repeat the same steps by clicking on the robot icon in the ‘Meta Description’ box. AIOSEO will then suggest a few meta descriptions for your post.
Plus, connecting your OpenAI account to your AIOSEO account is as easy as copying and pasting an API key. You can check out AIOSEO’s documentation for more details.
2. Generate Ad Copy and Product Descriptions
Due to GPT-3’s talent for SEO, it is probably no surprise that it can handle more of your content creation needs. You can use OpenAI to create short, effective ad copy that matches your brand or long-form product descriptions for your WooCommerce store.
For example, we prompted ChatGPT to describe the need for running shoes using the “problem-agitate-solve” framework.
Simply edit the text to match your preferred sentence structure, include your keywords, throw in some on-brand and product-specific language, and then watch your sales increase!
3. Generate Blog Post Ideas
If you are anything like us, then coming up with content ideas for your WordPress blog can be time consuming. Fortunately, OpenAI runs on one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
So, you can ask it to come up with ideas for new content on your blog.
In our previous examples, we used OpenAI to help with tasks by inputting prompts directly into ChatGPT.
In our next few examples, we will look at how to integrate OpenAI directly into your WordPress workflow, truly leveraging the power of automation and AI to save time and resources.
For this example, we will use OpenAI with Uncanny Automator to generate ideas for new content based on a user’s form submission. Then, we will automatically send OpenAI’s response to your content management spreadsheet or database, like Google Sheets or Airtable, for the whole team to access.
If you don’t already have Uncanny Automator, you can download the Automator plugin for FREE to try on your WordPress site.
Once you have downloaded Automator, you will need to connect Automator to OpenAI. Then we will build the automation recipe below.
First, you need to create a new form using a contact form plugin like WPForms. From your WordPress admin sidebar, navigate to WPForms » Add New.
Then, create a new contact form and make sure to add two number fields labeled ‘Temperature’ and ‘Maximum length’, and one single line text field labeled ‘Open AI Prompt’.
Now, you must head to Automator » Add New. In the pop-up window that appears, simply select ‘Logged-in users’, followed by ‘Confirm’.
Next, give your new recipe a title that makes it easy to recognize. For example, we have named our recipe ‘OpenAI Content Ideation’.
In the ‘Triggers’ panel, you need to select ‘WPForms’. From the drop-down list that appears, select ‘A user submits a form’ and choose the WPForms form that you just made. When you are finished, just click ‘Save’.
After that, in the ‘Actions’ panel, you have to select ‘OpenAI’.
From the drop-down list that appears, choose ‘Use a prompt to generate text with the Davinci model’.
In the Actions section, map the fields from the WPForms form to the Temperature, Length, and Prompt fields in the OpenAI action.
To do this, click the ‘*’ icon to the right of each field to choose the correct token associated with the trigger.
When you are finished, simply click Save.
To send the blog post ideas to an external spreadsheet, you will need to add a second Action. To do this, click ‘Add action’ in the ‘Actions’ panel.
From the menu of available integrations, simply choose Google Sheets.
Then, from the drop-down list, select ‘Create a row in a Google Sheet’.
In the editor, you must select your content management spreadsheet. Then, click ‘Get columns’ and add the OpenAI Response token to the appropriate column(s).
Make sure to click ‘Save’ when you are done.
Finally, in the top right corner, toggle your recipe from ‘Draft’ to ‘Live.’
Now, whenever you enter information into your blog post idea generator form, Automator will tell OpenAI to suggest new content ideas and send them to your Google Sheets spreadsheet.
In our example, we entered “Give me 5 fun blog posts on pediatric dentistry” into the WPForms form.
Then, OpenAI generated a response, and Automator added it to the worksheet in the recipe.
4. Perform Sentiment Analysis
There is no way of knowing if AI has any feelings of its own. If we had to guess, we would say that it probably doesn’t. At least, not yet. But that doesn’t mean that it cannot understand human emotions.
You can use OpenAI to perform sentiment analysis by asking it to interpret the mood of your customers’ feedback.
But how can you use this with your WordPress website?
Maybe your contact forms are connected to a help desk plugin, and you want to assign priority based on the message urgency.
Alternatively, maybe you want to automatically approve positive blog comments. You could even quickly identify negative feedback in surveys powered by your favorite WordPress form plugin.
In both cases, you will be able to address negative feedback quicker, keep your customers happier, and improve your online reputation.
5. Automate Customer Support with Intelligent Sentiment Analysis
Now that you know how to use OpenAI to perform sentiment analysis, you can easily add it to your workflows. By combining OpenAI’s emotional intelligence with Uncanny Automator’s efficiency, you will be able to create a seamless customer support system.
Let’s put together an Automator recipe that creates tickets in our customer support plugin whenever a customer reviews a product.
First, we have OpenAI perform sentiment analysis on the reviews as they come in.
Then, using Automator’s Filters feature, we create tasks with different priority levels based on OpenAI’s assessment of the customer’s sentiment.
In this recipe, if OpenAI decides that a new WooCommerce product review is negative, then it creates a new help desk ticket in FluentCRM and adds an Urgent tag.
If you are ready to take things to the next level, you could even use the submission to create a draft reply for the ticket.
Just add an extra OpenAI action to generate a draft reply, then include that response as the ticket draft.
This works best with the GPT-3.5-Turbo model because you can use Automator to also send context. For example, you can tell it to answer the prompt as a helpful support agent from your website.
6. Create Event Summaries, Recap Podcast Episodes, and Take Meeting Minutes
Running special events on your WordPress website is easy with WordPress calendar plugins. Unfortunately, not every customer of yours can save the date.
After all, we cannot do everything and be everywhere all at once, but OpenAI can.
If your customers missed the big day, OpenAI can create event summaries for you. You can even choose the length and format of the summary you want OpenAI to make.
For example, we asked ChatGPT to create a 100-word summary of an October 2008 IMF town hall. In less than one minute, ChatGPT turned the 1,500-word opening remarks into a 100-word summary.
Alternatively, maybe you are trying to grow your podcast audience. To help your listeners who don’t have two hours a day to consume media, you can use OpenAI to recap your podcast episodes, hitting all of the highlights.
Using transcripts, we asked ChatGPT to summarize the first 15 minutes of a popular podcast.
Finally, some conference call tools, like Zoom and Google Meet, allow users to record their meetings with audio transcripts. You can then feed those transcripts into OpenAI and create meeting summaries in just a few seconds.
7. Draft Blog Posts (and Seamlessly Integrate Them Into Your Workflows)
For content writers (including us), few things are more stressful than a blank page. Thankfully, artificial intelligence is the sledgehammer that can break through any writer’s block.
Using one of our blog post ideas from our previous recipe, we told OpenAI to draft a blog post for us.
In this Automator recipe, a form submission (the trigger) tells OpenAI to draft a new blog post. Then, it messages the writer in Slack to let them know the draft is ready for them.
From your WordPress admin sidebar, simply go to WPForms » Add New.
Then, create a new form with at least two number fields labeled ‘Temperature’ and ‘Maximum length.’ You will also need two single-line text fields labeled ‘Title’ and ‘Open AI Prompt’.
Next, you must go to Automator » Add New. In the pop-up window that appears, select ‘Logged-in users’. Then, simply give your new recipe a title like ‘OpenAI Blog Post Draft’.
In the ‘Triggers’ panel, you need to select ‘WPForms’ From the drop-down list that appears, you must choose ‘A user submits a form’ and pick the form you just created.
When you are finished, make sure to click ‘Save’.
Moving on, in the ‘Actions’ panel, you must select ‘OpenAI’. From the drop-down list that appears, choose ‘Use a prompt to generate text with the Davinci model’.
In the editor, fill in the fields using the tokens from your form’s fields that match the fields in the editor. When you are finished, just click ‘Save.’
Now, it is time to set up an automatic blog post that will be created with the OpenAI content.
In the ‘Actions’ panel, simply click ‘Add action’. Then, from the menu of available integrations, select ‘WordPress’.
Next, from the drop-down list, hit ‘Create a post’. In the editor, you must fill in the ‘Title’ field with the Title token from your form and enter the OpenAI Response token into the ‘Content’ field.
Then, make sure to click ‘Save’.
Optional: You can also add a ClickUp action to your recipe to create a task with the post URL in the description.
Additionally, you can include a Slack action to notify your content writer that a new task and draft post is waiting for their review.
Finally, in the top right corner, toggle your recipe from ‘Draft’ to ‘Live’.
In our WPForms form, we then asked OpenAI to ‘Write a casual blog post on three ways to make dental visits fun for kids.’
And here is the draft that Automator created with OpenAI’s response.
We call that the anti- writer’s block recipe! You can also use AI to generate your SEO title, write a meta description, and even set up a featured image.
8. Draft Emails in Minutes
Writing carefully-worded emails takes time. Unless, of course, OpenAI is writing them for you.
Whether you are sending out an internal notice, responding to a customer’s questions, or reaching out to prospective clients, OpenAI can draft your email in seconds. After that, it is just a matter of proofreading and including specific information.
We prompted ChatGPT to “write a 300-word marketing email promoting a Black Friday sale on limited edition clothing.” Less than 30 seconds later, we had an email that we could easily customize to suit our branding and needs.
Promoting your blog posts on social media is important. However, sometimes, writing the appropriate character-length tweets and captions can be even more challenging than creating a whole article.
With OpenAI and Automator, you won’t have to stress about the perfect hashtags.
Here is an example of an action that takes a new blog post and sends it to OpenAI to generate a summary that can be shared on Twitter:
Automator will send that summary, complete with hashtags, to our WhatsApp account. There, we can review, edit, copy, and then paste the content into our social media accounts when we are ready to publish it.
For a post on connecting ChatGPT to LearnDash, OpenAI wrote this summary:
Embrace the robot revolution and use OpenAI and LearnDash to create the e-learning platform of your dreams. #AI revolution is here! Harness the power of AI for your #elearning platform w/ OpenAI & ChatGPT models. Automate content creation, create course outlines & answer students’ questions. Save time & money w/ Uncanny Automator! #LearnDash #NolejAI #RobotRevolution.
You could even extend your recipe to make Automator post the summary straight to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.
10. Generate AI Images for Your Posts or Landing Pages
Are you tired of scrolling through stock photography databases trying to find the perfect image for your blog post? Or finding a picture and then realizing that every other article with your keywords is using the same image?
Fortunately, OpenAI’s image generator DALL-E 2 can create original images from descriptive plain text.
OpenAI’s Content Policy and Terms give you all of the rights to the images that you create with DALL-E 2, “including the right to reprint, sell, and merchandise.”
Using our original WPForms form with an added field for an image prompt, we used Automator to create a draft blog post complete with a featured image.
Here is that same blog post about dental visits with a featured image created by DALL-E.
As you can see, it has a fun graphic with a tooth, toothpaste, and different toothbrushes.
To make the process even easier, whenever you tell DALL-E to create an image using Uncanny Automator, Automator will add the image to your WordPress media library, with no hotlinking necessary.
11. Create Course Outlines in Your LMS
OpenAI is smart. After all, “intelligence” is in the name.
We asked OpenAI to create an advanced 8-week course outline on supercomputers, which, funnily enough, is kind of like an OpenAI autobiography.
Once you have your course outline, don’t forget to use AIOSEO’s OpenAI integration to write your meta description.
12. Create Lessons in Your LMS
Using a similar Uncanny Automator recipe to the previous one, you can easily fill in the course outline that you created with OpenAI-generated content.
We used OpenAI’s response from our previous recipe to help us create this lesson.
Here is the first part of it.
With the right prompts, you can also create a recipe that generates unique images for your lessons and uploads them automatically to your WordPress media library.
Using Automator tokens, you can also set your new DALL-E 2 generated image as the featured image for your lesson or include it somewhere in the lesson itself.
13. Create a Chatbot
As a natural language processor, OpenAI loves to talk. You can use this feature to communicate with customers in your online store or business website.
This can help you target users who are having problems on your site or want to learn more about your products and services.
14. Have Fun! Write Short Stories, Poems or Cook Up Recipes
Once you have fully integrated OpenAI and Uncanny Automator into your workflows, you will have enough time to do the things that really matter like growing your business or spending more quality time with family.
Playing around with OpenAI and trying out new things is a great way to learn how to create better prompts that get the results you are looking for, so you can continue to save time and optimize your workflows.
OpenAI and WordPress plugin development are in the super early stages right now, and there is so much more in the works. We will be sharing more details and updates in this guide in the coming months.
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 a sliding side cart in WooCommerce?
This allows shoppers to see their shopping cart from any page on your online store. Customers can then add items to their basket, remove products, and add coupons without ever having to visit a separate cart page.
In this article, we will show you how you can easily add a sliding cart in WooCommerce.
Why Add a Sliding Side Cart in WooCommerce?
A sliding side cart is a panel that appears when a customer adds an item to their basket.
Customers can also open the cart at any time by clicking on the cart icon. This allows them to check their shopping basket without having to visit a separate WooCommerce cart page.
Depending on how the cart is set up, shoppers may also be able to add and remove items as well as apply coupons directly from the sliding panel. You can even add call to action buttons such as a link to your WooCommerce checkout page.
Sliding carts can improve the customer experience by removing friction from the shopping process, and help shoppers keep track of how much they’ll pay at checkout. This can reduce cart abandonment rates, while also possibly increasing the average order value.
With that being said, let’s see how you can add a sliding side cart in WooCommerce. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
Method 1. How to Add a Sliding Side Cart in WooCommerce Using a Free Plugin
The quickest and easiest way to create a sliding side cart is by using Cart For WooCommerce By FunnelKit. This free plugin allows you to add a cart icon to your online store.
Shoppers can click the button to open the sliding side cart.
You can change the cart’s colors, borders, buttons, messaging, and more.
There are a ton of options to make it perfectly fit your WordPress theme.
You can show the cart button across your entire site, limit it to WooCommerce pages only, or add the button to specific pages and posts using a shortcode.
Upon activation, go to FunnelKit » Cart. You’ll see a preview of the sliding slide cart towards the right of the screen.
You can now customize the cart to better suit your needs.
To start, you can decide whether to show the cart icon across your entire website or on WooCommerce pages only.
If you select ‘Entire Site’, then shoppers can open the sliding cart from any page, so this is a good choice for online marketplaces and stores.
However, some WooCommerce sites have lots of non-ecommerce content. For example, you might run a popular WordPress blog, but use WooCommerce to sell merchandise to your fans.
Showing a cart button on every single blog post may become annoying. In that case, you can check the ‘WooCommerce Pages’ radio button.
Another option is ‘None,’ which hides the cart icon completely.
If you select the ‘None’ option, then you can add the icon to any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode. You can also add the icon to your navigation menu.
We’ll show you how to do this later in the post, but for now, select ‘None’ if you plan to add the cart icon manually.
After making this decision, select ‘Bottom Left’ or ‘Bottom Right’ depending on where you want to show the cart button. Here, it may help to check how the button will look on your online store by selecting ‘Preview on Page.’
By default, the plugin shows ‘Review Your Cart’ at the top of the sliding side cart.
You can replace this with your own messaging by typing into the ‘Cart Heading’ field.
If you don’t want to show a heading, then simply leave the field empty.
By default, FunnelKit shows the cart icon before the shopper adds any items to their basket.
If you prefer, then you can hide the icon until the visitor starts adding items. Simply click on the ‘Hide Cart Icon’ toggle so that it turns blue.
This is all you need to create a basic sliding side cart, but there are settings that can get you even more sales. With that in mind, let’s take a look at FunnelKit’s more advanced features.
Accept Coupons in the WooCommerce Sliding Side Cart
When the customer clicks on ‘Apply,’ the sliding cart will show how much they’ve saved.
Since customers can see the discount straight away, this will encourage them to add more items to their basket and may reduce your cart abandonment rates.
You can create these codes using the built-in WooCommerce coupon feature or by using a coupon code plugin.
To add the coupon field, click on the ‘Enable Coupon Box’ toggle, which turns it from grey (disabled) to blue (enabled).
After that, you can switch between ‘Minimized’ and ‘Expanded’ layouts. Minimized takes up less space so it’s less distracting, but shoppers will need to expand the coupon section before they can type in any codes.
In the following image, you can see the minimized layout.
After choosing a layout, you can change the text that FunnelKit uses for the coupon box heading, discount placeholder text, and button text.
Customize the Cart Summary
The cart summary shows customers how much their purchase will cost. This helps reduce cart abandonment rates since there are no nasty surprises at checkout.
For that reason, we recommend leaving the ‘Show Subtotal’ toggle enabled.
However, if you want to simplify the side cart, then you can click to disable the ‘Show Subtotal’ toggle.
You can also show any savings the customer has qualified for, including discounts from any coupons they’ve applied.
If you prefer to hide this information from the sliding side cart, then you can disable the ‘Display Savings’ toggle.
You can also replace the ‘Saving Text’ and ‘Shipping Text’ with your own custom messaging.
Customize the WooCommerce Cart’s Call To Action
The sliding side cart has a default checkout button, but you can customize this call to action button to get more conversions. To start, you can add a checkout icon using the ‘Enable Button Icon’ toggle.
You can also add the cart price to the checkout button using the ‘Enable Cart Price’ toggle.
This may help shoppers keep track of how much the cart will cost, especially if you’ve removed the subtotal from the cart summary section.
By default, FunnelKit adds a ‘Continue Shopping’ link at the bottom of the sliding side cart. You can replace this text with your own messaging by typing into the ‘Continue Shopping Text’ field.
After that, choose whether this link will simply close the side cart panel or redirect the shopper to your WooCommerce store page.
Most shoppers will expect to exit the sliding cart, so we recommend selecting the ‘Close Side Cart’ button.
If you select ‘Redirect to Shop,’ then you may want to change the ‘Continue Shopping Text’ text so it’s clear what will happen when customers click the link.
Create a Custom Empty Cart Screen
It is possible to hide the cart button until the shopper adds at least one item to their basket, following the process described above.
However, if you don’t hide the button then customers may sometimes see an empty cart screen.
You can change the title, description, and button text using the settings in the ‘Empty Cart’ section. Typically, you’ll want to encourage customers to start shopping. For example, you might talk about things you offer such as free shipping or a money-back guarantee.
You can also choose whether clicking on the ‘Shop Now’ button will take the customer to the WooCommerce store page, or simply close the side panel.
We recommend selecting ‘Redirect To Shop’ as this will make it easier for shoppers to start adding items to their carts.
Add The Cart Icon Anywhere on your Site
If you want more control over where the cart icon appears, then you can add it to any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode. You can also add it to your site’s menu.
This is a great choice if you selected ‘None’ in the ‘Icon Visibility’ settings following the process described above.
However, if you selected ‘WooCommerce Pages’ then this method allows you to add the cart icon to other important areas of your site. For example, you might add the icon to your custom home page or contact form.
To start, select ‘Cart Menu’ and then click on the ‘Enable Cart Menu’ toggle.
You can now change how the icon looks by selecting one of the icon templates, and choosing whether to show the product count and cart total as part of the icon. This information can help visitors keep track of their carts.
You can also change the icon size and text size. As you make changes, the small preview will update automatically so you can try different settings to see what looks the best.
When you’re happy with how the sliding side cart icon looks, click on the ‘Save’ button.
You can now add the icon to any page, post, or widget-ready area using the code next to ‘Embed Shortcode.’
Another option is to add the icon to your site’s navigation menu. In this way, the sliding side cart is always within easy reach, without distracting from the main page content.
To do this, open the ‘Add to Menu’ dropdown and choose the menu you want to use.
After that, click on the ‘Save’ button.
Now if you visit your WordPress website, you’ll see the cart icon in the navigation menu.
Add Your Own Colors and Branding
You may want to change the sliding side cart’s colors to better match your WooCommerce theme or branding. To change the text color, button color, link color, and more, go ahead and click on ‘Styling.’
To change any of the default colors, simply give it a click. This opens a popup where you can try out different colors.
For example, in the following image, we’re customizing the border.
Another option is to type a hex code into the ‘Hex’ field. This is perfect if you already have a specific shade in mind.
If you don’t know what hex code to use, then it may help to use a site like HTML Color Codes. Here, you can explore different colors and then get a code that you can simply paste into the FunnelKit plugin.
How to Create a Responsive Sliding Side Cart
Many people buy products and services using a mobile device. With that in mind, you’ll want to make sure the sliding side cart looks just as good on smartphones and tablets, as it does on desktop computers.
Here, it may help to change the cart’s width so it doesn’t completely fill the small screen of a mobile device. To do this, click on ‘Styling’ and then look at the ‘Cart Preview Mobile Width.’
While you’re on this screen, you can also change the width of the sliding side cart on desktop. To do this, simply change the number in the ‘Cart Preview Desktop Width’ field.
How To Publish Your Sliding Side Cart
When you’re happy with how the sliding side cart is set up, it’s time to make it live. Simply click on the ‘Draft’ button next to ‘Cart’ and then choose ‘Publish.’
Now if you visit your online store, you’ll see the sliding cart live.
If you want to remove the sliding side cart at any point, then just head back to FunnelKit » Cart in the WordPress dashboard. Then, click on the ‘Publish’ button and select ‘Draft.’
Method 2. Add an Advanced Sliding Side Cart (With Upsells, Cross-Sells, and Rewards)
If you want to increase the average order value on your store, then you can upgrade to FunnelKit Cart Pro. This advanced sliding side cart plugin adds powerful upsell, cross-selling, and reward features to the FunnelKit sliding side cart.
With this plugin, you can recommend related products every time a customer adds an item to their cart.
You can also create unique rewards such as coupon codes and free gifts, and then promote them inside the sliding cart.
FunnelKit can even track how much more the customer needs to spend, in order to unlock the next reward.
To add these powerful features, you’ll need to upgrade to FunnelKit Funnel Builder Pro. Just be aware that you’ll need the Plus or higher plan.
After buying a plan, log into your FunnelKit account. Here, you’ll find the FunnelKit Funnel Builder Pro plugin, plus FunnelKit Funnel Builder and FunnelKit Cart. You’ll need to install all three plugins to unlock the advanced sliding cart features.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the three plugins. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, go to FunnelKit » Settings and add your license key to the ‘FunnelKit Funnel Builder Pro’ field.
You can find this information by logging into your account on the FunnelKit website. With that done, click on ‘Activate.’
After that, simply go to FunnelKit » Cart.
You can now configure and customize the side cart by following the same process described in method 1. When you’re happy with how the sliding side cart is set up, you’re ready to add upsells, cross-sells, and rewards.
Get More Sales By Upselling and Cross-Selling WooCommerce Products
When a customer opens the sliding side cart, you can show them unique upsell and cross-sell promotions based on the items in their shopping basket.
Upselling is where you encourage shoppers to buy a higher-priced product instead of the one they already have in their shopping cart.
For example, imagine a customer adding a waterproof jacket to their cart. You might suggest a higher-quality jacket that’s more durable, versatile, and comes in different colors.
Cross-selling is where you promote a product that’s related to something the customer is already buying. For example, if they add a greeting card to their cart, then you might encourage them to buy chocolates or flowers too.
WooCommerce has a linked product feature that allows you to create upsells and cross-sells. For more information, please see our guide on how to upsell products in WooCommerce.
However, you can also create upsells and cross-sells directly from the FunnelKit dashboard. This is the quickest option, so it’s the one we’ll be using in this guide.
To start, click on the ‘Upsells’ option and then select ‘Enable Cart Upsells.’
After that, scroll to the ‘Upsells and Cross-Sells’ section.
Here, you’ll see all the products on your online store.
Simply click on the item where you want to add one or more linked products.
Then, click on either ‘Add Upsell’ or ‘Add Cross Sell’ depending on the kind of promotion you want to create.
In the popup, start typing the product that you want to use as the upsell or cross-sell. When the right product appears, give it a click.
To offer multiple products, simply follow the same process described above.
With that done, simply click on the ‘Add’ button.
You can now create unique cross-sell and upsell campaigns for every product in your store, simply by following the same process described above.
Now, you’re ready to customize how the upsell and cross-sell promotions will look on your sliding side cart.
To start, try switching between different styles by clicking the radio buttons next to ‘Display.’
The live preview will update automatically so you can try different styles to see which one you like the best.
By default, FunnelKit will show both upsells and cross-sells in the sliding side cart. If you prefer then you can show only upsells, or only cross-sells using the radio buttons in ‘Product Recommendation Type.’
Next, you can change the heading that FunnelKit shows above the upsell or cross-sell promotion by typing it into the ‘Heading’ field.
Just be aware that FunnelKit will use the same heading for both types of promotion.
After that, you can set the maximum number of suggested products that FunnelKit will show, by typing into the ‘Show Maximum Upsells’ field.
Wherever possible, it’s a good idea to create unique upsell and cross-sell promotions for every product. However, if your online store has lots of items then this might not be possible.
With that in mind, you can set a default upsell product that FunnelKit will promote when no linked products are available. To do this, simply type the name of a product into the ‘Default Upsells’ field. When the right product appears, give it a click.
When you’re happy with the upsell and cross-sell promotions you’ve created, don’t forget to click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.
Offer Free Shipping, Discounts, and Free Gifts
You can often increase the average order value by giving customers a reason to spend more. With that in mind, FunnelKit allows you to create various rewards and then promote them as unlockable bonuses in the sliding side cart.
For example, you might offer free shipping if the customer exceeds a minimum spend. FunnelKit will even show customers how much more they need to spend to unlock their prize.
FunnelKit allows you to offer three different rewards: free shipping, a discount, and a free gift.
To offer free shipping, you’ll need to have already set up shipping in your WooCommerce store. For step-by-step instructions, please see our complete WooCommerce made simple guide.
Meanwhile, the ‘discount’ reward auto-applies a coupon when the customer reaches the minimum spend. If you want to offer this reward, then you’ll need to create a percentage discount coupon using either the built-in WooCommerce coupon feature or a WordPress coupon plugin.
After that, you’re ready to create a reward by selecting ‘Rewards’ in the FunnelKit settings and then clicking on ‘Create Reward.’
You can now open the ‘Type’ dropdown and choose the kind of reward you want to create.
No matter whether you choose free gift, free shipping, or discount, you can change the text that FunnelKit shows to customers by typing into the ‘Message’ field.
If you do make any changes, then be careful not to edit {{remaining_amount}} as this allows FunnelKit to show how much more the customer needs to spend.
If you’re offering a discount, then make sure you change the message to show how much the customer will save.
With that done, type a number into the ‘Amount to Get Reward’ field. This is how much shoppers must spend, in order to unlock the reward.
If you’re offering a percentage discount, then you need to specify which coupon FunnelKit should auto-apply.
In the ‘Coupon’ field, start typing the coupon that you want to use. When the right code shows up, give it a click.
Now, FunnelKit will auto-apply the coupon when someone meets the minimum spend.
Offering a free gift instead? Then start typing the name of the gift into the ‘Product’ field.
When the right product shows up, give it a click.
Now, FunnelKit will add this item to the customer’s shopping cart as soon as they meet the minimum spend.
To add more rewards, simply click on ‘Create Another Reward.’
You can now configure the discount, free gift, or free shipping reward by following the same process described above.
By default, FunnelKit will show the following message once a customer qualifies for all the awards: ‘Congrats! You have unlocked all the rewards.’
To show a different message instead, simply type into the ‘When All Rewards Unlocked’ field. You might even offer the customer a special bonus for unlocking all your rewards, such as an exclusive coupon code to use on their next purchase.
When you’re happy with how your rewards are set up, click on the ‘Save’ button.
How To Publish Your Sliding Side Cart
When you’re ready to make the sliding side cart live, simply select the ‘Draft’ button next to ‘Cart.’ You can then click on ‘Publish.’
If you want to remove the sliding side cart at any point, then simply head back to FunnelKit » Cart in the WordPress dashboard. Then, click on the ‘Publish’ button and select ‘Draft.’
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Are you looking for a comparison between WPForms, Gravity Forms, and Formidable Forms?
These three are the best WordPress form plugins in the market. However, picking the right form builder can be challenging for many website owners.
In this article, we’ll compare WPForms vs Gravity Forms vs Formidable Forms and show which is the best.
Introduction to WordPress Form Plugins
WPForms, Gravity Forms, and Formidable Forms are among the most popular WordPress form plugins that you can use. Each of them offers unique features and allows you to add different forms to your website.
WPForms was launched in 2016 by Syed Balkhi (founder of WPBeginner) and Jared Atchison. Since its launch, over 5 million WordPress sites have been using the plugin. The goal of creating WPForms was to offer an easy and powerful form plugin. It takes the pain out of creating online forms by making the process beginner friendly.
Gravity Forms is created by the team at Rocketgenius. It is a WordPress plugin that lets you add forms to your WordPress site. The plugin also specializes in helping developers build complex form-related solutions.
Formidable Forms is another powerful WordPress form builder created by Steph Wells and Steve Wells. You can use it to create a wide range of forms from simple contact forms to advanced solutions-focused forms like mortgage calculators, directories, listing forms, and more. Formidable Forms is part of WPBeginner Growth Fund companies.
That being said, let’s compare these WordPress form plugins and find out which is the best for your use case. In our research, we tried dozens of WordPress form plugins, and have decided to compare these top 3 form plugins in the following criteria:
When it comes to picking a WordPress form plugin, it is essential to choose a tool that is easy to use. The form builder should allow users to easily customize their forms without the need to edit code or hire a developer.
Let’s see how the 3 plugins compare to each other for ease of use.
WPForms – Ease of Use
WPForms is a beginner-friendly form plugin for WordPress. It offers a drag-and-drop form builder that is very super simple to use.
You can easily customize any form by adding multiple form fields from the menu on your left. All you have to do is drag the field and drop it onto the form template.
WPForms also makes it very easy to add your forms anywhere on the WordPress website. The best part, you can do all this within the form builder. You can click the embed button, and WPForms will show you options for adding your form.
For instance, you can create a new page or select an existing one to embed your forms.
You can also manually add your form to any page or post using the WordPress block. Besides that, the plugin lets you use shortcodes to add a form to your WordPress website.
Gravity Forms – Ease of Use
Gravity Forms also offers a drag-and-drop form builder, and it lets you create all types of forms without editing code.
You can quickly rework your form from inside the WordPress dashboard. The form builder offers different form fields that you can add by simply placing them onto the template.
After creating a form, Gravity Forms also lets you easily embed it on your website. Just like WPForms and Formidable Forms, you get an option inside the drag-and-drop builder to add your form.
Gravity Forms also offers a WordPress block to easily embed your forms on any page or post. Plus, you can use shortcodes or add the forms manually anywhere on your site.
Formidable Forms – Ease of Use
Formidable Forms is a user-friendly plugin that to lets you customize your forms using a drag-and-drop form builder, just like WPForms and Gravity Forms.
You can simply drag any form field from the options on your left and place them on the template. The plugin also lets you rearrange the order of the fields by simply moving them up or down or side to side.
Formidable Forms makes it very easy to embed your forms anywhere on your website. You can use the Formidable Forms block to add the form to any post or page. Or click the embed button in the form builder to embed your forms.
Winner – Tie
When it comes to ease, all 3 plugins perform equally well. Each of them offers a drag-and-drop functionality, which lets you edit and customize forms with editing code easily. Plus, each plugin makes it very easy to embed the forms anywhere on the website.
WPForms has a slight edge because it leans on decisions over options by giving you over 600+ form templates and easy-to-use choices whereas Gravity Forms and Formidable Forms are built more for developers.
Form Templates
Form templates are another important factor to consider when choosing a form plugin for WordPress.
Templates help save time as you don’t have to create a form from scratch. You can quickly edit it according to your requirements or simply use the default template to add a form to your website.
Let’s see how WPForms vs Gravity Forms vs Formidable Forms stack up in terms of form templates.
WPForms – Form Templates
With WPForms, you get over 600 prebuilt form templates. Whether you’re looking to create a simple contact form, feedback form, request a quote form, payment form, or registration form, WPForms has you covered.
The plugin categorizes form templates into different categories in the form builder. For instance, you can find different templates for business operations, customer service, education, entertainment, event planning, feedback, health and wellness, and more.
Even in the free version of WPForms, you get a lot of form templates to get started.
Gravity Forms – Form Templates
Gravity Forms offers limited prebuilt form templates compared to WPForms and Formidable Forms.
You only get 15 form templates in the form builder. Some of these include a simple contact form, advanced contact form, donation form, eCommerce form, event registration form, survey, newsletter signup form, and more.
Formidable Forms – Form Templates
Formidable Forms offers over 175 WordPress form templates and examples you can use for your website.
What makes it different is that you get templates for advanced forms. For instance, you can create an advanced mortgage calculator form, net promoter score (NPS) survey form, car payment calculator form, life insurance calculator form, doctor visit form, signature forms, and more.
Besides that, you can find forms for payment collection, health and wellness, customer service, education, donations, event planning, and more.
Winner – WPForms
WPForms is a standout winner compared to Gravity Forms and Formidable Forms. You get the largest form template library in WPForms, with over 600 choices available. There are prebuilt templates for just about any type of form you want to create for your website.
Customization Options
A WordPress form plugin should allow you to edit and customize your form with ease. When selecting the right tool, you should look at the customization options the plugin offers.
Here’s a look at the different features offered by WPForms, Gravity Forms, and Formidable Forms.
WPForms – Customization Options
WPForms offers lots of customization options for your form. For starters, it offers different form fields that you can simply drag and drop from the menu on your left onto the template.
For instance, it offers standard fields like paragraph text, multiple choice, checkboxes, and more. Plus, you can add fancier fields like phone number, address, file upload, date/time, website, and more.
If you click on an existing form field, then you’ll see more options for customization.
You can edit the label of the field, make it a mandatory field, add smart logic, and more. For example, you can choose which payment methods to show in an order form and rearrange their order.
Instead of asking multiple questions at once, you can take the one-question-at-a-time approach. It will look like having a conversation face to face with a human, and boost form conversions.
Similarly, you can also use the lead forms addon to increase form conversions. It basically allows you to embed conversational forms on any page on your WordPress site.
WPForms offers more customization features like custom form landing pages similar to Google forms. You can create a distraction-free landing page for your form and get more conversions.
The plugin lets you add a title and description for the page, a header logo, and edit the page URL. You also get to change the background color of the page and choose a style to make your forms more appealing.
Other customization options offered by WPForms include a save and continue feature. This lets your users save the progress while filling out a form and continue later to complete it. You can allow users to sign your online forms using their mouse or touchscreen.
If you have lengthy forms, then you can use the multi-page feature to split them into different pages. Or you can use conditional logic to show different form fields based on the user’s responses.
Besides that, you can also customize the notification and confirmation settings for your form. In the notification settings, you can edit details like email addresses, subject lines, names, messages, and more.
Similarly, you can also edit the confirmation message a user will see when they submit a form. You can show a thank you message, show a page, or redirect people to a specific URL.
Gravity Forms – Customization Options
Gravity Forms offers different form fields to customize your form template.
These include standard fields, advanced fields, post fields, and pricing fields.
Just like WPForms and Formidable Forms, you can click on existing form fields to edit them further.
However, you’ll see a slight difference in the customization options. There are general settings for a field where you can change its label and add a description.
Other than that, you can edit the appearance of the field, change advanced settings like enabling field autocomplete, and add conditional logic.
Other than that, you also get control over different form settings. For example, you can edit the notifications and confirmations settings in the form builder.
You can also configure ‘Personal Data’ settings similar to WPForms. These allow you to prevent the storage of IP addresses during form submission. Plus, you can enable integration with other tools for exporting and erasing personal data, which is helpful in complying with data regulations like GDPR.
Formidable Forms – Customization Options
With the Formidable Forms drag-and-drop builder, you can easily customize your form with options such as prebuilt form fields that you add to your template.
What makes the plugin different from others is that it offers multiple form fields that will help you create advanced forms. For instance, you can add a user ID field, captcha, hidden field, appointments, lookup field, and more.
Besides that, you can easily edit each existing field in the template.
There are general options to change the label, add a CSS class, and more. Or you can view the advanced options to add a placeholder text, and description, edit the field size and allow maximum characters.
What’s different about Formidable Forms compared to WPForms and Gravity Forms is that it also offers different styles for your forms.
You can use the default style or choose from various options. This way, you can change the appearance of your forms without having to enter CSS code.
Other than that, you can also customize the form settings. For instance, the plugin lets you change the notification settings, and form permissions, and also allows form scheduling.
Winner – WPForms
After comparing all 3 plugins, we found WPForms to be the clear winner. It offers more customization features compared to Formidable Forms and Gravity Forms.
You can add different form fields, change their settings, rearrange them, and more using the drag-and-drop builder. Besides that, WPForms offers tons of features to make your form more appealing and boost conversions.
Additional Features and Integrations
Now that we’ve covered ease of use, templates, and customization options, let’s see how WPForms, Formidable Forms, and Gravity Forms compare in terms of additional features and integrations.
As a website owner, you’d want a WordPress plugin that easily works with third-party tools, payment services, and email marketing services. Here’s what each plugin has to offer.
WPForms – Additional Features and Integrations
WPForms offers lots of premium addons and integrations that extend its functionality and benefits.
For instance, you can accept file uploads with its post-submission addon. This way, users can easily submit content on the front end of your site without requiring access to the WordPress dashboard.
Similarly, you get addons for geolocation data and see where your form users are from. The user journey addon can show you the pages and posts people visited before submitting a form.
The plugin also offers a form abandonment addon that captures partial entries for a form. You can then recover those entries and encourage users to complete a form.
Aside from this, WPForms provides more addons for creating custom Captcha, allowing digital signatures, locking WordPress forms, creating interactive form layouts, and more.
Another advantage of using WPForms compared to other plugins is that it easily integrates with different tools and plugins. For example, you can use it with popular email marketing tools like Drip, Mailchimp, and Constant Contact.
The plugin also supports payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, Square, and Authorize.Net. You can also integrate WPForms with CRMs such as Salesforce and HubSpot.
Gravity Forms – Additional Features and Integrations
Gravity Forms also offers different addons that can help you get the most out of the plugin. However, the list is not as expansive as WPForms, and you’d have to pay extra to use third-party extensions.
You get additional features for setting up user registrations, creating surveys and polls, tracking users’ geolocation, collecting partial form entries, allowing signatures, and more.
Besides that, Gravity Forms also offers integrations with different tools and plugins.
You can easily integrate email marketing tools like AWeber, Constant Contact, Mailgun, and more. Plus, you can add anti-spam solutions like Akismet and reCAPTCHA.
Other integrations include Google Analytics, Dropbox, Zapier, Trello, ActiveCampaign, HelpScout, PayPal Checkout, 2Checkout, and Stripe.
Formidable Forms – Additional Features and Integrations
Formidable Forms offers different addons and integration features. Most of the additional features are similar to WPForms and Gravity Forms.
However, what makes Formidable Forms different is that you get several powerful features to create advanced forms, set up web applications, show stats on the front end, and more.
For instance, the plugin offers a form action automation feature to schedule email notifications, SMS messages, and other actions. It also offers API webhooks that let you send submissions to REST APIs.
It also offers a visual views addon that lets you display data from form entries on the front end of your website. You can create web apps to display form submissions in tables, grids, calendars, and other views.
This is great for showing testimonials and product reviews, adding a user-submitted events calendar, and displaying useful statistics.
Besides that, Formidable Forms also lets you create applications for your website. It offers prebuilt templates that include different forms, views, and pages for your application. Simply select a template, and the plugin will take care of the rest.
You can create different applications, such as product reviews, real estate listings, testimonials, restaurant menus, certificates, and more.
For example, you can offer professional certificates in just a few clicks. Simply choose the certificate application template, and Formidable Forms will automatically add a form with a certificate generator on your website.
It will also add views for the certificate and certificate of completion, which users can see on the front end.
Other advanced features offered by Formidable Forms include converting WordPress forms to PDF, mapping form fields to PDF form fields, quizzes, repeater fields, SMS voting, front-end editing, and more.
Other than that, you can also integrate Formidable Forms with different payment services, email marketing tools, CRMs, and third-party plugins. It even works with Uncanny Automator and Zapier, so you can connect Formidable Forms to services like Asana, Slack, and Dropbox.
The best part about using Formidable Forms is that you get all the advanced features in one place, with everything included in a single pricing plan. If you were to use Gravity Forms, then you’d need to subscribe to multiple third-party addons.
For example, you’d need the basic Gravity Forms plan along with other extensions like Gravity PDF, File Upload Pro, Gravity View, Gravity Math, and so on. This can add to your overall cost and make it very expensive to use Gravity Forms.
Winner – Formidable Forms
While each plugin offers multiple additional features and integrations, Formidable Forms is the standout winner. It offers more advanced features that you can use to display form results on the front end, create complex forms, convert forms to PDF, create web applications, and use various addons to help users create form solutions for any scenario.
WPForms gets an honorary mention for marketing-related features, like form abandonment and digital signatures. It also integrates with popular email services, CRM software, tracking tools, payment gateways, and other plugins.
Pricing Plans
The next parameter we will compare WPForms vs Gravity Forms vs Formidable Forms is that of pricing. Let’s see which plugin offers the most value for money.
WPForms – Pricing
WPForms offers 4 different pricing plans suitable for all types of businesses. These include a Basic plan, which costs $49.50 per year, and you can use it for 1 website. It also offers all the essential features like premium templates, entry management, and file uploads.
If you want to use the plugin on more websites and require marketing integrations, then WPForms offers a Plus plan for $99.50 per year.
On the other hand, there is a Pro plan that includes everything from the Basic and Plus plans. It includes payment addons, conversion tools, and other advanced form features. This will close you $199.50 per year.
Lastly, there is an Elite plan for $299.50 per year, which has everything. You get to use it on unlimited websites and get all the features and integrations WPForms has to offer. Each premium plan comes with 14-day money back guarantee.
The best part, there is also a WPForms Lite version you can use for free. You get multiple form templates, standard fields for customization, spam protection, and other features.
Gravity Forms – Pricing Plans
Gravity Forms offer 3 premium plans, which include the Basic License, Pro License, and Elite License.
With the Basic License plan, you can use the plugin on 1 website. You also get addons for email marketing tools and spam protection services. This plan will cost you $59 per year.
Next, there is a Pro License plan that offers more addons. For instance, you get to integrate more email marketing services, CRMs, payment gateways, and third-party services. This plan will cost $159 per year.
Lastly, Gravity Forms offers an Elite License plan that includes all the features from the Basic and Pro plans. In addition to that, Elite plan users also get access to features like polls, quizzes, digital signatures, surveys, geolocation, and more. The Elite plan is available for $259 per year.
That said, Gravity Forms doesn’t offer a free version, like WPForms or Formidable Forms. You’d also need to pay extra to use different third-party addons and extensions.
Formidable Forms – Pricing Plans
Formidable Forms lets you choose from 4 pricing plans. It starts with a Basic plan, costing $39.50 per year. You get 50+ form templates and basic features like conditional logic and file uploads.
Besides that, there is a Plus plan for $99.50 per year, and it offers more form templates and features. For instance, you get the Formidable Views feature, landing pages, and integration with Mailchimp, MailPoet Newsletters, and AWeber.
Next, it offers a Business plan that includes over 150 form templates, premium addons, more integrations, and additional features. This plan will cost you $199.50 per year.
Lastly, there is an Elite plan for $299.50 per year, and it includes all the features and integrations. You get all the templates and support for third-party tools like Salesforce, ActiveCampaign, and HubSpot.
Formidable Forms also offers a free version. You can get started for free and get features like drag and drop form builder, basic form templates, and standard form fields for customization.
Winner – WPForms and Formidable Forms
When it comes to offering the most value for money, both WPForms and Formidable Forms clearly stand out when compared to Gravity Forms.
Both of them offer 4 different pricing plans for businesses of all sizes. Plus, you get a free version, which helps small website owners, bloggers, and others to create WordPress forms without a considerable investment. You also don’t have to pay more to use multiple addons and advanced features.
Which is the Best WordPress Form Plugin?
WPForms, Gravity Forms, and Formidable Forms are some of the best WordPress form plugins you can get your hands on today.
However, we believe that WPForms is the best plugin for creating forms for your WordPress website. It is super easy to use and offers tons of features.
You get over 600 form templates, a drag-and-drop form builder, multiple form fields for customization, and additional settings to edit your form. Plus, there are different premium addons that allow you to expand the functionality of WPForms.
Not to mention, there is a WPForms Lite version available for free. It also includes lots of form templates and customization features. You can quickly create forms for your website using the free plugin.
On the other hand, if you’re a developer looking to save time on developing complex and advanced WordPress forms, then Formidable Forms is the perfect solution. You can create calculators and web applications, convert forms to PDF, and much more without editing code.
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Do you want to use icon fonts in the WordPress post editor?
Icon fonts allow you to easily use images and symbols in text. They are lightweight and won’t slow down your site, and they can be easily scaled to any size and styled like any other text font.
In this article, we’ll show you how to easily use icon fonts in the WordPress post editor without writing any HTML code.
We’ll show you multiple methods, each one using a slightly different approach than the other. You can choose one that works best for you.
Method 1. Adding Icon Fonts in WordPress Post Editor using JVM Rich Text Icons
This method is recommended to use on any kind of WordPress website. It is easy to use and works seamlessly with the block editor.
Upon activation, you can simply edit a WordPress post or page or create a new one. Inside the post editor, add a new paragraph block, and you’ll see a new Flag icon in the block toolbar.
Clicking on it will show a popup of icons to choose from. It uses the popular Font Awesome icon fonts by default.
You can use the search to look for an icon or simply scroll down to find the icon you want, and then click to add it.
One advantage of using icon fonts is that you can use CSS to style them.
However, since you are already using the block editor, you can simply use the built-in color tools to style the icons.
The plugin allows you to use icon fonts in most text blocks such as Paragraph, List, Button, Columns, Cover, and more.
Here is an example of using icon fonts and block options to style three columns.
Another useful example of using icon fonts is with buttons.
This time we are using inline icon fonts alongside some text for the two buttons.
Feel free to use the block editor tools like text alignment, colors, spacing, and more to get the most out of the icon fonts.
Method 2. Add Icon Fonts in WordPress Post Editor with Font Awesome
This method requires you to add shortcodes in the post editor to display icon fonts. You can use this method if you don’t need to regularly use icon fonts in your WordPress posts and pages.
Upon activation, you’ll be asked to enter your plugin license key. You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website.
After entering your license key and clicking ‘Verify Key,’ you can start working on your landing page.
Simply go to the SeedProd » Landing Pages page and click on the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button.
After that, you will be asked to choose a template for your landing page.
SeedProd comes with a bunch of beautiful designs that you can use as a starting point, or you can start with a blank template and design the whole thing yourself.
For this tutorial, we will be using a pre-designed template. Simply click on a template to select it and continue.
Next, you will be asked to provide a title for your landing page and choose a URL.
After entering them, click on the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button to continue.
SeedProd will now launch the page builder interface. It is a drag-and-drop design tool where you can simply point and click on any item to edit it.
You can also drag and drop blocks from the left column to add new elements to your design.
For the sake of this tutorial, we are going to add the Icon block.
After you add the block, you can simply click to edit its properties.
The left column will change to show the options for the Icon block. You can click into the ‘Icon’ section to the left and choose a different icon image or change the color and style.
Another way to use icons in SeedProd is by adding the ‘Icon Box’ block.
The difference between this and the ‘Icon’ block we used previously is that ‘Icon Box’ allows you to add text along with your chosen icon.
This is one of the most common ways to use icons when displaying product features, services, and other items.
You can place your icon box inside columns, choose colors, and adjust the icon size to your liking.
Additionally, you can also format the accompanying text using SeedProd’s formatting toolbar.
Once you are finished editing your page, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button at the top right corner of the screen.
If you’re ready, you can click ‘Publish’ for the page to go live, or you can click on ‘Preview’ to make sure it looks like you want it to.
You can also click on ‘Save as Template’ so you can reuse this design with SeedProd on other parts of your website.
Here is how the icon fonts looked on our test website.
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