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Category: wpbeginner.com

  • How to Create and Sell Ebooks in WordPress from Start to Finish

    Did you know that you can create an ebook from your WordPress blog posts?

    Offering ebook downloads on your WordPress website is a good way to make money online or grow your email list. Writing a book is a big job, but you may discover that you’ve already written enough content for a book on your blog.

    In this article, we’ll show you a smart way on how to create an ebook from your WordPress blog posts.

    How to Create an Ebook From Your WordPress Blog Posts

    Why Create an Ebook From Your WordPress Blog Posts?

    If you publish regular blog posts on your WordPress website, then you have a lot of content that you can repurpose or monetize. One of the best ways to repurpose your content is to turn your blog into an ebook.

    Writing an ebook can build your site’s credibility. You can use it to grow your email list, offer it as exclusive content on a membership site, or sell it to make money from your blog.

    However, writing a book is difficult, and 97% of people who start to write a book never finish.

    The good news is that you may have already written a book. Your most popular blog posts may already contain enough quality content to repurpose as a successful ebook. Or you can use your blog to write a new book one post at a time.

    With that being said, let’s take a look at how to create an ebook from your WordPress blog posts. Here’s what we’ll cover in this tutorial:

    Choosing Which Blog Content to Use in Your Ebook

    Your first job is to decide which blog posts should be included in your ebook. If your blog is about a certain topic or niche, then you may just need to find your most popular blog posts. Each post will become a chapter of your ebook.

    However, if you wish to create multiple ebooks, then you should choose blog posts that cover more specific topics, such as popular posts in a specific category. You can even consider future ebook ideas when you are planning the content to write about on your blog.

    How to Find Your Most Engaging Content to Include in an Ebook

    You want to create an ebook that people actually want to read. A good starting point is to find your most engaging and popular blog posts. That way, you already know that your readers are interested in these topics.

    If you are not already tracking user engagement on your WordPress blog, then the best way to get started is by using MonsterInsights. It’s the best Analytics plugin for WordPress and helps you configure Google Analytics without writing code.

    The MonsterInsights Google Analytics plugin

    There’s also a free version of MonsterInsights that you can use as well.

    When you install and activate MonsterInsights, you will also set up Google Analytics tracking in WordPress. Once your blog has been tracked for some time, you will be able to view important user engagement metrics such as your most popular content.

    You just need to visit the Insights » Reports page in your WordPress admin area and go to the ‘Overview’ report. You can scroll down to see different reports, and you will find your most popular content under the ‘Top Posts/Pages’ section.

    Top posts and page report

    You’ll find detailed instructions about how to set up and use MonsterInsights in our guide on how to track user engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics.

    Now that you know what your most popular posts are, you need to choose which ones to include in your ebook. They should contain evergreen content that will stay fresh and also fit together logically as chapters to form a complete ebook.

    Writing a Series of Blog Posts to Create Content for an Ebook

    Another way to come up with blog content for an ebook is to write a series of articles on a particular topic. These blog posts can then be compiled into an ebook.

    We do something similar on WPBeginner, where we regularly compile a series of posts into a new article. Here are some examples of articles we have compiled with repurposed content from our existing articles:

    In fact, whenever you are writing about a complex topic, it is almost always better to write a series of posts that break the topic up into smaller parts.

    You can learn more in our guide on how to efficiently manage post series in WordPress.

    Quickly Updating the Posts You Choose for Your Ebook

    Once you have chosen the blog posts you wish to include in your ebook, take some time to quickly update them if necessary. By doing that now, you will make sure that both the blog post and ebook are free from errors and contain all of the necessary information.

    You can start by making sure there are no spelling or grammar errors in the post. Most likely you did this before publishing each post, but it’s worth checking this again in case something was missed.

    You can learn the best ways to proofread your posts in our guide on how to check grammar and spelling mistakes in WordPress.

    Also, take time to check the comments on each post. They may identify areas where the blog post isn’t clear enough or is missing important information. Take time to address those issues.

    Later in this article, you will make further edits that will be needed in the ebook but not the blog posts.

    Creating Professional-Looking Cover Art for Your Ebook

    One of the best ways to create an ebook that looks professional is to use a well-designed ebook cover. Your readers will actually judge your book by its cover.

    You could hire a graphic designer using websites such as 99designs or Fiverr. Or you can use graphic design software or web services to do it yourself even if you don’t have design skills.

    Before you create the cover art for your book, make sure you first finalize the ebook title. It should be clear and concise, grab the reader’s attention, and describe what the book is about. You may also want to create a subtitle and book description.

    One of the easiest ways to create cover art is with Canva, a free online graphic design tool. It comes with easy-to-use tools that allow you to create a book cover from a template.

    The basic Canva account is free and gives you access to dozens of ready-made templates. To get the full power of Canva, you may want to sign up for a Pro account. This lets you upload your own fonts, set your brand colors, and more.

    After creating your account, simply type ‘book cover’ into the search box and then click on the ‘Book Cover’ search result.

    Searching for Book Cover Templates in Canva

    Canva will display a list of thousands of book cover templates. These have the correct width ratio of 1.6 and also a high-quality resolution of 1410 x 2250 pixels.

    You can filter the list by clicking the genres at the top of the screen, or by checking one of the styles or themes on the left. This will help you find the most suitable templates quickly.

    Filtering the Ebook Cover Templates in Canva

    Once you find a template you want to use for your cover art, you should click it to preview it. You will also see whether it is a free, paid, or pro template. After that, you should click the ‘Customize this template’ button.

    Canva will now load its drag-and-drop editing interface. You can point and click on any item in the template to edit it. Make sure you type the correct title, subtitle, and author. You can rotate, resize, crop, and delete items.

    You can also add more text, icons, shapes, patterns, and backgrounds to your design from the left column. However, you will often get the best result by making simple changes.

    Customizing a Book Cover in Canva

    When you have finished creating your cover art, you will need to save it to your computer. Simply select File » Download from the menu at the top of the screen.

    You can select a variety of file types from the drop-down menu, including PDF, JPG, and PNG. For this tutorial, we will choose PNG and then click the ‘Download’ button.

    Downloading a Book Cover in Canva

    Method 1: Turning Blog Posts Into an Ebook Using Google Docs (Free)

    You can create an ebook from your blog posts using Google Docs. This requires a little more manual work than our second method, but it’s free and makes it easy for you to edit and customize your ebook.

    You need to start by creating a new Google Doc and naming it with your ebook’s title.

    After that, make sure that under the View menu, ‘Show Print Layout’ is checked. This will allow you to see how each page of your ebook will look.

    Inserting Your Ebook Cover Art

    The first thing you need to do is insert the cover art you created earlier.

    You can either use drag and drop to place it on the first page, or select Insert » Image from the menu and upload it to your computer.

    Inserting a Cover Image in Google Docs

    Once you’ve done that, you should select Insert » Break » Page break from the menu to start a new page.

    Creating a Title Page and Table of Contents

    On the new page, you should type the title of your ebook. Before you press enter, make sure you format it as a title by selecting ‘Title’ from the Styles drop-down menu.

    Selecting the Title Style in Google Docs

    If you wish to center the title, then you need to select Format » Align & Indent » Center.

    You can now press the Enter key several times and type the ebook’s subtitle if you have one, as well as your name or your blog’s name as the author.

    A Title Page Example in Google Docs

    You might like to format them using a larger font and center them. Don’t use a heading style, or these lines will be included in your table of contents. You can also use the enter key to space these lines appropriately down the page.

    Once you’re done, you should select Insert » Break » Page break from the menu again to start another new page.

    On the next page, you will add the table of contents. Google Docs will populate this with headings as you add content to the document.

    Start by typing the heading ‘Table of Contents’ and format it with the Heading 1 style.

    Tip: If your text is still being centered, then you will need to select Format » Clear formatting from the menu to return to the default formatting.

    Now you can press Enter and select Insert » Table of Contents from the menu. You can choose from a version with page numbers and a version with hyperlinks.

    Inserting a Table of Contents in Google Docs

    At the moment, the table of contents will be quite empty, but it will be updated as you add blog posts to your ebook.

    Pasting the Your Blog Post Contents

    Now it’s time to start pasting the content from your blog posts into Google Docs. Before you paste each blog post, make sure you insert a new page break (Insert » Break » Page break) so each ebook chapter starts on a new page.

    Then, just head to your WordPress website and navigate to your blog post.

    Simply highlight the entire post, copy it to the clipboard, and then paste it into Google Docs. After that, insert another page break and repeat until all the blog posts have been copied.

    You may also want to set the title of the posts to Heading 2 in Google Docs so they’re included as chapters in your Table of Contents and document outline.

    For our demo ebook, we pasted the contents of 7 blog posts into Google Docs to produce a 167-page ebook. Selecting Tools » Word count from the menu shows that the document contains almost 25,000 words.

    Editing Your Ebook Contents

    Now you should work through your ebook content and make any changes that are necessary. Some things that work well in a blog post won’t belong in an ebook.

    For example, you may need to tweak the title of each blog post so it works better as a chapter heading. And if you added a call to action at the bottom of each blog post, then you may need to remove it from each chapter in your ebook.

    You may need to replace references to ‘posts’ with ‘chapters’. Also, you should replace internal links to your blog with links to the chapters in your ebook if they are included.

    You should also work on the transitions between chapters so your book flows better, otherwise, it might read like a collection of separate blog posts. You might also want to add a stronger introduction and conclusion to the book.

    You might also like to add additional material to the book, such as sections on:

    • How to use this book
    • What you’ll find in this book
    • About the author
    • Contact information
    • Copyright information
    • Disclosures
    • Resources and links
    • Footnotes and sources

    Finally, make sure you correct any spelling and grammar errors you find while editing.

    Customizing Your Ebook’s Design

    Before you export your ebook from Google Docs, consider whether you can improve the design of your ebook.

    For example, you can customize the appearance of your headings or normal text.

    This is easy to do in Google Docs. You can start by changing the format of a particular heading directly. Just select the font you want, if you want it bold or underlined, or other design choices.

    After that, with that text still highlighted, select Heading 1 » Update Heading 1 to match from the drop-down menu to automatically change all other headings to match.

    Customizing Heading 1 Style in Google Docs

    You can also add a header or footer that includes your ebook title and page numbers.

    Just select Insert » Headers & Footers and then click ‘Header’ or ‘Footer’ in the menu. You can set up page numbers by clicking the ‘Options’ menu from the header.

    Adding Page Numbers to the Header in Google Docs

    When you are happy with the way your ebook is formatted, then it’s time to export it in an ebook format.

    Exporting Your Ebook as a PDF

    Now that you have finished creating your ebook, you can save it to your computer as a PDF. Simply select File » Download » PDF Document from the menu.

    Exporting a Google Doc as a PDF Document

    Tip: Before exporting your ebook, we recommend you update the table of contents to include any new chapters you have added. When you click on the table of contents, you will find a button labeled ‘Update table of contents’ at the top.

    Google Docs also allows you to download the ebook as an EPUB Publication. This format should be used if you want to make the book available in a marketplace such as Amazon’s Kindle Store.

    Method 2: Turning Blog Posts Into an Ebook Using a Plugin

    You can also create an ebook from your blog posts using a plugin. MPL-Publisher is the best ebook creator plugin because it covers everything you need to do in an easy-to-use interface.

    You will need to use the premium version to export your ebook as a PDF file. This costs $49 per WordPress site and also offers a cover editor and the ability to store the settings for multiple books. The free version can export in EPUB and Microsoft Word formats, and more.

    The first thing you need to do is install and activate the MPL-Publisher plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Upon activation, you will need to enter the license key that was emailed to you. Simply navigate to MPL-Publisher » Publish eBook on the admin sidebar, then click on the ‘Premium’ tab. Now you can paste the license key into the field provided.

    Entering a Premium License Key in MPL-Publisher

    Entering the Book Details

    Next, you need to enter some details about your book. Make sure you are looking at the ‘Details’ tab of the MPL-Publisher » Publish eBook page.

    From here, you can fill in the book details such as the title, subtitle, author, and description.

    Entering the Book Details in MPL-Publisher

    Next, you should click on the ‘Meta’ tab where you can enter metadata about the book.

    You will find fields where you can fill in the book’s ISBN (or some other unique identifier), language, publication date, publisher name, and copyright information.

    Entering the Book Metadata in MPL-Publisher

    You can scroll to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Save’ button to store the book details and metadata.

    Inserting Your Ebook Cover Art

    Now you can move to the ‘Cover’ tab. Here you can add the cover image that you created earlier.

    Simply click the ‘Select Image’ button and you will be taken to your site’s Media Library. From there, you can upload the cover art and then click the ‘Select’ button.

    Adding Cover Art in MPL-Publisher

    If you haven’t already created your cover art, you can use the plugin’s Cover Editor to create a book cover right from the WordPress dashboard. Note that this is one of the plugin’s premium features.

    Customizing Your Ebook’s Design

    Now you can switch to the plugin’s ‘Design’ tab to choose how your book will be formatted. Several themes are available, and you simply click on the theme you wish to use.

    Choosing a Theme in MPL-Publisher

    When you scroll down the page, you can choose whether to include the post’s featured images in the ebook and whether to insert or embed the images in the ebook.

    Make sure you choose the second or third option. We recommend you avoid the first option, which is to link the images from your website.

    Embedding or Inserting Images in MPL-Publisher

    Advanced users can also format their books using custom CSS.

    Make sure you scroll down and click the ‘Save’ button to store your progress.

    Selecting the Posts to Include in Your Ebook

    On the left of the screen, you will see a list of posts on your website. To include a post in the ebook, simply click its checkbox.

    If you have a lot of posts on your website, then you make it easier to find the posts you wish to include by filtering the list. You will find filters for type, status, category, month, and year.

    For this tutorial, we’ll filter the list to include only posts (not pages) that have been published. We’ll also filter the list by the ‘Blogging’ category.

    Simply select the desired criteria from the drop-down menus and then click the ‘Filter content’ button.

    Filtering Posts in MPL-Publisher

    Next to each post, you will see a word count and how long the chapter will take to read.

    Once you check the posts you wish to include, you can reorder them by dragging and dropping the hamburger icon. That’s the icon that looks like three horizontal lines.

    When creating your ebook, MPL-Publisher will automatically create a table of contents containing these chapters.

    Editing Your Ebook Contents

    You can edit a post by clicking the ‘Edit’ link that appears under the post when you hover your mouse over it. The changes will be seen in both your ebook and the post on your website.

    Editing or Duplicating Posts in MPL-Publisher

    If you want to edit the ebook contents only, leaving the post on your website as it is, then you need to click the ‘Duplicate and Edit’ link. This will create a duplicate of the post with the ‘Book Chapter’ custom post type.

    Once you update the book chapter, you will need to uncheck the original post, then locate and check the new book chapter you just created. Book chapters display a book icon beside the title.

    Identifying the Book Chapter Post Type in MPL-Publisher

    If you want to add a new chapter to your book that doesn’t appear on your blog, then you can click the ‘Add New Book Chapter’ button.

    This will create a new blank book chapter that will be found only in your book, and not on your blog.

    In Method 1 above, we provide a list of additional material you might like to add to your ebook, such as contact information, disclaimers, and more.

    Exporting Your Ebook as a PDF

    Once you have finished setting up the ebook, you can export it. You need to scroll down to the ‘Output format’ and choose ‘Adobe File (PDF)’ as the file type.

    Exporting Posts as a PDF in MPL-Publisher

    Alternatively, you could select ‘Microsoft Word (DOCX)’ if you plan to continue editing the book or sending it to a professional editor, or ‘EPUB 3.0’ if you plan to make the book available in an online ebook store.

    If you like, you can check the ‘Validate content before download’ box. This ensures that the ebook will not contain HTML errors.

    Finally, simply click the ‘Download eBook’ button, and MPL-Publisher will compile your ebook and download it in the format you specified.

    How to Promote and Monetize Your eBook in WordPress

    Now that you have created an ebook from your blog posts, you need a way to promote it, so more visitors can get your ebook. There are a few ways to do this.

    The method you choose depends on your business goal. You can giveaway the ebook for free to raise awareness, use ebook as a lead magnet to get more email subscribers, or sell your ebook to make money online.

    1. Allowing Free Ebook Downloads in WordPress

    You can offer your ebook as a free download using the WordPress file block.

    Simply edit the post or page where you want to add your ebook download and then add a ‘File’ block.

    add file block and click on media library

    This will allow you to upload the ebook to your site, and it will be displayed in the post in a small PDF viewer by default.

    For step-by-step instructions, see Method 1 in our guide on how to add ebook downloads in WordPress.

    Tip: Want your visitors to be able to search for your ebook’s content on your website? WordPress doesn’t do this by default, so we wrote a guide on how to add PDF indexing and search in WordPress.

    2. Using Ebook Downloads to Get More Subscribers

    If you’re using your ebook to grow your email list or capture leads, then you’ll want to make sure your visitors can’t access the ebook until they share their email addresses.

    An ebook popup, created using OptinMonster

    You can set that up using OptinMonster, the best lead generation plugin for WordPress. We use it on WPBeginner and have increased our conversions by over 600%.

    For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to add content upgrades in WordPress.

    3. Selling Ebook Downloads in WordPress

    Selling digital products like ebooks is one of the best ways to earn money from your WordPress website.

    To sell ebooks, you’ll need a plugin like Easy Digital Downloads, one of the best eCommerce WordPress plugins. This beginner-friendly plugin makes it super easy to sell any type of digital product including ebooks.

    Once installed and activated, you can easily add new downloads to your website. It’s easy to add a title and description for your ebook, as well as categories and tags.

    Adding a download to Easy Digital Downloads

    The plugin also handles pricing. You can choose variable pricing with multiple options. You may have one option to sell just the ebook and another that includes an additional product. Using EDD, they will both show on the same product page.

    You can also simply set a single price for your ebook purchase.

    Creating variable pricing for an ebook in WordPress

    After that, you can upload your ebook and add a cover image that will be displayed on your website.

    You can find more detailed instructions in Method 3 of our guide on how to add ebook downloads in WordPress.

    Bonus Tips to Promote Your Ebook

    The easiest way to promote your ebook is to your existing audience. Both email newsletters and push notifications are an excellent way to spread the word about your new ebook launch.

    You can use PushEngage to setup push notification for your blog readers. This has among the highest engagement rates.

    For email marketing services, we recommend either Constant Contact or Sendinblue since they’re affordable for new users.

    Another proven technique you can use to promote your ebook is giveaways. These help you leverage the power of social media to bring more new users to your blog.

    We recommend using RafflePress plugin to create a viral giveaway since it seamlessly connects with all major social media platforms.

    Adding actions to your Twitch giveaway

    We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to create an ebook from your WordPress blog posts. You may also want to learn how to start your own podcast, or check out our comparison of the best WordPress SEO plugins to grow your 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.

    The post How to Create and Sell Ebooks in WordPress from Start to Finish first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Limit or Disable Automatic Empty Trash in WordPress

    Do you want to change how often your trash is emptied on your WordPress website, or stop WordPress from emptying the trash automatically?

    By default, WordPress will automatically delete anything that has been in the trash for 30 days. However, some users might like the trash to be emptied more or less often, or prefer to empty the trash manually.

    In this article, we will show you how to limit or disable the trash being automatically emptied in WordPress.

    How to Disable Auto Empty Trash in WordPress

    What Is Trash in WordPress?

    WordPress added a trash feature way back in version 2.9. It works just like the recycle bin or trash on your computer.

    In other words, your deleted posts aren’t removed permanently but are sent to the trash instead so they can be recovered for a time. Anyone can delete a post accidentally. That’s why WordPress makes it easy to restore deleted posts and pages.

    You can view them by going to Posts » All Posts from your WordPress dashboard and then clicking the ‘Trash’ option.

    View trashed posts

    Your WordPress website will automatically delete anything in the trash after 30 days so that it doesn’t pile up.

    What if you don’t want WordPress to automatically delete items from the trash? Or you’d prefer it to be emptied more or less often than once a month.

    Let’s have a look at how you can have it automatically emptied as often as you like. We’ll cover three methods below. The first method is the easiest for most users. You can use the links below to jump to your preferred method.

    Method 1: Changing when WordPress Trash Is Emptied with a Plugin

    First, you need to install and activate the Change Empty Trash Time plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Upon activation, you should visit the Settings » General page of your admin dashboard. Once there, scroll to the bottom of the page, and you will find a new ‘Time to empty trash (in days)’ setting.

    Empty trash can after certain days

    Simply type in the number of days that WordPress should take to empty the trash. For example, you can type 1 for daily, 7 for weekly, or 30 for monthly.

    If you type 0, then deleted posts and pages will be deleted permanently instead of being placed in the trash.

    Note: Be very careful about setting the time to empty to 0. It can be difficult to recover permanently deleted posts and pages. Make sure you’re using a backup plugin, just in case.

    Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

    Method 2: Changing when WordPress Trash Is Emptied with Code

    You can also configure how regularly the trash is emptied by the use of a code snippet. This method is not recommended for beginners, so if you’re not familiar with code, then you should use Method 1 instead.

    For this method, you’ll have to edit your wp-config.php file.

    If you haven’t edited the wp-config.php file before, then take a look at our guide on how to edit wp-config.php file in WordPress.

    You can simply add the following line of code to your wp-config.php file. 

    define('EMPTY_TRASH_DAYS', 1 ); //Integer is the amount of days

    You should paste it near the end of the file, just before the line that says, ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy blogging.’

    Auto trash code in wpconfig

    If you leave this code snippet as it is, then your trash will be emptied every day. Feel free to change the number 1 to some other number, and the trash will be emptied after that number of days.

    If you don’t wish to use the trash feature at all, then you should set the number to 0. Deleted posts and pages will then be deleted permanently without being placed in the trash.

    Make sure you have a backup plugin set up first, just in case you need to restore any accidentally deleted pages.

    Don’t forget to save the wp-config.php file once you have made your changes.

    Method 3: Stopping WordPress from Automatically Emptying Trash

    Do you want to stop WordPress from automatically deleting items from the trash?

    Simply add the little code snippet below into your theme’s functions.php file. If you’re not used to editing your core WordPress files, check out our guide on copying and pasting code snippets from the web.

    Now, we don’t generally recommend editing your site’s theme files directly. The slightest mistake can break your website. A better way of adding code snippets is by using WPCode.

    First, you’ll need to install and activate the free WPCode plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a plugin.

    After that, you can go to Code Snippets » + Add Snippet from your WordPress dashboard and then select the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet) option.

    Adding Your Custom Code in WPCode

    Next, you will need to enter a title for your code snippet.

    Then, copy this snippet and paste it into the box labeled ‘Code Preview.’

    function wpb_remove_schedule_delete() {
    remove_action( 'wp_scheduled_delete', 'wp_scheduled_delete' );
}
add_action( 'init', 'wpb_remove_schedule_delete' );

    This code simply removes the action that deletes trashed items when their time is up.

    Don’t forget to click the ‘Code Type’ dropdown menu and select the ‘PHP Snippet’ option.

    Enter a title for code

    After that, you can scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section to view more options, such as how and where you’d like to insert the code.

    We recommend using the default options. The plugin will Auto Insert the code and run it everywhere on your site.

    Select the default Auto Insert method in WPCode

    You can then click the toggle to make your code snippet Active.

    Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Save Snippet’ button at the top.

    Save and activate code snippet WPCode

    Now when you send an item to the trash, it will remain there until you view your trashed files.

    From here, you can manually click on the ‘Empty Trash’ button to delete any post.

    Click empty trash button

    We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to limit or disable automatic empty trash in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to get a free SSL certificate or check out list of must have plugins to grow your site.

    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.

    The post How to Limit or Disable Automatic Empty Trash in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • 10 Website Marketing Data You Must Track on Every WordPress Site

    Are you wondering which marketing data you should be tracking on your WordPress website?

    After launching a website, most small business owners rely on their best guesses to make important marketing decisions. Not only does that add huge risk, but it also significantly slows down growth.

    In this guide, we will share the top website marketing data that you must track on every WordPress site, so you can make data-driven decisions to grow your business.

    Website marketing data you must track on WordPress site

    Why Do You Need to Track Marketing Data in WordPress?

    We believe it’s easy to double your traffic and sales when you know exactly how people find and use your website. Most business owners do not realize how easy it is to track important marketing metrics on your WordPress site.

    For example, with a few clicks, you can find out who your visitors are, where they are coming from, and what they do on your website. You can learn which of your articles are getting more visits and which pages on your site are not getting any views.

    If you run an online store, then you can see what’s your website conversion rate, which page drives the most sales, what are your top referral sources, and more.

    You can use all this marketing data to make informed business decisions and grow your business with confidence.

    That said, let’s take a look at the top website marketing stats that you must track on every WordPress site. You can click the links below to quickly jump to any section you’re interested in:

    1. Set Up Google Analytics in WordPress

    The best way to track marketing data on your WordPress website is by using Google Analytics. It is the most popular website analytics software in the world and is loved by businesses, bloggers, and marketers because it provides a treasure trove of information.

    For example, you can use Google Analytics to learn:

    • The number of visits and pageviews on your website
    • Who is visiting your website (visitor location, browser, operating system, screen size, and more)
    • How they found your website
    • How users interact with your website
    • And a whole lot more

    Google Analytics is an essential tool in our own business. However, you’ll need to add a tracking code to your website, which requires editing code. This can be tricky for beginners, and the slightest mistake can mess up your tracking.

    An easier way of setting up Google Analytics is using MonsterInsights. It is the best WordPress Analytics plugin and helps you set up advanced tracking in WordPress without editing code.

    See our step-by-step tutorial on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

    Any link that takes users away from your website is called an outbound link. If you use affiliate marketing to make money from your website, then those outbound links are also known as affiliate links.

    Tracking these outbound links help you see how much traffic you are sending to other sites, and you can use this data to build stronger partnerships with those sites.

    As a blogger, you can see which affiliate links are clicked more often by your visitors. This information can help you make a proper affiliate marketing strategy and boost your referral earnings.

    The easiest way to track affiliate links in WordPress is by using MonsterInsights. It tracks outbound links and affiliate links on your site out of the box.

    You also get easy-to-understand reports inside your WordPress dashboard, including your top affiliate and outbound links.

    Outbound and affiliate links report

    For detailed instructions see our guide on how to track outbound links in WordPress.

    3. Enhanced Ecommerce Tracking with Google Analytics

    If you run an online store, then you need to enable enhanced eCommerce tracking in Google Analytics. This would allow you to track the following customer information on your online store.

    • Shopping behavior of your customers
    • Checkout behavior and tracking the abandoned cart information
    • Product lists performance
    • Uncover top conversion sources
    • Sales performance

    Setting up enhanced eCommerce tracking on your WordPress store can be difficult. However, MonsterInsights makes it easy for you and it literally takes a few clicks to configure with no coding needed.

    It works seamlessly with the best eCommerce plugins for WordPress, like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, LifterLMS, MemberPress, and more.

    The best part is that you get to see eCommerce reports in your dashboard. It shows how your online store is performing, which products are getting the most sales, where your customers are coming from, and more at a glance.

    Ecommerce report in MonsterInsights

    For details, see our guide on how to enable customer tracking in WooCommerce with Google Analytics.

    4. Track User Engagement Data with Google Analytics

    User engagement shows you what users do when they arrive on your website. It helps you identify patterns of highly engaged user behavior which leads to more conversions and sales.

    For example, you may find out that users visiting a specific page are 10 times more likely to make a purchase. You can then use this insight to send more users to that page, or replicate a similar experience on other pages of your website.

    Basically, you will be tracking data about how users interact with your website. For example:

    • Tracking your most popular content
    • Form submission tracking
    • Ecommerce tracking
    • Ads tracking to understand how users interact with ads on your website
    • Monitoring engaged users
    • Time users spend on your website

    For detailed instructions, follow our step-by-step guide on how to track user engagement in WordPress.

    Google Analytics is really good at tracking where your website traffic comes from. It can even categorize your traffic based on their source, including organic search, organic social, referral, email, and more.

    However, when you’re running paid ad campaigns, email marketing campaigns, or social media promotions, you need detailed campaign tracking.

    That’s where UTM tracking comes in.

    Campaign-level tracking allows you to see exactly which email, ad, or specific call-to-action link helped you get the most traffic or sales.

    To make it easy for you to generate UTM links, MonsterInsights comes with a free campaign URL builder, so you can get more detailed reports. You can enter custom campaign parameters like the source, medium, campaign name, and more to create a custom URL.

    Build a URL

    These tags include native analytics parameters which are tracked by Google Analytics and are included in your reports. You can then see exactly which link users clicked and how your campaigns are performing.

    6. Track and Improve Facebook Retargeting Campaigns

    Did you know that Facebook allows you to display targeted ads to people who have visited your website in the past? Yes, it’s called retargeting.

    You can install a Facebook pixel and display targeted ads to anyone who visits your website. However, if you install Facebook retargeting pixel today, then you will only be able to show your ads to people who visited today and onward.

    Even if you are not running a Facebook advertising campaign right now, we recommend installing the retargeting pixel, so you have a built-in audience when you’re ready to get started.

    For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to install Facebook remarketing/retargeting pixel in WordPress.

    7. Tracking Google AdSense Campaigns

    If you run pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns using Google AdSense, then you can easily see how your ads are performing in the AdSense dashboard. However, these reports only tell you how users interact with your ads not what they do after that.

    For that, you’ll need Google Analytics which comes with built-in integration with your AdSense account. This integration enables you to easily track your paid traffic conversions.

    Select your AdSense property

    You can see our guide on how to properly add Google AdSense to your WordPress site.

    8. Monitor Your Site with Google Search Console

    Google Search Console is a set of free tools offered by Google to give publishers a look at how their website is seen by the search engine.

    It provides immensely useful information like how your pages rank for different keywords (more on this later), the overall performance of your site in search engines, and any errors Google crawler found on your website.

    Keeping an eye on Google Search Console can help you boost your site’s search engine visibility. To learn more, see our guide on tips for using Google Search Console to grow your traffic.

    For example, here is a report showing errors that occur when a user views the site on their mobile devices. Without Google Search Console, it will be very difficult to pinpoint such issues and quickly resolve them.

    Mobile errors in search console

    For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to add your WordPress site to Google Search Console.

    9. Track Your Keyword Rankings

    Keywords are the phrases users enter in search engines to find what they’re looking for. To get more traffic from search engines, you need to know exactly which keywords are bringing you the most traffic to your website, so you can focus on what’s working.

    We have a complete WordPress SEO guide that you can use to learn how to optimize your content for specific keywords.

    Normally, beginners rely on manually entering keywords in Google search to see if their site is ranking. This is highly inefficient as you would miss out on thousands of keywords where your site can be easily ranked.

    Google Search Console is a free tool that provides you with valuable keyword data with the average position. You can see which search terms are ranking high, search impressions, and how many average clicks you get.

    If you’re using MonsterInsights, then you can view the Search Console report inside your WordPress dashboard.

    Search console report

    However, it only allows you to see your own site’s keyword data. If you want to research your competitors, then you’ll need SEMRush. This incredibly powerful SEO tool allows you to view in-depth keyword data for any website.

    For more on this topic, please take a look at our guide on how to track keyword rankings for your WordPress site.

    10. Track Your Email List Growth and Performance

    Most popular email marketing services come with stats and insights that you can track. These reports provide useful data like open rate, click-through rate, unsubscribe rate, and more.

    You can also see the traffic coming from your email campaigns to your website in your Google Analytics 4 reports under Acquisition » Traffic acquisition.

    From here, you can see how well your email newsletter traffic converts, and what you can do to improve.

    View email reports in GA4

    Tracking email marketing data helps you grow your email list. You can create new email forms, change form placements, and use popups to boost subscribers.

    While there are definitely other marketing metrics that you can track, we believe these are the top marketing data that every business owner must track on their WordPress site.

    We hope this article helped you track the right website marketing data on all your WordPress sites. You may also want to see our step-by-step guide to boost WordPress speed and performance, and our comparison of the best business phone services for small business.

    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.

    The post 10 Website Marketing Data You Must Track on Every WordPress Site first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Prevent Fraud and Fake Orders in WooCommerce

    Do you want to prevent fraud and fake orders on your WooCommerce store?

    Fraud and fake orders can cause serious losses for an online store. Luckily, there are effective tools to prevent spam and block fraudulent orders.

    In this article, we’ll show you how to easily prevent fraud and fake orders in WooCommerce.

    blocking fake and fraudulent orders in WooCommerce

    Why Do You need to Prevent Fraud and Fake Orders in WooCommerce?

    Fraudulent and fake orders can cause serious financial losses to a business. This is why you need to monitor your online store and prevent fraud and fake orders.

    Last year, online stores lost more than $20 billion in revenue due to fraudulent payments, chargebacks, and fake orders.

    For some eCommerce stores, the total fraudulent order costs were higher than 4% of total revenue.

    A large number of fake orders are usually spam that can be easily prevented. Some orders are more malicious and are placed just to annoy or harass an online business.

    The rest of the fraudulent orders are scammers trying to make a few quick bucks.

    That being said, let’s take a look at how to prevent fraud and fake orders in WooCommerce.

    Here is a quick overview of all the tips we’ll cover in this guide.

    1. Use a WooCommerce Fraud Prevention Plugin
    2. Use Stripe Radar and 3D Secure to Automatically Block Fraud
    3. Using the Cash on Delivery Payment Option Carefully
    4. Sell in Specific Countries
    5. Require Users to Create an Account
    6. Use a Web Application Firewall and Custom Rules
    7. Require Customers to Verify Their Email Addresses

    1. Use a WooCommerce Fraud Prevention Plugin

    The easiest way to prevent fraudulent and fake orders in WooCommerce is by using an anti-fraud plugin.

    First, you need to install and activate the WooCommerce Anti-Fraud plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Upon activation, you need to visit WooCommerce » Settings page and switch to the Anti-Fraud tab.

    Anti-Fraud settings

    From here, you can set a minimum and high-risk threshold score.

    Below that, you can change the order status based on the risk score. For instance, you can set the score when an order will be automatically canceled and set a score to put an order on hold.

    Change order status score

    Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

    Next, you need to switch to the Rules tab. From here, you can configure the rules and assign them a risk score.

    For instance, you can set a 5-point score for a customer who is placing their first order.

    Rules to calculate risk score

    You can set scores for suspicious IP addresses, emails, unsafe countries, matching IP addresses to geographic locations, and more.

    Carefully review the rules and their assigned scores and make changes if necessary. If you are unsure, then default settings would work for most eCommerce websites.

    If you are using PayPal as a payment option on your store, then you can switch to the PayPal tab. From here, you can require users to verify their PayPal email addresses.

    Ask users to veriify their PayPal email

    The plugin also allows you to connect with third-party fraud detection service Maxmind.

    This paid service uses a global database to collect data about suspicious payment details, emails, IP addresses, and more.

    You can then add this score to your plugin risk score and choose what to do when this score is higher.

    MinFraud settings

    Once you are satisfied with your settings, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store them.

    Viewing Fraud Detection Activity

    The plugin comes with an easier dashboard where you can see plugin activity in an easy-to-understand format.

    Simply click on the Anti Fraud menu item in your WordPress admin sidebar. From here, you can see statistics about all your orders.

    View fraud detection activity on your store

    The anti-fraud plugin will help you catch most of the fake and fraudulent orders on your WooCommerce store.

    However, if you need more strict measures then continue reading for additional WooCommerce fraud prevention tips.

    2. Use Stripe Radar and 3D Secure to Automatically Block Fraud

    Stripe is the most popular online payment solution in the world. There is a WooCommerce Stripe gateway by FunnelKit that helps you properly connect WooCommerce with Stripe, so you can take advantage of SCA as well as 3D Secure payments option by default.

    This method would require you to use Stripe as your main payment gateway in WooCommerce. First you’ll need to install and activate the Stripe for WooCommerce plugin by FunnelKit. Once that’s configured, it will guide you to set up Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other settings to help you protect against fraud transactions.

    Aside from that, Stripe also offers a feature called Stripe Radar to help fight against fraudulent transactions. This is a powerful set of algorithm that reduces chargeback risks for your business.

    Basically Stripe uses machine learning to block orders. Their machine learning is trained on data across millions of companies worldwide that use Stripe.

    We use Stripe Radar on our own eCommerce websites to help reduce fake and fraudulent orders.

    Aside from their machine learning algorithm, you can also set custom rules with allow and block lists, and more.

    Stripe Radar Rules

    Unfortunately not all WooCommerce gateways have these robust features. If you’re looking to switch to Stripe, then we recommend talking with FunnelKit team as they’re WooCommerce experts who can help.

    3. Using the Cash on Delivery Payment Option Carefully

    In many countries, ‘Cash on Delivery’ is a popular payment option. However, these stores find themselves more vulnerable to fake and fraudulent orders.

    Users are able to place an order with a fake address, refuse to accept the order, or cancel an order that is already shipped.

    Once you have shipped an order, you will pay out of pocket for shipping and return of that package.

    We recommend not using the ‘Cash on Delivery’ option when possible, as that can lower the number of fake orders you may get.

    Try to offer alternate payment options for users to pay before you can ship the order.

    4. Sell in Specific Countries

    WooCommerce allows you to easily restrict orders from specific countries. This helps you prevent fake orders from countries where you don’t sell or ship to.

    Simply go to the WooCommerce » Settings page and select the countries you want to sell / ship to under the General tab.

    WooCommerce sell in countries

    You can also restrict certain WooCommerce products to specific countries in WooCommerce as well.

    Note: Geographical restrictions may reduce fake orders but users can simply use VPN to change their location and provide fake information to place an order.

    5. Require Users to Create an Account

    Another useful trick to slow down and prevent fake orders is by requiring users to create an account before they can checkout.

    Simply go to WooCommerce » Settings page and switch to the Account and Privacy tab. From here, you need to uncheck the box next to the ‘Allow customers to place orders without an account’ option.

    Require users to create an account

    Below that, you can check options that allow users to create an account during checkout or from the My Account page.

    Asking users to create an account also allows you to easily block customers who placed fraudulent or fake orders.

    6. Use a Web Application Firewall and Custom Rules

    Many scammers use disposable email addresses, fake IP addresses, and dummy data to place spam or fake orders.

    A WordPress firewall helps you block this before it even reaches your website.

    We recommend using either Sucuri or Cloudflare, both are among the best WordPress firewall plugin on the market. They comes with powerful security features, CDN servers, and a malware removal service.

    How website firewall blocks attacks

    In Cloudflare, you can also setup custom page rules to trigger CAPTCHA, or even automatically block users with suspicious activity. We use Cloudflare enterprise on our larger eCommerce stores which comes with all bots anomaly detection and threat response.

    If you’re running a large eCommerce store, then it’s worthwhile exploring Cloudflare Enterprise tools.

    7. Require Customers to Verify Their Email Addresses

    Another way to reduce fake orders and fraudulent activity is by requiring new customers to create an account and then require them to verify their email addresses.

    Simply install and activate the Email Verification for WooCommerce plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Upon activation, you need to visit the WooCommerce » Settings page and switch to the Email Verification tab.

    Require email verification

    From here, you can configure the plugin settings to your own requirements.

    For instance, you can switch to the Email tab and delay the default WooCommerce new user email until the user verifies their account.

    Delay welcome email

    Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

    The plugin will now send a verification email to new WooCommerce customers to verify their email addresses.

    Verify your email address

    It’s important to make sure that if you’re setting up email verification that your WooCommerce store actually have reliable email deliverability. Otherwise this can block real customers from purchasing your products.

    We recommend using WP Mail SMTP along with SendLayer to improve your WooCommerce email delivery rates. Over 3 million websites use the WP Mail SMTP plugin to fix WooCommerce not sending email issue.

    There’s also a free version of WP Mail SMTP that you can use as well.

    We hope this article helped you prevent fraud and fake orders in WooCommerce. You may also want to see our complete WordPress security guide to make your online store more secure or take a look at our expert pick of the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your store.

    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.

    The post How to Prevent Fraud and Fake Orders in WooCommerce first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • Squarespace vs WordPress – Which Is Better? (Pros and Cons)

    Are you looking for a Squarespace vs WordPress comparison to figure out which one is better?

    Squarespace and WordPress are two popular website builders that allow you to easily make a website without coding.

    In this article, we will compare Squarespace vs. WordPress with the list of pros and cons for each platform. Hopefully, it will help you decide which one is better for your needs.

    Comparing Squarespace vs WordPress

    Note: This comparison is between Squarespace vs self-hosted WordPress (not WordPress.com). See the difference between self-hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com.

    Since we want to create the most detailed WordPress vs Squarespace comparison, we have broken down the article into multiple in-depth sections.

    We will look at each section and see which platform offers the most benefit to a beginner-level user.

    Ready? Let’s get started.

    Ease of Use and The Learning Curve

    Most business owners and beginner-level users are not familiar with HTML, CSS, and other code-related things.

    They want a website builder that is beginner friendly and helps them make a website without hiring a developer.

    Let’s see how both WordPress and Squarespace stack up in this category.

    WordPress

    WordPress is the top choice among users who want to start a blog or small business owners building a DIY website.

    WordPress is the best website builder on the market. More than 43% of all websites on the internet use WordPress

    While WordPress is fairly intuitive and easy to use, there is a slight learning curve.

    Beginners will need to familiarize themselves with WordPress terminology and concepts such as the difference between posts vs pages, categories vs tags, and understanding themes and plugins.

    The default WordPress content editor is fairly easy to use.

    It comes with blocks to add common content elements to your pages so that you can build beautiful layouts with media-rich content.

    WordPress block editor

    Despite the slight learning curve, in our experience, most users quickly adapt to WordPress.

    Need an even more flexible way to create pages?

    WordPress gives you access to drag-and-drop page builder plugins like SeedProd. This allows you to create your own custom designs from scratch without writing code.

    SeedProd a popular WordPress page builder plugin

    Squarespace

    Unlike WordPress, Squarespace does not come with a lot of choices.

    This lack of choice makes it very simple and user-friendly. Even absolute beginners can quickly write content and publish it.

    Squarespace editor

    Squarespace also uses a block editor similar to WordPress. Adding images, videos, and audio files is simpler than WordPress.

    There are plenty of content blocks, and each block has multiple layout control choices.

    Squarespace lets you customize your templates and pages using a visual editor.

    However, you are limited to the options available in the customizer, since it is a controlled environment.

    Conclusion

    Squarespace fares a little better than WordPress out of the box in terms of ease of use for absolute beginners. However, its limited features might not be ideal for all business owners.

    On the other hand, WordPress users will get a lot of options right from the beginning, which might be confusing at first, but it is a lot more flexible in the long run.

    Winner: Tie

    Costs of Using Squarespace vs WordPress

    Knowing how much each platform cost is important in making a business decision.

    Let’s look at how much Squarespace costs vs. how much WordPress costs.

    WordPress

    WordPress itself is free. You are free to download, use, and build upon WordPress. It is open-source software with a GPL license which gives you all the freedom and control.

    In order to build your website with WordPress, you will need to register a domain and signup for a web hosting account.

    Depending on your needs, you can choose a shared hosting plan, VPS hosting, or even managed WordPress hosting.

    Shared hosting plans work for most personal and small business websites.

    See our guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting.

    The cost of web hosting and domain name vary depending on your hosting provider. You are in charge of how many resources you need for your website and how much you will pay for it.

    For instance, you can start with Bluehost. They are offering WPBeginner users 60% off and a free domain name with SSL certificate.

    Bluehost website
    → Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

    If you can spend a little more, you can upgrade to SiteGround.

    One of the reasons for WordPress’ popularity is that the overall cost of building your website with WordPress is very low.

    Apart from that, you can change your hosting plan as your site grows. This means you will only pay for the resources you use, so it’s easier to control the cost of your website.

    We have a detailed article on the cost of building a WordPress website and how to keep it under budget.

    Squarespace

    The personal plan for Squarespace starts from $16 per month (billed annually) or $23 month to month. That’s a little more than a shared hosting plan for WordPress.

    Squarespace pricing

    However, unlike a shared WordPress hosting service, this Squarespace plan comes with limited features.

    You can only add only two contributors to your site, and you cannot sell products.

    Whereas you can start an online store with WordPress for less than that.

    Squarespace business plan starts from $23 per month (billed annually) or $33 month to month.

    It includes eCommerce support, but they charge a 3% fee on each transaction. This is separate from the fee charged by your payment processor.

    The business plan comes with unlimited contributors, pages, and additional advanced features.

    They also have separate plans for online stores starting from $27 per month with no additional transaction fee.

    Conclusion

    As an open-source platform, WordPress beats Squarespace with flexible pricing plans available from a variety of web hosting providers. Squarespace pricing is higher than WordPress and with less flexibility.

    The cost depends on how many resources you use, and you get access to all WordPress features right out of the box.

    Winner: WordPress

    Design and Templates

    WordPress and Squarespace come with ready-made templates and design tools to make it easy for you to create a custom website.

    Let’s see which offers you more choices and tools to create well-designed websites.

    WordPress

    WordPress offers access to thousands of free and premium themes (website templates). These templates are highly customizable, allowing you to use your website logo, colors, upload your own images, and more.

    Many WordPress themes come with multiple layout choices, a drag-and-drop editor, sliders, photo galleries, and tons of other features.

    No matter what kind of web design you need, you will find hundreds of professionally designed templates for the job.

    WordPress themes

    Many beginners find this abundance of choices a bit overwhelming. Here are some of our expert picks of the best WordPress themes for different kinds of websites.

    For more on this topic, see our article on how to choose the best WordPress theme for your website.

    Alternatively, you can also start with the SeedProd. It is a drag-and-drop WordPress website builder that allows you to design a custom WordPress theme from scratch without coding.

    Squarespace

    Squarespace offers ready-made website templates neatly organized into different categories.

    There are Squarespace templates for all popular website categories, with professional designs that look good on all devices.

    You can easily select a template for your Squarespace website and modify it using the built-in customizer.

    Squarespace templates

    However, this is a big area where Squarespace seriously falls behind.

    The number of pre-made templates is very limited, and your design options are also limited to the set of features available in the Squarespace customizer.

    Themes come with a limited number of layout choices with each template. You can still tweak colors, fonts, website logos, and other things, but these templates are not as customizable as WordPress themes.

    Conclusion

    WordPress comes out as a clear winner in terms of design choices, customization options, and flexibility. Squarespace offers great-looking templates, but they are limited in numbers and are not very flexible.

    Winner: WordPress

    Extensions and Integrations

    All website builders come with a collection of built-in features. As your website grows, you would want to add more features and connect your site to work with third-party tools and services.

    Let’s see how WordPress and Squarespace perform in this regard.

    WordPress

    The real power of WordPress comes from its massive ecosystem of plugins. These plugins are like apps for your WordPress site that you can install to add new features or change the default behavior of your site.

    There are currently more than 60,000+ free WordPress plugins listed in WordPress.org plugin directory alone. There are also thousands of premium WordPress plugins available from third-party websites.

    Free WordPress plugins

    If you can think of a feature, there is a good chance that you’ll easily find a WordPress plugin that does it.

    WordPress plugins are so robust that many of them are full-fledged platforms with their own add-on plugins and a thriving community built around them.

    We have a list of the essential WordPress plugins that every website should have.

    Then you have specialized plugins to create ecommerce websites, build membership communities, sell online courses, and more.

    To learn more, see our article on how to choose the best WordPress plugin.

    Because WordPress is the most popular website builder, most third-party services and tools have their own WordPress plugins which integrate their services to a WordPress website.

    WordPress also has integrations available for all popular social media platforms.

    All top email marketing services, SEO tools, live chat software, and lead generation tools offer seamless integration with WordPress.

    Squarespace

    Squarespace comes nowhere close to WordPress when it comes to extensibility and integrations.

    They do offer a very limited set of extensions and integrations. However, unlike WordPress, Squarespace doesn’t have powerful APIs that developers can build upon.

    Squarespace extensions

    The available integrations are often limited in functionality and you cannot use them as freely on Squarespace as you can do on WordPress.

    For eCommerce, you can use their built-in platform, but you cannot extend it in any way.

    Squarespace lacks the functionality to allow custom websites you might need for your online business idea.

    Conclusion

    WordPress is the clear winner with an incredible ecosystem of thousands of plugins and integrations at your fingertips.

    Squarespace, on the other hand, has very few integrations and many of them are very limited.

    Winner: WordPress

    E-commerce Comparison – Squarespace vs WordPress

    Are you building an online store? Let’s compare the eCommerce functionality of WordPress vs. Squarespace.

    WordPress

    WordPress allows you to integrate and use any payment processor or platform.

    Many WordPress plugins allow you to easily accept online payments using credit cards via Stripe, PayPal, Google Checkout, 2Checkout, Payoneer, Skrill, and even Bitcoin.

    Selling products in WordPress with WooCommerce

    WordPress has plenty of eCommerce plugins that can turn your website into an online store within minutes.

    The world’s most popular eCommerce platform, WooCommerce, is a WordPress plugin.

    WooCommerce comes with its own ecosystem of WooCommerce add-ons and thousands of WooComemrce ready themes.

    There is no limit on how many products you add to your website, how you display them, or how you sell them.

    You can run your own affiliate program and use all the tricks to grow your sales without any restrictions.

    Squarespace

    Ecommerce features are quite limited on Squarespace. You can only use Stripe and PayPal for payment processing, both of which are only available in select countries.

    There is no other payment system available, which restricts your ability to accept payments from a larger global audience.

    For a growing business, starting with such limitations is not a great idea.

    Ecommerce in Squarespace

    Apart from that, you can only sell products in Business or Commerce plans. Due to transaction fees, Squarespace users need to upgrade to an eCommerce plan to save on that.

    Let’s say you want to sell only one product, you will still have to pay for the Business plan, and the yearly costs of hosting a site with just one product to sell will be way higher than a shared hosting plan or VPS for WordPress.

    As for third-party services, there are very few external services that you can integrate with your Squarespace site.

    This affects how you promote your website and the things you can do to make more sales and grow your business.

    Conclusion

    WordPress is way ahead of Squarespace when it comes to running an eCommerce website. The limitations of Squarespace can affect the growth of an online business.

    The neat part about WordPress is that you can also use it alongside Shopify. See our comparison of Shopify vs WooCommerce.

    Winner: WordPress

    Data Portability

    When signing a business agreement, you always have safety clauses such as, if you’re not happy, then you can leave without any hassle.

    This concept extends to online businesses as well, and it is called data portability.

    If you’re not happy with the platform, then you should be able to take all your work and move it somewhere else.

    Let’s look at how WordPress and Squarespace compare in data portability and the freedom to switch.

    WordPress

    WordPress comes with built-in tools to easily export all your data.

    Not just your content and images, but you can also back up your themes, plugins, and the entire database. See our list of the best WordPress backup solutions.

    Exporting data in WordPress

    You can then easily move this content to any other Content Management System you want. You can store your content anywhere else and change web hosts at any time you want.

    Squarespace

    Just like everything else, the export feature on Squarespace is also very limited.

    You can only export certain parts of your content in an XML file. This includes your pages, galleries, and one blog page with all its posts.

    Your product pages, album pages, text, audio, and video blocks will not be exported.

    Conclusion

    The content you create on your site is yours, and you should have the freedom and tools so that you can move it elsewhere.

    WordPress again beats Squarespace with easy-to-manage tools to export your entire site.

    Winner: WordPress

    Languages and Internationalization

    We live in a global world and many businesses cater to a multilingual audience in different geographical locations.

    Let’s see how Squarespace and WordPress handle languages, multi-lingual content, and geographical locations.

    Multilingual support

    WordPress

    WordPress is fully translated into dozens of languages. Users on a WordPress site can choose their own language from their profile settings.

    Most WordPress themes are translation-ready and all popular WordPress plugins are also translated into many languages.

    You can build a WordPress website in any language you want. You can even translate WordPress yourself if your language is not yet available.

    WordPress does not come with multi-lingual functionality out of the box. However, there are excellent plugins to create multilingual websites that are SEO-friendly and incredibly feature-rich.

    Squarespace

    The Squarespace platform is fully translated into six languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). It also partially supports a few more languages.

    You can change your site language and choose a different timezone / country.

    You can only use currencies supported by Stripe or PayPal for your store products.

    You can create multilingual pages by basically duplicating your pages. You will have to manually create a site structure or different sites for each language (You will be billed for each site separately).

    Alternatively, you can pay for Weglot, a third-party service to manage translations. Pricing for Weglot starts at $9.99 per month for one language.

    Conclusion

    WordPress is way ahead in terms of languages and localization options. Squarespace again comes out as very limited and not suitable for creating multilingual websites.

    Winner: WordPress

    Summarizing Squarespace vs WordPress Comparison

    WordPress is a far superior platform to Squarespace when it comes to building a website. Our CMS market share report shows that WordPress powers over 43% of all websites while Squarespace is only used by 2.1% of websites.

    Here is a quick breakdown of pros and cons of both platforms.

    Pros of using Squarespace

    • Easier to use for small websites
    • Polished user experience
    • Hassle-free website setup
    • Customer support via Twitter, Live Chat, and email support.

    Cons of using Squarespace

    • Costs higher than a website on shared hosting
    • Limited design choices
    • Limited set of features
    • Limitations put you at disadvantage in growing your business

    Pros of using WordPress

    • Easy to use with a slight learning curve
    • Incredibly flexible to create any kind of website
    • Massive collection of themes and plugins
    • Truly powerful eCommerce platform
    • Can be started at a very low cost
    • Community support via online forums

    Cons of using WordPress

    Weighing the pros and cons, we can confidently say that WordPress is a better platform to start a website.

    The freedom to grow your website as you see fit is important for all businesses.

    You should not trade that for any cost. WordPress provides this freedom at a much lower cost than all other platforms.

    Frequently Asked Questions about Squarespace vs WordPress

    Following are some of the most commonly asked questions about Squarespace vs WordPress.

    1. Is WordPress better than Squarespace?

    Yes, WordPress is better than Squarespace because it gives you more freedom and flexibility to build any kind of website.

    Squarespace is easy to use but it offers a free limited set of features and flexibility. It is comparable to platforms like Wix or Weebly which are also fully hosted site builders with similar limitations.

    2. Is WordPress better for SEO than Squarespace?

    Yes, WordPress is better for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) than Squarespace. With WordPress you can use SEO plugins like All in One SEO for WordPress, which allows you to add powerful sitemaps, schema markup, meta title and descriptions, and more.

    With Squarespace, you are limited to the SEO functionality baked into the platform and cannot extend it.

    3. How can I move my site from Squarespace to WordPress?

    Squarespace offers limited export options but you can still switch from Squarespace to WordPress. See our tutorial on how to easily move from Squarespace to WordPress for step-by-step instructions.

    4. Squarespace vs WordPress which one is better for bloggers?

    WordPress is the better platform for bloggers. It started out as a blogging platform and still has the best blogging tools than any other site builder on the market.

    We hope this article offered you a side-by-side comparison of WordPress vs Squarespace. You may also want to see our complete WordPress review for a detailed overview of the platform.

    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.

    The post Squarespace vs WordPress – Which Is Better? (Pros and Cons) first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Create an Interactive Poll in WordPress (Step by Step)

    Do you want to create an online poll on your WordPress site?

    Polls are an interactive way to engage your audience while getting useful information from them. You can get feedback from your users and find out what they like.

    In this article, we will show you how to easily create and add a poll in your WordPress.

    How to Create an interactive poll in WordPress

    Which Tool to Choose for Adding a Poll in WordPress?

    Adding interactive polls to your website is a great way to engage users, as it instantly grabs their attention. You can generate leads using polls and, at the same time, collect valuable feedback from your audience.

    That said, there are plenty of plugins and online tools that allow you to embed polls on your WordPress site. Many of them require you to create an account, some store data on their own servers, and others have a terrible user experience.

    If you are looking for a good user experience with full control of poll data, then you’ll need WPForms. It is the best WordPress form builder plugin and includes powerful surveys and polls addon.

    With WPForms, you’ll be able to do the following:

    • Create polls in WordPress using a drag-and-drop form builder
    • Gather poll results on your own websites
    • Show votes count when user submit their vote
    • Display poll anywhere on your website
    • Show poll results anywhere on your website

    With that, let’s look at how to easily create online polls in WordPress using WPForms.

    Creating Online Polls in WordPress

    The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    You will need the WPForms Pro plan because it includes the survey and polls addon. WPBeginner users get an additional discount by using the WPForms coupon code. There is also a WPForms Lite version you can try for free.

    Upon activation, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information in your WPForms account.

    Entering the WPForms license key

    Next, you need to visit WPForms » Addons page and scroll down to the Surveys and Polls addon.

    Go ahead and click on the ‘Install’ addon button.

    Install surveys and polls addon

    Now you are ready to create an online poll.

    You can start by going to WPForms » Add New page to create a new form. First, you need to provide a title for your poll form and then select the ‘Poll Form’ template.

    Select the poll form template

    This will launch the WPForms drag-and-drop form builder interface.

    You will see a pre-made poll form template with example fields already added to the form.

    Edit your poll form template

    There are options to add new form fields from the left column. All you have to do is drag and drop the field you’d like to add to the form.

    Besides that, you can just point and click to edit any field, rearrange them, or remove them.

    For example, if you click the poll question in the template, then you will see more options in the menu on your left. Simply rearrange the order, and edit their titles, labels, and more.

    Rearrange poll question order

    Next, you need to click on the Settings button from the left menu and then go to the ‘Surveys and Polls’ tab. Here you can enable or disable the poll results option.

    By default, the WPForms poll template will display poll results to users after they submit their votes. If you disable this option, then users will not see the poll results.

    Enable survey and poll results option

    On the other hand, you can show users a custom message or redirect them to another page or URL.

    Simply go to the ‘Confirmation’ tab. Here, you can choose the Confirmation Type from the dropdown menu.

    Go to confirmation settings

    Once you have created the poll form, go ahead and click on the ‘Save’ button to store your form settings.

    Adding The Poll to Your WordPress Website

    WPForms makes it easy to add your online poll anywhere on your website, including posts, pages, custom post types, and sidebar widgets.

    You can click the ‘Embed’ button in the form builder to add your poll form. Once you do that, a new popup window will open. You can select an existing page or create a new one to embed your form.

    Embed a form in page

    Let’s select the ‘Create New Page’ button for this tutorial.

    In the next step, you’ll need to enter a name for your page. After that, you can click the ‘Let’s Go’ button.

    Enter name for your new page

    You should now see your poll form embedded in the WordPress content editor.

    Another way of adding your form is by using the WPForms block. Simply click the ‘+’ button to add the WPForms and select your form from the dropdown menu.

    Add a WPForms block in wordpress

    Next, you’ll see a preview of your form.

    You can save or publish your post/page and visit your website to see your poll in action.

    View poll form preview

    You can also add your poll to a sidebar or widget-ready area.

    To do that, you need to go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the WPForms widget block to a sidebar where you want to display the poll.

    Add WPForms widget block

    In the WPForms widget block, you need to select the poll form you created earlier.

    Don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button to store your widget settings. You can now visit your website to see your online poll displayed in a sidebar or another widget-ready area.

    View poll form in sidebar

    Viewing Live Poll Results

    If you have enabled poll results, then your users will see the results after submitting their votes.

    View your poll results

    You can also view poll results at any time without submitting a vote.

    Simply visit WPForms » All Forms page and click on the ‘Survey Results’ link below your poll form.

    Click the survey results option

    This will take you to the poll results page, where you will see poll responses in an interactive chart.

    You can change the charge type and export the results in JPEG, PDF, and print formats.

    See poll results in dashboard

    Embed Poll Results Anywhere in WordPress

    WPForms also allows you to easily embed your online poll results anywhere on your website. This is particularly useful if you have disabled poll results and want to share them later.

    First, you will need to find out your poll form’s ID. You can do this by going to WPForms » All Forms page and looking for the shortcode next to your poll form.

    View form shortcode

    In the shortcode, you will find your poll’s ID number. For example, our test poll’s ID is 76, as shown in the screenshot above.

    Next, you need to find out the field ID. This is the field in your form for which you want to show the results.

    Simply edit your poll form and click on the poll field. You will find the field ID in the left column.

    View the field ID

    Now that you have both required IDs, you can go ahead and add the poll results shortcode like this:

    Don’t forget to replace the form ID and field ID values with your own. You can use this shortcode in WordPress posts, pages, and text widgets.

    Here’s a preview of what your poll results will look like:

    Preview of form results

    We hope this article helped you create an interactive poll in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to start a WordPress blog and the best email marketing services.

    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.

    The post How to Create an Interactive Poll in WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • 9 Best Google Optimize Alternatives (Free and Paid)

    Recently one of our readers asked us for our suggestion on the best Google Optimize alternative?

    Google Optimize is a tool that lets you conduct experiments on your website. However, Google recently announced that the Optimize tool will be sunset in September 2023, and your experiments will stop after this date.

    This has left many business owners and marketers scrambling to quickly find a Google Optimize alternative for their A/B testing needs.

    In this article, we will share the best Google Optimize alternatives, so you can choose the solution that works for your needs. We will also share what we’re going to be switching to as well.

    Best Google Optimize alternatives

    What is Google Optimize and Why Use an Alternative?

    Google Optimize is a free tool by Google that allows you to split test pages on your WordPress website and improve user experience.

    You can set up conversion experiments using the tool and see if making changes to a landing page increases conversions. For example, you can A/B split-test two versions of a sales page, use different headlines, or change the color of the call to action (CTA) buttons to see which one works the best.

    However, Google announced that they will sunset Google Optimize on September 30, 2023. After this date, the tool will no longer be available, and all your experiments and personalizations will end on that date. Besides that, you won’t be able to access data after the sunset date.

    You can use a Google Optimize alternative to continue experimenting and testing your site. There are many tools in the market that let you conduct A/B tests with ease, require no coding to set up, and offer powerful features.

    Let’s look at the best Google Optimize alternatives especially the ones that works seamlessly with WordPress websites, but several of these Google Optimize competitors will work on all website platforms.

    1. Thrive Optimize

    Thrive Optimize

    Thrive Optimize is the best Google Optimize alternative for WordPress that is super easy to use. It is part of the Thrive Theme suite, which includes an ecosystem of WordPress plugins focused on boosting conversions on your site.

    With Thrive Optimize, you can conduct experiments and A/B test landing pages without editing code. Unlike Google Optimize, the plugin is beginner friendly, as there is no need to add code snippets to your site.

    You can get started in no time. Simply create a landing page using the visual builder and then create a variant. After that, pick a conversion goal, which includes page visits, opt-in form submissions, and revenue. Once that’s done, go ahead and run the test.

    Thrive Optimize Visual Split Testing for WordPress

    The best part is that you don’t have to switch between tabs or windows to view the results of your experiments. If you’re using Google Optimize, then you’d have to jump back and forth between tabs to see the results.

    Instead, Thrive Optimize shows a report inside your WordPress dashboard. You can quickly view which variant is converting the best. Besides that, you can create as many variations of a landing page for testing as you want. The plugin also picks a winner and shows the best variant.

    Pricing: Thrive Optimize is part of the Thrive Themes suite which costs $299 per year and includes 9 other powerful conversion tools. You can also purchase Thrive Optimize bundle for $199 / year.

    2. OptinMonster

    OptinMonster

    OptinMonster is the best WordPress popup plugin and lead generation software in the market. You can create campaigns like floating bars, welcome screen mats, and popups to grow your email list, increase conversions, and get more leads.

    OptinMonster offers an A/B testing tool that lets you test different popup and modal campaigns. It makes a great Google Optimize alternative because it’s very easy to use. You can customize and create different variants using the drag-and-drop campaign builder.

    Once you’ve created a split test, OptinMonster will randomly show the variations to your visitors and pick a clear winner. You can then see in-depth stats about conversions inside your WordPress dashboard and find out which campaign performs the best.

    Pricing: You will need the OptinMonster Plus or higher plan to use the A/B testing feature, with prices starting from $19 per month.

    3. VWO Testing

    VWO testing

    VWO Testing is a popular A/B testing tool and a great alternative to Google Optimize. You get more features than Google Optimize, as it allows you to run multiple experiments on your website, products, apps, and server side.

    It comes with a visual builder to change different elements on your webpage, like text, images, shapes, backgrounds, and more. After making the changes, you can run split tests and see which variant performs the best.

    VWO Testing offers an AI-power copywriting tool. This way, you can automatically select different headlines, CTA copies, and product descriptions to test.

    It also lets you run tests based on user segments and behavior. For instance, you can select a target audience based on time spent on a page, scroll depth, exit intent, and when someone clicks on elements.

    Pricing: VWO offers a free plan that you can use for up to 50 thousand users per month. If you have more users, then you can upgrade to their premium plans.

    4. FunnelKit

    FunnelKit

    FunnelKit, formerly known as WooFunnels, is the best WordPress and WooCommerce sales funnel plugin. You can use the plugin to create funnels to generate leads, offer seamless checkouts, 1-click upsells, and more.

    FunnelKit is another Google Optimize alternative that comes with an A/B testing feature specially for WooCommerce. You can split-test your product prices, page layouts, messages, designs, and funnels without editing code.

    The plugin is beginner friendly and helps you set up experiments within minutes. You can test headings, images, prices, product descriptions, and every other component on a page. FunnelKit also helps declare a winner once there’s enough data to see which funnel converts the best.

    Besides that, FunnelKit also offers other features. For example, it offers FunnelKit Automation which allows you to set up automated emails and SMS campaigns.

    Pricing: FunnelKit offers multiple pricing plans. To use the A/B Testing feature, you’ll need the Plus plan. It will cost you $179.5 per year.

    5. Convert.com

    Convert.com

    Convert.com is a proven A/B testing tool to help you boost conversions. It provides fast & flicker free A/B testing experience and is known for their speed.

    They are a perfect Google Optimize alternative because it gives you access to all the features you’re accustomed to with Google Optimize and then some more.

    Convert also let you seamlessly integrate your tests with Google Analytics as well as other tools like Hotjar, Heap, Segment, HubSpot, and more.

    Their onboarding is a bit slow, but once you’re up and running, you can create unlimited tests and quickly deploy changes.

    Pricing: Convert.com prices start from $99 per month, and you get a 14-day free trial.

    6. Crazy Egg

    Crazy Egg

    Crazy Egg is a popular heatmap tool in the market. You can use heatmaps to see how users behave on your website, where they click, and how they move the mouse cursor and scroll through pages.

    Crazy Egg offers an A/B testing tool that you can use to run experiments on your website and boost conversions. What makes it a great Google Optimize alternative is the features it offers along with A/B testing.

    You get heatmaps, recordings of visitors using your website, error tracking, surveys, and traffic analytics. Plus, you can configure it without editing code, which isn’t possible if you’re Google Optimize.

    Crazy Egg offers a multivariate engine where all you need to do is choose the elements you want to test and add your ideas. The engine then does the heavy lifting and conducts the test for you.

    The best part is that it is easily integrated with website builders, including WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and more.

    Pricing: Crazy Egg offers different pricing plans starting from $29 per month. You get unlimited A/B tests in each pricing plan, and there is also a 30-day free trial to get started.

    7. Adobe Target

    Adobe Target

    Adobe Target is an enterprise-level solution to run split tests on their website and is part of Adobe Marketing Cloud. It is more powerful than Google Optimize and offers an omnichannel approach to the A/B test.

    What this means is that instead of running isolated experiments, Adobe Target lets you run tests on every channel. This way, you get to see how users behave with different variants coming from other channels, like social media, organic traffic, paid search, and more.

    The software is easy to use and set up. Plus, its AI-powered automation helps you test multiple experiences and then personalize them for each visitor.

    On the downside, Adobe Analytics is only available for users that have Adobe Analytics. If you’re looking for a complete marketing solution with an A/B testing feature, then you can use Thrive Optimize instead.

    Pricing: You will need to request a quote and get Adobe Target pricing according to your business needs.

    8. Optimizely

    Optimizely

    Optimizely is one of the most popular Google Optimize alternatives in the market. Their digital experience platform allows you to create every kind of A/B testing experiment for your website.

    You can use their visual editor along with advanced targeting features to optimize your A/B testing campaigns. Optimizely works on all website platforms and is a platform of choice by many large brands.

    We have used Optimizely in the past when they had a free plan, and it’s an extremely powerful tool for what it does, however the prices are no longer small business friendly.

    Pricing: Optimizely does not reveal it’s prices anymore and require that you submit a form to request a quote.

    9. Kameleoon

    Kameleoon

    Kameleoon is the next Google Optimize alternative on our list. It offers powerful solutions and lets you conduct different types of experiments.

    For starters, you can run web experiments and A/B test your website and mobile apps. You can assign a business goal to your tests and see which variant is increasing conversions, retention, or engagement.

    Kameleoon also offers A/B testing features to advanced users and developers. You can run server-side experiments to improve your product. It easily works in different development languages and frameworks, like PHP, Java, Ruby, Flutter, and more.

    Besides that, it offers AI-power personalization. You can provide unique experiences to each visitor, target different segments for testing, and comply with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA.

    Pricing: You will need to request a demo and get a quote for Kameleoon pricing.

    Which is the Best Google Optimize Alternative (Expert Pick)

    The best Google Optimize alternatives are Thrive Optimize, VWO Testing, and FunnelKit.

    If you’re looking for a WordPress A/B testing tool, then Thrive Optimize is our first pick. It gives you all the powerful features, and it’s very affordable. Since it’s part of the Thrive Suite, you also get other solutions like a quiz builder, popup form builder, WordPress page builder, and more.

    If you’re looking for an all-around SaaS alternative for Google Optimize that works on all platforms, then we recommend using VWO Testing. They have a generous free plan that should work for most small business owners.

    And if you are an eCommerce store owner looking for the best Google Optimize alternative for WooCommerce, then we recommend using FunnelKit. They have deep integration with WooCommerce and allow you to customize every step of the funnel including adding custom 1-click upsells, order bumps, and more to help boost your average order value.

    We hope this article helped you find the best Google Optimize alternative. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to improve your SEO ranking, and see our comparison of the best push notification software with A/B testing features to boost your 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.

    The post 9 Best Google Optimize Alternatives (Free and Paid) first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Display Popular Posts by Day, Week, and Month in WordPress

    Do you want to display your most popular posts by day, week, month, or even all-time in WordPress?

    Popular posts allow your visitors to quickly discover your top content, which helps you increase user engagement, pageviews, and conversions.

    In this article, we will show you how to display popular posts by day, week, month, and all time in WordPress.

    Display popular posts by day week month and all time in WordPress

    Why Display Popular Posts in WordPress?

    When you start a WordPress blog, you don’t have much content, which allows you to display selected posts in a sidebar widget manually.

    However, as your website grows, you will notice that older articles on your website don’t get much exposure. By showcasing your top content, you allow new users to quickly discover the best articles on your website. This boosts user engagement on your website and increases your page views.

    Now the problem is that if you are showing your all-time popular articles, then a very limited set of articles get repeated exposure. You can diversify it by displaying popular posts by day, week, or month as well.

    Let’s take a look at how to easily display popular posts in WordPress by day, week, month, or all time.

    Add Popular Posts by Day, Week, and Month in WordPress

    The best way to show popular posts in WordPress is using MonsterInsights. It’s the best Analytics plugin for WordPress and helps you set up Google Analytics without editing code.

    For this tutorial, we’ll use the MonsterInsights Pro version because it lets you automatically show top posts from Google Analytics.

    There is also a MonsterInsights Lite version that’s free and also includes the Popular Posts feature, but does not connect to GA.

    First, you’ll need to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Upon activation, you will be directed toward the MonsterInsights welcome screen. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button.

    Launch setup wizard

    After that, you can follow the onscreen instructions to configure Google Analytics. For more details, please see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

    With MonsterInsights, you can also set up a Google Analytics 4 property. This is the new version of Analytics. The previous Universal Analytics version will sunset on July 1, 2023, and you won’t be able to track website data after this date. That’s why now is the best time to switch to Google Analytics 4 and protect your data.

    Now that you’ve added Google Analytics to your website, the next step is to go to Insights » Popular Posts from your WordPress dashboard.

    MonsterInsights lets you show your top articles within the content, in the sidebar as a widget, and display popular products if you have an online store.

    For this tutorial, we’ll use ‘Inline Popular Posts’ and show featured articles within the content of other blog posts.

    Popular post in MonsterInsights

    The plugin comes with prebuilt themes, and you can see a preview of how your popular posts will appear on the website.

    Once you’ve chosen a theme, simply scroll down to see more customization options. For instance, you can change the title color and size, edit the color of the label and background, and more.

    Preview of popular post and customization options

    Show Popular Posts by Day, Week, Month, and All Time in WordPress

    Next, you’ll need to choose how the plugin will determine your popular posts. Let’s see how you can show posts by day, week, month, and all time.

    Displaying Popular Posts by Day, Week, and All Time

    In MonsterInsights, you can manually select which posts appear in the Popular Posts widget.

    This is useful when displaying top content from a specific day or week. Plus, you can also show your all-time best articles anywhere on your website.

    Simply select the ‘Curated’ option under Sort By section and then choose the articles you want to feature.

    These could be your evergreen content, weekly announcement or news, trending topics from a particular day, and more.

    Just begin typing the name of the posts you want to include, and then select them as their name pops up in the field. To continuously display your top posts of all time, you simply need to select them, and as long as ‘Curated’ is chosen, they will appear as popular posts.

    Select curated articles to feature

    However, if you want to display popular posts by the day or the week, you will have to manually change some of these curated posts so they stay fresh for your audience.

    For instance, if you are featuring different WooCommerce products weekly, you will need to choose which posts are listed under ‘Curated’ each week.

    Displaying Popular Posts by Month and All Time

    In MonsterInsights, you get multiple options to automatically show popular posts by month and all time.

    First, you can show your most commented pages from the last 30 days by selecting the ‘Comments’ option. The plugin will randomly rotate blog posts with the highest comments and show them in the popular post widget.

    Sort your popular posts

    Similarly, MonsterInsights also lets you automatically display popular posts based on social shares using the ‘SharedCount’ option.

    It integrates with the SharedCount and helps you display your all-time most shared articles. This way, people can easily find content that’s driving social engagement.

    Show popular posts by SharedCount

    MonsterInsights also offers an option to show the top 5 posts from Google Analytics in the last 30 days. This way you can show your top-performing content from last month or all-time anywhere on your site.

    First, you’ll need to select the ‘Curated’ option under the ‘Sort By’ section.

    After that, you can enable the ‘Add Top 5 Posts from Google Analytics’ option under the Automated + Curated section.

    Add top 5 posts automatically

    To ensure that your data is being fetched from Google Analytics, click the ‘Test Automated Posts’ button under ‘Automated + Curated.’

    A popup message will now appear, showing that the popular posts are being fetched correctly. You can click the ‘Close’ button.

    Popular post data is correctly fetched

    Do note that you’ll need to set up the ‘Post Type’ custom dimensions in MonsterInsights and Google Analytics to use the Automated + Curated feature.

    Custom dimensions are additional metrics you can track in Google Analytics. For more details on custom dimensions and how to configure them, you can see our guides on how to enable author tracking in WordPress and the best time to publish a blog.

    Insert Popular Posts to Your WordPress Website

    Next, you’ll need to select how you’d like to insert the featured articles.

    MonsterInsights offers 2 options, including automatic placement and manual placement.

    If you select the ‘Automatic’ option, then you can decide after how many words you’d want the popular post widget to appear. There is also an option to include and exclude pages from display featured posts.

    Choose placement option

    When you’re done, simply click back to the top and click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

    This way, your settings will be saved, and MonsterInsights will automatically display popular posts on your site.

    Click the Save Changes Button to Store Your New Widget

    On the other hand, you can also show popular posts in any blog post by adding the MonsterInsights block or using a shortcode.

    First, add a new post or edit an existing one. Once you’re in the content editor, simply click the ‘+’ button and add the ‘Popular Posts’ block.

    Select popular posts block

    After that, you can see a preview of your featured articles in the content editor.

    Once you’re satisfied with the widget’s appearance, you can go ahead and publish your article.

    Preview your popular posts

    We hope this article helped you display popular posts by day, week, month, and all time in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on WordPress SEO and the best WooCommerce plugins.

    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.

    The post How to Display Popular Posts by Day, Week, and Month in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Import & Export WooCommerce Products with Images

    Do you want to import and export WooCommerce products with images?

    Importing or exporting WooCommerce products with images allows you to easily move your store or add new products in multiple stores.

    In this article, we will show you how to easily import and export WooCommerce products with images.

    How to Import & Export WooCommerce Products with Images

    Why Import & Export WooCommerce Products?

    Many users need to import and export WooCommerce products for a number of reasons.

    • You may want to move products from one WooCommerce store to another
    • You may want to start an online store with a new WordPress website but with the same WooCommerce products
    • You may want to move your website to a new server but need a better way to move products
    • You may want a faster way to add your products to multiple stores that you manage
    • and more

    Now normally if you are moving your website to a new server, then you can just duplicate your entire website and set it up on your new host.

    We have a complete step-by-step guide for that, see how to easily move WordPress to a new host or server.

    On the other hand, if you only want to move products, then this tutorial will help you learn how to properly export and import WooCommerce products with images and other product data.

    We’ll show you two methods, you can choose one that works best for you.

    Method 1. Import & Export WooCommerce Products without a Plugin

    WooCommerce comes with built-in functionality to easily import and export products with images, but without using any additional plugins.

    First, you need to visit the Products » All Products page in your WordPress admin area. There, you will see two buttons at the top to ‘Import’ or ‘Export’ products.

    Import export WooCommerce products

    Let’s first check out how the export feature works.

    Exporting WooCommerce Products without Using a Plugin

    Simply click on the ‘Export’ button at the top to continue.

    On the next screen, you’ll see a bunch of options to choose what data you want to export.

    Default WooCommerce product export options

    For instance, you can choose to only export certain columns from product data. You can also choose to export specific product types or products in specific categories.

    To export all products with images and all other data, you can leave these options unchecked.

    Optionally, you can check the ‘Export custom meta.’ If you are unsure, then it’s better to check it so that you have the data.

    Go ahead and click on the ‘Generate CSV’ button to continue.

    WooCommerce will now prepare a CSV file and download it to your computer.

    What is a CSV File?

    CSV is short for Comma Separated Values, and it is file type of plain text that separates different columns or fields of data with a comma.

    You can open it with any spreadsheet software like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Here is how it would look:

    CSV file opened in spreadsheet software

    Importing WooCommerce Products without Using a Plugin

    Simply go to the Products » All Products page and click on the Import button at the top.

    Import products

    If your WooCommerce store is empty, then instead of the buttons at the top, you will see buttons at the center of the page.

    Click on the ‘Start Import’ button to begin the import.

    Start import

    This will bring up the import wizard.

    First, you need to click on the ‘Choose File’ button to select the WooCommerce export CSV file you downloaded earlier.

    Choose import file

    Click on the continue button to upload the CSV file.

    WooCommerce will now check to see if your CSV file is in a compatible format. After that, it will ask you to map that data to existing WooCommerce product data.

    Map columns

    The default settings here will work for most WooCommerce stores.

    However, you still need to review and if a column is missing, and then click on the drop-down menu next to it and select a matching field if available.

    Particularly, if you are using variations attribute for products, then make sure to scroll down to the attributes columns and match fields.

    Match attribute fields

    This will allow you to ensure that the fields in your CSV file match the corresponding WooCommerce fields.

    Click on the ‘Run’ the Importer button to begin.

    WooCommerce will now start importing data from CSV file. It will also download any images attached to your products.

    Products imported

    Once finished, you can visit the Products » All Products page to see the imported products.

    Make sure to visit your shop and product pages to check that everything is working as expected.

    Method 2. Import & Export WooCommerce Products with a Plugin

    For this method, we’ll be using a plugin to import and export WooCommerce products.

    The advantage of this method is that it offers more flexible options and also allows you to export / import product reviews.

    Plus, it allows you to import / export WooCommerce products in batches which comes in handy if you have a large store with many products and images.

    Exporting WooCommerce Products with a Plugin

    First, you need to install and activate the Product Import Export for WooCommerce plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    The plugin comes as three separate addons. You’ll need to download and install all of them.

    Download plugins

    Upon activation, you need to visit the Webtoffee Import Export (Pro) » Export page and select the ‘Product’ as the post type you want to export.

    Exporting WooCommerce products using a plugin

    On the next screen, you need to select an export method.

    The default Quick Export method automatically selects all your products for export.

    Quick export method

    Optionally, you can also choose ‘Advanced Export’ which allows you to filter products by category, tag, and status.

    You can also exclude individual products manually.

    Advanced filtering options

    Click on the Export button to continue and the plugin will start preparing your product data.

    Once finished, you’ll be prompted to download the export file to your computer.

    Download export file

    Importing WooCommerce Products with a Plugin

    Now that you have your export file ready, you can use it to import products on another WooCommerce store.

    Simply install and activate the Product Import Export for WooCommerce plugin on the store where you need to import the products.

    After that, go to the Webtoffee Import Export (Pro) » Import page and select ‘Product’ as the post type you want to import.

    Import products using a plugin

    Click on the ‘Step 2: Select import method’ button to continue.

    Next, you need to select an import method and upload the exported file you downloaded earlier to your computer.

    Import method

    Click on the ‘Step 3: Map and Import Columns’ button to continue.

    On the next screen, you’ll see a list of fields and the matching fields from your import file. If you see an empty field, you can choose a matching field for it in the next column.

    If you are using product variations like sizes and colors, then make sure to click on the Attributes tab to match attribute fields.

    Map fields

    However, if you are not using any products with variations or custom attributes then you can use the default settings.

    Click on the ‘Step 4: Advanced Options / Batch Import’ button to continue.

    On the final screen, you’ll see advanced options. For instance, you can choose to match products by ID or SKU, choose what to do if a product already exists, and more.

    Import options

    If you are importing products into an empty WooCommere store, then you can use the default settings.

    Finally, click on the ‘Import’ button to run the product import process.

    You’ll see the progress of the import on screen. Once finished, you can click on ‘View Products’ to check if everything has been imported correctly.

    products imported

    The plugin also allows you to import and export Product Reviews.

    If you want to import or export the product reviews too, then simply choose ‘Product Reviews’ post type on the import or export page.

    Import or export product reviews

    Improve Your WooCommerce Store with Automations

    If you find yourself doing a lot of manual work around your WooCommerce store and want to save time, then we recommend using Uncanny Automator for workflow automation.

    Uncanny Automator helps you connect over 100+ plugins and apps with a simple no-code visual builder. You can use it to create automated workflows for things that you normally do without writing any code.

    There’s a free version that you can try out, and it’s already used by over 20,000 websites.

    Aside from workflow automation, if you’re looking for a marketing automation tool for WooCommerce, then we recommend using FunnelKit Automation. It will help you grow your sales and improve conversions without the high costs.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to easily import and export WooCommerce products with images in WordPress. You may also want to see our pick of the essential WooCommerce plugins or see these practical tips on recovering abandoned cart sales in WooCommerce.

    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.

    The post How to Import & Export WooCommerce Products with Images first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • 10 WordPress Plugins Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

    Do you want to use artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies on your WordPress site?

    Many WordPress plugins are using AI and machine learning to offer smarter features. There is a chance that you might already be using one of these plugins on your site.

    In this article, we will share some of the best WordPress plugins that use artificial intelligence and machine learning.

    WordPress Plugins Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

    What are Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning?

    If you follow the news, then you must have heard the words artificial intelligence or machine learning being mentioned.

    Artificial intelligence and machine learning are computer technologies that offer smarter solutions in computer devices, apps, GPS devices, smart TVs, home assistance devices, and more.

    Artificial intelligence gives computer programs able to make choices without human intelligence.

    Machine learning helps the software learn from experiences, data, and user activity to improve artificial intelligence and make better choices.

    These technologies allow developers to automate tasks that would normally need human intelligence.

    For example, voice recognition, search patterns, translations, image recognition, and more are currently being used by most modern mobile phones and smart devices.

    What’s the difference between artificial intelligence and machine learning?

    Artificial intelligence can make decisions based on programmed intelligence.

    Machine learning further enhances artificial intelligence by self-learning through user activity and collecting information. This makes artificial intelligence smarter and allows it to make more accurate decisions.

    What about machines taking over the world?

    Many prominent scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs have expressed concern over the possible threat to human society from artificial intelligence and self-learning machines.

    However, it also has great potential to improve the lives of billions of people. That’s why even the most prominent AI skeptics encourage its careful usage for the greater good.

    What Can Artificial Intelligence Do for WordPress Websites?

    It can provide a smarter and much better user experience for your users.

    For example, it can improve WordPress search, grammar and style checking, show related content, improve conversions, boost eCommerce sales, and more.

    Your website becomes smarter, faster, and more personalized for your users. This saves you time which allows you to do other things to grow your business.

    That being said, let’s take a look at the WordPress plugins that use AI and machine learning.

    1. Akismet

    Akismet

    Akismet is one of the only two plugins that come pre-installed on every WordPress website. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect spam comments.

    Used by millions of websites, Akismet has improved over the years to detect almost all spam submitted by bots. It can also detect spam comments manually submitted by actual human users by learning from their mistakes and recognizing patterns across millions of websites.

    For more details, see our Akismet guide for beginners with instructions on how to set it up on your WordPress website.

    2. WordLift

    WordLift

    The WordLift plugin integrates its web-based service to your WordPress website. It offers SEO tips to improve your content with the help of its knowledge graph.

    It analyzes your content to offer facts, figures, and media to match and build contextual relationships among your articles which results in better content recommendations. It builds a knowledge graph for your own website, which becomes smarter as you add more content.

    3. Grammarly

    Grammarly

    Grammarly is one of the most popular WordPress plugins. It is an artificial intelligence-powered grammar-checking tool that analyzes the readability of your content to help you write better.

    It supports American, British, Canadian, and Australian English languages. It is also available as a Google Chrome addon as an alternative to the JetPack module.

    4. Google Language Translator

    Google Language Translator

    Google Language Translator lets your users easily translate your website content without creating a multilingual WordPress site. It brings Google’s AI and machine learning translation engine to your WordPress website.

    You can simply select languages you want to display on your website. After that, you can add the translator to your website using the sidebar widget or shortcode.

    For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to add Google Translate to WordPress.

    5. MyCurator Content Curation

    MyCurator

    MyCurator is a cloud-based content curation service. It allows you to add an artificial intelligence-powered content aggregator, which shows content relevant to your selected topics and improves results by learning from what you add or vote on.

    You can create a curated content section on your website by fetching the best bits of content relevant to your audience. You can add any article you like to your website with an excerpt and a link back to the source.

    6. WebsiteVoice

    WebsiteVoice

    WebsiteVoice is a free WordPress plugin that converts your text content into high-quality audio. This helps improve user engagement and save time for users to listen to your articles while they’re busy with other routine work.

    You’ll need their website token to activate the text-to-speech option on your site. These tokens are free initially, but you have to upgrade to a premium plan to continue using their service.

    7. Quttera Web Malware Scanner

    Quttera

    Quttera Web Malware Scanner allows you to scan your WordPress site for malware and malicious code. This is particularly useful if you suspect that your WordPress site is hacked or blacklisted by search engines.

    The plugin uses artificial intelligence to learn from false positives and improves scan results based on usage. While it helps scan an infected website, it doesn’t protect your website from getting affected.

    For better security, see our ultimate WordPress security guide to protect your website against hacks, DDOS attacks, and malicious code.

    8. ChatBot

    ChatBot

    ChatBot provides AI-powered virtual chat agent for your website. It uses machine learning to improve the live chat experience and send accurate responses.

    You need to sign up for a free account on the plugin’s website. After that, it will start learning as you use it. You can also train it on what to say and how to respond to user queries. This can be handy in keeping users engaged on your website and generating more leads.

    9. Link Whisper

    LinkWhisper

    LinkWhisper is a free WordPress internal linking plugin powered by Artificial Intelligence. It learns from the content on your site and suggests powerful internal linking opportunities to improve your search rankings and grow your traffic.

    The plugin looks into your website’s content, including pages and posts. Then it offers suggestions in the WordPress block editor to add internal links while you’re writing and editing an article.

    10. ImageSEO

    ImageSEO

    ImageSEO is a free WordPress image optimization plugin. It uses artificial intelligence to optimize the alt text and title of your images to grow your organic traffic.

    The plugin also generates social cards for Twitter, Facebook, and channels. After activating the plugin, you can upload images on the WordPress website, and ImageSEO will write the name, title, and tag for the images automatically. It seamlessly works on single and bulk image uploads.

    We hope this article helped you learn about WordPress plugins using artificial intelligence and machine learning. You may also want to see our guide on how to improve your WordPress website speed and performance.

    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.

    The post 10 WordPress Plugins Using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning first appeared on WPBeginner.