Do you want to fix the issue of redirecting to an old domain?
When you migrate a WordPress website to a new domain, there is a possibility that users will be redirected back to the old domain.
In this article, we will show you how to fix WordPress redirecting to an old domain after migration.
What Causes Redirection to Old Domain After Migration Issue?
When you’re moving your WordPress website to a new domain, it is important to set up redirection. This way, users automatically land on the new location, and you get to keep your keyword rankings and traffic.
However, redirection to a new domain may not work properly, and your visitors would be redirected back to the old domain.
One of the main causes for this issue is that your site URL and home URL values are different in the WordPress database tables. You need to make sure that both these values lead to your new domain.
Besides that, DNS issues can also cause users to redirect to the old domain after migration. If the DNS server is not responding or DNS records haven’t been updated, then your visitors won’t be able to view your new website URL.
That said, let’s see how you can fix WordPress redirecting to the old domain after migration. We will cover different methods, so you can click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section.
Method 1: Update the Site Address in WordPress Settings
The easiest way to fix this issue is by ensuring that the WordPress address and site address is the same in your WordPress settings.
If your Site Address (URL) still shows the old domain, then users will be redirected to the previous URL after migration.
To fix this, simply head to Settings » General from your WordPress admin panel. After that, enter your new domain under the ‘Site Address (URL)’ field.
Once you’re done, simply save your changes and visit the new domain to see if the problem is resolved.
If, however, the URL fields are greyed out and won’t let you type a new address, continue reading and use one of the other methods to redirect your domain.
Method 2: Changing Site URL in WordPress Database
Another method of fixing the redirecting to the old domain issue is by updating the site URL in the WordPress database tables.
You can easily access the database using the cPanel provided by the WordPress hosting service. For this tutorial, we will be using Bluehost as an example, but the process is similar for other hosting companies like Hostinger, SiteGround, etc.
First, you’ll need to log in to the hosting service control panel. After that, simply click on the ‘Advanced’ tab from the menu on your left.
Next, you can scroll down to the Databases section and click the ‘phpMyAdmin’ option.
You will need to wait for a few seconds until phpMyAdmin opens.
Once it opens, you will need to go to the wp_options table from the navigational panel on your left.
Do note that each hosting service has a different naming convention for database tables. However, the one you’re looking for will always end in ‘_options.”
For example, in this tutorial, we will click the ‘staging_45f_options’ table in Bluehost’s phpMyAdmin.
Next, you will need to edit the ‘siteurl’ and ‘home’ options.
First, go ahead and click the ‘Edit’ button for ‘siteurl’ option.
After that, you will need to enter the new domain name in the option_value field. Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Go’ button.
Now, you can return to the main wp_options page and edit the ‘home’ option.
Next, you will need to enter the new domain in the option_value field.
After entering the value, click the ‘Go’ button.
Method 3: Flush DNS Cache on Your PC
If you’re still unable to resolve the issue of the old domain redirecting after migration, then you should check the DNS settings.
At times, it can take up to 12 to 48 hours for the change of domain name to take effect. As a result, internet providers that don’t have updated DNS records will redirect users to the old domain.
You simply flush the DNS cache so that it gets the latest information and the new website URL. This also helps resolve the DNS server not responding issue.
Pro Tip: Use SEO Plugin to Perform Full Site Redirect
When you manually perform redirection to a new domain, then there is always a chance of errors. As a result, users would still be redirected to the old domain.
An easier way of setting up redirection is by using an WordPress SEO plugin like All in One SEO (AIOSEO). It offers a powerful redirection manager that you can use to redirect your entire site to a new domain without any issues.
This tool was built by our team, and it is what we use when we’re migrating websites to a new domain or merging two sites into one. You can learn more by following our step by step guide on how to properly do a full site redirect in WordPress.
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.
If you’re comparing different website builders, then you may have come across the sentiment that WordPress is hard to use.
WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder powering over 43% of all websites on the internet. However, some people complain that WordPress is more difficult to use than solutions like Squarespace and Wix.
In this article, we’ll address the myth of why WordPress is so hard, and share the tricks, tools, and techniques you can use to harness the full power of WordPress without any difficulties.
Why is WordPress So Hard?
Over 43% of all websites on the internet are built on WordPress. This might make you wonder:
Why are so many people using a difficult platform?
Unlike website builders such as Squarespace, WordPress is completely open source, customizable, and flexible. You can use WordPress in any way you want, which might sound confusing for new users.
This is particularly true if you’ve previously used a website builder like Wix.com. These platforms typically have limited features and control exactly how you use their tools. This might make it seem like that they’re easy to use, but they are also very restrictive.
With the right techniques, tools, and information, WordPress is just as easy as any website builder, but without any of the restrictions.
By choosing WordPress, you’ll get the freedom to use any web host and domain provider, so you can update, customize, and extend your WordPress website in exactly the way you want.
In the official WordPress repository alone, you’ll find over 60,000 free plugins that can add all sorts of features to your website. Think of plugins like apps in your iPhone except they’re for your websites.
When it comes to designing your site, you can use any free or premium theme, or even use drag & drop page builders to create a completely unique design.
There are no provider terms and conditions to follow, and you own all the content on your site.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at why nearly half of all website owners in the world ignore the myth that WordPress is hard to use and choose WordPress as their platform.
WordPress Isn’t Hard (But Here’s How to Make it Even Easier)
At WPBeginner we don’t believe that WordPress is hard. However, if you don’t have the right tools, tricks, and know-how, then WordPress can feel more complex than it actually is.
With that in mind, let’s see how you can make WordPress easier. You can use the links below to jump to any section of the post.
By choosing the best WordPress hosting, you can set your site up for success. The right host will provide exactly the features you need to build and run a successful WordPress website, even if you have no previous experience.
Some hosts even perform crucial WordPress maintenance tasks such as creating backups, adding security plugins, and installing updates. This will make WordPress feel effortless.
For example, Bluehost is a well-known WordPress hosting provider that automatically installs and set up WordPress for you when you sign up.
From time to time, you may encounter problems or have questions.
A good host will offer support over email, phone, live chat, and other channels so you’ll have no problems getting your site back on track.
As the world’s most popular CMS, there are lots of companies that offer WordPress hosting. For that reason, we’ve done the research and created a list of the best web hosting companies to help you find the provider that’s right for you.
Here are the top WordPress hosting companies that we recommend:
Bluehost – great for beginners – includes free domain.
Hostinger – growing fast in popularity due to affordable prices, fast speed, includes free domain.
The best part about WordPress is that you can easily add any feature to your site using plugins, without hiring a developer.
There are eCommerce plugins to help you create an online store, plugins that turn WordPress into a membership site so you can sell courses, add smart lead generation forms to grow your business, improve your SEO rankings, and much more.
In fact, there are over 60,000 free plugins in the official WordPress repository alone, so you’ll have no problems finding a plugin that meets your exact needs.
Just like plugins, there are countless free themes to choose from. In fact, there are over 10,500 free themes in the official WordPress repository alone.
It’s important to choose a theme that looks good, has the features you need, and is also high quality. To help you make the right decision, see our guide on how to select the perfect WordPress theme.
When building your site, you’ll create posts and pages using the WordPress block editor.
If you’re using a block-enabled theme such as Divi or Astra, then you can also add content using the full-site editor.
This editor allows you to completely change the theme layout and add new sections to your website without writing any code.
This is a great start, but it can be very basic and has a limited number of features.
We still recommend using a page builder plugin such as SeedProd. SeedProd allows you to create completely custom page designs and comes with ready-made blocks that you can drag and drop anywhere on your site.
This includes advanced blocks like countdown timers, contact forms, Google Maps, payment fields, and much more.
After adding a block to your site, you can customize it using the settings in the left-hand SeedProd menu.
Most visitors will find your site through search engines like Google. To help search engines show your content to the right people, you’ll need to work on your WordPress SEO.
SEO is a huge topic that often includes technical tasks such as adding rich snippets schema markup to your site.
Thankfully, there’s a WordPress plugin for everything and SEO is no exception. There are lots of different WordPress SEO plugins and tools you can use for individual tasks, but we recommend AIOSEO as it’s the complete SEO toolkit for WordPress.
AIOSEO comes with powerful features including breadcrumb navigation, advanced eCommerce SEO support for WooCommerce, local SEO, an internal link assistant, and much more. This means you don’t have to set up and learn multiple SEO plugins.
AIOSEO also scans your pages and posts as you’re writing them and creates a checklist of ways to improve its SEO.
To provide a good experience, your website needs to load quickly.
WordPress is already optimized for speed and performance, but there are lots of tricks and tools that can make it run even faster. With that in mind, we’ve created the ultimate guide to boost WordPress speed and performance that has everything you need to know.
Set up an Automated Security Plugin
WordPress is secure software, but hackers are always coming up with new ways to break into sites and steal data. To help new WordPress users keep their sites safe, we’ve created an ultimate WordPress security guide.
Sucuri tracks everything that happens on your site, including failed login attempts and any changes to the WordPress files.
It also scans for malware and monitors whether your site appears on any blocklists, as this may mean there’s a problem with your site’s security.
If it finds an issue, then Sucuri will notify you automatically. In this way, you can protect your site without having to perform any manual checks, or learn complicated security tools.
As a website owner, your goal is to get people to your site and keep them engaged. That’s where Google Analytics comes in.
Analytics allow you to make decisions based on real data. For example, you can track website visitors and see the content that gets the most engagement. You can then create more of this popular content.
You can also see how long visitors stay on your site and the bounce rate, which is the percentage of users who exit your site on the first visit. You can use this information to increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.
Google Analytics is an important tool, but it can be complicated to set up. For that reason, we recommend using MonsterInsights.
Spambots and malicious third parties can easily flood a site’s comment section with links to malware and low-quality pages. This can hurt your website’s reputation and may even affect its SEO.
You can moderate comments in WordPress directly from the dashboard, including manually approving and blocking comments, or even deleting them completely.
However, moderating every single comment can be time-consuming, especially as your site grows and attracts more visitors.
WordPress is open-source software so anyone can see and edit its code, or even add their own PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. It may sound complicated, but there are lots of reasons to add custom code to WordPress.
WPCode is the best code snippets plugin for WordPress and allows you to add custom PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML without editing any theme files.
WPCode also has a built-in library of snippets that you can add to a site with just a few clicks. Even if you’re a beginner with no coding experience, WPCode makes it easy to add custom code in WordPress in a safe way.
Keep Your WordPress Site Up-To-Date
It’s important to keep your themes, plugins, and core WordPress software up-to-date. Hackers try to exploit known errors and vulnerabilities in outdated software, so if you fall behind then your site could become an easy target.
Some updates even add features that make WordPress easier to use. For this reason, it’s important to update WordPress core, update your WordPress plugins, and install the latest version of your theme.
Some web hosts will install these updates for you automatically, especially if you’re using a managed hosting provider.
WordPress is secure and reliable software, but it’s still a good idea to create regular backups.
Accidents and mistakes happen, such as deleting important content or editing the wrong page. Malicious third parties may also try to break into your site and delete your content.
By creating regular backups, you can always recover a working and error-free version of your website. Even if the worst happens and you lose all your data, you can simply restore your WordPress website from its latest backup.
They may be important, but many website owners overlook backups until it’s too late.
The good news is there are many free and paid WordPress backup plugins that can do the hard work for you. We recommend using a premium plugin like Duplicator Pro as it can create backups automatically.
For added security, Duplicator Pro will save your backups to popular online storage solutions like Dropbox, OneDrive, or Amazon S3. This means you can log into these services from any location, and get access to a working copy of your website.
For this reason, many website owners don’t take the time to learn more about WordPress. We think this is a big mistake.
By continuing to learn you can often make WordPress even easier to use. With that in mind, here are just some of the free resources you’ll find on WPBeginner:
WPBeginner Blog. This is where we publish our WordPress tutorials, how-tos, and step-by-step guides. We have a huge library of free content, and we’re publishing new information all the time.
WPBeginner Dictionary. Complicated terms and technical jargon can make WordPress seem a lot harder than it is. For that reason, we’ve created a directory that covers all the WordPress lingo.
WPBeginner Videos. Our step-by-step WordPress 101 video tutorials have everything you need to get started with WordPress.
WPBeginner on YouTube. Enjoyed our WordPress 101 series and want to learn more? You’ll find over 900 more videos on our YouTube channel covering everything from SEO, to common WordPress errors and how to fix them, how to embed dynamic social media feeds on your site, and much more.
WPBeginner Engage Group. The largest and fastest-growing WordPress group for non-techies and beginners on Facebook. Here, you can connect with over 91,000 WordPress users, ask questions, and get support from the community.
Consider Hiring a WordPress Maintenance Service
The tips and tricks in this guide will make WordPress feel effortless, even if you’ve never created a website before.
However, if you’re looking for the ultimate hassle-free experience then you can always hire a maintenance service to take care of WordPress for you. This includes creating backups, installing updates, performing SEO audits, upgrading your site’s security, finding and fixing broken links, and more.
These services are perfect for first-time WordPress users or anyone who finds that day-to-day website maintenance takes too much time. If you want to hire a WordPress expert, then see our pick of the best WordPress website maintenance 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.
When broken links are found, the plugin makes it easy for you to fix them right from within the plugin without even having to visit individual pages where those links were added.
Why Do You Need Broken Link Checker?
Broken links can frustrate your website visitors and cause them to leave your site. They can even hurt your website’s SEO, conversions, and sales.
On WordPress sites, broken links typically occur when moving a site to a new domain name, or when deleting a post or page without proper redirection.
Sometimes broken links can also happen due to a typo, and they can go unnoticed for months if not years. But worse, if you ever link to an external website that’s not yours, and they change the page, delete it, or shut down the site, then your site will have broken links.
This is why monitoring broken links on a regular basis is important for your WordPress website.
While there are SaaS broken link checkers in the market, most are either crazy expensive or not built specifically with WordPress websites in mind.
So I decided to work with my team to finally create a beginner-friendly broken link checker for WordPress.
With Broken Link Checker, you can…
scan all links on your site every 3 days
detect valid links, broken links, and redirects
set which post types (posts, pages, or custom post types) and statuses (published, draft, and so on) to monitor
exclude certain URLs from being checked
… and a whole lot more.
If you’re serious about your website and want to grow your online business, then you know how important it is to offer a seamless website browsing experience to your visitors.
Upon connecting the plugin with your account, you can turn the toggle on to stop search engines from following broken links. You can even set it not to update the modified date for a page/post when a link is updated via the plugin.
When you click the Broken Links tab, you can see that the plugin has automatically scanned the entire site, and links are categorized into broken, redirects, and dismissed.
The Broken Link Checker plugin lets you fix broken links quickly and easily right within your plugin. To replace a broken link, simply click Edit URL.
Alternatively, if you want to remove the link, just click Unlink and the link will be removed from the page. Â
After updating the link, you can recheck if the link is still broken by clicking the Recheck option. If you want, you can even dismiss the message from the plugin.
Get More Details About Each Link
Broken Link Checker gives you additional details for each link, like how long the link has been broken and response header information, HTTP Status code, and more.
Control Which Types of Pages are Scanned
Another important aspect of Broken Link Checker is its advanced settings, which give you full control over which pages get scanned. Within the plugin, you can set which post types (posts, pages, or custom post types) and statuses (published, draft, and so on) to monitor.
You can also exclude certain pages from being checked.
This helps you better manage the crawl budget, so you can ensure you’re not wasting the link scan credits.
Scanning Your Site the Right Way
Broken Link Checker scans both external (links from your website to others) and internal links (links from one page on your site to another page) on your site.
Unlike other WordPress plugins, Broken Link Checker uses an external private server to scan (or, in other words, ping) for broken links on your site. That’s because repeatedly pinging external sites from your servers can make your site look suspicious to internet service providers, putting your sites at risk of being blacklisted.
Do you want to make sure that your WordPress site is properly optimized for search engines?
Going through a search engine optimization (SEO) checklist can help you follow best practices and ensure you don’t miss out on small details. This way, you can rank higher on Google and grow website traffic.
In this article, we will share a WordPress SEO checklist for beginners.
Why Follow a WordPress SEO Checklist?
Search engines are often the largest source of traffic for many websites. However, the idea of optimizing your site for WordPress SEO can be intimidating, especially for beginners.
There are many technical terms, SEO tactics, and new trends that can put off new website owners from optimizing their sites and ranking higher in search engines.
This is where a WordPress SEO checklist can help you out. It covers all the basics and makes sure you follow SEO best practices. Plus, there are many tools and plugins that can optimize your site and take care of technical SEO for you.
You can use the checklist by going through each point step by step. After that, make changes to ensure search engines can easily crawl and index your content.
That said, let’s look at the WordPress SEO checklist for beginners. Here are all the things we’ll cover, so you can simply click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:
An SEO plugin can help configure your WordPress site for search engines. It ensures that you follow the best practices and handles all the technical SEO optimizations.
It is also the SEO plugin we also use on WPBeginner.
AIOSEO offers lots of powerful features. For instance, you can use it to create an XML sitemap, add schema markup, integrate social media, breadcrumb navigation, TruSEO On-Page analysis score, robots.txt editor, local SEO, WooCommerce SEO, link assistant, track broken links, and much more.
You can also use AIOSEO to conduct an SEO audit. The plugin will monitor and highlight crucial issues. Plus, you’ll get actionable insights for resolving these issues and boosting organic traffic on your site.
Next, you’ll need to set up different search engines’ webmaster tools, like Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, and Yandex Webmaster Tools.
These free tools help you track your site’s organic search performance. You can use them to see which keywords people are using to find your website, check rankings, submit sitemaps, uncover errors that might be preventing your site from ranking in search engines, and more.
For example, Google Search Console shows which pages are indexed in the search results. You can then find out why Google doesn’t index other pages, fix any issues, and submit pages for indexing.
You can follow these guides to add your WordPress site to each webmaster tool:
Another vital tool to set up on your WordPress website is Google Analytics. It is a free tool that shows how people behave on your site, where they’re coming from, which pages they view, and a lot more.
Google Analytics can help you track your WordPress SEO efforts and see the number of visitors that come from organic searches. It is an excellent tool for tracking website traffic and keeping an eye on all the traffic spikes and dips.
Besides that, you can use it to find high-converting pages and improve their SEO, look for opportunities to boost organic traffic, track 404 errors, and more.
The easiest way of setting up Google Analytics in WordPress is by using MonsterInsights. It is the best Analytics solution for WordPress, and you don’t have to edit any code or hire a developer to configure Google Analytics.
The best part, you can get started with the MonsterInsights Lite version for free to add analytics to your site. The plugin also offers a premium version and helps set up advanced tracking features like eCommerce tracking, form conversions, and more.
Keyword research is a technique that content creators and SEO experts use to discover topics your audience is interested in using search engine data.
Many beginners will use their best guesses to come up with topics that they think people might like. Instead, you should do proper keyword research and find search terms for each page on your website.
It is important that you define a primary target keyword for your blog post or landing page. Having too many different search terms can make it harder for search engines to understand the content.
You can use many keyword research tools to find a primary search term. We recommend Semrush because it offers in-depth keyword data, keyword position tracking, competitor analysis, related keywords, questions, and more.
5. Use LSI Keywords and Check for Keyword Stuffing
Now that you’ve found a focus keyphrase for your content, the next thing to do is find Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords. These are related search queries to your primary keyword.
The easiest way of finding LSI keywords is through Google Search. Simply scroll down to the bottom of the search results and see the ‘Related searches’ section.
You can then use these terms throughout your content and cover the overall topic in depth. This also helps search engines better understand your content.
That said, it is vital that you don’t stuff the keywords. Using the exact search term repeatedly doesn’t provide a great reading experience for users, and search engines are pretty clever at detecting keyword stuffing.
6. Optimize Your SEO Title and Meta Description
The next WordPress SEO checklist item is whether your SEO titles and meta descriptions are optimized.
The title of your WordPress blog post or product page plays an essential role in search rankings. A compelling title will encourage the user to click on the link.
The meta description also provides more information to users about the page and helps improve the organic click-through rate (CTR). As more people click on your site’s link, it will send a positive signal to Google and help you achieve higher rankings.
It is an SEO best practice to include the primary keyword in your SEO title, meta description, and URLs. Plus, you should ensure that your titles are not more than 55 characters and meta descriptions are not more than 155 characters. Otherwise, Google will truncate your headline and description.
If you’re using AIOSEO, then you can use the headline analyzer to create engaging title tags. It shows a score for your headline and offers tips for improving your SEO title.
You should also optimize the URLs of your blog posts and landing pages for SEO.
Creating short and descriptive permalinks helps searchers to understand what’s the page about in the search results. Besides that, it is also a good practice to include the primary keyword in your URL.
For example, here is what an SEO-friendly URL should look like:
On the other hand, here’s what a URL that’s not optimized for SEO would look like:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/articles/651472
You can change these in your WordPress permalink settings.
8. Make Sure to Add Alt-Text to Your Images
Optimizing your images for search engines is also important in WordPress SEO. One way of doing that is by ensuring that your photos have descriptive alternative or alt text.
Alt text helps Google and other search engines understand the image’s subject matter. This way, your pictures can appear in Google Images and help you get more organic traffic.
In WordPress, you can easily add alt text to your images. When you upload a picture in the WordPress content editor using the Image block, you’ll see the Alt Text option in the settings panel on the right.
You can also go to Media » Library from the admin panel.
After that, simply select any image and enter the ‘Alt Text’ in the right side panel.
Aside from that, you can also use an image compression tool to reduce the size of your pictures. This will help your site to load faster and provide a great user experience.
Note: Using the block editor to add alt text will only add it to that specific use of the image. If you want to add the same alt text to the image no matter where on your site it’s used, use the media library.
When going through the WordPress SEO checklist, another important thing to check is the internal links in your content. Internal links are pages you link from your own website.
Search engines use these links to find and index content on your website. It also helps pass authority from one page to another.
Additionally, it assists your visitors in navigating your website, reading related posts, finding sources for statistics, and discovering old articles and pages.
If you’re using AIOSEO, then you can use its Link Assistant feature to uncover internal linking opportunities. It will show orphaned pages with no internal links, provide suggestions and anchor text, and allow you to insert links in a single click.
When checking for on-page SEO, it is essential that your content is easy to read. It plays a massive role in getting higher rankings because blogs that are easier to read often rank higher than those that are hard to read.
Studies show that people spend less than a second deciding whether to exit or stay on the page. This means they scan through your content, and you have a very short time to convince them to stay on your website.
By improving the readability of your content, you can help users quickly scan your articles. A simple way of doing that is by grouping sections of your content under headings (H2, H3, H4, and so on).
Besides that, you can write short sentences, use bulleted lists, break long chunks of paragraphs into smaller paragraphs, and add a table of contents. Adding images, videos, and other multimedia can also enhance readability and make your content more engaging.
With AIOSEO, you can analyze readability issues inside the content editor and get suggestions on improving your content.
You can also use grammar checker tools like Grammarly to make sure your content is free from spelling mistakes, missing punctuation, and grammatical errors.
11. Ensure that Search Engines Can Easily Find Your Website
Now that your content and on-page SEO is optimized, there are a few technical elements you should also check as part of the WordPress SEO checklist.
First, you should make it easier for search engines to find your website and index your site. WordPress has a built-in option that stops search engines from crawling your site. If it is enabled, Google and other search engines will not list your site in the search results.
You can check this by heading to Settings » Reading from your WordPress dashboard, and scrolling down to the ‘Search engine visibility’ section. Just make sure that the ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ option is not checked.
Another way you can help search engines find content on your site for crawling and indexing is by creating a sitemap.
An XML sitemap tells search engines about the most important pages on your site, so they can quickly discover new content and index them in the search results.
With AIOSEO, it is very easy to create a sitemap. The plugin lets you set up sitemaps for videos, news, RSS feeds, and HTML.
Next, your WordPress website speed is critical in ranking higher in Google. That’s because page load time is now a ranking factor, and Google will rank faster-loading sites higher compared to slow-loading sites.
A simple way of checking load time is by using MonsterInsights. It lets you run a website speed test and shows a Site Speed report inside your WordPress dashboard.
You can see an overall score for mobile and desktop, along with other important metrics for measuring how fast your site loads.
The plugin also shows suggestions and benchmark goals for improving each metric. For example, you can use a content delivery network (CDN) to improve site speed,
The last WordPress SEO checklist item you need to check is whether your site is mobile responsive.
Google has now gone mobile-first. What that means is that it will use your site’s mobile version for indexing instead of the desktop version. You will lose out on higher rankings if your site is not mobile-ready.
The free tool will analyze your site and tell you whether the website is mobile-responsive or not.
You can simply enter your site’s URL in the tool and click the ‘Test URL’ button.
If your site isn’t mobile-ready, then you can start by changing the theme. There are many responsive WordPress themes designed for mobile. You can follow our guide on how to change a WordPress theme without losing data or traffic.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to start a successful YouTube channel for your business?
YouTube is one of the biggest video-sharing and social media platforms in the world. It can help you bring more customers and sales to your business.
In this article, we’ll show you how to easily start a successful YouTube channel for your business with practical tips to promote and grow it.
Why Start a YouTube Channel for Your Business
YouTube is one of the biggest video-sharing and social media platforms in the world. With more than 2 Billion active users, it is also the second most popular search engine on the market after Google.
With such a huge user base, YouTube is the perfect place to promote your business and acquire new customers and followers.
Following are some of the top benefits of creating a YouTube channel.
Increased brand recognition – A YouTube channel helps you promote your brand and strengthen brand recognition among your audiences.
Increased sales – Videos are the most engaging content for any marketing strategy and engaged audiences are more likely to make a buying decision. This means more sales for your business.
Increased website traffic – YouTube videos can help promote your website on one of the biggest social platforms and search engines. You can add links to your products, services, landing pages, or blog posts in your video descriptions with a direct call to action.
Promote products/services – YouTube videos provide more opportunities to educate customers about your products or services. These videos can be embedded on your support docs which can reduce support requests while making sure that your customers make the most out of your products.
Build a loyal following – A YouTube channel helps you build a more engaging community around your brand and products.
Adds an extra source of revenue – YouTube Monetization options can add an extra source of revenue for your business. Your video content can also unlock many potential partnership opportunities with other businesses.
Starting a YouTube channel requires commitment. You’ll need to create a consistent content strategy and stick to it in order to make a successful YouTube channel.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily start a YouTube channel step by step.
Here is an overview of all the steps we’ll walk you through to create a YouTube channel.
YouTube makes it super easy to create a channel. You can make a channel by simply visiting the YouTube website and signing in with a Google Account.
Once signed in, you can click on your profile icon in the top-right corner of the screen and then select the “Create a Channel” option.
This will bring up a popup to fill out basic information for your channel.
You’ll need to choose a channel name and handle, and upload a profile photo.
Now, we want you to take a few minutes before choosing a channel name and handle.
Tips on Choosing The Perfect YouTube Channel Name
Your channel name and handle may help it appear in YouTube and Google Search results.
That’s why you need to use keywords in your channel name and handle. Keywords are the search terms that users would enter when looking for videos.
You may also want to consider what kind of videos you’ll be uploading when choosing a channel name.
For instance, will you be uploading tips & advice, general entertainment, infotainment, interviews, podcasts, documentary-style videos, and more?
Let’s say you want to create a YouTube channel for your gardening business. In that case, using gardening in the channel name and handle will increase the chances of YouTube algorithm displaying your channel in search results.
You can also use the existing brand name that you use on your business website. This helps strengthen your brand identity and keeps things consistent across different platforms (your website and social profiles).
For instance, we use our brand name for our YouTube channel with keywords that explain what our channel is all about (i.e. ‘WPBeginner – WordPress Tutorials‘).
Tips on Making YouTube Profile Photo
Your YouTube profile photo appears across the YouTube platform next to your channel name. This includes your channel homepage, below each video, and in the search results.
Many small businesses use their logo as their YouTube channel profile photo.
If you don’t already have a business logo that you can use, then you can create a YouTube channel photo using Canva.
This free online image editor comes with ready-to-use templates for different social networks including YouTube.
If you want to use any other image editing software or your own logo, then make sure that your channel photo is a square image with at least 800×800 pixels in size.
Once you have entered the channel name, handle, and photo, simply click on the Create Channel button to continue.
Youtube will now create the channel and redirect you to your new YouTube channel’s page.
2. Securing Your Brand Name
Before you upload your first video and start promoting your YouTube channel, it is important to secure your brand name.
This includes purchasing a domain name that matches your YouTube Channel name, making a WordPress website, and creating social media accounts for your channel.
Doing this protects your business from copyright infringement and blocks scammers from impersonating your brand on social media platforms.
Let’s start with a domain name and a website.
1. Making a Website for YouTube Channel
To make a website for your YouTube channel, you’ll need the following items.
A domain name. This is what users will type in their browsers to visit your website (e.g. wpbeginner.com)
Web hosting account. This is where all your website files will be stored.
Normally, a domain costs $14.99 per year and web hosting plans start at $7.99 per month (usually paid for a full year).
This is a significant amount and if you are just starting out then this may look a bit excessive.
Luckily, the folks over at Bluehost have agreed to offer WPBeginner users a free domain name with a generous discount on hosting.
Basically, you can get started for $2.75 per month.
Once you have chosen the domain name, click on the Next button to continue and finalize your purchase.
From here, you’ll first provide your personal information. After that, you can choose a plan duration (the 12-month plan gives you the best value).
Below that, don’t forget to uncheck all the options under Package Extras to further reduce the costs. Don’t worry you can always add them later when needed.
Finally, fill in your payment information to complete the purchase.
Bluehost will now register your domain name and set up your web hosting account. It will also automatically install WordPress, which is the best website builder on the market.
You’ll receive an email with instructions on how to log in to your hosting account.
For more details, see our step-by-step tutorial on how to make a website for beginners.
Remember, the goal here is to just get started with a basic website at first. You can work on your website later on as needed.
2. Securing Your Social Media Profiles
If your business doesn’t already have social media profiles, then it is time to create those and protect your brand.
Depending on your target audience you can choose which platforms would work best for your social media marketing strategy.
For instance, you would definitely want to create a profile on Facebook and Twitter. Optionally, you can choose to sign up for other platforms that may be useful for your businesses.
For instance, a business organization may want to sign up for LinkedIn, a lifestyle business may find Pinterest and Instagram more useful, and an educational website may want to build a community on Redditt as well.
It is important to choose the same brand name that you use for your business and your YouTube channel.
3. Making Artwork for YouTube Channel
Now let’s get back to your newly created YouTube channel which would be empty at the moment.
You can start working on your YouTube channel by creating channel art like a banner or cover image. This image appears at the top of your YouTube channel.
Once again, you can use Canva to create a very professional-looking cover art for your YouTube channel.
Canva comes with hundreds of built-in templates for YouTube channel covers to choose from.
Once you have found a template that matches your channel thumbnail and logo colors you can edit it using Canva’s built-in editor.
More advanced users can create their own cover images using image editing software like Photoshop, Illustrator, or Affinity.
Make sure that your YouTube banner image is 2048 x 1152 pixels in dimensions and no more than 6MB in file size.
Once your image is ready you can go to your YouTube channel page and click on the Customize Channel button.
This will bring you to the Channel Customization page. From here, you need to switch to the Branding tab.
You’ll notice that the channel profile photo you created earlier is already there. Next, click on the Upload button next to the banner image option.
Optionally, you can also add a watermark to your YouTube videos. It appears on your videos in the right-hand corner of the video player.
You can upload the watermark image from the Branding tab. Most channels typically use their channel profile photo or their business logo. Some also use watermarks as a reminder for viewers to subscribe.
You’ll need a square image with dimensions of at least 150×150 pixels. We recommend using a transparent image so that it doesn’t take up much on-screen space.
4. Creating a Featured Video and YouTube Channel Trailer
A YouTube channel trailer is an impactful way to introduce new users to your channel. A good channel trailer provides users with a glimpse into what kind of content your channel offers.
When enabled, this trailer appears at the top of your channel page and automatically plays for new users.
Similarly, you can also create a separate featured video for users who have already subscribed to your channel.
The downside is that they will not see this video at the top of your channel if they have already watched it.
These videos can be uploaded by visiting the YouTube Studio page.
From here, you can switch to the Customization tab and then upload your trailer or a featured video.
Not ready to make a video yet? Don’t worry we’ll talk more about making videos later in this article.
5. What Do You Need to Make Great YouTube Videos
You may have noticed the very high quality of videos uploaded by the most popular YouTube channels such as Mr. Beast, Lemmino, Veritasium, and more.
These videos are made using top-of-the-line cameras, professional lighting, custom-made graphics, and really good editing.
However, the vast majority of videos uploaded on YouTube are not as high-quality as you may think.
You can basically just shoot a YouTube video using your phone camera. Most modern phones are equipped with very capable cameras.
With a little effort and some inexpensive equipment, you can easily make very polished YouTube videos all by yourself.
Here is a list of equipment that you can use to get started.
1. A Good Camera
Digital cameras are becoming quite inexpensive and can shoot high-resolution 4k videos. If you are looking to spend some money then we recommend these starter digital cameras:
However, if you cannot afford a separate camera, then most modern phones come with very capable built-in cameras.
With an inexpensive tripod, some basic lighting, and an inexpensive microphone, you can easily use your own phone to shoot high-quality YouTube videos.
This brings us to other equipment that you may want to look into.
2. An Affordable Tripod or Camera Stand
A tripod or camera stand allows you to firmly place your camera or phone in one place to shoot videos.
There are hundreds of tripods, gimbal stabilizers, and selfie sticks available on Amazon.
Ideally, you would want to buy one that works with your camera or mobile phone and offers different heights and adjustments to shoot a variety of video styles.
For mobile users, Rode Vlogging Kit can be a good starting point. It comes with a 3.5mm audio jack to capture better sound quality and has a separate version for iOS devices.
3. A basic lighting setup
If you are planning to shoot most of your videos indoors, then adding some extra lighting can make a huge difference in video quality.
However, professional-grade lighting equipment can be very expensive. Luckily, there are a ton of inexpensive options that can do the trick.
For beginners, we recommend starting out with ring lights. These portable LED lights come in different shapes and sizes and include adjustments like tripods and extendable heights.
4. A Video Editing Software
Once you have shot your video, you’ll need to edit it to add graphics, background music, credits, and more. You may also want to cut out some parts or merge multiple video files.
Now you may have heard popular YouTubers talking about Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro. These are very powerful video editing software but they are also quite expensive and come with a learning curve.
Luckily, your computer may already have basic and easy-to-use video editing software installed on it.
Mac computers come with the iMovie app which is a very capable video editing software. It also has a trimmed-down version available for iOS devices.
iMovie includes some basic transition effects, the ability to add sounds and music overlays, trim clips, adjust the screen size, and more.
Similarly, Windows users can use Clipchamp which is a great free video editor and comes with dozens of ready-to-use templates for different video platforms including YouTube.
Alternately, the popular design tool Canva also comes with a built-in video editor. It includes a huge library of images, videos, transitions, and other elements that you can use in your videos.
Plus, it works on Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android devices as well. It is extremely easy to use and a good option for absolute beginners.
All these video editing software options are beginner friendly and will allow you to create professional-looking videos for your YouTube channel.
6. How to Edit YouTube Videos
As we mentioned earlier that the vast majority of YouTube videos don’t have the production levels of the most popular YouTubers.
As a YouTube beginner, you just need to learn some video editing basics to polish your YouTube videos before uploading.
Let’s start with the shooting first.
Shooting Videos with Editing in Mind
When you are shooting your videos always record them in the highest quality settings available on your camera.
Use a tripod or gimbal to avoid shaky footage.
Use manual focus whenever possible to make sure that the subject of your video is always in focus.
Record in a quiet space or use a microphone to avoid background noise.
Editing Videos for Your YouTube Channel
Now that you have your video ready let’s bring it into your video editing software.
First, you would want to cut and trim the portions that you don’t want to include in the video.
Add background music when you need it.
Use transition effects to merge two video footage
Add text, images, and graphics to provide more context if needed.
Your video editing software will show you a live preview of your changes as you make them. Once you are satisfied with the changes you have made it is time to export your video.
Finding Media to Use in Your YouTube Videos
YouTube takes copyright violations seriously and can take down your videos or entire channel for any violations.
Make sure that all the media (images, video clips, sounds, and music) that you use in your video are royalty free or that you have written permission to use them in your video.
Luckily there are many open-source and royalty-free sources that you can use in your videos. Most video editing software choices we mentioned above include royalty-free media that you can add to your videos.
YouTube also has its own audio library with thousands of music and audio files that you can use in your videos.
You can find the audio library under YouTube Studio. From here, you can search or browse the audio files and download them to your computer.
After that, you can add them to your video using your video editing software.
Saving Video to Upload on YouTube
By default, YouTube allows you to upload videos of 15 minutes duration. Verified users can upload longer videos.
The video file size limit for YouTube is 256 GB or 12 hours duration, whichever is less.
Make sure that you export your video from your video editor software using the highest quality settings. Using H.264 (mp4 file format) for compression produces higher-quality results with a smaller file size.
Depending on your video duration and file size, it may take a while for your video editing software to process the video.
7. Video Editing Best Practices to Follow
As you edit more videos for your YouTube channel, you’ll be able to pick up new tips and tricks on the way to produce better results.
Following are just some of the very basic tips that you should keep in mind.
Always save your videos in the highest quality. This allows YouTube to display your video in the best possible quality to your users.
Longer videos take more time to process on your computer. Make sure that your computer is connected to a power source to avoid any interruption.
Similarly, video files are massive and may take some time to upload. Make sure you have a faster and more stable internet connection before you begin uploading the video to YouTube.
8. Making Thumbnails for YouTube Videos
A YouTube video thumbnail is the image used as a placeholder for your video across the YouTube platform.
They play the most significant role in boosting a video’s click-through rate.
Most experienced users spend a lot of their time creating and experimenting with different YouTube video thumbnail styles.
YouTube allows you to pick a thumbnail from your video after you upload the video. However, it is not recommended to use a video still as your thumbnail.
You’ll need to use an image editing tool like Photoshop or Canva to create your YouTube thumbnail. It needs to be at least 1280×720 in dimensions.
Here are some of the tips you can use when making a thumbnail for YouTube videos.
1. Use Hi-res Images – It is important to use high-quality images in your video thumbnail so that they look good in all sizes on all devices.
2. Grab user attention – You’ll need to make your images eye catchy by using bold colors, strong contrast, or emotional reactions. That’s why so many popular YouTubers have an image showing their surprised, amazed, disappointed, and other reactions.
3. Showcase Key Event – Show the main subject or event of your video in the thumbnail to build anticipation and provide users with a preview of the video.
4. Use Text Cleverly – Use text whenever needed to provide more context or insert an engagement hook for your audiences.
5. Keep it Simple – Avoid adding too many elements to your thumbnail to keep it clean and easy on the eyes. Cluttered elements in thumbnails can make it look unpolished to your users.
Once you have created a thumbnail for your video, you can add it after your video upload is complete.
You can also change the thumbnail for a video by editing it in YouTube Studio.
9. Uploading Your First YouTube Video
You can upload your video by visiting the YouTube Studio page.
Then, you just need to click on the Upload Videos button.
This will bring up a popup where you need to select the video file(s) you have saved on your computer.
Simply click on the Select Files button to continue. You can upload more than one video at a time if you want.
However, it is better to upload one video at a time to avoid any interruptions during the upload.
YouTube will now start uploading your video in the background. Meanwhile, you can fill in the video details such as the video title, description, thumbnail, and tags.
Once you are satisfied with the settings click on the Next button to continue.
Now, you’ll be asked to provide additional information about your video. For instance, you can add subtitles, choose an end screen, and add video cards to promote other content during your video playback.
All these video elements help you promote your videos and grow your channel.
After that, you need to click on the Next button to continue. YouTube will now check your video for common issues such as copyright infringements or inappropriate content.
If everything looks good, click on the next button to continue.
Now, you can choose how you want to publish your YouTube video. You can make a video private, unlisted, or public so that everyone on the internet can view it.
You can also schedule the video to become public at a specific time. This helps you schedule videos for the future and get ahead on your video calendar.
Finally, click on the Publish button to save your video. You can now preview your video on YouTube.
10. Mastering YouTube SEO
As we mentioned earlier, YouTube is not only a video-sharing platform but also the second most popular search engine.
It receives more searches than any other search engine on the market except for Google itself.
This is why you need to pay attention to YouTube SEO from day one.
This helps your videos and channel appear in YouTube searches more often.
YouTube SEO best practices will also help your channel appear in Google video results and you may even appear in featured snippets.
Following are some of the basic YouTube SEO tips that will help you optimize your videos for higher search rankings.
Use keywords in Title & Description – Keywords are search terms that users type to search for something. Using them in your video’s title and description increases its potential to appear for those search terms. You can also use your keywords in channel description, about page, and other areas to improve your YouTube SEO.
Add a custom YouTube Video Thumbnail – A good custom video thumbnail can provide search engines with more context about your video. It boosts your click-through rate which helps you rank even higher.
Add closed captions and subtitles – Subtitles and closed captions help you provide a video transcript for your video. This provides YouTube with plenty of context to match with the search terms.
Add Tags to Your Videos – Tags help you organize your videos into topics using them strategically has the potential to appear higher for relevant search terms.
Use Given Character Limit – YouTube has character limits for titles, descriptions, tags, and other fields. Make sure that you utilize these fields to provide more detailed information about your video. Here is a quick breakdown of character limits:
Video Title – 100, make sure that you use all of them and try to replicate the style of other popular YouTubers in your industry.
Description – 5000, use the description field to write a catchy but more detailed description of your video. You can also include links here to your website, relevant blog posts, products, affiliate links, and more.
Tags – 500, tags can help users find your content by categorizing it and letting YouTube know who to promote it to.
YouTube SEO is a highly sought-after skill and as you work on growing your YouTube channel you’ll pick up more tips and tricks along the way.
11. Growing Your YouTube Channel
Growing a successful YouTube channel takes time, some effort, and patience. In most cases success will not come overnight, rather your channel will grow bit by bit slowly and steadily.
Following are a few tips that will help you keep up the momentum and grow your YouTube channel.
1. Create High-Quality Videos
This goes without saying that users will abandon your YouTube videos if they don’t find your content useful or entertaining.
Producing higher quality content that answers users’ questions, provides them value (information, education, or entertainment), and keeps them hooked is the key to keep gaining subscribers for your YouTube channel.
2. Upload Regularly
Publishing regularly is one of the most common traits of almost all successful YouTube channels.
For beginners, this may seem hard at first. We recommend committing to at least one video per week. As you work regularly on your videos you will be able to pick up more tricks to produce higher-quality videos more quickly.
Whatever frequency you choose, you need to stick to it. This helps you keep your existing subscribers engaged which leads to acquiring new subscribers and more views.
3. Engage with Your Audience
YouTube is a social media platform as well. In the US alone, 62% of internet users access YouTube daily and the majority of them access it several times a day.
The easiest way to keep your audience engaged is through YouTube comments. Asking users questions in your videos or replying to them via comments helps you bring back those users. They are also more likely to view more of your content in the future.
4. Curate Your Content in Playlists
As your videos increase it will become harder for users to find all your videos on a similar topic.
For instance, let’s say you run a gardening channel with several videos about budget landscaping. You can help your users find them all by creating a playlist.
Creating playlists also helps with YouTube SEO as these playlists often appear in search engines.
5. Dig Down the Analytics
YouTube offers built-in analytics tools to track the performance of your videos. This helps you gain insights into your audience.
From here, you can analyze important data such as views, watch time, and demographics to improve your content and reach more viewers.
6. Promote Your Videos
To grow your YouTube channel you cannot just upload videos and wait for viewers to come.
You need to proactively promote your videos across all your digital marketing channels, email marketing, and through your website.
This brings us to our next section.
12. Using Your Website to Promote YouTube Videos
All popular YouTube channels have a website.
This helps them to continuously bring traffic to their business website from their Youtube channel which leads to more sales and growth for their business.
It also helps them send more users to their YouTube channel by promoting videos and helping new users discover their YouTube channel.
Here is a step-by-step playbook that you can apply to your website to grow your YouTube channel.
1. Start a Blog To Promote Your YouTube Channel
For many businesses, starting a blog allows them to consistently cover topics that their potential customers will be looking for in search.
This helps them gain free organic search traffic to their website which they can then convert into customers and subscribers.
Adding a blog to your website helps you repurpose content you have used in your videos and make them into articles. This increases your potential to rank for those particular keywords and get traffic to both your video and blog content.
Upon activation, the plugin will launch a setup wizard which will walk you through the basic setup.
Need more help? We have a step-by-step WordPress SEO guide for beginners, which will help you properly optimize your website for SEO.
3. Embed Your Videos in Blog Posts to Get More Subscribers
An easy way to get more views and subscribers for your YouTube channel is by embedding videos in your blog posts.
WordPress makes it super easy. Simply copy the URL of your video and edit the post or page where you want to embed the video.
On the post editor screen, paste the URL on the line where you want to display the video.
WordPress will automatically fetch the required embed code and display your video.
4. Submit Video Sitemaps for Better Rankings
Video Sitemaps are like regular XML sitemaps but only for your video posts. The include links to your WordPress posts or pages containing YouTube video embeds.
You can then submit this sitemap using Google Search Console. Google could then display your article with an enhanced snippet with a video preview.
Now adding YouTube videos to your blog posts and pages is quite simple. However, it is quite boring and doesn’t add any social sharing features to your video embeds.
SmashBalloon offers separate plugins for different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube. You can also buy the all-access plan to get all plugins.
First, you need to install and activate the SmashBalloon YouTube Feed Pro plugin. Upon activation, head over to YouTube Feed » Settings page and provide your plugin license key. You can find this information under your account on the Smash Balloon website.
After that, you need to click on the ‘Add Source’ button to connect your WordPress website to your YouTube account.
Smash Balloon will ask for your permission to access your channel information under your Google Account.
Simply follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup and get your channel name added as the source.
Next, you need to visit YouTube Feed » All Feeds page and click on the ‘Add New’ button to add a YouTube feed that you want to display.
Follow the on-screen instructions to select a source, template, and style for your feed.
Once finished, Smash Balloon will show you a live preview of your YouTube feed.
If everything looks good, then you can click on the Embed button to continue.
The plugin will now show you a shortcode that you can add to any post or page to display your YouTube feed. Optionally, you can also add it directly to a widget or a page.
Here is how it looked on our test website.
We changed the video template color scheme from light to dark and used the carousel-style gallery.
Smash Balloon allows you to fetch video feeds for your own channel, any other public channel, search term, or favorite videos.
It also works great on mobile devices and will automatically adjust your Gallery width for your smaller screens.
You’ll need to consistently upload new videos in order to make a successful YouTube channel.
You can choose your own frequency which gives you plenty of time to make a video. Many beginners start with one or two videos each month and increase it gradually to one video per week.
You can choose a day and time to publish your videos. This way your users would know when to expect a new video from your channel.
Now the real challenge for most beginners is to come up with ideas for new videos.
Following are a few easy tips to generate video ideas for your YouTube channel.
1. View YouTube Analytics – You can see what kind of content your users like by viewing your YouTube Channel Analytics. Then branch out your most viewed videos into deeper and related topics.
2. Get Hints by YouTube Search – As you type a keyword in YouTube search it would start suggesting popular search terms. These are the search terms that users are already looking for and they can be immensely helpful in generating new video ideas.
3. YouTube Comments – Your users would often post questions in the comments section below your YouTube videos. You can convert the most common questions into separate videos.
4. Your WordPress Blog – You can repurpose your most popular blog content into YouTube videos.
5. Ask Your Users – You can ask your users on social media profiles about what topics they would like you to cover next. Similarly, you can run surveys and polls on your website to gather user feedback.
6. Online Communities – Forums such as Reddit, Facebook Groups, LinkedIn, and Twitter are the discussion hubs of the internet. You can join the communities covering similar topics as your YouTube channel and see which topics come up more frequently under discussion.
Advanced users can use third-party tools to perform deeper keyword research. Following are some of the most popular keyword research tools for YouTubers.
Semrush – It offers a keyword magic tool where you can sort ideas by SERP features and select Video to explore video ideas.
2. vidIQ – A keyword research and video ideas generator platform made specifically for video content creators.
3. TubeBuddy – Offers YouTube SEO, video optimization, and keyword research tools as a browser extension.
14. Experiment with Different Video Styles and Formats
A YouTube channel doesn’t become successful overnight. It will take some time and effort until you find out what kind of content strategy works for your audience.
Meanwhile, we recommend trying different video formats to see which one of them brings you more user engagement, views, or likes.
You can try YouTube shorts to experiment with shorter video formats.
You can also try how-tos, interviews, video podcasts, essays, commentaries, and more.
Switching styles will help you figure out what your audience finds more engaging and then you can create more such videos.
Similarly, you can experiment by changing thumbnails for your older videos that are not getting any views.
You can also try different video titles and descriptions to see if they help you grab user attention.
15. Frequently Asked Questions About Creating a YouTube Channel
Now that your YouTube channel is up and running following are some of the most commonly asked questions asked by beginner YouTube creators.
1. How many views do I need to get paid on YouTube?
You’ll need at least 4000 public watch hours or 1000 subscribers in 12 months period to be eligible for the YouTube partner program, which gives you access to YouTube monetization tools including ad revenue sharing. For Shorts, you’ll need at least 10 million views in the last 90 days.
2. Can I start a YouTube Channel with my phone?
Yes, you can start a YouTube channel using your mobile phone. YouTube app for smartphones makes it super easy to create a channel, record live videos, or upload videos from your phone.
3. How to make money online using YouTube?
The easiest way to make money online using YouTube is by joining the YouTube partner program. Once you are approved, you become eligible to get paid for revenue sharing on ads displayed during your videos.
4. Can I start a YouTube channel without showing my face?
Yes, you can start a YouTube channel and upload videos without showing your face.
5. Do I need an LLC to start a YouTube channel for my business?
No, you don’t need an LLC to start a YouTube channel for your business. You’ll automatically be considered a sole proprietor for the YouTube channel and all your earnings from YouTube will be subjected to local taxes like income tax. However, some YouTube channels may register as a limited liability company (LLC) to protect their business from potential liabilities, insurance reasons, and other legal and financial reasons.
We hope this article helped you learn how to easily start a successful YouTube channel for your business. You may also want to see our list of other popular online business ideas or learn how to create and sell online courses to generate passive income.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you wondering about the proper way to use H1-H6 heading tags in WordPress?
When you use headings effectively in your posts and pages, you make your content more readable, improve user experience, and boost your website’s SEO.
In this article, we’ll show you how to properly use heading tags in WordPress.
What Are Heading Tags in WordPress?
Heading tags are HTML elements used to identify the title and headings on a webpage.
Both visitors and search engines will understand your content better when your posts and pages contain headings. When you add headings correctly, you can improve the post’s SEO, so it ranks higher on search engine results pages (SERPs).
You add a logical structure to your posts by using different heading levels. Post titles will use H1 tags, and you typically use H2 tags for the main headings and H3 tags for subheadings.
When viewing a webpage as HTML, heading tags look like this:
<h1>Post Title</h1>
<h2>Heading</h2>
<h3>Subheading</h3>
<h4>And so on</h4>
However, you can easily add heading tags to your WordPress posts and pages without using code.
The sizes and colors of the different heading styles are controlled by your theme’s stylesheet, and we’ll show you how to customize their appearance below.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how to properly use H1-H6 heading tags in WordPress. Here is a quick overview of what we’ll cover in this guide:
1. Use Headings and Subheadings to Structure Your Content
Headings help you create a logical structure for a post or page. They guide your readers through the article by briefly describing the main sections of the topic and how they relate to one another.
You can use up to six hierarchical heading levels to structure your content:
H1 tags are the most important and there should be only one H1 heading in a post. This tag is used for the post title, and you can learn how to add and optimize your titles in our guide on SEO titles and H1 post titles in WordPress.
H2 headings are the main headings and are used in the different sections of a post. If you need to split these sections up into subsections, then you can use H3 tags. Most themes will display H3 subheadings in a smaller font than H2 headings.
Most posts only need two or three levels of headings, so you may never use heading tags H4 to H6 on your WordPress website. However, they can be used to provide further structure in very long posts or academic articles.
Structuring your posts in this way helps both website visitors and search engine crawlers quickly grasp the context of your content. A well-structured post may be ranked higher on search engine results pages.
Tip: Make sure you use heading tags to structure your article, and not simply for formatting, such as making a block of text larger. For more on formatting text, see our guide on how to easily change the font size in WordPress.
2. Customize the Appearance of Headings to Grab Attention
Using headings in your content is a great way to grab user attention with a larger-size font. In most WordPress themes, headings are in a larger font than regular body text. They allow you to break your posts and pages into sections.
You can also customize the appearance of your headings, so they stand out even more. For example, you can attract attention to your headings by adding color, especially with H1, H2, and H3 headings.
Some themes offer preset font choices that will change the font on your entire website.
Besides that, you can also change fonts for individual elements on your theme. For example, you can use a different font for the body text and headings. There are even options to use separate fonts for each heading level.
3. Use Headings to Improve Readability and User Experience
No one likes a wall of text. The easiest way to make your content more readable is by breaking it up using headings and short paragraphs.
This makes it easier to read and understand your content. It also helps your users scan through the article quickly and find the sections they want to read more thoroughly.
Checking the Readability of Your Headings Using All in One SEO
The best way to check the readability of your post is by using All in One SEO (AIOSEO). It’s the best WordPress SEO plugin that allows you to easily optimize your WordPress website for search engines and social media platforms.
Note: The free version of AIOSEO will show you if your post contains enough headings, and also let you set a focus keyphrase as we cover below. However, the extra features of the premium version will get your site ranking even higher on search engines.
You will find a ‘Page Analysis’ section that gives you a list of actionable tasks you can follow to make the post rank higher. It includes tabs for ‘Basic SEO,’ ‘Title,’ and ‘Readability,’ and each tab shows you how many errors you need to fix in that category.
The ‘Readability’ tab offers suggestions on how to improve readability, such as including images, shortening paragraphs and sentences, using transition words, adding subheadings, and more. Items marked with a red cross need more work.
Under ’Subheading distribution’, you will be given feedback on any steps you need to take to improve the headings in the post, such as:
‘1 section of your text is longer than 300 words and is not separated by any subheadings. Add subheadings to improve readability.’
‘You are not using any subheadings, but your text is short enough and probably doesn’t need them.’
‘Great job!’
You should aim to get a green checkmark next to every item under the Page Analysis section to improve the post’s SEO.
4. Optimize Your Headings for SEO by Adding Appropriate Keywords
Adding headings to your blog posts is great for your site’s SEO. That’s because search engines give headings more weight than normal paragraph text. Google will try to use the content of your headings to better understand the topic you are writing about.
You can optimize your headings for SEO by adding appropriate keywords. These are the keywords users will search for when looking for your content. You can learn how to find them in our guide on how to do keyword research for your WordPress blog.
But it’s important that you don’t just add random keywords to your headings. Only use keywords when they make sense and clearly describe what that part of the post is about.
Checking Whether Your Headings are SEO Optimized Using All in One SEO
You can use All in One SEO‘s SEO Analysis feature to check whether you have used enough keywords in your headings.
First, you need to add a focus keyword to your post. Simply scroll to AIOSEO Settings under the post content, then type the post’s most important keyword next to ‘Focus Keyphrase.’
The plugin will then analyze your content for the keyword, show you a score, and give suggestions on how to improve your ranking.
Among other things, All in One SEO will show you if your post has a healthy number of keyword-optimized H2 and H3 subheadings.
Besides adding keywords, we also recommend making your headline catchy and click-worthy. That’s because your organic click-through rate (CTR) plays an important role in SEO.
5. Automatically Create a Table of Contents From Headings
A table of contents is a clickable list of the headings contained in a post. They make it easier to jump between the sections of a long article, improving navigation through your content.
When your visitors click a link in the table of contents, they will be taken immediately to that heading in the article. This allows users to quickly move to the content they are interested in.
All in One SEO can save you time by automatically generating the table of contents based on your subheadings, while also making it completely customizable with editable links.
When editing your post, you’ll need to click the blue ‘+ ’ icon and locate the ‘AIOSEO – Table of Contents’ block. Simply drag the block onto the post or page where you wish the table of contents to appear.
The plugin will automatically identify the headings on the page and add them to your table of contents. If you use different heading levels (say H2 and H3), then lower-level headings will be indented to show the structure of your content.
If you are still writing the contents of your post or page, then any headings added to the document will be automatically added to the table of contents. Also, any changes that you make to the headings themselves will be reflected in the ToC block.
6. Optimize Headings to Rank for Google Featured Snippets
Organizing your heading tags well may help your content rank for Google featured snippets. These are highlighted results that are shown at the top of the search results page.
Google was able to pull the headings from the above post to create the number list you see on the search results page, earning this post a featured snippet.
This will help you get the maximum SEO traffic since a user is more likely to click on a featured snippet than a plain search result.
FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions About Heading Tags in WordPress
Here are some of the most common questions our readers ask us about heading tags.
What is the difference between H1 and H2 in WordPress?
H1 is used for the post title, and this should be the only H1 heading in a post. H2 is used for the main headings throughout a post. For many blog posts, H1 and H2 are the only heading tags you will need.
What are the six types of headings in WordPress?
There are six types of heading tags in WordPress, and they are H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6. The H1 tag is used for the title and H2-H6 can be used for different levels of headings and subheadings throughout the post.
You don’t need to use all six levels of headings in a post. However, you shouldn’t skip a level. For example, when you use H2 for headings, you should use H3 for subheadings, and not skip straight to H4.
What is the difference between H1 and TITLE in WordPress?
The title you type at the top of a post or page is an H1 heading. However, when search engines display the post in search results, they will use a different title identified by a TITLE tag rather than H1. This is known as the SEO title or meta title.
When you create a new post or page in WordPress, you will see the words ‘Add title’ at the top of the page. Simply type the post title on this line to add an H1 heading.
While it is possible to create additional H1 headings using Heading blocks, we don’t recommend using more than one H1 tag.
How many H2 headings should a WordPress post have?
H2 headings are used to break up a long post and make it more readable, and there are no rules about how many you should use. In fact, if your post is only a few paragraphs long, then you may not need to add H2 headings at all.
The All in One SEO plugin has a Page Analysis feature that can check your blog post for readability. In general, if you have 300 words of text or more without a heading, it will recommend adding more headings or subheadings.
Do heading tags affect your WordPress website’s SEO?
Yes, the title of your blog post is extremely important for search engine optimization (SEO). A powerful title can get people to click on the link to visit your website, so we recommend you use a headline analyzer to create engaging titles that get more clicks.
H2-H6 headings can also impact SEO. They improve user experience, and this improves SEO. Adding appropriate keywords to your headings may also help your post rank higher.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you wondering how to use OpenAI and ChatGPT on your WordPress website?
OpenAI can help with everything from generating meta descriptions for your posts to writing email sales copy. You can use OpenAI on your WordPress site to save time, cut costs, improve your SEO and workflows, and grow your business!
In this article, we will show you 14 of the best ways to use OpenAI on your WordPress website.
A (Brief) Introduction to OpenAI
You have probably heard the terms “OpenAI” and “ChatGPT” used interchangeably, but they’re not exactly the same.
OpenAI is the research laboratory (read: a group of very smart people) behind the chatbot ChatGPT and the deep-learning, image-generating model DALL-E 2, among other AI-powered products.
The team over at OpenAI created ChatGPT which is an AI assistant to help streamline your workflows and save you time.
It can write email newsletters for you, suggest blog post ideas, do keyword research, automate your workflows, and so much more.
To improve your WordPress website workflows with artificial intelligence, you will first need to create an account with OpenAI. Getting signed up is FREE. All you will need is an email and a password.
1. Generate Titles and Meta Descriptions with AIOSEO
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best SEO plugin for WordPress, and it just got an AI-powered boost. After adding your keywords to your blog posts, let AIOSEO and OpenAI further optimize your content for search engines.
Then, from within the WordPress post editor, you can tell OpenAI to generate titles and meta descriptions that best fit your content with the click of a button.
Simply go to the ‘AIOSEO Settings’ at the bottom of your page and find the ‘Post Title’ box.
Next, you need to click on the robot icon. If you hover your mouse over it, you will be able to see a ‘Use AI Generator’ message.
Now, you can see 5 post title suggestions. Simply click on the ‘+’ icon next to one to use it for your post.
If you don’t like any of the suggestions, you can also click ‘Generate New Titles’ to see new ones.
Then, simply repeat the same steps by clicking on the robot icon in the ‘Meta Description’ box. AIOSEO will then suggest a few meta descriptions for your post.
Plus, connecting your OpenAI account to your AIOSEO account is as easy as copying and pasting an API key. You can check out AIOSEO’s documentation for more details.
2. Generate Ad Copy and Product Descriptions
Due to GPT-3’s talent for SEO, it is probably no surprise that it can handle more of your content creation needs. You can use OpenAI to create short, effective ad copy that matches your brand or long-form product descriptions for your WooCommerce store.
For example, we prompted ChatGPT to describe the need for running shoes using the “problem-agitate-solve” framework.
Simply edit the text to match your preferred sentence structure, include your keywords, throw in some on-brand and product-specific language, and then watch your sales increase!
3. Generate Blog Post Ideas
If you are anything like us, then coming up with content ideas for your WordPress blog can be time consuming. Fortunately, OpenAI runs on one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
So, you can ask it to come up with ideas for new content on your blog.
In our previous examples, we used OpenAI to help with tasks by inputting prompts directly into ChatGPT.
In our next few examples, we will look at how to integrate OpenAI directly into your WordPress workflow, truly leveraging the power of automation and AI to save time and resources.
For this example, we will use OpenAI with Uncanny Automator to generate ideas for new content based on a user’s form submission. Then, we will automatically send OpenAI’s response to your content management spreadsheet or database, like Google Sheets or Airtable, for the whole team to access.
If you don’t already have Uncanny Automator, you can download the Automator plugin for FREE to try on your WordPress site.
Once you have downloaded Automator, you will need to connect Automator to OpenAI. Then we will build the automation recipe below.
First, you need to create a new form using a contact form plugin like WPForms. From your WordPress admin sidebar, navigate to WPForms » Add New.
Then, create a new contact form and make sure to add two number fields labeled ‘Temperature’ and ‘Maximum length’, and one single line text field labeled ‘Open AI Prompt’.
Now, you must head to Automator » Add New. In the pop-up window that appears, simply select ‘Logged-in users’, followed by ‘Confirm’.
Next, give your new recipe a title that makes it easy to recognize. For example, we have named our recipe ‘OpenAI Content Ideation’.
In the ‘Triggers’ panel, you need to select ‘WPForms’. From the drop-down list that appears, select ‘A user submits a form’ and choose the WPForms form that you just made. When you are finished, just click ‘Save’.
After that, in the ‘Actions’ panel, you have to select ‘OpenAI’.
From the drop-down list that appears, choose ‘Use a prompt to generate text with the Davinci model’.
In the Actions section, map the fields from the WPForms form to the Temperature, Length, and Prompt fields in the OpenAI action.
To do this, click the ‘*’ icon to the right of each field to choose the correct token associated with the trigger.
When you are finished, simply click Save.
To send the blog post ideas to an external spreadsheet, you will need to add a second Action. To do this, click ‘Add action’ in the ‘Actions’ panel.
From the menu of available integrations, simply choose Google Sheets.
Then, from the drop-down list, select ‘Create a row in a Google Sheet’.
In the editor, you must select your content management spreadsheet. Then, click ‘Get columns’ and add the OpenAI Response token to the appropriate column(s).
Make sure to click ‘Save’ when you are done.
Finally, in the top right corner, toggle your recipe from ‘Draft’ to ‘Live.’
Now, whenever you enter information into your blog post idea generator form, Automator will tell OpenAI to suggest new content ideas and send them to your Google Sheets spreadsheet.
In our example, we entered “Give me 5 fun blog posts on pediatric dentistry” into the WPForms form.
Then, OpenAI generated a response, and Automator added it to the worksheet in the recipe.
4. Perform Sentiment Analysis
There is no way of knowing if AI has any feelings of its own. If we had to guess, we would say that it probably doesn’t. At least, not yet. But that doesn’t mean that it cannot understand human emotions.
You can use OpenAI to perform sentiment analysis by asking it to interpret the mood of your customers’ feedback.
But how can you use this with your WordPress website?
Maybe your contact forms are connected to a help desk plugin, and you want to assign priority based on the message urgency.
Alternatively, maybe you want to automatically approve positive blog comments. You could even quickly identify negative feedback in surveys powered by your favorite WordPress form plugin.
In both cases, you will be able to address negative feedback quicker, keep your customers happier, and improve your online reputation.
5. Automate Customer Support with Intelligent Sentiment Analysis
Now that you know how to use OpenAI to perform sentiment analysis, you can easily add it to your workflows. By combining OpenAI’s emotional intelligence with Uncanny Automator’s efficiency, you will be able to create a seamless customer support system.
Let’s put together an Automator recipe that creates tickets in our customer support plugin whenever a customer reviews a product.
First, we have OpenAI perform sentiment analysis on the reviews as they come in.
Then, using Automator’s Filters feature, we create tasks with different priority levels based on OpenAI’s assessment of the customer’s sentiment.
In this recipe, if OpenAI decides that a new WooCommerce product review is negative, then it creates a new help desk ticket in FluentCRM and adds an Urgent tag.
If you are ready to take things to the next level, you could even use the submission to create a draft reply for the ticket.
Just add an extra OpenAI action to generate a draft reply, then include that response as the ticket draft.
This works best with the GPT-3.5-Turbo model because you can use Automator to also send context. For example, you can tell it to answer the prompt as a helpful support agent from your website.
6. Create Event Summaries, Recap Podcast Episodes, and Take Meeting Minutes
Running special events on your WordPress website is easy with WordPress calendar plugins. Unfortunately, not every customer of yours can save the date.
After all, we cannot do everything and be everywhere all at once, but OpenAI can.
If your customers missed the big day, OpenAI can create event summaries for you. You can even choose the length and format of the summary you want OpenAI to make.
For example, we asked ChatGPT to create a 100-word summary of an October 2008 IMF town hall. In less than one minute, ChatGPT turned the 1,500-word opening remarks into a 100-word summary.
Alternatively, maybe you are trying to grow your podcast audience. To help your listeners who don’t have two hours a day to consume media, you can use OpenAI to recap your podcast episodes, hitting all of the highlights.
Using transcripts, we asked ChatGPT to summarize the first 15 minutes of a popular podcast.
Finally, some conference call tools, like Zoom and Google Meet, allow users to record their meetings with audio transcripts. You can then feed those transcripts into OpenAI and create meeting summaries in just a few seconds.
7. Draft Blog Posts (and Seamlessly Integrate Them Into Your Workflows)
For content writers (including us), few things are more stressful than a blank page. Thankfully, artificial intelligence is the sledgehammer that can break through any writer’s block.
Using one of our blog post ideas from our previous recipe, we told OpenAI to draft a blog post for us.
In this Automator recipe, a form submission (the trigger) tells OpenAI to draft a new blog post. Then, it messages the writer in Slack to let them know the draft is ready for them.
From your WordPress admin sidebar, simply go to WPForms » Add New.
Then, create a new form with at least two number fields labeled ‘Temperature’ and ‘Maximum length.’ You will also need two single-line text fields labeled ‘Title’ and ‘Open AI Prompt’.
Next, you must go to Automator » Add New. In the pop-up window that appears, select ‘Logged-in users’. Then, simply give your new recipe a title like ‘OpenAI Blog Post Draft’.
In the ‘Triggers’ panel, you need to select ‘WPForms’ From the drop-down list that appears, you must choose ‘A user submits a form’ and pick the form you just created.
When you are finished, make sure to click ‘Save’.
Moving on, in the ‘Actions’ panel, you must select ‘OpenAI’. From the drop-down list that appears, choose ‘Use a prompt to generate text with the Davinci model’.
In the editor, fill in the fields using the tokens from your form’s fields that match the fields in the editor. When you are finished, just click ‘Save.’
Now, it is time to set up an automatic blog post that will be created with the OpenAI content.
In the ‘Actions’ panel, simply click ‘Add action’. Then, from the menu of available integrations, select ‘WordPress’.
Next, from the drop-down list, hit ‘Create a post’. In the editor, you must fill in the ‘Title’ field with the Title token from your form and enter the OpenAI Response token into the ‘Content’ field.
Then, make sure to click ‘Save’.
Optional: You can also add a ClickUp action to your recipe to create a task with the post URL in the description.
Additionally, you can include a Slack action to notify your content writer that a new task and draft post is waiting for their review.
Finally, in the top right corner, toggle your recipe from ‘Draft’ to ‘Live’.
In our WPForms form, we then asked OpenAI to ‘Write a casual blog post on three ways to make dental visits fun for kids.’
And here is the draft that Automator created with OpenAI’s response.
We call that the anti- writer’s block recipe! You can also use AI to generate your SEO title, write a meta description, and even set up a featured image.
8. Draft Emails in Minutes
Writing carefully-worded emails takes time. Unless, of course, OpenAI is writing them for you.
Whether you are sending out an internal notice, responding to a customer’s questions, or reaching out to prospective clients, OpenAI can draft your email in seconds. After that, it is just a matter of proofreading and including specific information.
We prompted ChatGPT to “write a 300-word marketing email promoting a Black Friday sale on limited edition clothing.” Less than 30 seconds later, we had an email that we could easily customize to suit our branding and needs.
Promoting your blog posts on social media is important. However, sometimes, writing the appropriate character-length tweets and captions can be even more challenging than creating a whole article.
With OpenAI and Automator, you won’t have to stress about the perfect hashtags.
Here is an example of an action that takes a new blog post and sends it to OpenAI to generate a summary that can be shared on Twitter:
Automator will send that summary, complete with hashtags, to our WhatsApp account. There, we can review, edit, copy, and then paste the content into our social media accounts when we are ready to publish it.
For a post on connecting ChatGPT to LearnDash, OpenAI wrote this summary:
Embrace the robot revolution and use OpenAI and LearnDash to create the e-learning platform of your dreams. #AI revolution is here! Harness the power of AI for your #elearning platform w/ OpenAI & ChatGPT models. Automate content creation, create course outlines & answer students’ questions. Save time & money w/ Uncanny Automator! #LearnDash #NolejAI #RobotRevolution.
You could even extend your recipe to make Automator post the summary straight to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more.
10. Generate AI Images for Your Posts or Landing Pages
Are you tired of scrolling through stock photography databases trying to find the perfect image for your blog post? Or finding a picture and then realizing that every other article with your keywords is using the same image?
Fortunately, OpenAI’s image generator DALL-E 2 can create original images from descriptive plain text.
OpenAI’s Content Policy and Terms give you all of the rights to the images that you create with DALL-E 2, “including the right to reprint, sell, and merchandise.”
Using our original WPForms form with an added field for an image prompt, we used Automator to create a draft blog post complete with a featured image.
Here is that same blog post about dental visits with a featured image created by DALL-E.
As you can see, it has a fun graphic with a tooth, toothpaste, and different toothbrushes.
To make the process even easier, whenever you tell DALL-E to create an image using Uncanny Automator, Automator will add the image to your WordPress media library, with no hotlinking necessary.
11. Create Course Outlines in Your LMS
OpenAI is smart. After all, “intelligence” is in the name.
We asked OpenAI to create an advanced 8-week course outline on supercomputers, which, funnily enough, is kind of like an OpenAI autobiography.
Once you have your course outline, don’t forget to use AIOSEO’s OpenAI integration to write your meta description.
12. Create Lessons in Your LMS
Using a similar Uncanny Automator recipe to the previous one, you can easily fill in the course outline that you created with OpenAI-generated content.
We used OpenAI’s response from our previous recipe to help us create this lesson.
Here is the first part of it.
With the right prompts, you can also create a recipe that generates unique images for your lessons and uploads them automatically to your WordPress media library.
Using Automator tokens, you can also set your new DALL-E 2 generated image as the featured image for your lesson or include it somewhere in the lesson itself.
13. Create a Chatbot
As a natural language processor, OpenAI loves to talk. You can use this feature to communicate with customers in your online store or business website.
This can help you target users who are having problems on your site or want to learn more about your products and services.
14. Have Fun! Write Short Stories, Poems or Cook Up Recipes
Once you have fully integrated OpenAI and Uncanny Automator into your workflows, you will have enough time to do the things that really matter like growing your business or spending more quality time with family.
Playing around with OpenAI and trying out new things is a great way to learn how to create better prompts that get the results you are looking for, so you can continue to save time and optimize your workflows.
OpenAI and WordPress plugin development are in the super early stages right now, and there is so much more in the works. We will be sharing more details and updates in this guide in the coming months.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you looking for ChatGPT prompts ideas to improve blog and marketing strategy?
ChatGPT prompts are the instructions that you type in ChatGPT AI to speed up your workflow. You can use ChatGPT to draft social media posts, come up with blog post ideas, and so much more. The key to getting best results with AI is to make your ChatGPT prompts better and more specific.
In this article, we’ll share the best ChatGPT prompt ideas for bloggers, marketers, and social media, so you can improve your marketing results.
This article will cover a lot of topics, so you can click on any of the links below to jump to a particular section that best suits your needs.
A ChatGPT prompt is the starting point of a conversation in the form of a question or instruction given to an AI language model like ChatGPT.
ChatGPT is an AI-based software that uses machine-learning technology called Natural Language Processing.
To see it in action, you need to sign up for ChatGPT by visiting the OpenAI website.
After that, you’ll see a simple chatroom. At the bottom, you can input your prompt in plain language.
For instance, ‘How old is the Universe?’ and hit the send button.
ChatGPT AI will then respond to your question in plain language.
The answer length and style may vary based on the prompt you entered.
Writing better prompts allows AI to narrow down its approach and provide you with more specific details.
If you want to start a blog, then ChatGPT can help you find article ideas, the article outline, rough drafts, SEO optimization, proofreading, research, and more.
Many bloggers and marketers are exploring opportunities to generate content ideas using AI.
By learning some quick prompt ideas, you can speed up the process and unlock maximum benefits from ChatGPT AI to improve your workflow.
Note: ChatGPT and other AI apps are usually not able to create content that can be simply copied and pasted without any human edits. When you use an AI tool, be sure to go through the results thoroughly to be sure that all information is correct and that the messages are appropriate for your audience.
How to Write Better ChatGPT Prompts?
ChatGPT uses natural language processing which means you can write your prompts in a plain conversational style.
For instance, instead of typing a smaller sentence, you can instruct GPT on how to respond, which style to use, length limitations, ask for examples, and more.
Instead of asking ‘What is Marketing?’ a better prompt would be:
‘Write an essay on marketing for beginners, in a 1 3 1 format, emphasize the role of social media and search engine marketing, and persuade users to have a positive image of search engine marketing.’
While writing your prompts in natural language might seem really simple, many beginners may still be unsure about where to start. It can take a lot of practice to find a style of prompt that works best for your projects.
That being said, let’s take a look at some easy and quick ChatGPT prompt ideas bloggers and marketers and marketers can use to succeed.
Using AIPRM Extension to Generate ChatGPT Prompts
The easiest way to generate ChatGPT prompts is by using AIPRM for ChatGPT.
It is a Google Chrome browser extension with a curated list of ChatGPT prompts for SEO, blogging, content creation, and marketing.
Go to the AIPRM for ChatGPT extension page on the Chrome web store and then click the Add to Chrome button.
Once the extension is added to your browser, it will automatically take you to the ChatGPT website.
If it doesn’t, you can click on the extensions button in your browser menu and click on the AIPRM for ChatGPT to launch it in a new tab.
You’ll need to sign in to your OpenAI account. After that, you will see a curated list of ChatGPT prompts.
At the time of writing this article, AIPRM had 1600+ ChatGPT prompts.
You can browse the prompts by Topic and Activity, sort them, or search for specific prompts from the top toolbar.
To use a prompt, simply click on it and it will appear in the prompt toolbar below.
If the prompt you are using requires user input, then you can provide it in the chatbox.
For instance, here it wants us to enter a keyword that we would like to target to make a content calendar.
You can also choose language, style, and tone for your response.
Hit the enter button after entering your input and ChatGPT will respond to the prompt.
You can regenerate a response or ask ChatGPT to modify or extend it by adding your instructions into chat.
You won’t be able to see the prompt that AIRPM uses at first. However, refreshing the page or switching back and forth between chats will reveal the actual prompt at the beginning of the chat.
AIPRM makes it extremely easy to find detailed, tested, and well-written prompts that you can use on your WordPress website.
Best ChatGPT Prompt Ideas for Bloggers and Marketers
With so many prompt ideas available with AIPRM extension, it could still be a bit overwhelming for users to find or use a prompt.
Here is our top pick of the most useful ChatGPT prompt ideas for blogs, SEO, and marketing.
Blogging ChatGPT Prompts
1. Generate a month-long content calendar targeting specific keywords.
“Make me a month-long calendar for the following keywords [Enter Keywords here]. Add [number of articles] articles each week, and use persuasive SEO-friendly titles for each article.”
2. Generate Blog Post Ideas
“Create a list of at least 10 blog post ideas on the following topics: [Enter topics separated by commas]. Suggest SEO-Friendly title for each post, and use an emotional and persuasive tone in post titles.”
3. Generate SEO title and meta description for a blog post
“Suggest at least 5 SEO-friendly titles and meta descriptions for the following blog post [Enter your blog post text here]. Use a persuasive and intriguing tone.”
4. Suggest tags for a blog post
“Suggest at least 5 tags for the following blog post [Enter your blog post text here].”
5. Generate related long-tail keywords for a blog post
“I want you to generate a list of long-tail keywords that are related to the following blog post [Enter blog post text here].”
6. Create an article outline
“Write an article outline for the following topic [Enter topic or blog post title here].”
7. Write an article on a specific topic
“Write an article on the following topic [Enter topic here]. The article should be at least [number of words] words in length. Use a persuasive tone and pretend to be an expert on the topic.”
8. Outrank a competitor for a specific keyword
“Write an article based on the topics covered in the following article [Enter competitor URL here]. Make the article more comprehensive than the URL provided by adding details that the source URL has missed or didn’t cover. Answer the most commonly asked questions about the topic at the end of the article.”
9. Write a motivational blog post
“I want you to write a motivational blog post about overcoming [fear/failure/challenge goes here].”
10. Generate call-to-action ideas
“I want you to come up with 5 effective call-to-action button ideas based on the contents of the following URL [Your website or landing page URL goes here].”
11. Generate a pros and cons outline for a topic
“Write down an essay on the pros and cons of [Your topic goes here].”
12. Write questions for an interview blog post
“Write interview questions for a blog post with [Guest Name] who is an expert in [Guest profession or area of expertise].”
13. Proofread a text and optimize it for the focus keyword
“I want you to act as SEO editor and copywriter. I need you to proofread and analyze the following text and optimize it for the focus keyword. I also need you to correct any grammar mistakes you find in the article. Ask me to provide you with the article text and focus keyword.”
14. Reuse a blog post for social media content
“I want you to act as a topic authority and social media influencer. I will provide you with the text or URL of an article. You need to summarize it and create content for social media platforms. Ask me to provide you with the text or URL of the article.”
15. Generate a list of tools to mention in a blog post
“Create a list of the most popular tools used by the [Field of Interest] professionals with the pros and cons of each tool.”
16. Write a conclusion for a blog post
“I want you to pretend to be a topic expert, and write a persuasive conclusion for the following blog post. [Your blog post text goes here].”
17. Come up with best practices for using something
“Pretend to be a topic expert and write down an essay on the best practices to follow when using [mention the tool or topic here].”
18. Write a comparison blog post
“I want you to pretend to be a topic expert and compare [Item 1] vs [Item 2] with pros and cons. I need you to show that [item 1] is better than [item 2] and persuade the reader to have a positive feeling about [item 1].”
19. Build reader personas to learn more about a target audience
“Build a reader persona for a blog post titled “[Your blog post title goes here].”
20. Polish your content to look more creative
“Analyze and improve the following content to make it more creative. Use an [Select tone style] tone and write in a casual and conversational style. “[Your content goes here]”
Social Media ChatGPT Prompts
21. Generate captions for Instagram posts, reels, and reels.
“Write an Instagram post description or caption using a few sentences for the post about “[Enter a description of what your Instagram post is about]”. Start the caption with an intriguing sentence and don’t make the first sentence a question. Use emojis in each sentence and add a paragraph after two sentences to make it more readable. Add the most popular hashtags related to the post.”
22. Write an Instagram post about a product / service
“Write an Instagram post promoting [product/services] using a few sentences. Start the post with a captivating sentence and end with a sentence including a call to action to check the link in bio. Use emojis and add the related hashtags at the bottom.”
23. Generate Instagram carousel ideas with slide descriptions
“Write me an Instagram carousel topic idea example. Also, write slide by slide with titles. Explain each slide with the exact content example I should use, not instructions. Also, give me images for every slide that explain all the titles for [Your Instagram Carousel Topic Here]. Do not include content instructions, instead, only write me an actionable text that I can just copy and paste.
After writing the carousel slides. Write me the Instagram post description/caption in just a few sentences. Format every new sentence with new lines so the text is more readable.
Include emojis and the best Instagram hashtags for that post. The first caption sentence should be intriguing and captivating to the readers.”
24. Write Twitter Bio
“I want you to write an interesting Twitter bio for a [Your brand niche and industry / Profession ].”
25. Suggest Twitter Header Image Ideas
“Give me at least 5 ideas to create a Twitter header image for a [Profession/Industry niche].”
26. Generate Tweets for a specific profession, niche, or business
“I want you to act as a social media manager and come up with at least 20 Tweets for a [Profession/ Business niche or industry] include popular hashtags in each tweet.”
27. Generate a viral Twitter thread
“I am looking for a Twitter thread idea that will go viral and showcase [mention your service, product. or blog] to the ideal customer persona in a creative and engaging way. Include hashtags and emojis in each tweet.”
28. Generate a Twitter content strategy
“I need you to act as my social media manager promoting [Describe your business or brand and what it does]. Generate a Twitter content calendar for the next two weeks. Generate at least three tweets for each day targeting relevant customer persona. Include hashtags and emojis in each tweet.”
29. Generate YouTube Video Description
“Write a unique and intriguing description for a YouTube video titled [Enter your video title here]. Pretend you are an expert on the niche and give your personal best advice in 1st person. Explain why you thought sharing this video would be useful and what users will get out of watching this video.”
30. Generate an entire YouTube video script
“Create an attractive and captivating YouTube video script that is informative. I want you to create a persuasive headline, write a video description repeating keywords used in the headline, cite relevant keywords and tags, create the youtube video script and suggest ideas for a persuasive thumbnail to use for the video, from the following description: [Your video description].”
31. Create thumbnail Ideas for Your YouTube video
“Give me at least 3 ideas for creating an interesting and persuasive thumbnail for a YouTube video using the following description: [Enter your video description].”
32. Generate a YouTube content strategy with video ideas
“I want you to act as my social media manager promoting [mention your brand and what services or products it offers] and come up with a content calendar for our YouTube channel. Give me a monthly calendar of posts with at least one video each week. Suggest video ideas with detailed descriptions of what that particular video will be about. Include keywords and hashtags for each video.”
33. Generate a LinkedIn content calendar with post ideas
“I want you to act as my social media manager for my [Explain your business, brand, profession, and what you typically write about]. I need you to create a month-long content calendar with at least one post each day. Write the post for me including the relevant hashtags and use emojis. Write posts specifically for LinkedIn. My target audience is [companies/professionals interested in my brand product or services].”
34. Write a LinkedIn About section
“I want you to act as my social media manager for my [Explain your business, brand, or profession and what you usually post about]. Give me at least 5 examples of an interesting About section for my LinkedIn profile.”
35. Write a caption for Facebook Photo
“I want you to act as my social media manager and write at least 5 captions for a Facebook photo about [explain what the photo is about]. Use hashtags and emojis in the caption.”
36. Write a Facebook Ad Copy
“I want you to act as a professional copyrighter with experience in writing high-converting Facebook ads. I want you to write a Facebook ad copy for the following products/services [Describe your brand name, products and services you offer]. Produce ad copy that is between 100-150 words, with an attention-grabbing headline and a strong call to action that persuades users to take action. I want you to research the potential target audience and optimize the ad copy so that it appeals to that particular target audience.”
37. Plan a Facebook content strategy
“I want you to act as my social media manager promoting [explain your business brand and what you offer]. I need you to provide me with a two-week content calendar for Facebook posts that are highly engaging and generate emotional responses from the readers. Add one post for each day, using hashtags and emojis.”
E-Commerce ChatGPT Prompts
38. Write an eCommerce product description
“I want you to pretend that you are an eCommerce SEO expert who writes compelling product descriptions. I will provide you with one product title and I want you to come up with three distinct content sections for product description, each section should have its own headline.”
39. Write an eCommerce product short description
“I want you to pretend that you are an eCommerce SEO expert who writes compelling product descriptions. I will provide you with one product title and I want you to come up with a short product description of between 250-300 characters.”
40. Generate product ideas for your eCommerce store
“I want you to pretend as a product specialist for an eCommerce store with a specialty in finding and sourcing products to sell online. My store sells [define your store industry and product types] and I need you to come up with a list of [number of product ideas] product ideas that I can sell on my online store.”
41. Write an SEO Optimized landing page copy for a product
“I want you to pretend as a copywriter specializing in writing landing page copy for better SEO rankings and higher conversions. I need you to write the landing page copy for [Your product name]. I want you to start with an intriguing headline to captivate the target audience followed by a call to action button. Below that I want you to add three content sections with different headings each targeting a specific keyword for the product. I need you to end the landing page copy with a FAQ section answering at least 5 customer questions about the product.”
42. Create and sort products into product categories
“I need you to sort the products into product categories. Ask me to provide you with a list of products. Use hierarchal categories and create child categories as needed. Products can be placed into multiple categories. Show which products are placed under a category. Write a catchy short description for each category. Use this product list [enter your product list].
43. Create an ad strategy for an eCommerce product
“I want you to act as an advertiser. You will create a campaign to promote a product or service. You will choose a target audience, develop key messages and slogans, select the media channels for promotion, and decide on any additional activities needed to reach your goals. The product you will be promoting is: [Enter your product title and description here].”
ChatGPT Prompts for Businesses
44. Polish an email text to be more effective and professional
“Fix this email to write it in a human voice in perfect English, as someone with a charismatic personality, that is extremely professional and concise with their language. Also, give at least three samples to use as the email subject. [Enter your email text here].”
45. Write a job posting ad for hiring
“I want you to act as a recruitment manager specializing in finding talented professionals for a job. I need you to write a job posting for [job title] we are offering the following benefits [mention benefits here] and we are looking for [job requirements such as experience and skills].”
46. Generate a business model canvas
“I need you to help me create a business model canvas for a [explain what your business is about] company. Organize your answers in a table that reproduces the original format used in consulting. I want you to write detailed answers that are focused on adding value and act as an expert consultant in digital marketing.”
47. Generate logo design ideas
“I want you to act as a graphic designer specializing in brand identity development. I want you to come up with detailed ideas for unique and interesting logos for a business. Come up with at least 3 ideas and mention what is unique about each idea and how it is different from the other two ideas. The business name is [Enter your company name] and it offers [mention products/services]. I need you to present your ideas in a format that can be given to a professional graphic designer as initial instructions.”
48. Instantly generate domain name ideas
“I need you to help me find domain name ideas for a business. My company name is [enter business name] and it offers [products/services/industry]. Only give .com domain name ideas. domain name should not be more than 8 characters long.”
49. Write an email to terminate an employee
“Write an email to an employee informing them that they are being fired for the following reason [mention the reason for firing]. Make the email text sound professional and polite. Use a sympathetic and kind tone and thank the employee for their work.”
50. Write a job offer email
“I want you to write a job offer email using the following parameters: 1. Candidate name 2. Job position 3. Company name 4. Salary offered Ask me to input these parameters one by one before writing the email.”
Miscellaneous ChatGPT Prompts
51. Generate a cover letter for a job application
“I need you to write me a professional cover letter to send with a job application using the following parameters: 1. Job Title 2. Years of Experience 3. Skills to mention Ask me to input each parameter one by one before writing the cover letter.”
52. Plan your day
“I need you to help me plan my day. Starting at 9 am and ending at 5 pm. Ask me to input the task I will be performing and then ask me for the start time and end time for that particular task. Repeat until the end time of a task is 5 pm. Create a table and add one row for each task with start time, end time, and task detail as columns.”
53. TL:DR Summarize a text or article
“I want you to act as a very proficient researcher. I want you to pretend that you can extract all relevant information from a text or a URL I give you. Your task is to extract all facts and summarize the text in all relevant aspects, presented in bullet points and a 1-liner summary, pick a good matching emoji for each bullet point, and then add it after the 1-liner summary. Ask me to input text or provide you a URL.”
54. Generate a list of popular websites on any topic
“I want you to act as a topic expert. I will provide you with a topic and you will provide me with a list of at least 10 most influential websites on that particular topic. Present the websites in a table with serial number, website name, website URL, 1-liner website summary as columns. Ask me to provide you with a topic.”
Bonus WordPress AI Plugins & Tools Using ChatGPT
AI usage is becoming increasingly popular among marketers and bloggers. As the most popular blogging platform, WordPress has tons of add-ons and plugins that you can use to speed things up.
As the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market, All in One SEO comes with built-in ChatGPT integration to generate SEO-friendly headlines and meta descriptions.
Finding royalty-free images for blog posts is always a challenge for bloggers. Similar to Dall-E, Imajinn AI uses text prompts to generate images using machine learning AI.
All the images generated by the plugin are copyright-free and you can use them in your blog posts.
We hope this article helped you find some useful ChatGPT prompt ideas for your blog and marketing campaigns. You may also want to see our pick of some more useful AI-powered WordPress plugins or take a look at our guide on how to grow your business online.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you looking for the best practices to maximize the SEO benefits of internal links?
Internal links play an important role in search engine optimization (SEO). They help search engines discover your content and rank them higher in search results.
In this article, we’ll list the best practices to use for internal linking for SEO.
How Does Internal Linking Improve SEO in WordPress?
Internal links are links between posts on your own website. Having internal links is important for your WordPress SEO. They help search engines like Google crawl your website and discover new content to index and rank.
Generally, the more links a page has pointing to it, the more likely it is to rank higher in search results. That means that you can use internal links to point to important pages on your site as a way to increase their traffic.
That being said, let’s take a look at the best practices for improving SEO by adding internal links in WordPress. Since this is a comprehensive guide, we have included a table of contents for easier navigation.
We recommend that you make a habit of linking to your older articles from your new articles.
It’s a great way to develop a contextual relationship between your new and old posts. It also allows you to pass relevant link juice to your older articles.
Because internal links play such an important role in SEO, we have even made it part of our pre-publish blog post checklist for WPBeginner writers.
You can also edit your older articles to add links to your newer content whenever you publish. Many successful bloggers dedicate time to adding internal links that point to new articles on a weekly or monthly basis.
This will help you boost your pageviews, increase the time users spend on your site, and ultimately will improve the SEO score of your individual blog posts and pages.
WordPress makes it easy to search for your old posts right inside the post editor. Simply select the text you want to link and click on the link button in the toolbar that appears.
A text pop-up will appear below your highlighted words. Then, you can start typing to search for the older articles you want to link to.
2. Monitor Your Internal Link Performance in WordPress
It’s helpful to see your website’s SEO performance in terms of links by using a tool such as the Links Report in Google Search Console. This is a helpful starting point for working out how to improve internal linking on your site.
The Links Report will show you how many pages are linking to this page. You can compare it with other pages and see whether pages with more internal links are ranking higher than posts with many internal links.
Just make sure you are only linking to the article when it makes sense. Adding links where they don’t make sense creates a bad user experience.
Another way to monitor the impact of internal linking is to see which keywords are gaining or losing position. All in One SEO makes this extremely easy with the Search Statistics feature.
Once you connect the plugin with Google Search Console, All in One SEO will fetch your Google Search Console data and present it under All in One SEO » Search Statistics.
The keyword positions chart shows a graph of your site’s keyword positions.
Below this, you’ll see the Keyword Rankings overview box. This shows your top 10 keywords, and if you use them for internal links they are very likely to be clicked.
3. Improve Your WordPress Site’s Internal Linking With a Plugin
If you’re not sure which posts you want to link to, then you will often find it faster to add internal links in WordPress using an internal linking plugin.
We recommend using All in One SEO. It includes a unique Link Assistant feature that lets you add links to your old and new content without having to open up the post. Plus, it provides link recommendations, detailed link reports, and much more.
Link Assistant will crawl every link on your website and then show a comprehensive list report.
The report will show you an overview of the links with total counts for internal, external, and affiliate links. It will also show you the number of orphaned posts that have not yet been linked to from another post or page.
You can switch to the Links Report tab for detailed information on all your links. Here you’ll see a list of all your posts and pages with columns for internal, external, and affiliate links.
It will also show a number of suggestions where you can add links.
For more details, you can click on the right arrow button next to a post or page. This will show all links organized in different tabs. From the suggestions tab, you can quickly view link suggestions and add links without directly editing a post or page.
Link Assistant also helps you discover more internal linking opportunities.
You can switch to the ‘Linking Opportunities’ tab to see suggestions about how to improve the internal linking on your website, and also see the list of orphaned posts so you can add links to them.
Another plugin useful for internal linking is Semrush SEO Writing Assistant because it can help you keep track of links inside your article.
For example, it lets you know when your article has too many or too few internal links and also suggests ways you can improve your links.
This tool also comes in handy if you have other authors working on articles. Editors can quickly see if the article includes internal links to other posts on your website.
4. Display a List of Your Most Popular Posts in WordPress
You can use a WordPress popular posts plugin to point users toward the articles that other users have already found helpful. These plugins automatically create a list of internal links to your most popular content.
Popular posts are usually your most successful content, which means they are more likely to increase user engagement, conversions, and sales. They are also a good opportunity for internal linking to your other less popular articles.
For example, MonsterInsights has a feature that allows you to show your popular articles anywhere on your WordPress site. You can use also use inline popular posts to show articles inside your content.
If you want to show articles in the sidebar or at the end of your content, then you can select the Popular Post Widget. MonsterInsights even lets you display your top-performing products anywhere on your eCommerce store.
5. Create List Posts That Roundup Other Articles in WordPress
Another way to increase the number of internal links on your WordPress blog is to create roundups of your existing content. You do this by creating a new post that mentions your best articles on a certain subject to give a detailed overview of the topic.
In fact, you’re reading a post like that now.
Luckily, there are some plugins that make this job easy. For example, WP Tasty Roundups allows you to quickly repurpose your existing content into beautiful roundup posts that rank in search results.
All you need to do is type one or two keywords into the built-in search functionality, and the plugin will automatically pull images, titles, descriptions, and links from relevant posts into your roundup list.
6. Get Google Sitelinks for Your WordPress Site
Sitelinks are a feature on Google search engine results pages (SERPs) where additional sub-pages appear under a website in the search results.
These are often internal links to the most popular pages of that website.
The top 3 spots on Google get the most clicks. When sitelinks are shown for a website, it takes up the same amount of space as three regular search listings.
Having this much screen space dedicated to your site significantly increases your overall click-through rate. Simply put, more visitors will visit your website from the keyword.
While there is no guaranteed way to get Google to show sitelinks for your website, it certainly helps to create lots of internal links to your most important posts and pages.
7. Preload Links in WordPress for Faster Loading Speeds
Link preloading is a browser technology that will load links in the background before a site visitor clicks them. This makes your website seem faster, which can improve SEO.
Because loading speed is one of the top indicators for search engine rankings and user engagement, when your internal pages are preloaded, your visitors are more likely to stay on your website longer.
They are more likely to view more pages because they’re loading instantly.
The easiest way to preload links is by using the Flying Pages plugin. It simply adds intelligent preloading to make sure preloading won’t crash your site or even slow it down.
Broken links are bad for your website’s SEO. Search engine crawlers find new content on your website by following internal links, so a broken link can stop them from indexing a new post.
They also negatively impact user experience because broken links will return a 404 error. If a visitor clicks on a link and is unable to find a page they’re looking for, then they may leave.
AIOSEO offers a powerful redirection manager that helps track 404 errors on your website and lets you set up permanent 301 redirects to fix broken links.
9. Update Internal Link URLs When Moving a Site to a New Domain
If you ever move your WordPress site to a new domain name, then it is important to update all internal link URLs. Otherwise, you will have lots of broken links.
You should start by changing the WordPress address and site URL by visiting the Settings » General page from your WordPress dashboard.
But you will also need to change the URLs of every internal link added to your posts and pages.
10. Use MediaWiki Syntax to Quickly Add Internal Links to WordPress
If you want to make internal linking a habit, then it helps to use the most efficient method. Since WordPress 6.0, WordPress has supported standard MediaWiki syntax to quickly add internal links when creating or editing a post.
You can now quickly add links by adding two square brackets followed by the post title. The animated gif below shows you how easy this feature is to use inside WordPress.
The link will automatically add the correct URL to the post, and use the post title as an anchor link.
If you know the title of a post (or even just part of it), then using the double square bracket method is the fastest way of creating an internal link.
11. Track Which Internal Links Are Clicked in WordPress
One of the best ways to uncover how users interact with your website is to track which internal links your visitors are clicking. Tools such as MonsterInsights can help you see which internal links your visitors are the most interested in.
You can then use these insights to improve the way you add internal links to your posts and pages.
You can also use All in One SEO to enable breadcrumbs for your WooCommerce products. For details, see the fifth tip in our guide on WooCommerce SEO made easy.
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.
Vlogging is a powerful way to connect with people and build a personal brand. However, if you simply upload vlogs to third-party platforms like YouTube, then you may struggle to grow your audience, make money, and become a successful vlogger.
In this article, we will show you how you can start a vlog and make money.
Which Is the Best Website Builder for Your Video Blog?
There are many website builders that can help you create a vlog site, but we recommend using WordPress and a separate video hosting platform.
To learn more about why WordPress is such a good choice, please see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.
There are two types of WordPress software: WordPress.com and WordPress.org. We recommend using WordPress.org, also called ‘self-hosted WordPress.’ This will give you full ownership and control of your site.
Using WordPress.org allows you to install third-party plugins and themes, including plenty that are designed specifically for vloggers.
Also, while you can upload videos to WordPress, it’s far better to use a separate video hosting platform such as YouTube or Vimeo.
Videos take up a lot of your hosting resources, which will slow down your website. Instead, we recommend uploading your vlogs to a separate hosting platform such as YouTube or Vimeo, which has all the server resources you need.
After uploading your vlogs to one of these sites, you can then embed your vlog in a WordPress page or post by simply copying and pasting a link. WordPress has built-in support for most major video hosting platforms.
If you really want to save time and impress your viewers, then you can use a plugin like Smash Balloon to create a video feed that will update automatically every time you post a new vlog.
If you don’t already have a video hosting platform in mind, then don’t worry. Later in this guide, we’ll help you find the perfect platform for your vlogs.
Step 1. Setting Up Your Video Blog Website
To create a video vlog, you’ll need a domain name and web hosting.
Although the WordPress software is free, hosting and domain names are where the costs can really start to add up.
A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. This is a lot for hobby vloggers, new creators, or anyone who is working with a tighter budget.
Thankfully, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users over 60% off on web hosting and a free SSL certificate as part of this deal. This is absolutely essential if you plan to sell premium videos and make money from your vlogs. You will also get a free domain name when you sign up!
Simply click the link below to create a vlogging website for as little as $2.75 per month.
Because you get a free domain when you sign up with Bluehost, you’ll need to be sure it’s the right fit for your video blog. For expert tips, check out our guide on how to choose the best domain name.
Once you’ve completed the purchase, you’ll get an email with instructions on how to log in to your web hosting control panel. This is your hosting account dashboard where you can manage your vlog, including setting up email notifications and asking for WordPress support if you need it.
It’s also where you’ll install the WordPress software, so let’s do that now.
Step 2. Install WordPress on Your Video Blog
When you sign up with Bluehost using our link, you’ll get access to a one-click WordPress installer. Simply log into your Bluehost account and click on ‘One Click Install.’
You can now follow the onscreen instructions to set up WordPress.
Once WordPress is set up, you’re ready to start customizing your vlog site.
Step 3. Select a Video Theme
WordPress themes are professionally designed templates that change how your vlog looks and acts.
There are lots of different premium and free WordPress business themes to choose from. You can generally categorize these as multipurpose WordPress themes, or niche industry themes. However, most WordPress themes are designed to show text.
Since we’re starting a vlog, we need a theme that’s designed specifically for videos.
Even if you’re using a separate video hosting platform, embedded videos still take time to load. With that in mind, it’s important to find a lightweight theme that won’t slow down your website. Wherever possible, we also recommend using a theme that has built-in lazy loading.
On top of that, vlogs often need special features such as parallax scrolling, lightbox popups, and fullscreen video backgrounds.
That’s a lot to keep in mind, so you may want to look at our expert pick of the best WordPress video themes.
After installing a theme, you may want to customize it by going to Appearance » Customize in the WordPress dashboard. This will launch the theme customizer where you can fine-tune the theme settings and see your changes in the live preview.
If you’re using one of the newer full-site editing themes, then you’ll need to go to Appearance » Editor instead.
Here, you can fine-tune the theme using blocks.
Just remember that you can customize your theme at any point. You can even completely change your WordPress theme, if you realize it doesn’t quite meet your needs.
This means you don’t need to finalize your site design now. In fact, it may be easier to fine-tune your vlog once you’ve added some content.
Step 4. Create a Custom Homepage
WordPress comes with two content types called posts and pages.
You’ll typically use posts to create articles and blogs, while pages are static “one-off†types of content. For example, you might publish an about page, a privacy policy, or a custom archive page.
There are a few different ways to show videos in WordPress. However, since we’re creating a video vlog you’ll typically embed one or more videos in a blog post.
By default, the WordPress homepage shows your posts in reverse chronological order, so your latest vlog appears at the top of the homepage.
However, you may want to move this blog list to another page, and use a custom homepage instead. This custom homepage can introduce your vlog to visitors and let them know what you have to offer.
You might even create a YouTube gallery of all your best videos, which is a great way to catch a visitor’s attention and make them want to watch more of your content.
Smash Balloon allows you to create all kinds of galleries, including showing a specific YouTube playlist or favorites feed, a single video, or even your latest live stream.
Once you’re happy with the design, it’s time to set it as your homepage. To do this, go to Settings » Reading in the WordPress dashboard.
Here, scroll to ‘Your homepage settings’ and select ‘A static page.’
Next, open the ‘Homepage’ dropdown and choose the page that you want to use.
After that, simply scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes.’ Now, if you visit your website you’ll see the new homepage in action.
With that done, make sure you create a separate blog page to display your vlogs.
Step 5. Set Up Your Video Hosting Platform
Before you can start adding videos to your WordPress website, you’ll need to upload them to a separate video hosting platform. In this way, you can show countless high-resolution videos on your website without affecting its performance.
There are lots of different video hosting platforms that you can use, but we recommend YouTube as it’s the most popular choice.
It’s free to create a YouTube account and you can upload as many videos as you want.
YouTube even has a Partners Program that you can join to make money from your videos. This program also offers more benefits like analytics, longer videos, and editing tools.
If you don’t want to use YouTube, then there are many other popular platforms including Vidyard, Wistia, and SproutVideo. For a closer look at all the top video sites, please see our expert pick of the best video hosting sites for bloggers.
After choosing a platform, you’ll need to create an account and upload all the vlogs that you want to show on your WordPress website.
For instructions on how to do this, check out the online documentation for your chosen video hosting platform.
Step 6. Create Your First Vlog
To create your first vlog, simply go to Posts » Add New in your WordPress dashboard.
WordPress has a block-based editor that allows you to create beautiful content layouts for your vlogs. Here, you can add text, images, audio clips, and more.
The easiest way to add vlogs to WordPress is by using the built-in auto-embed feature. If you’re using one of the big video hosting platforms, then you can simply paste the video’s URL into the WordPress content editor, and WordPress will handle the rest.
Just head over to your chosen video hosting platform and find the vlog that you want to show on your WordPress blog. You can then simply copy the video’s URL.
After that, switch back to the WordPress dashboard and paste the URL in the content area. If you paste it into a standard Paragraph block, WordPress will automatically try to place it in the correct block, such as the YouTube block.
Even if you don’t see the platform-specific block, it will use the Embed block and display the video inside the content editor.
As you’re working on the vlog, you can see how it’ll look to visitors by clicking on ‘Preview.’
This will open the page in a new tab.
The WordPress post editor also has sections for Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your vlogs so it’s easier for visitors to find interesting content. To learn more, please see our guide on how to add categories and tags in WordPress.
When you’re happy with how the vlog looks, go ahead and click on the ‘Publish’ button in the top-right corner of the screen.
To add more vlogs to your website, simply follow the same process described above.
Step 7. Add a Contact Form to Your Vlog
Some viewers might want to contact you directly. This may include affiliate marketers, sponsors, advertisers, and other brands who are looking to build relationships with creators, or other vloggers who want to collaborate.
These people could ring your phone number or send a message to your business email address, but we always recommend adding a contact form to your website.
This makes it easier for potential partners to contact you, so you don’t miss out on any opportunities to grow your brand and make money from your vlogs.
The easiest way to add a contact form to your WordPress website is by using the free WPForms plugin. WPForms comes with a built-in Simple Contact Form template that you can customize using the drag-and-drop editor.
You can then add the form to any page, post, or widget-ready area using the ready-made WPForms block.
Once you’ve added some content to your vlog, it’s a good idea to add a navigation menu so visitors can find their way around the different videos.
The exact location of your menu will depend on your WordPress theme. Most themes have several options, so you can create multiple menus and then show them on different areas of your vlog.
Whether you create a single menu or multiple menus, it’s easy to add navigation to your vlog. For a complete guide, please see our post on how to add a navigation menu.
Menus encourage people to explore your site, but sometimes visitors may want to search for a specific vlog. WordPress comes with a built-in search feature, but it’s quite basic and not very good at finding relevant content.
It is very easy to use and gives much more accurate search results. It allows visitors to search for a keyword in the post or page title, content, URL slug, categories, tags, taxonomies, WordPress excerpts, and even comments.
All of this can help visitors find interesting vlogs, fast.
If you want to get more viewers, then you’ll need to optimize your vlog for SEO. This will help search engines understand your content and show it to people who are looking for videos just like yours.
AIOSEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market and has everything you need to get your vlogs onto the first page of Google, without having to learn any complicated SEO jargon.
AIOSEO comes with the easiest setup wizard that helps you choose the best SEO settings for your business. AIOSEO will even scan your vlogs and show an actionable checklist on how you can optimize that specific vlog.
Additionally, AIOSEO has a video sitemap feature that you can use to show search engines what’s the most important content to index.
Did you know that 70% of people who leave your site will never come back? Thankfully there are lots of ways to turn abandoning visitors into loyal viewers.
To start, it’s smart to create an email newsletter so people who enjoy your vlogs can subscribe. After that, you can email these subscribers every time you post a new vlog.
You can also keep them engaged with your brand by sending them fun surveys and polls, notifying them about any giveaways and contests you’re running, or even simply asking them for feedback on your latest vlog.
All of this can help you create a sense of community and build a stronger relationship with your viewers.
If you do build an email list, then you’ll want to make sure your messages arrive safely in the subscriber’s inbox and not in their spam folder. With that in mind, we recommend using an SMTP service provider to improve your email deliverability rates.
Another option is to use push notifications with software like PushEngage to send targeted, personalized messages to viewers after they leave your vlog.
Push notifications are short, clickable notifications that appear as a popup on the user’s desktop or mobile devices. Some of the biggest websites in the world use push notifications to keep users engaged, including Facebook.
These notifications go directly to the user’s web browser or mobile device so they have a high chance of getting the person’s attention, which makes them perfect for notifying viewers when you post a new vlog.
Creating lots of quality, engaging vlogs takes a lot of time and effort, so you may want to make money from your videos.
If you’ve created a contact form, then potential sponsors and partners already have a way to contact you, which is a great start. However, there are lots more ways to make money online with WordPress.
Here are some of the best ways to make money from your vlog.
Google AdSense
There are many reasons why it’s smart to embed videos on your own website, rather than simply uploading them to platforms like YouTube.
One major benefit is that you can show Google AdSense ads next to your videos.
When you sign up for Google AdSense, Google acts as a middleman between you and the advertiser. Instead of you having to find the right partners for your vlog, Google allows advertisers to bid for keywords matching your content. This allows you to get the best possible rates for the ads on your vlogging website.
Many vloggers make money by recommending products and services to their viewers. For example, many lifestyle vloggers film daily routine videos showing off their favorite skincare or fitness products.
By using affiliate links, you can earn money every time a viewer buys a product or service based on your recommendation.
For the best results, it’s a good idea to only recommend quality items that you already use and trust. If you encourage viewers to buy poor-quality or scammy products, then you’ll damage your band and almost certainly lose viewers.
If you build a strong, positive relationship with your viewers then they may want to support your work as a vlogger. This is particularly true if you’re a hobby vlogger or someone who is just starting out.
Although they’re mostly used by non-profits, some vloggers use donation forms so that viewers can support their work. These forms are often presented as ‘buy me a coffee’ or ‘buy me a beer.’
Most of the time, you’ll want your vlogs to be publicly available so you can get as many views as possible and build your audience.
However, some vloggers may want to create a video membership site in WordPress. This allows people to pay for different perks, such as early access to the latest vlogs, exclusive live streams, or premium members-only videos.
You can also offer perks that don’t involve videos, such as a members-only forum, blog posts, or the ability to chat with you directly on channels like Discord.
The easiest way to create a membership site is by using MemberPress. It is the best WordPress membership plugin on the market and allows you to accept payments, create unlimited subscription levels, restrict access to video pages based on levels, and more.
Sell Your Videos as Digital Downloads
Depending on the kind of vlogs you create, you may decide to sell some of your premium videos as digital downloads. For example, if you’re a health and fitness vlogger then you might create videos teaching your followers different exercise routines.
For some niches, this can be a way to monetize the audience you’ve built from your vlogs.
With Easy Digital Downloads, you have complete control over how you distribute your videos. You can allow customers to download files as many times as they want or restrict file downloads by time or attempt.
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