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Tag: tutorials

  • How to Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress

    Are you looking to use Microsoft Clarity analytics on your WordPress website?

    Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool that helps you analyze how users engage with your website with click tracking, scroll tracking, and heatmaps.

    In this article, we’ll show you how to easily install Microsoft Clarity in WordPress, step by step.

    How to Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress

    This is what we’ll cover in this tutorial:

    What Is Microsoft Clarity and Why Use It?

    Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool for websites. It helps you see the most popular pages on your website and how users click, scroll, and interact with those pages.

    The most important feature of Microsoft Clarity is its data visualization. This includes click tracking, heatmap reports, session recordings, and more.

    Heatmaps show a visual report of how users move their mouse, as well as where they click, select, and scroll.

    Heatmap showing user interactions on a website

    Similarly, session recordings help you see how users view your content, where they spend more time, and what takes them away from your WordPress website.

    This information helps you create a better user experience for your users, improve performance, and boost sales conversion.

    Viewing the Microsoft Clarity analytics dashboard

    Note: Microsoft warns that Clarity should not be used on sites that contain sensitive data including user health care, financial services, or government-related information.

    Microsoft Clarity vs Google Analytics: What’s the Difference?

    Google Analytics is the best analytics solution on the market because it offers a lot of in-depth tracking features. Microsoft Clarity, on the other hand, focuses on the visualization of user interactions with heatmaps and session recordings.

    Google Analytics helps you track almost anything on your website. It also has enhanced eCommerce tracking, conversion tracking, and detailed reports.

    Microsoft Clarity is a newer platform, and it’s currently not an alternative to Google Analytics’ far superior features. However, you can use Microsoft Clarity alongside Google Analytics to unlock features like heatmaps and visitor session recordings because Google doesn’t offer those features yet.

    Before Microsoft’s analytics feature, many website owners would use paid heatmap solutions like Hotjar or CrazyEgg alongside Google Analytics, but now you have a free alternative to those tools.

    We recommend installing Google Analytics on all your websites. After that, you can follow our guide below to install Microsoft Clarity in WordPress.

    They both work along quite well without affecting your website’s functionality.

    It’s easy to add Microsoft Clarity to any website. You need to sign up for Microsoft Clarity and then add a tracking code to your website. We’ll take you through the process step by step.

    Signing Up for Microsoft Clarity

    First, head to the Microsoft Clarity website and click on the ‘Get Started’ button. You need a Microsoft, Facebook, or Google account to sign up.

    After signing up, you will see the Clarity dashboard with a popup to add a new project.

    Go ahead and enter a name for your project. You can use the name of your website to make it easily recognizable. Next, enter your website URL.

    Setting up a new project in Microsoft Clarity

    Once you’ve created your new project, you will be asked how you want to install Clarity. You should click the ‘Get tracking code’ option.

    Install Clarity Using a Tracking Code

    You will now see the tracking code that you need to add to your WordPress website. Simply click the ‘Copy to clipboard’ button.

    Copying the Clarity tracking code

    Depending on the method you use to add this code to your WordPress site, you may need the complete tracking code, or just your project ID. You’ll find the project ID at the end of the tracking code, just before </script>. In the screenshot above, it is ‘ejbjp9k5ge’.

    We recommend leaving this tab open or copying the code to a safe place. You will need it in the next step of this tutorial.

    Adding Microsoft Clarity Code to WordPress

    Now you need to add the Microsoft Clarity tracking code to your WordPress website in a way that makes it present on all pages. Luckily, there are a number of easy ways to make this happen without manually editing any WordPress files.

    You can choose your preferred method from the following three.

    Method 1: Adding Microsoft Clarity Code Using the Microsoft Clarity Plugin

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

    Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » Clarity page in WordPress admin. Here you need to paste the project ID. That’s the last item in your Clarity tracking code and will look something like ‘ejbjp9k5ge’.

    Enter Your Microsoft Clarity Project ID

    Make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom to store your settings. Your WordPress site is now connected to Microsoft Clarity.

    Method 2: Adding Microsoft Clarity Code Using WPCode

    The safest and easiest way to add code to your website is WPCode, the best WordPress code snippets plugin. This plugin lets you add any script in your website’s header or footer right from your WordPress dashboard (no FTP or cPanel needed).

    Once you have installed and activated the WPCode Free Plugin, you need to visit the Code Snippets » Header & Footer page. Once there, you should paste the entire Microsoft Clarity tracking code into the ‘Header’ field.

    Paste the Microsoft Clarity Tracking Code Into WPCode's Header Field

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

    The plugin will now automatically add the Microsoft Clarity analytics code to all pages of your WordPress site, so you can track website visitor activity on your website.

    Method 3: Adding Microsoft Clarity Code Using All in One SEO

    All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin that allows you to easily optimize your WordPress website for search engines and social media platforms. We show you how to get the most out of it in our guide on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress correctly.

    If you have All in One SEO installed on your website, then you can use it to add the Microsoft Clarity tracking code.

    Simply head over to All in One SEO » General Settings » Webmaster Tools and click on the ‘Microsoft Clarity’ icon. A field will appear where you can paste your Clarity project ID. That’s the last item in your Clarity tracking code and will look something like ‘ejbjp9k5ge’.

    Pasting the Microsoft Clarity Project ID into AIOSEO

    Make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button afterward, and your WordPress site will be connected to Microsoft Clarity.

    Pro Tip: If you’re using a WordPress caching plugin, then you need to clear your WordPress cache after you add the project ID or tracking code. This is important otherwise Microsoft will not be able to verify your site for a few hours.

    Using Microsoft Clarity

    Once you have installed the tracking code and cleared your WordPress cache, Microsoft will then start recording visitor session data.

    However, it will likely take up to 2 hours before you can see any results in your Clarity account.

    Using the Microsoft Clarity Dashboard

    Simply log in to your Clarity account after a few hours, and you should be able to see the activity summary in your dashboard.

    Viewing the Microsoft Clarity analytics dashboard

    You can see useful insights like the percentage of sessions that have ‘dead clicks’. These are clicks that don’t go anywhere. For instance, users might be clicking on an image thinking that it’s a button or a link.

    Another useful statistic is rage clicks when users rapidly click or tap in the same area. Paying close attention to these metrics can help you make your site more user-friendly.

    The dashboard also shows you the number of ‘quick backs’. These occur when a user moves off a page and then very quickly comes back to it.

    It also tracks excessive scrolling, when users scroll through a page more than expected. And like Google Analytics, Microsoft makes it easy to see the most popular pages on your site.

    Using Microsoft Clarity Recordings

    The ‘Recordings’ tab shows you recordings of different user sessions. You get the details of the user’s device, operating system, and country.

    Clarity also tells you the number of pages they visited, the duration and time of their session, and the number of clicks they made.

    Clarity showing the recordings of user sessions

    The recordings let you watch an animation of mouse movements and clicks. In the screenshot above, you can see a user moved their mouse to the November archives link and clicked it.

    Using Microsoft Clarity Heatmaps

    The ‘Heatmaps’ tab shows you a heatmap of your website. These help you see which sections are popular on your site based on the number of people clicking.

    Clarity's heatmap showing mouse clicks

    The heatmap will also show you how far users scrolled down the page, and which areas on the page received the most clicks.

    Final Thoughts on Microsoft Clarity Analytics Tool

    Microsoft Clarity is a new analytics tool with some neat features. While it’s no alternative to the powerful Google Analytics platform, it definitely offers some interesting features like free heatmap and session recording.

    Often new website owners want to see heatmaps and session recordings, but they don’t have the budget to purchase premium solutions like HotJar or CrazyEgg. Well, now you can use Microsoft Clarity.

    Using the heatmaps and session recordings, you should be able to optimize your website or online store experience to improve user experience and boost sales.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison of the best WordPress page builders to create custom layouts without any code, and our pick of the best email marketing services to grow your business.

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post How to Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress

    Do you want to know how much revenue you’re generating from Google Ads on your website?

    Setting up Google Ads conversion tracking will help you uncover insights about your ad campaign’s performance. You can find out which campaign is performing the best, how users interact with your ads, and how you can improve conversions.

    In this article, we’ll show you how to properly set up eCommerce Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress. This is the exact same method that we use on our own websites.

    How to setup Google Ads conversion tracking

    Why Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress?

    If you’re running Google Ads for your WordPress blog, eCommerce store, or membership site, then it is important to know how they’re performing. You can’t improve, what you can’t measure.

    Tracking Google Ads conversions helps you see how much revenue you earned from users who clicked on your ad campaigns. It also helps you see which paid keywords and ad groups drive the most conversions. This way, you can optimize your campaigns and budget for more profitable search terms.

    Besides that, Google Ads conversion tracking also uncovers how users behave on your WordPress site after clicking an ad. For instance, you might see a lot of users arrive on a landing page, but abandon it after adding products to the cart.

    You can use this information to improve the checkout process, offer discounts and incentives as users are about to leave your site, and provide a better user experience.

    That said, let’s see how you can add Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress.

    Adding Google Ads to WordPress Website

    The easiest way of connecting Google Ads with WordPress is by using MonsterInsights. It is the best Analytics plugin for WordPress that helps set up Google Analytics without editing.

    MonsterInsights offers an Ads addon that lets you setup comprehensive conversion tracking without touching a single line of code or hiring a developer.

    We will use the MonsterInsights Pro license for this tutorial because it includes the Ads addon. There is also a MonsterInsights Lite version you can use for free.

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

    Upon activation, you will be redirected to the welcome screen in your WordPress dashboard. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button.

    Launch setup wizard

    Next, you can follow the onscreen instructions to connect Google Analytics to your site. For more details, you can see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

    With MonsterInsights, you can also use dual tracking to set up a Google Analytics 4 property. It is the latest analytics version and will soon replace Universal Analytics. You can learn more by following our guide on how to switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress.

    Once you’ve connected Google Analytics with WordPress, the next step is to install the Ads addon. Simply go to Insights » Addons from your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the ‘Ads’ addon.

    Install the ads addon

    Go ahead and click the ‘Install’ button. The addon will now automatically install and activate on your site.

    Creating a Conversion Action in Google Ads

    Next, you’ll need to create a conversion action in Google Ads.

    First, you can visit the Google Ads website and log in to your account.

    After that, go ahead and click the ‘Tools and settings’ option at the top. Under the ‘Measurement’ column, simply select the Conversions option.

    Click the tools and settings option

    On the next screen, you’ll need to create a conversion action.

    You can click the ‘New conversion action’ button to get started.

    Create new conversion action

    Next, Google Ads will ask you to select the type of conversions you want to track. It will show you 4 options, including a website, app, phone call, or import.

    For this tutorial, we’ll choose the ‘Website’ option for tracking ad conversions.

    Select the kind of conversion to track

    After that, you’ll need to enter the website URL where you’d like to measure conversions.

    Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Scan’ button.

    Enter your domain to scan

    Google Ads will now show 2 options to create conversion actions, including an automatic and manual method. In the automatic method, you’ll need to select the conversion goal, choose a match type, and enter the URL. This way is suitable if you know which events to count as conversions.

    However, we recommend selecting the manual method. Simply scroll down and click the ‘+ Add a conversion action manually’ option.

    Add conversion action manually

    Next, you’ll need to enter the Conversion action details.

    First, you can select the ‘Goal and action optimization’ for your conversion. This is the action you’d like to track. For example, when a user subscribes to your newsletter, makes a purchase, adds a product to a cart, submits a contact form, and more.

    For the sake of this tutorial, we will select ‘Subscribe’ as the goal. After that, you can enter the Conversion name.

    Enter conversion action details

    You can now scroll down and select a Value for your conversion. Google Ads lets you choose the same value for each conversion, assign different values for conversions, or don’t use a value for conversion action.

    We will select the ‘Use the same for each conversion’ option, select the currency, and enter a value for this tutorial.

    Enter value for conversion action

    Besides that, you can also choose how many conversions to count per click.

    If you’re tracking email newsletter signups, then we recommend selecting the ‘One’ option. This way, each subscriber is counted once. However, you can use the ‘Every’ option in an eCommerce store and count each purchase as a conversion.

    After selecting these options, simply click the ‘Done’ button at the bottom.

    Enter value and count

    You can now see your conversion action under the ‘Create conversion actions manually using code’ section.

    Go ahead and click the ‘Save and continue’ button to get instructions for adding the tracking tags for conversion action to your site.

    Click the save and continue button

    On the next screen, you’ll see 3 options to add the conversion action to your site.

    Simply select the ‘Use Google Tag Manager’ option. You should see the Conversion ID and Conversion Label. Copy these to a notepad file or keep the browser window/tab open.

    Select the use tag manager option

    To finish the setup process, you’ll need to head to your WordPress website dashboard and view the MonsterInsights settings.

    From here, go to Insights » Settings and click on the ‘Publisher’ tab.

    Publisher settings in MonsterInsights

    After that, you can scroll down to the ‘Ads Tracking’ section.

    Go ahead and enter the Conversion ID. Make sure you follow the format, which will look like this: AW-123456789.

    If you are tracking Google Ads on Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, and MemberPress, then enter the Conversion Label in the respective field.

    Enter conversion ID and label

    That’s it. You’ve successfully set up Google Ads conversion tracking on your WordPress website.

    View Google Ads Conversion Tracking Data in Google Analytics

    You can take it a step further and connect Google Ads with Google Analytics to get more insights about how people use your website after clicking on an ad.

    For instance, you can see the number of visitors from paid search and find out which pages they view after landing on your site. You can also use different filters and create custom reports in Google Analytics.

    Let’s see how you can link your Google Ads account with Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics.

    Connect Google Ads with Google Analytics 4

    First, you’ll need to log in to your GA4 account and then go to the ‘Admin’ settings.

    Go to admin settings

    After that, you can click the ‘Google Ads Links’ option.

    It is located under the Property column.

    Go to ads links

    A new window will now slide in from the right.

    Go ahead and click the ‘Link’ button in the top right corner.

    Click the link button

    Next, you will see different options for Link setup.

    First, you can click the ‘Choose Google Ads accounts’ option.

    Choose Google ads account to link

    On the next screen, you’ll need to select the Google Ads account you wish to connect.

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

    Select your google ads account

    You will now see the Google Ads account that you want to link.

    Go ahead and click the ‘Next’ button.

    See selected google ads account

    In the next step, Google Analytics will give you options to enable personalized advertising and enable auto-tagging.

    You can use the default settings and click the ‘Next’ button.

    Change configure settings

    After that, you’ll see a summary of your Link setup settings.

    If everything checks out, then go ahead and click the ‘Submit’ button.

    Review and submit link setup

    You should now see a ‘Link Created’ notification in front of your Google Ads account. This means that you’ve successfully connected Google Ads with Google Analytics.

    Do note that it can take up to 24 hours for your Google Ads data to appear in Analytics reports.

    See link created notification

    Next, you can view the Google Ads conversion tracking report in Google Analytics 4.

    First, you can head to Acquisition » Traffic acquisition from the menu on your left and scroll down to see how many visitors came from the Paid Search channel.

    View paid search traffic

    After that, you can go to Acquisition » Acquisition overview and view the Session Google Ads campaign report. This will show which campaign got the most traffic.

    You can also click the ‘View Google Ads campaigns’ option at the bottom to view more details.

    View session google ads campaign report

    For each campaign, you can see the total number of users, sessions, number of Google Ads clicks, cost per click (CPC), conversions, and more.

    Using the information from this report, you can see which campaigns perform the best.

    View detailed stats for each campaign

    Connect Google Ads with Universal Analytics

    If you’re using Universal Analytics, then you can first log in to your account.

    After that, head to the ‘Admin’ settings.

    Click admin settings

    Next, you’ll need to go to the Google Ads Links option.

    You can find the option under the Property column.

    Go to Google Ads links

    On the next screen, you’ll need to select the Google Ads account you want to connect.

    After selecting your account, simply click the ‘Continue’ button.

    Select Google ads account

    Next, you will need to enter a Link group title.

    You can then select the Views to link with your Google Ads account. Simply click the toggle to ON for the correct Views.

    Enter link group title

    Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Link accounts’ button.

    Google Analytics will now show a summary of your settings. Simply scroll down and click the ‘Done’ button.

    Click the done button

    That’s it. Your Google Ads account will now be linked to the Universal Analytics property.

    To view data from your ad campaigns, head to Acquisition » Google Ads » Campaigns from the menu on your left. You can see the number of clicks, cost, CPC, and more for each campaign.

    View Google ads report in UA

    Final Thoughts on Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress

    When it comes to setting up any conversion tracking, the most important thing you want to make sure is that the setup is done properly. This is why we use and recommend MonsterInsights because it just does everything for you behind the scenes without touching any code.

    However if you prefer to add code directly on your WordPress site, then you can do that as well by using a plugin like WPCode. This will help future-proof your customizations. There’s a free version of WPCode that you can use by following our tutorial on adding custom code in WordPress.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to set up Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide and the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your store.

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post How to Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Use FOMO on Your WordPress Site to Increase Conversions

    Are you looking to use FOMO and social proof notifications on your WordPress site?

    FOMO, short for fear of missing out, is basically a marketing technique used to create anticipation and excitement for a product. It uses a basic psychology principle to help customers make a buying decision faster.

    In this article, we will show you how to properly use FOMO on your WordPress website to increase conversions and sales.

    How to use FOMO on your WordPress site to increase conversions

    What is FOMO and How Does it help with Conversions?

    FOMO or ‘fear of missing out’ is a psychological term that describes anxiety about missing out on something exciting and trendy.

    As a WordPress website owner, you can take advantage of this human behavior in your marketing strategy and improve your conversions.

    The concept of FOMO is not new. It’s actually been used by marketers even before the arrival of the internet. However, with online marketing, FOMO has become far easier to implement and much more effective.

    For example, if you run an online store, then you can create anticipation about an upcoming sale and limited-time offers by adding social proof to your landing pages.

    You can also use it to build your email list, run affiliate marketing campaigns, boost app downloads, and more.

    With that said, let’s take a look at how to easily add FOMO to your WordPress site. We will show you two techniques that we have successfully used on our own websites with incredible results.

    Method 1: Adding FOMO with Social Proof by Using TrustPulse

    People feel more comfortable with their buying decision when they know others have also bought the same product or service and had a good experience with it.

    This is why smart business owners use social proof in their marketing.

    The best way to add social proof to your website is by using TrustPulse. It is one of the best social proof plugins for WordPress on the market.

    TrustPulse allows you to display real-time user activity notifications on your website, such as products purchased, forms submitted, etc.

    TrustPulse

    To get started, you’ll need to install and activate the TrustPulse plugin on your website. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    The plugin helps you connect your WordPress site to the TrustPulse app.

    Upon activation, click on the TrustPulse menu from the WordPress admin sidebar and click the ‘Get started for free’ button to continue.

    Connect TrustPulse with your site

    This will take you to the TrustPulse website, where you can sign up for a free account. The free plan is good for up to 500 sessions per month.

    Once you sign up, you are ready to create your first campaign. Simply click on the ‘Create Campaign’ button to start your first FOMO campaign.

    Create a new campaign

    Next, you will need to provide a title for your campaign and select your website.

    If you scroll down, then you can choose a campaign type.

    Enter name for campaign and select site

    TrustPulse offers 4 different campaign types to choose from.

    These include showing recent activities, the number of people taking action, visitor analytics, or a static notification with helpful information.

    Select campaign type for fomo

    After selecting a campaign type, don’t forget to click the ‘Next Step’ button.

    You can now head to the ‘Appearance & Design’ tab and choose language and appearance options for your campaign. You can change the position, badge image, style, and more.

    Change the appearance of notification

    Once done, click on the next step to continue.

    Next, you need to choose how you want to capture the activity.

    We recommend using ‘AutoMagic,’ which allows you to select the activity that matches different conditions. For example, you can select your checkout page to automatically capture eCommerce activity.

    Capture activity settings

    You can also use Zapier to capture activities from 1000+ integrations.

    Once done, click on the next step button to continue.

    Next, you need to set up the display rules. You can display the badge on all pages or specific pages on your site. You can also choose the delay between notifications, run them as a loop, and enable mobile notifications.

    Change the display rules

    After that, click on the ‘Publish’ tab at the top.

    In the next step, simply click the ‘Launch your TrustPulse campaigns’ button.

    Launch your TrustPulse campaign

    Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your changes and then exit the campaign builder.

    You can now visit your website to see your FOMO campaign in action.

    Fomo notification preview

    Method 2: Adding FOMO Countdown Timers with OptinMonster

    We have all seen marketers using ‘Urgency’ to get customers’ attention. Whether it is your local grocery store or a big name-brand website, it is one of the oldest marketing techniques, which works just as effectively online.

    Basically, you show users an offer with a sense of urgency, which triggers the fear of missing out on a valuable deal and helps users make a purchasing decision.

    Urgency hacks can be used with limited-time offers, seasonal sale campaigns, one-time discounts, and more. To learn more, see this article on using urgency to hack conversion rates with proven methods.

    The best way to add urgency timers in WordPress or WooCommerce is by using OptinMonster. It is the most popular conversion optimization and lead generation software that helps businesses turn potentially abandoning website visitors into subscribers and customers.

    First, you will need to sign up for an OptinMonster account. It is a paid tool, and you will need at least the ‘Basic’ plan to use their Floating bar campaigns.

    OptinMonster

    After signing up for an account, you will need to install and activate the OptinMonster plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    This plugin is a connector between your WordPress site and the OptinMonster application.

    Upon activation, click on the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button on the OptinMonster welcome screen.

    Connect your existing account

    Next, you should see a new window open where you’ll be asked to connect your website.

    Go ahead and click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button.

    Connect OptinMonster to WordPress

    After connecting your website, you will need to go to OptinMonster » Campaigns from your WordPress dashboard.

    From here, click on the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ button to continue.

    Create your first campaign

    This will launch the OptinMonster campaign builder.

    First, you will need to select an optin type and then select a theme. We will use a ‘Floating bar’ campaign with the ‘Countdown’ theme.

    Select floating bar campaign type

    Next, you will be asked to choose a name for your campaign.

    Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Start Building’ button.

    Enter a name for your campaign

    On the next screen, you’ll see the drag-and-drop tool, where you can simply point and click to design your campaign.

    You’ll see a live preview of your campaign in the right panel and a bunch of customization blocks and options in the left panel.

    With the floating bar countdown campaign, the preview will appear near the bottom of the screen for you, just as it does for the users.

    Edit the floating bar campaign

    Go ahead and click on the countdown timer in the live preview to set the countdown style and end date. You can use two types of countdown timers: Static and Dynamic.

    The static timer remains the same for all your users, while the Dynamic timer changes based on user behavior on your website.

    Edit countdown timer settings

    For this tutorial, we will be using the static timer. Since we are using a floating bar with a countdown theme, we can move the floating bar to the bottom or the top.

    You can just point and click to edit the text in your floating bar. You can add a coupon code, add links to special offers, and style it any way you want.

    Next, you can go to the ‘Display Rule’ tab at the top. Here, you’ll see different options for showing your campaign.

    Select display rules

    For instance, you can select the ‘Time on Page’ option and show the floating bar after a user spends at least 5 seconds on your website.

    Below that, you also get to select the location for your campaign. We’ll use the default setting where the countdown timer floating bar will appear on all the pages on your website.

    Set up display rules

    Once you are satisfied, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button at the top.

    After that, head to the ‘Publish’ tab. Now, change the Publish Status from Draft to Publish.

    Publish your floating bar campaign

    Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button and close the campaign builder.

    You will now see the WordPress Output settings for your recently created campaign.

    Change status to publish

    By default, your campaign will be disabled, and you just have to click on the Status dropdown menu to change it from Pending to Published.

    Once that’s done, click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

    You can now visit your website to see your countdown timer FOMO campaign in action.

    Countdown timer preview

    Tracking Your Conversions in WordPress

    FOMO techniques work really well for conversions, but how do you keep track of their performance? Without tracking, you wouldn’t know how many sales or leads were generated because of these campaigns.

    All expert marketers use Google Analytics. It not only helps you see where your users are coming from but also allows you to track user engagement on your website.

    The easiest way to use Google Analytics in WordPress is through MonsterInsights. It is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress and makes it super easy to track conversions on your website.

    For instance, it has an eCommerce addon, which helps you track your eCommerce performance without leaving the WordPress dashboard. Plus, you can also track form conversions, link clicks, and more with MonsterInsights.

    Ecommerce report in MonsterInsights

    For more details, please see our guide on WordPress conversion tracking make simple.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to add FOMO to your WordPress website and boost conversions. You may also want to see our list of must-have WordPress plugins for business websites and how to start a WordPress blog.

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post How to Use FOMO on Your WordPress Site to Increase Conversions first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Easily Create a Multilingual Sitemap in WordPress

    Are you looking to improve the search engine rankings of your site’s multilingual pages?

    Creating a multilingual sitemap helps Google, Bing, and other search engines easily find your content and index it. You can get more international search traffic simply by giving search engines an easy way to find multilingual content on your WordPress site.

    In this article, we’ll show you how to create a multilingual sitemap for WordPress.

    How to create a multilingual sitemap in WordPress

    Why Create a Multilingual Sitemap in WordPress?

    A sitemap is a file that contains all the important content on your WordPress website. It is in the XML format and is targeted toward search engines instead of people.

    Creating an XML sitemap for your multilingual website helps search engines find and index your content faster. For instance, if you have different domains or subdomains translated into multiple languages, then you’ll need to create a sitemap for each website.

    Note: If you’re looking for an easy way to set up a website in different languages, then follow our step-by-step guide on how to easily create a multilingual WordPress site.

    A sitemap is extremely important for your WordPress SEO. Let’s say you just created a new multilingual website. Your new site won’t have many backlinks, and it can be hard for search engines to discover your new articles and pages.

    The sitemap provides a way for search engines to learn about your new content in another language. This way, your multilingual pages will start to get indexed and appear in search results.

    That being said, let’s take a look at how you can create a multilingual sitemap in WordPress.

    Creating a Multilingual Sitemap in WordPress

    By default, WordPress automatically creates an XML sitemap for new websites. You can add wp-sitemap.xml at the end of the domain, and WordPress will display the default XML sitemap.

    View default sitemap

    However, this feature is fairly limited and not very flexible. You can’t control which content to add or remove from the sitemap.

    The best way to create an XML sitemap in WordPress is by using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin. It is the best WordPress SEO plugin and helps you optimize your site for search engines.

    It also automatically creates a sitemap for a multilingual site and gives you more control over which pages and website sections you want to show in the sitemap.

    The sitemap feature is available in the AIOSEO Lite version for free. However, if you’re looking for more features like video sitemaps, news sitemaps, redirections manager, and link assistant, then we recommend using the AIOSEO Pro version.

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

    Click let's get started AIOSEO setup wizard

    Upon activation, you’ll see the AIOSEO setup wizard. Simply click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button and follow the onscreen instructions. For more details, you can visit our guide on how to set up All in One SEO plugin for WordPress.

    After that, you’ll need to go to All in One SEO » Sitemaps from your WordPress dashboard and ensure that the ‘Enable Sitemap’ option is enabled.

    AIOSEO sitemaps

    AIOSEO will automatically create a sitemap for your multilingual website.

    You can click the ‘Open Sitemap’ button to preview it or simply add ‘sitemap.xml’ to your website URL.

    XML sitemap preview

    Please note that if you’re using WPML to create multilingual sites, then AIOSEO will automatically serve sitemaps across different languages.

    For instance, your sitemap URL will be something like /nl/sitemap.xml, /de/sitemap.xml, or /fr/sitemap.xml.

    If you’re using TranslatePress to create your WordPress multilingual site, then you will need to install their SEO pack addon which is fully compatible with AIOSEO.

    Configuring Additional Multilingual Sitemap Settings

    To further customize your multilingual sitemaps, you can scroll down in AIOSEO Sitemaps settings to view more options.

    By default, the plugin lets you include all post types and taxonomies in the sitemap. It also gives the option to include date archives and author sitemaps.

    View more sitemap settings

    However, you can uncheck the ‘Post Types’ and ‘Taxonomies’ options and view more options.

    For example, let’s say you have translated content as a custom post type. You can simply check that option to include in the sitemap and exclude other post types.

    Add translations to sitemap

    Besides that, you can also add more pages from your multilingual website to the sitemap.

    For example, let’s say you’ve translated a pillar article or an evergreen content into another language. You can add the page URL to the sitemap using AIOSEO and help search engines easily find your content.

    Simply scroll down and click the ‘Additional Page’ toggle to enable the option. After that, you can add the page URL, and choose the priority and the frequency.

    Add additional pages to sitemap

    AIOSEO lets you exclude posts, pages, and specific terms from your WordPress sitemaps.

    For instance, you can add different multilingual posts and pages that you don’t to include in the sitemap. These can be contact us page, or terms of service pages translated in another language.

    First, you’ll need to enable the ‘Advanced Settings’ option. Then enter the URLs in the ‘Exclude Posts / Posts’ field and the terms in the ‘Exclude Terms’ field.

    View additional settings in sitemap

    Submitting Your Multilingual Sitemap to Search Engines

    Now that you’ve created a multilingual sitemap, the next step is to submit it to different search engines. This way, Google, Bing, and other search engines can easily find new content.

    Submit Multilingual Sitemap to Google

    Google Search Console is a free tool by Google that you can use to monitor your site’s performance on search results. It helps you see which keywords people use to find your website and resolve any errors that might prevent you from appearing on Google.

    Submitting your multilingual sitemap to the Search Console helps Google quickly discover new content.

    You can simply log in to your account and head to the ‘Sitemaps’ option from the menu on your left. Next, enter your multilingual sitemap URL under the ‘Add a new sitemap’ option and click the ‘Submit’ button.

    Submit your site to search console

    For more details, please see our guide on how to submit your website to search engines.

    Submit Multilingual Sitemap to Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo

    Similarly, you can submit the sitemap to Bing using the Webmaster Tools. The best part is that, when you submit your site to Bing, it’s also automatically submitted to the Yahoo and DuckDuckGo search engines.

    Submit sitemap in Bing

    You can see our step-by-step tutorial on how to add your website to Bing Webmaster Tools for more details.

    We hope that this article helped you learn how to create a multilingual sitemap in WordPress. You may also want to see our expert SEO tips to optimize your blog posts, and our expert pick of the best keyword research tools to improve your SEO rankings.

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post How to Easily Create a Multilingual Sitemap in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • SmartCrawl’s Newest Release Adds A Handful of New Features, Plus Greater Flexibility in Options

    SmartCrawl version 3.4 adds multiple keyword analysis, additional SEO recommendations, the ability to disable SEO & Readability Analysis in the post list, and more. For free.

    SmartCrawl has been SEO optimized from the start, but each new version further improves site performance while boosting your PageRank on Google.

    With automated SEO scanning, automatic XML sitemaps, real-time keyword and content analysis, and detailed audits/reports – not to mention one-click recommendations – SmartCrawl lets you create targeted content that ranks at the top of your favorite search engine.

    In this post, we’re going to take a closer look at the latest features added to version 3.4, and why they make SmartCrawl even better.

    Continue reading, or jump ahead with these links:

    Let’s get cracking.

    Multiple Keywords Analysis

    SmartCrawl has had keyword analysis for a while now. It also previously allowed multiple key phrases to be added, but analysis was only done on the first one.

    Now, you can analyze your post content for up to three different focus keywords (or phrases). The first keyword entered will be considered primary, while the second and third keywords will be analyzed as secondary.

    Doing this is easy. First of all, let’s make sure analysis is turned on. Navigate to SmartCrawl > Settings > General Settings > In-Post Analysis > Visibility, and make sure Page Analysis is toggled on (it will turn blue), then click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

    keyword analysis in settings
    Simple, flexible settings to start your SEO analysis journey in SmartCrawl.

    Now, open any Page or Post, and scroll to the SmartCrawl section at the bottom. In the Add Keywords field, enter up to three keywords or phrases, separating each by a comma, then click on the Add Keyword button. (You can enter them individually or all at once.)

    analyze multiple keywords
    Multiple keyword (or phrase) analysis has come to SmartCrawl!

    SmartCrawl will instantly analyze all of your keywords, showing results directly below them.

    keyword analysis results
    SmartCrawl provides a wealth of detail on a multitude of SEO checks.

    Clicking on any of the keywords will put you on its own tab, with details listed beneath.

    For each focus keyword, SmartCrawl will give you a list of recommendations to improve the SEO of your post. Suggestions will be made in yellow and gray, while passed audits will be green.

    Click on the dropdown arrow to the right of any recommendation to see details specific to it.

    If for any reason you decide a certain recommendation isn’t needed, simply click the Ignore button beneath it, and it will stop appearing every time you run the analysis.

    recommendation drop down
    Don’t want to see a certain recommendation post analysis? Just click Ignore.

    As you go through making content adjustments based on SmartCrawl’s recommendations, follow them up with a click of the Refresh button (at the top of SEO section), so you can reanalyze and see what improvements your changes made.

    Taxonomy List Status Column

    You’ll also find a handy SEO Status column on Category & Taxonomy pages, providing the SEO status for all of your taxonomies.

    It’s just a quick way to indicate whether an SEO description has been set, and remind users to craft good SEO descriptions so they do well in search results.

    taxonomy seo status column
    An SEO Status column has been added to category & taxonomy pages.

    Green check marks mean the SEO description is set and contains the recommended 120-160 characters. Red means a description is missing. Yellow means the description provided is too long/short in length.

    You can also hover over any icon in the SEO Status column for a popup with more detailed information.

    A Quad of Additional SEO Recommendations

    SmartCrawl suggests In-Post SEO Recommendations for every focus keyword that your post content has been analyzed for.

    Each of these will click to expand, providing additional information about how to better improve your post SEO.

    The list of important recommendations in SmartCrawl was already significant, but we added four more in this version release.

    1. Check if the URL contains underscores

    Google recommends the use of hyphens over underscores in URLs, stating that hyphens make crawling and interpreting URLs easier for search engines.

    2. Check for recommending a hand-crafted meta description

    Using best practices for meta descriptions increases the likelihood of your content ranking higher in SERPS. That includes handcrafting your meta description using relevant information about the page content, instead of using the auto-generated one.

    3. Primary focus keyword is already used on another post/page

    Optimizing more than one post for the same focus keyword confuses search engines and can affect your SEO ranking. SmartCrawl will check to see if your Primary Focus Keyword is used in other Posts/Pages, and then list the 10 most recent ones.

    primary focus keyword other post-page
    SmartCrawl checks for repeated primary keywords on more than one post/page.

    4. Check if all external links are nofollow links

    Relevant outbound site links help search engines determine the relevance and quality of your content, improving credibility, authority, and value to users. While having some nofollow links is okay, best practice is to have at least one external dofollow link in your site, so SmartCrawl will check for this.

    Disable SEO & Readability Analysis Status

    Posts and Pages in SmartCrawl are analyzed one at a time by default, in order to prevent excessive loads on the server.

    In the newest version, you now have the ability to completely disable these checks if you prefer. To do so, navigate to SmartCrawl > Settings > General Settings > In-Post Analysis, and toggle the Disable Page Analysis Check on Pages/Posts Screen on (it will turn blue).

    If you change this setting, be sure to click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

    disable page analysis check in settings
    SmartCrawl has one-click disabling for page/post analysis.

    The SEO Do-all, Be-all, End-all, SmartCrawl

    SmartCrawl is built with ease-of-use in mind. Set up is a cinch, with one-click recommendations that improve your PageRank in minutes, each full of details so you can better understand and improve on them.

    Now with the newest features, like analyzing multiple keywords at once, even more recommendations that benefit your post SEO, and improved readability analysis, using SmartCrawl on your WordPress site is a win-win-win.

    Sign up for a WPMU DEV free membership to take a test run with us. In addition to SmartCrawl, you’ll get Smush and Hummingbird – our two most highly rated (and awarded) plugins for image and performance optimizations – as well as the rest of our popular free plugins.

    If you want to up the ante even more, we recommend going with one of our Premium Memberships, which include SmartCrawl Pro (plus the rest of our Pro plugins), along with our exclusive, feature-packed Hub client portal, blazing-fast CDN, and our 24/7/365 five-star support. SmartCrawl Pro adds features like scanning, reports, automatic linking for specific keywords, 404s and multiple redirects.

    You can also Host with us, and join the tens of thousands of satisfied WordPressers who see the difference our fully dedicated, fully optimized, and lightning-fast resources make.

    However you go, SmartCrawl your way to the top of the search game.

  • The Year in Review at WPMU DEV: A Look Back and a Peek Ahead

    Is everyone still basking in that holiday glow? Many of us here at WPMU DEV took a wee break over Christmas, but are back in the full swing of things now.

    Topping my to-do list was putting this roundup/roadmap post together, to share what we rolled out in 2022, and what you can look forward to from us in 2023. It’s always a thrill to see it all in one place, and I know a lot of you feel the same.

    I want to thank my teammates who work hard every day to make our products and services the best they can be, and for being gracious with their time and knowledge.

    I also want to thank you – our devoted customers and discerning audience – for sharing your ideas, testing ours, and playing a large role in our current level of success.

    So here we go… a summary of our 2022 accomplishments and a reveal of what’s in the pipeline for 2023, with key points and insights from our brilliant Product Managers and Lead Developers.

    Keep reading, or jump ahead with these links:

    First up, a view from the top from our CEO, James, who continues to keep our ship righted as we steer into both new and familiar territory.

    Executive Summary, from CEO James Farmer

    “2022 was truly an epic year that I hope was reflected in the new and improved tools, services, and software that we provided for our members.

    We hope you found our plugins – the core of who we are – better in every aspect, from their feature sets to their reliability and UX.

    Our hosting has also come along in leaps and bounds, including our first genre-busting product release with Quantum… managed, dedicated, VPS-style hosting from $3.60/m in half a dozen global locations (with your own dedicated IP). I’m still a bit surprised it exists.

    And bringing it all together has been The Hub, which continues to take giant strides forward and for which 2023 is going to be its biggest year yet (automated reseller, white label support, from the greatest support team on the planet… yes please!)

    And that’s where we’re all at now, making sure you have the best possible 2023 using WPMU DEV for your web development, agency, freelancer or personal projects.

    Below, we’ve outlined more specifically what we brought to the table in 2022 and what else is in the works for this coming year, so read on to get up to speed.”

    Want to hear more from James? Check out this Post Status interview from the Product Founder Series: WordPress in the Long View with James Farmer.

    All right, off to explore the individual products and services. Starting with…

    Our Powerhouse Plugins

    Plugins are what put us on the map, and continue to play a central role at WPMU DEV.

    We currently manage 13 pro plugins, along with nine free versions on the WordPress plugin repository.

    Let’s take a look at the journey plugins took last year, and what lies ahead for each in 2023.

    Smush

    The most popular image optimization plugin for WordPress, Smush continues to rule with blazing-fast CDN, super 2x compression, caching, and lazy loading.

    Our Head of Products, Mohammad Sharab, will be providing summaries for Smush, Hummingbird, SmartCrawl, Defender, Forminator, and Snapshot.

    First up, here’s Mo with the lowdown on Smush:

    “In 2022, we focused on improving the user experience of bulk image optimization and giving back to our free users who made Smush the number one image optimization plugin.

    Bulk image optimization processes are much faster with the new Parallel optimization improvement, putting Smush on the top of the list of image optimization speeds. We also removed wait times on image optimization, making workflow more efficient with the introduction of Background Optimization features.

    Additionally, we unlocked two features to our free users: Lossy Compression, and the 50 images limit. Now free users can benefit from any amount of lossy, compressed images.

    In 2023, we have some key items coming up:

    • Improve our Local WebP Compression
    • Revamp Smush UI/UX
    • Introduce CDN Management per site for users who are managing multiple sites (instead of per account)

    As always, we’ll keep you informed when new features hit.”

    Hummingbird

    The ultimate performance suite, Hummingbird monitors, analyzes, and optimizes the performance of all your websites, assuring they run at peak speeds.

    From Mo:

    “The Hummingbird team is working with two goals in mind: to make it safer, and easier to optimize.

    We know that Manual Asset Optimization isn’t easy for all users, and moving the wrong file to the footer or delaying it from loading could affect/break the front page style. That’s why we introduced a new Safe Mode feature for Manual Optimization, so users could optimize their files and test page speed without breaking anything. Then publish those changes to live, once happy with their configuration.

    For 2023, the team is working on two new features that will help users improve site speed score with a click of a button. These are: Delay JS, and Critical CSS features.”

    SmartCrawl

    SEO superstar SmartCrawl provides higher ranking and improved SERPs, with full schema support, crawling and indexing audits, and content analysis.

    Once again we have Mo here to recap last year’s advancements and what’s coming next.

    “SmartCrawl has been steadily growing and improving every year, and this year is no exception. We continue to strive to make SmartCrawl a plugin that will be synonymous with SEO and WordPress. To do that, we’re making it more powerful, flexible, and accessible to all our users and members.

    Our most recent update is an improvement to our in-post Content Analysis. We now support analysis for multiple keywords or key phrases. In the past, we allowed our users to enter multiple key phrases separated by commas but we only did an analysis on the main/first focus keyword.

    Now you can add multiple key phrases and do analysis on subsequent secondary key phrases enabling you to optimize your content even further.

    Some other updates we tackled last year were:

    • Multilingual Support for Readability Analysis – We now support 7 Languages with our readability analysis
    • Automatic Linking Refactoring – We have made Automatic linking more efficient and have added a few new features
    • Regex and Bulk Imports for Redirection – You can now use Regex for Redirection and bulk Import and Export redirects between sites

    On the horizon for 2023 is… Breadcrumbs! You’ll be able to add Breadcrumbs visually, and they will also include schema data. And, there is still so much more we want to do with Content Analysis, so look for those upgrades this year, as well as other great new features and improvements.”

    Defender

    Seamlessly integrated with WPMU DEV’s powerful WAF, our tough-as-nails security plugin Defender has helped more than 300,000 sites stay secure while assisting with the early detection of malware.

    Mo continues with Defender news:

    “In 2022, we made several improvements to Defender, including:

    • Allowlist/Blocklist IPs on multiple sites from The Hub
    • Biometric and YubiKey Authentication for 2 Factor authentication
    • Google reCAPTCHA & 2FA integration with BuddyPress and WooCommerce Checkout
    • Enhancing the Malware scanner’s ability to detect security threats and provide CVSS severity score for vulnerabilities

    In 2023, we’re planning several improvements in Defender to make it even better. Here’s the shortlist:

    • Safe Quarantine – Quarantine malware-affected files
    • Defender Firewall – Protect your site from Bad IPs flagged by other sites
    • Improving the plugin’s user interface to make it even more user-friendly and intuitive
    • Enhanced ability to detect and block security threats, such as malware and malicious code

    With the ever-increasing need for website security, we are committed to improving Defender and making it the best protection possible from security threats on WordPress websites. To that end, upcoming updates will be comprehensive and effective.”

    Forminator

    There’s no limit to what you can do with interactive forms, polls, and quizzes in Forminator. Create campaigns in minutes with the most flexible, easy-to-use, drag-and-drop form builder for WordPress, and see user engagement soar.

    Mo has this to say about Forminator:

    “Our first big feature of 2022 was Global Appearance Presets, released in February. This enabled users to easily create presets of form appearance and reuse them for as many forms as desired.

    Our next most-voted feature was Partial Submissions, which we introduced last June. This enables you to save your progress when filling up a large form by saving your submission as a draft, and continuing where you left off at any point later.

    We implemented Reports in September 2022, in order to better track the performance of your forms, polls, or quizzes. These reports come both in a dashboard form, where you can see stats about a specific form straight in WordPress admin, or you can schedule regular sends of these reports via email.

    Also in September, based on many requests received to support more automation services like Zapier, we adjusted our Webhook integration to support multiple automation tools. In addition to Zapier, Integrately, Tray.io, Make, Workato, and more will now support webhooks through Forminator.

    Two other highly requested features that improve form usability are Field Grouping, and Group Repeater functionality. We rolled these out in October, making users able to group fields into sets – which can be repeated on the frontend as many times as needed or desired. This can be particularly useful, for example, if you want your site visitors to fill out the form with multiple guests attending an event, where the same set of details from each extra guest is needed.”

    Mo continues with a look-see of what’s up and coming in 2023:

    “We’re pumped about what it will bring. For starters, we’re pleased to announce that Forminator version 2.0 will be released in Q1 of 2023, with a highly requested feature: PDF Generation.

    While we already have an integration with E2PDF, building this into the plugin will bring a lot more usability, and will allow the use of invoices, quotes receipts, and more.”

    Snapshot

    A final roundup from Mo, this time for Snapshot, our automatic, efficient, off-site storage backup buddy. Select from reliable third-party storage options, get instant email alerts, and implement one-click restores.

    “Last year we formed an awesome new team for Snapshot with the goal of improving the backup success rate. We took care of lots of underlying issues in the Snapshot Incremental API and in the Snapshot plugin, which boosted the backup success rate in 2022 from 80% to 90%.

    We’ve also fixed issues where backups were running for a long time without any success or timeout error.

    And finally, with November’s 4.13 release, Snapshot now consumes even less memory. That means higher backup success rates on third-party servers with lower specs.

    Here are some other 2022 improvements we made on Snapshot (in chronological order):

    • Redesigned Snapshot Installer with a new engine that takes lower memory
    • Added HTTP Authentication option for password-protected sites
    • Fixed compatibility issue with Siteground’s Ultrafast PHP (We’ve seen a 50% drop in backups failing at random database tables.)
    • Added ‘OneDrive’ destination
    • Database table exclusion UI
    • Snapshot uses MySQLDUMP (if available) to dump the database

    Early in 2023, we have a couple of items lined up:

    • Continue improving backup and restoration success rate
    • Redesign File exclusion UI

    Then later in 2023, we’ll be working on AZURE Destination.”

    Dashboard

    The WPMU DEV Dashboard plugin securely connects your site to your Hub via our API, giving you one-click installation, upgrades, and security updates for all our plugins, directly from your WordPress.com dash.

    Lead Developer Joel James is bringing us the intel on Dashboard.

    “Dashboard had some nice growth this year. For starters, we added the ability to sign-in with Google.

    Next, we added the ability to select the Hub Team after login, as well as Optimizing SQL queries for a noticeable performance improvement.

    And finally, we added WP Consent API integration for WPMU DEV Analytics, and Improved UX on the login screen.

    Looking ahead, we plan on refactoring the UI this year. Also, we’ll be improving support for third-party plugins and themes updates.”

    In Maintenance Mode

    Hustle, Branda, Beehive, Shipper, and Integrated Video Tutorials have been in maintenance mode.

    While they had no major feature upgrades in 2022, we continued to fine tune and squash bugs on these workhorse plugins.

    The Hub & The Hub Client

    The Hub and The Hub Client come together as your client portal extraordinaire, entirely customizable with your own branding, navigation, and domain. White label everything WPMU DEV, resell our services, and handle Client Billing and management needs.

    The Hub Client allows you to control settings and configure navigation and user access from the WordPress dashboard. It syncs seamlessly with The Hub, our WordPress site management tool that is cPanel on steroids – but more beautiful and bountiful.

    Both have exploded this year, with a ton of new features and enhancements.

    Leading us through all things Hub-alicious is our Product Manager, Mukul Chawla.

    “I won’t be burying the lede here. While we accomplished quite a bit with The Hub this year, our two biggest feature adds were Domains and the Free Hub.

    Fulfilling our promise to ‘be your own GoDaddy’, Domain Services were added in Q4 of 2022. Agency members can now buy domains within The Hub from WPMU DEV for themselves, or to resell to their clients (manually for now, automated reselling coming soon). Clients can buy just the domains from their client portal and link them to their existing sites.

    The Free Hub was also released in Q4, allowing users on free plans to sign up and experience The Hub. There are some limits on the free version, such as the quantities permitted and some advanced settings, but most of the features allow you to experience the basic functions that paid members enjoy in full.

    Global IP Banning was added, providing members with a global IP allow/block list that they can easily sync with all their websites from The Hub Sites page.

    Members also got their first look at our Automated Reseller in the form of a video prototype. The response was great, and allowed us to gather valuable feedback.

    Remove Issued Invoices was one of the top requests for Client Billing, and that option is now available. The payment due or failed invoices can be canceled, which will change the invoice status to Void. This applies to both one-time and recurring invoices.

    Live Chat got a couple of highly requested features added as well. Members can now Download Transcripts of their live chats with our support team on The Hub > Support page. Additionally, members can now buy Live Chat Add-on for Team Members, so they too can get access to WPMU DEV support.

    We also rolled out Sidebar Navigation last year. This provides the flexibility to add more site services without worrying about available space. It also improves navigation; with hosting subtasks as a drop down, users can go to any page (under Hosting) from the side navigation directly, eliminating an entire navigation step for users.

    Here are some additional features and improvements that we implemented in 2022:

    • Pre-paid Hosting Credits – members can buy hosting credits in bulk to save on Hosting costs
    • Delete SnapShot backups for disconnected sites
    • Custom Thumbnails for websites – members can upload custom thumbnails instead of keeping defaults, providing a more customized UX for their clients
    • ‘Hub Accounts’ release to Hub 2.0 – we’ll keep running Hub 1 & 2 for now, but plan to completely remove Hub 1 by the end of March

    All in all, 1000+ tasks were completed last year, including the development and improvement of the above mentioned projects, as well as other bug fixes, updates, and new features that were implemented across The Hub.”

    Eager to share what’s up and coming for The Hub & Hub Client, Mukul continued:

    “At the top of our punch list is Domains Transfer. Coming soon, members will be able to move their existing domains to WPMU DEV.

    Also, we’re already hard at work on one of the most highly requested features by members – IMAP emails.

    Here are some other items in the pipeline for 2023:

    • Automated Reselling for Hosting & Domains – members will be able to resell our hosting and domains to their clients in a self-provisioned way
    • Broken Link Checker (BLC) plugin – will integrate with The Hub (with a new API-based broken link checker service)
    • Centralized White Label Settings in The Hub – improved white labeling experience across our products, with configurations moving into a centralized location in The Hub
    • Reports 2.0 – coming this year, based on a lot of feedback, reports will be new and improved

    We’re stoked about what’s coming, and believe you will be too.”

    Premium Hosting

    We’re toasting to hosting! 2022 has been a banner year for our Hosting service. New plans were added, and we’ve continued to boost the core features for every tier while the platform grows exponentially.

    Product Manager Neel Gajjar is on deck to share all the highlights.

    “It’s been almost three years since we launched our Hosting platform, and last year we were thrilled to introduce the addition of Quantum.

    Quantum is a brand new droplet for Agency members, ideal for reseller hosting. It’s an even smaller, lower-priced offering than our prior starter plan, Bronze, but provides the same dedicated and compartmentalized resources. And, we’ve already updated its features. When first released, we had blocked certain items (such as plugins), then lifted those restrictions based on user feedback.

    Also new – the ability to Suspend Hosting Sites. This valuable tool allows members to quickly incentivize slow or non-paying clients by temporarily (or permanently) suspending their site(s) from within The Hub.

    Hourly Backups Add-on was implemented last year as well. Members can optionally enable hourly backups, instead of the default nightly backup on hosted sites.

    Here are some other great new features and enhancements for Hosting in 2022:

    • Disable Staging Pass protection – option added
    • PHP 8.1 Support – added for both production and staging sites
    • ionCube Loader – enable or disable this on sites hosted with us (if any plugins require it)
    • Performance and Security improvements – hundreds of improvements in our hosting performance and security
    • Additional SSH commands allowed

    To wrap up 2022’s accomplishments, I’ll share a cool stat. WPMU DEV Hosting handled 3000+ Manual Migrations last year for members, with the fastest time clocking in under 12 minutes!”

    Ready to dish the dirt on what’s to come for hosting, Neel added:

    “We’ve got some awesome stuff already mapped out for 2023, including:

    • Block XMLRPC by default – only used by outdated Windows/Mac software, XMLRPC is vulnerable and should be blocked by default
    • Custom SSH and SFTP path – members will be able to create SSH | SFTP accounts with custom paths
    • Ubuntu 22.08 – We will be upgrading our server operating system to the latest Ubuntu 22.08
    • PHP 8.2 – adding support for this released version, so members can use the latest PHP version for best site performance
    • Advance Monitoring of server resources such as Server load history, PHP Limits History, Ram Usage history, etc. Currently you can only see live server stats but with this feature you can see history of the data, such as what was the server usage like 24 hours ago

    And of course, we’re constantly at work refining our Hosting platform overall, to offer better security and performance, so expect to continue seeing those upgrades.”

    Hosting is going places, and we’re glad you’re with us for the ride.

    A Good Year For WPMU DEV & Our Customers

    That’s everything, folks. If you’re still reading, thanks for sticking with us.

    It’s your input, usage, and feedback that helps us focus on what our members and the web development community value most. Then we get to work on implementing those features and enhancements in the way that most benefits our products, services, and you.

    To see what’s on deck at any time during the year, check out our company Roadmap.

    If you’re not a part of WPMU DEV, we invite you to try our Free Membership, which includes all of our free Plugins and Features, including the Free Hub (all maintained and updated) – completely free, no credit card required.

    Take it to the next level with one of our Premier Memberships (all Pro plugins, The Hub, CDN, Client Billing, and much more) – along with a 30-day, money-back guarantee.

    Go the distance with our Managed Hosting (Fully Dedicated, Lightning Fast, Rock-solid Security), which comes with a free 7-day trial for a no-risk, hassle-free experience.

    Bonus: all of our Hosting and pro Membership plans come with WPMU DEV’s always on-call Expert Support – who assist with anything WordPress, not just our products.

    Cheers to 2023! We wish you and yours happiness, health, and success throughout the year and beyond.

     

  • How to Embed Facebook Status Posts in WordPress

    Are you looking for a way to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress?

    Facebook statuses are an easy way to share important updates and time-sensitive information with your audience. By embedding your Facebook timeline in WordPress, you can get more engagement, let people know what’s happening on your Facebook page or group, and grow your followers.

    In this article, we will show you how to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress.

    How to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress

    Why Embed Facebook Status in WordPress?

    Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world and has billions of active users. For website owners, Facebook is a powerful way to connect with a new audience and engage with the people who already know about your brand.

    Facebook is also perfect for sharing time-sensitive information in real time. In this way, you can use FOMO to create a sense of urgency.

    For example, you might post a status about how visitors are running out of time to enter your giveaway in WordPress, or take advantage of your flash sale.

    However, people won’t see your Facebook status if they just visit your website. This makes it difficult to grow your Facebook following and build a relationship with your audience.

    By embedding your Facebook status posts in WordPress, you can promote your social media page and encourage more people to follow you on Facebook.

    As you post new statuses, they’ll appear on your site automatically, so it’s also a great way to keep your website fresh, even for regular visitors.

    That being said, let’s see how to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress.

    Adding a Facebook Status Plugin to WordPress

    The easiest way to embed your Facebook status feed in WordPress is by using the free Smash Balloon Social Post Feed.

    This plugin lets you display text and links from your Facebook page or group.

    A Facebook post timeline, embedded on a WordPress website.

    In this guide, we’ll be using the free version of Smash Balloon as it allows you to embed Facebook statuses no matter what your budget. However, there’s Smash Balloon Facebook Feed that lets you embed different kinds of content. For example, you can embed a Facebook video in WordPress, and show images and videos in a lightbox popup on your site.

    The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Smash Balloon Social Post Feed plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    After that, you’ll need to connect Smash Balloon to your Facebook page or group, by going to Facebook Feed » All Feeds. Here, click on ‘Add New.’

    How to create a custom Facebook feed

    Smash Balloon pro lets you show posts from your photo albums, timeline, events, and more.

    However, the free version only allows you to embed your Facebook statuses so click on ‘Timeline’ and then select ‘Next.’

    The free Smash Balloon WordPress plugin

    Now, you need to select the page or group which you’ll get the Facebook statuses from.

    To get started, click on ‘Add New.’

    Adding a Facebook page or group to your WordPress website

    On the next screen, choose whether you want to embed the feed from a Facebook group or Facebook page.

    After that, go ahead and click on ‘Connect to Facebook.’

    How to connect a Facebook page or group to a WordPress website

    This opens a popup where you can log into your Facebook account and choose the pages or groups which you want to get the status updates from.

    As soon as you’ve done that, click on ‘Next.’

    Giving Smash Balloon access to your Facebook posts

    Facebook will then show all the information that Smash Balloon will have access to and the actions it can perform.

    To restrict Smash Balloon’s access to your Facebook account, just click any of the switches to turn it from ‘Yes’ to ‘No.’ Just be aware that this may affect the content that you can embed on your WordPress blog or website.

    With that in mind, it’s a good idea to leave all the switches enabled.

    Connecting Facebook and WordPress using a free plugin

    When you’re happy with how your Facebook permissions are set up, click on ‘Done.’

    After a few moments, you should see a message confirming that you’ve connected your WordPress website to Facebook. With that done, click on the ‘OK’ button.

    Connecting Smash Balloon and Facebook successfully

    Smash Balloon will now take you back to the WordPress dashboard automatically.

    How to Embed Facebook Status Posts in WordPress

    You will now see a popup with the source you just linked to your website. Simply select the radio button next to your Facebook page or group and then click on the ‘Add’ button.

    Selecting a page or group as your Facebook source

    If you accidentally closed the popup, then don’t worry. You can simply refresh the tab to reopen the popup.

    After that, Smash Balloon will take you back to the Facebook Feed » All Feeds page automatically. Just like before, click on the ‘Add New’ button, select ‘Timeline,’ and then click on the ‘Next’ button.

    Now, select your Facebook page or group, and click on ‘Next.’

    Embedding Facebook status posts in WordPress

    Smash Balloon will now go ahead and create a timeline feed from the Facebook page or group you’ve chosen.

    This is a good start, but Smash Balloon has lots of settings that you can use to customize your embedded timeline.

    How to Customize Your Embedded Facebook Status Posts

    To fine-tune your timeline, go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds in the WordPress dashboard.

    Here, find the timeline feed you just created and click on the ‘Edit’ button next to it.

    Customizing the Facebook status timeline feed

    This opens the Smash Balloon feed editor, which shows a preview of your timeline to the right.

    On the left-hand side, you’ll see all the different settings you can use to customize how the timeline looks on your site. Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly cover all the main areas.

    Customizing Facebook status posts in WordPress

    To start, you can change how the statuses are displayed by clicking on ‘Feed Layout.’

    On this screen, you can switch between list and masonry layouts, as well as change the feed height. As you make changes, the preview will update automatically so you can try different settings to see what looks the best for your website.

    Smash Balloon's Feed Layout settings

    You can preview how your status feed will look on desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones using the row of buttons in the upper-right corner.

    Mobile devices usually have smaller screens and less processing power, so if you’re not happy with how the feed looks then it’s smart to show fewer statuses on tablets and smartphones.

    Testing your Facebook post status on mobile devices

    To make this change, just type a different number into the ‘Mobile’ field in the ‘Number of Posts’ section.

    By trying out different layouts you can create a Facebook status feed that looks great across all devices.

    How to create a responsive social media layout for mobile

    By default, Smash Balloon feed shows fewer columns on smartphones and tablets, compared to desktop computers. This helps your Facebook statuses fit comfortably on smaller screens.

    After testing the mobile version of your WordPress website, you may want to show fewer columns on smartphones and tablets.

    To do this, simply change the numbers under ‘Columns.’

    Adding and removing columns in a Facebook status feed

    When you’re happy with how the feed looks, click on the ‘Customize’ link.

    This will take you back to the main Smash Balloon editor, ready for you to explore the next settings screen, which is ‘Color Scheme.’

    Changing the color scheme in your Facebook status feed

    Smash Balloon uses a color scheme inherited from your WordPress theme by default, but on this screen, you can switch to a ‘Light’ or ‘Dark’ look.

    You can also create your own color scheme by selecting ‘Custom’ and then using the controls to change the text color in WordPress, change the background color, and more.

    Creating a custom color scheme using Smash Balloon

    By default, Smash Balloon adds a header to your feed, which is your Facebook profile picture and the name of the group or page.

    To customize this section, click on ‘Header’ in the left-hand menu.

    Changing the Facebook custom feed header

    Here, you can change the header size and color, hide your Facebook profile picture, and more.

    If you would prefer to remove the header entirely, then click to turn off the ‘Enable’ toggle.

    Adding a header to the Facebook status feed

    Next, you can change how the individual posts look inside your feed by selecting ‘Post Style’ from the left-hand menu.

    After that, click on ‘Post Style’ again.

    Customizing a Facebook status feed with Smash Balloon

    On this screen, you can choose between a regular and boxed layout.

    If you select ‘Boxed’ then you can create a colored background for each Facebook post.

    Adding colored box backgrounds to your embedded Facebook post statuses

    If you choose ‘Regular’ then you can change the thickness and color of the line that separates your different social media posts.

    In the following image, we’ve added a thicker line to our Facebook status feed.

    Adding borders to a Smash Balloon Facebook feed

    You can also customize the individual parts within each status by going back to the main settings screen.

    Once again, select ‘Post Style’ but this time choose ‘Edit Individual Elements’ instead.

    Customizing the posts inside a Facebook status feed

    You will now see a list of all the different content that Smash Balloon includes in each post, such as the date, post author, and event title.

    To remove a piece of content from your feed, simply click to uncheck its box.

    How to remove content from a live Facebook feed

    You can also customize how each type of content looks by clicking on it.

    For example, in the following image, you can see settings to change the size and color of the author text.

    Customizing how the post author is displayed in WordPress

    By default, Smash Balloon doesn’t include the Facebook ‘like’ button in your feed.

    This button makes it easier for visitors to follow you on Facebook, so you may want to add it to your status feed by selecting the ‘Like Box’ settings.

    Adding a like button to the Facebook status feed

    After that, simply click on the ‘Enable’ button so that it turns blue.

    You can now use the settings to change where the link box appears and the kind of content included in the box, such as your Facebook cover photo and total number of followers.

    Adding a like button to an embedded Facebook status page

    If you upgrade to Smash Balloon premium, then there are some more settings to explore. This includes a lightbox feature that allows visitors to explore your content in a popup.

    Since you’re using the free version of Smash Balloon for now, you can go ahead and click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.

    The next step is adding the Facebook status feed to your WordPress website.

    How to Embed Facebook Status Posts in WordPress

    You can add your Facebook status feed to WordPress using a block, widget, or shortcode.

    If you’ve created more than one feed using Smash Balloon, then you’ll need to know the feed’s code if you’re going to add it using a block or widget.

    To get this information, simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then look at the feed="" part of the shortcode. You’ll need to add this code to the block or widget, so make a note of it.

    In the following example, we’ll need to use feed="8".

    Adding Facebook content to WordPress using a shortcode

    If you want to embed your Facebook statuses in a page or post, then we recommend using the ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ block.

    Simply open the page or post where you want to embed the status feed. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon to add a new block and start typing ‘Custom Facebook Feed.’

    When the right block appears, click to add it to the post or page.

    Adding a Facebook timeline to your website using a WordPress block

    The block will show one of your Smash Balloon feeds by default. If you want to use a different feed instead, then simply find ‘Shortcode Settings’ in the right-hand menu.

    You can now add the feed="" code to this box. Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Apply Changes’ button.

    Showing different Facebook feeds using shortcode

    The block will now show all the status updates from your Facebook page or group. Just publish or update the page to make the feed live.

    Another option is to add the feed to any widget-ready area, such as the sidebar or similar section. This allows visitors to see your latest Facebook updates across your entire website.

    Simply go to Appearance » Widgets in the WordPress dashboard and then click on the blue ‘+’ button.

    The Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed widget

    Now, start typing ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ into the search bar to find the right widget.

    You can now drag it onto the area where you want to show your Facebook status updates. By default, the widget will show one of the feeds you created using Smash Balloon.

    Adding a social media widget to your WordPress website

    To show a different feed instead, type the feed’s code into the ‘Shortcode Settings’ box and then click on ‘Apply Changes.’

    You can now click on the ‘Update’ button to make the widget live.

    How to publish a Facebook feed to your website

    For more information, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add and use widgets.

    Finally, you can embed your status on any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode. To get the shortcode, simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and copy the value in the ‘Shortcode’ column.

    You can now add this code to your site. For more information, please see our detailed guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter and the best WordPress Facebook plugins to grow your blog.

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post How to Embed Facebook Status Posts in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • Step-by-Step Guide to Start a Blog in 2023

    How to Start a Blog in 5 Steps with WordPressI still remember coming across WordPress for the first time. I decided I was going to start a blog – I had barely read a blog before, let alone created one of my own. Although I had some old school HTML and CSS knowledge dating back to the late 90s (when I built a website with […]

    The post Step-by-Step Guide to Start a Blog in 2023 appeared first on WPExplorer.