In the 21st century, planning any kind of event manually can feel too ‘old school’. If you have access to the right tools, you can easily set up a website that enables you to schedule events, manage attendance, send reminders, and even process payments. All of that is possible with the right WordPress events calendar plugin.
In this article, we’re going to help you find the best WordPress events calendar plugin by checking what they have in common, and then we’ll introduce you to our top picks.
Let’s get right to it!
What Makes for a Quality WordPress Events Calendar Plugin?
WordPress events and calendar plugins usually offer a variety of features that enable you to plan and manage multiple events (even simultaneous ones). In most cases, this type of plugin gives your users the opportunity to see a calendar of upcoming happenings, and decide which ones they want to sign up for:
The primary goal of an events plugin is to make it so you don’t have to process attendance, confirmations, and payments manually. You can set up an event using your tool of choice, and let users sign up for it through your website at their leisure.
Other features to look out for in a WordPress events plugin include:
Broad theme compatibility. The events plugin you choose should work with your favorite theme, so you don’t have to switch to a new one.
A variety of customization options. Ideally, your plugin of choice should provide you with plenty of calendar styling options and customization features for event signups.
Integration with third-party event planning and calendar services. If you want to use Google Calendar or Facebook (or any other service) to plan events, your WordPress plugin should offer easy integration options.
By using a plugin to manage events, you’ll be able to focus more of your attention on other, more important tasks like SEO techniques, or growing your business. Fortunately, since this is WordPress we’re talking about, you get plenty of options to pick from.
8 Best WordPress Events Calendar Plugins
For this roundup, we put together a list of WordPress events plugins that offer free versions. In many cases, you can also opt to purchase a premium license to get access to additional features.
It’s our goal to recommend plugins that work well and offer plenty of features, which may mean a premium license is necessary. Plus, these plugins have strong reviews, satisfied user bases, and consistent updates.
1. The Events Calendar
The Events Calendar is perhaps the most popular WordPress events plugin, and it’s one that we’ve covered in the past. This tool lets you import events from other calendars, and create your own using a simple editor:
With this plugin, you can set up a calendar that includes featured events and search functionality. It can also display date information for whichever time zone your users are in, show locations using maps, and much more.
Key Features for The Events Calendar:
Set up an events calendar for your website
Add as many events as you want
Create featured events
Provide a search bar to help users find the events they’re looking for
Import events from third-party platforms
Customize your calendar’s style using CSS
Events Calendar Plugins for Divi
The Events Calendar offers a basic template for your calendar that works well with most themes. However, you can also customize your calendar’s appearance using CSS or with a premium theme such as Divi.
Divi users can benefit from using the Divi Events Calendar extension that adds dedicated modules to create custom events within Divi’s Visual Builder. If you’d rather spend time doing other important things for your site, there’s even an Events Calendar child theme for Divi available in our marketplace.
The Events Calendar is for you if…
You want a responsive events calendar that looks good with most themes.
When you need to create complex timetables with multiple types of events, Timetable and Event Schedule is a fantastic choice. For example, if you offer multiple types of classes, you can add custom columns to your calendar and use color coding to differentiate each one:
You can also use Timetable and Event Schedule to create event calendars. However, the plugin really shines when it comes to daily timetables. To insert a timetable on your website, you can use shortcodes or blocks.
Key Features for Timetable and Event Schedule:
Create complex event timetables for your website
Color-code your timetables
Add custom columns to each table
Use shortcodes or blocks to insert timetables onto your website
Timetable and Event Schedule is for you if…
You run a business that offers events on a set schedule.
Your visitors need to find events when they’re happening.
Next up, Modern Events Calendar Lite is perhaps the easiest WordPress events plugin to get started with. It provides an intuitive setup wizard that covers everything from calendar styles to colors, countdowns, and more:
With Modern Events Calendar Lite, you can add events manually and enable users to submit their own. The plugin also lets you store information about categories, locations, and organizers.
This solution’s free version doesn’t include calendar theme functionality. However, it does let you customize your calendar’s style, including its typography and colors. You can also use custom CSS for further modifications.
Key Features for Modern Events Calendar Lite:
Set up an events calendar
Add new events manually and enable users to submit their own
Use a setup wizard to configure your events calendar
Manage event categories, locations, and organizers
Modern Events Calendar Lite is for you if…
You want to use a WordPress events plugin that’s easy to set up and customize.
A catalog of add-ons is available.
This particular plugin also offers a broad range of add-ons, including one for Divi integration.
Eventin is a user-friendly events plugin for WordPress that allows you to organize and promote events with ease. It offers features like customizable event pages, integration with popular payment gateways, and the ability to manage event schedules, ticket sales with pricing tiers, and attendee data. It provides an intuitive interface for creating and managing events.
With the integration of Divi and Eventin, Divi users are given an extra advantage. This integration enables you to create a tailored event template using Divi’s Theme Builder, equipped with specialized modules like a calendar for events, advanced search, event listings, event tabs, schedules, and Zoom integration.
Key Features for Eventin:
Divi integration
Front-end event management
Host Zoom meetings and webinars
Multiple ticket price tiers
Easy-to-use interface
Unique QR codes for attendees
With Eventin, most of its features come with the free version. However, some exceptions require an upgrade to the premium license for full access. To brand events, use an advanced search widget, generate QR codes for attendees, receive notifications, or include unlimited FAQs for events, an upgrade to the premium license is necessary.
The Events Manager plugin lets you add events to a central calendar and manage locations, categories, and even bookings for them. Although the base plugin doesn’t include payment functionality, you can enable that using a WooCommerce add-on.
Another feature that sets Events Manager aside is that you can enable users to submit events using a front-end form:
Although you don’t get a lot of styling options for your calendar, this plugin gives you a lot of control over your events pages and how users interact with them.
Key Features for Events Manager:
Set up an events calendar
Add events manually or enable users to submit their own
Manage event bookings
Customize the behavior of your events pages
The premium version offers additional features such as recurring event limits, attendance tracking, mobile check-in with QR codes, PDF ticket downloads, waitlists, iCal attachments, and coupon/discount management.
Event Manager is for you if…
You want a plugin that lets users add their own events to your calendar.
Need a useful tool to process bookings.
You don’t mind adding a plugin for processing payments.
If you want to manage events and sell tickets using WooCommerce, this is the plugin for you. WooCommerce Event Manager enables you to sell multiple types of tickets, include add-ons with each sale, and manage attendance:
Since this is a WooCommerce extension, you can set up any payment processors you’d like to use. WooCommerce Event Manager also helps you send email confirmations and even PDF versions of the tickets users purchase.
Key Features for WooCommerce Event Manager:
Use WooCommerce to sell tickets for your events
Manage events and create multiple ticket types with different values
Create add-ons for your event tickets
Process payments using your preferred WooCommerce-compatible gateways
If you’re looking to enhance your events website, the pro version provides additional features such as the ability to download PDF tickets, customize registration forms, bulk edit event dates, and receive automatic email confirmation messages with custom email templates.
WooCommerce Event Manager is for you if…
You’re already familiar with WooCommerce.
You want to process ticket sales.
The ability to add upsells to ticket purchases is important.
WP Event Manager enables you to add events to a calendar and lets users sign up for them. However, the plugin’s main selling point is that it enables users to create and submit events for your website’s calendar through the front end:
Event organizers get access to dashboards where they can review their submissions, check signups, and edit entries. On your end, you can customize the form that visitors use to submit events, and even add new fields to it.
Key Features for WP Event Manager:
Add events to your calendar manually
Enable users to submit events and add them to your calendar
Provide users with a dashboard they can use to review their submissions
Add custom fields to the public event submission form
WP Event Manager is for you if…
You want to run a website that enables users to coordinate events with one another.
Create your own version of Meetup using WordPress.
Last on our list, Event Organiser enables you to create an events calendar and add as many entries as you need to it. It also lets you manage organizers and venues, as well as event categories.
However, what really sets this plugin apart is that it makes it easy to create recurring events with complex schedules:
For example, you can set up events that occur on the third Tuesday of every month, or once every quarter. The plugin also helps you set up exceptions for recurring events, and you can add custom fields to the individual event information pages (in addition to the wide range of fields provided by default).
Key Features:
Set up an events calendar
Add events to your calendar manually
Create one-off or recurring events
Configure recurring events with complex schedules and exceptions
Add custom fields to your event pages
Event Organiser is for you if…
…you want to set up a calendar that includes recurring events. In that area, this plugin gives you more control than almost every other option. However, it doesn’t include booking or user management options unless you opt for its premium extensions.
Which WordPress Events Calendar Plugin Will You Choose?
Planning events is already a full-time job, and managing them as well is often too much for one person to do alone. With the right WordPress event plugin, you’ll be able to focus on planning and let your website handle the management for you. That can include sharing event information, processing bookings and payments, and simply sharing a calendar or featuring upcoming occasions.
Fortunately, there are a lot of fantastic WordPress event plugins to choose from. One of the best all-around picks is The Events Calendar, which is fully compatible with Divi.
Despite how great your website may be, people won’t just stumble upon it accidentally (for the most part). You have to drive traffic to your site. In addition to paying for advertising, there’s also organic (i.e. non-ad) traffic to think about, which requires search engine optimization (SEO). There’s a lot to learn if you want to become an SEO expert, and no single method is going to cover everything there is to learn. However, some aspects are made easier on you by using the best SEO plugin for WordPress that caters to your specific needs.
What Are SEO Plugins?
In general, an SEO plugin will help you optimize your web pages so they’ll rank higher in search engines. Out-of-the-box WordPress already has a lot of SEO optimization features built in. You can write titles and headings, create metadata, add tags and alt text, customize URLs, and more. But SEO plugins make juggling these tasks – and other ones – much easier, especially if you’re not at an expert level yet.
An SEO plugin isn’t going to guarantee that your content will rank higher with search engines. However, it will help you optimize your content for search engines so it has a better chance to rank highly. You still have to do the work, but it’s like having a coach there who already knows the field and can guide you through.
14 Best SEO Plugins for WordPress
The following plugins will help you implement an SEO strategy on your website. Some are simple, tackling just an element or two of SEO, while others are more comprehensive. Just about all of them, though, will clue you into audience and traffic stats so you can improve your content and boost engagement. And remember, the actual optimization is still up to you whether you use the best SEO plugin for WordPress or not – the plugin just holds your hand a bit as you make updates.
1. Rank Math
Rank Math’s leading feature is that it offers real-time insights that tell you about your posts so that you can optimize them as you write. On top of that, the SEO data that you can see on your dashboard includes the keywords you’re ranking for, the search impressions your website is getting, and errors that Google spots on your site. The plugin is speed-optimized, too, so it won’t impact the speed of your website.
Rank Math also includes deep integration with Divi, bringing powerful SEO features right into Divi’s visual builder!
Key Features of Rank Math
Integrates with Google Search Console to bring SEO info to your WordPress dashboard.
Snippet preview to optimize titles and metadata so SERPs won’t display errors.
Additional tools for 404 monitoring, link building, redirections, local and WooCommerce SEO, sitemaps, and more.
The All in One SEO plugin is primarily used for improving on-page SEO, and it’s best for local small businesses that have a high reliance on search. The plugin will analyze your entire site, alert you to errors and offer recommendations so you can improve SEO. Along with its sitemaps generation, AIOSEO helps make your website more present on the web, no matter which search engine is being used.
Key Features of AIOSEO
SEO audit checklist to analyze your site.
Recommendations that guide you to improve SEO.
Sitemap generation and submission to various search engines.
AIOSEO is for you if…
You’re a local or small business owner focusing on on-page SEO.
Your company relies on online searches, especially local ones.
You need good data to create an SEO strategy, and the HubSpot plugin’s main purpose is to collect and present that data. Analytics are shown on user-friendly dashboards that are easy to read. With the info you collect, you can figure out where to spend time improving SEO – and which areas are working just fine for now. Check out our guide on how to integrate Hubspot with WordPress.
Key Features of HubSpot
Marketing performance analytics.
Monitor your site or a single page for web traffic.
Additional SEO tools, like email marketing, forms, and live chat.
Adding internal links to your post can be a pain, especially as your website grows. Internal Link Juicer is possibly the best SEO plugin for WordPress for automating internal linking so each post is optimized. Implementing a solid internal linking strategy is great for SEO. But it also makes it easier for visitors to find the content on your website and stay there.
Key Features of Internal Link Juicer
Set anchor keywords for posts so that related internal content will be automatically linked to them.
Limit the number of links added to each post.
Block content that you never wanted to be linked to.
Internal Link Juicer is for you if…
You have a large library of content and find it difficult to find the best articles to link to.
MonsterInsights is one of the best Google Analytics plugins around. The plugin brings you Google analytics website performance data right to your dashboard. This lets you know how to improve your site so that the visitor experience can be enhanced. You’ll be able to see your Google Search Console reports on how people find your site and how they use it once they’re there. No code is needed to install the Google Analytics tracking script, either.
Key Features of MonsterInsights
Tracks website analytics and performance.
Google Analytics is brought to the WordPress dashboard so you don’t have to open another site.
Content report shows the pages that are most visited.
MonsterInsights is for you if…
You’re a marketer or stakeholder who wants to optimize your website for conversions.
You get overwhelmed by Google Analytics and want a more streamlined way to view the data.
Rich snippets in Google display search results with additional content, like the author of a post, photos, pricing, or ratings. You need schema markup to customize how your content appears in rich snippets, though. The Schema and Structured Data for WP & AMP plugin helps you choose the schema to add for all sorts of content, including blog posts, news articles, product pages, and recipes.
Key Features of Schema and Structured Data for WP & AMP
Auto-assign schema to 35+ types of content.
Manually select the markup to add to a post or page.
Exclude certain types of content and not include schema markup for them.
Supports AMP and AMP for WP for optimizing your site for mobile devices
Schema and Structured Data for WP & AMP is for you if…
You have a blog, review site, or small business site that needs a better presence in SERPs.
You want an easy way to display multiple schema types in SERPs according to Schema.org guidelines.
If you’re redesigning your website and need a quick, efficient way to optimize the new pages, consider installing WP Meta SEO. It provides across-site optimization all at once instead of having to do it on each page. You can also use Google data to decide how to handle your keyword strategy.
Key Features of WP Meta SEO
Meta information bulk editor.
Integrates with Google Search Console for keyword suggestion features.
Other SEO features include a redirection manager and a sitemap generator.
WP Meta SEO is for you if…
You’re an entrepreneur in charge of content, SEO, and your website overall.
You want to speed up your workflow so you can focus on content creation.
SEO Press offers a free WordPress plugin that provides all the necessary features to improve the SEO of your WordPress site. You can manage meta titles and descriptions, generate XML and HTML sitemaps, track your site’s visitors with Google Analytics, and optimize your social media presence, among other features.
Key Features of SEO Press
Management of meta titles and descriptions
Generation of XML and HTML sitemaps
Integration with Google Analytics to track site visitors
Optimization of social media presence
SEO Press Pro offers advanced features for optimizing your business’s WordPress site, including configuring WooCommerce SEO, targeting local audiences, generating video and news XML sitemaps, managing redirects, checking broken links, and monitoring 404 errors. The Pro plan also allows you to install the plugin on unlimited sites and includes 1 year of support.
SEO Press is for you if…
You need an all-in-one SEO solution.
You want a plugin for managing SEO on multiple sites.
Ahrefs is a leader in the world of website optimization, and the SEO WordPress Plugin focuses mainly on backlinks but also has a few other optimization features. Backlink analysis is powered by its backlink index…and that’s the largest one you can find online. You can get a good look at your backlink profile to uncover guest collaboration and partnership opportunities so that you can increase traffic to your site.
Key Features of Ahrefs
Content audit tool offers recommendations as you create.
SEO analysis based on Google Analytics data.
Actionable insights on your dashboard.
Ahrefs is for you if…
You’re a PR pro or a social media manager who needs to dig into data.
You want to know the website’s backlink profile.
Premium SEO Pack has advanced SEO features that many other plugins don’t include. For example, it will give you insight into your internal linking structure. It also helps you maximize performance even if you have a lot of images on your site by making them more SEO-friendly.
Key Features of Premium SEO Pack
Foundational tools include Google Analytics monitoring and sitemap generation.
Minifies CSS to help your site load faster.
Additional SEO tools include 404 checkings, page speed monitoring, and rich snippets.
Premium SEO Pack is for you if…
You use your WordPress website as an image-heavy portfolio.
You use a lot of media on your site and don’t want to affect performance.
Rankie is the best SEO plugin for WordPress to help you make wise optimization decisions. Its insights guide you to smartly modify your pages, without the need to go into Google Analytics or track everything (like keywords) on your own.
Key Features of Rankie
Track target keywords to monitor performance.
Add the keywords that visitors are using to find your content.
Generate reports for a broader view of performance.
Rankie is for you if…
You’re a marketing or SEO data analyst.
You want to know how both the SERPs and visitors feel about your site’s performance.
301 redirects are an important part of an SEO strategy, allowing you to maintain what a page has achieved in the ranks without keeping it active on your site. You specify the new URL that the old page should link to and set up a 301 redirect so Google knows to look at another page instead of that one. The plugin’s URL manager lets you implement 301 redirects without having to use other redirect methods like modifying the .htaccess file or creating manual entries for each redirection.
Key Features of Redirection
Create conditional redirects based on browser, IP address, login status, page type, or other conditions.
The SEO Framework plugin is a powerful SEO plugin that includes many useful features. What makes it unique is its automation. IT can show you SEO ratings (how well your pages are doing) based on your content and that of the competition, all while making sure your website speed stays fast. Their extension manager plugin gives your more functionality including the ability to guide you through the process of creating content with a focus on keywords and synonyms, automatically adding schema structured data to your articles, and much more.
Key Features of The SEO Framework
Keyword targeting includes synonyms, which are aligned with how SERPs analyze content.
Colored scale shows you how close the content is to being optimized.
Extensions for the plugin add functionality, including local SEO and spam comment caching.
Built-in support for custom Social Sharing of content
The SEO Framework is for you if…
You’re just getting started with writing SEO-optimized content.
You’re sick of trying to fit in awkward keywords and want to write more naturally.
You want an easy way to identify SEO errors automatically and make optimizations.
A lot of SEO plugins will create XML sitemaps for you, but if that’s the only feature you need, then there’s no need to have all of the other features you won’t use. This is a super-simple plugin that will generate sitemaps and, if you want, let the SERPs know whenever your website has been changed in some way.
To many, Yoast is the absolute best SEO plugin for WordPress, powering many of the big sites you visit all the time. Once you set up Yoast on your site, it includes pretty much everything you need to optimize your site for SEO including content optimization to redirect management, SERP previews, XML sitemap creation, and more. It’s best known for its on-page insights feature that tells you how to include your target keyword and what you may be doing wrong in different areas, from the body copy to the metadata.
Final Thoughts on the Best SEO Plugins for WordPress
While a plugin may not be necessary to optimize your pages if you have a good understanding of SEO and stay up to date with industry changes, using a quality SEO plugin can provide valuable guidance and help streamline the monitoring process, even for experts. Additionally, if your website starts experiencing a drop in rankings, an SEO plugin can track data and provide insight when it’s most needed.
We suggest Rank Math for maximum value due to its extensive range of features for local, mobile, and WooCommerce SEO optimization, its intelligent sitemap and SEO audit features, as well as its seamless integration with Divi. In our view, its TruSEO on-page SEO evaluation is unparalleled. If you’re looking for a complete SEO solution for your WordPress site, you can’t go wrong with All in One SEO.
WordPress pricing table plugins can be an effective way to show users the most appropriate product or service that you have for them. In this article, we will cover everything you need to know about responsive pricing table design and show you the best WordPress pricing table plugins you can use today.
If you have been reading WPBeginner for a while, then you know that we believe All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market.
It is our #1 recommendation as the must-have SEO toolkit, and this is the exact tool that we use on our website. For beginners, All in One SEO provides the most comprehensive SEO features in one plugin.
In this article, we’ll share some of the AIOSEO power hacks that will help you take your WordPress SEO to the next level.
What Makes All in One SEO The Best SEO Toolkit for WordPress Users?
Currently over 3 million websites use AIOSEO including WPBeginner, and it is one of the top 20 most installed WordPress plugins of all time.
There’s also a free version of AIOSEO available that you can use if you’re just getting started.
All in One SEO was first released in 2007, just a few years after WordPress introduced the ability to install plugins to extend WordPress functionality.
In 2020, AIOSEO was acquired by Awesome Motive (the management company of WPBeginner). Since then, it has evolved into the most powerful and modern WordPress SEO plugin.
We use it on all our websites to improve our WordPress SEO rankings, including WPBeginner. That’s because the features are unmatched by any other SEO plugin on the market.
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the coolest things that you can do with All in One SEO.
Here is a list of topics we’ll cover in this guide.
1. Ability to Add Dynamic SEO Title and Descriptions
SEO titles and descriptions are highly important when optimizing your content for SEO. Search engines assign them slightly more weight than other parts of your content.
The SEO title also appears in search results and can help you get more clicks and bring more traffic to your site.
Many site owners often go back to old posts and edit their SEO titles to help optimize them. For instance, you may have mentioned the Current Year or pricing in the title which may become outdated.
All in One SEO allows you to use smart tags in SEO title and description fields. These tags dynamically update to match the conditions they are used for.
For instance, you can add the ‘Post Title’ tag, and it will automatically use your post or page’s title as the SEO Title.
Similarly, you can use the ‘Current Year’ or ‘Current Month’ tags, and it will automatically display the current year or month in your post title.
AIOSEO comes with the following smart tags that you can select by clicking on ‘View all tags’.
Author First Name: The first name of the post author.
Author Last Name: The last name of the post author.
Author Name: The display name of the post author.
Categories: All categories that are assigned to the current post, comma-separated.
Category Title: Current or first category title.
Current Date: The current date.
Current Day: The current day of the month.
Current Month: The current month.
Current Year: The current year.
Custom Field: A custom field from the current post.
Permalink: The permalink for the current post.
Post Content: The content of your post.
Post Date: The date when the post was published, localized.
Post Day: The day of the month when the post was published, localized.
Post Excerpt: The excerpt defined in your post settings.
Post Excerpt Only: The excerpt defined in your post.
Post Month: The month when the post was published, localized.
Post Title: The original title of the current post.
Post Year: The year when the post was published.
Separator: The separator is defined in the search appearance settings.
Site Title: Your site title.
Tagline: The tagline for your site, set in the general settings.
Taxonomy Name: The name of the first term of a given taxonomy that is assigned to the current post.
Want to make your SEO title even more attention-grabbing?
How about adding emojis into your post title or description? All in One SEO makes it super easy to use Emojis in your SEO title and descriptions.
Simply click on the emoji button to search and add an emoji.
2. Helps You Write Good Headlines and SEO Titles
Now you might already know that CTR (click through rate) plays an important role in SEO rankings.
This means that you have to write good headlines and SEO titles that encourage users to click when your site appears in search results.
All in One SEO comes with a built-in headline analyzer tool. It will automatically show you a score for your post title or headline.
Plus, it will also show you practical tips to improve the effectiveness of your title.
For instance, it may recommend using power words or removing stop words from your SEO title.
3. Comes with a Dynamic and Customizable Table of Contents Block
Reading longer articles can be difficult for your users, and they may lose interest in scrolling down while looking for the information they need.
This is where the Table of Contents block comes in.
It creates a list of topics covered in an article, and you may have seen them in articles here at WPBeginner. In fact, this post has an AIOSEO table of contents at the top!
Clicking on an item in the list takes you to that section in the article.
Not only does a table of content help users, but it also improves SEO.
Search engines like Google may display your table of content items as ‘Jump to section’ links in search results.
A table of contents can also make your website appear as the featured snippet for a search keyword.
Google may display it above all results with a much larger excerpt.
Previously, WordPress users had to use a separate plugin to generate tables of contents or manually create them.
All in One SEO comes with a dynamic Table of Contents block. Simply add the Table of Contents block to your post or page, and it will automatically generate a table of content based on the headings present in your article.
You can edit any item in the table by simply clicking on it or hide an item by clicking on the hide button.
You can also reorder items by clicking on the Reorder button. This only adjust the order of the list, not the placement of content in your article.
Optionally, you can choose a list style for your table of contents.
Currently, it allows you to choose from a plain bulleted list or a numbered list style.
4. Easily Add NoFollow Attribute to External and Referral Links
Links or backlinks are an important search engine ranking factor.
When you link to an external website, search engines consider that as a ranking signal. They will pass a small portion of your domain authority (link juice) to the other website.
Many SEO experts believe that they can rank higher in search results by adding the nofollow attribute to external and referral/affiliate links.
All in One SEO makes it super easy to add the nofollow attribute to links in your posts and pages.
Simply select the text that you want to link to and then click on the link button in the block toolbar.
You’ll see the option to add the link URL and a check box to add the nofollow attribute.
All in One SEO gives the most comprehensive and practical SEO score to your content.
It appears as a button on the top right corner of the post editor, clicking on it will bring up the TruSEO panel.
You will see a snippet preview and below that, you’ll find tips divided into the following areas:
Focus Keyphrase and Additional Keyphrases
Basic SEO
Title
Readability
You can click on any of them to expand and view the suggestions.
Errors will be highlighted in red with helpful descriptions to fix them.
SEO score is just a recommendation tool and does not guarantee search rankings. Any score above 70 is good for most types of content.
7. Comes with The Most Comprehensive Schema Markup Support
Schema markup is a special type of HTML code that you can add to your WordPress website to tell search engines more about your content.
For instance, you can tell the search engines that a particular page is a blog post, a recipe, a FAQ page, a news article, or a product page. Search engines can then use this data to display rich results.
Other WordPress SEO plugins only ship with limited schema markup support. Users had to install separate plugins to add proper schema markup for different content types.
All in One SEO solves this problem by adding the most comprehensive Schema markup support available.
It allows you to easily add schema markup in WordPress and WooCommerce. You can set the default Schema markup for different content types from plugin settings.
You can also change schema markup for individual posts and pages.
This comes in handy if you want to use your blog posts for different types of content such as recipes, product reviews, articles, and more.
Apart from content, All in One SEO also adds structured data required to be listed in Google My Business and Google Maps searches.
This allows your business to appear in Google Maps and business searches. Your listing gets an extended information panel with directions, phone numbers, business hours, and more.
Simply switch to the All in One SEO » Local SEO page and provide your business information.
If your business has multiple locations, then you can turn on the Multiple Locations option.
After that, the plugin will add a new Locations menu item to your WordPress admin sidebar.
You can now go to the Locations » Add New page to add a business location.
This will bring you to the Location editor page. First, you need to provide a title for your location and then add a little description.
You can also review options in the left column to set the location category and featured image.
After that scroll down to the AIOSEO Local Business section.
From here, you can add structured data for your location such as business name, logo, address, phone number, opening hours, and map.
Once you are finished, go ahead and click on the Publish button to save your location settings.
You can now repeat the process to add more business locations as needed.
Social media platforms are a big source of traffic for many website owners.
All in One SEO comes with super easy and extensive social media integration.
1. Easily Add Social Network Profiles and Default Settings
First, you can go to the All in One SEO » Social Networks page. From here, you can provide social media profile URLs.
If you use the same handle in all your social media profiles then you can simply check the ‘Use the same username for multiple social networks’ option.
After that, provide your username and All in One SEO will fill in the URLs for you.
The plugin also allows you to easily configure your website for popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
These options allow you to enable Open Graph metadata and provide default information that social media platforms can use when someone shares your content.
For instance, you can choose which image to use when someone shares a post. All in One SEO provides a bunch of options to automatically pick an image for Facebook and Twitter.
You can choose the featured image, the first image in the content, any attached image, the author image, any first available image, and more.
After configuring Facebook and Twitter, you can switch to the Pinterest tab. From here, you can also easily add the Pinterest verification code to verify your website on Pinterest.
2. Social Settings for Individual Posts and Pages
Once you have finished the default social networks setup, All in One SEO also provides you options to override these settings for individual posts and pages.
Simply edit a post or page and switch to the Social tab under the AIOSEO Settings section.
From here, you’ll see a preview of how your post will look on Facebook and Twitter.
Below that, you can override the default settings and change the post title, description, and social image.
If you change the data for Facebook, then you can use it for Twitter as well.
Simply switch to the Twitter tab and toggle the ‘Use Data from Facebook Tab’ option.
3. Add Social Profiles for Authors
You can also let search engines know which profiles are associated with an author or user on your website.
This allows search engines to discover and display social media profiles when someone searches for a specific person.
To add this, administrators can go to the Users » Profile page and other users can simply click on the Profile menu from the WordPress admin sidebar.
From here, switch to the social profiles tab and enter your social media profile URLs.
9. Add New Links or Cleanup Bad Links with AIOSEO Link Assistant
Links play a significant role in a website’s SEO rankings. However, as your website grows, you may add more internal links to some older posts than newer posts.
Going back to individual posts and adding links can become a tedious task. Particularly, if you have hundreds of articles.
All in One SEO solves this problem with the Link Assistant. It allows you to easily add links or clean up bad links with one click.
Here is how it works.
First, it automatically crawls your website and shows you a comprehensive link report.
From here, you can see an overview of the links with total counts for orphaned posts (posts that are not linked from any other post or page), external links, internal links, and affiliate links.
You can switch to the Links Report tab for detailed information on all your links.
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.
Want to discover more internal linking opportunities?
Switch to the ‘Linking Opportunities’ tab for more internal linking suggestions or check out the orphaned posts and add links to them.
Clean up Bad Links with 1-Click
You can view all external links that your website links to by clicking on the Domains Report tab.
From here, you can select a domain and delete all links to it with a single click.
This makes it super easy to clean up your website if it has been affected by malware that has added links to spam websites.
It also comes in handy when you no longer wish to link to a third-party website and immediately want to remove all links pointing to it.
10. Comes with Extensive XML Sitemaps with Powerful Customization Options
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all your website content in an XML format, so search engines like Google can easily discover and index your content.
WordPress comes with built-in XML sitemaps, but these are too basic and you don’t have any tools to customize them.
All in One SEO comes with extremely powerful XML sitemaps.
These custom XML sitemaps are highly customizable. For instance, you can easily include or exclude individual post types or taxonomies.
Plus, you can disable sitemaps for date and author archives.
Below that, you can add any standalone page to your sitemap under the Additional Pages option.
News results may not only appear prominently on the main search page but can also appear on the News tab or in Google Discover on mobile devices.
All in One SEO allows you to easily create a News Sitemap which is a requirement for Google News results.
Simply switch to the News Sitemap tab and turn it on.
After that, you can provide a title for your news publication.
Next, you need to choose which post types you want to include in your news sitemap.
Need even more control over your news sitemap?
All in One SEO allows you to easily exclude specific items from your news sitemap.
Simply toggle the Advanced Settings switch to show more options. From here, you can search for the post or page you want to exclude and click on the + button to add it.
12. Easily Create Customizable HTML Sitemaps
HTML Sitemaps are sitemaps for your users and can be added anywhere on your website.
They help users easily navigate a website and find the information they need. Many organizations, government websites, and small businesses find them quite helpful.
All in One SEO lets you easily create HTML sitemaps.
Simply go to the All in One SEO » Sitemaps page and switch to the HTML Sitemap tab.
From here, you can switch to the toggle next to Enable Sitemap to turn on HTML sitemap.
Below that, you can choose how you want to display the sitemap by choosing one of the following options.
Dedicated Page
Gutenberg Block
Shortcode
Widget
PHP Code
Click to select your option and it will tell you how to use it.
For instance, choosing the Dedicated Page option, you will be asked to provide URL for a page where you want to display the Sitemap.
Below that, you can choose which post types and taxonomies to include, sorting options, and enable compact archives.
Want to exclude some posts or pages from your HTML sitemap?
No worries, you can simply click on the Advanced Settings section to exclude any content from your HTML sitemap.
13. Appear in Video Results with Video Sitemaps
Videos are the most engaging type of content and for some search keywords, Google may automatically include video results at the top.
Now, if you regularly publish video content or add video embeds to your posts, then this gives you a huge opportunity to rank higher.
Research shows, that users are more likely to click on a result with a video thumbnail than just plain text.
All in One SEO’s Video Sitemaps help you get ready to appear in video search results.
Simply go to All in One SEO » Sitemaps page and switch to the Video Sitemap tab.
From here you can turn on Video Sitemap and choose which post types or taxonomies to include.
By default, the plugin will divide your sitemap into indexes. These are smaller files containing a limited number of links.
You can also adjust how many links you want to include in a sitemap.
Just like any other sitemap, you can click on the Advanced Settings section to exclude any content that you don’t want to appear in video sitemaps.
14. Get Indexed Faster with RSS Sitemaps
Unlike regular XML sitemaps which have a complete set of links to your content, RSS sitemaps provide search engines links to recent changes on a website.
This helps search engines more easily discover recent changes on a website. Google recommends using both XML sitemaps and RSS sitemap for optimal crawling.
All in One SEO allows you to easily generate an RSS sitemap for your website.
Simply go to the AIOSEO » Sitemaps settings page and switch to the RSS Sitemap tab.
From here, toggle the Enable Sitemap switch to turn on the RSS sitemap.
Below that you can choose the number of posts and which post types to include.
15. Easily Add Your Site to Webmaster Tools & Google Search Console
All top search engines provide website owners with easier tools to see how their website is performing in search and get alerts if something goes wrong.
Once you sign up for them, you will be asked to verify your ownership by adding a code snippet to your website.
All in One SEO makes it super easy to add the verification code for all webmaster tools under one place.
Simply go to the All in One SEO » General Settings and switch to the Webmaster Tools tab.
Now simply click on a search engine, and then add the verification code.
Below that you will also find a text field called Miscellaneous verification. This allows you to add verification codes from any other third-party platforms to your website.
SEO crawl budget is the number of times search engines like Google will crawl pages on your website.
Google sets a crawl budget for different domains based on its own algorithms. However, sometimes this budget is wasted if search bots spend most of the budget crawling less important pages on your site.
All in One SEO helps you fix that problem with the Crawl Cleanup feature. Simply go to the All in One SEO » Search Appearance page and switch to the Advanced tab.
From here, you need to scroll down to the bottom and switch the toggle next to the Crawl Cleanup option.
This will expand the section and will show you a bunch of options that you can exclude from crawling.
For instance, each WordPress category, tag, comments, archive, and author pages has its own RSS feeds. These get crawled, too, but are not highly important.
You can Disable them so that they are excluded from the crawl budget.
A 404 error occurs when a user visits a page on your website which is not there anymore. Perhaps it was deleted, the user entered an incorrect URL, or followed an incorrect link.
These errors create a bad user experience and can negatively impact SEO rankings.
Often, they go unnoticed by website owners until a user reports them.
All in One SEO fixes this problem by keeping a log of 404 errors on your website.
Simply go to the All in One SEO » Redirects page and switch to the 404 logs page to view them.
Now some of these links may be misspelled URLs with few hits, you can safely ignore those. Others would be links to posts that you may have deleted or changed their URLs.
In that case, you can simply click on the Add Redirect button and point that URL to the new location or any other relevant page.
21. Easy Full Site Redirects when Moving Site to Different Domains
Are you moving your WordPress website to a new domain name and worried about the SEO consequences?
All in One SEO’s redirect manager comes with super easy Full Site Redirects.
Basically, you can just paste the URL of your new domain name and it will redirect all users coming to your old domain to the exact pages on your new domain name.
This helps your new domain to rank quickly in search engines and also reduces the negative SEO consequences of moving to a new domain name.
WordPress comes with a built-in redirects system written in PHP. Many redirect plugins take advantage of it, including All in One SEO.
WordPress is used on many different types of servers and they can have different configurations that may affect redirects. Using PHP avoids dependency on server settings and makes sure that redirects work.
However, these PHP redirects are a bit slower. It is a small compromise and for most users, it is not even noticeable.
Still, some users may want to use the server to set up redirects for improved performance and speed.
All in One SEO gives those users an option to use faster redirects using the web server instead of PHP.
Note: This is a method for advanced users only, as you will need to edit not only your .htaccess file, but also your server configuration files for Apache or NGINX.
To use this method, you’ll need access to your server’s configuration files. You’ll also need to know how to safely make changes to those files.
To set it up, you can go to the All in One SEO » Redirects page and switch to the Settings tab. From here, you can click on the Web Server option under Redirect Method.
The plugin will then detect your web server and will show you an option to export redirect rules files for your web server which you can then manually place in your .htaccess file or your Nginx config file.
Next, click on the save change button to store your settings.
After that, the plugin will display a line of code that you need to add to your server’s configuration file.
If you’re using Apache as your web server, then the line should be included in the Apache virtual hosts file. You will then need to restart Apache.
If you’re using NGINX as your web server, then the line should be included in your nginx.conf file. You will then need to restart NGINX.
Keep in mind, too, that using server redirects will prevent AIOSEO from keeping logs of all redirects that occur.
23. Easily Import / Export Redirects
Want to import redirects you set up earlier using some other redirects plugin? Or perhaps you want to export your All in One SEO redirects to use elsewhere?
All in One SEO’s redirects manager can magically import redirects from other popular redirects and SEO plugins.
Simply go to All in One SEO » Redirects page and then switch to the Import / Export tab.
From here, you can import redirects from other plugins. All in One SEO can automatically import redirects from the following plugins:
Redirection
Yoast SEO Premium
Simple 301 Redirects
Safe Redirect Manager
301 Redirects Pro
30 Redirects
Page Links To
SEOPress Pro
It can also import redirects from All in One SEO as well.
In the right column, you’ll see options to export All in One SEO redirects data. You can choose to export different types of redirects or export all of them.
Lastly, the plugin also allows you to export your 404 error logs in CSV format. This comes in handy if you want to analyze the data in spreadsheet software like Google Sheets.
24. Advanced Yet Easiest Breadcrumb Navigation
Breadcrumb navigation is a navigational aid that provides users links in relation to where they are on a website’s navigational layout.
It’s like a path to show them how to get back to earlier parts of the website they may have visited before landing on their current page or post.
This provides users context, helps them discover more sections of your website, and improves user experience.
Search engines also use this information in the result snippet next to the URL.
All in One SEO comes with the easiest and most customizable breadcrumb navigation settings of any WordPress plugin on the market.
First, it automatically adds markup required by search engines to display breadcrumbs without you having to do anything.
It also gives you a full set of tools to customize breadcrumbs and display them on your website.
Simply go to the All in One SEO » General Settings page and switch to the Breadcrumbs tab.
From here, you’ll see different ways to easily display breadcrumbs on your website.
You’ll also see a link that will show you how to use these methods to display breadcrumbs.
Scroll down a little and you’ll find customization options for your breadcrumbs navigation links.
For instance, you can choose which separator you want to use, include a home link, set a prefix, and more.
Want to edit the Breadcrumbs template?
Scroll down to the Breadcrumbs template section. There you’ll see tabs for content types, taxonomies, and archives sections.
For instance, under Content Types, you can change templates for posts, pages, products, and attachments.
To edit the template switch the toggle next to ‘Use a default template’ option to reveal the settings.
You can then edit the default breadcrumbs template by switching toggles to show or hide the homepage or taxonomy links.
You can also use smart tags and even some HTML if needed. Simply insert the smart tags inside the HTML code anywhere you would put the same static information.
All in One SEO allows you to turn on REST API for headless WordPress development.
Simply go to the All in One SEO » Feature Manager page and activate the REST API feature.
This allows you to use the All in One SEO metadata and output it into the front end of your website.
See the notes on All in One SEO website on how to fetch SEO data with REST API and output it in your source code.
26. Control Which Users Have Access to SEO Features and Settings
Want to hire an SEO expert to work on your website? All in One SEO gives you powerful access control features so that you can control which parts of your website they can access.
Simply go to the All in One SEO » General Settings page and switch to the Access Control tab.
First, you’ll see access control options for default WordPress user roles such as Editor, Author, and Contributor.
By default, they will have access to SEO settings for the content that they are allowed to edit in WordPress. To learn more see our WordPress user roles and permissions guide.
Editors also have permission to access SEO settings for General Settings, Search Appearance, Social Networks, and Redirects.
You can change options for each user role by switching the User Default Settings toggle next to a user role.
All in One SEO also adds two new custom user roles that you can use.
SEO Manager – By default, they can access SEO settings for General Settings, Sitemaps, Link Assistant, Redirects, Local SEO, and individual pages and posts.
SEO Editor – By default, they can access SEO settings for individual pages and posts.
You can also change their access by switching the Use Default Settings toggle.
To assign a user an SEO role on your website, you will need to add them as a new user in WordPress and set their user role to SEO manager or SEO Editor.
All in One SEO will then immediate apply the right permissions for them to do their job and boost your site’s rankings.
27. Seamless E-commerce Integration
All in One SEO provides the easiest WooCommerce SEO features. It allows you to add an SEO title, description, and product image which is then used by search engines.
It automatically applies schema markup which gives search engines more information to display in rich results for your products.
Plus, it includes product sitemaps, breadcrumbs, image SEO, and local SEO features. This makes All in One SEO the most comprehensive toolkit for eCommerce stores.
Google image search can be a major source of traffic for many websites.
However, many users forget to add image alt and title tags when uploading images. If you have multiple authors then it becomes harder to notice if someone has missed those tags.
All in One SEO comes with an extensive image SEO addon that allows you to fix this by automatically generating these tags. To keep the software lightweight, it is not enabled by default.
You’ll need to activate it by visiting the All in One SEO » Feature Manager page.
After that, you need to visit the All in One SEO » Search Appearance page and switch to the Image SEO tab.
The first option here is to redirect attachment URLs.
All in One SEO automatically redirects attachment URLs back to the attachment because the attachment page itself only contains an image and does not have any SEO benefit.
Below that, you will find options to set up Image SEO settings. The two most important options here are the Title and Alt tags.
Under the Title tab, you can choose a default title scheme using the smart tags. AIOSEO will use your image file name as the title.
You can choose to remove punctuation like dashes or underscores. This allows you to convert your image title from ‘our-family-picnic’ to ‘our family picnic’.
Below that, you can also choose the casing for the tags. For instance, you can use all lowercase, title case, or sentence case.
Optionally, you can exclude posts, pages, or terms where you don’t want the plugin to automatically generate from image titles.
Next, you need to switch to the Alt tag tab and repeat the process.
Similarly, you can also generate captions and descriptions and modify filenames upon upload in a similar manner.
29. Safely Edit Robots.txt and .htaccess Files From WordPress Admin
You may sometimes come across tutorials asking you to edit your robots.txt or .htaccess file.
Editing these files can be difficult for beginners. Not to mention that a mistake there can break your website or affect its SEO.
To make this easier and safer for beginners, All in SEO comes with a built-in file editor where you can edit your robots.txt and .htaccess files without using FTP.
You can do that by visiting the All in One SEO » Tools page. For the robots.txt file, you can click on the button to view your current robots file.
You can also enable a custom robots.txt file and create an all new one.
Below that, you can allow or deny any user agents, and they will be added to robots.txt.
The .htaccess Editor tab will display the contents of your current .htaccess file.
You can simply edit it right there.
Note: You need to be very cautious about editing these files. A tiny mistake can break your website or damage its SEO.
30. Perform a Quick SEO Audit for Your Site
A lot of businesses hire SEO specialists and pay them to perform SEO audits for their websites.
All in One SEO helps you save money by allowing you to do a quick SEO audit for your website. This allows you to save money by fixing important SEO issues on your own.
Simply go to the All in One SEO » SEO Analysis page and the plugin will show you an SEO score of your website.
Below that, it will show you a checklist of SEO recommendations.
From here, you can see the issues that it found. Clicking on them will display a description of how to fix them.
As you can see in the image above, AIOSEO often has a button directly on the audit screen for you to use and fix the issues immediately.
31. Compare Competition with Built-in Competitor Analysis
Want to see how your competition is doing in terms of SEO?
All in One SEO can perform a quick SEO audit of your competitor’s websites too.
You can simply go to the All in One SEO » SEO Analysis page and switch to the Analyze Competitor Site tab.
32. Easily Add No Index to Content You Want to Exclude from Search Engines
Want to exclude some posts or pages from search engine?
All in One SEO makes it super easy to No Index any content on your website with a click.
Simply edit the post, page, product, custom post type, or taxonomy that you want to remove or exclude from search engines and scroll down to the AIOSEO settings section.
From here, you need to switch to the Advance tab and toggle the switch next to the Use Default Settings option. This will reveal a bunch of options.
You can check No Index and No Follow to make sure that search engines don’t include this item in search results.
Additionally, you can block any archival of this page, translation, image index, snippet, or no ODP (open directory project). You can also set Max video preview to -1 to ensure that no embedded video preview is displayed.
33. Easily Import SEO Data from Other SEO Plugins
Want to switch from your old WordPress SEO plugin to All in One SEO for WordPress?
The good news is that All in One SEO comes with a built-in SEO data importer tool that fetches SEO data from your old plugin and imports it into All in One SEO.
Once you install and activate the All in One SEO plugin it will launch the setup wizard. During this, it will detect your old SEO plugin and give you the option to import SEO data from that plugin.
It will automatically detect your old SEO plugin when you run the setup wizard and offers to import your SEO data.
You can also manually import SEO data by visiting the All in One SEO » Tools page and switching to the ‘Import/Export’ tab.
Find the ‘Import Settings From Other Plugins’ section and select your old SEO plugin from the drop-down list and then select the items you wish to import.
After that, simply click on the ‘Import’ button to fetch the data.
All in One SEO can fetch the following SEO data.
Your plugin’s SEO settings
Post meta such as SEO title and description
Term meta such as SEO title and descriptions for your categories and tags.
Bonus: Getting Started with All in One SEO for WordPress
Did you know that getting started with All in One SEO for WordPress is super easy?
We hope this article helped you discover unique things that you probably didn’t know about All in One SEO. You may also want to see our complete WordPress SEO handbook for beginners or take a look at our pick of essential WordPress plugins for all websites.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to add shoppable Instagram images to your WordPress site?
Instagram shoppable images have links that people can easily click on to buy your products. This is a powerful way to showcase your products and drive more sales from Instagram.
In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add Instagram shoppable images in WordPress.
What is Instagram Shopping?
Instagram shopping allows you to tag products in your Instagram photos.
After tagging one or more products, users who are looking at the post will see a ‘View Products’ icon in the bottom-left corner.
They can simply click on that icon to see the product’s name, description, and price.
This makes it easier for shoppers to learn more about the products featured in your social media posts.
Visitors can tap the screen again to go to your Instagram store, where they can buy the product featured in the social media post.
This is great user experience, but it isn’t easy to set up.
You will need to get approval from Instagram to use their shopping features, and some of these requirements are vague. For example, you’ll need to “have demonstrated trustworthiness, including through an authentic, established presence.” You’ll also need to maintain a “sufficient follower base.”
In addition, you’ll have to set up a Facebook catalog, a product catalog, and a Facebook business page.
In other words: it’s a lot.
Because of that, many Instagram users are looking for an easier way to help shoppers buy products. That’s where shoppable Instagram images come in.
Why Add Shoppable Instagram Images in WordPress?
A shoppable Instagram feed is a series of photos that have a link to a product or service on your site. These URLs aren’t clickable when viewed on Instagram, as you can see in the following image.
However, when you embed the shoppable feed on your WordPress website, these links do become clickable. In this way, an Instagram shoppable feed encourages the people who visit your website to look at specific products.
Any likes and comments you get on those posts can also act as social proof, and encourage people to click on the product’s link.
As you post new shoppable images to Instagram, they’ll appear on your site automatically, so visitors will always see the latest posts without you having to add them manually.
If visitors like what they see, they may even decide to follow you on Instagram. This can get you more followers, and gives you another way to promote directly to that person.
Even better, since these shoppable links appear on your website, you have complete control over them. This means you don’t have to follow Instagram’s strict shoppable policies, or set up a Facebook product catalog.
With that being said, let’s see how you can easily add Instagram shoppable images to your WordPress website using Smash Balloon Instagram Pro.
Creating a Shoppable Feed on Instagram
First, you need to upload the images that you want to use on your Instagram account.
Smash Balloon has a shoppable feature that allows you to link each image to a URL inside the plugin settings. With this feature enabled, visitors can click on a shoppable image on your website, and its link will open in a new tab.
These links won’t appear on Instagram.
Another option is adding the link to your Instagram captions. These links will show up on Instagram, but they won’t be clickable.
However, these links will be clickable on your WordPress website. If you want to use this method, then you’ll need to spend some time adding a URL to each shoppable image on your Instagram account.
If you’re planning to use Smash Balloon’s shoppable feature, then you can skip this step as we’ll be adding each link inside the plugin’s settings.
How to Install an Instagram Photos Plugin With Shoppable Support
In this guide, we’ll be using the premium version of Smash Balloon as it has the advanced features you need to add shoppable images in WordPress. However, there’s also a free version that allows you to embed Instagram in WordPress.
Before getting started, you’ll need to connect your Instagram account to a Facebook page. If you have a personal Instagram account, then you may also want to turn it into a business account as this allows Smash Balloon to show your Instagram bio and header automatically.
When you’re ready, go ahead and install and activate the Smash Balloon Instagram Pro plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, head over to Instagram Feed » Settings and enter your license key into the ‘License Key’ field.
You’ll find this information under your account on the Smash Balloon website.
After entering the key, click on the ‘Activate’ button.
How to Connect an Instagram Account to WordPress
After activating the plugin, your first task is connecting your Instagram account to WordPress. Simply go to Instagram Feed » Settings and then click on ‘Add New.’
With Instagram Feed pro, you can create feeds from tagged posts and hashtags, or even create a social wall with content from lots of different social media websites.
We want to show shoppable images from our Instagram timeline, so simply select ‘User Timeline’ and then click on ‘Next.’
Now, choose the Instagram account where you’ll get the shoppable images from.
To get started, click on the ‘Add Source’ button.
After that, choose whether you want to show shoppable images from a personal or business Instagram account.
If you check the box next to ‘Personal’ then Smash Balloon won’t include the Instagram avatar and bio in your header by default. However, you can always add the Instagram avatar and bio manually in the plugin’s settings.
After choosing ‘Personal’ or ‘Business,’ click on ‘Login with Facebook.’
You can now select the Instagram account that you want to feature on your WordPress website, and click on ‘Next.’
After that, check the box next to the Facebook page that’s linked to the Instagram account with your shoppable images.
Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Next’ button.
You’ll now see a popup with all the information Instagram Feed Pro will have access to and the actions it can perform.
To restrict the plugin’s access to your Instagram account, simply click any of the switches to turn it from ‘Yes’ to ‘No.’ Just be aware that this may affect the photos that you can show on your WordPress blog or website.
With that in mind, we recommend leaving all the switches enabled. When you’re happy with the settings, click on ‘Done.’
You’ll now see a popup with the Instagram account you just added to your website.
Simply check the box next to that account and then click on ‘Add.’
Instagram Feed Pro will now take you back to the Instagram Feeds » All Feeds screen.
To create a feed, just check the box next to the Instagram account that you want to use. Then, click on ‘Next.’
The plugin will now create an Instagram photo feed that you can add to any page, post, or widget-ready area.
However, before you can show shoppable images there are a few extra settings to configure.
How to Enable Smash Balloon’s Shoppable Feature (Optional)
As we already mentioned, there are two ways to make your Instagram photo feed shoppable. If you’ve added the URLs to your captions on Instagram, then simply skip to the next step.
Another option is to open shoppable links in a new tab as soon as the visitor clicks on a post. To do this, you’ll need to enable Smash Balloon’s shoppable feature.
To start, select the ‘Settings’ tab and then click on ‘Shoppable Feed.’
On this screen, go ahead and toggle the ‘Enable’ slider so that it turns blue.
Smash Balloon will now show an ‘Add’ button on every photo or video in your Instagram feed.
Simply find the first post that you want to make shoppable, and click on its ‘Add’ button.
You can now type the product or service’s URL into the ‘Product Link’ field and click on ‘Add.’
Now, clicking on this photo will open the linked URL in a new tab.
Simply repeat these steps to make every image shoppable.
If you need to change a post’s URL at any point, then just hover your mouse over it and click on ‘Update.’
Once you’ve added all your links, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button.
How to Filter Your Shoppable Instagram Feed
By default, Smash Balloon shows all the images and videos from your Instagram account. However, since we’re creating a shoppable feed you may want to filter your posts, and only show photos that link to a product or service.
This can help shoppers find products to buy, without getting distracted by other photos and videos in your Instagram feed.
With Smash Balloon, it’s easy to filter Instagram posts based on their captions. You can simply add a keyword or hashtag to your shoppable images on Instagram, and then create a matching filter in Smash Balloon.
For example, in the following image we’re using the #ordernow hashtag for all the images we want to make shoppable.
To create a filter in Smash Balloon, select the ‘Settings’ tab.
Then, go ahead and click on ‘Filters and Moderation.’
In the ‘Only show posts containing’ box, type in the hashtags or keywords that you want to use in the filter.
If you want to use multiple words in the filter, then simply separate each hashtag or keyword with a comma.
When you’re happy with how the filter is set up, click on the ‘Save’ button.
Just be aware that the preview won’t update straight away, so you’ll need to refresh the page to see the filter in action.
How to Customize Your Shoppable Instagram Feed
When you’re happy with the photos and videos that appear in your shoppable feed, you may want to change how the feed looks.
To customize your shoppable Instagram feed, simply click on the ‘Customize’ tab. On the left-hand side are all the settings you can use to change how the shoppable feed looks.
Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly cover some key areas that can help you get more sales.
Let’s start at the top, by selecting ‘Feed Layout.’ Here, you can choose different layouts for your shoppable feed, such as carousel and highlight.
As you make changes, the preview will update automatically so you can try different settings to see what looks the best.
Depending on the layout, you’ll get some extra settings that you can use to fine-tune your feed. For example if you choose ‘Highlight’ then you can tell Smash Balloon to highlight posts based on a pattern, post ID, or a specific hashtag. This is great for highlighting your most popular products.
By 2025, it’s estimated that US consumers will spend $710 billion every year shopping on their mobile devices. With that in mind, you’ll want to make sure the shoppable Instagram feed looks just as good on smartphones and tablets, as it does on desktops.
By default, Smash Balloon will show the same number of photos on desktop computers and mobile devices.
You can preview how the shoppable feed will look on desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones using the row of buttons in the upper-right corner.
You can show fewer shoppable photos on mobile devices by changing the settings in the ‘Number of Posts’ and ‘Columns’ sections.
After making any changes, click on the ‘Customize’ link. This will take you back to the main Smash Balloon editor, ready for you to explore the next option, which is ‘Color Scheme.’
By default, Smash Balloon uses a color scheme inherited from your WordPress theme, but it also has ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’ themes that you may want to use for the shoppable feed instead.
By default, Smash Balloon adds a header to the shoppable feed, which is your profile picture and the name of your page.
To change how this section looks, click on ‘Header’ in the left-hand menu and then use the settings to change the size of your header, add Instagram bio text, and more.
You can also add a different bio. For example, you might encourage people to buy your products, or offer visitors an exclusive coupon code.
To create a unique Instagram bio, simply type into the ‘Add custom bio’ box.
With that done, click on ‘Customize’ to return to the main Smash Balloon editor.
Then, select ‘Posts.’
This takes you to a screen that has a few different options.
You can look through these settings and make any changes you want, but we’re going to focus on ‘Caption.’
If you added shoppable links to your captions, then it’s important to make the text stand out. For example, you might make the caption bigger.
You might even use a different color for the caption.
With that done, click on ‘Posts’ to go back to the previous screen.
Here, you’ll also see a ‘Hover State’ option, which is the overlay that Smash Balloon adds to a post when you hover over it.
This allows visitors to see any links in your captions without opening that Instagram post first.
On this screen, you can use the settings to create an eye-catching colored overlay.
After selecting ‘Hover State’ you’ll be able to change the background color and text color that appears when you hover over each post.
Under ‘Information to display,’ you’ll see all the different information that Smash Balloon can show as part of the overlay. Simply check the box next to each piece of information that you want to show.
If the caption contains shoppable links, then make sure you leave ‘Caption’ enabled.
When you’re happy with your changes, click on ‘Customize’ to return to the main Smash Balloon editor screen. You can now select the next option, which is ‘Load More Button.’
By default, Smash Balloon adds a ‘Load More’ button to the bottom of your Instagram feed so visitors can scroll through your shoppable posts.
Here, you can change the button’s background color, text color, and hover state.
You can also add your own messaging to the button by typing into the ‘Text’ field.
While we recommend leaving the ‘Load More’ button enabled to get more sales, you can remove it. For example, you might encourage people to visit your Instagram page by limiting the number of photos they can see on your site.
To remove the button, simply click on the ‘Enable’ slider to turn it from blue to grey.
If shoppers like what they see, they may decide to follow you on Instagram using the ‘Follow on Instagram’ button that appears below the shoppable feed.
Since it’s such an important button, you may want to help it stand out by selecting ‘Follow Button’ from the main Smash Balloon editor screen.
Here, you can change the button’s background color, hover state, and text color.
You may also replace the default ‘Follow on Instagram’ text with your own messaging.
As always, when you’re finished with these settings, click on ‘Customize’ to return to the main editor screen.
If you’ve enabled the Smash Balloon shoppable feature, then clicking on any post in the Instagram feed will open a new tab and take them straight to the linked product page.
However, if you haven’t enabled the shoppable feature then you may want to take a look at Smash Balloon’s lightbox feature.
This feature allows visitors to open the image or video in a lightbox popup, without leaving your WordPress website. They can then click on any shoppable links in the captions.
To enable or disable the lightbox, simply select ‘Lightbox’ from the left-hand menu.
Here, you can remove or add this feature using the ‘Enable’ slider.
You can also change how many comments Smash Balloon will show in the lightbox. Lots of positive comments can be a powerful form of social proof, which will often help you sell more products and services.
However, they can also be distracting so you may want to type a maximum number into the ‘No. of comments’ box.
Another option is to hide comments completely, by clicking on the ‘Comments’ toggle.
When you’re happy with how the Instagram feed looks, don’t forget to click on ‘Save’ to store your changes. You’re now ready to add the shoppable Instagram feed to your website.
How to Embed Instagram Feed in WordPress
You can add the shoppable feed to your website using a block, widget, or shortcode.
If you’ve created more than one feed using the Smash Balloon plugin, then you’ll need to know the feed’s code if you’re going to use a widget or block.
To get this code, go to Instagram Feed » All Feeds and then copy the value in the ‘Shortcode’ column.
If you want to embed the Instagram feed in a page or post, then we recommend using the Instagram Feed block.
Just open the page or post where you want to embed your shoppable photo and video feed. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon to add a new block and start typing ‘Instagram Feed.’
When the right block appears, click to add it to the page or post.
The block will show one of your Smash Balloon feeds by default. If you want to show a different Instagram feed instead, then find ‘Shortcode Settings’ in the right-hand menu.
Here, simply add the shortcode and then click on ‘Apply Changes.’
The block will now show all the photos and videos from your Instagram feed. Just publish or update the page to make the feed live on your website.
Another option is to add the feed to any widget-ready area, such as the sidebar or similar section. This allows visitors to shop using your Instagram feed from any page of your site.
Simply go to Appearance » Widgets in the WordPress dashboard and then click on the blue ‘+’ button.
In the search bar, type in ‘Instagram Feed’ and select the right widget when it appears.
Just be aware that WordPress has a built-in Instagram widget, so make sure you choose the one that shows the official Instagram logo.
Next, simply drag the widget onto the area where you want to show the shoppable Instagram feed, such as the sidebar or similar section.
The widget will automatically show one of the feeds you created using Smash Balloon. If this isn’t the shoppable Instagram feed you just created, then type the feed’s code into the ‘Shortcode Settings’ box.
After that, click on ‘Apply Changes.’
You can now make the widget live by clicking on the ‘Update’ button. For more information, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.
Another option is embedding the Instagram feed on any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode.
Finally, if you’re using a block-enabled theme, then you can use the full-site editor to add the Instagram Feed block anywhere on your website.
In your dashboard, simply go to Appearance » Editor.
By default, the full-site editor will show the theme’s home template. If you want to add the shoppable feed to a different template, then click on the arrow next to ‘Home.’
You can then choose any design from the dropdown, such as the footer template.
If you don’t see the template in the list, select ‘Browse all templates.’
The full-site editor will now show a list of all the templates you can edit. Simply click on the template where you want to show the shoppable Instagram feed.
After choosing a template, just hover your mouse over the area where you want to add the shoppable Instagram feed.
Then, click on the ‘+’ button.
After that, start typing in ‘Instagram Feed.’
When the right block appears, click to add it to the template.
As always, Smash Balloon will show a feed by default. You can change this feed by adding a shortcode following the same process described above.
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 create GDPR-compliant forms in WordPress?
European Union’s new GDPR law requires explicit user consent to store personal information so that users can have more personal control over their data stored on websites.
In this article, we will show you how to easily create GDPR-compliant forms in WordPress.
What is GDPR?
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) law that became effective on May 25th, 2018. This new law aims to give EU citizens control over their personal data and change how companies and businesses handle data privacy around the world.
A typical WordPress site may collect users’ personal information in a number of ways. One of which is by adding forms to the site. Most forms collect personal information, and you may want to make sure that your WordPress forms comply with GDPR.
What is Required to Make a Form GDPR Compliant
In order to make your WordPress forms GDPR compliant, you will need to add the following features:
Ask users to give explicit consent for storing and using their personal information.
Allow users to request access to their own personal information stored on your website.
Allow users to request the deletion of their data from your website.
Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily create GDPR-compliant WordPress forms. You can click the links below to jump ahead to any section:
We recommend using WPForms to make GDPR-compliant WordPress forms. It is the best contact form plugin for WordPress and has built-in GDPR enhancement features.
For instance, you get a 1-click GDPR Agreement field for your forms, GDPR-compliant data retention best practices, easy entry management system to quickly find, export, or delete user data upon request.
For this tutorial, we’ll use the WPForms Pro version because it includes the disable user cookies and user details options. However, you can also use the WPForms Lite version to create a GDPR-compliant form.
Upon activation, you need to visit WPForms » Settings page and enter your license key. You can find the license key in the WPForms account area.
Next, you’ll need to scroll down to the GDPR section.
There, you need to check the box next to the GDPR Enhancements option.
Enabling the GDPR Enhancements option will reveal two more GDPR-related settings.
The first option, ‘Disable User Cookies,’ will stop WPForms from storing user sessions. This cookie contains a random unique identifier that helps WPForms add features like related entries, form abandonment, and geolocation. Disabling it will also disable those features.
The second option, ‘Disable User Details,’ will stop WPForms from storing user IP addresses and browser information. Both of these settings are optional, and you can check them if you feel that you don’t need these features.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Settings’ button to store your changes.
Select Form Template and Add GDRP Agreement Field
WPForms is now ready to create GDPR-compliant forms in WordPress. You can now go to WPForms » Add New page to create a new form.
You will be asked to enter a title for your form and select a template. These templates are ready-made forms that you can use as a starting point. In this tutorial, we’ll use the ‘Simple Contact Form’ template.
This will launch the WPForms builder interface.
You will see your form preview in the right column, and on the left, you will see all the fields that you can add to your form.
Simply drag the ‘GDPR Agreement’ field and add it to your form.
You will now see it appear at the bottom of your form. If you click on it, more options will appear in the settings panel on the left.
You can change the title of the form field and agreement text, and then use the description box to add details like a link to your privacy policy or terms and conditions pages.
Note: The GDPR Agreement field is always a required field, and it cannot be pre-checked to comply with the GDPR law. You can only add one GDPR agreement field to each form.
Next, you can go to the Settings » Confirmations tab in the form builder. Here, you’ll get different options to select when a user submits a form. For instance, you can show a message, a page, or to redirect users to another URL.
Once you are satisfied with the form, don’t forget to store your changes.
Adding GDPR Compliant Form to WordPress
WPForms allows you to easily add forms anywhere on your website.
You can simply click the ‘Embed’ button at the top of the form builder to get started.
Next, a popup will open, which will ask you to create a new page or select an existing page.
We’ll use the ‘Create New Page’ option for this tutorial.
After that, you’ll need to enter a name for your page.
Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Let’s Go’ button.
Your form will now appear in the WordPress content editor.
Another way to add forms to any page or post is using the WPForms block. Simply add the block to your content and select your form from the dropdown menu.
You can now save or publish your post or page.
Simply visit your website to see your GDPR-ready WordPress form in action.
Managing Data Access and Deletion Requirements with WPForms
One of the requirements for GDPR compliance is to give users access and allow them to request the deletion of their data.
To do that, you can create a ‘Data access/delete form’ and add it to your privacy policy page. Users who wish to access their stored data or want it to be deleted can use that form to send you a request.
WPForms has an excellent entry management system that allows you to quickly find any data submitted via your forms.
You can access all form entries by visiting WPForms » Entries page from your WordPress dashboard and selecting the form you wish to view.
WPForms will show you all entries submitted using that form. You can search for a form entry by entering a name, email address, IP address, or keyword.
From here, you can simply click the ‘Delete All’ option at the top to remove form entries.
You can also delete individual entries or click the view button to see all data stored for that entry.
Disabling User Details for Specific Forms
With WPForms, you get full control over which forms can store user data. You can disable user details to be stored for each individual form.
First, you’ll need to go to WPForms » Settings from your WordPress dashboard and scroll down to the ‘GDPR’ section.
Here, ensure that the ‘Disable User Details’ option is unchecked.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Settings’ button when you’re done.
After that, you can change each form’s settings in the form builder.
All you have to do is head to Settings » General in the form builder. Next, click the ‘Advanced’ section to expand it. From here, simply click the toggle for the ‘Disable storing user details (IP address and user agent)’ option.
This will prevent extra user information from being stored for individual forms.
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 searching the web for a free WordPress table of contents plugin for your site? A table of contents has many benefits for both readers and search engines. In this post, we’ll review seven free WordPress table of contents plugins. For each one, we’ll give an overview and explain its key features.
Whether you run an online store or a portfolio site, displaying customer reviews can help you make more sales and gain new clients. Therefore, you may be looking for the best WordPress testimonial plugins for your business. After you check out our guide on the top review tools on the market, you should be equipped to choose the right one for your needs.
Do you want to create an online poll on your WordPress site?
Polls are an interactive way to engage your audience while getting useful information from them. You can get feedback from your users and find out what they like.
In this article, we will show you how to easily create and add a poll in your WordPress.
Which Tool to Choose for Adding a Poll in WordPress?
Adding interactive polls to your website is a great way to engage users, as it instantly grabs their attention. You can generate leads using polls and, at the same time, collect valuable feedback from your audience.
That said, there are plenty of plugins and online tools that allow you to embed polls on your WordPress site. Many of them require you to create an account, some store data on their own servers, and others have a terrible user experience.
If you are looking for a good user experience with full control of poll data, then you’ll need WPForms. It is the best WordPress form builder plugin and includes powerful surveys and polls addon.
With WPForms, you’ll be able to do the following:
Create polls in WordPress using a drag-and-drop form builder
Gather poll results on your own websites
Show votes count when user submit their vote
Display poll anywhere on your website
Show poll results anywhere on your website
With that, let’s look at how to easily create online polls in WordPress using WPForms.
You will need the WPForms Pro plan because it includes the survey and polls addon. WPBeginner users get an additional discount by using the WPForms coupon code. There is also a WPForms Lite version you can try for free.
Upon activation, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information in your WPForms account.
Next, you need to visit WPForms » Addons page and scroll down to the Surveys and Polls addon.
Go ahead and click on the ‘Install’ addon button.
Now you are ready to create an online poll.
You can start by going to WPForms » Add New page to create a new form. First, you need to provide a title for your poll form and then select the ‘Poll Form’ template.
This will launch the WPForms drag-and-drop form builder interface.
You will see a pre-made poll form template with example fields already added to the form.
There are options to add new form fields from the left column. All you have to do is drag and drop the field you’d like to add to the form.
Besides that, you can just point and click to edit any field, rearrange them, or remove them.
For example, if you click the poll question in the template, then you will see more options in the menu on your left. Simply rearrange the order, and edit their titles, labels, and more.
Next, you need to click on the Settings button from the left menu and then go to the ‘Surveys and Polls’ tab. Here you can enable or disable the poll results option.
By default, the WPForms poll template will display poll results to users after they submit their votes. If you disable this option, then users will not see the poll results.
On the other hand, you can show users a custom message or redirect them to another page or URL.
Simply go to the ‘Confirmation’ tab. Here, you can choose the Confirmation Type from the dropdown menu.
Once you have created the poll form, go ahead and click on the ‘Save’ button to store your form settings.
Adding The Poll to Your WordPress Website
WPForms makes it easy to add your online poll anywhere on your website, including posts, pages, custom post types, and sidebar widgets.
You can click the ‘Embed’ button in the form builder to add your poll form. Once you do that, a new popup window will open. You can select an existing page or create a new one to embed your form.
Let’s select the ‘Create New Page’ button for this tutorial.
In the next step, you’ll need to enter a name for your page. After that, you can click the ‘Let’s Go’ button.
Another way of adding your form is by using the WPForms block. Simply click the ‘+’ button to add the WPForms and select your form from the dropdown menu.
Next, you’ll see a preview of your form.
You can save or publish your post/page and visit your website to see your poll in action.
You can also add your poll to a sidebar or widget-ready area.
To do that, you need to go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the WPForms widget block to a sidebar where you want to display the poll.
In the WPForms widget block, you need to select the poll form you created earlier.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button to store your widget settings. You can now visit your website to see your online poll displayed in a sidebar or another widget-ready area.
Viewing Live Poll Results
If you have enabled poll results, then your users will see the results after submitting their votes.
You can also view poll results at any time without submitting a vote.
Simply visit WPForms » All Forms page and click on the ‘Survey Results’ link below your poll form.
This will take you to the poll results page, where you will see poll responses in an interactive chart.
You can change the charge type and export the results in JPEG, PDF, and print formats.
Embed Poll Results Anywhere in WordPress
WPForms also allows you to easily embed your online poll results anywhere on your website. This is particularly useful if you have disabled poll results and want to share them later.
First, you will need to find out your poll form’s ID. You can do this by going to WPForms » All Forms page and looking for the shortcode next to your poll form.
In the shortcode, you will find your poll’s ID number. For example, our test poll’s ID is 76, as shown in the screenshot above.
Next, you need to find out the field ID. This is the field in your form for which you want to show the results.
Simply edit your poll form and click on the poll field. You will find the field ID in the left column.
Now that you have both required IDs, you can go ahead and add the poll results shortcode like this:
Don’t forget to replace the form ID and field ID values with your own. You can use this shortcode in WordPress posts, pages, and text widgets.
Here’s a preview of what your poll results will look like:
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 Block Editor can be useful for creating new posts and pages in WordPress. However, the default editing experience may not provide everything you need to design your unique website. The freemium Otter Blocks plugin can change that, with a bunch of new features – learn more in our detailed Otter Blocks review.
Whether you run an online store or a portfolio site, displaying customer reviews can help you make more sales and gain new clients. Therefore, you may be looking for the best WordPress testimonial plugins for your business. After you check out our guide on the top review tools on the market, you should be equipped to choose the right one for your needs.
The Block Editor can be useful for creating new posts and pages in WordPress. However, the default editing experience may not provide everything you need to design your unique website. The freemium Otter Blocks plugin can change that, with a bunch of new features – learn more in our detailed Otter Blocks review.