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Tag: WordPress Plugins

  • 26 Best WordPress Marketing Plugins for 2023

    Capturing demand and making sales is an uphill battle. Just because you have a website does not mean people will see it or respond to it favorably. Because of this, you should bring in effective tools to better market your website. Thankfully, there are many WordPress Marketing Plugins at your disposal.

    This article will uncover essential plugins that improve both marketing output and quality. We have 26 of the absolute best plugin solutions for you to explore in this 2023 marketing plugin review.

    We’ll look into marketing plugins for:

    WordPress Marketing Plugins for Content Marketing

    Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

    It’s an ongoing process that helps you create long-term relationships with your customers by delivering value at every touchpoint. And it requires a strategic approach that aligns your content with your business goals.

    Content marketing feeds so much of your marketing strategy. SEO optimizes your content so that it ranks in search engines. Email and SMS marketing uses content to drive traffic to high-value landing pages. Social media marketing uses social content to increase customer touchpoints and stay top of mind. Brand marketing uses content to convey brand value and differentiation in the market. Content marketing simply touches every aspect of your marketing apparatus.

    Here are the top WordPress plugins that can either expand your content marketing or make it easier.

    1. Seriously Simple Podcasting Plugin

    Seriously Simple Podcasting by Castos

    Seriously Simple Podcasting is a podcasting solution that is native to WordPress. It’s a top-rated plugin for beginners and power users. The completely free version is a self-hosted podcasting platform that uses your WordPress installation to host files so you can be sure your podcasts are always available. With Seriously Simple Podcasting, you get an RSS feed, a web player, and links to all your episodes on major podcast platforms.

    The paid versions of Seriously Simple Podcasting let you store your podcast episode off of your website. This allows your site to speed back up to pre-podcast days as it offloads the files and serving of your podcast to reliable servers that are optimized for just that.

    Podcasters and marketers love this simple solution that gives them a podcasting interface that they are used to with WordPress.

    Price: The plugin is free to use on all your websites | More Information

    2. PublishPress Planner

    PublishPress Editorial Calendar Plugin

    PublishPress Planner is a powerful WordPress plugin that takes care of all your content planning needs for marketing your content. It has helpful tools like an content calendar which is a vital tool for any content creator, whether you’re a solo blogger or a team lead managing an entire content operation. Creating an editorial calendar is an effect content marketing strategy that helps you plan and schedule your content so you can stay organized and on track.

    The PublishPress editorial calendar makes it easy to plan and publish your content. With our drag-and-drop interface, you can easily move your content to different post days. You can also create checklists for posts so that you never forget a step in your editorial and publishing processes. Plus, they offer an editorial revision history feature that ensures you always have a record of your changes and who approved what.

    Price: The plugin is free to use with additional features in their Pro Plan for $69 LTD | More Information

    3. Internal Link Juicer Plugin

    Internal Link Juicer WordPress SEM Plugin

    Internal Link Juicer is a WordPress plugin that aims to take some of the manual work out of creating and maintaining internal links. It even made our dedicated list of the best WordPress SEO plugins (#4). It gives you the ability to create automatic links in your content based on anchor text. Internal Link Juicer simply matches anchor text with your linking preferences as defined by your setup configurations. Assign words/phrases to a particular link and Internal Link Juicer will do the heavy lifting for you.

    Having internal links throughout your content is the lifeblood of on-page SEO optimization. Without the connections made across your content, search engines have a really hard time categorizing (and thus ranking) your content.

    Internal links give Google and other search engines an idea of what your content is about and the authority of that content. As you know, Internal linking is a necessary component of SEO link strategies.

    Price: Free version of Plugin available with a Pro upgrade at $69.99/year | More Information

    4. Imajinn Image Generator

    Imajinn Block Based AI Image Generator

    Imajinn is a block element that allows users to input prompts for AI image generation. Outside of it being a cool new technology in the WordPress space, it is also a unique addition to the content marketer’s toolkit.

    Feature images and post images that help convey the meaning of the written content on a given page have always been important. That is why even this post has a clear featured image and supporting images throughout the post. It keeps readers’ attention while also communicating beyond words.

    Gathering images for these purposes is sometimes easier said than done. Sourcing images can be time-consuming and expensive. And if you are creating content in a saturated niche, it isn’t uncommon to see the same images on different blogs.

    Can you count the number of blogs you’ve seen a similar SEO image on?

    Example of Common SEO Stock Image

    Example of Common SEO Stock Image – Image by Rawpixel.com / shutterstock.com

    Too many …

    With AI-generated images, you can use dialed-in prompts to create your own custom images that are fit for editorial. AI can provide a never-ending source of images and visual aids for your own blog that is uniquely yours. You can even experiment by adding brand aspects to your images (tone, colors, and point of view). Content marketing is only benefited from better-quality images.

    Price: First 40 images Free and monthly plans starting at $9/mo | More Information

    NOTE: AI can do more than generate images these days. Check out more AI marketing tools to boost your business.

    Ecommerce Marketing Plugins

    More and more businesses are going online, which means fierce competition. In order to succeed, businesses need to have a strong marketing strategy. Marketing is important for ecommerce websites and brands because it helps businesses to reach their target audience, stand out from the competition, and increase sales. With the right mix of WordPress plugins and tools, businesses can reach a wide range of consumers and promote their products effectively.

    5. WP Mail SMTP

    WP Mail STMP WordPress Plugin

    WordPress has traditionally been quite poor at handling system emails. They are often flagged as spam in email clients because of outdated protocols for sending mail. With WP Mail SMTP, you can be sure that your marketing and transactional emails are delivered correctly and efficiently. This plugin provides a hassle-free solution for managing your email communications so that you can focus on more important things.

    Since Ecommerce businesses rely on effective emails that must be sent from the website, figuring out an SMTP solution is vital for keeping customers in the know.

    Price: The plugin comes free with upgradable Pro plans starting at $49/yr | More Information

    6. FunnelKit

    FunnelKit for WooCommerce Plugin

    The FunnelKit Funnel Builder for WordPress and WooCommerce is the perfect solution for businesses looking to capture maximum ROI with their ecommerce stores. With pre-made funnel templates, a smart rules engine, and powerful store analytics, the FunnelKit Funnel Builder makes it easy to create and optimize marketing campaigns that drive conversions and especially sales.

    Key Features:

    • Frictionless Checkouts
    • Cross Selling Smart Rules
    • A/B Tests for Entire Funnel
    • Opt-in Landing Pages
    • Analytics Dashboard

    Price: FunnelKit sports a free yet limited plugin with Pro Features starting at $99.50/yr | More Information

    7. Google Ads & Marketing by Kliken

    WooCommerce Google Ads Marketing by Kliken

    Google Ads is the easiest way to promote your products on Google and get them in front of millions of potential shoppers. You can create ad campaigns that target interested shoppers across Google, so you can get discovered on any budget. Google Ads by Kliken for WooCommerce stores makes it easy to set up your campaigns and track your results, so you can focus on growing your business.

    Key Features:

    • Connect Your Store to Google Merchant Center
    • Create Smart Product Feeds that Sync Your Inventory
    • Show up in Search Results with Free Product Listings
    • Run and Manage Paid Ad Campaigns to Promote Across Google Products

    Price: Kliken has a free WooCommerce Extension but the service costs $10/mo | More Information

    8. TikTok for WooCommerce

    WooCommerce TikTok Marketing Extension

    If you’re looking to take your online sales to the next level, TikTok for WooCommerce is the perfect solution. By syncing your store catalog and installing the TikTok pixel, you can easily track campaign performance and set up ads for your target audience. With TikTok for WooCommerce, you can reach a wider audience and boost your sales like never before.

    Key Features:

    • Setup TikTok Tracking Pixel with No Code Installation
    • Sync Your Store’s Catalog with TikTok’s Ad Platform to Create Shopping Ads
    • Create Ad Campaigns from Your Website (Conversion Campaign Types Only)
    • Track Campaign and Sales Performance

    If TikTok Advertising has you dancing, checkout the basics of advertising on TikTok. Or, see our list of top TikTok plugins.

    Price: Free Woo Extension but TikTok Ads cost | More Information

    9. Mailchimp for WooCommerce

    Mailchimp WooCommerce Marketing Plugin

    Mailchimp for WooCommerce is a WordPress plugin that connects your online store to mailchimp, giving you access to powerful sales-driving marketing tools that leverage the best of Mailchimp and WooCommerce. With these features, you can engage and build relationships with your customers, increase customer loyalty and repeat purchases, and manage SMS/Email notifications for your store—seamlessly.

    Key Features:

    • Setup Ecommerce Specific Email and SMS Automations (like Abandoned Cart, Welcome, and Re-engagement emails)
    • Use Mailchimp’s Social Advertising Platform to Retarget Customers
    • Leverage AI and Predictive Insights to Serve Product Recommendations to Customers
    • Sync Your Store with Mailchimp’s CRM Tools

    Price: Free Woo Extension and Mailchimp comes with a free email marketing tier | More Information

    WordPress Marketing Plugins for SEO

    SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of optimizing a website for certain keywords so that it appears higher on search engine results pages. This can be done through various means, such as optimizing the website’s title and meta tags, creating quality content, making your website run quickly, and building backlinks.

    SEO is one of the most important factors in online marketing for websites. This list of WordPress plugins will help you achieve SEO marketing success. If you want more, check out this list of the best SEO Plugins for WordPress.

    10. Rank Math SEO Plugin

    Rank Math WordPress SEO Plugin

    Rank Math is a WordPress SEO plugin that can help you with your website’s on-page SEO content. If you’re a marketer who is responsible for website SEO, then you know how important it is to have a plugin that can help you with your ranking.

    It helps move you along in the right direction with on-page optimization giving top-tier suggestions. Rank Math has features that allow you to optimize your title tags and meta descriptions. It also has a keyword research tool that can help you find the right keywords to use on your pages and posts.

    Something we’re particularly excited about is that they’ve been introducing AI capabilities to help with content creation and other SEO tasks.

    For more, check out how to optimize your Divi website with Rank Math.

    Price: RankMath is a free plugin with excellent Pro features that start out at $129/year | More Information

    11. SiteGround Optimizer Plugin

    SiteGround WordPress Optimizer Plugin

    The SiteGround Optimizer free plugin makes it easier for marketers to manage their website’s speed and performance. This is extremely helpful in improving your website’s ranking in search engines or simply making your site more user-friendly. Site speed and user experience are factors in search ranking factors.

    The plugin is easy to use and can make a significant difference in a matter of minutes. The plugin works especially well with Siteground hosting as it taps into the hosting infrastructure to squeeze out extra performance. If you have or are considering Siteground hosting through Divi Hosting, this is a must-have feature.

    Price: The Plugin is free but works best when integrated with SiteGround hosting | More Information

    12. Broken Link Checker

    Broken Link Checker Plugin

    Keeping your site up and running smoothly is a challenge that time only worsens. One way to mitigate poor website and SEO health is by regularly checking for broken links. Broken links can not only be frustrating for your visitors, but they can also negatively impact your site’s search engine rankings.

    The Broken Link Checker plugin is a great tool for helping you find and fix broken links on your WordPress site. This plugin will scan your entire website for broken links and then report them back to you. You can then choose to either ignore or fix the broken links.

    Content Marketers who are already maxed out on marketing tasks can find a little bit of solace with a plugin that automates some broken link maintenance.

    Price: Broken Link Checker is a completely free plugin, so, enjoy! | More Information

    13. Sirv Image CDN & Optimization

    Sirv WordPress Image SEO Plugin

    The Sirv Image CDN and Image Optimization plugin for WordPress is the perfect way to ensure your images are always served in the right size and format. Sirv dynamically serves the perfect-sized image and optimizes all images for any web or social platform. The WordPress plugin makes it easy to upload your images to Sirv and get started with image optimization.

    Key Features

    • File-size Optimization including JPEG, PNG, and WebP images.
    • Dynamic Imaging
    • Lightening fast Image CDN
    • Advertised 100% Up-time

    Sirv’s Image CDN is the perfect solution for website owners who want to ensure their images are always served quickly and efficiently. By optimizing your images for performance, you can speed up your website and improve your users’ experience. Sirv offers a free plan which allows for 500MB of storage and variable pricing to suit larger websites.

    For more, check out these best practices for optimizing Images for SEO.

    Price: Free for up to .5 GB of storage with more usage starting at $19/mo | More Information

    14. WEGLOT Multi-Language Plugin

    WEGLOT WordPress Translation Plugin

    Weglot is a WordPress plugin that offers automatic translations for your entire website. It even allows for after-the-fact, manual insertion of your own translations. This is particularly useful for content marketing in multiple languages. Website owners can have a rough translation of their entire website in multiple languages and methodically go through the entire website and update the automatic translations with human-edited translations.

    Content marketing teams looking into the new horizons of multi-language content sites need not fret. Also, check out our 8 tips for improving multilingual SEO.

    Price: Free for 1 language and 2,000 words and paid plans starting at $15/mo | More Information

    Email and SMS Marketing WordPress Plugins

    Email and SMS marketing are powerful tools for website owners who want to convert their visitors into subscribers and customers. By segmenting their audience and tailoring their email/SMS campaigns, website owners can increase their chances of success.

    Marketing plugins help automate the SMS and email marketing process by integrating with CRMs and feeding segmentation efforts from the beginning. Most traditional email marketing has added the ability to send SMS messages through the same interface. Incorporating both is a good tactic on your way towards a proper omnichannel marketing push.

    15. Bloom

    Bloom-call-to-action-plugin

    Bloom is a powerful email marketing tool that generates leads and grows online businesses.

    With advanced display rules, you can control when and where your popups are shown, ensuring that they’re always relevant to your visitors. This means that your email marketing segmentation efforts are starting off on their best footing. Bloom also integrates with popular marketing and CRM platforms, making it easy to manage your leads and customers.

    And since Bloom is made by the developers behind the Divi Theme, you can trust that you’ll have unlimited potential to design powerful opt-in forms. Marketers can leverage the best design features and segmentation strategies with Bloom.

    Price: Free plugin with Purchase of the Divi Theme | See Divi Pricing Information

    16. ActiveCampaign

    ActiveCampaign Omnichannel Customer Experience Platform

    ActiveCampaign’s WordPress plugin extends the platform’s functionality to any WordPress website. The plugins provide features such as email opt-ins, contact forms, and integration with ActiveCampaign‘s email marketing and automation tools.

    ActiveCampaign is an all-in-one marketing platform that helps businesses attract, engage, and retain customers. The platform includes email marketing, lead generation, marketing automation, and CRM tools.

    The WordPress plugin brings in these ActiveCampaign features:

    • Embed ActiveCampaign Forms anywhere on your site
    • Install ActiveCampaign Site Tracking for lead scoring and segmentation
    • Deploy ActiveCampaign’s Live Chat for accounts with that feature set

    Price: Free plugin for use with their email/automation services | More Information

    17. RafflePress

    RafflePress WordPress Giveaway Marketing Plugin

    If you’re looking for a powerful and user-friendly WordPress contest plugin, look no further than RafflePress. With its easy-to-use interface and wide range of features, RafflePress is the perfect tool for running giveaways and competitions on your WordPress site.

    Key Features:

    • Drag & Drop Giveaway Builder
    • 1 Click Entry + Fraud Protection
    • Marketing & CRM Integrations
    • Viral Sharing (Refer-a-Friend)
    • Tracking and Retargeting

    Price: Free lite version of the plugin and Pro features starting at $79/year | More Information

    18. OptinMonster

    OptinMonster WordPress Marketing Plugin

    OptinMonster is one of those plugins that gets lots of attention. That’s because it is a multi-faceted marketing plugin that is worth its price tag many times over.

    With OptinMonster, you can power contextualized opt-in forms based on exit intent, geolocation targeting, and page-level targeting. It comes standard with 100+ templates to make your popup, floating bar, and gamified giveaway wheel creation an absolute breeze. With over a million websites running OptinMonster, you’re going to fit right in with some good company. If you’re wanting to get every last lead that you can from your existing site traffic, you could do much worse than OptinMonster.

    Price: Plugin with limited features free and Pro plans starting at $16/mo | More Information

    Social Media and Search Engine Marketing Plugins

    Search engine marketing (SEM) and social media marketing (SMM) share a lot of common ground. Both can include paid forms of advertising that use ad networks to reach their target audiences. And both can be highly effective in promoting your business or website.

    We’ve grouped these together because many full-suite marketing platforms cater to both types of paid advertising. There are tools that only focus on SMM or SEM respectively but it is still worth grouping the plugins together. If you’re curious, read about the difference between SEO and SEM.

    Which mix of these plugins is right for you?

    19. WPCode

    WPCode Install Marketing Pixels Plugin

    WPCode (formerly Insert Headers and Footers) is a custom code installation tool for WordPress websites. For marketers, WPCode lets you add Marketing Pixel scripts into the header, body, and footer of your web pages. This makes the installation and firing of these pixels as easy as possible.

    It is also a strong way of implementing Google Tag Manager into WordPress websites or replacing it altogether—regardless of theme choice.

    Price: Free lite version of the plugin and Pro features starting at $99/year | More Information

    20. Google Site Kit

    Google Site Kit WordPress Plugin

    Google Site Kit is a WordPress plugin that helps make installing Google services and products on your WordPress website easier. Site Kit makes it easy to install with no code implementation. Site Kit connects to your Google Account to automatically install the desired services.

    Google Services that Site Kit Helps Install:

    • AdSense
    • Google Analytics
    • Google Optimize
    • Search Console Site Verification Tag

    These are all powerful tools built by Google that marketers everywhere use.

    Price: Free plugin offered by Google | More Information

    21. Monarch

    Monarch Social Sharing

    Monarch is a WordPress plugin that allows website creators to add beautiful and functional social sharing to their sites.

    The Monarch WordPress plugin is a well-coded social sharing tool that won’t slow your website down. It gives website visitors the option to share a post or page on their preferred social networks. Monarch comes with design flexibility to make social sharing a natural part of your website and design. It also comes with more standard locations than other options.

    Marketers looking for viral sharing of their high-quality content can trust Monarch to give their sites that functionality.

    Price: Free plugin with Purchase of the Divi Theme | See Divi Pricing Information

    22. Better Click to Tweet

    Better Click to Tweet Marketing Plugin

    Better Click to Tweet is another social sharing option that marketers can use on their WordPress websites to increase the virality of website content. The principle behind click-to-tweet plugins is that some of your content is going to be catchy and even Tweet-able. These plugins allow your readers to share exact quotes on Twitter.

    Better Click to Tweet is best suited for marketers who have a large Twitter presence and with audiences that use Twitter themselves. It’s a powerful way to extend thought leadership in your category both on your website and on Twitter.

    Price: Free plugin with additional addons and styles starting at $71/yr | More Information

    WordPress Marketing Plugins for Conversion Rate Optimization

    Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) helps website managers get the best results out of steady streams of website traffic. These plugins and services can help you reach ever higher conversion rates on your most important pages.

    23. TrustPulse Social Proof Notifications

    TrustPulse Conversion Rate Optimizer Plugin

    If you’re looking to increase your website’s conversion rate, TrustPulse is an excellent WordPress plugin to consider.

    TrustPulse uses social proof to show potential customers what other people are doing on your website—whether it’s buying a product, signing up for a membership, or completing an opt-in form for a newsletter. This creates a sense of urgency and FOMO (fear of missing out), which encourages visitors to take the desired action.

    Overall, TrustPulse is an effective tool for increasing conversion rates and generating more sales. It is a premium plugin with pricing based on features and unique monthly visitors.

    Price: Free plugin with premium features starting at $9/mo | More Information

    24. WPForms

    WPForms WordPress Plugin

    I know what you’re thinking, “Really a forms plugin makes the list of top marketing plugins for 2023?”. Yea, it does, and here’s why.

    WPForms is a powerhouse form plugin that fulfills all sorts of operational needs that connect directly with your marketing initiatives. It handles surveys effortlessly so you can continuously pulse your customers and prospects so every move you make is backed up with cold hard data. You can use WPforms for event registration or plain old opt-in mailing registration. WPForms sports a measily an incredible 500+ form templates so you will never look at a blank screen again.

    It also does the normal stuff really well too, like Contact Forms, payment collection, and a drag-and-drop visual building. From simple forms to powering your Conversion Rate Optimization, WPForms can really handle what you need it to.

    Price: The Lite version is a free plugin but the Pro features kick in at $99/yr | More Information

    25. Crisp Live Chat

    Crisp Live Chat WordPress Plugin

    If you’re looking for a free and beautiful chat for your website, Crisp Live Chat is the perfect solution. With its easy-to-use chatbot builder, you can easily create a chatbot to help grow your email list, generate leads, and enhance your customer relationship. Plus, Crisp Live Chate integrates seamlessly with WordPress, making it the perfect choice for your website.

    Super-charge your customer support and sales operations with Live Chat. New contacts can be added to your CRM or email marketing software for continued marketing or sales outreach. Crisp Live Chat has a free tier of their platform but also paid tiers for scaling businesses with diverse needs for their live chat implementation.

    Price: Free plugin with advanced chat functions starting at $25/mo | More Information

    26. Divi

    Divi Page Builder Plugin

    Divi provides a powerful marketing platform for your website that provides an effective way to create landing pages quickly using a no-code visual builder and optimize them for lead generation and conversion using a suite of tools and design options. Most everyone knows about the Divi Theme, but Divi also exists as a plugin. This means that you can bring the powerful, visual page-building experience of Divi into any website—regardless of theme. It comes full of features that your standard page builder can’t compete with such as:

    • Divi Form builder without needing a separate plugin
    • A/B Testing of Modules for expert CRO built right into your page builder
    • Uncompromising design control so your marketing can look as good as it is planned
    • Comes with your Divi Membership—if you bought the theme, you have the plugin

    If you’re needing more from your page builder in 2023—and not less—the Divi page builder plugin (or theme for that matter!) is something you need to check out.

    Price: Comes free with your Divi Memebership | Get Divi Today

    Conclusion

    WordPress marketing plugins are a great way to keep your marketing efforts on track. The best ones will not only save you time but open up a world of possibilities for your website and business marketing.

    WordPress offers a wide variety of plugins to connect various marketing services together into a cohesive system. We like systems because they help you cover every base and iterate on your marketing operation as time goes on. We hope you these marketing plugins will serve you well.

    Which plugins are your reliable go-to’s? Any possible new additions to this list that you are now considering? We want to know!

    Featured Image Assets via Soifer and Vector Stock Pro / shutterstock.com

    The post 26 Best WordPress Marketing Plugins for 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • How to Add Venmo in WordPress & WooCommerce

    Recently one of our readers asked if it was possible to add Venmo to collect payments in WordPress?

    Venmo makes it super easy to accept payments on your website. It is convenient, user-friendly, and is already used by about 70 million people. Letting people use a familiar payment method can increase conversions in your online store.

    In this article, we will show you how to easily add Venmo in WordPress.

    How to Add Venmo in WordPress

    Why Use Venmo as a Payment Gateway

    Venmo is a popular mobile payment service owned by PayPal which is the most popular and trusted online payment gateway in the world. Currently, Venmo is only available in the U.S.

    If you have a WooCommerce store based in the United States, then adding Venmo as one of the payment gateways is the right option for you because it allows your customers to make a purchase from their mobile phones without any hassle.

    Not only does Venmo easily connect with users’ bank accounts, but the service also does not charge any fees for sending money from your Venmo balance or linked balance. These are big reasons why many U.S. residents opt for this mobile payment app.

    Popular brands like Amazon, Macy’s, Walmart, and Samsung also offer Venmo as a payment gateway to their customers. With that being said, let’s see how you can easily add Venmo to WordPress.

    Method 1. Add Venmo in WordPress Using Payment Plugins Braintree

    You can seamlessly integrate Venmo with your WooCommerce store using the Payment Plugins Braintree For WooCommerce plugin.

    This WooCommerce plugin allows you to easily add Venmo as a payment gateway to your online store.

    First, you need to install and activate the Payment Plugins Braintree plugin. For further instructions, check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Upon activation, head over to Braintree Gateway » Settings from your WordPress admin dashboard.

    This will actually direct you to WooCommerce ‘Payments’ page. You can also reach this page by heading to WooCommerce » Settings. The only difference will be that if you go through the WooCommerce menu item, the page will not have the Braintree logo.

    Here you will see all the Braintree gateways that you can integrate into your site. Simply click the ‘Venmo’ tab.

    Go to Settings and select the Venmo tab

    Now that you’re on the ‘Braintree Venmo Gateway’ tab, you will see an ‘Enabled’ checkbox at the top.

    You need to make sure that it is checked. This will allow your site to accept Venmo payments through this plugin.

    Simply check the Enabled box

    Next, go to ‘General Settings’ and fill in the details to set up your Venmo Gateway. For example, you can change the title that appears to users, the icon, or add a short description of the payment method.

    After that, simply click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page to save your changes.

    Fill in general settings to set up your Venmo account

    Now, Venmo has been added to your WordPress site, and you’re ready to accept payments in WooCommerce.

    Method 2. Add Venmo in WordPress Using the Checkout With Venmo Plugin

    Another way to add Venmo in WordPress is by using the ‘Checkout With Venmo On WooCommerce‘ plugin.

    It is a well-known plugin used for integrating Venmo into WordPress.

    The first thing you need to do is install and activate the ‘Checkout With Venmo On WooCommerce‘ plugin. For help, check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Once the plugin is activated, go to WooCommerce » Venmo from the WordPress admin dashboard.

    This will open up the ‘Venmo’ tab on the WooCommerce ‘Payments’ page.

    Here, you will find the ‘Enable VENMO’ option at the top of the page. Make sure that you check the box.

    If you click the ‘test’ link next to the title, you will be directed to the Venmo account page where you can sign in and create your account. You will be able to ensure all your settings are correct before attempting to take real payments.

    Enable the VENMO test option on the Venmo page

    Next, simply fill out the details in the form below and then click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page.

    Congratulations! You’ve successfully integrated Venmo into WordPress.

    Fill in your Venmo account details

    That’s it! We hope you learned how to add Venmo to WordPress. You may also want to check out our article on the ultimate WooCommerce SEO guide and our expert picks for the best WooCommerce plugins to help grow your store.

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

    The post How to Add Venmo in WordPress & WooCommerce first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Show Random Quotes in Your WordPress Sidebar

    Do you want to show random quotes in the WordPress sidebar?

    Displaying quotes from happy customers can convince more visitors to buy your products. Or you might simply want to brighten your audience’s day by showing them a random inspirational quote. 

    In this article, we will show you how to easily show random quotes in the WordPress sidebar by using a free plugin.

    How to Show Random Quotes in WordPress Sidebar

    How to Show Random Quotes in Your WordPress Sidebar

    You can show random quotes in the WordPress sidebar using the Quotes and Tips plugin. It lets you add an unlimited number of quotes to your site.

    It also lets you display quotes on any page, post, or widget area, including your WordPress sidebar.

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

    After activating the plugin, you can start adding quotes. To add your first quote, go to Quotes » Add New.

    How to add a new random quote

    First you’ll need to type a title for your quote into the ‘Add Title’ field. In a later step, we’ll show you how to choose whether or not to display the quote’s title to your visitors, or use it for internal reference only.

    Next, type your quote into the text editor. In our example, we’re using a quote from a case study.

    A quote from an OptinMonster customer

    You may want to organize your quotes into categories. This becomes important when it’s time to display your quotes.

    Basically, you have two options.

    The Quotes and Tips plugin can select a random quote from all of the quotes you’ve added. Or, it can select a random quote from a specific quote category.

    For example, if you have an online store, you might want to display quotes about a specific product on that product page only.

    If you already have some categories in mind, then it makes sense to organize your quotes into these categories now. But you can always add, remove, and edit your categories later. We’ll be covering that at the end of the post.

    If you do want to create a quote category now, then you can find the Quotes Categories box on the right side of the page.

    To add your category, first click on the ‘Add New Quotes Category’ link.

    Adding a new quote category

    A field will display where you can type your category name. The category won’t appear to your visitors, so it’s just for your reference.

    After you type it in, click on the ‘Add New Quotes Category’ button. 

    This category will now appear in the Quotes Category tab. To add the current quote to this category, simply select the category’s checkbox. 

    Selecting a quote category in the WordPress dashboard

    You can keep repeating these steps to create more quote categories. 

    Next, you’ll typically want to show where a quote comes from. This might be a valued customer, a famous brand, or even a celebrity.

    To assign your quote to a person or company, scroll down to the ‘Name and Official Position’ section.

    You can now type the person or company’s name into the Name field. 

    The Name and Official Position settings

    You might also want to add this person’s job title, or some information that explains why they’re qualified to make this statement. You can type this information into the Official Position field.

    When you’re happy with your quote, click on the Publish button. 

    You can now repeat these steps to create all of the quotes that you want to show in your WordPress sidebar.  

    Configuring Your Quotes and Tips Settings 

    After creating your quotes, it’s time to take a look at the Quotes and Tips settings. This contains some important settings that control how and when your site displays a random quote. 

    To take a look at these settings, go to Tips » Settings

    The Quotes and Tips settings page

    By default, Quotes and Tips will display a new quote every time the page reloads. This means visitors will see a new quote every time they visit a new page or press the Refresh button in their web browser. 

    If you prefer, you can display a new quote automatically every few seconds or minutes. The visitor doesn’t even have to refresh their web browser.

    To do this, select ‘AJAX (no page reload).’ You can then find the Change Frequency field. Here, simply type how frequently WordPress should display a new quote in seconds.

    Changing the quote frequency

    Next, it’s time to choose the title that will appear above your quote. 

    The default setting is ‘Set Title From Post’. This will display the title you entered when adding the quote to WordPress.

    Another option is creating a title that WordPress will use for all of your quotes. This might be something such as ‘Words of Wisdom’ or ‘Don’t take our word for it! Here’s what our customers think’ for testimonials.

    To use the same title for all your quotes, click on ‘Set Custom Titles.’ You can now type your title into the Quote Title field. 

    Setting your quote title in the WordPress dashboard

    When you’re finished, don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button. 

    How to Display a Random Quote 

    Now it’s time to display your quotes.

    Let’s start by showing a random quote from your entire quote collection. If you’ve created multiple categories, then this method will ignore all of these categories. 

    You can add your quote to any page, post, or widget using the Quotes and Tips shortcode. To get this shortcode, go to Quotes » Settings

    Now, copy the shortcode in the ‘Quotes and Tips’ section.

    The WordPress quotes shortcode

    Another option is to simply copy the following: [quotes_and_tips]

    Since we want to show random quotes in the WordPress sidebar, you’ll need to go to Appearance » Widgets. This shows all the areas of your site that support widgets. 

    The WordPress 'Widgets' settings

    This screen may look slightly different depending on your WordPress theme. However, most modern WordPress themes have a sidebar. 

    Find the Main Sidebar or similar section, and give it a click. This section will now expand.

    The WordPress Main Sidebar settings

    You need to add a Shortcode block to this widget, so click on the + button. In the search field, type Shortcode. 

    You can now select the Shortcode block when it appears. Next, either paste or type the shortcode into this block. 

    Finally, click on the blue Update button at the top of the screen. Now, if you visit your website you should see a random quote in your WordPress sidebar. 

    How to Display Random Quotes From a Specific Category 

    Another option is to display a quote from a specific quote category.

    To display a random quote from a particular category, you’ll need to use a different shortcode.

    To get this code, head over to Quotes » Quote Category

    Here, you’ll find a list of all the categories you’ve created. Each category has its own shortcode. 

    A list of WordPress quote categories

    Simply find the category that you want to use, and copy its shortcode. You can then paste this shortcode into any page, post, or widget, following the same process above.

    How to Style and Brand Your Random Quotes

    By default, Quotes and Tips adds a blue background to the quote area. It also uses a background image of silhouettes.

    You can change this default styling to better match the rest of your website’s design. You can even remove the styling completely. 

    A random quote in the WordPress sidebar

    To change the background color, text color, or background image, go to Quotes » Settings.

    In the left menu, click on the Appearance tab.

    How to style the random quote in your WordPress sidebar

    You can now change the background color and text color, by clicking on the Select Color button.

    This adds an area where you can choose your perfect color.

    Changing the background color

    If you change your mind, you can restore the plugin’s default colors at any point. Simply click on the Default button.

    You can also change the background image. To remove the default background image, scroll to Background Image, and then click on the None button.

    Customizing the quote's background image

    You can also add your own background image.

    Using your company or product logo as a background image can be a great way to brand your quotes.

    Displaying a random branded quote in WordPress sidebar

    To upload a new background image, click on the Custom button. This adds a Choose File button. 

    Give this button a click. This will open a window where you can select the file that you want to use as your background image.

    Uploading a new image to your random quote

    After making your choice, you can customize how this image looks on your site.

    This includes changing the background image alignment and the opacity, which is how transparent the background image is.

    Why not experiment, to see what different effects you can create?

    How to Add, Edit and Delete Quote Categories 

    Sometimes, you may want Quotes and Tips to display a completely random quote.

    Other times, you may need more control over the kind of quotes that it displays. 

    You can do this using quote categories. We’ve already seen how to create a category when adding a new quote. However, Quotes and Tips has an entire menu where you can make changes to these categories, and create new ones.

    To see these settings, go to Quotes » Quotes Categories

    Editing your quote categories

    Here, you can quickly and easily create quote categories. To add a new category, type a name for your category into the Name field.

    By default this plugin creates each quote category as a parent category. 

    Another option is to create a subcategory. For example, you might have an OptinMonster parent category, and then create subcategories for your different promotions, such as ‘OptinMonster summer sale’ and ‘OptinMonster holiday promotion.’ 

    To create a quote subcategory, you’ll need to select a Parent Category.

    Choosing the quote parent category

    When you’re happy with your quote category, click on the blue Add New Quotes Category button. 

    You can also edit any of the categories you created earlier. 

    To edit a category, hover over it. Then, click on the Edit link when it appears.

    Editing a quote category in the WordPress dashboard

    This launches a new page where you can make changes to this category. This includes editing the category’s name, and choosing a new parent.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to show random quotes in the WordPress sidebar. Next, you can see our guide on how to increase your blog traffic, or see our expert pick of the best social proof plugins for WordPress 

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

    The post How to Show Random Quotes in Your WordPress Sidebar first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Enable Maintenance Mode for WooCommerce

    Do you want to enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce without affecting other parts of your WordPress website?

    Maintenance mode allows you to show a user-friendly notice to shoppers instead of a broken eCommerce site. You can even enable maintenance mode for specific product pages or areas of your WooCommerce store.

    In this guide, we’ll show you how to enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce.

    How to enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce

    Why and When You Need to Enable Maintenance Mode for WooCommerce

    Sometimes you may need to put your WordPress website in maintenance mode. For example, you may be making major changes such as installing a new theme or completely redesigning your WordPress blog.

    At other times you may need to put your WooCommerce store into maintenance mode, while leaving the rest of your site open.

    This could be because there’s a problem that’s only affecting your online store, and not the rest of your website. For example, you may be unable to process customer payments. In this case, maintenance mode can stop customers from encountering the error and having a bad shopping experience.

    You may also be adding an online store to an existing website and want to keep those pages private while you work on them.

    An engaging ‘coming soon’ page can also create a sense of excitement and anticipation while you build your store behind the scenes. You might even encourage shoppers to get ready for the launch by following you on social media, joining your email list, or even entering a WooCommerce contest.

    That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily enable WooCommerce maintenance mode without affecting the rest of your website.

    Enabling Maintenance Mode for WooCommerce

    The easiest way to enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce is by using SeedProd.

    SeedProd is the best landing page builder for WordPress, used on more than a million websites. It allows you to create beautiful coming soon pages in WordPress, improve your 404 page, and even design unique landing pages using drag and drop.

    There’s a free version of SeedProd that lets you create a maintenance mode page. However, we’ll be using the premium version as it lets you put your WooCommerce store into maintenance mode while keeping the rest of your site available.

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

    After activating the plugin, SeedProd will ask for your license key.

    Adding the SeedProd license key

    You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website. After entering the license, click on the ‘Verify Key’ button.

    Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to put your WooCommerce store in maintenance mode.

    Creating Your Maintenance Mode or Coming Soon Page

    After activating SeedProd, go to SeedProd » Pages. Here, you can choose whether to create a maintenance mode page or a coming soon page.

    Although some people use these terms interchangeably, there are some important differences you should know.

    If you create a ‘Coming Soon’ page, then search engines will still be able to see and crawl your store pages. This gives your WooCommerce site a chance to get indexed by search engines.

    If you’re building a new store, then you’ll typically want to create a coming soon page.

    If your store is down for maintenance, then you should create a ‘Maintenance Mode’ page instead. This mode tells search engines that your site is temporarily down, using the special header code 503.

    After getting this code, the search bots will recheck your WordPress website later to see whether it’s back online. In this way, you can hide your store from shoppers without affecting your search engine rankings.

    Note: We’ll create a maintenance mode page in this guide, but the steps will be the same no matter whether you click on ‘Set up a Maintenance Mode Page’ or ‘Set up a Coming Soon Page.’

    Creating a maintenance page for your online store

    The next step is building the page that shoppers will see when you enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce.

    You can either choose a ready-made template or start with a blank design. We’re using ‘Celebrate Coming Soon’ in all our images but you can use any template you like.

    To select a template, simply hover your mouse over that design’s thumbnail and then click the ‘checkmark’ icon.

    Choosing the WooCommerce coming soon page

    After selecting a template, you’ll be taken to the drag-and-drop builder, where you can start customizing the maintenance mode design.

    On the left side of the screen, you’ll find blocks and sections that you can add to your design. The right side of the page is the live preview.

    How to create a maintenance mode for WooCommerce

    Most templates already have some blocks, which are a core part of all SeedProd designs. To start, you’ll typically want to customize these blocks by adding your own text, images, links, and other content.

    To change the text in any Headline or Text block, simply click to select that block in your layout. This brings up all the settings for that particular block.

    You can now type your text into the small text editor.

    Adding text to a WooCommerce coming soon page

    You can also use these settings to style the text, including adding bold and italic formatting, changing the text alignment, changing the font size, and more.

    You can add more blocks to your maintenance page by dragging them from the left-hand menu and then dropping them onto your design.

    For example, if you wanted to add a custom logo then you could simply drag an ‘Image’ block onto your layout.

    Adding a logo to to your online store's maintenance page

    Then, just click to select that block in your layout and the left-hand menu will show all the settings for that block.

    To add a logo, go ahead and click on ‘Use Your Own Image.’

    Building a custom coming soon page with WooCommerce

    You can then either choose an image from the WordPress media library or upload a new file from your computer.

    After adding an image, you can change the size, add image alt text, embed a link, and more using the settings in the left-hand menu.

    The SeedProd page builder plugin

    If you’re using the WPForms plugin then you can quickly and easily add a contact form to the maintenance page. This gives shoppers a way to talk to you even when your WooCommerce site is down for maintenance.

    After creating a contact form in WordPress, you can drag the ‘Contact Form’ block onto your SeedProd layout.

    Adding a contact form to your maintenance page

    Then, simply click to select the Contact Form block.

    In the left-hand menu, open the dropdown menu and choose the form you created earlier.

    Adding a contact form to the WooCommerce maintenance screen

    To remove a block from your design, simply go ahead and click on it.

    You can then select the trash can icon.

    Deleting blocks in the SeedPage page builder

    You can also move blocks around the page using drag and drop.

    When you’re happy with how the maintenance page looks, make sure you click ‘Save.’

    Saving the maintenance mode template

    Turn on Maintenance or Coming Soon Mode for Your WooCommerce Store

    Now that you’ve created a custom coming soon or maintenance mode page, let’s go ahead and enable it.

    Here, we want to put the store into maintenance mode, and not the entire site. To do this, click on the ‘Page Settings’ tab inside the SeedProd editor.

    Then, select the ‘Access Control’ tab.

    SeedProd's access control settings

    You can use these settings to specify where the coming soon or maintenance page appears on your site, and who sees it. For example, you might show this page to people who have a particular user role or IP address.

    Since we want to put our WooCommerce site into maintenance mode, scroll to the ‘Include/Exclude URLs’ section.

    Then, just click on the ‘Include URLs’ button.

    Enabling maintenance mode for a WooCommerce store

    Now, you need to enter the URLs for your WooCommerce store. This may vary depending on how your store is set up, and whether you’ve created any custom pages such as a custom WooCommerce cart page or a custom checkout page.

    However, it’s smart to start with all the pages that WooCommerce creates automatically:

    https://example.com/shop
    https://example.com/cart
    https://example.com/checkout
    https://example.com/my-account

    If your store has products, then you’ll also need to add these URLs. Be sure to include the asterisk!

    https://example.com/product/*
    https://example.com/product-category/*
    https://example.com/product-tag/*

    The asterisk is a wildcard character, which tells SeedProd to include all URLs that match the pattern before it.

    This means that shoppers will see the maintenance page when they try to access any product, product category, or product tag.

    After adding all these URLs, click on the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.

    Putting Your Store In Maintenance Mode

    You’re now ready to put your WooCommerce store in maintenance or coming soon mode at any point. In the WordPress dashboard, simply go to SeedProd » Landing Pages.

    Then, click on the ‘Inactive’ slider under ‘Coming Soon Mode’ or ‘Maintenance Mode,’ so that it changes to ‘Active.’

    Activating maintenance mode for a WooCommerce store

    Now, simply visit your WooCommerce store in an incognito browser tab and you’ll see your custom design, rather than your online store.

    When you’re ready to make your store public, simply go back to SeedProd » Landing Pages.

    Then click on the ‘Active’ slider so that it shows ‘Inactive.’ Now, anyone who visits your site will see your WooCommerce store, and can buy products and services as normal.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce. You may also want to take a look at our expert pick of the best WooCommerce plugins, and our complete step-by-step guide on how to create an email newsletter.

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

    The post How to Enable Maintenance Mode for WooCommerce first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Add Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA in WordPress

    Do you want to add Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA in WordPress?

    CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA can stop spambots, but they’re also unpopular with visitors. By using a non-intrusive technology like Turnstile, you can protect your website from spambots and automated scripts without annoying your visitors.

    In this article, we will show you how to add Cloudflare Turnstile to your WordPress website.

    How to add Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA in WordPress

    Why Add Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA in WordPress?

    Spam is a big problem for all websites including WordPress. Spambots can use non-secure forms to send you spammy links, which will make it more difficult for you to do lead generation.

    They can also try to break into your site’s login form by using brute force attacks or flooding your site with spam comments that’ll damage the visitor experience and your WordPress SEO.

    If you run an online store, then automated scripts may even place fraudulent orders.

    Many website owners use CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA to block scripts and bots. However, a lot of people complain that these technologies deliver a poor user experience, and some even worry about CAPTCHAs stealing their data.

    With that being said, Cloudflare has introduced Turnstile CAPTCHA. This alternative technology uses a selection of non-intrusive challenges that often run invisibly in the browser. This allows you to protect your website without asking visitors to complete complex puzzles.

    To help keep visitor information private, Cloudflare uses Apple’s Private Access Tokens to test whether the visitor is a real person without collecting extra data.

    If you’re using form builders or WooCommerce, then Turnstile also integrates with these third-party plugins. This allows you to add invisible CAPTCHAs across many different areas of your WordPress website.

    With that in mind, let’s see how you can add Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA in WordPress. Simply use the quick links below to jump between the different steps.

    Install a WordPress Cloudflare CAPTCHA Plugin

    The easiest way to add Cloudflare’s CAPTCHA to WordPress is by using Simple Cloudflare Turnstile. This free plugin allows you to connect your website to the Turnstile service, and then check that it’s responding to your requests correctly.

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

    Upon activation, go to Settings » Cloudflare Turnstile.

    Adding a site key and secret key to a WordPress website

    The plugin will now ask you to provide a site key and site secret.

    You can get these for free by clicking on the link next to ‘You can get your site key and secret from here.’

    Get a Cloudflare Turnstile Site Secret and Site Key

    The link will take you to the Cloudflare login page where you can register your domain and create a site key and site secret. This is free, but you will need to create a Cloudflare account using your email address, if you haven’t already.

    Once you’re logged into the Cloudflare dashboard, find ‘Turnstile’ in the left-hand menu and give it a click.

    The Cloudflare dashboard

    This will take you to a screen with some basic information about Cloudflare Turnstile.

    If you’re happy to go ahead, then click on the ‘Add site’ button.

    Adding a site to the Cloudflare dashboard

    On this screen, start by typing in a ‘Site Name.’

    This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

    Adding a WordPress website to the Cloudflare dashboard

    Next, type your website’s domain name into the ‘Domain’ field.

    The next step is choosing which CAPTCHA widget you want to create. The first choice is ‘Managed,’ which is the method recommended by Cloudflare. This is where Cloudflare analyzes the browser’s request and then decides what kind of challenge it should run.

    While this is happening, the visitor will see a loading animation.

    Adding a Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA to WordPress

    Wherever possible, Cloudflare will try to run a non-interactive challenge in the background, so the visitor doesn’t have to do anything.

    In this case, the user will simply see a ‘Success’ message when their browser passes the test.

    Creating a managed Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA

    Sometimes, Cloudflare may decide that it’s safer to show an interactive challenge instead. However, the visitor will simply need to check a box rather than complete a puzzle, so it’s still easier than the traditional puzzle-based CAPTCHAs.

    Unless you have a specific reason not to, it’s smart to use managed CAPTCHAs as this gives you a good level of security with minimum impact on the visitor experience.

    How to create a managed CAPTCHA for WordPress

    Don’t want to use interactive challenges on your WordPress website? Then you can choose ‘Non-interactive’ or ‘Invisible’ instead.

    Non-interactive challenges run in the browser so the visitor doesn’t have to take any action. Just like the managed CAPTCHA, visitors will see the loading animation and a ‘Success’ message when the challenge is complete.

    If you choose ‘Invisible’ instead, then the visitor won’t see the animation or success message. This setting allows you to completely hide the CAPTCHA from your visitors, which can avoid confusion and won’t add any clutter to your WordPress theme.

    After making your decision, click on the ‘Create’ button.

    As soon as you’ve done that, Cloudflare will show your site key and secret key.

    Creating a site key and secret key for your WordPress website

    You can now add this information to the plugin’s settings on your website.

    Add Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA to Your WordPress Website

    In your WordPress dashboard, head back to Settings » Cloudflare Turnstile. You can now go ahead and add the ‘Site Key’ and ‘Site Secret’ to your WordPress dashboard.

    Adding the Cloudflare secret key and site secret to WordPress

    After that, you may want to customize how the CAPTCHA looks on your website, and how it acts. To start, you can open the ‘Theme’ dropdown and choose from light, dark, or auto.

    The following image shows an example of how the ‘Dark’ theme looks in the WordPress comment section.

    A Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA with a dark theme

    By default, Cloudflare Turnstile shows a ‘Please verify that you are human’ message to visitors. You may want to change this. For example, you might briefly explain why the CAPTCHA is so important, or that it will only take a few seconds to complete.

    To add your own wording, simply type into the ‘Custom Error Message’ field.

    Creating a custom error message for a WordPress CAPTCHA

    After that, you can select the forms where you’ll use the Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA.

    The options you see may vary depending on the plugins you’ve installed, but by default, you can use Turnstile with all the built-in WordPress forms. This includes the login page, user registration form, and password reset page.

    Enabling Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA for the WordPress forms

    When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes.’

    Now, if you visit your website you’ll see the Turnstile CAPTCHA in action.

    Bonus: Add Turnstile CAPTCHA to Your WordPress Forms

    WordPress comes with different built-in forms, but you’ll often want to create custom forms. For example, you might replace the default forms with professionally-designed alternatives that better suit your website.

    You can also add forms that are missing from the core WordPress software, such as contact forms and online order forms.

    Simple Cloudflare Turnstile integrates with the best contact form plugins for WordPress including WPForms and Formidable Forms. This allows you to add the same advanced CAPTCHAs to all your forms, no matter how you created them.

    How to add a CAPTCHA to a WordPress contact form

    To add a CAPTCHA to any WPForms or Formidable Forms page, simply go to Settings » Cloudflare Turnstile in your WordPress dashboard.

    At the bottom of the page, you should see a section for either WPForms or Formidable Forms, depending on which plugin you’re using.

    Integrating Cloudflare with WPForms and Formidable Forms

    Simply click on either of these sections to expand.

    To add the CAPTCHA to all your forms, just check the ‘Enable on all…’ box.

    Enabling CAPTCHA for WPForms

    If you’re using a ‘Managed’ or ‘Non-interactive’ CAPTCHA, then you can change whether the loading and success animation appears before or after the form’s ‘Submit’ button.

    In the following image, we’re using the ‘After button’ option.

    Changing where the CAPTCHA appears in WPForms

    To make this change, simply open the ‘Widget Location’ dropdown.

    Then, choose either ‘Before Button’ or ‘After Button.’

    Changing the location of the CAPTCHA widget

    Some forms may not need a CAPTCHA. For example, you might disable the CAPTCHA for forms that aren’t getting many conversions, to see whether this improves your conversion rates. For more information, see our guide on WordPress conversion tracking made simple.

    To remove the CAPTCHA, you’ll need to type the form’s ID into the ‘Disable Form IDs’ field.

    Removing the CAPTCHA from WPForms

    If you’re using WPForms, then you can get this ID by going to WPForms » All Forms.

    The ‘Shortcode’ column shows each form’s ID. For example, in the following image the form ID is 62.

    How to disable CAPTCHAs on your WordPress website

    If you’re a Formidable Forms user, then head over to Formidable » Forms instead.

    On this screen, find the form that you want to exclude and make a note of the number in the ‘ID’ column.

    Forms, created using the Formidable Forms WordPress plugin

    You can now add these IDs to the ‘Disable Form IDs’ field.

    To remove the CAPTCHA from multiple forms, simply separate each ID with a comma.

    Disabling the Cloudflare CAPTCHA for multiple forms

    When you’re happy with how you’ve set up the integration, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.

    Now if you visit any form created using Formidable Forms or WPForms, you’ll see the Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA in action.

    Bonus: Add Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA to WooCommerce

    Scripts and bots aren’t just bad news for WordPress blogs and websites. If you run an online store, then spambots and automated scripts might try to register with your store and place fake orders.

    Every transaction comes with processing feeds, so fake orders can cost you a lot of money and make it difficult to grow your business.

    The good news is that Cloudflare Turnstile also integrates with WooCommerce. This allows you to protect all your eCommerce pages including the WooCommerce login, signup, and checkout pages.

    The Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA on the WooCommerce checkout page

    To add Cloudflare Turnstile to your WooCommerce pages, simply go to Settings » Cloudflare Turnstile.

    Then, scroll to the ‘WooCommerce Forms’ section.

    Adding CAPTCHAs to your WooCommerce forms

    If it isn’t already expanded, then click on this section.

    You’ll now see all the WooCommerce pages where you can add a Cloudflare CAPTCHA. Simply check the box next to each page that you want to protect.

    Protecting your WooCommerce store with a CAPTCHA

    After that, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings. Now, if you visit any of your WooCommerce pages, you’ll see the Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to add Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA in WordPress. You can also go through our ultimate WordPress security guide and the best WordPress membership plugins.

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

    The post How to Add Cloudflare Turnstile CAPTCHA in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Create a Viral TikTok Giveaway in WordPress

    Do you want to create a viral TikTok giveaway in WordPress?

    Giveaways can help grow your TikTok channel and get you more views. They’re also a great way to engage with the people who already watch your TikToks and encourage them to watch even more of your videos.

    In this article, we’ll show you how to create a viral TikTok giveaway in WordPress.

    How to create a viral TikTok giveaway in WordPress

    Set Your Giveaway Goals

    First, you need to decide what you want to achieve with your giveaway. For TikTok, you’ll typically either want to gain more followers or get more views on a particular video.

    How to create a viral TikTok giveaway

    After choosing a goal, you can plan how to get the best value from your giveaway.

    If you want to get more views on a particular video, then it’s important to choose the video carefully. For example, if you have a new product, then you might ask visitors to watch a TikTok promoting that product.

    If a big TikTok influencer has recently praised your company, then you might ask people to watch their video.

    If you’re planning to use ‘Follow us on TikTok’ as an entry method, then it’s smart to review your TikTok profile before launching the contest. New followers may watch your most recent TikToks, so you’ll want to make sure they’re interesting, entertaining, and recent.

    You should also add any missing information to your TikTok bio so new followers can learn more about your company. It’s also a good idea to add a link to your website, or you might even make a special ‘link in bio’ page.

    By fine-tuning your TikTok page now, your new followers will be more likely to stick around long after the contest is over.

    Choose a Prize for your TikTok giveaway

    The next step is choosing a prize that will make your target audience want to take part in your TikTok giveaway.

    The prize doesn’t have to be expensive, but it should reflect your business niche and your target audience. This will attract relevant followers to your TikTok page, which means they’ll be more likely to engage with your company in the future.

    For example, if you run a restaurant, then a discounted or free meal could be a great prize. If you run a skincare blog, then you might offer a bundle of your favorite products.

    Choose a prize for your TikTok contest

    Once you’ve planned your giveaway, it’s time to set it all up in WordPress.

    Install a WordPress Giveaway Plugin

    The easiest way to create a viral TikTok is by using RafflePress. It’s the best WordPress giveaway plugin that lets you create all kinds of contests using a simple drag-and-drop editor.

    There is a free version of RafflePress that allows you to run giveaways and competitions no matter your budget. However, in this guide, we’ll be using RafflePress pro because it has a ready-made template for running a viral TikTok giveaway.

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

    Upon activation, you’ll see the RafflePress welcome screen in the WordPress dashboard. You can now go ahead and enter your license key.

    Adding the RafflePress license key

    You’ll find this information in your account on the RafflePress website. Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Verify Key’ button.

    Create a Viral TikTok Giveaway in WordPress

    Now you’re ready to create a TikTok giveaway by going to RafflePress » Add New.

    Creating a new giveaway in WordPress

    On the next screen, give your TikTok contest a name by typing into the ‘Giveaway Name’ field.

    This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

    Naming your TikTok competition

    Now you’re ready to choose the template that you want to use. RafflePress has templates for specific goals such as creating a giveaway to grow your email list and adding a Facebook giveaway to boost engagement.

    We’ll be using the Grow Your TikTok template since it already comes with two TikTok entry methods. Simply hover your mouse over the template and then click on ‘Use This Template’ when it appears.

    RafflePress' TikTok contest template

    This opens the template in RafflePress’ drag-and-drop builder.

    Since it’s so important, let’s start by adding some information about the prize. Just click to select the headline area, which shows ‘My Awesome Prize’ by default.

    The RafflePress WordPress giveaway plugin

    You can now go ahead and type a title into the ‘Name’ field.

    To encourage visitors to enter, you may want to talk about how much the prize is worth, its benefits, and why people will want it.

    Adding a prize to your TikTok giveaway

    Once you’ve done that, type in a description, which will appear below the headline.

    Here, you may want to add some more information about the TikTok giveaway such as why you’re running the contest, and how people can enter.

    It’s also a good idea to add a photo of the prize, so visitors can see exactly what’s at stake. If the product is digital, then you can show the product’s logo instead or create a picture using web design software such as Canva.

    To add a picture, simply click on ‘Select Image.’

    Adding images to your WordPress giveaway

    Then, either choose an image from the media library or upload a new file from your computer.

    When you’re happy with how the section looks, click on ‘Done Editing.’

    The RafflePress WordPress contest plugin

    You can close your TikTok giveaway manually at any point, or you can set a date and time when the contest will end automatically.

    If you have lots of giveaways planned, then it’s smart to schedule them in advance so your contests always start on time, no matter how busy you get. Scheduling contests in advance also gives you plenty of time to promote and market the contest.

    To schedule your TikTok competition, simply enter a date and time into the ‘Giveaway starts…’ and ‘Giveaway ends…’ sections.

    How to schedule a TikTok giveaway

    By default, RafflePress uses the UTC timezone, but you can change this using the ‘Timezone’ dropdown menu.

    Set up your TikTok Giveaway Entry Actions

    Your next task is choosing how visitors will enter the giveaway.

    The TikTok template already has the ‘Follow us on TikTok’ and ‘View TikTok Post/Video’ actions, so let’s start by configuring these entry methods.

    Adding actions to a WordPress contest

    First, click to select the ‘Follow us on TikTok’ action. In the left-hand menu, you’ll see all the settings for this action.

    By default, the action uses a ‘Follow us on TikTok’ label but you can change this to anything you want by typing into the ‘Title’ field.

    Editing TikTok entry methods

    Next, find the ‘TikTok URL’ field and add the link to your own TikTok profile.

    Every time someone clicks on this action, they’ll see a ‘Follow us on TikTok’ button and a field where they can type in their TikTok username.

    Encouraging visitors to follow you on TikTok

    By default, every action is worth one entry. However, you can encourage visitors to choose one entry method over all the others by changing its value. For example, if you want to get more followers, then you might make the ‘Follow us on TikTok’ action worth multiple entries.

    To make this change, simply select a new number in the ‘Value’ section.

    Adding multiple entry methods to a WordPress contest

    You can also make the ‘Follow us on TikTok’ action mandatory so visitors can only enter the contest if they follow you on TikTok.

    When you’re happy with how the ‘Follow us on TikTok’ action is set up, click to select the ‘View TikTok Post / Video’ action.

    You can now change the action’s title and value, and then make it mandatory by following the same process described above.

    To get as many views as possible, you may want to enable the ‘Allow Daily Entries’ toggle. This will allow users to earn extra entries by watching your TikTok video multiple times.

    Allowing multiple contest entries per day

    After that, it’s time to specify the TikTok video that you want visitors to watch.

    RafflePress will embed this video inside the contest, as you can see in the following image.

    Embedding a TikTok video in WordPress

    In a new browser tab, simply visit the TikTok video that you want to add, and then click on the ‘Embed’ button.

    In the popup that appears, click on ‘Copy Code.’

    How to embed a TikTok video in a WordPress giveaway

    After that, switch back to your WordPress dashboard.

    You can now paste the code into the ‘TikTok Post Embed Code’ field.

    The embed code for a TikTok video

    At this point, you’ve configured both of your TikTok entry methods. However, not everyone has a TikTok account or is familiar with the TikTok platform.

    Currently, these people can’t enter your competition, so you may want to add some additional entry methods that aren’t related to TikTok.

    For example, visitors might enter your competition by joining your email newsletter or following you on Instagram.

    Giving visitors multiple choices for entries can get you more participants. Some people may also try to improve their chances of winning by completing several actions. This allows you to achieve multiple goals with a single competition.

    To add more entry methods, simply click on the ‘Add Actions’ tab. Then, just click on any action to add it to the competition.

    Adding entry methods to a WordPress contest

    Once you’ve done that, just click on the action in the giveaway editor and then use the settings in the left-hand menu to configure that entry method.

    For example, if you add ‘Join an Email Newsletter’ as an entry method then you’ll need to select an email marketing service.

    How to build your email list with RafflePress

    You can add as many actions as you want. However, since our main aim is to create a viral TikTok giveaway you’ll typically want to show your TikTok actions at the top of the entry method list.

    To move an action, just hover over that action in the editor and then grab the dotted button when it appears.

    Changing the order of your RafflePress entry methods

    You’re now ready to move the entry method using drag and drop.

    How to Customize your TikTok Giveaway

    When you’re happy with how the giveaway is set up, it’s time to change how it looks by clicking on the ‘Design’ tab.

    Customizing your TikTok giveaway

    Here, you can change the fonts, select a new button color, change the layout, add a background image, and more.

    By changing these settings you can create a beautiful TikTok giveaway that perfectly compliments your WordPress theme and the rest of your website.

    You can even change the TikTok template using custom CSS.

    Customizing a WordPress contest

    When you’re happy with how the competition looks, click on the ‘Settings’ tab.

    Configure the TikTok Contest Settings

    RafflePress has lots of settings that you can use to fine-tune how the giveaway runs, including showing and hiding options, setting up tracking, and more.

    Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly cover each section.

    In ‘General’ you can set the basic options for the giveaway including showing the contest’s winners, the total number of entries, limiting signups based on IP address, and more.

    You can also make money from your TikTok giveaway by joining the RafflePress affiliate marketing program.

    The RafflePress contest settings

    Next up, click on the ‘Giveaway rules’ tab.

    RafflePress comes with a Rules Generator that you can use to quickly and easily create giveaway rules for your TikTok campaign.

    Creating rules for a TikTok giveaway

    Clicking the ‘Generate Rules’ button will bring up a form where you can enter information about the giveaway.

    In most cases, you or your company will be the contest’s sponsor. This means you’ll need to type in the company name, business email address, country, and eligible locations.

    Creating rules for an online giveaway

    RafflePress will then use this information to create some basic rules for your giveaway.

    Just be aware that this is a starting point. You’ll still need to make sure your giveaway is following all local laws and TikTok’s advertising guidelines. For example, you shouldn’t ask visitors to watch any videos featuring products that TikTok doesn’t allow on their platform.

    If you’re also using the TikTok contest to grow your mailing list or generate leads, then you may want to verify each participant’s email address by selecting the ‘Email Verification’ tab. It’s also a good idea to enable verification if you plan to email the giveaway’s winner.

    To make this change, simply click on the ‘Contestant Must Confirm Their Email’ toggle to turn it from ‘No’ to ‘Yes.’

    Requiring email verification for contest entries

    If you’re using Google Analytics to track user engagement, then you can select the ‘Success Tracking’ tab.

    Here, you can add tracking scripts to record when the page loads or the visitor converts. In this example, conversion happens when the visitor successfully enters the TikTok giveaway.

    Adding tracking scripts to a Twitch contest

    After entering the contest, you may want to redirect visitors to a specific page such as a custom thank you page or your top-performing TikTok.

    To set up a redirect, select the ‘Success Redirect’ tab and then click to activate the ‘Enable Success Redirect’ toggle. You can then add the page to the ‘Redirect URL’ field.

    How to set up a redirect for a TikTok competition

    You may want to allow visitors to sign into your giveaway using their Facebook accounts. This will make it easier for people to enter your giveaway, which can get you more participants.

    To allow logging in with Facebook, simply select the ‘Social Logins’ tab and then click to activate the ‘Allow logging…’ toggle.

    Enabling Facebook login for RafflePress

    The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a European Union (EU) law that aims to give EU citizens more control over their personal information. If you break GDPR then you could get a fine or even jail time, so you’ll want to make sure you’re GDPR compliant.

    Thankfully, RafflePress has a checkbox that gets visitors to consent before entering your TikTok giveaway. To add the checkbox, simply select the ‘GDPR’ tab and then click to enable the ‘GDPR Consent’ toggle.

    Enabling GDRP compliance for RafflePress

    RafflePress has some default text that it’ll show next to the checkbox, but you can change this if you want.

    For a closer look at this important privacy law, please see our ultimate guide to WordPress and GDRP compliance.

    Spam and fake entries can stop you from reaching your goals. With that being said, you may want to protect the giveaway form using an invisible recaptcha.

    Unlike standard captchas that ask visitors to complete a puzzle, invisible recaptchas run in the background. This allows them to block spam without hurting the user experience.

    To add an invisible recaptcha to your TikTok contest, select the ‘Recaptcha’ tab. Then, click to activate the ‘Enable Invisible Recaptcha’ toggle.

    How to add an invisible recaptcha to a TikTok giveaway

    For more on this topic, please see our guide on how to add recaptcha to WordPress.

    When you’re happy with how your TikTok competition is set up, click on the ‘Save’ button.

    Publish and Add the Giveaway to Your WordPress Website

    After you’ve done all that, it’s time to make your giveaway live by clicking on the ‘Publish’ tab.

    RafflePress' publishing settings

    You can add the contest to your site using a shortcode, the RafflePress WordPress block, or by creating a landing page.

    We’ll cover each method, but if you want to get as many entities as possible, then we recommend choosing the ‘Giveaway Landing Page’ option. This creates a separate page that you can easily share on social media, which can help your TikTok giveaway go viral.

    To get started, click on ‘Giveaway Landing Page’ and then select the ‘Click here’ link.

    How to create a contest landing page

    In ‘Page Permalink,’ type in the URL where you want to publish the giveaway landing page.

    Then, go ahead and click on ‘View.’

    Publishing a TikTok competition

    RafflePress will now publish your giveaway as a landing page.

    If you visit the URL, then you’ll see the giveaway live.

    Adding an online contest to your WordPress website

    Another option is to add the giveaway to a post or page using the RafflePress block.

    Simply open the post or page where you want to show your TikTok giveaway in the content editor. Then just click on the ‘+’ button and type in ‘RafflePress.’

    When it appears, select the ‘RafflePress’ block.

    The RafflePress WordPress block

    After adding the block, open the dropdown and choose your TikTok giveaway.

    You can then either publish or update the page to make the contest live on your WordPress website or blog.

    Adding a contest to your WordPress website using the block editor

    Another option is to add the contest to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

    In the giveaway editor, click on ‘WordPress Shortcode’ and RafflePress will show the shortcode that you can use.

    Adding a contest to your website using shortcode

    Simply copy the shortcode and then add it to your WordPress blog or website. For more information on how to place the shortcode, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

    How to Make Your TikTok Giveaway Go Viral

    To help your TikTok giveaway go viral, it’s important to promote it so more people can enter.

    Wherever possible, it’s a good idea to promote your giveaway before publishing it, so you can create a sense of anticipation and excitement around your contest. Then, when your giveaway goes live you should get a ton of entries straight away.

    You’ll want to help visitors find your giveaway by promoting it on your site’s most important pages. To start, we recommend adding the giveaway to your navigation menu or sidebar.

    You can also create a floating bar with a link to the giveaway landing page using a plugin such as OptinMonster.

    How to create a floating bar using OptinMonster

    To create a sense of urgency, we recommend adding a countdown timer to the floating bar. In this way, you can use FOMO on your WordPress site to get more entries and TikTok followers.

    You can ask your push notification subscribers to follow you on TikTok if they haven’t already, or to refer any friends or family members who might want to enter the competition. To learn more, please see our guide on how to add push notifications to your WordPress site.

    Another option is to send an email newsletter with a link to your TikTok giveaway.

    Promoting the giveaway on your social media profiles is also a great way to get more participants. Since these people already follow you on social media, they may be interested in watching your TikToks and following your account, so this is a great way to get more engagement and grow your channel.

    It’s also important to promote the contest to your TikTok audience. They may already be following your TikTok, but contests are a great way to create content and engage with your existing audience. For example, you might create a video announcing the contest or showing off the prize.

    RafflePress also has a ‘View TikTok Post / Video’ action, which is perfect for re-engaging your TikTok followers. If you’re using this entry method, then it’s even more important to promote the contest to your existing TikTok audience.

    If you’ve enabled daily entries, then you might even create multiple TikTok videos encouraging your followers to enter every single day.

    You can also reach out to TikTok influencers and ask them to mention your giveaway to their followers. To help your giveaway go viral, think about the influencer’s fan base and whether they’ll be interested in the prize. For example, if you’re offering a skin care bundle then you might partner with beauty influencers.

    How to Choose a TikTok Giveaway Winner

    Once your giveaway closes, it’s time to choose a lucky winner at random.

    To pick a winner, just go to RafflePress » Giveaways in your WordPress dashboard.

    How to choose a winner at random in WordPress

    If you didn’t schedule an end date for the contest, then you’ll need to close it manually.

    Simply hover over the giveaway and then click on the ‘End Now’ link.

    How to close your TikTok giveaway

    To choose a winner, click on ‘Needs Winners.’

    On the following page, RafflePress will show all the people who entered your TikTok giveaway, along with how they entered, their total entries, and more.

    Here, just type in the number of winners that you want to pick and then click on ‘Choose Winners Now.’

    Picking a winner for your WordPress contest

    RafflePress will then show the winner highlighted at the top of the list. Now, you simply need to contact the winner and let them know the good news.

    You may also want to announce the winner in a TikTok video. If you’re shipping a physical prize, then you might ask the winner to create their own TikTok showing them receiving or unboxing the prize. This is great content for your followers and also proves that your contests are genuine.

    It’s also a good idea to create a TikTok thanking everyone for taking part and encouraging them to join your giveaways in the future.

    Wherever possible, we recommend you email all participants as this will help you build a relationship with these new leads and gives you another chance to mention your brand.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to create a viral giveaway in WordPress. You may also want to check out our guide on how to allow user registration on your WordPress site, or see our list of best social media plugins for WordPress.

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

    The post How to Create a Viral TikTok Giveaway in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • Rank Math SEO Plugin for WordPress: An Introduction

    Choosing the right SEO plugin for your WordPress site is one of the most important choices you will make. And with so many solutions out there, the best ones can often be overlooked. The Rank Math SEO plugin for WordPress is definitely in the ranking as one of the top SEO plugins for a lot of reasons. In this post, we’ll give a helpful overview of Rank Math SEO and cover the key features, ease of use, pricing, and more, so you can see if it is a right fit for your site.

    What is Rank Math SEO?

    Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way to ensure that your website appears to as many people as possible via search engines like Google. Rank Math SEO is a powerful SEO plugin for WordPress that makes it simple for anyone to improve the SEO of their content, regardless of their level of expertise. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in India, Rank Math has quickly taken the WordPress plugin world by storm, now boasting over 1 million active users.

    Rank Math (self-proclaimed as the “swiss army knife of WordPress SEO”) comes with ostensibly everything you need to make sure your content is optimized to hit the keywords you’re targeting and has a ton of other features that can take your SEO to the next level. It’s easy to use and has a lot of powerful features in the free version (especially for on-page SEO) that make it a plugin worth looking into.

    How to Install the Rank Math SEO Plugin

    Installing Rank Math from your website’s WordPress account is the simplest method. To begin, choose the Add New option after hovering over the Plugins option in the WordPress menu.

    Screenshot of WordPress.

    Search for Rank Math in the search bar and select Install.

    Search for Rank Math

    After a few seconds, Rank Math Plugin will be installed and activated. You can confirm this by checking if it’s listed on your plugin page.

    List of WordPress Plugins

    Key Features of Rank Math SEO

    Rank Math SEO comes with a free and premium version for those willing to pay $59 per year. Let’s take a closer look at some of the best features of Rank Math SEO.

    Easy-to-Use Dashboard

    The first feature that stands out for Rank Math is its clean and simple user interface. The dashboard provides you with a ton of great analytics that you can use to improve the content on your site, along with awesome visualization features, the dashboard is a breeze to navigate through and settings are easy to change.

    Rank Math Dashboard

    Visual Interface for On-Page SEO Optimization

    The UI is straightforward but effective. The plugin showcases critical details about your SEO content alongside the post itself in real time, This allows you to boost the on-page SEO of your content by using readily available information, all while still in the text editor. It offers a ranking from 0 to 100, with a green number indicating that you have surpassed the 80-point threshold.

    Blog example

    Advanced Keyword Optimization

    Along side the awesome in-editor SEO optimization, you can take a deeper look into keyword research from the Rank Math dashboard. You can see how many times your site has been shown in search results, see the total number of keywords your ranking for, see how many clicks your site is getting, and more.

    Keyword research dashboard

    The ability to visualise this information is always welcome, and it let’s you wrap your mind around your website’s trends and how your strategies are performing in practice. Keyword analysis and strategy is paramount to good SEO, so these features are incredibly welcome from Rank Math.

    Link Building Recommendations

    If you enable the Link Suggestions option, which is a really awesome feature, Rank Math will offer you link suggestions as you write your posts to help your link building strategy.

    You must navigate to Titles & Meta > Posts in the Advanced Mode to enable the Link recommendations meta box. You can find the Link Suggestions option near the bottom. Activate the switch by turning it on.

    Link suggestions toggle

    Link suggestions give you the option to link to other relevant posts that you or your team have previously authored. This can be incredibly useful, especially if you’ve written a lot of content in the past, as you can link to relevant content automatically without having to search for specific posts.

    Advanced Divi Integration

    We are proud to say that the powerful SEO elements of Rank Math are fully integrated with our own Divi WordPress theme’s visual builder! You can check out our in depth guide on to how to optimize your Divi site with Rank Math here. 

    Rank Math general settings in Divi

    Rank Math’s integration with Divi makes improving the SEO on your website even easier because it’s built right into the Divi visual editor. The controls are easy to use for any skill level and there is plenty of built-in support available if any questions arise. You can review your content’s SEO with ease right as you build your content.

    Title SEO for Rank Math

     

    Other Features of Free Version for Rank Math SEO

    Some other key features of the accessible version of Rank Math are:

    • XML sitemap – Using a separate plugin for your Sitemap is no longer necessary. The XML Sitemap component of Rank Math is ideal for letting search engines know which page you want them to index.
    • Analytic integration – You can connect to Google search console and other SEO tools and see all the stats directly on your WordPress dashboard.
    • Knowledge graph and local SEO – You can enhance your site to appear more prominently in local businesses’ search results.
    • Image SEO – Automatically add alt text and titles to images to rank higher.
    • Internal link suggestions – Automatically add SEO links to relevant internal pages.
    • AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) – Automatically adds required meta tags to AMP pages.
    • Content AI – First-of-its-kind AI automatically suggests related keywords, links, heading tags to help you write SEO content.
    • Social media descriptions – Control how your content is presented on social media.
    • Redirects – Manage and establish 301 and 302 redirects.
    • 404 monitor – This function will keep track of the URLs where users and search engines encounter 404 errors.
    • Focus keyword analysis – Content optimization for focus keywords.
    • Google Analytics – You can see traffic information from your WordPress dashboard after adding the Google Analytics tracking code.
    • Meta descriptions and titles –For each post or page, you can either manually edit the SEO titles and descriptions or use templates.
    • WooCommerce – If you have an online store, then you can optimize your WooCommerce pages with Rank Math, although there are additional features with the pro version.
    • Divi SEO Integration– Integration with the Divi page builder and theme from the page editor.

    Premium Features for Rank Math SEO

    • Keyword rank tracking – You can view your keywords’ search engine ranks for the previous twelve months using the keyword rank tracking feature. You’ll know more about the effectiveness of your keywords. A convenient on-page solution to similar to more robust keyword tracking tools.
    • Google Trend Integration – Rank Math offers Google analytics 4 integration along with a keyword rank tracker.
    • Multiple Platform Linking – You can use Rank Math for numerous different websites.
    • Schema Generator – Access to an advanced schema maker with over twenty different kinds of presets. This might be more convenient than other schema tools.
    • Content AI – More advanced features for the AI and gives you extra credits to use the AI.
    • More WooCommerce SEO features – Dedicated content analysis for pages, custom branding options, etc. It’s always a good idea optimize WooCommerce for SEO.
    • Podcast Module – Everything you need to start your podcast.

    Rank Math Setup Process

    Once the plugin has been installed and activated, you will be automatically redirected to the Rank Math registration window; if you haven’t been redirected,  you can select Rank Math from the WordPress sidebar. Next, you will be directed to the setup wizard and prompted to create a free account. This is recommended because it comes with some added features.

    Screenshot of Rank Math

    Rank Math installation and configuration is a breeze because the step-by-step installation and configuration wizard is automatic for most steps. In addition, the settings on your site are verified by Rank Math after installation, and it makes recommendations for the best configurations.

    The steps and SEO settings for your site, social networks, and webmaster profiles are configured via the wizard.

    Rank math installer

    You can link Rank Math with Google Analytics in order to get up-to-date site maps.

    Install Wizard

    Configure your required sitemap settings here.

    Sitemap

    Once you finish your setup you can delve deeper into advanced settings or just leave them in their the default position.

    Wizard ending

    Rank Math User Interface

    The Rank Math UI undoubtedly sets it apart from other SEO tools; it’s simple and sleek while still having advanced tools at your fingertips. From the dashboard, you can toggle the features you want to use.

    Screenshot of Rank Math UI

    The analytics tab offers a handful of helpful graphs and charts to easily track your website’s SEO growth and pinpoint what areas you need to work on.

    Screenshot of Rank Math Analytics UI

    An excellent user experience was the focus of this plugin’s design. The pages and tools you require are simple to traverse, and getting familiar with them is easier than you think. But, if you need assistance, you can select the “Help and Support” option from the sidebar.

    Screenshot of Rank Math UI

    Using Rank Math to Optimize a Page or Post

    This guide will show you how to use Rank Math to ensure your post is optimized and hits all the keywords your looking for. As soon as you begin writing the content, the optimization process starts. For this example, we’ll use the WordPress Menu > Posts > Add New option to create a new article.

    Screenshot of adding new post on WordPress

    Rank Math is fully integrated into the block editor; you can see it by selecting the red SEO score button on the top-right corner of the editor.

    Screenshot of "How to Throw an Awesome Dinner Party" Blog

    You can see all the suggestions and tools to make adjustments as you write. For example, we’re writing about how to throw an awesome dinner party, so we set our keyword to “dinner party,” and RankMath gives us suggestions on improving our SEO.

    Screenshot of Rank Math Word Editor UI

    Now, we simply follow the guidelines and suggestions from Rank Math until we have as close to a 100/100 SEO score as possible.

    Screenshot of Rank Math Word Editor UI

    Be sure to look at each tab in the Rank Math editor, so you don’t miss any tips for SEO optimization.

    Screenshot of Rank Math Word Editor UI

    Using Rank Math with Divi

    We are proud to offer an in-depth and intuitive integration with Rank Math SEO. You can seamlessly use Divi Builder alongside Rank Math; read the guide here.

    Pricing for Rank Math SEO Plugin

    Currently, Rank Math offers four different tiers for their pricing. The free Version of Rank Math Pro is $59, Rank Math Business $199, and Rank Math Agency $499.

    Screenshot of Rank Math Pricing

    The critical difference between the different price points is primarily an issue of volume. If you’re looking to manage SEO on a single site, the pro version will most likely meet all your needs.

    Rank Math SEO vs. Yoast SEO

    Yoast SEO has been at the top of the SEO mountain for WordPress plugins, but Rank Math is a worthy new challenger. Both plugins have a lot to offer when it comes to boosting SEO. Yoast SEO and Rank Math share many of the same free features, such as sitemaps, internal link counters, and SEO templates for content and titles.

    However, Rank Math also comes with Google Analytics integration and keyword analysis for five free keywords. While similar here, we can compare the two on five critical factors in deciding which tool to use.

    • Setup – Both offer a simple design that’s essentially plug-in-play. Rank Math can distinguish users with toggleable “Easy” and “Advanced” settings, whereas Yoast includes tutorial videos and demos.
    • Keywords – Rank Math comes with more keyword tools and a more comprehensive ranking system.
    • Features – Rank Math offers more free capabilities than Yoast SEO.
    • User-Friendliness – This depends on personal preference. Yoast SEO does provide extra editing options with the meta box and sidebar options.
    • Pricing: Rank Math Pro costs $59, which is cheaper than Yoast SEO’s $89.

    Rank Math FAQs

    Here we’ll answer some frequently asked questions regarding Rank Math SEO.

    Is Rank Math Secure?

    Yes, the WordPress team carefully examines plugins before adding them to the repository on WordPress.org, where Rank Math is included.

    Will Rank Math work with my WordPress Theme?

    While any theme using WordPress’s Codex should be compatible, here is a list of themes and plugins that Rank Math has currently validated as being fully compatible with the plugin.

    • Betheme
    • Deep Theme
    • Polite
    • Attesa Multi-Purpose Theme
    • Blocksy
    • Divi
    • Flothemes
    • Astra
    • MyThemeShop

    Does Rank Math Integrate with Divi?

    Yes! You can read about our integration with RankMath here.

    Is Rank Math Better than Yoast?

    Yoast has been the best in the business in terms of SEO for a long time. However, Rank Math may be a better fit for some users, it has a ton of great features and an easy-to-use UI. However, it comes down to taste. If you’re happy using Yoast and already accustomed to its UI, it may be a better option for you to stick with it.

    Does Rank Math have Good Reviews?

    Rank Math has fantastic reviews, with well over 4,000 5-star ratings.

    Should I buy the Premium Version of Rank Math?

    We recommend starting with the free version of Rank Math and seeing if that version fulfills your SEO needs before upgrading to the Pro version.

    Can I use Rank Math with other SEO plugins?

    You can import data from your previous SEO plugins using the Rank Math wizard. After you import, we recommend only using one SEO plugin at a time. This is to avoid duplicate meta tags and negative SEO consequences.

    Closing Thoughts on Rank Math SEO

    It’s safe to say that Rank Math SEO deserves to be considered as a viable WordPress SEO plugin. The free version of Rank Math provides lots of tools that other SEO plugins simply don’t have, and their pro version provides even more. When it comes to on-page technical SEO, this plugin is uniquely intuitive and effective. So, if you’re looking to improve your website’s SEO, Rank Math can certainly help you do it.

    We want to hear from you. Do you use Rank Math? Let us know what you think of it in the comments.

    Featured Image via Rank Math / RankMath.com

    The post Rank Math SEO Plugin for WordPress: An Introduction appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • 6 Best Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugins in 2023

    As an Amazon Affiliate (or Amazon Associate), you can monetize your traffic and promote recommended Amazon products directly from your WordPress website. So, when visitors click on your affiliate links (or ads) and buy those products, you earn a commission from each sale. However, to maintain a successful Amazon affiliate site, it helps to have the best Amazon affiliate WordPress plugin to do the heavy lifting.

    Not only can Amazon affiliate plugins simplify your workflow, but some can also provide valuable analytics to help grow your business. In this article, we’ll share the top WordPress plugins for Amazon affiliates.

    What is an Amazon Affiliate Plugin?

    An Amazon affiliate plugin is essentially a WordPress affiliate marketing plugin that makes it easy to manage, promote and sell your Amazon affiliate products on your WordPress blog or website, so you don’t have to worry about any technical issues getting in the way of your income.

    If you don’t already know, Amazon is stringent with its guidelines for its associates. For instance, you must use the Amazon Associates API to continue being a part of their program. You’ll also need to make sure you’re linking to the correct product, regardless of the country your user is visiting. For example, you’ll have to make sure that a UK user gets a link to their corresponding store, not to an Amazon in the United States. These issues, among others, are greatly simplified using an Amazon Affiliate WordPress plugin.

    5 Best Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugins

    To help you avoid some common issues of being an Amazon affiliate. We have compiled a comprehensive list of the best Amazon affiliate WordPress plugins that will give you everything you need to start making more passive income.

    1. AAWP

    AAWP logo

    One of the most used plugins for Amazon Associates is the Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin (AAWP). This plugin lets you connect the Amazon Associates API to your page and add affiliate links to your WordPress articles simply and effectively.

    You don’t have to worry about violating Amazon’s affiliate policies by including prices or inserting images because all the data displayed comes via the API. The plugin also has various alternatives available to display Amazon products or affiliate links, all of which look fantastic on the front end of your website.

    Key Features of AAWP:

    • Product comparison tables (pictured below)
    • Automatic pricing updates
    • Easily implementable bestseller lists

    AAWP demo

    The appearance of any display element can be changed and is fully mobile-responsive; they look great and are sure to attract your users.

    AAWP is for you if…

    • You are an advanced user looking to maximize revenue on multiple websites.
    • Free plugins aren’t cutting it.
    • You want to display products in unique ways.

    AAWP Pricing: Starts at $49 for single-site usage

    Get AAWP

    2. AzonPress

    Azon Press logo

    AzonPress is a similar plugin to AAWP in that it easily allows you to insert affiliate links to texts and a variety of unique tables and displays as well.

    The plugin allows you to receive automatic product updates, customizable tables, and automatic geolocation, so you won’t have to worry about missing out on sales because of technical issues with the API. You’ll also be able to track your link performances via their dashboard.

    While it comes with many of the same features as AAWP, it’s a bit cheaper, so it may be the solution you’re looking for if you want to save a couple of bucks.

    Key Features of AzonPress:

    • Comparison tables
    • Automatic geotargeting
    • Customizable product display (example below)

    AzonPress Demo

    One of the plugin’s standout features includes the ability to display affiliate links, product details, photos, ratings, and reviews in a beautiful product showcase box.

    AzonPress is for you if…

    • You want a light and fast solution.
    • You want a way to track the conversions of your links.

    AzonPress Pricing: $31 for single-site usage

    Get AzonPress

    3. Pretty Links

    Pretty links logo

    All links on your website, including affiliate links, can be hidden and tracked using the freemium plugin Pretty Links. The plugin switches out affiliate links with ones that feature your domain name to make your link look cleaner and more trustworthy. In addition, it may generate random shortened slugs for any connection, or you can select your custom slug.

    Similarly to the other alternatives, Pretty Links tracks the clicks on your links and reports them to you through your WordPress admin panel. Link monitoring can be filtered based on the average number of clicks per link or the average number of unique clicks per link.

    Pretty Links provides all the above features without cost, but you can get some pretty neat features with the pro version, albeit for a hefty price. These include auto-linking keywords, multiple WordPress Site licenses, and priority tech support.

    Key Features of Pretty Links:

    • Link analytic tracking
    • Free version
    • Cloaks affiliate links

    Pretty Links dashboard

    This plugin is the best for cloaking and redirecting affiliate links into short and presentable links.

    Pretty Links is for you if…

    • You want a free solution.
    • You want to create SEO-friendly short links.

    Pretty Links Pricing: Free. Beginner $99.50/yr

    Get Pretty Links

    4. ThirstyAffiliates

    ThirstyAffiliates logo

    ThirstyAffiliates is a popular affiliate link management plugin for WordPress that helps you manage and cloak your affiliate links. It makes your links look clean and professional and provides a range of features for tracking clicks and conversions, organizing links into categories, and more.

    The free version of ThirstyAffiliates has many features that allow you to configure your basic links and customize them with additional details like product categories. The plugin also provides monitoring features to ensure your links are functioning properly and generates valuable user data to improve conversion strategies.

    Key Features for ThirstyAffiliates:

    • Link cloaking and management
    • Click and conversion tracking
    • Link categorization and organization
    • Link scheduling and expiration
    • Link redirection options

    ThirstyAffiliates offers a comprehensive solution for affiliate marketers using WordPress, providing a range of features for managing and optimizing affiliate links. This plugin is ideal for those looking for a complete solution to insert affiliate links on their website, keep track of links, cloak and localize links, and improve conversion strategies.

    ThirstyAffiliates is for you if…

    • You are looking for a good all-around solution to inserting affiliate links
    • You want to manage and optimize your affiliate links
    • You need to track clicks and conversions on your affiliate links

    ThirstyAffiliates Pricing: Free| Pro Version starts at $79.50

    Get ThirstyAffiliates

    5. Auto Amazon Links

    Auto Amazon Links logo

    Amazon Auto Links is a great free Amazon affiliate solution for website owners on a limited budget. Like the other solutions listed, this program automatically adds Amazon’s Amazon’sfeeds and affiliate links to your website.

    The displays frequently update product listings and update them as product details and pricing change. Additionally, you can filter out undesirable items from your links based on their description, title, and ID number. Products that are no longer available will be automatically removed, and tables with the products will be updated accordingly.

    In general, this product provides you with everything you need to quickly implement affiliate links without spending time managing them manually.

    Key Features of Amazon Auto Links:

    • Free.
    • Geotargeting support
    • Four ways to display products (category, product search, item look-up, URL)

    Amazon auto links example

    This plugin also gives you the tools to change the image size, description length, and product titles for your Amazon products.

    Amazon Auto Links is for you if…

    • You want a cheap and easy solution.
    • You are just starting and don’t need super advanced features.
    • You don’t mind coding custom templates for new layout designs.

    Amazon Auto Links Pricing: Free

    Get Auto Amazon Links

    6. WooZone (WZone)

    Woozone logo

    Also known as WooCommerce Amazon Affiliates, WooZone (WZone), assists you in linking your WooCommerce-based store with Amazon.

    In essence, WooZone enables you to choose items from Amazon.com and display them as if they were WooCommerce items. Then, when ready to buy, customers who visit your website can examine these items as they would on a conventional WooCommerce site before being redirected to Amazon (via your affiliate link.)

    Key Features of WooZone:

    • Automatically updates WooCommerce listings
    • Designed specifically for WooCommerce

    WooZone Dashboard

    In short, WooZone is an ideal solution if you’re familiar with working with WooCommerce products.

    WooZone is for you if…

    • You are using WooCommerce.
    • You want to sync and import products without needing an API key

    WooZone Pricing: $49 for single-site usage

    Get WooZone

    NOTE: We have a tutorial on their lite version of the plugin, which doesn’t seem to be supported currently.

    Which Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin Should You Pick?

    First, let’s recap all of the plugins we covered in this post. We ranked them in order of our favorites, with the top three amazon affiliate plugins at the top of the list. Of course, you might also want to consider the price associated with each. The price has been added to the following table for easy comparison. 👇

    Plugin Price Free Option
    🥇 AAWP $49 ❌ Learn More
    🥈 AzonPress $31 ❌ Learn More
    🥉 Pretty Links $99.50 ✔️ Learn More
    4 ThirstyAffiliates $79.50 ✔️ Learn More
    5 Auto Amazon Links / ✔️ Learn More
    6 WooZone $49 ❌ Learn More

    WordPress offers a lot of excellent plugins to help foster a profitable Amazon affiliate marketing program for your website. However, if you’re looking for a solution that will give you everything you need for an advanced campaign and you’re willing to spend some money, we recommend AAWP, which has everything you need and is known as the industry standard.

    As an affordable solution that gives you the basics, Pretty Links is a fantastic option without some of the frills. Regardless of your choice, a WordPress plugin will significantly enhance your site’s ability to monetize and present relevant products to your visitors.

    If you are interested in adding an affiliate program to WordPress, check out the Easy Affiliate plugin. Or, if you are looking to branch out into other affiliate programs, here’s a list of some great affiliate programs.

    Know any other plugins that can help Amazon affiliates? Leave a comment telling us below!

    Article featured image by ya_blue_ko/ shutterstock.com

    The post 6 Best Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugins in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

  • How to Add Featured Video Thumbnails in WordPress

    Do you want to use video for featured thumbnails in WordPress?

    By replacing a post or product’s featured image with a featured video, you can make your website much more vibrant and dynamic. Visitors can view these videos from nearly anywhere including your blog archives, homepage, and WooCommerce product pages.

    In this article, we will show you how you can add featured video thumbnails in WordPress.

    How to add featured video thumbnails in WordPress

    Why Add Featured Video Thumbnails in WordPress?

    All popular WordPress themes allow you to add featured images to your posts and products.

    These are the primary images, and they often appear at the top of the page and other areas of your site such as your website’s archive pages. Search engines and social media sites may also display a page’s featured image.

    A good featured image can get you a lot of user engagement. However, you may be able to get more clicks, pageviews, and even sales by using a featured video thumbnail instead.

    If you’ve created an online store, then showing a video at the top of the product page is a great way to make shoppers want to scroll and learn more about that product.

    An example of a featured video thumbnail

    With that being said, let’s see how you can add featured video thumbnails in WordPress.

    How to Add Featured Video Thumbnails in WordPress

    The easiest way to use videos as featured thumbnails is by using Really Simple Featured Video. This plugin lets you embed videos from popular video hosting websites such as YouTube or Vimeo and use them as featured video thumbnails.

    It also works perfectly with WooCommerce and will show the featured video at the top of the product page.

    However, just be aware that WooCommerce will show the featured video on the product page only. The featured image thumbnail will still be used in other places, including your WooCommerce store page.

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

    After activation, there are a few settings to configure. To get started, go to Settings » Really Simple Featured Video.

    The Simple Featured Video settings

    On this screen, you can select whether you want to add featured video thumbnails to pages, posts, or WooCommerce products.

    To do this, simply click on the ‘Posts,‘ ‘Pages’ or ‘Products’ switches to turn them from grey (disabled) to purple (active). In the following image, we’ve enabled the featured video feature for products, plus posts and pages.

    Enabling featured video thumbnails for posts, pages, and products

    After that, click on the ‘Save changes’ button.

    Next, click on the ‘Controls’ tab. Here, you’ll find a ‘Self-hosted videos’ section where you can configure the settings for the videos in your WordPress media library.

    Changing the featured video thumbnail settings

    While the plugin does support self-hosted videos, this can take up a lot of storage space and bandwidth so we don’t recommend it. To learn more, check out why you should never upload a video to WordPress.

    Instead, scroll to the ‘Embed Videos’ section. This is where you will find settings for any videos you embed from third-party video platforms such as YouTube.

    When you embed videos from YouTube or Vimeo, Really Simple Featured Video will show the playback controls for that platform.

    For example, if you’re embedding a YouTube video then visitors will have access to YouTube’s specific playback features.

    However, the ‘Embed videos’ section does have an ‘Autoplay’ switch that you can click to enable, too.

    Enabling autoplay for WordPress featured thumbnail images

    By default, the plugin will play videos with sound turned on. To mute your videos by default, click on the ‘Mute sound’ toggle.

    You can also set the featured video thumbnails to play on loop.

    Looping videos can be annoying to many visitors, particularly if the video is short and has sound. It’s a good idea to only activate the ‘Loop’ switch if replaying the video over and over improves the visitor experience in some way. For example, you might create a video showing a 360 degree view of a product and then set that clip to loop.

    Embedding a video

    After working your way through the different settings, make sure you click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

    Adding Featured Video Thumbnails to Posts, Pages, and WooCommerce Products

    Once you’ve configured how the plugin will show embedded videos, you’re ready to add featured video thumbnails to your WordPress website.

    To do this, simply open the post, page, or WooCommerce product where you want to add a featured video thumbnail.

    If you’re adding a featured video to a page or post, then you’ll find the ‘Featured Video’ section in the right-hand menu underneath the ‘Discussion’ section.

    Adding a featured video to a WordPress post

    Want to add a featured video to a WooCommerce product instead?

    Then you’ll find the ‘Featured Video’ section underneath the ‘Product gallery‘ section.

    The Featured Video settings on the product screen

    To use a video from a video hosting site, simply click on ‘Embed.’

    In the new field, you’ll need to paste the URL of the video that you want to embed.

    Adding a featured video thumbnail in the WordPress post editor

    Just make sure that you add the video’s URL in the right format. In the right-hand menu, you’ll see some examples for YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion.

    For YouTube, the plugin gives us the following example URL: https://www.youtube.com/embed/vbLgiRQ0Moo

    This means you’ll need to use https://www.youtube.com/embed/ as the first part of your URL and then add the ID of the video that you want to embed.

    To find the video ID, simply open a new tab in your browser, then go to the YouTube video that you want to embed. Now, take a look at the browser’s address bar.

    The video ID is the value that comes after v=. In the following image, we can see that the video ID is DvbFBxKcORA.

    The WPBeginner YouTube channel

    After adding the video ID to the first part of the URL, we get the following: https://www.youtube.com/embed/DvbFBxKcORA

    You can now go back to the tab with the WordPress block editor and just paste the URL into the ‘Embed’ field. That will add a featured video thumbnail to the post, and then you’re ready to click on either the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button.

    You can now add featured video thumbnails to more posts, pages, and WooCommerce products by following the same process described above.

    On your blog archive or similar page you’ll see that WordPress is now using the videos as the featured thumbnail for your posts and pages.

    If you open any page, post, or WooCommerce product, then you’ll see that the featured video also appears at the top of the page, just like a featured image would.

    An example of a WooCommerce featured video

    We hope this article helped you learn how to add featured video thumbnails in WordPress. You can also go through our guide on the best YouTube video gallery plugins for WordPress and how to embed a Facebook video.

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

    The post How to Add Featured Video Thumbnails in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

  • How to Use WordPress Recovery Mode (2 Ways)

    Do you want to use WordPress recovery mode to fix an error on your website?

    The recovery mode feature was introduced in WordPress 5.2, and it allows you to easily to fix fatal errors on your site that can make WordPress’s backend or frontend inaccessible.

    In this article, we will show you how to use recovery mode in WordPress.

    How to Use Recovery Mode in WordPress

    What is WordPress Recovery Mode

    If you’re encountering a WordPress error that’s preventing you from logging into your website, then WordPress will automatically shift into recovery mode.

    Recovery mode allows you to access your WordPress admin dashboard by sending a link to your administration email. This email contains details about the error that’s preventing users from accessing their WordPress website.

    You can use the link to access your admin dashboard and fix the issue.

    For example, your WordPress site may show you a critical error and blocks you from logging into your dashboard.

    This is when you can use the WordPress recovery mode feature to regain access. Let’s see how you can use the WordPress recovery mode.

    Note: Keep in mind to always back up your WordPress site before attempting to enter recovery mode. If you cannot access your admin area, then check out our guide on how to create a WordPress database backup manually.

    Method 1. Using Recovery Mode Through The Email Link

    If a WordPress plugin or theme causes an error, then recovery mode can be used to fix it.

    You might see a plain white screen when trying to access your account. Sometimes, a message is also shown on the screen.

    Site is experiencing technical difficulties

    If that is the case, immediately log in to your administrator email account. Keep in mind to check the inbox of the email address that you provided as the administrator email address to WordPress.

    You will receive an email to your WordPress email address that will inform you about the specific error on your website. If WordPress can determine the cause of the outage, this email will have that information.

    For example, if there is a file corrupted in your theme directory or a plugin incompatibility, WordPress may be able to tell.

    The email will also give you a link to access your WordPress admin dashboard.

    Email from WordPress about technical problem in your site

    Simply click the provided link, and you will be taken to the WordPress admin area. Here, you will see a banner telling you that Recover Mode has been initalized.

    You can then log in as normal.

    log into your account

    Once in your admin panel, you can deactivate the theme or plugin that’s causing the issue.

    Simply go to Plugins » All Plugins and then click the ‘Deactivate’ link under the right one.

    Deactivate the faulty plugin

    If the email sent by WordPress did not specify the plugin or theme that’s causing the error, then you should deactivate all the plugins. After that, try logging into your account.

    You can figure out the faulty plugin by then activating the plugins one by one. Once you find the faulty plugin that’s causing the issue, you can find an alternative plugin for it or get support from the plugin developers.

    Recovery mode dashboard

    If for some reason your website is showing a plain white screen but you haven’t received any email from WordPress, then you can try method 2 to use recovery mode.

    You can use this method to access recovery mode without any email link. You can simply create a WordPress recovery mode link by following the link below to access recovery mode.

    example.com/wp-login.php?action=entered_recovery_mode

    All you have to do is replace example.com with your own site’s domain name.

    Recovery mode URL

    This URL will take you to your WordPress admin area where you’ll be asked to log in.

    Here you will see an alert that you are logging into Recovery Mode.

    log into your account

    Now you can fix any error on your site.

    Keep in mind that if you use this method to manually access the Recovery Mode login page, WordPress won’t locate the plugin or theme that’s causing the error itself. You will need to do some work to figure that out on your own.

    You can start by simply changing your theme or deactivating all your plugins. This should fix whatever error was occurring and you will be able to access your WordPress website.

    From there, you can reactivate plugins one by one to find the issue, or you can even roll back your theme or WordPress version to an earlier one that wasn’t incompatible.

    Bonus: Additional Recovery Mode Options

    If you’re not clear about the error on your website that’s preventing you from logging in, then you can also try these two options in recovery mode to solve your problem:

    • Download a site health plugin to diagnose issues
    • Run a malware scan to be sure your site or server hasn’t been compromised

    For example, you can install and activate the Health Check & Troubleshooting plugin. For more instructions, see our guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

    Download a plugin in recovery mode

    Once you activate this plugin, it will perform a number of checks on your WordPress site and will detect common errors that may be causing the fluctuation.

    Sometimes, malware on your website may be causing the error. You can use recovery mode to scan your website for malicious code and create a completely secure website. For help, you can check out our ultimate WordPress security guide.

    You can also ask your WordPress hosting provider for support. If you’re using a top WordPress hosting company like Hostinger, Bluehost, WPEngine, and SiteGround, then their support team will be able to help you resolve the issue.

    That’s it! We hoped you learned how to use recovery mode in WordPress. You may also want t check out our pick of the best WordPress SEO plugins and our tutorial on how to fix the critical error in WordPress.

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

    The post How to Use WordPress Recovery Mode (2 Ways) first appeared on WPBeginner.