Are you looking for a way to highlight text in a WordPress post or page?
Highlighting text can help point the user’s attention to a specific part of your content. This can be great to show off a call to action, a special offer, or to simply add emphasis on specific sentences.
In this article, we will show you how to easily highlight text in WordPress.
Why and When to Highlight Text in WordPress
Text highlighting is an easy way to emphasize important information in your content. It helps you direct the user’s attention to details that you don’t want them to miss.
For instance, highlighting a discount offer on your WordPress website in a different color will draw the reader’s attention to it, helping you generate more sales.
Here’s a sample of what text highlighting might look like in a blog post:
Highlighting text in a different color can also help users with visual impairments or reading difficulties to navigate and understand the content more easily. It can even enhance the appearance of your content and make it more visually appealing.
However, highlighting too much text on your page can be distracting and reduce its effectiveness. That’s why we recommend only highlighting very important text like calls to action, warnings, and other details that readers should pay attention to.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily highlight text in WordPress. You can use the quick links below to jump to the method you wish to use:
Method 1: Highlight Text in WordPress Using the Block Editor
This method is for you if you want to easily highlight text in WordPress using the block editor.
First, you will need to open up an existing or new post in the block editor from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Once you are there, simply select the text that you want to highlight and then click the ‘More’ icon in the block toolbar at the top.
This will open up a dropdown menu where you must the ‘Highlight’ option from the list.
A color picker tool will now open up on your screen. From here, you will first need to switch to the ‘Background’ tab.
After that, you can choose a default highlight color from the given options.
You can also select a custom color to highlight text by clicking on the ‘Custom’ option to launch an ‘Eyedropper’ tool.
Finally, don’t forget to click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button to save your changes.
You can now visit your website to check out the highlighted text in action.
Method 2: Highlight Text in WordPress Using WPCode (Recommended)
If you want to consistently use a specific color to highlight text all over your WordPress website, then this method is for you.
You can easily highlight text in WordPress by adding CSS code to your theme files. However, the smallest error when entering the code could break your website, making it inaccessible.
That’s why we recommend using WPCode, which is the best WordPress code snippet plugin on the market. It is the easiest and safest way to add code to your website without directly editing your theme files.
Upon activation, head over to the Code Snippets » + Add Snippet page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Next, just click the ‘Use Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
This will take you to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, where you can start by typing a name for your code snippet.
After that, you need to select the ‘CSS Snippet’ option from the ‘Code Type’ dropdown menu.
Note: The ‘CSS Snippet’ option is only available in the premium version of WPCode. If you are using the free version, then you will have to select the ‘Universal Snippet’ option instead.
Next, click inside the ‘Code Preview box’.
Then, you have to copy and paste the following code:
mark {
background-color: #ffd4a1;
}
Once you have done that, add the hex code for your preferred highlight color next to the background-color line in the code.
In our example, we are using #ffd4a1, which is a light brown color.
After that, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section.
From here, select the ‘Auto Insert’ method to automatically execute the code upon activation.
Next, head to the top of the page and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’.
Finally, click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to store your changes.
Highlight Text in the Block Editor
Now that the CSS snippet has been activated, we will have to add some HTML code in the block editor to highlight the text in WordPress.
First, open up an existing or new post in the WordPress block editor.
From here, click on the ‘Options’ icon in the block toolbar at the top. This will open up a new dropdown menu where you must select the ‘Edit as HTML’ option.
You will now see the block content in HTML format.
Here, simply wrap the text that you want to highlight inside the <mark> </mark> tags like this:
<mark>highlighted-text</mark>
This will highlight the text in the hex color that you choose in your WPCode snippet.
After that, click the ‘Edit Visually’ option in the block toolbar. to switch back to the visual editor.
Once you are done, go ahead and click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button to save your changes.
Now, you can visit your website to check out the highlighted text in action.
We hope this guide helped you learn how to highlight text in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to customize colors in WordPress to make your website more aesthetically pleasing and our comparison of the best email marketing services to grow your traffic.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to make a separate RSS feed for each category in WordPress?
Categories allow you to easily sort your content into major sections. Adding category RSS feeds can help your users subscribe to specific areas of your website that interest them.
In this article, we will show you how to easily make a separate RSS feed for each category in WordPress. We will also talk about how you can use these feeds effectively to grow your website.
How to Find RSS Feeds for Different Categories in WordPress
Categories and tags are two of the main default taxonomies in WordPress. They allow you to easily sort and organize your content into different subjects and topics.
By default, each category on your WordPress website has its own RSS feed. You can locate this RSS feed by simply adding ‘feed’ at the end of the category page URL.
For instance, if you have a category called ‘News’ with a URL like this:
https://example.com/category/news/
Then its RSS feed would be located at the following URL:
https://example.com/category/news/feed/
Tip: You can find your category URL by visiting the Posts » Categories page and clicking on the ‘View’ link under a category.
Now that you have located the RSS feed URLs for your categories, let’s look at some of the ways that you can share them with visitors on your WordPress website.
Method 1: Add Links for Category RSS Feeds Using WordPress
If you want to add links to your category RSS feeds using the default WordPress settings, then this method is for you.
First, you will need to open up a page or post where you want to add the RSS feed links in the block editor.
Once you are there, you can type the name of all the categories on your website in a List block.
After that, simply click the ‘Link’ icon in the block toolbar to open up the link prompt.
Here, you can type the URL for your category RSS feed.
You will need to repeat this process for each category RSS feed on your website by linking to it on the related name within the List block.
Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button to save your changes.
You have now manually created a list of links to all your category RSS feeds. Now, you can visit your website to see these RSS feed links in action.
However, keep in mind that if you want to add, delete, or merge categories in the future, then you will have to manually update this list again.
Method 2: Add Links for Category RSS Feeds Using WPCode (Recommended)
If you want to create a list of category RSS feed links that are automatically updated every time you make changes, then this method is for you.
To add URLs to the category RSS feed, we will need to add custom code to your website theme’s functions.php file. However, even the smallest error in the code can break your site, making it inaccessible.
We recommend always using WPCode when adding custom code to your website. It is the best WordPress code snippet plugin that makes it safe and easy to add custom code without manually editing your functions.php file.
Note: You can also use the free WPCode plugin for this tutorial. However, upgrading to the pro WPCode plugin will give you access to a cloud library of code snippets, smart conditional logic, and more.
Upon activation, head over to the Code Snippets » + Add Snippet page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Next, click on the ‘Use Snippet’ button under the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
This will take you to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, where you can start by typing a name for your code snippet.
This name is only for your identification and won’t be used on the website’s front end.
Next, you need to select ‘PHP Snippet’ as the code type from the dropdown menu on the right corner of the screen.
After that, copy and paste the following code into the ‘Code Preview’ box.
Once you have done that, you can now also choose an icon image that will be displayed next to your category RSS feed links.
To do this, simply replace the /path/to/feed-image.png line in the code with the URL of your preferred icon image for the feed links.
Keep in mind that the icon image will first need to be uploaded to your WordPress media library.
Once it’s uploaded, you can get its URL by visiting the Media » Library page from the admin sidebar and clicking on the icon image to view its attachment details.
After adding the URL for the icon image to the code, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section.
From here, select the ‘Auto Insert’ method so that the code will be executed automatically on the website page where you add a shortcode.
Note: Keep in mind that even after choosing the ‘Auto Insert’ mode, you will need to add a [wpb-cat-feeds] shortcode to the page where you want to list categories RSS feeds. This shortcode is not the WPCode ‘Shortcode’ feature, but a part of the code snippet itself.
Next, scroll back to the top and toggle the ‘Inactive’ switch to ‘Active’.
Finally, click the ‘Save Snippet’ button to store your settings.
After that, you need to open up the page or post where you want to add the category RSS feed links in your WordPress block editor.
From here, click the ‘Add Block’ (+) button at the top left corner of the screen and locate the ‘Shortcode’ block.
Upon adding the block, simply copy and paste the following shortcode into it.
[wpb-cat-feeds]
Finally, click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button to save your changes.
Now visit your website to check the category RSS feed links in action.
Method 3: Display RSS Feed Subscription Option on the Category Pages
If you want to add a Subscribe link at the top of all your category pages, then you can use this method.
To do this, you will need to add custom code to your WordPress category.php or archive.php theme template.
However, it can be risky, and the smallest error can break your website.
This is why we recommend using WPCode instead. It is the easiest and safest way to add custom code to your WordPress website.
Similarly, you can also allow users to get instant push notifications for each category using PushEngage. It is the best push notification service on the market that allows you to send messages directly to your users’ devices (desktops as well as mobile phones).
PushEngage allows you to set up automatic push notifications using RSS feeds. You simply need to enter your category RSS feed URL, and a push notification will go out whenever a new post is published in that category.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you looking for the best conditional logic plugins for your WordPress website?
Conditional logic plugins allow you to show or hide information based on users’ responses and behavior. They help collect relevant leads, boost conversions, and provide a better user experience.
In this article, we will show you the best WordPress conditional logic plugins.
What is Conditional Logic in WordPress?
In simple words, you can think of conditional logic as if-then statements. It is a technique where you can automatically display relevant information, snippets, or scripts to users based on their actions.
For instance, a user may want to connect with the support team. If they select a support team as an option on your WordPress site, then you can show relevant contact information or a landing page.
Similarly, let’s say a customer is looking for hiking shoes. You can use conditional logic to only show those products and addons that a customer is looking for.
Where Can You Use WordPress Conditional Logic Plugins?
You’ll find conditional logic in WordPress forms, automated email workflows, conversion optimization methods, and more.
Here are some ways you can use conditional logic on your WordPress website:
Use conditional logic on your WordPress forms and dynamically change form fields based on the selection users make while filling out your forms.
Create optin campaigns and show popups based on different rules, like the user spending a certain time on the page or clicking a link.
Load code snippets and scripts based on conditional logic and user roles.
Ask different questions in online quizzes based on the user’s previous answers.
Display or hide products, addons, and other items based on customer choices on your eCommerce store.
Set up visibility rules using conditional logic to show menu items for your visitors.
That said, let’s see the best WordPress conditional logic plugins you can use today for your website.
WPCode is the best WordPress code snippet plugin. You easily add custom code snippets to your website and manage them using the plugin.
The best part, WPCode offers a conditional logic feature that lets you set up rules for running code snippets without editing code. It is super easy to use and offers a beginner-friendly interface.
For example, you can load code snippets for logged-in users, run PHP code snippets for specific user roles and page URLs, and insert header and footer pixel scripts for certain pages.
You can also hide custom code from running on pages like the homepage or for different user roles.
Conditional Blocks is a free WordPress plugin for hiding or showing different blocks in the content editor. You can control the visibility of each block without writing a single line of code.
The plugins let you set up conditions where WordPress blocks will appear for different user roles or membership levels. For instance, you can show the image block to only logged-in users. It also allows you to show certain blocks based on screen size.
Conditional Blocks offers a premium version as well. You get to unlock more conditions for showing WordPress blocks. For example, you can control block visibility based on post type, time, server requests, and more. There are also conditions for WooCommerce users in the pro version.
WPForms is the best contact form plugin for WordPress. It is beginner friendly plugin that offers a drag-and-drop form builder, lots of templates, and a smart conditional logic feature.
You can easily hide or show different form fields, display payment options, dropdown menus, and more based on the user’s responses.
All you need to do is select the form field in the template and enable conditional logic. After that, you can set up the rules to show different form fields.
For example, let’s say you’re running a net promoter score (NPS) survey on your website. If a user rates 8 or higher, then you can hide other questions in the survey using conditional logic. If they rate a lower score, then you can ask more questions to improve your performance.
Besides that, WPForms offers lots of other features and addons. You can integrate different payment services and create forms to collect online payments.
It also works with some of the most popular email marketing tools, so you can easily collect leads and grow your email list.
Other than that, there are addons for recovering form abandonment, tracking user journeys, adding save and resume features, learning about the user’s geolocation data, and more.
OptinMonster is the best WordPress popup and lead generation plugin. It helps you get more conversions, grow your email list, and increase sales.
OptinMonster offers powerful display rules that you can use to display your campaigns to the right people at the right time.
For example, you can show optin popups to users that spend a certain time on a page, visit a particular page, or scroll X% of the page.
OptinMonster also offers an Exit-Intent technology, which triggers your campaigns as a user is about to leave your website. This helps recover abandoning visitors and converts them into subscribers and customers.
Other than that, you can display campaigns to users from a particular location or when they click a link. There are also display rules for eCommerce sites. You can show popups when customers have a specific cart total or when they view a product.
OptinMonster also offers a drag-and-drop builder, which makes it very easy to create attractive campaigns. There are lots of templates for different types of campaigns and various customization options. You can also integrate it with leading email marketing tools to collect leads.
The plugin is very easy to use and allows you to add options and extra services, like warranty, insurance, special transfer services, express shipping, customizations, and more.
For example, if you’re selling jewelry and rings, then you can add an option to engrave the customer’s name. Or if you’re selling tech products in WooCommerce, then you can offer additional services like warranty, product customization, and device checkup.
With YITH WooCommerce Product Add-Ons & Extra Options, you get a conditional logic feature that automatically shows or hides addons and options based on the customer’s selection.
You can define rules, and when the conditions are met, users will be able to see extra services and addons on your WooCommerce products.
Thrive Quiz Builder is the best WordPress quiz plugin and is part of Thrive Theme suite. It is beginner friendly to use, and you can create complex quizzes for your website without editing code.
The plugin offers different quiz styles, which include a right/wrong, number, percentage, personality, and survey. Thrive Quiz Builder also provides pre-made quiz templates that you can use to get started quickly.
Using the plugin, you can create conditional quizzes. The drag-and-drop quiz builder lets you display questions based on the user’s previous answers. Simply set the conditions where the next question will only appear if a person enters a particular answer.
When they’re finished, you can direct them to a page or product based on their answers.
Besides that, you can create badges for users, customize the quizzes, track results, check the quiz flow and see where users dropped off, and get detailed analytics of how your quizzes perform.
Formidable Forms is the next WordPress conditional logic plugin on our list. The plugin allows you to create simple contact forms to advanced and complex WordPress forms, like mortgage calculators.
Formidable Forms offers a conditional logic feature built into its drag-and-drop form builder. You can easily set up conditions for each form field and show or hide them based on the user’s answers.
If you have a multi-step form, then you can use conditional logic to automatically skip pages and lead users to the relevant section. Similarly, you can send email confirmation or redirect users to respective pages based on their answers.
Other features offered by Formidable Forms include pre-built templates for web applications. It also lets you create apps for real estate listings, product reviews, restaurant menus, and more.
The plugin also has a visual views feature that allows you to display data from form entries on the frontend of your site.
If Menus is the next conditional logic plugin for WordPress on our list. It is a free WordPress plugin that you can use to create dynamic menus and control their visibility on your site.
The plugin lets you use conditional logic to show or hide different menu items. For instance, it lets you display certain menu items only if a user is logged in, hide menu items on mobile devices, show specific menus to admin and editors, and more.
Similarly, you can also show menu items to users from different locations or show any entirely new menu to members.
FunnelKit Automation offers multiple triggers that you can for automating workflows. You can set up different conditions, and based on the user’s actions, you can initiate different tasks.
For example, if a customer adds products to the cart but doesn’t checkout, then you can trigger the cart abandonment recovery workflow.
Similarly, you can automatically show different products to customers as upsells or order bumps. This way, you’ll increase sales without spending on paid ads.
Which WordPress Conditional Logic Plugin Should You Use?
Choosing the right conditional logic plugin for WordPress depends on your requirements and what you want to achieve.
If you want to create dynamic forms that show different fields to users based on their selection, then WPForms is the best plugin. It is super easy to use and offers lots of customization options.
Similarly, if you are looking to run different code snippets based on certain conditions, then WPCode is the perfect solution. It lets you set up rules and conditions without editing code.
On the other hand, you can use OptinMonster to display different campaigns based on user actions or create conditional quizzes using Thrive Quiz Builder.
You can also use conditional logic in WooCommerce and use FunnelKit to trigger workflows based on customers’ selections and actions.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to automatically show disclaimers and important notices on your WordPress website?
A disclaimer helps protect your business from legal action and provides users with additional information. Usually, you’d have to enter disclaimers in your content manually.
In this article, we will show you how to automatically add a disclaimer in WordPress using an easy method.
Why Show a Disclaimer in WordPress?
Adding a disclaimer to your WordPress website is a great way of communicating important notices and announcements to your visitors. It also protects your business from being legally liable for any claims a user makes.
There are many situations where you can show a disclaim on your website. For example, let’s say your site features product endorsements or has affiliate links. You can display an FTC disclosure stating how you may receive compensation from the companies whose products you feature on your website.
Similarly, if you operate in an industry that is governed by different regulations, then you can show legal disclaimers. This is really helpful if you’re offering medical or health advice, legal advice, or financial investment tips.
Let’s say you’re writing a blog post on General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). You can show a disclaimer notifying users that they should get in touch with an internet law attorney to seek legal advice.
On the other hand, if you have a WordPress blog where you share personal opinions, then adding a disclosure can safeguard you from any legal action.
That said, let’s look at how you can automatically add a disclaimer in WordPress. You can click the links below to jump to any sections of this post.
You can add disclosures manually in WordPress using the content editor. Simply enter the disclaimer content in your blog posts or page. However, this is time-consuming since WordPress doesn’t offer an option to show these disclaimers automatically, and you’d have to edit every page.
An easy way to do that is by using WPCode. It is the best WordPress code snippet plugin that makes it very easy to manage and add custom code snippets.
What’s a Code Blocks Snippet?
WPCode offers a Custom Blocks Snippets feature that you can use to create disclaimers. What it does is it creates a custom WordPress block that you can automatically place anywhere on your site.
Usually, this would require editing code or building a reusable block. WPCode makes the process easier, and you don’t have to mess around with the website code or have to manually edit posts and pages.
Aside from creating disclaimers, you can also use this WPCode feature to make custom WordPress blocks for call-to-action boxes, display important notices, create interactive blocks that include forms or image sliders, and much more.
For this tutorial, we will be using the WPCode Pro version because it includes the Custom Blocks Snippets option. However, there is also WPCode free version you can use to get started.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the WPCode Pro plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you can head to Code Snippets » Settings from the WordPress admin panel and enter the license key. You’ll find the license key in your WPCode account area.
Next, you can go to Code Snippets » + Add Snippet from the WordPress dashboard.
From here, you’ll need to select the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
After that, you can enter a name for your snippet, like ‘Disclaimer Notice.’
Next, you must click the Code Type dropdown menu and select the ‘Blocks Snippet’ option. When you’re done, simply click the ‘Save Snippet’ button.
To do that, go ahead and click the ‘Edit with Block Editor’ button.
Next, you’ll be taken to the block editor in WordPress. Go ahead and enter the text for your disclaimer.
You can further customize your disclaimer notice using the styling options in the block editor.
Simply switch to the ‘Style’ tab in the Settings panel on the right. From here, you can change the color of the text, background, and link. There are also options to edit the size of the text.
For this tutorial, we will add a background color for the disclaimer notice so that it stands out from the rest of the text. Don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button.
After customizing your disclaimer notice, you can then click the ‘Return to WPCode Snippet’ button at the top.
Automatically Adding Disclaimers in WordPress
Once you’re on the WPCode Snippet screen, simply scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section. Here, you can select when and where your disclaimer notice will appear.
You can keep the ‘Insert Method’ to Auto Insert. After that, go ahead and click the Location dropdown menu.
WPCode will now show multiple options. Go ahead and switch to the Page-Specific tab.
Next, you can choose where your site will display the disclaimer. For example, it can appear at the beginning of a post, after a few paragraphs, at the end of the post, and more.
For the sake of this tutorial, we will select the ‘Insert After Paragraph’ option. This way, the snippet will appear on all the pages after a certain number of paragraphs.
WPCode will also let you select the number of paragraphs, after which the custom block snippet will appear.
For example, we want the disclaimer notice to automatically appear after the first 3 paragraphs on all the pages on our demo site.
Once you’re done, don’t forget to activate the blocks snippet and click the ‘Update’ button at the top.
Besides that, you can also insert the disclaimer notice on specific pages using shortcodes.
Simply switch to the Insert Method from Auto Insert to Shortcode.
After that, you can copy the shortcode and add it anywhere on your website. For example, you can show the disclaimer on specific pages and posts.
WPCode also lets you schedule your disclaimer scripts. This is really useful if you have a time-sensitive notice to display on your website. You can simply select the start date and end date for scheduling the snippet.
When you’re done, don’t forget to activate the snippet and click the ‘Update’ button.
You can now visit your website to see the disclaimer in action.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to learn how to use shortcodes in your WordPress sidebar widgets?
You can add shortcodes to any page or post using the Shortcode block. However, if you want to use the same code across your entire site then it may be easier to add it to a sidebar widget instead.
In this article, we will show you how to use shortcodes in the WordPress sidebar.
Why Use Shortcodes in Your WordPress Sidebar Widgets?
Shortcodes allow you to add advanced content and features to your website, including contact forms, tables, random quotes, and much more. WordPress comes with several built-in shortcodes but some plugins also add their own shortcodes.
You can add shortcodes to any page or post using the WordPress editor and built-in Shortcode block. However, if you want to use shortcode across your entire site then it often makes sense to add it to the sidebar.
This content will then appear across your entire WordPress website, so you don’t need to add it each page and post manually. This can save you a ton of time and effort, and helps to keep your site’s design consistent.
With that in mind, let’s look at a few different ways to add and use shortcodes in the WordPress sidebar widgets. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
Method 1: Using the WordPress Shortcode Widget (Easy)
Most free and paid WordPress themes come with widget-ready sidebars. With that in mind, you can often simply add a Shortcode widget to your website’s sidebar.
First, go to Appearance » Widgets in your dashboard. Here, you’ll see all the different areas where you can add widgets in WordPress, including the sidebar.
Simply click on the ‘+’ button and start typing in ‘Shortcode.’
When the right block shows up, drag it onto the WordPress sidebar.
When you’ve finished, don’t forget to click on ‘Update’ to make the changes live.
You can now visit your WordPress blog or website to see the shortcode in action.
Method 2. Using the Full Site Editor (Works With Block-Enabled WordPress Themes)
If you’re using a block theme then you can add shortcode to the sidebar using the full-site editor. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Themes »Editor.
This opens the full-site editor, with one of your theme’s templates already selected.
If you want to add shortcode to a different template, then click on the arrow in the toolbar and select ‘Browse all templates.’
You’ll now see all the different templates that make up your theme.
Simply find the template where you want to add the shortcode, and give it a click.
After that, click on the ‘+’ button and start typing in ‘Shortcode.’
When the right widget shows up, simply drag it onto the theme’s sidebar.
You can now add your shortcode to the widget. When you’re happy with your changes, click on ‘Save’ to make the shortcode live.
Method 3: Using the Custom HTML Widget (More Customizable)
Sometimes you may want to show other content along with the shortcode. For example, RafflePress can add a contest or giveaway to your sidebar using a shortcode. To draw even more attention to the contest, you may want to show a heading above the competition.
Instead of creating separate Shortcode and Heading blocks, you can simply add the shortcode and text to a Custom HTML block. This helps you arrange the different content in a nice layout. You can also style the block using HTML, so you can control exactly how it looks in the sidebar.
The Custom HTML block doesn’t support shortcodes by default, but you can easily change this by adding custom code to WordPress. After adding this code, you can use shortcodes in any Custom HTML block across your entire WordPress website.
Often, you’ll find guides with instructions to add custom code to your site’s functions.php file. However, this isn’t recommended as any mistakes in the code can cause common WordPress errors, or even break your site completely.
This free plugin makes it easy to add custom CSS, PHP, HTML, and more to WordPress, without putting your site at risk. Even better, it comes with a library of ready-made snippets including code that allows you to use shortcodes in text widgets.
To start, you’ll need to install and activate WPCode. For more information, you can see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After that, go to Code Snippets » Add Snippet in the WordPress dashboard. You can now start typing in ‘shortcode.’
When it appears, hover your mouse over the following snippet: ‘Enable Shortcode Execution in Text Widgets.’
You can then go ahead and click on ‘Use snippet.’
This will open the snippet in the WPCode editor. WPCode configures the snippet settings for you, so you can simply click on the ‘Inactive’ switch so that it turns blue.
With that done, click on ‘Update’ to make the snippet live.
Now, you can add a shortcode to any text widget.
Simply go to Appearance » Widgets and type ‘Custom HTML’ into the search bar.
When the right block appears, drag it onto your website’s sidebar.
With that done, you can add your HTML and shortcode to the block.
When you’re happy with how the widget is set up, click on ‘Update.’
Now if you visit your website, you’ll see the shortcode and custom HTML live.
FAQ: Using Shortcodes in WordPress Sidebar Widgets
No matter what theme you’re using, you should be able to add shortcodes to the sidebar using one of the methods above. However, if you need extra help then here are some of the most frequently asked questions about adding shortcodes to the sidebar.
How Do I Change Where the Sidebar Widget Appears?
The sidebar’s location is controlled by your WordPress theme. If you’re not happy with the sidebar’s position then you may be able to change it using the theme settings.
Many of the best WordPress themes let you choose between different layouts. Often, this includes showing the sidebar on different sides of the screen.
To see whether your theme has different sidebar layouts, go to Appearance »Customize in the WordPress dashboard. Here, look for any settings labeled Sidebar or similar.
Simply click on this option and look for any settings that allow you to change where the sidebar appears on your site.
For example, the following image shows the sidebar settings in the Astra WordPress Theme.
After making your changes, click on the ‘Publish’ button to make the new sidebar layout live.
If you can’t change the sidebar’s location using the built-in settings, then another option is to create a WordPress child theme.
How Do I Add a Sidebar to My WordPress Theme?
If your theme doesn’t have a sidebar then you could create a child theme and then add a sidebar using code.
If you’re not comfortable writing code, then you can also create a custom WordPress theme using a plugin such as SeedProd. You can use this popular page builder plugin to design your own theme and sidebar using a simple drag-and-drop editor.
How Do I Use a Different Shortcode on Each Post or Page?
Sometimes you may want to use different shortcodes on some of your posts and pages. For example, you might want to show the most popular posts on your archive page and display ads on your homepage.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
If you’re comparing different website builders, then you may have come across the sentiment that WordPress is hard to use.
WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder powering over 43% of all websites on the internet. However, some people complain that WordPress is more difficult to use than solutions like Squarespace and Wix.
In this article, we’ll address the myth of why WordPress is so hard, and share the tricks, tools, and techniques you can use to harness the full power of WordPress without any difficulties.
Why is WordPress So Hard?
Over 43% of all websites on the internet are built on WordPress. This might make you wonder:
Why are so many people using a difficult platform?
Unlike website builders such as Squarespace, WordPress is completely open source, customizable, and flexible. You can use WordPress in any way you want, which might sound confusing for new users.
This is particularly true if you’ve previously used a website builder like Wix.com. These platforms typically have limited features and control exactly how you use their tools. This might make it seem like that they’re easy to use, but they are also very restrictive.
With the right techniques, tools, and information, WordPress is just as easy as any website builder, but without any of the restrictions.
By choosing WordPress, you’ll get the freedom to use any web host and domain provider, so you can update, customize, and extend your WordPress website in exactly the way you want.
In the official WordPress repository alone, you’ll find over 60,000 free plugins that can add all sorts of features to your website. Think of plugins like apps in your iPhone except they’re for your websites.
When it comes to designing your site, you can use any free or premium theme, or even use drag & drop page builders to create a completely unique design.
There are no provider terms and conditions to follow, and you own all the content on your site.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at why nearly half of all website owners in the world ignore the myth that WordPress is hard to use and choose WordPress as their platform.
WordPress Isn’t Hard (But Here’s How to Make it Even Easier)
At WPBeginner we don’t believe that WordPress is hard. However, if you don’t have the right tools, tricks, and know-how, then WordPress can feel more complex than it actually is.
With that in mind, let’s see how you can make WordPress easier. You can use the links below to jump to any section of the post.
By choosing the best WordPress hosting, you can set your site up for success. The right host will provide exactly the features you need to build and run a successful WordPress website, even if you have no previous experience.
Some hosts even perform crucial WordPress maintenance tasks such as creating backups, adding security plugins, and installing updates. This will make WordPress feel effortless.
For example, Bluehost is a well-known WordPress hosting provider that automatically installs and set up WordPress for you when you sign up.
From time to time, you may encounter problems or have questions.
A good host will offer support over email, phone, live chat, and other channels so you’ll have no problems getting your site back on track.
As the world’s most popular CMS, there are lots of companies that offer WordPress hosting. For that reason, we’ve done the research and created a list of the best web hosting companies to help you find the provider that’s right for you.
Here are the top WordPress hosting companies that we recommend:
Bluehost – great for beginners – includes free domain.
Hostinger – growing fast in popularity due to affordable prices, fast speed, includes free domain.
The best part about WordPress is that you can easily add any feature to your site using plugins, without hiring a developer.
There are eCommerce plugins to help you create an online store, plugins that turn WordPress into a membership site so you can sell courses, add smart lead generation forms to grow your business, improve your SEO rankings, and much more.
In fact, there are over 60,000 free plugins in the official WordPress repository alone, so you’ll have no problems finding a plugin that meets your exact needs.
Just like plugins, there are countless free themes to choose from. In fact, there are over 10,500 free themes in the official WordPress repository alone.
It’s important to choose a theme that looks good, has the features you need, and is also high quality. To help you make the right decision, see our guide on how to select the perfect WordPress theme.
When building your site, you’ll create posts and pages using the WordPress block editor.
If you’re using a block-enabled theme such as Divi or Astra, then you can also add content using the full-site editor.
This editor allows you to completely change the theme layout and add new sections to your website without writing any code.
This is a great start, but it can be very basic and has a limited number of features.
We still recommend using a page builder plugin such as SeedProd. SeedProd allows you to create completely custom page designs and comes with ready-made blocks that you can drag and drop anywhere on your site.
This includes advanced blocks like countdown timers, contact forms, Google Maps, payment fields, and much more.
After adding a block to your site, you can customize it using the settings in the left-hand SeedProd menu.
Most visitors will find your site through search engines like Google. To help search engines show your content to the right people, you’ll need to work on your WordPress SEO.
SEO is a huge topic that often includes technical tasks such as adding rich snippets schema markup to your site.
Thankfully, there’s a WordPress plugin for everything and SEO is no exception. There are lots of different WordPress SEO plugins and tools you can use for individual tasks, but we recommend AIOSEO as it’s the complete SEO toolkit for WordPress.
AIOSEO comes with powerful features including breadcrumb navigation, advanced eCommerce SEO support for WooCommerce, local SEO, an internal link assistant, and much more. This means you don’t have to set up and learn multiple SEO plugins.
AIOSEO also scans your pages and posts as you’re writing them and creates a checklist of ways to improve its SEO.
To provide a good experience, your website needs to load quickly.
WordPress is already optimized for speed and performance, but there are lots of tricks and tools that can make it run even faster. With that in mind, we’ve created the ultimate guide to boost WordPress speed and performance that has everything you need to know.
Set up an Automated Security Plugin
WordPress is secure software, but hackers are always coming up with new ways to break into sites and steal data. To help new WordPress users keep their sites safe, we’ve created an ultimate WordPress security guide.
Sucuri tracks everything that happens on your site, including failed login attempts and any changes to the WordPress files.
It also scans for malware and monitors whether your site appears on any blocklists, as this may mean there’s a problem with your site’s security.
If it finds an issue, then Sucuri will notify you automatically. In this way, you can protect your site without having to perform any manual checks, or learn complicated security tools.
As a website owner, your goal is to get people to your site and keep them engaged. That’s where Google Analytics comes in.
Analytics allow you to make decisions based on real data. For example, you can track website visitors and see the content that gets the most engagement. You can then create more of this popular content.
You can also see how long visitors stay on your site and the bounce rate, which is the percentage of users who exit your site on the first visit. You can use this information to increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.
Google Analytics is an important tool, but it can be complicated to set up. For that reason, we recommend using MonsterInsights.
Spambots and malicious third parties can easily flood a site’s comment section with links to malware and low-quality pages. This can hurt your website’s reputation and may even affect its SEO.
You can moderate comments in WordPress directly from the dashboard, including manually approving and blocking comments, or even deleting them completely.
However, moderating every single comment can be time-consuming, especially as your site grows and attracts more visitors.
WordPress is open-source software so anyone can see and edit its code, or even add their own PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML. It may sound complicated, but there are lots of reasons to add custom code to WordPress.
WPCode is the best code snippets plugin for WordPress and allows you to add custom PHP, JavaScript, CSS, and HTML without editing any theme files.
WPCode also has a built-in library of snippets that you can add to a site with just a few clicks. Even if you’re a beginner with no coding experience, WPCode makes it easy to add custom code in WordPress in a safe way.
Keep Your WordPress Site Up-To-Date
It’s important to keep your themes, plugins, and core WordPress software up-to-date. Hackers try to exploit known errors and vulnerabilities in outdated software, so if you fall behind then your site could become an easy target.
Some updates even add features that make WordPress easier to use. For this reason, it’s important to update WordPress core, update your WordPress plugins, and install the latest version of your theme.
Some web hosts will install these updates for you automatically, especially if you’re using a managed hosting provider.
WordPress is secure and reliable software, but it’s still a good idea to create regular backups.
Accidents and mistakes happen, such as deleting important content or editing the wrong page. Malicious third parties may also try to break into your site and delete your content.
By creating regular backups, you can always recover a working and error-free version of your website. Even if the worst happens and you lose all your data, you can simply restore your WordPress website from its latest backup.
They may be important, but many website owners overlook backups until it’s too late.
The good news is there are many free and paid WordPress backup plugins that can do the hard work for you. We recommend using a premium plugin like Duplicator Pro as it can create backups automatically.
For added security, Duplicator Pro will save your backups to popular online storage solutions like Dropbox, OneDrive, or Amazon S3. This means you can log into these services from any location, and get access to a working copy of your website.
For this reason, many website owners don’t take the time to learn more about WordPress. We think this is a big mistake.
By continuing to learn you can often make WordPress even easier to use. With that in mind, here are just some of the free resources you’ll find on WPBeginner:
WPBeginner Blog. This is where we publish our WordPress tutorials, how-tos, and step-by-step guides. We have a huge library of free content, and we’re publishing new information all the time.
WPBeginner Dictionary. Complicated terms and technical jargon can make WordPress seem a lot harder than it is. For that reason, we’ve created a directory that covers all the WordPress lingo.
WPBeginner Videos. Our step-by-step WordPress 101 video tutorials have everything you need to get started with WordPress.
WPBeginner on YouTube. Enjoyed our WordPress 101 series and want to learn more? You’ll find over 900 more videos on our YouTube channel covering everything from SEO, to common WordPress errors and how to fix them, how to embed dynamic social media feeds on your site, and much more.
WPBeginner Engage Group. The largest and fastest-growing WordPress group for non-techies and beginners on Facebook. Here, you can connect with over 91,000 WordPress users, ask questions, and get support from the community.
Consider Hiring a WordPress Maintenance Service
The tips and tricks in this guide will make WordPress feel effortless, even if you’ve never created a website before.
However, if you’re looking for the ultimate hassle-free experience then you can always hire a maintenance service to take care of WordPress for you. This includes creating backups, installing updates, performing SEO audits, upgrading your site’s security, finding and fixing broken links, and more.
These services are perfect for first-time WordPress users or anyone who finds that day-to-day website maintenance takes too much time. If you want to hire a WordPress expert, then see our pick of the best WordPress website maintenance services.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to prevent clients from accidentally deactivating WordPress plugins?
If you build websites for other people, then you probably have a few important plugins that you install on every client site. If a client accidentally deactivates one of these essential plugins, then it could break their site completely.
In this article, we’ll show you how to stop clients from deactivating WordPress plugins.
Why Prevent Clients from Deactivating WordPress Plugins?
If you create websites for other people, then you may have a list of must-have WordPress plugins that you install on every site. These might be security plugins that protect the client against hackers and malicious code.
If the client accidentally deactivates one of these plugins then it could make their website vulnerable to attack, or affect how it works. In the worst-case scenario, it might even break their website completely.
Even though this isn’t your fault, it’s still a bad client experience and could damage your reputation. With that being said, let’s see how you can stop clients from accidentally deactivating plugins in WordPress.
Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
By default, only the Administrator has permission to manage plugins, which includes deactivating plugins.
With that in mind, we recommend creating a single admin account for your clients so they have a way to manage their sites. You can then create non-admin accounts for anyone else who needs access but doesn’t require admin privileges.
Without admin rights, this means the majority of your clients won’t be able to deactivate plugins.
You can use any role for the non-administrator accounts. However, we recommend using Editor as it allows users to create, edit, publish, and delete content, including content created by other people. They just won’t have access to the higher-level WordPress features.
It’s also a good idea to give the Admin account to someone who has experience with WordPress and understands how to manage a WordPress website.
To create an account for one or more clients, go to Users » Add New in the WordPress dashboard. You can then type in some information about the person including their name and email address.
With that done, open the Role dropdown and choose the role you want to assign this user, such as Admin or Editor.
When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on ‘Add New User.’
Method 2. Using the Members Plugin (Create a Custom Client Role)
Sometimes you may need to stop clients from deactivating plugins without restricting their access to other areas.
With that being said, the built-in user roles may not be right for your website. For example, Editors can’t deactivate plugins, but they also can’t add new users or install WordPress themes, which may be a problem for your clients.
If the default user roles aren’t quite right for your client, then you can create a custom role. This role can have exactly the permissions and capabilities the client needs. You can even create different roles for different teams, or even individual employees.
The easiest way to create custom roles is by using the free Members plugin. This plugin allows you to create new roles and then add and remove capabilities to those user roles, including the ability to activate and deactivate WordPress plugins.
This permission removes the Plugins setting from the left-hand menu, as you can see in the following image.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Members plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how toinstall a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, go to Members » Add NewRole.
In the ‘Enter role name’ field, type in the name you want to use. This will be visible to anyone who has access to the WordPress dashboard.
After that, it’s time to grant and deny permissions.
The left column shows all the different types of content such as reusable blocks and WooCommerce products. Simply click on a tab and you’ll see all the permissions for that content type.
You can then go ahead and check the ‘Grant’ or ‘Deny’ box for each permission. For more detailed instructions, please see our guide on how to add or remove user capabilities.
To stop clients from deactivating plugins, click on the ‘Plugins’ tab on the left.
On this screen, check the ‘Deny’ box on the line that says ‘Activate Plugins.’
When you’re happy with how the user role is set up, click on ‘Add Role.’
You can now assign this role to any user, following the same process described in Method 1.
Method 3. Using Custom PHP (Prevent Clients From Deactivating Specific Plugins)
If you want to stop clients from deactivating all plugins, then you can use one of the methods mentioned above.
However, sometimes you may want to protect essential plugins only, while still giving clients the freedom to deactivate and delete non-essential software.
The best way to protect specific plugins is by adding custom code in WordPress. This allows you to remove the ‘Deactivate’ link for specific plugins.
This is an advanced method, so we don’t recommend it for beginners.
Note: Just be aware that clients can still deactivate any plugin using the Bulk Actions dropdown menu, or with an advanced tool like FTP or phpMyAdmin. However, removing the ‘Deactivate’ link makes it much more difficult for clients to accidentally deactivate an essential plugin.
To start, you’ll need to know the plugin’s file name and where it lives on your server. Typically, these files use the plugin’s name followed by .php, and live inside a folder named after the plugin. For example, the WooCommerce file is named ‘woocommerce.php’ and lives inside a ‘woocommerce’ folder.
However, it’s still worth checking, especially if the plugin has a long, complicated name or multiple words. For example, if you’re using the SR Product 360° View plugin to add interactive 360-degree images in WordPress, then its file is named ‘sr.php.’
You can check the file name and location by connecting to the site’s server using an FTP client such as FileZilla, or you can use the file manager of your WordPress hosting cPanel.
After that, go to /wp-content/plugins/. Here, you’ll see all the different plugins on your site.
Simply find the plugin that you want to protect, and open its folder.
After that, find the .php file.
Now, make a note of the folder name and .php file, as you’ll be using this information in your code. Simply repeat this process for every plugin you want to protect.
With that done, it’s time to add a code snippet to your site. Often, you’ll find guides asking you to add code to the site’s functions.php file.
However, this isn’t recommended as simple errors can cause countless common WordPress errors. You’ll also lose the custom code when you update your WordPress theme.
This snippet disables deactivation for WPForms and WooCommerce. To protect other plugins, simply replace ‘wpforms/wpforms.php’ and ‘woocommerce/woocommerce.php’ with the folders and file names you got in the previous step.
To disable deactivation for more plugins, simply add them to the code. For example:
After that, scroll to the ‘Insertion’ section. WPCode can add your code to different locations, such as after every post, frontend only, or admin only.
We only need to use the PHP code in the WordPress admin area, so click on ‘Auto Insert’ if it isn’t already selected. Then, open the ‘Location’ dropdown menu and choose ‘Admin only.’
After that, you’re ready to scroll to the top of the screen and click on the ‘Inactive’ toggle, so it changes to ‘Active.’
Finally, click on ‘Save Snippet’ to make the PHP snippet live.
Now, if you select Plugins from the left-hand menu, you’ll see the ‘Deactivate’ link has been removed for those plugins.
If you need to restore the ‘deactivate’ links at any point, then you can disable the code snippet. Simply go to Code Snippets »Code Snippet and click the switch next to your snippet to turn it from blue (enabled) to grey (disabled).
You can now deactivate these plugins by heading over to the Plugins menu.
You can also deactivate protected plugins using phpMyAdmin or an FTP client. This may be a good solution if you want to remove a specific plugin, but don’t want to completely disable the code snippet and leave all your protected plugins vulnerable.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to create a custom search form for your WordPress website?
Search is how most users find relevant and interesting content on your site. If they can’t easily find what they’re looking for, then they may move on to a different website.
In this article, we’ll show you how to improve your website search by creating a custom WordPress search form.
Why Create a Custom Search Form for WordPress?
WordPress comes with a built-in search feature. However, it doesn’t search all types of content such as comments, product reviews, or custom post types.
This may stop the visitor from finding what they’re looking for, including products they may want to buy on your online store.
You may also want to prioritize some content over others, so that it appears higher in the search results. For example, you may want to show your site’s latest posts at the top of the search results page, or display your most popular WooCommerce products.
With that in mind, let’s see how you can customize the WordPress search form. We cover a lot of ground in this post, so simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the section you want to read.
The easiest way to improve the built-in WordPress search algorithm is by using SearchWP.
SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin. It’s easy to use and gives you complete control over your site’s search algorithm, so you can help visitors find what they’re looking for, fast. It also searches content that WordPress ignores by default.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, go to SearchWP » Settings and then click on the ‘General’ tab.
Here, you need to enter your license in the ‘License Key’ box. You can find this information in your account on the SearchWP site.
Once you’re done, click the ‘Verify Key’ button.
Customizing the Search Engine
After activating the plugin, you can fine-tune how SearchWP indexes, searches, and displays your content. You can think of this as creating a custom Google search algorithm that’s just for your WordPress blog or website.
To start, head over to SearchWP »Algorithm.
Here, you’ll see a section for the different content types that SearchWP searches by default, including pages, posts, and media files.
To include more content types in the search results, click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.
Depending on the WordPress plugins you’ve installed, you may see some extra options. For example, if you’re using WooCommerce then you can include ‘Products’ in the SearchWP search results.
Simply go ahead and check the box next to each content type you want to include in the search results.
You’ll also notice that ‘Keyword Stems’ is selected by default. This means SearchWP may include results that don’t have the same ending as the search term.
For example, if you search for ‘run’ then keyword stemming will include ‘running,’ and ‘runners’ in the results.
This can help show relevant results to visitors, so we recommend leaving the ‘Keyword Stems box checked. However, you can uncheck it if you want to show exact matches only.
When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered into the popup, click on ‘Done.’
You’ll now see a section for all the sources you selected.
Each section has its own ‘Applicable Attribute Relevance’ sliders.
This is the weight that SearchWP will give to each attribute when creating the search results.
Content that matches an attribute with high relevancy will appear higher in the search results. By contrast, content that matches an attribute that has less relevancy will appear lower in the user’s search results.
To give an attribute greater weight, simply move its slider to the right. In the following image, the search engine will place more value on matches that it finds in the post title, compared to matches that it finds in the post’s content.
Every WordPress website is unique, so you may want to try different relevancy settings to see what gives you the most accurate and helpful search results.
For example, if you’ve uploaded your menu as a PDF on your restaurant website, then this is important content and you’ll typically want to show it high in the search results.
You can also create rules that determine whether certain content is included or excluded from the search results. For example, if you have an online marketplace then you may want to exclude the account page, checkout page, and thank you page.
Simply click the ‘Edit Rules’ button in the section where you want to create the rule. For example, in the following image, we’re adding a new rule to the ‘Posts’ section.
This opens a popup where you can edit the search engine rules.
To go ahead and create your first rule, click on the ‘Add Rule’ button.
You can now choose the content you want to include or exclude from relevant search results.
To start, open the first dropdown menu and choose either ‘Only show entries if’ or ‘Exclude entries if’ depending on the kind of rule you want to create.
You can now use the rest of the settings to specify the content you want to exclude or include. For example, if you wanted to include or exclude a specific category then you’d type in the category name.
You can also type in any custom taxonomies you want to exclude or include.
To exclude or include specific post tags from the search results, simply open the dropdown menu and select ‘Tags.’
Then, type in the tag’s name.
To add another rule, just click the ‘Add Rule’ button and repeat the same process described above. When you’re happy with how the rules are set up, click ‘Done.’
You can now create rules for other content types such as media and pages, by scrolling to their sections and clicking on their ‘Add Rule’ buttons.
When you’re happy with how the search algorithm is set up, scroll to the top of the page and click on ‘Save.’
SearchWP will now rebuild the index. Depending on the speed of your Internet connection and your WordPress hosting provider, this may take a few minutes.
As soon as you see ‘Index Status 100%,’ you’ll know that SearchWP has added all your content and rules to the search index.
Create Custom Search Forms For Your WordPress Website
By default, all the search forms on your WordPress website will use the new SearchWP algorithm you created in the previous section. This means that visitors will start seeing more accurate and relevant results straight away.
However, for even better results you may want to create advanced search forms for different kinds of content. For example, you might create a smart WooCommerce product search form that looks at particular product categories only.
Each form will override the default WordPress search algorithm, so you can create as many different forms as you want with unique settings.
How to Create a Custom Search Form
To get started, head over to SearchWP » Search Forms and click the ‘Add New’ button.
This creates a new search form, ready for you to customize. For example, if you run a review website, then you might create a form that searches for product review posts and ignores other content like your blog posts and media. This can help visitors find what they’re looking for, faster.
Now, give the form a unique name by clicking on the small pencil icon next to ‘Search Form 1’.
You now type in a name for the custom search form.
This is just for your reference so you can use anything that helps you identify the form in the WordPress dashboard.
After that, you can choose a layout using the ‘Layout Theme’ thumbnails.
Some of these layouts are designed for specific search forms. For example, if you are creating a form that searches by category in WordPress, then ‘Category Search’ already has many of the settings you need.
Simply click on the different themes to see a preview of how this form will look on your website. After making your decision, scroll to the ‘Custom Styling’ section.
The settings you see may vary depending on your theme layout. For example, if you selected ‘Quick Search’, then the ‘Quick Search’ setting will be enabled by default.
You can disable and enable the different options using their toggles. The preview will update automatically as you make changes, so you can see what works best for your website.
Depending on your layout and the kind of form you want to create, you may need to enable and disable some of the ‘Custom Styling’ settings. For example, if you want to create a form that searches by category, then click to enable the ‘Category Search’ toggle.
After that, find the ‘Select Category’ field and type in each category that you want to include in the search results. For example, if you run an online store, then you may want to create forms that search specific product categories.
If you want to allow visitors to filter their search results using factors like the author, post type, and tag, then you will need to click to enable the ‘Advanced Search’ toggle.
After that, scroll to the ‘Advanced Search Filter/s’ field. By default, SearchWP allows visitors to filter their results using Authors, Post Types, and Tags.
To remove any of these filters, just click on its ‘X’ button. If you want to add more filters, then simply type their names into the field.
Then, when the right option appears in the dropdown, give it a click.
By default, SearchWP will search all the media, pages, and posts on your WordPress website. If you’ve created any custom post types, then you can include them in the search results using the ‘Type of search’ field.
Simply go ahead and type in each custom post type that you want to include. When the right custom post type appears, click to add it to the search.
Do you want to exclude media, pages, or posts from the search results?
Then just click the small ‘X’ next to ‘Media’, ‘Pages’, or ‘Posts’.
By default, SearchWP will show a generic ‘Enter keyword and search’ message before the visitor enters a search query.
You can replace this with your own messaging by typing into ‘Field Label’.
When you are happy with these settings, scroll to the ‘Form Style’ section.
Here, you can choose between different form styles, add a border, and change the font size.
Under ‘Button Style,’ you can customize the ‘Search’ button that appears in the form.
There are more settings that you can use to change how the form looks and acts. However, this is all you need to create an advanced custom search form.
When you’re happy with how the form is set up, you can scroll to the top of the screen and click on ‘Save’ to store your settings.
To create more custom search forms with unique settings, simply repeat the exact same process described above.
Add a Custom Search Form to Any Page, Post, or Widget-Ready Area
You can add an advanced search form to any page, post, or widget-ready area using the Search Form block.
As an example, let’s see how you can add a search form to a post. Simply open the post in the WordPress content editor and click on the ‘+’ icon. Then, type in ‘Search Form’.
When the right block appears, give it a click.
You can now open the ‘Select a Form’ dropdown and choose the form you want to use.
When you are ready to make the search form live, just click on either ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’. Now, simply visit this page or post to see the search form in action.
To add a search form to a widget-ready area, head over to Appearance » Widgets. Here, click the ‘+’ block icon in the area where you want to show the search form.
Then, type in ‘Search Form’.
When the right block appears, click to add it to the widget-ready area.
You can now open the dropdown menu and choose the search form that you want to use.
When you are finished, just click the ‘Update’ button to make the search form live.
Many online marketplaces and websites use live Ajax search. This automatically shows possible search results as the user types in the custom form, similar to how search engines such as Google work.
With Ajax live search, you can show relevant results without even reloading the page. This makes it a great choice if you sell digital downloads or physical products online, as shoppers can instantly see products that match their search query.
The easiest way to add Ajax live search to WordPress is by using SearchWP Live Ajax Lite Search. This free plugin automatically adds instant search to your website and works perfectly with any WordPress theme.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, the default WordPress search form will automatically use the Ajax live search feature. If you visit your site and start typing into the search bar, then you’ll see instant search in action.
Next, it’s a good idea to enable some advanced settings that will make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for.
To do this, go to SearchWP » Settings and scroll to the ‘General Settings’ section.
Here, you can activate any of the following settings:
Partial matches. With this setting enabled, SearchWP will display results that aren’t an exact match for the visitor’s search query.
Closest match. After enabling partial matches, you can also show the closest matches when a search has no results.
“Quoted†searches. This allows visitors to search for exact phrases using quotes.
Highlight terms. Automatically highlights the search terms to help visitors find what they’re looking for.
Measuring Search Results and Improving Conversions
To help you fine-tune your website’s search, it’s a good idea to monitor how visitors are using the search feature. This allows you to see what’s working and what’s not working on your WordPress blog, so you can constantly improve your site’s search and help visitors find what they are looking for.
This data can even help you generate blog post ideas by showing the content that visitors are already searching for.
To see the search history and most popular search terms, simply select ‘Statistics’ in the left-hand menu.
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Are you looking for a way to add drop caps in WordPress?
Drop caps are a great way to start a paragraph. By having a large first letter, they can help you to capture your reader’s attention and get them interested in reading your content.
In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add drop caps in WordPress posts.
What is a Drop Cap?
A drop cap is a styling technique commonly used in print books and magazines that feature longer reads. The first letter of the starting paragraph in each chapter uses a large font size.
Normally the large capital letter extends downwards to drop below the first few lines, which is why it’s called a “drop cap.â€
Adding drop caps helps your content to stand out and catch your visitor’s attention. They add a more formal and traditional touch to your site’s design.
There are several ways to add drop caps to a WordPress website. You can use the built-in option in the WordPress block editor or use a plugin.
That being said, let’s see how you can easily add drop caps in WordPress posts using different methods.
Feel free to click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred method:
Method 1. Add Drop Caps Using the WordPress Block Editor
This method is recommended for all users as it comes default in the WordPress block editor. While it works, you have to manually do it for each post. If you’re looking for automatic method, skip to method 2.
First, head over to the Posts » Add New page from the WordPress admin dashboard.
Now, simply click the ‘Add Block’ (+) button at the top left corner of the screen.
After that, simply locate and click the paragraph block to add it to your post.
Next, you need to open up the Block Settings Panel in the right column.
Once you do that, head over to the ‘Typography’ section and click the three-dot icon beside it to open up typography options.
Next, you need to select the ‘Drop Cap’ option from the list to add it to your ‘Typography’ section.
Once the drop cap feature has been added, simply toggle the switch next to the ‘Drop Cap’ option to show a large initial letter at the start of a paragraph.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Draft’ or ‘Publish’ button at the top to save your changes.
You have now successfully added a drop cap to your post.
This is how it looked on our demo site.
Note that the built-in drop caps option in the block editor will use your WordPress theme’s styling for the color, font, and size of the first letter.
If you want to change the style of your drop caps in the WordPress block editor, then you’ll have to use custom CSS code to style your drop cap.
Method 2. Add Drop Caps Using CSS Code
For this method, we will be adding custom CSS code to automatically add drop caps to the first paragraph of each post. You can either add the CSS code to your theme’s stylesheets or use a code snippet plugin.
We recommend using WPCode, the #1 code snippet plugin used by over 1,000,000 sites across the globe. It makes it super easy to add code to your site without any hassle.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Code Snippets » +Add Snippets page from the WordPress admin sidebar.
From here, you need to hover your mouse over the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
This will reveal the ‘Use Snippet’ button that you need to click.
Now that you’re on the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page, start by entering a title for your code snippet. It can be anything that will help you identify the snippet.
After that, you need to select ‘CSS Snippet’ as the ‘Code Type’ from the dropdown menu on the right.
Next, simply copy and paste the following code in the ‘Code Preview’ box.
This is how your code will look once you paste it into the ‘Code Preview’.
Now, you need to scroll down to the insertion section and select the ‘Auto Insert’ method if you want to execute the code all over your site.
You can use the ‘Shortcode’ method if you only want to add drop caps to specific posts.
Once you save the snippet, you’ll be given a shortcode that you can paste into the block editor of the posts where you want to add drop caps.
After that, head back to the top of the page and toggle the switch to ‘Active.
Finally, click on the ‘Save Snippet’ button.
Your CSS code snippet will now be live on your site.
This is how the drop caps looked on our demo site using the CSS snippet above.
Method 3. Add Drop Caps Using a Plugin
If you are hesitant to add custom CSS, then you can also add drop caps using the Initial Letter plugin.
This plugin also allows you to change the size, color, and font of the drop caps.
Note: Keep in mind that the Initial Letter plugin hasn’t been tested with the latest version of WordPress and is no longer maintained by the developer.
However, we tested the plugin and it works fine. If you’re still unsure, take a look at our article on outdated plugins.
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Do you want to learn how WordPress search works, and how you can make it better?
By understanding and improving the built-in WordPress search, you can help visitors find what they’re looking for. This can get you more conversions while keeping people on your site for longer.
In this article, we’ll look at how the default WordPress search works, and share tips on how to make it better.
How Does WordPress Search Work?
WordPress comes with a search system that will look for content within your website.
How the search bar looks and where it appears will vary depending on your WordPress theme, but most themes show the search bar in the top right corner.
Note: If your theme doesn’t show the WordPress search bar by default, then skip ahead to our FAQs, where we’ll show you how to add it.
Visitors can type a search query into this field, and WordPress will search:
As you can see, it doesn’t search widgets, user comments, categories, tags, WooCommerce products, or PDF documents. It also doesn’t search image gallery titles, captions, or alt text, although you can search this content using a search engine plugin like SearchWP.
WordPress performs this search using the WP_Query class. It will start by displaying any posts that have the search term in the post title, arranged in reverse-chronological order, meaning that the newest entries will be displayed at the top of the results.
After that, it’ll show any posts that have the matching term in the post content.
For example, imagine you’ve just published a post about cats titled ‘My Favorite Pet’, and you also have an older post titled ‘Best Cat Photos.’ In this case, searching for ‘Cat’ will display the older ‘Best Cat Photos’ post first, since it has the search term in the title.
This may not a problem for WordPress blogs or websites that only have small amounts of content. However, this ordering logic will often show inaccurate or confusing results for bigger blogs, online stores, or business websites.
The built-in system is also missing some of the features that people expect from modern search engines. This includes autocomplete, live Ajax search, filtering, and spellcheck.
Why Improve the Default WordPress Search?
An advanced, fast, and accurate on-site search can help visitors find interesting and relevant content, which will keep them on your website for longer. This can increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.
Since visitors are spending more time on your site, this will send positive signals to the search engines. This can improve your WordPress SEO, which means search engines like Google will show your content to more people and drive more visitors to your website.
People who are using your site’s internal search are already highly engaged. They’re actively looking for specific content, which may mean they’re ready to take actions such as buying a product, signing up to your WordPress membership site, or booking an appointment.
If these people can’t find what they’re looking for, they may give up and go to a different website. This means you’re losing out on visitors who were ready to convert.
A search results page is also an example of personalized content since you’re showing the visitor results that match their unique search query. By providing personalized content that’s accurate and helpful, you can improve the visitor experience. Once again, this can encourage them to convert.
Performance is another reason why it’s a good idea to replace the default WordPress search with a better alternative.
The larger your WordPress website gets, the longer it’ll take WP_Query to scan your database and get the results. This means your site’s search will get slower, as your website gets bigger.
How to Make the WordPress Native Search Better
On-site search helps visitors find what they’re looking for, including products to buy and interesting blogs to read. Since it’s such an important part of your site, it’s a bad idea to rely on the limited built-in WordPress search.
With that being said, let’s see how you can improve the native WordPress search.
Show Instant Results With Live Ajax Search
Live Ajax search adds a dropdown and autocomplete feature that’s common in search engines like Google.
As the user types, live search guesses what they want to search for and then shows them results without even reloading the page.
This can help visitors find the right content, without having to manually press the ‘Search’ button or wait for the page to reload.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, the default WordPress search form will automatically use the Ajax live search feature. If you visit your site and start typing into the search bar, then you’ll see the instant search in action.
Change the Default Search URL Slug
By default, WordPress search URLs typically look something like this:
http://example.com/?s=search-term
The extra ?s= characters make this URL more difficult to read and understand, which can confuse visitors who are trying to find their way around your site.
Even worse, these URLs aren’t optimized for search engines which can stop them from correctly indexing your site’s contents.
You can go ahead and use the following custom code to replace the ‘/?s=search-term’ characters with ‘search.’ Your slug will look something like this when finished: http://example.com/search/wordpress
To use something other than ‘search’ in your URL, simply customize the code snippet below.
By uploading PDFs to your WordPress website, you can share information about your services and products in a format that works on all devices. They’re also perfect for offering your visitors ebooks, user manuals, menus, and more.
However, WordPress only searches the contents of its database by default, so it will only look at the title and description of your PDF files, and not their contents. As a result, your visitors may struggle to find the best PDF for their search query.
The good news is that you can use a custom search plugin to improve the default WordPress search experience. If your PDFs are unencrypted, then the right search plugin will index the contents and metadata of your PDFs and add them to the search results.
If you have multiple categories of content on your website, then you might want to let users restrict their search to a specific category. This can help visitors find the right content, faster.
For example, if you have an online store then it often makes sense to let customers search within a particular product category.
If you run a membership site, then you might use search by category to help visitors find other members, groups, forums, online courses, and other specific kinds of content. For more information, please see our guide on how to add search by category in WordPress.
Make a Smart WooCommerce Product Search
WooCommerce has its own built-in search, but it doesn’t look for matches in product attributes, reviews, or product descriptions. This omission can stop shoppers from finding products they want to buy on your online store, so you get fewer sales.
To get even more sales, you may want to fine-tune the kind of products WooCommerce includes in its search results. For example, you might only show products that are on sale or come with free shipping.
Custom post types allow you to go beyond posts and pages and create different content types for your website. Custom post types can have different custom fields and their own custom category structure.
For example, if you run a movie review website, then you would probably want to create a ‘movie reviews’ post type that has fields for the director, release date, and more.
At WPBeginner, we use custom post types for our Glossary section to keep it separate from our blog posts.
If you use custom post types, then you may want to create a form that allows visitors to search only that content.
For example, we also have a form that only searches WPBeginner’s coupon codes.
By default, the built-in WordPress search will include all posts and pages in its search results.
However, you may want to exclude certain pages and posts from the search results. For example, if you’re running a WordPress membership website or selling online courses, then you’ll typically want to exclude your premium content from public search results.
If you’re running an online store, then you may want to hide content like your account page, checkout page, and thank you page. To help you out, we’ve created a guide on how to exclude pages from the WordPress search results.
In this guide, we’ve explored how the default WordPress search works and shared lots of tips on how to improve it.
However, you may still have some questions about this important feature. That said, here are some of the most frequently asked questions about WordPress search.
How Do I Improve WordPress Search?
The best way to improve the built-in WordPress search is by using SearchWP.
SearchWP is the best custom search plugin for WordPress and allows visitors to search any content on your site including documents, WooCommerce products, custom fields, tags, comments, and more.
It also lets you customize the WordPress search algorithm, so you can control exactly where the content appears in the search results.
Since the main navigation menu typically appears across your entire site, visitors will be able to search for pages, posts, products, and more, from any page of your website.
If you’re using a block-based theme such as ThemeIsle’s Hestia Pro or Twenty Twenty-Three, then you can add a search bar to your theme using the full-site editor (FSE).
To do this, go to Appearance »Editor in the WordPress dashboard.
By default, the editor will show your theme’s home template. If you want to add the search bar to a different template, then click on the small arrow icon in the toolbar.
Then, select ‘Browse all templates.’
You’ll now see all the templates that make up your WordPress theme. Simply find the template where you want to add the search bar, and then click on its title.
You will now see this template in the full-site editor.
To go ahead and add a search bar, click on the blue ‘+’ icon.
In the popup that appears, type in ‘Search’ to find the right block.
You can then drag the block to the location where you want to show the search bar.
To customize the block title or placeholder text, simply type it into the search block where it says ‘search’ or ‘optional placeholder.’
When you’re happy with how the block looks, click on ‘Save’ to make the search bar live.
How Do I Add Search to a WordPress Page or Post?
You can add a search bar to a specific page or post using the built-in Search block.
This is a good choice if you want to control exactly where the search bar appears on every page and post, or you only need to offer search on specific areas of your website.
To get started, simply open the page where you want to add a search form and then click on the + icon.
In the popup that appears, type ‘Search’ to find the right block. Once you click on the Search block, it will add the block to your page.
By default, the block uses ‘Search’ for both its label and the button text.
This will be visible to visitors, so you may want to replace it with something more descriptive by typing into the text fields.
You can also add some placeholder text to the search bar. This text will disappear automatically when the visitor starts typing.
To add a placeholder, simply click on ‘Optional placeholder…’ and then start typing.
When you’re happy with how the Search block looks, you can go ahead and either publish or update the post.
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