Author: Editorial Staff

Posted on

How to Move a Site from WordPress Multisite to Single Install

Featured Imgs 13

Do you want to move a site from a WordPress multisite to a single install?

If you run a WordPress multisite network, sometimes, you may need to move one of the websites to its own separate WordPress install.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily move a site from WordPress multisite to its own single install while preserving SEO rankings and all your content.

Moving a child site from WordPress multisite

Step 1: Getting Started

To move a website from a WordPress multisite network, you’ll need a domain name.

If you already have a domain name where you want to install the single site, then you are good to go.

If you don’t have a separate domain name, you’ll need to register and add a new domain name to your hosting account.

We recommend using Domain.com. They are one of the best domain name registrars in the world and offer beginner-friendly domain management experience.

For more details, see our article on how to register a domain name.

Alternatively, you can buy a separate hosting account and domain name for your fresh WordPress install.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are offering a free domain name with a generous discount on hosting.

Basically, you can get started for $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

After getting your domain name and hosting, the next step is to install WordPress.

See our step-by-step WordPress installation tutorial if you need help.

Important: Since you are going to make some serious changes to your WordPress multisite, it is necessary to create a complete WordPress backup before you do anything else.

Now that everything is set up, let’s move a site from WordPress multisite network to its single install.

Step 2: Exporting a Single Site in WordPress Multisite Network

The built-in WordPress import/export functionality works the same way in multisite as it does on a single site install. We will use the default tools to export the data from a site on a WordPress multisite network.

First, you need to log in to the dashboard of the single site you want to move, and then click on Tools » Export.

Next, you want to ensure all content is checked and click on the Download Export File button.

Export single site in a WordPress multisite

WordPress will now create an XML file containing all your data and send it to your browser for download.

Be sure to save the file on your computer because you will need it later.

Step 3: Importing Child Site to New Domain

Login to the WordPress admin area on the new location where you want to move your child site and then go to Tools » Import. On the import screen, WordPress will show you a number of import options.

Install WordPress importer on the new single site

You need to click on the ‘Install Now’ link below ‘WordPress.’

Wait for the importer to be installed and then click on the ‘Run Importer’ link.

Run WordPress importer

On the next screen, you will be asked to upload the WordPress export file you downloaded earlier from the WordPress multisite.

Click on the Choose file button to select the file from your computer and then click on the ‘Upload file and import’ button.

Upload import file

On the next screen, WordPress will ask if you would also like to import users. If you do nothing, then WordPress will import all users. This is recommended if you do not want to change authors.

You will also see the Import Attachments option, and you want to make sure it is checked so that WordPress can download images from your posts and pages.

Don’t worry if it misses out on some or most of your images. You can import them separately afterward.

Import settings

Click on the ‘Submit’ button to continue.

WordPress will now start importing your content. This will take a few minutes depending on how much content you have. Once it is done, you will see a notification that says ‘All done. Have fun!’

Importing finished

That’s all. You have successfully imported data from a multisite network child site to an individual WordPress install. There are still a few things left to do.

Step 4: Setting up Redirection

If you were using WordPress multisite with custom domains, then you don’t have to set up any redirection.

However, if you were using subdomains or directory structures in your WordPress multisite, you need to set up redirection so that users coming to your old URLs are redirected to your new site.

There are two ways to do this. You can set up a redirect using a WordPress plugin (recommended), or you can add some code to your WordPress .htaccess file.

We’ll show you both methods, and you can choose the one that best suits you.

Note: Make sure that your old site on the multisite network and the site on the new domain are both using the same permalink structure.

Method 1. Setting Redirects Using All in One SEO for WordPress

This method is easier and recommended for all users. We’ll be using All in One SEO for WordPress, which is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market.

It allows you to easily optimize your WordPress site for search engines and comes with powerful features like SEO analysis, custom XML sitemaps, Schema.org support, and a redirects manager.

First, install and activate the All in One SEO for WordPress plugin on your WordPress multisite and then Network Activate it for the child site. For more details, see our guide on network activating plugins on WordPress Multisite.

Network activate a plugin

Note: You’ll need at least the Pro plan to access the Redirection Manager feature.

Next, you need to install and network activate the Redirection Manager addon. You can find it under ‘Downloads’ from your account page on the All in One SEO website.

Download redirection addon for All in One SEO

Once you have network-activated both plugins, you need to switch to the dashboard of the child site.

From here, go to the All in One SEO » Redirects page and switch to the ‘Full Site Redirect’ tab.

Redirect settings

First, turn on the Relocate Site option by toggling the switch next to it.

Then, enter your new site’s domain name next to ‘Relocate to domain’ option.

Now click on the Save Changes button to store your settings.

All in One SEO for WordPress will now redirect users to your new domain name.

Method 2. Setting up Redirects using the Redirection Plugin

First, you need to install the Redirection plugin on your WordPress Multisite.

You can Network Activate a plugin, or you can log in as Super Admin on your child site and activate the Redirection plugin for that particular site alone.

After that, you need to visit the admin dashboard of the child site for which you want to set up the redirect.

Redirecting from Subdomain to New Domain

The Redirection plugin makes it super easy to point a domain name to a different one.

Simply go to the Tools » Redirection page and switch to the ‘Site’ tab.

Redirection set up

Simply enter your new domain name and then click on the ‘Update’ button to save your settings.

The plugin will redirect all your site users to your new domain name with the correct permalink structure.

The advantage of this method is that you can still log in to the admin area of your old subdomain.

Redirecting from Directory to New Domain

If your multisite uses a directory-based URL structure, then the Redirection plugin makes it easy to redirect it properly to your new domain.

Simply go to the Tools » Redirection page on your sub-site, and then click on the Add New button at the top.

New redirect

This will take you to Redirection’s setup form. Here is how you need to fill in that form:

Source URL: ^childsite/(.*)$
Target URL: https://example.com/$1

Be sure to replace childsite and example.com with the name of your subsite and its new location.

Don’t forget to change select ‘Regex’ from the dropdown to the right, and then just click on the Add Redirect button to save your settings.

Redirect subdirectory

You can now visit your sub-site to see the redirects in action.

Method 2. Setting up Redirects Using .htaccess file

For this method, you need to add redirect rules to the .htaccess file in your WordPress hosting account for your multisite network.

Subdomain to New Domain Redirect

For subdomain installs, you need to use this code in the .htaccess file of your WordPress multisite.

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^subdomain.example.com$ [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://www.example.net/$1 [L,R=301]

This code redirects visitors coming to any page on subdomain.example.com to http://www.example.net. The $1 sign at the end of the destination URL ensures that your users land on the same page they requested.

Redirecting From Directory to New Domain

For directory-based multisite installs, you’ll need to paste the following code in the .htaccess file of your WordPress multisite.

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^childsite/(.*)$ http://example.net/$1 [R=301,L]

This code simply redirects any users coming on http://www.example.com/childsite/ to http://example.net. The $1 makes sure that your users land on exactly the same page or post they requested.

Don’t forget to replace childsite and example.net with the name of your subsite and its new location.

Step 5: Troubleshooting the Migration

Moving a site is not a routine task, so it is likely that you may come across some issues.

1. Export File Too Large – If your WordPress export file is too large, you may fail to import it properly. To fix this, you may need to split large XML file into smaller pieces.

2. Images Not Imported – Another common issue is that images may not import correctly to your new site. To fix this, you can try importing them as external images.

3. Redirects Not Working – If users are not being redirected correctly to your new site, then you need to carefully review your redirect settings. Make sure that your single install and the child site are both using the same Permalinks structure.

For other issues, see other common WordPress errors and how to fix them.

We hope this article helped you move a site from a WordPress multisite to a single install. You may also want to review our WordPress SEO checklist for your new install or try these essential WordPress plugins on your fresh site.

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 Move a Site from WordPress Multisite to Single Install first appeared on WPBeginner.

Posted on

How to Split WordPress Posts into Multiple Pages (Post Pagination)

Category Image 091

Are you looking for a way to split long WordPress posts into different pages?

Splitting lengthy content into several pages makes it easier for your visitors to read articles and navigate different sections.

In this article, we will show you how to split WordPress posts into multiple pages, step by step.

How to Split WordPress Posts

Why Split WordPress Posts into Multiple Pages?

If you have blog posts or guides that are lengthy, then setting up post pagination can improve the readability of your content.

It helps to break down the article into different sections and split them into multiple pages. This way, visitors can easily digest your content and read any section they are interested in.

Another benefit of splitting WordPress posts is that it can help increase pageviews and boost ad revenues.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to split WordPress posts into multiple pages. We will cover how to break your WordPress posts into multiple pages without a plugin and using a WordPress plugin.

Method 1. Split WordPress Posts without a Plugin

The easiest way of setting up post pagination is by using the ‘Page Break’ block in your WordPress content editor. You don’t need a WordPress plugin to break up your articles into multiple pages.

First, edit or add a new post on your WordPress website. After that, click the plus (+) button where you want to split your content and add a ‘Page Break’ block.

Add a page break block

You should now see a page break line in your content to indicate where the pagination will appear.

See page break in your content

If you are using the classic editor, then use the <!––nextpage––> tag to split your content.

Just edit any blog post and go to the ‘Text’ view to enter the tag where you would like to split the content.

Insert next page tag in the classic editor

You can also use the Alt + Shift + P keys on your keyboard to insert page breaks. To do that, go to the ‘Visual’ view and press the keyboard shortcut keys where you would want to add a page break.

After that, you can preview and publish the blog post. You will now see post pagination at the bottom of the content.

Post pagination example

Method 2. Split WordPress Post into Multiple Pages Using a Plugin

Another way to break lengthy content into various pages is by using a WordPress plugin. The benefit of this method is that it will automatically paginate posts when it meets certain criteria.

For this method, we will use the free Automatically Paginate Posts plugin, as it’s easy to use and works with any WordPress theme.

First, install and activate the Automatically Paginate Posts plugin on your WordPress website. For more details, go through our tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once the plugin is active on your site, go to Settings » Reading and scroll down to the ‘Automatically Paginate Posts’ section.

You can select the post types to split into different pages. After that, choose whether to split posts by the total number of pages or approximate words per page.

Automatically Paginate Posts section

Next, click the ‘Save Change’ button to store your settings.

The plugin will automatically split your content based on your settings. However, you can also add page breaks manually to your content while using the plugin.

We hope this article helped you learn how to split WordPress posts into multiple pages. You may also want to see our guide on the best WordPress page builders to create custom layouts, and our tutorial on how to add web push notifications in WordPress to grow your website 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.

The post How to Split WordPress Posts into Multiple Pages (Post Pagination) appeared first on WPBeginner.

Posted on

How to Search By Category in WordPress (2 Ways)

Wp Plugins

Do you want to add category specific search in WordPress?

Adding a search by category feature to WordPress lets your visitors quickly find what they’re looking for. You can add options to search specific blog categories, product categories, and more.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how you can add a search by category feature to your WordPress site.

How to search by category in WordPress (2 ways)

Why Add Search By Category to WordPress?

A search by category feature allows your visitors to search specific website categories.

If you have a lot of content, then categories can help organize your content and make it easier for your visitors to find what they’re looking for.

You can add a category search feature to your archive pages to help your visitors quickly find what they’re looking for.

WordPress archive category search example

Category search can also be added to your online store, so visitors can quickly find the exact products they want.

Overall, this offers your visitors a better onsite experience and can help your WordPress website give off positive SEO signals like increased dwell time and lower bounce rate.

The best way to add a category search feature is by using a WordPress plugin.

We’re going to share two different WordPress search plugins that can help you customize WordPress search. Simply use the quick links below to choose the type of WordPress category search you want to add.

Method 1: Using SearchWP to Add Category Select Search Form to WordPress

SearchWP is the best search plugin for WordPress. It’s very easy to use and lets you add a category selection feature, giving your users control over their search results.

First, you need to install and activate the SearchWP plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, navigate to Settings » SearchWP. This brings up the main search settings menu.

SearchWP settings menu

You can adjust the search engine settings by clicking on ‘Posts’, ‘Pages’, or ‘Library’ drop downs.

Changing the ‘Weight Multiplier’ sliders customizes how the search engine values content. If you want the search engine to value page content higher than the title, then adjust the slider accordingly.

SearchWP save search engine

Once you’re done, make sure you click the ‘Save Engines’ button to generate your first search engine.

Next, we’re going to customize the search form to add a category selection option, so your visitors can decide which category they want to search.

To do this, you’ll need to add code to your WordPress files. If you haven’t done this before, then check out our guide on how to copy and paste code in WordPress.

You’ll need to copy and paste the following code and add it to your functions.php file, in a site-specific plugin, or by using a code snippets plugin. 

function my_searchwp_get_search_form_with_categories_dropdown( $form ) {
	ob_start(); ?>
		<form role="search" method="get" class="search-form" action="<?php echo home_url( '/' ); ?>">
			<label>
				<span class="screen-reader-text">Search For</span>
				<input type="search" class="search-field" placeholder="Search..." value="<?php echo esc_attr( get_search_query() ); ?>" name="s" title="Search for:" />
			</label>
			<?php
				// for more information see http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_dropdown_categories
				$swp_cat_dropdown_args = array(
						'show_option_all'  => __( 'Any Category' ),
						'name'             => 'swp_category_limiter',
					);
				wp_dropdown_categories( $swp_cat_dropdown_args );
			?>
			<input type="submit" class="search-submit" value="Search" />
		</form>
	<?php return ob_get_clean();
}

add_filter( 'get_search_form', 'my_searchwp_get_search_form_with_categories_dropdown' );

This code modifies the search form on your WordPress blog, and gives users a drop down box to select their preferred category.

After the code is added you can view any of your search forms, and you’ll see that a category search drop down has been added.

Select category drop down

You also use SearchWP to customize your WooCommerce product search pages. For more details, see our guide on how to make a smart WooCommerce product search.

Method 2: Using Ivory Search to Add Search By Category Form to WordPress

Ivory Search is another popular WordPress search plugin. It’s very easy to use and helps you simply control search categories across WordPress.

First thing you need to do is install the plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once the plugin is activated, you’ll have a new WordPress menu item called ‘Ivory Search’.

Go to Ivory Search » Search Forms, then click the ‘Add New Search Form Button’.

Add new category search form

Now it’s time to start building your category search form.

First, give your search form a name. This name will not appear when you add the search feature to your website. It’s only for admin purposes.

Name category search form

Next, click the drop down in the ‘Post Types’ meta box. This brings up a menu to select the type of content you want to allow. You can add Posts, Pages, and Media to the search.

You can simply enable the toggle for the content types you want to allow.

Select post option for category search

After that, click the ‘Posts’ option to bring up the expanded menu. Then, turn on the ‘Search posts of only selected taxonomies’ toggle.

This allows you to select the WordPress categories you can add to search.

Choose WordPress search categories

Once you’ve selected the category or categories, click the ‘Save Form’ button.

Now, under your search form title, copy the shortcode and paste it into a text file.

Copy category search shortcode

This shortcode gives you the flexibility to add WordPress category search to any page, post, or widgetized area of your website.

All you have to do now is open the post, page, or widget where you want to add your category search and paste your shortcode. For more details, see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Add category search shortcode

After you click ‘Save’, the post or page will now have your active category search form.

You can add this shortcode to as many areas of your site as you’d like.

Category search form example

When a user searches with this form, they’ll only be able to view posts within the selected category.

In this case, visitors will only be able to view posts from the ‘Tutorials’ category.

Category search form results

If you want to create multiple different category searches, then follow the steps above to create another search form and embed the new shortcode into your site.

We hoped this article helped you add search by category in WordPress. You may also want to see our expert pick of the best WordPress plugins for businesses, and our comparison of the best email marketing 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.

The post How to Search By Category in WordPress (2 Ways) appeared first on WPBeginner.

Posted on

How to Properly Setup Video SEO in WordPress (Step by Step)

Wp Plugins

Do you want to learn how to do video SEO in WordPress?

Video SEO is the process of optimizing your videos to rank higher in search engines. This can help you get more traffic from your video content back to your WordPress website.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can set up a video sitemap in WordPress to improve your video SEO, step by step.

How to do video SEO in WordPress

What is Video SEO?

Video SEO is the process of optimizing the videos on your site, so they’ll rank higher in the search results pages.

This is similar to general WordPress SEO best practices except it’s geared towards your video content.

There’s a lot you can do to optimize your videos before you embed them in your WordPress blog posts, like choosing the best video hosting.

However, once they’re live on your website, you need to make sure they’re going to bring you maximum traffic.

The best way to do this is by adding a video sitemap to WordPress.

A video sitemap is an XML sitemap that has information about the video content on your site.

This can help you generate rich snippets that appear in the Google video search results, and increase your blog traffic across the board.

WordPress video SEO search results page

By creating a video sitemap, Google and other search engines will index your posts with the embedded video content. That way, your video can rank in the search engines and bring more traffic to your posts.

Note: if you use a third-party video host like YouTube, then your YouTube videos and embedded videos can both rank in the search results together.

If you regularly add videos in your posts and pages, then this is a must have feature.

A WordPress video sitemap plugin will automatically detect when a video is embedded in your blog content, and add that to the sitemap, so search engines like Google can prioritize it.

How to Setup Video SEO Sitemap in WordPress with AIOSEO

The best way to add video sitemaps to WordPress is with the All in One SEO plugin. It’s the best SEO plugin for WordPress used by over 2 million sites.

Google makes formatting these video sitemaps hard, but with the AIOSEO plugin it only takes a couple of clicks.

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

Note, there is a free version of All in One SEO available. But you need the premium version to enable and create video sitemaps.

After the plugin is activated, you’ll have a new All in One SEO menu item in your WordPress dashboard.

Navigate to All in One SEO » Sitemaps.

On the home screen, make sure that sitemaps are enabled. Click the ‘Enable Sitemap’ slider to turn on sitemaps.

AIOSEO enable sitemap

After that, select the ‘Video Sitemap’ menu option at the top of the screen.

Next, click the ‘Activate Video Sitemap’ button to enable the video sitemap module.

Activate video sitemap module

Once you’ve done that, you can view your video sitemap by clicking the ‘Open Video Sitemap’ button.

The index page will list all of your available video sitemaps.

Open video sitemap

When you click on the sitemap link, it’ll show the list of available video content.

Here we can our example WordPress video sitemap contains a list of all blog posts that have an embedded video.

Video sitemap video list

You can further configure your video sitemap settings in the ‘Video Sitemap Settings’ box.

The default settings will be enough for most WordPress blogs, however, you can adjust these depending on your video content needs.

The most common change webmasters make is adjusting the ‘Post Types’ and ‘Taxonomies’ settings.

For example, if you only want the embedded videos from your blog posts to appear in your sitemap, then uncheck the ‘Pages’ and ‘Attachments’ boxes in the ‘Post Types’ box.

Customize video sitemap post types

Make sure you click ‘Save Changes’ if you’ve made any changes to the settings here.

You’ve now successfully added video sitemaps to WordPress, which will improve your video SEO and help you get more traffic from the search engines.

You may also want to see our comparison of the best email marketing services and our expert picks of the 24 must have WordPress plugins for business websites.

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

The post How to Properly Setup Video SEO in WordPress (Step by Step) appeared first on WPBeginner.

Posted on

How to Change the Author of a Post in WordPress

Featured Imgs 23

Do you want to change the author of a post in WordPress?

Sometimes you may need to change a post to a different author than the user who first uploaded the post. You can do this without having to copy and paste the post with a different account.

In this article, we’ll show you how to simply change the author of a post in WordPress with just a few clicks.

How to change the author of a post in WordPress

Before You Change the Author of a WordPress Post

If you just want to show your own name on a post written by another user on your WordPress site, then you’re ready to follow the instructions in this article.

But, if you want to show a different user as the author, then you need to make sure this user exists on your WordPress site first. See our guide on how to add new users and authors in WordPress for detailed instructions.

You can view and manage all the users on your WordPress site by visiting the ‘Users’ menu item when logged in with your WordPress administrator account.

Managing users in WordPress

If you only want to change the way your name is displayed, then check out our guide on how to add or change your full name in WordPress.

Having said that, let’s look at how to quickly and easily change the author of a post in WordPress.

Video Tutorial

If you don’t like the video or need more instructions, then continue reading.

How to Change the Author of a Single WordPress Post

First you need to open the post or page where you want to change the author name.

On the post edit screen, you need to make sure ‘Post’ is selected in the right-hand sidebar.

Then, locate ‘Author’ under the ‘Status & Visibility’ section.

Locate post then author section

Next, select the new author name from the drop down menu.

You’ll see a list of available authors to choose from.

Select new author drop down

Once you’ve done that, make sure you click ‘Update’ or ‘Save Draft’ to save your changes.

That’s it, you have successfully changed the author of a post in WordPress.

How to Change the Author of Multiple WordPress Posts

Changing the author by editing a single post is easy.

However, if you want to change the author for multiple posts, then this would take a lot of time.

Luckily, there’s an easier way to quickly change the author for multiple WordPress posts at once.

To bulk update authors, click on the ‘Posts’ menu item from your WordPress admin menu. This will list all the posts on your WordPress site.

By default, WordPress shows 20 posts per page. If you want to display more posts, then you need to click on ‘Screen Options‘ and change the number of posts you want to display.

Show more posts in admin area

Now you need to select the posts where you want to change the author.

After selecting posts, select ‘Edit’ from ‘Bulk Actions’ dropdown menu and then click the ‘Apply’ button.

Bulk edit posts in WordPress

WordPress will now show you ‘Bulk Edit’ metabox.

You need to select the new author by clicking on the dropdown menu next to Author option.

Bulk edit author for multiple posts in WordPress

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.

That’s it, you have successfully changed the author for multiple WordPress posts without editing them individually.

How to Optimize Your Author Profiles for SEO

Finally, you may want to optimize your author profile pages to improve your SEO rankings.

The author profile is what appears at the bottom of blog posts published under your name.

Author info box plugin preview

Here you can add a brief bio, links, and even your social media profiles.

By showcasing your author bio, you can build more credibility and give your readers a chance to learn more about you and the authors on your site.

WordPress allows you to add a brief author bio, but to add social media links you’ll need to use a WordPress author bio plugin.

Aside from that, you’ll also want to improve your Author archive pages where WordPress displays a list of posts written by that author.

To optimize author pages for SEO, we recommend using All in One SEO. It’s the best SEO plugin for WordPress used by over 2 million websites.

For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, simply navigate to Users » Profile to edit your author profile.

Next, scroll down to the ‘All in One SEO Pro’ section where you can add links to your Facebook and Twitter profiles and create an author bio.

Author profile SEO

Once you’ve made the necessary changes, make sure you click ‘Update Profile’ at the bottom of the page.

Users will now see your new author bio at the bottom of any post you publish or change to your name.

We hope this article helped you learn how to change the author of a post in WordPress. You may also want to see our expert list of the best WordPress plugins for websites, and our comparison of the best online course platforms.

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 Change the Author of a Post in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

Posted on

How to Highlight Author’s Comments in WordPress

Featured Imgs 29

Do you want to highlight the author’s comments in WordPress posts on your website?

Highlighting the author’s comments in your WordPress blog can help you build engagement. Users are more likely to leave a comment when they see the author is actively participating in the discussion.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily highlight the author’s comments in WordPress to boost engagement.

Highting comments by an author in WordPress blog posts

Why Highlight Author’s Comments in WordPress?

Comments are a great way to build user engagement on your website. If you want to get more comments on your articles, then you can encourage that by actively participating in the discussions.

For a new WordPress blog, you can easily reply comments during comment moderation. If you run a multi-author blog, then you can encourage authors to take part in the discussion as well.

However, most WordPress themes don’t distinguish between comments and list them using the same style.

Regular comments layout with no author highlighting

A casual reader may scroll through the comments, not realizing the additional content contributed by the author in the discussion.

Highlighting author’s comments helps you remedy that and makes the author’s comments stand out and be more noticeable.

The ultimate goal here is to encourage new users to join in the comments and ultimately subscribe to your newsletter or become a customer.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily highlight author comments in WordPress.

Highlighting Comment Author in WordPress

The easiest way to highlight comments by post author is by adding custom CSS to your WordPress theme. This allows you to easily add the code needed and see a live preview of how it would look on your website without saving it.

First, you need to visit Appearance » Customize in WordPress admin area. This will launch the WordPress theme customizer interface. You’ll notice a bunch of options in a column on your left and a live preview of your website.

Theme customizer in WordPress

From here, you need to click on the Additional CSS tab. This will open a text area where you’ll be adding the Custom CSS.

Additional CSS tab

However, you would want to see how the custom CSS will look when applied. To do that, you need to navigate to a blog post that contains comments by a post author.

Viewing comments in Theme Customizer

Scroll down to the comments section and then add the following custom CSS in the Custom CSS box on the left. 

.bypostauthor { 
background-color: #e7f8fb;
}

You’ll immediately notice the author comment change matching the Custom CSS you entered.

Author's comment highlighted with a different background color

So how does this all work?

You see WordPress adds some default CSS classes to different areas of your website. These CSS classes are there regardless of which WordPress theme you are using.

In this sample code, we have used the .bypostauthor CSS class which is added to all comments added by a post author.

Let’s add some more CSS styles to make it even more prominent. Here is a sample code that adds a small ‘Author’ label to the comments by the post author and a border around the author’s avatar image. 

.bypostauthor:before { 
content:"Author";
float:right;
background-color:#FF1100;
padding:5px;
font-size:small;
font-weight:bold;
color:#FFFFFF;
}
.bypostauthor .avatar {
border:1px dotted #FF1100;
}

This is how it looked on our test website.

Comment author highlighted with the Author label

Highlighting Comments by User Role in WordPress

Now, many WordPress blogs have team members responsible for answering comments. Popular websites may have post author, administrator, and moderators all answering comments to boost user engagement.

How do you highlight a comment added by a staff member that is not the actual author of the post?

There is an easy hack to achieve that. However, it requires you to add custom code to your WordPress website. If you haven’t done this before, then see our article on how to easily add custom code in WordPress.

First, you need to add the following code to the code snippets plugin or your theme’s functions.php file.

if ( ! class_exists( 'WPB_Comment_Author_Role_Label' ) ) :
class WPB_Comment_Author_Role_Label {
public function __construct() {
add_filter( 'get_comment_author', array( $this, 'wpb_get_comment_author_role' ), 10, 3 );
add_filter( 'get_comment_author_link', array( $this, 'wpb_comment_author_role' ) );
}
 
// Get comment author role 
function wpb_get_comment_author_role($author, $comment_id, $comment) { 
$authoremail = get_comment_author_email( $comment); 
// Check if user is registered
if (email_exists($authoremail)) {
$commet_user_role = get_user_by( 'email', $authoremail );
$comment_user_role = $commet_user_role->roles[0];
// HTML output to add next to comment author name
$this->comment_user_role = ' <span class="comment-author-label comment-author-label-'.$comment_user_role.'">' . ucfirst($comment_user_role) . '</span>';
} else { 
$this->comment_user_role = '';
} 
return $author;
} 
 
// Display comment author                   
function wpb_comment_author_role($author) { 
return $author .= $this->comment_user_role; 
} 
}
new WPB_Comment_Author_Role_Label;
endif;

This code simply adds the user role label next to the comment author’s name. This is how it would look without any custom styling.

User role labels added to comments

Let’s make it a little prettier by adding some custom CSS. Go to Appearance » Customize page and switch to the Additional CSS tab.

After that, you can use the following CSS to style the user role label in the comments. 

.comment-author-label {
    padding: 5px;
    font-size: 14px;
    border-radius: 3px;
}
 
.comment-author-label-editor {  
background-color:#efefef;
}
.comment-author-label-author {
background-color:#faeeee;
}
 
.comment-author-label-contributor {
background-color:#f0faee;   
}
.comment-author-label-subscriber {
background-color:#eef5fa;   
}
 
.comment-author-label-administrator { 
background-color:#fde9ff;
}

This is how it looked on our test site. Feel free to modify the code to match your theme’s colors and style.

User role highlighted

For more details, you may want to read our article on how to add user role labels to WordPress comments.

We hope this article helped you learn how to highlight author comments in WordPress. Want to see how users interact with your website? See our tutorial on how to track user engagement in WordPress, and how to add web push notification on your WordPress site 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.

The post How to Highlight Author’s Comments in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

Posted on

Comparing The Top WordPress SEO Plugins

Wp Plugins
WordPress SEO Plugins

WordPress is a popular content management system (CMS) that efficiently controls the contents without any technical background. However, this is a multi-functioned key to open all the doors for you. If you want that people find your content easily, deep research and knowledge about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is necessary. Self-hosted WordPress blogs are probably […]

The post Comparing The Top WordPress SEO Plugins appeared first on WPArena.

Posted on

How to Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress

Category Image 091

Do you want to disable image attachment pages in WordPress?

Image attachment pages can look like incomplete pages on your site. If a visitor views these, then it can leave a poor impression.

In this article, we’ll show you how to disable image attachment pages in WordPress and redirect it to the parent post.

How to disable image attachment pages in WordPress

Why Should You Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress?

By default, WordPress creates a single page for every media attachment you have on your site.

This includes images, audio/video files, pdfs, and more. Some users might find this functionality useful, however, most WordPress websites don’t need it.

For example, a photography theme could use the attachment page to display EXIF data. This could show the camera model used, the camera settings, and even the image’s location data.

Often we get complaints from users who accidentally linked their images to the attachment pages, and they don’t like the way it looks.

This is a big issue because many themes don’t have special templates for the image attachment pages.

Sometimes an image on your website can become popular, and people might start landing on the attachment page directly from Google.

Ideally, you want visitors to land on your post and see the image in the context you have used it.

This is why we always recommend users to disable image attachment pages on their WordPress blog.

How to Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress (2 Methods)

There are two ways to disable image attachment pages in WordPress.

The first approach uses WordPress plugins, while the second involves adding custom code to WordPress.

You’ll want to choose the method that’s best suited for your skills.

Method 1: Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress (with a Plugin)

The easiest way to disable image attachment pages is to use a WordPress plugin. This method is beginner friendly and requires no coding.

We recommend using All in One SEO. It’s the best SEO plugin for WordPress used by over 2 million sites.

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the plugin. To do this, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once the plugin is installed and activated, you’ll have a new menu item called ‘All in One SEO’.

Navigate to All in One SEO » Search Appearance. Next, click the ‘Media’ navigation tab.

All in One SEO search appearance media setting

The first setting is ‘Redirect Attachment URLs’. You can disable the setting entirely, redirect to the attachment page, or the attachment parent page.

We recommend redirecting to the ‘Attachment Parent’ page. That way, when a user lands on the image attachment page, they’ll be redirected to your article instead.

All in One SEO select attachment parent

Once you select your preferred setting, make sure to click ‘Save Changes’ before exiting the screen.

If you aren’t using the All in One SEO plugin, you can still disable image attachment pages and redirect users to a parent post using a plugin called Attachment Pages Redirect.

All you have to do is install and activate the plugin. It’ll automatically start redirecting users that land on attachment pages to the parent post.

If no parent post is found, then users will be redirected to your homepage.

This plugin works out of the box and has no settings page. Simple and easy.

Method 2: Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress (with Code Snippet)

Another option is to add a code snippet to WordPress that accomplishes the same goal as the plugin above.

If you don’t want to use a plugin or feel that you’re already using too many WordPress plugins, then you can use this method.

First, you’ll need to create a new file in your WordPress theme folder and name it image.php. If your theme already has an image.php file, then you’ll need to edit that file instead.

After that, all you have to do is add the following code as the first line in your image.php file:

<?php wp_redirect(get_permalink($post->post_parent)); ?>

Next, you need to save the image.php file and upload it to your theme directory using FTP or your WordPress hosting control panel.

Now, when a user lands on your image attachment page, they’ll be redirected to the parent post.

We hope this article helped you disable image attachment pages in WordPress. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide to image SEO and our guide on how to fix common image issues 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 Disable Image Attachment Pages in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

Posted on

How to Control Your RSS Feeds Footer in WordPress

Wp Plugins

Do you want to customize the RSS feeds footer in WordPress?

This allows you to add custom text, links, or even advertisements below your post content in your RSS feed.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily control your RSS feed footer in WordPress, so you can display the content you want.

Control RSS feed footer in WordPress

Why Add Content to RSS Feed Footer in WordPress?

RSS feeds offer an easier way for users to read your blog posts in their favorite feed reader apps such as Feedly.

However, RSS feeds can also be used by content scrapers to automatically steal your blog posts as soon as they are published.

Sometimes these content scrapers end up ranking higher than your original post in search engines.

To learn more, see our step by step beginners guide to preventing blog content scraping in WordPress.

Adding additional content to your RSS feed footer allows you to add backlinks to your main site and the original post at the end of each article. This can help you rank higher for your posts even if they are copied by content scrapers.

By manipulating your RSS feed footer, you can also give your readers a way to visit your WordPress blog directly from your RSS feed.

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily control your RSS feed footer in WordPress.

Method 1. Add Content to RSS Feed Footer Using All in One SEO

This method is easier and recommended for all WordPress users. It uses the All in One SEO plugin, which is the best WordPress SEO plugin used by over 2 million websites.

First, you need to install and activate the All in One SEO plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit All in One SEO » General Settings page and click on the ‘RSS Content’ tab.

This gives you an overview of your WordPress RSS feed settings, and your WordPress RSS feed URL.

AIOSEO RSS general settings

Under the ‘RSS Content Settings’, the first box allows you to add content before each post. The second box allows you to add content to the post footer.

Next, scroll down to the ‘RSS After Content’ section to edit your RSS feed footer.

AIOSEO default RSS footer

Right away, you’ll notice that AIOSEO automatically adds credit text with backlinks to your website in the RSS feed footer.

You can either use the text as-is, or you can add your own content and tags.

AIOSEO RSS feed footer save

Don’t forget to click ‘Save Changes’ before you exit the screen.

You can now view your RSS feed to see the changes. At the end of each article, you will be able to see content you added to your RSS feed footer.

Footer text in WordPress RSS feed

Method 2: Manually Add Content to RSS Feed Footer in WordPress

This method requires you to add code to your WordPress files. If you haven’t done this before, then check out our guide on how to copy and paste code in WordPress.

You’ll need to copy and paste the following code in your theme’s functions.php file, in a site-specific plugin, or by using the Code snippets plugin.

function wpb_feed_filter($query) {
if ($query->is_feed) {
add_filter('the_content','wpb_feed_content_filter');
add_filter('the_excerpt_rss','wpb_feed_content_filter');
}
return $query;
}
add_filter('pre_get_posts','wpb_feed_filter');
 
function wpb_feed_content_filter($content) {
// Content you want to show goes here 
$content .= '<p>Thanks for reading, check out <a href="'. get_bloginfo('url') .'">'. get_bloginfo('name') .'</a> for more awesome stuff.</p>';
return $content;
}

This code simply checks if the page requested is an RSS feed, and then filters the content to display your message in the RSS feed footer.

We hope this article helped you learn how to control your RSS feed footer in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate guide on how to setup All in One SEO for WordPress and our expert pick of the best WordPress RSS feed 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 Control Your RSS Feeds Footer in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

Posted on

How to Fix the Missed Schedule Post Error in WordPress

Wp Plugins

Do you want to fix the missed schedule post error in WordPress?

WordPress comes with a built-in feature that allows you to easily schedule posts to be automatically published at a later time. However, sometimes you may notice that scheduled posts don’t get published at all.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily fix the missed schedule post error in WordPress. This will allow you to ensure that your scheduled posts are published on time.

Fixing the missed schedule post error in WordPress

What Causes WordPress to Miss Scheduled Posts?

Your WordPress hosting environment or plugin conflicts may cause WordPress to miss scheduled posts.

Normally, when you schedule a WordPress post to be published later, WordPress uses a technology called ‘Cron’ or ‘WordPress Cron‘ to automatically publish your post on time.

However, if your WordPress hosting server or a plugin is affecting the cron jobs, then WordPress would miss the scheduled tasks such as publishing scheduled posts.

Missed schedule error for a blog post in WordPress

Your other cron jobs may still work occasionally like checking for updates or deleting auto-saved drafts. That’s because once the publishing time is missed WordPress will not publish the blog post on a different time.

For most users, it does not happen very often and for some users it can become a common WordPress issue.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily fix the missed schedule post error in WordPress.

Fixing The Missed Schedule Post Error in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Missed Scheduled Post Publisher plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

The plugin works out of the box, and there are no settings for you to configure.

How does Missed Scheduled Post Publisher plugin work?

The plugin simply checks your website every 15 minutes to see if a scheduled WordPress post has missed schedule.

If it finds any missed schedule items, then it changes the status from scheduled to published.

It works for posts, pages, products, and any other custom post types that you may have on your WordPress website.

We built this plugin to ensure it doesn’t impact your WordPress site speed because we know speed is important for SEO. This is the plugin we’re using on our own sites.

Troubleshooting Missed Scheduled Posts Error in WordPress

If installing the plugin does not immediately fix scheduled posts error on your website, then the following are a few tips that you can try.

1. Check Your WordPress Timezone Settings

Setting your timezone is one of the first things to do after installing WordPress. However, sometimes users miss it and their WordPress timezone doesn’t match the timezone they want to use for publishing and managing their website.

Simply go to Settings » General page and scroll down to the ‘Timezone’ section. From here, you need to select your timezone or the timezone you want to use for your WordPress website.

Set timezone in WordPress

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

2. Clear WordPress cache

If your WordPress posts are still missing schedule, then it is likely due to a poorly configured caching plugin. Try clearing WordPress cache and make sure that your WordPress caching plugin is properly configured to automatically clear cache at regular intervals.

3. Increase WordPress memory limit

Your WordPress website may be struggling with low memory limit issue. You can fix that by allowing WordPress to use more server memory which let’s WordPress run better.

Simply add the following code to your wp-config.php file ust before the line that says ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing.’

define('WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '500M');

For details, see our guide on how to increase memory limit in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily fix the missed schedule post error in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to easily troubleshoot WordPress errors on your own.

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 Fix the Missed Schedule Post Error in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

Posted on

How to Display Full Size Images in WordPress (4 Methods)

Featured Imgs 13

Do you want to learn how to display full-size images in WordPress?

The latest version of WordPress automatically resizes large images to improve performance. But sometimes you may need to display images with larger dimensions.

In this tutorial, we’ll share four different ways to display full-size images on your WordPress site.

How to display full-size images in WordPress

Why is WordPress Scaling Large Images?

Earlier versions of WordPress allowed users to upload images with very large dimensions.

But, what happened is WordPress beginners were uploading images that were simply too large for the modern web. Large images lead to slow website loading speeds and poor performance.

To fix this issue, the WordPress 5.3 update changed how WordPress handles very large images.

For example, if you upload an image with the dimensions of 5000px by 7000px, then WordPress will resize the image to 2560px and scale the width to match the original dimensions.

Now, when a user visits a page with a previously large image, they’ll see the scaled-down version of that image.

This leads to improved website performance and happier users overall.

Reasons to Stop WordPress From Scaling Images

This new feature is useful for most WordPress website owners, but some users might need to display full-size images.

For example, if you’re a photographer or artist who sells your work, then you may want to display larger images on your website, so visitors can buy or download them.

Or, you could be running a website where larger images are a requirement, like a stock photo website or website that sells custom prints and pictures.

Maybe, you need one large image for your home page background image that’s bigger than the 2560px limits?

No matter what your reason for wanting a full-size image, we’ll show you how to do it, step by step.

How to Display Full-Size Images in WordPress (4 Methods)

There are 4 different ways you can display full-size images in WordPress.

Some methods work better for single images, while others are best for an entire image library.

You’ll want to choose the full-size image method that’s right for your goals.

Method 1. Get Full Size Image URL in WordPress

If you only want to use one or two large images on your website, then this solution is probably best.

When you upload an image to WordPress that exceeds the dimensions, WordPress will scale your image and create a new one. But, the original image is still intact.

To display the original image dimensions, you’ll need to delete ‘-scaled’ from the end of the WordPress image URL and insert the image into your site with the modified link.

Simply head over to your media library by going to Media » Library and select your large image.

Large image media library

Now, locate your ‘File URL’ in the image box.

Next, you’ll want to delete ‘-scaled’ from the end of your image URL.

Delete scaled image URL

After that, you can copy the image URL and insert the image into your website.

Note that you’ll need to embed the image into your site using the link, minus the scaled portion.

To do this navigate to a post or page you want to add the image and click the ‘+’ icon to add a new block.

Insert new image block for large image

Then click the ‘Image’ icon to add an image block where you can paste your URL.

Click ‘Insert from URL’, then paste your full size image URL into the box and press the ‘Enter’.

Add non scaled image URL

After that, you’ll need to click ‘Publish’, or ‘Update’, if the post is already live, and your full-size image will now be viewable on your site.

You can follow this same process for every full-size image you want to add to your site. But, as long as you use the File URL minus ‘scaled,’ your WordPress images will display in full size.

Method 2. Automatically Disable Image Scaling in WordPress (with a Plugin)

The second method is using a WordPress plugin to disable image scaling across your site.

The plugin we recommend is called Disable “BIG Image” Threshold. This plugin offers one of the easiest workarounds for displaying big images on your site, and it’s entirely free to use.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Disable “BIG Image” Threshold plugin. For more details on installing a plugin, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin on your site, it’ll automatically remove the big image threshold added by WordPress.

You’re free to add new images just as you were before the WordPress image update.

When this plugin is active, WordPress will not add the ‘-scaled’ attribute to any image.

Method 3. Automatically Disable Big Image Scaling in WordPress (with Code Snippet)

Another option is to add a code snippet to WordPress that accomplishes the same goal as the plugin above.

If the plugin doesn’t work for some reason, or you don’t want to install too many plugins, then you can use this method.

The new WordPress image scaling feature uses a filter called big_image_size_threshold.

You’ll want to use the following code to disable this function:

add_filter( 'big_image_size_threshold', '__return_false' );

You need add this code in your theme’s functions.php file, in a site-specific plugin, or by using the Code snippets plugin.

Method 4: Open Full-Size WordPress Images in a Lightbox

The final option is to add a full-size image lightbox to your site. With this solution, you get the best of both world.

You can load smaller image thumbnails in your blog content, gallery, or carousel, and when clicked, it will popup with your full-size image.

Show full size image lightbox effect

To do this, we recommend using the Envira Gallery plugin. It’s the best WordPress image gallery plugin in the market and lets you easily add the lightbox popup image effect.

The first thing you’ll need to do is install the Envira Gallery plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

After installing and activating the plugin, see our step by step guide on creating an image gallery in WordPress with the lightbox effect.

Keep in mind that before you upload full-size images for your gallery, you’ll need to disable image scaling via the plugin or child theme methods above.

Otherwise, your lightbox images will be using the scaled-down version of the image.

Finally, it’s important to note that if you add images with large dimensions, it’s essential to optimize them for the web, so you don’t slow down your website.

We hope this article has helped you display full-size images in WordPress. You may want to see our guide on optimizing images for SEO and our expert pick of 40 useful tools to manage and grow your blog.

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

The post How to Display Full Size Images in WordPress (4 Methods) appeared first on WPBeginner.

Posted on

How to Send Confirmation Emails after WordPress Form Submission

Category Image 091

Are you looking to send confirmation emails after a user submits a form on your website?

Confirmation emails can be a great way to let users know that you received their message, and that you’ll be in touch soon.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to send confirmation emails to your users after a WordPress form submission (step by step).

How to send confirmation emails after WordPress form submission

Why Set Up Automated Confirmation Emails in WordPress?

Confirmation emails are sent when a user fills out a contact form or another form on your WordPress site.

Sending an automated confirmation email is a nice gesture. Plus, it lets your users know you’ve received their information. This also lets your users double-check their entries to see if any errors were made.

There are a lot of good reasons to set up WordPress form confirmation emails:

  • Allows you to open a line of communication with your subscribers
  • Can provide valuable follow-up information, like links and tutorials
  • Let’s you confirm the email is a real email
  • Can confirm email newsletter subscription and start an autoresponder sequence
  • If you’re selling something, this gives you a chance to offer an upsell or cross-sell
  • It’s great for your email deliverability

The best part is that setting up a WordPress form submit email is easy to do.

Setting Up Confirmation Emails after WordPress Form Submission

For this tutorial, we’ll be using the WPForms plugin to send a WordPress confirmation email. It is the best contact form plugin for WordPress used by over 4 million websites.

If you’re on a budget, you can use the free version called WPForms Lite, which allows you to set up email confirmations.

However, the Pro version will give you access to even more features like conditional logic forms, additional templates, order forms, integration with email marketing tools, and much more.

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details on installing a plugin, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once you’ve installed and activated the form builder plugin, you’ll have a new WPForms tab on the left-hand side of your WordPress dashboard.

WPForms plugin install menu

If you don’t already have a form on your site, then you’ll need to create one. We have a detailed tutorial on how to create a WordPress contact form that you can use as a guide to get started.

Next, it’s time to set up a WordPress confirmation email. This email will send out automatically and lets your users know their form submission was successfully received.

To do this, head over to WPForms » Settings » Notifications.

You’ll notice that email notifications are already on.

If you don’t want to turn on notifications, then you can toggle this option off.

Leave notifications toggle on

If you want to send an automated confirmation email, then you’ll need to leave this setting turned on.

Next, we’re going to choose who we want our emails to send to by customizing the form fields.

The default setting will use the admin email Smart Tag {admin_email}. This is the email you used to set up up your WordPress blog. This will deliver all form submissions directly to your inbox.

To make sure that form responses also get delivered to your users, you’ll need to add new email address to the email field. This is similar to how blind carbon copy (BCC) works in standard emails.

To do this, simply click on the ‘Show Smart Tags’ option that’s directly to the right of the ‘Send to Email Address’ field.

Send to email address field

You need to select ‘Email’ from the drop-down menu.

This tags your user’s email address that they enter into your WordPress form. The plugin will use this email address to send the confirmation email.

Note, that you’ll need a comma between the two Smart Tags.

Send to user and admin email address

Next, it’s time to change the subject line of your email.

The default email subject line is “New Entry”. You’ll want to change this to something that makes sense for your user.

Default email subject line

For example, if you have a simple contact form, you can change the subject line to something like, “Thanks for Reaching Out!”. Or, if it’s an order confirmation email, “Thank You for Your Order!”.

To change it, delete the existing text that’s in the box beneath ‘Email Subject’ and add your new subject line.

Change email subject line

Now, you’re ready to change the email from name.

It makes sense to use your company or website name here.

To do this simply change the text in the ‘From Name’ box.

Change email from name

Next, you have the ‘From Email’ field.

You can leave this as is, and the email will be the same as your admin email.

Admin from email

After that, you’ll want to change the ‘Reply-To’ field, so your users can respond to your automated email.

If you leave this blank, then the email will be the same as the default admin email.

Reply to email

It’s not necessary to change it, but there are some situations where you’ll want the Reply-To email to be different than your standard email address.

For example, if you have a photography website, and you have a form for new clients to request a quote, then you may want these emails to go to a different email address.

The final step is customizing your email message.

In the ‘Message’ box you can write out the email that will send to everyone who submits the form. You can also change the appearance of your plain text emails by adding HTML.

Custom email message

You can also include the {all_fields} Smart Tag which will add on the user-submitted information to the email.

Custom email message with all fields

Congratulations, you’ve successfully installed and set up WPForms, added a form to your site, and set up an automated email confirmation message.

Troubleshooting WordPress not Sending Email Issue

One big issue that a lot of WordPress users experience is where your website will stop sending your WordPress emails.

WordPress uses PHP to send emails, which can be falsely flagged as spam. If this happens to your emails, then they will never reach your user’s inbox, or they’ll end up in the spam folder.

This is why we recommend everyone use SMTP for sending emails in WordPress. An SMTP plugin adds another level of verification and sends emails via an official mail server.

We recommend using WP Mail SMTP. It perfectly integrates with WPForms and is the best SMTP WordPress plugin.

We hoped this article helped you learn how to send confirmation emails after a WordPress form submission. You may also want to see our guide on creating a contact form with multiple recipients, and our expert pick on 24 must-have WordPress plugins for business websites.

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

The post How to Send Confirmation Emails after WordPress Form Submission appeared first on WPBeginner.

Posted on

How to Hide Pinterest Images in Your WordPress Blog Posts

Fotolia Subscription Monthly 4685447 Xl Stock

Do you want to learn how to hide a Pinterest image in WordPress?

Pinterest can be a great way to drive traffic to your blog, but displaying a Pinterest image in your post can make your content harder to read.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily hide a Pinterest image in blog posts while still letting readers pin a custom Pinterest image when they share your content on Pinterest.

How to Hide Pinterest Images in WordPress Blog Posts

Why Hide Pinterest Images on WordPress Posts?

Using Pinterest can be a great way to increase blog traffic.

But, the Pinterest recommended image sizes don’t always look good when added to blog posts. That’s because the Pinterest image dimensions are long and narrow (3:2) which doesn’t fit most blog layouts.

Not to mention, these large images have the potential to slow down your website.

So you might be wondering why do bloggers use longer Pinterest images?

  • They stand out in the Pinterest pin feed and search results
  • They allow you to repin your content with new fresh images
  • They get more traffic than traditional image sizes

By hiding the Pinterest images, you can improve the appearance of your blog posts and make your site faster. All while reaping the benefits of letting readers pin a high-quality image.

Does Hiding Images Interfere with Pinterest Terms of Service?

You might have heard that hiding Pinterest images on your WordPress blog goes against the Pinterest Terms of Service (TOS).

But, this isn’t true.

Hiding a Pinterest image on your website is allowed, as long as you meet the following requirements:

  • The Pinterest image matches the content of your post
  • The Pin description matches the content or title of your post

Essentially, you can hide images on your WordPress blog as long as the image you’re hiding is relevant to your page.

Does Hidden Pinterest Images impact Google Ranking?

For Google to properly rank your site it needs to be able to index your content. This means the search engines crawl your website to see what pages and media your website contains.

Google isn’t necessarily a big fan of hidden images or hidden content. Especially, since hidden content can be associated with spam websites.

However for legitimate use-cases like this one, it’s completely ok for you to hide Pinterest images without impacting your Google ranking.

How to Hide Pinterest Images in WordPress

There are several WordPress plugins that makes it easy to hide Pinterest images in WordPress. There are premium sharing plugins like WPTasty or Grow by Mediavine (formerly Social Pug).

However, we recommend using the free Shared Counts plugin, and their free Shared Counts – Pinterest Image addon.

These plugins are extremely well coded and will not impact your WordPress website speed. Not to mention, they’re 100% free.

This is the plugin that we’re using on WPBeginner to add our social share buttons.

The first thing you’ll need to do is install the Shared Counts plugin. For detailed instructions, please read our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

The plugin settings are fairly straight forward, but we do have a detailed tutorial on adding social sharing buttons to WordPress that you can use as a guide to get started.

Once the Shared Counts plugin is fully set up, you’ll need to install and activate the Shared Counts – Pinterest Image addon to your site.

There are no unique settings to configure for this plugin.

It automatically adds a custom Pinterest image box to your blog posts.

Instead of having users pin random images from your blog post, you can create a higher-quality image that’ll perform better on Pinterest.

When your website visitors click on your Pinterest share button, Pinterest will pop up with the perfect image you’ve created for your post.

To add your custom Pinterest image for your blog posts, simply go to Posts » All Posts in your WordPress dashboard and open up the post you want to edit.

In the WordPress content editor, you’ll see a meta box labeled ‘Pinterest Sharing Image’ in bottom right-hand corner.

Select Pinterest hidden image

You need click on the ‘Select Image’ button and upload a new image or choose an existing image from your media library.

When you’ve found the image you’d like to use, you can add the ‘Title’ and ‘Alt Text’, then click the ‘Use Image’ button.

Upload Pinterest hidden image

Next, click ‘Publish’ to publish your new post with the Pinterest sharing image, or ‘Update’ if the post is already live.

Now, when your visitors click the Pinterest share button there will be a pop-up that has your Pinterest image with the proper dimensions.

Pinterest share image popup

One of the best parts about using this plugin is that it automatically hides the Pinterest image for you.

Once you add your Pinterest featured image to your blog post, the plugin will add it to the bottom of your post, and apply the “display:none;” element automatically. This makes it completely hidden from view.

There is no need to add the image to your post and manually hide it or make any additional changes.

You might have seen other methods online, like using CSS to hide your Pinterest images, or adding HTML code with the “display:none;” element, but you don’t need to worry about any of that.

The plugin addon takes care of everything for you, which is why we recommend this option above all else.

Finally, it’s important you optimize your images before uploading them to WordPress. This plugin hides the image from view, but it still loads on your post. So, if it’s not properly optimized, then it could slow down your website.

We hope this article helped you learn how to hide Pinterest images on your WordPress blog posts. You may also want to learn how to verify your site on Pinterest for added functionality, and our expert pick of the 40 useful tools to manage and grow your blog.

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

The post How to Hide Pinterest Images in Your WordPress Blog Posts appeared first on WPBeginner.