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Email has evolved from simple messages to being used widely throughout the world. Global email usage reached 4.3 billion users in 2022. Daily emails sent and received total more than 306 billion. Thousands of companies...
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Do you want to create an online poll on your WordPress site?
Polls are an interactive way to engage your audience while getting useful information from them. You can get feedback from your users and find out what they like.
In this article, we will show you how to easily create and add a poll in your WordPress.
Adding interactive polls to your website is a great way to engage users, as it instantly grabs their attention. You can generate leads using polls and, at the same time, collect valuable feedback from your audience.
That said, there are plenty of plugins and online tools that allow you to embed polls on your WordPress site. Many of them require you to create an account, some store data on their own servers, and others have a terrible user experience.
If you are looking for a good user experience with full control of poll data, then you’ll need WPForms. It is the best WordPress form builder plugin and includes powerful surveys and polls addon.
With WPForms, you’ll be able to do the following:
With that, let’s look at how to easily create online polls in WordPress using WPForms.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
You will need the WPForms Pro plan because it includes the survey and polls addon. WPBeginner users get an additional discount by using the WPForms coupon code. There is also a WPForms Lite version you can try for free.
Upon activation, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information in your WPForms account.
Next, you need to visit WPForms » Addons page and scroll down to the Surveys and Polls addon.
Go ahead and click on the ‘Install’ addon button.
Now you are ready to create an online poll.
You can start by going to WPForms » Add New page to create a new form. First, you need to provide a title for your poll form and then select the ‘Poll Form’ template.
This will launch the WPForms drag-and-drop form builder interface.
You will see a pre-made poll form template with example fields already added to the form.
There are options to add new form fields from the left column. All you have to do is drag and drop the field you’d like to add to the form.
Besides that, you can just point and click to edit any field, rearrange them, or remove them.
For example, if you click the poll question in the template, then you will see more options in the menu on your left. Simply rearrange the order, and edit their titles, labels, and more.
Next, you need to click on the Settings button from the left menu and then go to the ‘Surveys and Polls’ tab. Here you can enable or disable the poll results option.
By default, the WPForms poll template will display poll results to users after they submit their votes. If you disable this option, then users will not see the poll results.
On the other hand, you can show users a custom message or redirect them to another page or URL.
Simply go to the ‘Confirmation’ tab. Here, you can choose the Confirmation Type from the dropdown menu.
Once you have created the poll form, go ahead and click on the ‘Save’ button to store your form settings.
WPForms makes it easy to add your online poll anywhere on your website, including posts, pages, custom post types, and sidebar widgets.
You can click the ‘Embed’ button in the form builder to add your poll form. Once you do that, a new popup window will open. You can select an existing page or create a new one to embed your form.
Let’s select the ‘Create New Page’ button for this tutorial.
In the next step, you’ll need to enter a name for your page. After that, you can click the ‘Let’s Go’ button.
You should now see your poll form embedded in the WordPress content editor.
Another way of adding your form is by using the WPForms block. Simply click the ‘+’ button to add the WPForms and select your form from the dropdown menu.
Next, you’ll see a preview of your form.
You can save or publish your post/page and visit your website to see your poll in action.
You can also add your poll to a sidebar or widget-ready area.
To do that, you need to go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the WPForms widget block to a sidebar where you want to display the poll.
In the WPForms widget block, you need to select the poll form you created earlier.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button to store your widget settings. You can now visit your website to see your online poll displayed in a sidebar or another widget-ready area.
If you have enabled poll results, then your users will see the results after submitting their votes.
You can also view poll results at any time without submitting a vote.
Simply visit WPForms » All Forms page and click on the ‘Survey Results’ link below your poll form.
This will take you to the poll results page, where you will see poll responses in an interactive chart.
You can change the charge type and export the results in JPEG, PDF, and print formats.
WPForms also allows you to easily embed your online poll results anywhere on your website. This is particularly useful if you have disabled poll results and want to share them later.
First, you will need to find out your poll form’s ID. You can do this by going to WPForms » All Forms page and looking for the shortcode next to your poll form.
In the shortcode, you will find your poll’s ID number. For example, our test poll’s ID is 76, as shown in the screenshot above.
Next, you need to find out the field ID. This is the field in your form for which you want to show the results.
Simply edit your poll form and click on the poll field. You will find the field ID in the left column.
Now that you have both required IDs, you can go ahead and add the poll results shortcode like this:
Don’t forget to replace the form ID and field ID values with your own. You can use this shortcode in WordPress posts, pages, and text widgets.
Here’s a preview of what your poll results will look like:
We hope this article helped you create an interactive poll in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to start a WordPress blog and 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 Create an Interactive Poll in WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.
No one would like to spend hours on a game that they keep losing, right? But when a game is as interesting and exciting as Valorant, staying away from it is not easy. So how...
The post Hate Losing? It’s To Download Valorant Cheat Now appeared first on 85ideas.com.
Do you want to know how much revenue you’re generating from Google Ads on your website?
Setting up Google Ads conversion tracking will help you uncover insights about your ad campaign’s performance. You can find out which campaign is performing the best, how users interact with your ads, and how you can improve conversions.
In this article, we’ll show you how to properly set up eCommerce Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress. This is the exact same method that we use on our own websites.
If you’re running Google Ads for your WordPress blog, eCommerce store, or membership site, then it is important to know how they’re performing. You can’t improve, what you can’t measure.
Tracking Google Ads conversions helps you see how much revenue you earned from users who clicked on your ad campaigns. It also helps you see which paid keywords and ad groups drive the most conversions. This way, you can optimize your campaigns and budget for more profitable search terms.
Besides that, Google Ads conversion tracking also uncovers how users behave on your WordPress site after clicking an ad. For instance, you might see a lot of users arrive on a landing page, but abandon it after adding products to the cart.
You can use this information to improve the checkout process, offer discounts and incentives as users are about to leave your site, and provide a better user experience.
That said, let’s see how you can add Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress.
The easiest way of connecting Google Ads with WordPress is by using MonsterInsights. It is the best Analytics plugin for WordPress that helps set up Google Analytics without editing.
MonsterInsights offers an Ads addon that lets you setup comprehensive conversion tracking without touching a single line of code or hiring a developer.
We will use the MonsterInsights Pro license for this tutorial because it includes the Ads addon. There is also a MonsterInsights Lite version you can use for free.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you will be redirected to the welcome screen in your WordPress dashboard. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button.
Next, you can follow the onscreen instructions to connect Google Analytics to your site. For more details, you can see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.
With MonsterInsights, you can also use dual tracking to set up a Google Analytics 4 property. It is the latest analytics version and will soon replace Universal Analytics. You can learn more by following our guide on how to switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress.
Once you’ve connected Google Analytics with WordPress, the next step is to install the Ads addon. Simply go to Insights » Addons from your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the ‘Ads’ addon.
Go ahead and click the ‘Install’ button. The addon will now automatically install and activate on your site.
Next, you’ll need to create a conversion action in Google Ads.
First, you can visit the Google Ads website and log in to your account.
After that, go ahead and click the ‘Tools and settings’ option at the top. Under the ‘Measurement’ column, simply select the Conversions option.
On the next screen, you’ll need to create a conversion action.
You can click the ‘New conversion action’ button to get started.
Next, Google Ads will ask you to select the type of conversions you want to track. It will show you 4 options, including a website, app, phone call, or import.
For this tutorial, we’ll choose the ‘Website’ option for tracking ad conversions.
After that, you’ll need to enter the website URL where you’d like to measure conversions.
Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Scan’ button.
Google Ads will now show 2 options to create conversion actions, including an automatic and manual method. In the automatic method, you’ll need to select the conversion goal, choose a match type, and enter the URL. This way is suitable if you know which events to count as conversions.
However, we recommend selecting the manual method. Simply scroll down and click the ‘+ Add a conversion action manually’ option.
Next, you’ll need to enter the Conversion action details.
First, you can select the ‘Goal and action optimization’ for your conversion. This is the action you’d like to track. For example, when a user subscribes to your newsletter, makes a purchase, adds a product to a cart, submits a contact form, and more.
For the sake of this tutorial, we will select ‘Subscribe’ as the goal. After that, you can enter the Conversion name.
You can now scroll down and select a Value for your conversion. Google Ads lets you choose the same value for each conversion, assign different values for conversions, or don’t use a value for conversion action.
We will select the ‘Use the same for each conversion’ option, select the currency, and enter a value for this tutorial.
Besides that, you can also choose how many conversions to count per click.
If you’re tracking email newsletter signups, then we recommend selecting the ‘One’ option. This way, each subscriber is counted once. However, you can use the ‘Every’ option in an eCommerce store and count each purchase as a conversion.
After selecting these options, simply click the ‘Done’ button at the bottom.
You can now see your conversion action under the ‘Create conversion actions manually using code’ section.
Go ahead and click the ‘Save and continue’ button to get instructions for adding the tracking tags for conversion action to your site.
On the next screen, you’ll see 3 options to add the conversion action to your site.
Simply select the ‘Use Google Tag Manager’ option. You should see the Conversion ID and Conversion Label. Copy these to a notepad file or keep the browser window/tab open.
To finish the setup process, you’ll need to head to your WordPress website dashboard and view the MonsterInsights settings.
From here, go to Insights » Settings and click on the ‘Publisher’ tab.
After that, you can scroll down to the ‘Ads Tracking’ section.
Go ahead and enter the Conversion ID. Make sure you follow the format, which will look like this: AW-123456789.
If you are tracking Google Ads on Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, and MemberPress, then enter the Conversion Label in the respective field.
That’s it. You’ve successfully set up Google Ads conversion tracking on your WordPress website.
You can take it a step further and connect Google Ads with Google Analytics to get more insights about how people use your website after clicking on an ad.
For instance, you can see the number of visitors from paid search and find out which pages they view after landing on your site. You can also use different filters and create custom reports in Google Analytics.
Let’s see how you can link your Google Ads account with Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics.
Connect Google Ads with Google Analytics 4
First, you’ll need to log in to your GA4 account and then go to the ‘Admin’ settings.
After that, you can click the ‘Google Ads Links’ option.
It is located under the Property column.
A new window will now slide in from the right.
Go ahead and click the ‘Link’ button in the top right corner.
Next, you will see different options for Link setup.
First, you can click the ‘Choose Google Ads accounts’ option.
On the next screen, you’ll need to select the Google Ads account you wish to connect.
Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Confirm’ button at the top.
You will now see the Google Ads account that you want to link.
Go ahead and click the ‘Next’ button.
In the next step, Google Analytics will give you options to enable personalized advertising and enable auto-tagging.
You can use the default settings and click the ‘Next’ button.
After that, you’ll see a summary of your Link setup settings.
If everything checks out, then go ahead and click the ‘Submit’ button.
You should now see a ‘Link Created’ notification in front of your Google Ads account. This means that you’ve successfully connected Google Ads with Google Analytics.
Do note that it can take up to 24 hours for your Google Ads data to appear in Analytics reports.
Next, you can view the Google Ads conversion tracking report in Google Analytics 4.
First, you can head to Acquisition » Traffic acquisition from the menu on your left and scroll down to see how many visitors came from the Paid Search channel.
After that, you can go to Acquisition » Acquisition overview and view the Session Google Ads campaign report. This will show which campaign got the most traffic.
You can also click the ‘View Google Ads campaigns’ option at the bottom to view more details.
For each campaign, you can see the total number of users, sessions, number of Google Ads clicks, cost per click (CPC), conversions, and more.
Using the information from this report, you can see which campaigns perform the best.
Connect Google Ads with Universal Analytics
If you’re using Universal Analytics, then you can first log in to your account.
After that, head to the ‘Admin’ settings.
Next, you’ll need to go to the Google Ads Links option.
You can find the option under the Property column.
On the next screen, you’ll need to select the Google Ads account you want to connect.
After selecting your account, simply click the ‘Continue’ button.
Next, you will need to enter a Link group title.
You can then select the Views to link with your Google Ads account. Simply click the toggle to ON for the correct Views.
Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Link accounts’ button.
Google Analytics will now show a summary of your settings. Simply scroll down and click the ‘Done’ button.
That’s it. Your Google Ads account will now be linked to the Universal Analytics property.
To view data from your ad campaigns, head to Acquisition » Google Ads » Campaigns from the menu on your left. You can see the number of clicks, cost, CPC, and more for each campaign.
When it comes to setting up any conversion tracking, the most important thing you want to make sure is that the setup is done properly. This is why we use and recommend MonsterInsights because it just does everything for you behind the scenes without touching any code.
However if you prefer to add code directly on your WordPress site, then you can do that as well by using a plugin like WPCode. This will help future-proof your customizations. There’s a free version of WPCode that you can use by following our tutorial on adding custom code in WordPress.
We hope this article helped you learn how to set up Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide and the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your store.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The post How to Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.
Have you been wondering what rel="noopener" means in WordPress?
When you add a link that opens in a new tab, WordPress will automatically add the rel="noopener" attribute to the link.
In this article, we will explain what rel="noopener" means in WordPress and how it affects your website.
When you add links to your WordPress website, you can use HTML attributes to control what happens when you click the link.
For example, when you create a link, there is a toggle switch that allows you to open it in a new tab.
The HTML code generated by WordPress for this link looks like this:
<a href="http://example.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">external link</a>
Notice that some HTML attributes have been added to the link, rel="noopener" and rel="noreferrer". These attributes are added to address a security vulnerability.
The problem is that JavaScript code can be used to allow a new tab to get control of its referring window. If you link to an external website affected by the malicious code, then that website can use the window.opener property in JavaScript to change the original page (your website) to steal information and spread malicious code.
WordPress adds rel="noopener" to prevent the new tab from taking advantage of this JavaScript feature. Similarly, the rel="noreferrer" attribute prevents passing the referrer information onto the new tab.
It doesn’t.
Even though the rel="noopener" attribute improves WordPress security, some users avoid using it because they think it will impact their WordPress SEO.
But that’s just a myth.
It has no impact on your site’s SEO rankings or your overall WordPress performance.
It’s easy to confuse rel="noopener" with rel="nofollow". However, they are completely separate attributes.
The noopener attribute prevents your website from cross-site hacking and improves WordPress security.
On the other hand, the nofollow attribute prevents your website from passing on SEO link-juice to the linked website.
Search engines look for and consider the nofollow attribute when following a link on your website. However, they do not give any consideration to the noopener tag.
By default, WordPress does not allow you to add nofollow to your external links. If you want to add nofollow in WordPress, then you will need to use a plugin.
To learn more, see our article on how to add title and nofollow to links in WordPress.
The rel="noreferrer" does not affect affiliate links in WordPress. Some users believe that it does because rel="noreferrer" prevents the referrer information passing to the new tab.
However, most affiliate programs provide you with a unique URL that has your affiliate ID. This means your affiliate ID is passed along as a URL parameter for the other website to track.
Secondly, most affiliate marketers use a link cloaking plugin for their affiliate links.
With link cloaking, the affiliate link that your users click on is actually your website’s own URL, which then redirects users to the destination URL.
There is no need to remove rel="noopener" from links on your website. It is good for your website’s security and has no performance or SEO impact on your website.
However, if you must remove it, then you will have to disable the Gutenberg block editor in WordPress and use the old classic editor.
That’s because if you remove rel="noopener" from the link manually, the block editor will automatically add it back in to keep your website safe.
Once the block editor is disabled, you will need to add a code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file or to the WPCode plugin (recommended). You can learn how to use the WPCode Free Plugin in our guide on how to easily add custom code in WordPress.
Simply copy the following code into a new PHP snippet:
add_filter('tiny_mce_before_init','wpb_disable_noopener');
function wpb_disable_noopener( $mceInit ) {
$mceInit['allow_unsafe_link_target']=true;
return $mceInit;
}
Make sure you change the ‘Active’ toggle on and then click the ‘Save Snippet’ button.
This will stop WordPress from adding rel="noopener" to new links. You will also need to manually edit any old links to remove the attribute.
Want even more control over which rel attributes get added to your links in WordPress? We recommend using the AIOSEO plugin because it lets you add title, nofollow, and other link attributes right inside the WordPress editor.
We hope this article helped you learn about rel="noopener" in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to get a free email domain, or see our list of tips to speed up WordPress performance.
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 What is rel=”noopener” in WordPress? (Explained) first appeared on WPBeginner.
Do you want to show random quotes in the WordPress sidebar?
Displaying quotes from happy customers can convince more visitors to buy your products. Or you might simply want to brighten your audience’s day by showing them a random inspirational quote.
In this article, we will show you how to easily show random quotes in the WordPress sidebar by using a free plugin.
You can show random quotes in the WordPress sidebar using the Quotes and Tips plugin. It lets you add an unlimited number of quotes to your site.
It also lets you display quotes on any page, post, or widget area, including your WordPress sidebar.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After activating the plugin, you can start adding quotes. To add your first quote, go to Quotes » Add New.
First you’ll need to type a title for your quote into the ‘Add Title’ field. In a later step, we’ll show you how to choose whether or not to display the quote’s title to your visitors, or use it for internal reference only.
Next, type your quote into the text editor. In our example, we’re using a quote from a case study.
You may want to organize your quotes into categories. This becomes important when it’s time to display your quotes.
Basically, you have two options.
The Quotes and Tips plugin can select a random quote from all of the quotes you’ve added. Or, it can select a random quote from a specific quote category.
For example, if you have an online store, you might want to display quotes about a specific product on that product page only.
If you already have some categories in mind, then it makes sense to organize your quotes into these categories now. But you can always add, remove, and edit your categories later. We’ll be covering that at the end of the post.
If you do want to create a quote category now, then you can find the Quotes Categories box on the right side of the page.
To add your category, first click on the ‘Add New Quotes Category’ link.
A field will display where you can type your category name. The category won’t appear to your visitors, so it’s just for your reference.
After you type it in, click on the ‘Add New Quotes Category’ button.
This category will now appear in the Quotes Category tab. To add the current quote to this category, simply select the category’s checkbox.
You can keep repeating these steps to create more quote categories.
Next, you’ll typically want to show where a quote comes from. This might be a valued customer, a famous brand, or even a celebrity.
To assign your quote to a person or company, scroll down to the ‘Name and Official Position’ section.
You can now type the person or company’s name into the Name field.
You might also want to add this person’s job title, or some information that explains why they’re qualified to make this statement. You can type this information into the Official Position field.
When you’re happy with your quote, click on the Publish button.
You can now repeat these steps to create all of the quotes that you want to show in your WordPress sidebar.
After creating your quotes, it’s time to take a look at the Quotes and Tips settings. This contains some important settings that control how and when your site displays a random quote.
To take a look at these settings, go to Tips » Settings.
By default, Quotes and Tips will display a new quote every time the page reloads. This means visitors will see a new quote every time they visit a new page or press the Refresh button in their web browser.
If you prefer, you can display a new quote automatically every few seconds or minutes. The visitor doesn’t even have to refresh their web browser.
To do this, select ‘AJAX (no page reload).’ You can then find the Change Frequency field. Here, simply type how frequently WordPress should display a new quote in seconds.
Next, it’s time to choose the title that will appear above your quote.
The default setting is ‘Set Title From Post’. This will display the title you entered when adding the quote to WordPress.
Another option is creating a title that WordPress will use for all of your quotes. This might be something such as ‘Words of Wisdom’ or ‘Don’t take our word for it! Here’s what our customers think’ for testimonials.
To use the same title for all your quotes, click on ‘Set Custom Titles.’ You can now type your title into the Quote Title field.
When you’re finished, don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button.
Now it’s time to display your quotes.
Let’s start by showing a random quote from your entire quote collection. If you’ve created multiple categories, then this method will ignore all of these categories.
You can add your quote to any page, post, or widget using the Quotes and Tips shortcode. To get this shortcode, go to Quotes » Settings.
Now, copy the shortcode in the ‘Quotes and Tips’ section.
Another option is to simply copy the following: [quotes_and_tips]
Since we want to show random quotes in the WordPress sidebar, you’ll need to go to Appearance » Widgets. This shows all the areas of your site that support widgets.
This screen may look slightly different depending on your WordPress theme. However, most modern WordPress themes have a sidebar.
Find the Main Sidebar or similar section, and give it a click. This section will now expand.
You need to add a Shortcode block to this widget, so click on the + button. In the search field, type Shortcode.
You can now select the Shortcode block when it appears. Next, either paste or type the shortcode into this block.
Finally, click on the blue Update button at the top of the screen. Now, if you visit your website you should see a random quote in your WordPress sidebar.
Another option is to display a quote from a specific quote category.
To display a random quote from a particular category, you’ll need to use a different shortcode.
To get this code, head over to Quotes » Quote Category.
Here, you’ll find a list of all the categories you’ve created. Each category has its own shortcode.
Simply find the category that you want to use, and copy its shortcode. You can then paste this shortcode into any page, post, or widget, following the same process above.
By default, Quotes and Tips adds a blue background to the quote area. It also uses a background image of silhouettes.
You can change this default styling to better match the rest of your website’s design. You can even remove the styling completely.
To change the background color, text color, or background image, go to Quotes » Settings.
In the left menu, click on the Appearance tab.
You can now change the background color and text color, by clicking on the Select Color button.
This adds an area where you can choose your perfect color.
If you change your mind, you can restore the plugin’s default colors at any point. Simply click on the Default button.
You can also change the background image. To remove the default background image, scroll to Background Image, and then click on the None button.
You can also add your own background image.
Using your company or product logo as a background image can be a great way to brand your quotes.
To upload a new background image, click on the Custom button. This adds a Choose File button.
Give this button a click. This will open a window where you can select the file that you want to use as your background image.
After making your choice, you can customize how this image looks on your site.
This includes changing the background image alignment and the opacity, which is how transparent the background image is.
Why not experiment, to see what different effects you can create?
Sometimes, you may want Quotes and Tips to display a completely random quote.
Other times, you may need more control over the kind of quotes that it displays.
You can do this using quote categories. We’ve already seen how to create a category when adding a new quote. However, Quotes and Tips has an entire menu where you can make changes to these categories, and create new ones.
To see these settings, go to Quotes » Quotes Categories.
Here, you can quickly and easily create quote categories. To add a new category, type a name for your category into the Name field.
By default this plugin creates each quote category as a parent category.
Another option is to create a subcategory. For example, you might have an OptinMonster parent category, and then create subcategories for your different promotions, such as ‘OptinMonster summer sale’ and ‘OptinMonster holiday promotion.’
To create a quote subcategory, you’ll need to select a Parent Category.
When you’re happy with your quote category, click on the blue Add New Quotes Category button.
You can also edit any of the categories you created earlier.
To edit a category, hover over it. Then, click on the Edit link when it appears.
This launches a new page where you can make changes to this category. This includes editing the category’s name, and choosing a new parent.
We hope this article helped you learn how to show random quotes in the WordPress sidebar. Next, you can see our guide on how to increase your blog traffic, or see our expert pick of the best social proof plugins for WordPress
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The post How to Show Random Quotes in Your WordPress Sidebar first appeared on WPBeginner.
Do you want to enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce without affecting other parts of your WordPress website?
Maintenance mode allows you to show a user-friendly notice to shoppers instead of a broken eCommerce site. You can even enable maintenance mode for specific product pages or areas of your WooCommerce store.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce.
Sometimes you may need to put your WordPress website in maintenance mode. For example, you may be making major changes such as installing a new theme or completely redesigning your WordPress blog.
At other times you may need to put your WooCommerce store into maintenance mode, while leaving the rest of your site open.
This could be because there’s a problem that’s only affecting your online store, and not the rest of your website. For example, you may be unable to process customer payments. In this case, maintenance mode can stop customers from encountering the error and having a bad shopping experience.
You may also be adding an online store to an existing website and want to keep those pages private while you work on them.
An engaging ‘coming soon’ page can also create a sense of excitement and anticipation while you build your store behind the scenes. You might even encourage shoppers to get ready for the launch by following you on social media, joining your email list, or even entering a WooCommerce contest.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily enable WooCommerce maintenance mode without affecting the rest of your website.
The easiest way to enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce is by using SeedProd.
SeedProd is the best landing page builder for WordPress, used on more than a million websites. It allows you to create beautiful coming soon pages in WordPress, improve your 404 page, and even design unique landing pages using drag and drop.
There’s a free version of SeedProd that lets you create a maintenance mode page. However, we’ll be using the premium version as it lets you put your WooCommerce store into maintenance mode while keeping the rest of your site available.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.
After activating the plugin, SeedProd will ask for your license key.
You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website. After entering the license, click on the ‘Verify Key’ button.
Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to put your WooCommerce store in maintenance mode.
After activating SeedProd, go to SeedProd » Pages. Here, you can choose whether to create a maintenance mode page or a coming soon page.
Although some people use these terms interchangeably, there are some important differences you should know.
If you create a ‘Coming Soon’ page, then search engines will still be able to see and crawl your store pages. This gives your WooCommerce site a chance to get indexed by search engines.
If you’re building a new store, then you’ll typically want to create a coming soon page.
If your store is down for maintenance, then you should create a ‘Maintenance Mode’ page instead. This mode tells search engines that your site is temporarily down, using the special header code 503.
After getting this code, the search bots will recheck your WordPress website later to see whether it’s back online. In this way, you can hide your store from shoppers without affecting your search engine rankings.
Note: We’ll create a maintenance mode page in this guide, but the steps will be the same no matter whether you click on ‘Set up a Maintenance Mode Page’ or ‘Set up a Coming Soon Page.’
The next step is building the page that shoppers will see when you enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce.
You can either choose a ready-made template or start with a blank design. We’re using ‘Celebrate Coming Soon’ in all our images but you can use any template you like.
To select a template, simply hover your mouse over that design’s thumbnail and then click the ‘checkmark’ icon.
After selecting a template, you’ll be taken to the drag-and-drop builder, where you can start customizing the maintenance mode design.
On the left side of the screen, you’ll find blocks and sections that you can add to your design. The right side of the page is the live preview.
Most templates already have some blocks, which are a core part of all SeedProd designs. To start, you’ll typically want to customize these blocks by adding your own text, images, links, and other content.
To change the text in any Headline or Text block, simply click to select that block in your layout. This brings up all the settings for that particular block.
You can now type your text into the small text editor.
You can also use these settings to style the text, including adding bold and italic formatting, changing the text alignment, changing the font size, and more.
You can add more blocks to your maintenance page by dragging them from the left-hand menu and then dropping them onto your design.
For example, if you wanted to add a custom logo then you could simply drag an ‘Image’ block onto your layout.
Then, just click to select that block in your layout and the left-hand menu will show all the settings for that block.
To add a logo, go ahead and click on ‘Use Your Own Image.’
You can then either choose an image from the WordPress media library or upload a new file from your computer.
After adding an image, you can change the size, add image alt text, embed a link, and more using the settings in the left-hand menu.
If you’re using the WPForms plugin then you can quickly and easily add a contact form to the maintenance page. This gives shoppers a way to talk to you even when your WooCommerce site is down for maintenance.
After creating a contact form in WordPress, you can drag the ‘Contact Form’ block onto your SeedProd layout.
Then, simply click to select the Contact Form block.
In the left-hand menu, open the dropdown menu and choose the form you created earlier.
To remove a block from your design, simply go ahead and click on it.
You can then select the trash can icon.
You can also move blocks around the page using drag and drop.
When you’re happy with how the maintenance page looks, make sure you click ‘Save.’
Now that you’ve created a custom coming soon or maintenance mode page, let’s go ahead and enable it.
Here, we want to put the store into maintenance mode, and not the entire site. To do this, click on the ‘Page Settings’ tab inside the SeedProd editor.
Then, select the ‘Access Control’ tab.
You can use these settings to specify where the coming soon or maintenance page appears on your site, and who sees it. For example, you might show this page to people who have a particular user role or IP address.
Since we want to put our WooCommerce site into maintenance mode, scroll to the ‘Include/Exclude URLs’ section.
Then, just click on the ‘Include URLs’ button.
Now, you need to enter the URLs for your WooCommerce store. This may vary depending on how your store is set up, and whether you’ve created any custom pages such as a custom WooCommerce cart page or a custom checkout page.
However, it’s smart to start with all the pages that WooCommerce creates automatically:
https://example.com/shop
https://example.com/cart
https://example.com/checkout
https://example.com/my-account
If your store has products, then you’ll also need to add these URLs. Be sure to include the asterisk!
https://example.com/product/*
https://example.com/product-category/*
https://example.com/product-tag/*
The asterisk is a wildcard character, which tells SeedProd to include all URLs that match the pattern before it.
This means that shoppers will see the maintenance page when they try to access any product, product category, or product tag.
After adding all these URLs, click on the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.
You’re now ready to put your WooCommerce store in maintenance or coming soon mode at any point. In the WordPress dashboard, simply go to SeedProd » Landing Pages.
Then, click on the ‘Inactive’ slider under ‘Coming Soon Mode’ or ‘Maintenance Mode,’ so that it changes to ‘Active.’
Now, simply visit your WooCommerce store in an incognito browser tab and you’ll see your custom design, rather than your online store.
When you’re ready to make your store public, simply go back to SeedProd » Landing Pages.
Then click on the ‘Active’ slider so that it shows ‘Inactive.’ Now, anyone who visits your site will see your WooCommerce store, and can buy products and services as normal.
We hope this article helped you learn how to enable maintenance mode for WooCommerce. You may also want to take a look at our expert pick of the best WooCommerce plugins, and our complete step-by-step guide on how to create an email newsletter.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The post How to Enable Maintenance Mode for WooCommerce first appeared on WPBeginner.
Do you want to use video for featured thumbnails in WordPress?
By replacing a post or product’s featured image with a featured video, you can make your website much more vibrant and dynamic. Visitors can view these videos from nearly anywhere including your blog archives, homepage, and WooCommerce product pages.
In this article, we will show you how you can add featured video thumbnails in WordPress.
All popular WordPress themes allow you to add featured images to your posts and products.
These are the primary images, and they often appear at the top of the page and other areas of your site such as your website’s archive pages. Search engines and social media sites may also display a page’s featured image.
A good featured image can get you a lot of user engagement. However, you may be able to get more clicks, pageviews, and even sales by using a featured video thumbnail instead.
If you’ve created an online store, then showing a video at the top of the product page is a great way to make shoppers want to scroll and learn more about that product.
With that being said, let’s see how you can add featured video thumbnails in WordPress.
The easiest way to use videos as featured thumbnails is by using Really Simple Featured Video. This plugin lets you embed videos from popular video hosting websites such as YouTube or Vimeo and use them as featured video thumbnails.
It also works perfectly with WooCommerce and will show the featured video at the top of the product page.
However, just be aware that WooCommerce will show the featured video on the product page only. The featured image thumbnail will still be used in other places, including your WooCommerce store page.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After activation, there are a few settings to configure. To get started, go to Settings » Really Simple Featured Video.
On this screen, you can select whether you want to add featured video thumbnails to pages, posts, or WooCommerce products.
To do this, simply click on the ‘Posts,‘ ‘Pages’ or ‘Products’ switches to turn them from grey (disabled) to purple (active). In the following image, we’ve enabled the featured video feature for products, plus posts and pages.
After that, click on the ‘Save changes’ button.
Next, click on the ‘Controls’ tab. Here, you’ll find a ‘Self-hosted videos’ section where you can configure the settings for the videos in your WordPress media library.
While the plugin does support self-hosted videos, this can take up a lot of storage space and bandwidth so we don’t recommend it. To learn more, check out why you should never upload a video to WordPress.
Instead, scroll to the ‘Embed Videos’ section. This is where you will find settings for any videos you embed from third-party video platforms such as YouTube.
When you embed videos from YouTube or Vimeo, Really Simple Featured Video will show the playback controls for that platform.
For example, if you’re embedding a YouTube video then visitors will have access to YouTube’s specific playback features.
However, the ‘Embed videos’ section does have an ‘Autoplay’ switch that you can click to enable, too.
By default, the plugin will play videos with sound turned on. To mute your videos by default, click on the ‘Mute sound’ toggle.
You can also set the featured video thumbnails to play on loop.
Looping videos can be annoying to many visitors, particularly if the video is short and has sound. It’s a good idea to only activate the ‘Loop’ switch if replaying the video over and over improves the visitor experience in some way. For example, you might create a video showing a 360 degree view of a product and then set that clip to loop.
After working your way through the different settings, make sure you click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Adding Featured Video Thumbnails to Posts, Pages, and WooCommerce Products
Once you’ve configured how the plugin will show embedded videos, you’re ready to add featured video thumbnails to your WordPress website.
To do this, simply open the post, page, or WooCommerce product where you want to add a featured video thumbnail.
If you’re adding a featured video to a page or post, then you’ll find the ‘Featured Video’ section in the right-hand menu underneath the ‘Discussion’ section.
Want to add a featured video to a WooCommerce product instead?
Then you’ll find the ‘Featured Video’ section underneath the ‘Product gallery‘ section.
To use a video from a video hosting site, simply click on ‘Embed.’
In the new field, you’ll need to paste the URL of the video that you want to embed.
Just make sure that you add the video’s URL in the right format. In the right-hand menu, you’ll see some examples for YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion.
For YouTube, the plugin gives us the following example URL: https://www.youtube.com/embed/vbLgiRQ0Moo
This means you’ll need to use https://www.youtube.com/embed/ as the first part of your URL and then add the ID of the video that you want to embed.
To find the video ID, simply open a new tab in your browser, then go to the YouTube video that you want to embed. Now, take a look at the browser’s address bar.
The video ID is the value that comes after v=. In the following image, we can see that the video ID is DvbFBxKcORA.
After adding the video ID to the first part of the URL, we get the following: https://www.youtube.com/embed/DvbFBxKcORA
You can now go back to the tab with the WordPress block editor and just paste the URL into the ‘Embed’ field. That will add a featured video thumbnail to the post, and then you’re ready to click on either the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button.
You can now add featured video thumbnails to more posts, pages, and WooCommerce products by following the same process described above.
On your blog archive or similar page you’ll see that WordPress is now using the videos as the featured thumbnail for your posts and pages.
If you open any page, post, or WooCommerce product, then you’ll see that the featured video also appears at the top of the page, just like a featured image would.
We hope this article helped you learn how to add featured video thumbnails in WordPress. You can also go through our guide on the best YouTube video gallery plugins for WordPress and how to embed a Facebook video.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The post How to Add Featured Video Thumbnails in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.
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Are you looking for a way to automatically manage WordPress updates?
Updates are important for the security and stability of your WordPress site.
In this article, we will show you how to better manage automatic WordPress updates.
Keeping your WordPress website updated is extremely important. The same goes for all plugins and themes installed on your website. You need to install updates for WordPress core, themes, and plugins to get new features and fixes.
Learn more in our guide on why you should always use the latest version of WordPress.
WordPress will automatically update itself when a security or minor release is available. You can also enable automatic updates for major releases, as well as plugins and themes.
However, you may have noticed that some of them are updated more frequently than others. A lot of popular plugins are updated almost weekly.
Some users find it a bit annoying that whenever they log in there are new updates available for WordPress core, one or more plugins, or their theme. It becomes even more time-consuming when you manage multiple WordPress sites.
That’s why many users want to have WordPress automatically install updates for WordPress core, trusted plugins, and themes. But while WordPress now lets you do this without a plugin, you still don’t have full control over your auto-updates.
Let’s take a look at how you can take total control of WordPress and minimize the time spent on installing updates.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Easy Updates Manager plugin. This plugin gives you complete control over customizing your updates and also keeps logs of what is updated and when.
For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit Dashboard » Updates Options page to set up the plugin.
This page provides you quick access to turn on or off updates for WordPress core, plugins, themes, and translations. The default settings here will work well for most websites.
We strongly recommend that you never turn off updates for WordPress core, plugins, or themes. It will seriously compromise your site’s security and health.
Setting Up Automatic Updates for WordPress, Plugins, and Themes
Easy Updates Manager allows you to quickly enable automatic updates for WordPress core, plugins, and themes from the Dashboard » Updates options page. Simply click on the blue ‘Auto update everything’ button in the ‘Quick configuration actions’ section.
This plugin also allows you to selectively turn on automatic updates for certain plugins or themes. If you would like to selectively turn on automatic updates, then click the ‘Choose per plugin’ and ‘Choose per theme’ buttons.
Next, we’ll show you how to select which plugins and themes are updated automatically.
Setting Up Automatic Updates for Select Plugins and Themes
If you selected to individually enable automatic updates for a few plugins, then you need to switch to the ‘Plugins’ tab on the Dashboard » Updates options page.
Here you will see a list of all plugins installed on your WordPress site. To automatically update a certain plugin, simply click the ‘On’ button under ‘Automatic updates’.
When you switch to the ‘Themes’ tab, you will see a list of themes installed on your site.
You need to click the ‘On’ button under ‘Automatic updates’ for those themes that you want to be updated automatically.
Plugin and theme incompatibilities are the major reason why some users are hesitant when it comes to updating. Even though most good developers thoroughly test their plugins, there can still be bugs that can cause your site to break.
The first step you should take to protect your website is to install a WordPress backup solution. This will let you restore your entire website if something goes wrong.
However, restoring your WordPress site from a backup can be a lot of work. If you know which plugin or theme update caused the problem, then it’s easier just to roll back that one update.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Rollback plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, go back to the plugins page on your WordPress site. You will notice a new Rollback option below each plugin installed on your site.
Clicking on the ‘Rollback’ link will allow you to roll back your plugin to any previous version you want. It can also roll back theme updates.
For detailed, step-by-step instructions, see our guide on how to rollback WordPress plugins.
We hope this article helped you find a better way to manage automatic WordPress updates on your site. You may also want to learn how to increase your blog traffic, or see our list of 40 useful tools to manage and grow your WordPress blog.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The post How to Better Manage Automatic WordPress Updates first appeared on WPBeginner.
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Do you want to disable the admin email verification notice in WordPress?
By default, WordPress displays an admin email verification notice to the site administrators every few months to verify the email they use is still correct. It’s a pseudo-security measure that many site owners feel is unnecessary and annoying.
In this article, we will show you how to disable the admin email verification notice in WordPress.
The admin email verification notice feature was introduced in WordPress 5.3. The purpose of this feature is to show a screen to website administrators every few months that asks them to verify their site email address.
The admin email verification notice ensures that the email address provided by the administrator is accurate and still in use. Having a working email is important to site security and management.
However, originally planned to appear every six months, sometimes the admin email verification notice can be displayed more frequently than necessary.
This can be annoying for users who’re just trying to log in to their WordPress website. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just turn off the admin email verification notice?
Let’s take a look at how to easily disable the admin email verification notice. You can click the links below to jump directly to the method you want to use.
You can easily disable the admin email verification notice by adding a code snippet to your WordPress files. If you haven’t done this before, then take a look at our beginner’s guide on pasting snippets from the web into WordPress.
Generally, you would need to manually add the code to your theme’s function.php file, but it can be a bit tricky since even a minor mistake can bring down your whole website.
This is why we recommend using a code snippet plugin like WPCode to add custom code in WordPress without having to edit your theme’s core files.
First, you need to install and activate the free WPCode plugin. For more instructions, please take a look at our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once the plugin is activated, go to Code Snippets » Add New from your WordPress admin dashboard.
This will take you to the ‘Add Snippet’ page.
As we have to add custom code, simply click on the ‘Use Snippet’ button below the ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option.
This will take you to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page where you can start by entering a title for your code snippet. It can be anything that helps you identify the code.
Next, select the ‘PHP Snippet’ as the ‘Code Type’ from the drop-down menu on the right.
After that, all you have to do is copy and paste the following PHP code snippet in the ‘Code Preview’.
// Disable WordPress Administration Email verification Screen
add_filter( 'admin_email_check_interval', '__return_false' );
After that, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section and select an insert method.
Now, simply choose the ‘Auto Insert’ option to automatically execute code on your site upon saving the snippet. Make sure to select the location “Admin Only”.
Now, go to the top of the page and toggle the switch from ‘Inactive’ to ‘Active’ in the top right corner and then click the ‘Save Snippet’ button.
Once, you have saved and activated the code snippet, it will be automatically executed on your site.
Now you will no longer see the admin email verification notice.
If you prefer not to add code to your WordPress site, you can always use a plugin.
For this tutorial, we will be using the Make Disable Admin Email Verification Prompt plugin.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Make Disable Admin Email Verification Prompt plugin. For more instructions, you can check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once the plugin is activated, simply go to Settings » General from your WordPress admin dashboard.
Now that you’re on the ‘General Settings’ page, scroll down to the bottom.
Here you will find the ‘Disable Admin Email Verification Prompt’ option. Now, simply make sure to check the box beside ‘Disable Admin Email Verification Screen.’
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
That’s it! You and your team should not see the admin email verification notice anymore.
We hope this article helped you learn how to disable the admin email verification notice in WordPress. You may also want to see our tutorial on how to disable automatic update email notifications in WordPress, and our comparison of the best email marketing services to grow your website traffic and sales.
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 WordPress Admin Email Verification Notice first appeared on WPBeginner.
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Looking for the best Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals on your favorite WordPress products?
The next few days are the perfect time to buy premium WordPress plugins, themes, web hosting, and tools to grow your business. As always, to help you find the best deals, we have created the ultimate listed of best WordPress Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals for 2022. Some of these are exclusive just for WPBeginner readers.
View our Complete Black Friday and Cyber Monday List for 2022
We will be updating this page on a daily basis to add more deals.
View our Complete Black Friday and Cyber Monday List for 2022
The post 120+ Black Friday / Cyber Monday 2022 WordPress Deals – Big Savings first appeared on WPBeginner.