One of the questions we often receive from our readers is if there is a TikTok plugin that we recommend for WordPress users.
We know firsthand how helpful TikTok can be for growing a social media audience and increasing brand awareness. But to integrate TikTok with your website, you’ll need the right WordPress plugin.
To find the best one, we downloaded some of the most popular TikTok plugins and reviewed their features to determine if they were worth the hype.
Based on our testing, we picked the plugins that are easy to use, help integrate TikTok with your site, and offer useful features.
In this article, we will show you the best TikTok plugins for WordPress.
In a hurry? Don’t worry, here are the top TikTok plugins for WordPress.
There are many TikTok plugins for your WordPress website, each with different features for specific use cases.
However, it can be overwhelming to choose the right WordPress plugins because many of them offer similar features. For instance, you can create TikTok feeds by embedding content on your site, adding tracking pixels, and more.
To help you out, we tested some of the most popular TikTok plugins based on the following criteria:
Ease of Use – When testing plugins, we checked if they were user-friendly. They need to have a simple interface, an easy onboarding process, and detailed documentation.
Features – Each TikTok plugin is useful for different situations. So, we checked the features they offered and how they can help you grow your business. We also highlighted the features we liked and didn’t like.
Reliability – We only picked the plugins that were up to date and recently tested. We also looked at customer reviews to find the best options.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
At WPBeginner, our team of experts has researched and tested many different WordPress plugins on live websites. With over 16 years of experience in WordPress design, marketing, and social media, we can confidently offer the best recommendations.
TikTok is among the most popular social media platforms in the world, with over 1.5 billion users. The platform lets you publish short-form videos, which has proved to be an excellent growth hack.
As a marketer and website owner, TikTok should be part of your social media marketing strategy. It offers the potential to attract a new audience to your site and promote your products and services.
WordPress offers a native block for embedding content from TikTok into blog posts and pages. However, it lacks customization options and other features.
This is where a TikTok plugin comes in handy. It can extend your site’s functionality and streamline the process of adding content from TikTok.
Besides that, there are many plugins that help set up tracking on your site. You can see how your TikTok campaigns are performing or find out how many people visit your site from the social platform.
That said, let’s look at some of the best TikTok plugins for WordPress.
Smash Balloon TikTok Feeds is the best WordPress TikTok plugin for WordPress. It is super simple to set up and lets you easily add videos from TikTok to your website.
You can connect your site with your TikTok account and create stunning feeds. Smash Balloon offers multiple layouts for your TikTok feed, including grid, carousel, masonry, and more. Plus, you can also get started with pre-built templates and save time.
One of the standout features we like about Smash Balloon is that it also offers other solutions for your social media needs. You can create feeds for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (now X), and YouTube, or even combine content to create a social wall.
Pros:
Beginner friendly plugin
Multiple layouts for creating TikTok feeds
Lots of customization options
Responsive themes that work on different devices
Filter videos based on words or hashtags
Optimized for speed and SEO
Cons:
The free version has limited features
Why We Recommend Smash Balloon: If you are looking for a way to display content from TikTok on your site and make it look amazing, then Smash Balloon is for you. It integrates with TikTok seamlessly and offers lots of customization options to show videos on your site
Pricing: Smash Balloon TikTok Feeds starts at $49 per year. You can also use the free version to get started.
RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin that helps you create viral contests for your site. It offers different TikTok options that can help you get more followers and boost engagement.
Using the plugin, you can offer incentives like prizes, free shipping, and discounts for participating in the giveaway and following you on TikTok. Plus, RafflePress offers pre-designed giveaway templates, a drag-and-drop content builder, and multiple customization options.
The TikTok feature is not available in the free version
Why We Recommend RafflePress: Over the years, we’ve tested different ways of growing social followers, and RafflePress is one of the best solutions. It easily integrates with social channels, including TikTok, and helps you grow your followers.
Pricing: RafflePress prices start from $39.50 per year, but you’ll need the Pro version for TikTok, which will cost you $99.50 per year.
Floating TikTok Button is a free WordPress plugin that helps you get more followers. You can show a static or animated TikTok button anywhere on your site to get people to follow your profile.
Besides that, the plugin also lets you create a QR code or Tikcode that users can scan and quickly follow you back on TikTok.
You can also try different customization options. For instance, the plugin lets you change the button text, font, size, and more. Plus, you can choose from different button styles or upload a custom design.
Pros:
Super easy to use and set up
Display a floating button, QR code, or both
Multiple customization options
Flexible button placement options for desktop and mobile
Create a static or animated button
Cons:
Animated icons locked in the pro version
Why We Recommend Floating TikTok Button: It is a great plugin for anyone looking to display a TikTok follow button on their WordPress site. It offers simple customization options and helps display a floating button or QR code to attract more social followers.
Pricing: It is a free TikTok plugin for WordPress.
WPCode is the best WordPress code snippet plugin that makes it very easy to add custom code to your site. Using the plugin, you can add the TikTok Pixel ID to your website and start tracking your campaigns.
There is no need to edit code with WPCode. Simply paste the pixel ID and access token, and the plugin will take care of the rest. With WPCode, you can also manage all your code snippets from a single place and insert them anywhere on your site.
The best part about using the plugin is that it comes with a built-in code snippet library. So, you can add custom features to your site by inserting pre-built code snippets without risking breaking anything.
Pros:
Add custom code to WordPress without editing theme files
Get full support for PHP, JS, CSS, HTML, and text snippets
Built-in code snippets library
Support for advanced conditional rules
Safe error handling
Cons:
Has a higher learning curve to use advanced features
Why We Recommend WPCode: WPCode is the quickest way to set up tracking for your TikTok campaigns and add the pixel ID to your site. The plugin makes the entire process very simple, and you don’t have to touch a single line of code.
Pricing: WPCode prices start from $49 per year. There is also a WPCode Lite version that you can use for free.
LitCommerce is a powerful multichannel selling tool that helps you list your products across different social platforms, including TikTok Shop. The plugin allows you to display and promote products on TikTok.
For example, if you have a WooCommerce store, then you can use the LitCommerce plugin to list your products on TikTok Shop. It seamlessly integrates WooCommerce with TikTok.
On the other hand, if you have products on TikTok Shop and want to display them on your WordPress site, the plugin will easily import them. In addition to WooCommerce, the plugin also works with Shopify, BigCommerce, and other eCommerce platforms.
Pros:
Easily integrate WooCommerce with TikTok Shop
List products on TikTok Shop and promote them
Import products from TikTok Shop
User-friendly interface
Detailed documentation and tutorials
Integrates with other popular marketplaces
Cons:
The free version has limited features and integrations
Pay as you go model can be expensive for new business owners
Why We Recommend LitCommerce: After testing multiple eCommerce plugins, we highly recommend LitCommerce. You can sell your products on TikTok Shop or import them on your site and make money online.
Pricing: LitCommerce offers a free pricing plan. Its premium plans are pay-as-you-go, where you can choose the number of channels or listings you need for your site.
SeedProd is the best WordPress website builder and landing page builder. You can use it to create amazing landing pages on your site to display your TikTok content.
The plugin comes with pre-built templates and lots of customization options. You can edit your landing page using the drag-and-drop builder. Plus, there are different blocks to add elements like social profiles, images, videos, and more.
The best part, SeedProd also integrates with Smash Balloon. This allows you to design a custom landing page for your TikTok feed.
Pros:
Drag and drop page builder
Pre-built landing page templates
Create coming soon and maintenance mode pages
Lots of customization options
Seamless integration with other plugins
Collect leads by integrating email marketing services
Cons:
Free version has limited customization options
Why We Recommend SeedProd: If you’re looking for a solution to create stunning landing pages for your TikTok content, then SeedProd is the best option. Its beginner-friendly interface and different customization options make it a powerful landing page builder.
Pricing: SeedProd prices start from $39.50 per year. There is also a free SeedProd Lite version.
QuadLayers TikTok Feed is another plugin for creating TikTok feeds in WordPress and displaying your videos. The plugin is easy to integrate and use, and you can choose from different layouts and customization options to create a TikTok feed.
One of the features we liked while testing the plugin is its popup feature. This transforms your videos into a full-screen viewing experience. Plus, users can like, comment, and share directly from the popup box without leaving your site.
That being said, the customization options are good but not as extensive as Smash Balloon, especially in the free version. However, if you want basic design options, then QuadLayers TikTok Feed will work perfectly.
Pros:
Easy-to-use plugin
Seamlessly integrates WordPress and TikTok
Create simple feeds quickly
Choose from different customization options
Pre-built feed layouts
Cons:
Limited features in the free version
Why We Recommend QuadLayers TikTok Feed: The plugin can be used to create TikTok feeds and display videos in an organized form. The premium version offers decent customization options and layouts.
Pricing: The QuadLayers TikTok Feed is a free WordPress plugin. It also offers paid pricing plans starting from $49 per year.
Add TikTok Pixel for TikTok Ads is the next plugin on our list. As the name suggests, it simply adds the TikTok pixel to your site’s header section.
The plugin is very simple to use. All you need to do is enable the TikTok pixel option, enter your pixel ID, and save changes.
The plugin also optimizes your TikTok videos for search engines and offers an option to improve crawlability by optimizing the robots.txt file. In its pro version, you can add the TikTok advertising pixel to WooCommerce pages.
Pros:
Beginner friendly plugin
Adds TikTok Pixel to a website seamlessly
Add alt text and image title attribute
Cons:
TikTok Advertising Pixel is not included in the free version
It doesn’t show reports or tracking data
Why We Recommend Add TikTok Pixel for TikTok Ads: If you’re looking for an easy way to add the TikTok pixel to your site or online store without editing code, then we recommend using this plugin. In just a few clicks, you will be able to configure the TikTok pixel.
Pricing: It is a free WordPress plugin to use.
Which Is the Best TikTok WordPress Plugin?
After testing multiple plugins, we believe that the best TikTok plugin depends on your needs.
For instance, if you’re looking to display content from TikTok on your site, then Smash Balloon TikTok Feeds is the best option. It is very easy to use and offers amazing customization options for showing your content.
On the other hand, if you want to boost followers, then the Floating TikTok Button is perfect. It helps show a follow button or QR code anywhere on your site. As an honorable mention, you can also use RafflePress to run viral TikTok giveaways and boost followers.
If you have an eCommerce store and want to showcase your products on TikTok Shop, then LitCommerce will work best. It helps sync your product library with TikTok, allowing you to boost sales.
FAQs About WordPress TikTok Plugins
Over the years, we’ve helped over 2 million people start a WordPress site and answered many questions. Here are some common questions users have about the best WordPress TikTok plugins.
1. Can you add TikTok to WordPress?
You can use a WordPress plugin to easily integrate TikTok into your site. TikTok also offers an official plugin for the social channel that you can use to set up an advertising pixel.
Besides that, there are several other TikTok WordPress plugins that help solve different problems. For instance, you can use Smash Balloon TikTok Feeds to show videos on your site.
2. How to install TikTok Pixel on WordPress?
You will need to add the TikTok pixel code to your site’s head section. The easiest way to do this is to use a WordPress plugin, such as WPCode or the Add TikTok Pixel for TikTok Ads plugin.
3. What is the TikTok pixel code?
TikTok pixel code is a piece of code that’s placed on your site, usually in the <head> section and it allows you to share website events with TikTok. It’s used for running ad campaigns, measuring campaign performance, finding new users, and more.
Additional Resources for WordPress and Social Media
Do you want to learn how to write a product review for your affiliate products?
Writing affiliate product reviews on your WordPress site allows you to earn money online. It can also help your audience make an informed decision about the product that you are reviewing.
In this article, we will show you how to easily write an affiliate product review, step by step.
We will cover a few different topics in this guide, and you can use the quick links below to jump to different sections:
Tips to Create an Attractive Affiliate Product Review
Affiliate marketing is an easy way to make some passive income online. By writing well-crafted product reviews, you can become a trusted advisor for your audience, encouraging them to buy the products you recommend.
However, with so many people writing product reviews, it can be difficult for your review to rank on Google or other search engines. Plus, generic-sounding review articles are unlikely to encourage trust and lead to conversions and sales.
That’s why we recommend using relevant keywords, adding an affiliate disclosure, creating catchy headlines, identifying your readers’ needs, and more.
Here are some tips that you should keep in mind when writing a product review:
For instance, if you are writing about a skincare product, it is a good idea to list its ingredients and skin type first.
This automatically builds trust among your audience and establishes your credibility.
You can then add your own experience with the product to give it a more personal touch and provide real-world insights into how it really works.
Search for Customer Reviews
While you will want to provide your own experiences in product reviews, it can also help to read other customer feedback from different sources across the internet.
This will allow you to gain some valuable insights, find out common issues, and acknowledge the overall user experience.
For example, if you are promoting a WordPress plugin, then you can check for customer reviews on WordPress.org and learn about other customers’ experiences.
Create Transparency
When writing product reviews, you must be transparent. Part of this means adding a disclosure at the top of the blog post that you are going to talk about an affiliate product.
When you do that, it will show readers that you value their trust, and they are more likely to purchase a product you recommend.
Being transparent also means highlighting the product’s positive and negative aspects. This allows readers to set realistic expectations, leading to a more positive user experience.
Identify Needs and Provide Solutions
Before starting a review, you must identify the common challenges faced by your target audience and write your review accordingly. To generate more leads, you must also choose affiliate products that are relevant to your audience’s needs.
For example, if you have a food blog, then you should recommend products that your audience may be interested in like cooking utensils, recipe plugins, and more.
Use High-Quality Images
It is very important to use high-quality images in your affiliate product reviews to make them visually appealing. This will allow the audience to view the product in detail and examine its features, textures, or functionality, giving them a better understanding of the product.
However, you must remember to optimize your images. Otherwise, they can slow down your site speed, resulting in a negative experience.
To help your affiliate product reviews rank higher, you must optimize them for search engines. You can do this by doing keyword research and then adding relevant keywords in the first 150 words of the review.
Other than that, you should focus on long-tail keywords, adding informative and well-written content, adding internal links, using headings, and more. For details, see our tips to optimize your blog posts for SEO.
Create Attractive Affiliate Links
Default affiliate links can be very long and full of random letters and numbers. This can look suspicious or confusing to visitors and doesn’t enhance your branding.
That’s why we recommend using an affiliate marketing plugin to create custom affiliate links like domain.com/refer/affiliate-product-name. This type of link is more attractive, informative, and trustworthy.
Now that you know some tips for creating an engaging review, let’s take a look at how to write an affiliate product review easily.
How to Write a Product Review
Now, let’s take a look at how to actually write an affiliate product review. You can use the following template structure so that you don’t miss any important information.
1. Create a Catchy Headline
It is important to start your affiliate product review with a catchy headline that grabs the user’s attention and accurately represents the product. You should also use relevant keywords in this sentence to boost SEO.
To test if your headline is attractive, you can use WPBeginner’s free Headline Analyzer tool, which allows you to write attractive headlines that drive traffic.
Just type in your headline and click the ‘Analyze’ button.
The tool will then show an overall score and give you an analysis summary that you can use to improve the heading.
It will include the sentiment, headline type, and assessment of power words.
Once you have perfected your title, we recommend adding the affiliate disclosure directly below it to inform readers about the affiliate relationship and build trust.
2. Add a Short Introduction
Next, you can give a brief overview of the product, its intended use, and the target audience that it will be ideal for.
At this point, you can also add an image to showcase the product’s appearance.
We recommend keeping this section short and to the point to boost its effectiveness and make sure that readers don’t feel overwhelmed by information.
3. Add a List of Features
After a brief product description, it is time for you to add a list of its features. This section will help the audience decide if they want to purchase this product or not.
For example, if you are writing an affiliate product review about a contact form plugin, then you can talk about features like premade templates, spam protection, payment gateways, drag-and-drop functionality, integration with other tools, and more.
We recommend providing a few lines of explanation for each feature to make your review comprehensive and detailed for the audience. However, if you want to keep your review brief, then you can just add the features as bullet points.
4. Write a List of Pros and Cons
Once you have done that, it’s time for you to add a list of pros and cons to demonstrate the good and not-so-good side of the product.
This helps you create an unbiased review and foster trust among your audience. By addressing some of the product’s downsides, you can set realistic expectations for users and address concerns that they may already have.
Bonus tip: If you mention a product drawback, then you can add a link to a different affiliate product that has provided a solution for it.
5. Add a CTA
After adding a pros and cons list, we recommend ending the review with a powerful CTA (call to action) that guides the readers towards the next step, which is usually buying the product.
Once you have done that, your product review should look like the following template.
How to Design Custom Affiliate Product Review Pages
Now that you know the structure of creating an affiliate product review, you can use SeedProd to build high-converting product review pages.
SeedProd is the best page builder on the market that comes with drag-and-drop functionality, email marketing service integrations, and much more.
It also has hundreds of templates for different niches, which you can use to create an attractive and high-converting product review.
For example, if you are recommending a fitness tracker, then you can use the ‘Fitness and Health’ sales page. For more ideas, just see our list of the best SeedProd kits and templates.
Upon activation, visit the SeedProd » Landing Pages screen from the WordPress admin sidebar and click the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button.
This will take you to a new screen with a list of premade templates. From here, you can use the search box to find the template that suits your affiliate product’s niche.
After that, the plugin will ask you to add a name for the landing page you are creating. Simply add those details and click the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button.
Once SeedProd’s drag-and-drop builder opens up, you can use the headline, paragraph, image, and list blocks from the left column to create an attractive affiliate product review.
You can also use the ‘Button’ block to add an attractive CTA.
Once you are done, just click the ‘Save’ and ‘Publish’ button at the top to store your settings.
Bonus: Create an Affiliate Product Box in WordPress
If you feel like it’s too much work to design an entire affiliate product review page, then you can use Pretty Links instead to create a simple product box.
This box will contain a product title, images, description, and a call to action (CTA) to allow users to purchase the product.
Plus, it can be added to any blog post or page, so you don’t need to create a separate page for it.
Are you curious about the latest AI statistics and how they might affect your online business?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting everything from how we shop to how we receive medical care. Even for small business owners and website owners, AI has become a powerful tool to enhance customer experiences, streamline operations, and gain a competitive edge.
But with so much happening in the field of AI, it can be tough to keep up with the latest trends and data. That’s why we have gathered the most surprising and insightful artificial intelligence statistics and research for you.
In this article, we will share the latest AI statistics to help you make informed decisions for your business.
The Ultimate List of AI Statistics
Here are the top AI statistics we will be covering in this article. You can use the quick links below to skip to your preferred topic:
First up, we will be looking at the impressive growth of the global AI market. These statistics will show you just how big it is today.
1. The global AI market is expected to hit a staggering $184 billion by the end of the year.
This is a 35% increase from the year before, which was around $135 billion.
To understand how big of a deal this is, imagine dividing $184 billion by the number of days in a year. That’s roughly $500 million spent on AI every single day.
What does this mean for you? For small business owners, that means more and more AI tools will be available to help you automate your tasks and save costs. You want to start mastering these platforms to gain a competitive edge and offer more value to your customers.
2. In the US, AI-related investments are projected to contribute up to 4% to the GDP.
Let’s put that in perspective. With a US GDP of roughly $25 trillion, 4% translates to a significant $1 trillion annually.
For context, the US spends about $1.2 trillion on social security, which is roughly 5% of GDP. This means that AI investment could reach similar levels to a major government program.
3. The release of ChatGPT has led to a 58% increase in funding for AI startups.
In total, they were able to secure a whopping $754 in funding.
This surge may lead to a wave of new AI-powered services hitting the market soon. That means you will want to be prepared for new AI-driven solutions that might disrupt your industry. Stay informed about emerging AI trends to adapt and take advantage of them for your business.
4. The global AI healthcare market is growing at a 37% rate.
Healthcare is leading the charge in AI adoption. And no, it’s not all about robot doctors.
Think smarter scheduling for appointments and surgeries, as well as automated administrative tasks that free up medical professionals’ time for patient care. These are just a few examples of how AI is making healthcare more streamlined and accessible for everyone.
5. China, India, and the UAE are leading AI adoption.
According to IBM’s research, China, India, and the UAE are at the forefront, with a whopping 58-59% of companies in these regions actively using AI technology.
This is in stark contrast to nations like Australia (29%) and France (26%), where the AI adoption rate is much lower.
More AI Market Size Statistics
Global AI investment is expected to reach $200 billion by 2025.
The market for AI-powered hardware and services is projected to hit $90 billion by 2025.
Generative AI, a form of AI that can create content, is experiencing explosive growth, with a projected 42% annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next ten years.
Forbes received 1,900 submissions for their annual AI 50 list this year, which is double the amount of last year, showcasing the surge in AI startups.
The top 5 biggest AI companies are tech giants like Microsoft, Google (Alphabet), NVIDIA, Meta, and Tesla.
AI in the Real World: Usage Statistics
We’ve explored the impressive growth of the AI market, but how does this translate in the real world? Let’s dive into some AI usage statistics to see the impact of AI.
6. 52% of users report using generative AI more now than when they first started.
This data is from a Salesforce study of 8,000 respondents in the US, UK, Australia, and India. It doesn’t represent the entire population, but it does show how common the use of AI has become.
If you run a software business, then consider incorporating generative AI features into your offerings. This can make your product more user-friendly and appealing to customers.
For instance, SeedProd, a WordPress page builder, has an AI assistant to help users create engaging copy and generate images.
7. AI chatbots and AI writers are the most popular types of AI tools.
This isn’t surprising, considering the buzz around AI applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. That said, some users are not fans of its usage cap and slow performance when a lot of people are using the tool at the same time.
Other notable players in this space include Gemini (formerly Bard) and Writesonic. They are just as good for creating content for social media or WordPress blog posts.
Not far behind text generation are image generators like Midjourney, video generators, music generators, and voice generators.
8. 62% of adult Americans use voice assistants.
These include tools like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri.
The reason for this popularity? Convenience. 86% of smart speaker owners agree their devices make life easier by allowing them to complete tasks with just their voice.
But these tools go beyond that. For people with hearing disabilities, voice assistants can be a powerful tool for accessibility.
If you want to optimize your site for users with hearing disabilities, then you can add a voice search capability. For more information, check out our guide on how to add voice search in WordPress.
More Real-World AI Adoption Statistics
65% of users of AI content generation apps are Gen Z or Millennials.
72% of people using generative AI tools are employed.
The top 50 AI tools globally have an average of 2 billion visits each month.
Around 80% of traffic to the top 50 AI tools comes from people directly entering the website address.
The average visit to an AI tool lasts roughly 12 and a half minutes.
Only 11.4% of the traffic to the top 50 AI tools comes from organic searches.
With 5.5 billion users, the US has the highest number of people accessing AI tools worldwide (about 23% of all global traffic to AI platforms).
ChatGPT’s deep learning algorithms and natural language processing technologies (NLP) are estimated to cost around $700,000 per day to run.
AI-powered Facebook post recommendations have driven a 7% increase in overall time spent on the social media network.
AI in Business: Use Cases and Statistics
Now that we’ve seen the surge in AI usage overall, let’s see how businesses are capitalizing on this technology.
9. 54% of companies now use AI in at least one function.
A recent McKinsey study found that 913 out of 1,684 companies across various regions, industries, and sizes now actively use AI.
The most common applications are marketing and sales, product development, and customer service. These areas directly impact your bottom line and revenue, so it’s no wonder businesses are embracing AI’s potential.
The takeaway for you? Don’t get left behind. As AI adoption continues to rise, your competitors may be using these tools to gain a significant edge.
10. Chatbots can save businesses up to $20 million globally.
Customer service can be a time-consuming task, and hiring a team of support agents can be expensive. That’s why many businesses are turning to AI chatbots to improve their customer experience.
Chatbots offer a cost-effective solution to providing 24/7 customer support. They can answer frequently asked questions, streamline simple tasks, and even direct customers to the appropriate resources.
11. On average, 42% of businesses report cost reductions of up to 20% with AI.
That’s a significant saving, but the benefits don’t stop there. 52% of businesses using AI also experience a revenue increase of up to 10%.
Manufacturing, service operations, and marketing and sales are seeing the most benefits. With such promising results, it’s no surprise that AI investments are expected to rise.
12. 40% of companies using AI expect to reskill over 20% of their workforce.
There’s been a lot of fear surrounding AI causing job losses due to automation. However, businesses are actually more likely to give AI training to their current employees to get them up to speed.
If you’re a freelancer, then it’s a good idea to learn the latest AI skills. Get familiar with the new technologies and AI systems that people usually use in your field so that you look more attractive to employers.
More AI in Business Statistics
Small businesses can potentially save up to $35,000 per year by using AI.
Over 40% of small businesses have used AI to automate tasks, allowing them and their employees to spend more time on more important activities.
According to a Forbes Advisor survey, the most popular business use cases of AI are customer service (56%), cybersecurity (51%), and virtual assistants (47%).
Business owners expect AI tools like ChatGPT to increase website traffic (57%), help them with decision-making(48%), and improve their credibility(47%).
82% of business leaders think using ChatGPT to draft messages to colleagues is acceptable.
42% of businesses think the biggest challenge of adopting AI is training employees to use it.
AI in Marketing: Key Statistics That Prove Its Success
One area where AI has proven successful is marketing. Let’s look at some popular ways and stats about how marketers are using AI.
13. On average, AI can save marketers around 2.5 hours per day.
According to HubSpot, that translates to roughly 25-26 additional workdays per year. This frees up valuable time for marketers to focus on the more strategic aspects of their jobs, like planning, creative endeavors, and team management.
The good news is that you don’t need to be an AI expert to get started. Our guide on using AI to boost your marketing is a great starting point.
14. 53% of marketers use AI to generate content and make minor edits before publishing.
AI writing assistants are getting so good that many marketers only need to make minor edits before hitting publish.
But here’s the thing: AI is powerful, but it’s not a replacement for human expertise. While AI can churn out content quickly, it’s important to remember that it’s not perfect. AI-generated content can sometimes be inaccurate or reflect hidden biases in the data it uses.
Think of it this way. AI can help you write a blog post on the best coffee-making methods, but it can’t replace the knowledge and experience of a barista. Search engines value high-quality, informative content, and that often requires a human touch.
15. 25% of marketers use AI to generate product descriptions.
Writing product descriptions might seem straightforward, but it can be tricky. You need to highlight the features that will convince customers to buy, and it’s easy to get stuck in a rut using the same phrases over and over.
That’s where AI can be a helpful assistant. It can’t write perfect descriptions on its own, but it can be a great brainstorming buddy. AI can suggest ideas to get you started and even recommend persuasive phrases that resonate with your target audience.
Additionally, you can use AI to generate powerful headlines for your product landing pages. Check out our guide on how to use AI to write headlines for step-by-step instructions.
16. A clothing company increased conversions by 50% with AI-powered personalization.
Norrøna, a Scandinavian clothing brand, built a comprehensive, personalized recommendation platform using AI by analyzing customer data and using machine learning.
The results were impressive: a 187% increase in click-through rate and a 50% conversion boost, not to mention significant time saved on manual tasks.
Personalization doesn’t have to be complex. The secret lies in understanding your customers. By tracking customers’ journeys through your eCommerce website, you can gain valuable insights into their browsing behavior and preferences.
Once you understand your customers’ needs, you can suggest complementary products or collections through upsells and order bumps.
For example, if someone browses a ski jacket in your online store, then recommending matching ski pants is a natural cross-selling opportunity.
17. 44% of marketers think that using AI will have a positive impact on SEO, while 5% think the opposite.
On the other hand, the majority (55%) think AI will not significantly affect their SEO strategy.
Ultimately, whether AI benefits your SEO efforts comes down to how you use it. For example, AI can suggest ways to improve your content or even mimic the way your target audience searches to help you target the right keywords.
However, it’s important to remember that AI is still under development. Double-checking information generated by AI, especially for research purposes, is very important.
AI is making waves in the world of web development with tools that can improve code, generate creative content, and even offer data-driven suggestions on how to design your WordPress website.
Let’s dive into the statistics to see how AI is impacting web development.
18. 93%of web designers use AI to design a website.
So, how are designers using this powerful tool? The HubSpot survey reveals some interesting trends.
Over half (58%) are using AI to generate images and other visual assets, saving them time in creating initial concepts. Surprisingly, 50% are using AI to create entire web page designs, although human expertise is still crucial for the final touches.
Even user experience (UX) is getting an AI boost, with 20% of designers using AI to identify potential usability issues and 40% to track user engagement.
19. 9 out of 10 digital agencies have saved up to $10,000 by using AI.
According to a survey by Duda, a website builder, AI is mostly used to update existing pages (59%), do content creation (55%), generate visuals for client websites (53%), optimize websites for search engines (40%), and even build entire websites (25%).
As the technology gets better, expect to see the number of agencies creating websites from scratch with AI get even higher.
If you run a digital agency, then AI should already be in your toolkit by now. AI lets you work faster, save money, and ultimately deliver even better results for your clients.
20. The AI website builder market is growing 32.9% per year.
AI website builders are tools that let you create websites from scratch using AI. They’re easy to use for beginners and can save you tons of time.
Plus, AI website builders are often more affordable than hiring a web developer, making them ideal for small businesses.
SeedProd is a great example of a page builder with AI features. It can generate content and images in seconds and translate your website into multiple languages.
Besides that, Hostinger also has an AI-powered website builder you can check out.
21. Over 50% of users cannot spot AI-designed websites from human-made ones.
In a Sortlist study, respondents had to guess which websites were made by AI and which ones were built by humans. The AI-generated versions were so good that they fooled many participants.
If you’re considering using an AI builder, you don’t have to worry about your website looking unprofessional. Platforms like SeedProd offer a wide range of stylish, professional-looking templates that can help you create a website that impresses your target audience.
More AI Web Development Statistics
49% of web designers use AI to try out new ways to design their websites.
55% of web designers say they are encouraged to use AI by their clients or companies, and they have AI policies in place.
Despite speeding up their work, 38% of web designers are slightly concerned about AI’s impact on their job security.
The most popular AI tools among agencies are ChatGPT (53%) and Dall-E (47%).
Most agencies measure AI’s success by how much it has saved them money (32%) and made business operations more efficient (26%).
Impact of AI: Expectations and Concerns
AI offers exciting possibilities, but it also raises some important considerations. Let’s look at the concerns and expectations surrounding the impact of AI.
22. Generative AI can contribute up to $4.4 trillion to the global economy.
That’s more than enough to buy every single person on Earth a brand-new smartphone.
Of course, we’re already seeing the benefits in real time, with AI-powered customer service tools and AI assistants that can generate entire code snippets for you based on your instructions. Expect the current generation of AI tools to become even smarter, faster, and more helpful.
23. Two-thirds of jobs could be partially automated by AI.
In other words, AI won’t completely cause job shortages, but it will help you do your job faster and more efficiently.
Additionally, one study by economist David Autor found that new technologies have always changed the job market. Apparently, 60% of today’s occupations didn’t even exist in the previous century.
24. AI advancements will create 69 million new jobs in the coming years.
Yes, AI can handle repetitive tasks, but it’s not good at creativity, problem-solving, or emotional intelligence.
Take customer service, for example. AI chatbots can answer simple questions, but when it comes to complex issues or personalized service, human customer service reps are still irreplaceable.
That’s why business phone support services remain a popular support channel. This allows consumers to get direct assistance for complex issues that chatbots simply can’t provide.
25. 80% of users worry that AI is being used for cybersecurity attacks.
As AI is a relatively new technology, people are concerned about it being used for malicious purposes, such as identity theft and hacking.
Considering AI’s power, this concern is valid. That’s why governments are considering creating global regulations for AI development and use.
26. 22% of business leaders are concerned about data privacy when using generative AI.
One of the biggest drawbacks of using generative AI is that the prompts and data you provide might be used to train the AI model itself.
There’s a potential risk of this data being leaked or exposed, which could be a significant concern for businesses, especially those dealing with sensitive information.
For this reason, it’s important to be mindful of the data you use with generative AI tools. For highly sensitive information, it’s best to stick with tried-and-tested methods. However, for tasks that generate public-facing content, generative AI can be a valuable tool.
Are you looking for a way to collect email addresses from your visitors?
Adding a squeeze page is an easy way to narrow down your users’ attention and build an email list. It helps convert your audience by offering incentives in exchange for their email address.
In this article, we will show you how to create a squeeze page in WordPress.
What Is a Squeeze Page?
A squeeze page (also known as a lead page) is a type of landing page that’s designed to collect or squeeze your visitor’s email address and name. In return, you can offer a valuable resource, ebook, exclusive learning material, or free products.
Unlike a standard landing page, where you could have multiple goals, a squeeze page’s purpose is to get users to give up their email addresses.
For example, here’s a squeeze page by a Digital Marketer that encourages users to sign up for their Insider Newsletter.
It has a clear call to action button, and the page includes a clear copy of what users will get in return. Plus, the headline is eye-catching, and there are images on the page that help capture users’ attention.
Creating a squeeze page is a proven way of building an email list, which you can use to promote your products or services in the future. Collecting emails also lets you start a newsletter and inform subscribers of new products, deals, and campaigns.
That said, let’s see how to create a squeeze page in WordPress.
Creating a Squeeze Page in WordPress
The easiest way of setting up a squeeze page in WordPress is by using SeedProd. It is the best and easiest WordPress website and landing page builder.
To get started, you can choose from different high-converting templates and customize the page using the drag-and-drop builder. The plugin also integrates with popular email marketing tools.
Aside from a squeeze page, SeedProd lets you create a coming soon page, 404 error page, custom login page, and more. Its theme builder also allows you to create a custom theme without editing code.
Please note that we’ll use SeedProd Pro for this tutorial because it includes more templates and customization options. However, there is also a SeedProd Lite version you can use for free.
Setting Up SeedProd in WordPress
First, you’ll need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you will see a welcome page in your WordPress dashboard. On this page, you can enter the license key and click the ‘Verify key’ button. If you’re unsure where the key is, then you can easily find it in the SeedProd account area.
After that, you’ll need to go to SeedProd Landing Pages from the admin panel.
From here, simply click the ‘+ Add New Landing Page’ button.
Next, SeedProd will offer different templates to choose from.
You can click the ‘Lead Squeeze’ filter at the top to view squeeze page templates.
To choose a template, simply hover it and click the orange tick button.
Next, a popup window will open where you can enter a name and URL for your squeeze page. Once that’s done, click the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button.
After that, you’ll see the SeedProd drag-and-drop landing page builder.
Customizing Your Squeeze Page Using SeedProd
In the page builder, you can edit different elements on the template. For instance, there are different blocks to choose from.
You can add standard blocks like headlines, text, lists, buttons, and more. Or select advanced blocks such as social sharing, countdown, video popup, testimonials, and more.
SeedProd also lets you customize each element or block further. For example, selecting the headline block will let you edit the text and change its font, color, and style.
With SeedProd, you can also use the power of artificial intelligence to automatically create images and text for your page. However, do note that the AI Text and Image Generation tool is a paid addon.
If you switch to the ‘Sections’ tab, then you’ll find entire sections to add to your squeeze page. For example, you can add custom headers, footers, call to action buttons, and more to your page.
Connecting Email Marketing Tool with SeedProd
After you’ve customized the squeeze page, you’ll need to connect an email marketing tool with SeedProd.
To do that, switch to the ‘Connect’ tab, and you’ll see different services. For instance, SeedProd easily integrates with ActiveCampaign, AWeber, Drip, Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and more.
Simply follow the onscreen instructions to connect your desired email marketing service with SeedProd.
Finalize Your Squeeze Page Settings
Next, you’ll need to head to the ‘Page Settings’ tab in SeedProd.
Here, you can change different settings and publish your page. For instance, SeedProd lets you change the page title, edit the meta description, add Google Analytics, and more.
Once you’ve made the changes, it’s time to make your squeeze page live. Simply change the ‘Page Status’ from Draft to Publish.
You can now click the ‘Save’ button at the top and exit the landing page builder.
From here, simply visit the squeeze page URL and see it in action.
Bonus: Tips to Boost Conversions on Your Squeeze Page
Now that you know how to create a squeeze page on a WordPress site, you can take it to the next level by following these tips for boosting conversions.
1. Converting Exiting Visitors into Subscribers
Did you know that 70% of visitors will abandon your website and never return? What if you could change that and boost conversions on your squeeze page?
With the help of OptinMonster, you can show personalized messages to users at precise times and convert them into subscribers.
It is the best conversion optimization and lead generation software in the market that offers an Exit-Intent technology. OptinMonster will automatically detect users’ behavior and show a popup message just as a user is about to leave your squeeze page.
You can add a click-to-subscribe button on your squeeze page and encourage users to sign up for push notifications.
Push notifications are custom messages with links that you can send to your subscribers. They are great for bringing people back to your site, prompting your content, and boosting sales.
Over our years of helping small websites and companies grow and compete with the big guys, we’ve learned that the right business tools can make a huge difference in their success.
Whether you are looking for something to help you with email marketing, customer support, customer relationship management, or something else, there are plenty of plugins and software options that can fit the bill.
That’s why we’ve done the research and put together a huge list of the best business tools for small businesses. We’ve broken down everything into different categories so that you can find the best options for your needs.
Quick Pick: The Best Business Tools for Small Business
Here’s how we reviewed different small business tools for this guide:
Real-World Experience: At WPBeginner, we actively run small businesses of our own. We’re involved in starting new projects and managing existing websites, so we’ve used and tested these tools extensively ourselves. We ensure that they meet our high standards of reliability and ease of use.
Comprehensive Research: We perform our own dedicated research to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in each category. We regularly update our recommendations accordingly, holding each tool to a high standard.
User Feedback: We’ve combed through various third-party sites and even performed polls for users to see how they enjoy using these tools.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
At WPBeginner, we’re a passionate team with over 16 years of hands-on expertise in WordPress, design, and online marketing. Our mission is simple: deliver top-notch content and valuable resources to our audience. We achieve this by thoroughly evaluating and reviewing the plugins and software we actually use.
Running a business is no small feat. Luckily, there’s a wealth of online tools available to streamline your workflow and ease your burden. Choosing the right ones can feel overwhelming, though.
At WPBeginner, we’ve been testing and refining our top picks for years, keeping pace with the ever-evolving market. We’ve narrowed down our favorites to a curated list across various categories.
However, it can be a chore to figure out which is the right tool for your business.
Here are just a few reasons to add some of these small business tools to your repertoire.
Increased Productivity: The right tools streamline business processes, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance overall efficiency. This leads to increased productivity among your team members, allowing them to focus on more strategic and value-added activities.
Improved Collaboration: Many small business tools come with collaboration features that facilitate communication and teamwork. This is especially important in modern work environments where remote or dispersed teams are common. Collaboration tools enhance communication, file sharing, and task management.
Enhanced Customer Experience: Tools such as a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system help businesses manage customer interactions, track leads, and provide personalized services.
Data-Driven Decision Making: Software with analytics and reporting capabilities provides valuable insights into business performance and customer journey. With accurate data at your fingertips, you can make informed decisions, identify trends, and adjust strategies to align with your business goals.
Time and Cost Savings: Automation tools can significantly reduce the time spent on manual tasks, saving both time and money. You may have limited resources, so software that automates activities allows you to allocate resources more efficiently.
That said, it’s time to cover the best business tools for small businesses. Feel free to use the links below to jump to any section you need a solution for:
Every business needs to build an email list. Sure, you could keep in touch with your customers via social media, but you don’t own the audience there.
An email list is something you own and can continually contact customers or leads anytime.
That’s why you need an email marketing service. These services allow you to send bulk automated emails to your subscribers. Not only that, you can segment users into groups, track their performance, and create marketing workflows.
Constant Contact is the most beginner-friendly and fastest-growing email marketing service out there. It boasts an impressive 97% deliverability rate and offers a handful of time-saving automation that every small business could use.
Out of the many email service providers we’ve tried, we really like the user interface. From the moment you make your account, Constant Contact guides you through their simple process. You can create email newsletters, social media posts, landing pages, and events in minutes.
One of Constant Contact’s most unique aspects is its ability to segment the audience based on engagement level. Sure, it’s got all the standard segmentations, such as dividing contacts by location, membership, sales, email activity, and more.
That said, Constant Contact lets you segment your audience into four categories: most engaged, somewhat engaged, least engaged, and everyone else. For example, your most engaged customers could be your most loyal subscribers, to whom you can send upsell or cross-sell promotions.
Pricing: Plans start at $12 per month. If you need more storage, users, and advanced features, there are also higher-tiered plans.
Pros:
Very affordable pricing
It offers powerful integrations such as Facebook ads and eCommerce platforms.
Constant Contact offers 200+ templates to fit your needs.
Cons:
No advanced dynamic tags.
Why We Recommend Using Constant Contact: You can’t go wrong with Constant Contact as it’s good at just about everything. We especially like that they offer really outstanding customer support via live chat, email, phone calls, and community support, along with a large library of helpful resources. That way, you’ll always get your questions answered.
Brevo, formerly known as Sendinblue, is an email and SMS marketing software perfect for small businesses.
One of the best things about Brevo is that you receive unlimited email lists and contacts no matter which plan you choose. With contact segmentation, you can easily target smaller groups and engage them with relevant content.
Their advanced plans go well beyond just email marketing. They offer a sales CRM, live chat, landing page builder, and Facebook Ads integration. That means that for the price you are paying, you’re getting a lot more value than most email marketing services can offer.
Brevo is also known for high deliverability, guaranteeing up to 97%. That’s because they support many setup options, including email API, SMTP relay, webhook, and plugin. This means you can send bulk emails and have more control over your batch sends.
Pricing: Brevo is free to get started. However, their Starter plan begins at $25 per month and has unlimited contacts.
Pros:
You will receive access to an unlimited number of contacts on any plan.
A built-in CRM app is included.
You can send advanced automation campaigns based on list-based behaviors.
Cons:
You have to pay for a higher-tiered plan to get access to more advanced reporting features.
Why We Recommend Using Brevo: We like Brevo as an all-in-one marketing automation software that can do a little bit of everything. For instance, you can send timely SMS messages to promote your products and personalize them accordingly.
Drip is the best email marketing service for advanced users, especially for businesses looking to deliver hyper-personalized campaigns to their audience.
One of Drip’s standout features is its ability to create seamless workflow automation. The visual workflow builder makes it easy to visualize and customize user journeys.
When building your workflows, there are intuitive trigger options based on page visitors, tags, and other on-site behaviors that start the flow. Then, choose from dozens of actions to build the desired automation sequence.
If you’re running an online store, Drip offers integrations for WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify. That allows you to send strategically segmented campaigns to visitors and customers. For example, there are templates for just about everything, including cart abandonment emails and workflows.
Pricing: Pricing starts at $39 per month for up to 2,500 people on your email list. The price increases the more subscribers you have. All plans come with a 14-day free trial.
Pros:
Drip has plenty of merge tags that dynamically replace content within an email based on the info you’ve collected in your contact or lead forms.
You can A/B split test automation workflows to see which one performs better and ultimately provides the best conversion rates.
It offers an eCommerce revenue attribution feature, so you know exactly how much revenue is generated from your email marketing campaigns.
Cons:
Some learning curve is involved. For example, there are countless Liquid tags to learn about, which can be a lot of information if you’re used to using simpler email marketing services.
Why We Recommend Using Drip: At WPBeginner, we switched from MailChimp to Drip largely because of its more advanced segmentation and personalization features. That allows us to send more relevant and targeted campaigns to our readers.
While adding your mobile number to your WordPress site might seem convenient, it’s unprofessional and exposes your personal privacy.
That’s why you want to get a virtual business phone number and use a dedicated business phone service. This is a secure and professional solution. It allows you to:
Make calls over the internet: Eliminate expensive phone bills.
Use call forwarding, routing, and recording: Enhance team collaboration and capture valuable customer interactions.
Track call metrics: Gain insights into wait times, hold times, and call duration to optimize your customer service strategy.
In essence, a business phone service is essential for any business that wants to improve customer service and effectively manage inbound and outbound calls.
Nextiva is the best business phone service, and it makes it easy to manage communication between you and your customers.
The phone service is highly efficient and reliable, and you get helpful features beyond voice calling. There are plenty of features your call team can take advantage of, such as advanced call routing, voicemail to email and text, unlimited free domestic calling, text messages, and more.
Nextiva offers a treasure trove of data to help support your decision-making. You get critical information such as talk time, net promote score, first-time resolution rate, etc. Call center and sales team managers can easily interpret the data and come up with solutions to better improve performance.
If you’re using a traditional landline office phone system, Nextiva makes it easy to transition to a VoIP system. That means you can run your calls over the internet rather than complex landlines. They work with a variety of VoIP phones, headsets, and other call devices.
Pricing: Nextiva pricing starts at $14.95 per month per user for unlimited voice calling.
Pros:
Nextiva provides 99.99% uptime for excellent reliability.
They offer 24/7 customer support, so you always get the help you need.
It’s an all-in-one phone system with a wide range of features to handle both outbound, inbound, and internal team communication.
Cons:
Somewhat pricy, but the value is definitely there for what you pay for.
Why We Recommend Using Nextiva: Nextiva gives you everything you need to handle communication in your business. They offer a comprehensive set of VoIP service features that help you take your customer service to the next level. That way, your agents can work efficiently, and your customers can get their issues resolved quickly.
WPBeginner readers also get a special Nextiva Coupon to unlock an additional 21% off your purchase.
RingCentral is an affordable alternative to RingCentral that offers high-quality business phone services. Despite its cost-effective price, it doesn’t skimp out on quality.
With the entry plan, you get unlimited calls and texts, team messaging, file sharing, and other basic features you need. For smaller teams of 20 people or less, the $20 per user per month price point is a great deal.
We like the call routing capabilities, which allow you to direct callers to various departments and extensions. You can create and manage custom answering rules to ensure you get callers to the right people. You can even route the most important calls directly to your mobile device.
Pricing: Plans start at $20 per user per month, billed annually. Pricing varies depending on number of users and features available.
Pros:
RingCentral comes with video meetings, team messaging, and screen sharing.
It integrates with useful tools like Google Workspace and Microsoft, so you can easily connect data across platforms.
You can enjoy a user-friendly interface that allows you to easily understand where and how to use all of its features.
Cons:
You need to pay for the higher-priced tiers to get access to Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu options.
Why We Recommend Using RingCentral: RingCentral is a good beginner-friendly option for small businesses just getting started with phone services. It lacks a few advanced capabilities that Nextiva has but gives you all the essential features needed for any business phone service.
The good news is that WPBeginner users get 33% off when they use our special RingCentral coupon code.
Ooma is one of the top VoIP providers for small businesses. It offers virtual numbers, collaboration tools, call forwarding, voice mail, and more. It’s great for small businesses without IT teams because it provides everything you need in an easy-to-use way.
Ooma features a virtual receptionist feature, which is great for directing calls for your small business. You can easily set up a custom greeting, provide a menu of options that guides callers to the right departments, and send them to various extensions. It also helps to reduce the call load and average wait times, which your customers will appreciate.
Every Ooma plan has a mobile app so that your agents can easily answer or make calls while on the go. You can do all the important tasks, such as checking your voicemail, reviewing stats, and more.
That said, when comparing Nextiva vs. RingCentral and Ooma, this service isn’t ideal for call centers since it doesn’t support desk and conference phones.
Pricing: Plans begin at $19.95 per month per user. No contract is necessary, so you won’t be tied to a year-long commitment.
Pros:
Ooma offers unlimited domestic calling in the US, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada.
Pricing is relatively affordable.
Easy to use mobile app.
Cons:
Missing a few advanced features unless you upgrade to the higher plans.
Why We Recommend Using Ooma: We like Ooma because it’s ready to use out-of-the-box. It requires zero technical installation, and just about everything is already configured when installed. They use an auto-configuration technology that automatically detects all the settings needed for your system to work.
Live chat software is a tool that helps connect customers to an actual human support representative so that you can resolve their issues in real time. That way, your customers can get the answers they’re looking for quickly.
They’ll spend less time sifting through your knowledge base and waiting to find a solution.
This goes hand-in-hand with your business phone services. By offering live chats on your website, you provide a more omnichannel customer experience, reducing your call load and average handling time.
Groove is a popular help desk software used by big brands like HubSpot, AppSumo, AT&T, and CloudApp.
It offers all the essential features a small business needs to deliver fast and responsive customer service. These include a knowledge base builder, shared inbox, collaboration and reporting tools, and live chat support.
Using Groove, we quickly realized how accessible the software feels. Think of it like a simple inbox that manages all customer communication in one place. Each conversation can be assigned to specific team members, so it’s clear who’s responsible for managing each conversion. Even better, you can label and assign agents to conversations based on certain conditions, such as department or type of inquiry.
Sticking to the theme of simplicity, Groove makes reporting as easy to understand as possible. Rather than giving you a ton of analytics that may confuse small businesses, they stick to the most important options.
For example, some of the metrics include response time, agent performance, busiest times, customer feedback, number of customers helped, and number of resolutions.
Pricing: Starts at $16 per user per month, billed annually. There is also a free trial available.
Pros:
Groove integrations with the most popular business tools like Shopify, Slack, and Mailchimp.
The knowledge base builder is customizable, and there are time-saving AI writing tools to help you quickly create support articles.
Live chat lets you deliver fast service to customers
Cons:
Groove isn’t the most customizable in terms of layouts and themes.
Why We Recommend Using Groove: Groove ranks as our top choice based on its value and ease of use. The entire system is easy to adopt, so you can better manage your support reps without having to spend a lot of time training them on how to use the software.
Heroic Inbox is the best WordPress-powered help desk and customer support market in the market. It allows you to easily manage customer emails and support tickets right within your WordPress site.
This can streamline workflow by keeping all support-related tasks in one place so you can respond to customer inquiries faster.
After testing the inbox, we found that it comes with all the features you’ll need to manage support emails. For instance, you can create canned responses, add notes to conversations, track your ticket history, and assign messages to team members.
Best of all, it pulls multiple inboxes into one place. Chances are, you may have various inboxes to respond to, such as sales, support, customer service, and partnerships. This allows you to ensure that an important message is never missed.
If you want to add knowledge base capabilities, then you’ll simply need to download Heroic KB, which gives you the ability to add a searchable knowledge base to your website.
Pricing: Starts at $199.50 per year.
Pros:
Manages customer service inquiries directly in WordPress.
You can connect multiple inboxes in one place.
It offers the ability to add notes and assign tickets to users.
Cons:
It doesn’t have live chat capabilities.
Why We Recommend Using Heroic Inbox: Juggling a lot of software can be a problem for a lot of small businesses. With Heroic Inbox, you can manage all inquiries in your WordPress dashboard. Since it lives within the WordPress ecosystem, it also seamlessly connects with other plugins, such as WooCommerce.
LiveChat is an all-in-one customer service software that works seamlessly for WordPress website owners. With over 35,000+ businesses that trust LiveChat, it’s a very popular tool for building live chatbots.
You can create a chatbot that asks the user questions before they’re automatically transferred to the right agent. During the chat, the agent is able to share files back and forth with the customer, send calendar links, or complete a purchase. On top of that, you can set up canned frequently asked questions type of responses to save time.
Beyond that, you can add pre-chat survey forms before and after each live chat session. That way, you’re able to evaluate your sales reps and customer support agents and how they’re performing.
It even integrates with popular tools like HubSpot, Zendesk, and Google Analytics, so you can better understand where your customers are coming from and who they are.
Pricing: LiveChat starts at $20 per person, billed annually, with higher-priced plans that track more users and better features. There’s also a free plugin available.
Pros:
Plenty of integrations to seamlessly connect data across platforms.
You can initiate a chat with a visitor as they are browsing on your site.
There are lots of customization options to help users find a solution.
Cons:
Price can quickly add up for large teams.
Why We Recommend Using LiveChat: LiveChat is an AI-powered help desk software that has a lot of advanced tools to help you sell more. For example, their custom forms, product cards, and AI automation can help turn inquiries into actual sales.
HubSpot Chat is an all-in-one marketing platform that also offers a chatbot builder and live chat feature.
You’re able to customize the live chat design to help route leads and customers to the right person on your team. The live chat widget can be edited to match the look and feel of your brand. You can even send targeted welcome messages on your live chat widget based on segments of your audience or different web pages.
The routing feature works during a chat, where your services team passes a lead to a sales rep. In addition, it provides useful automation features so you can deliver canned responses for faster response times.
Since HubSpot is an all-in-one tool, all chats are automatically stored in the CRM. That means your team will have a clear view of each customer interaction.
Pricing: It’s free to get started. But if you want the suite of marketing tools or CRM, you’ll need to buy the entire package. Prices vary based on what suite you choose.
Pros:
HubSpot Chat is free to use.
You can connect the tool to Slack so your team gets immediate notifications when a visitor requests to speak with your support team.
You’re able to route leads to anyone on your team.
Cons:
It’s missing advanced features such as post-chat survey forms.
Why We Recommend Using HubSpot Chat: We like HubSpot Chat because it offers all the essential features of live chat software and is absolutely free to use. That said, if you want more advanced automation or more sales-related features like product recommendations, then you may want to consider LiveChat or ChatBot instead.
ChatBot is the best helpdesk software for creating AI-generated answers to customer questions.
Where ChatBot stands out is its ability to build visual workflows that help customers get their questions answered and guide them to a sale. It comes with pre-built templates so that you can use them out of the box. For example, after a customer asks a question about a specific product category, you can immediately offer a limited-time discount to incentivize visitors to take action.
If site visitors want to chat with a real person, you can easily forward them to a live customer support representative. That said, the customization options are quite limited compared to LiveChat.
But, when it comes to AI automation, ChatBot can make your life easier. For example, depending on how users interact with your site and chatbot, you can add them to a segmentation and then import them to a CRM or email marketing service. This is great for nurturing leads and sending follow-up emails.
Pricing: Chatbot starts at $52 per month, billed annually or $65 month-to-month. However, there is a 14-day free trial, with no credit card required.
Pros:
ChatBot saves time with its powerful and expansive automation features.
It allows you to segment lists and trigger actions based on visitor behavior.
It integrates with WooCommerce and WordPress.
Cons:
ChatBot lacks high-level live chat features.
Why We Recommend Using ChatBot: If you want to automate your helpdesk and chat support, ChatBot is the way to go. It has many templates that help guide users into a sale.
Managing your team members is arguably one of the most important functions of a business. No matter what type of business you run, you’ll need to pay your employees and manage their hours.
With HR payroll software, you can automatically send out paychecks through bank direct deposit, manage PTO and bonuses, streamline employee onboarding, withhold a percentage for taxes, and more.
When your HR and payroll are organized, employees know what to expect, and you don’t have to worry about running into tax compliance issues.
Best of all, HR software streamlines all the tedious admin tasks that you would otherwise have to do by yourself.
Gusto is the best payroll and HR software that helps you automate both basic and advanced payroll tasks for employees and contractors. With its beginner-friendly approach to payroll management, it’s definitely a tool to have in your corner to ensure everything runs smoothly.
Even if you’re a small business without a full accounting team, Gusto makes it easy to handle payroll. It automatically runs payroll for you as many times a month as you need, and taxes are filed automatically. In addition, it automatically syncs health insurance, workers’ compensation, time tracking, 401K, PTO, and more.
Besides payroll, Gusto makes hiring and onboarding a breeze. There are features like custom offer letters, onboarding checklists, document signing, and even software account creation.
Pricing: Gusto starts at $40 per month, plus $6 per month per additional user you add.
Pros:
Relatively affordable to use.
Very beginner-friendly for both business owners and employees.
Gusto is a self-service tool for employees where they can hop online to check their pay stubs and important documents and request time off without the need for HR to intervene.
Cons:
Gusto is only available in the United States.
Why We Recommend Using Gusto: Gusto is an all-encompassing tool for payroll and HR tasks. You don’t have to worry about the nitty-gritty tasks like filing payroll and tracking all the taxes withheld. Plus, its higher plans offer next-day deposits, so employees get paid faster.
BambooHR is an excellent HR software and payroll solution for small businesses. The program is better suited for human resource tasks like compensation, hiring, onboarding, and company culture.
Inside, you get an application tracking system (ATS) that helps you speed up the hiring process and weed out potential applicants who don’t meet the job role requirements. Its automated alert features ensure you stay on schedule and keep candidates in the loop during the hiring process.
Once you’ve made your decision, you can use one of the many offer letter templates that come with auto-fill features so the new hire can sign and accept everything digitally.
That said, Bamboo HR also does all of the essential payroll tasks. It automates tax filing, so you don’t have to do it manually. As a result, you’ll avoid tax penalties and ensure you accurately report your employee earnings and taxes withheld.
Pricing: BambooHR offers free pricing quotes. To receive customized pricing, you will need to complete their contact form.
Pros:
BambooHR offers self-service tools so employees can access information such as tax forms and pay stubs online.
It automates the payroll process to avoid mistakes.
The ATS makes hiring much easier and faster.
Cons:
BambooHR is not as contractor-friendly as Gusto since it doesn’t have many features that cater to freelancers.
Why We Recommend Using BambooHR: BambooHR is a great choice if you have a remote team based internationally (outside of the U.S.). It makes it easy to manage your hiring and payroll across multiple countries.
QuickBooks is a payroll software designed to make life easier for small business owners. It’s primarily used for accounting tasks, allowing you to calculate all your balance sheets and perform payroll.
One key area where QuickBooks shines is that it offers same-day or next-day direct deposit processing, depending on the plan you choose. You also get useful features such as automated tax calculations and payroll, business receipt capture, paycheck creation, and more.
There’s a dedicated mobile app, so employees can easily access their PTO and health information and even look into their paystubs on the go. For administrators, you can manage payroll from anywhere, ensuring your team never misses payday.
Pricing: Price starts at $37.50 per month, plus an additional $6 per additional employee per month.
Pros:
Quickbooks offers a 30-day free trial.
For Elite users, QuickBooks Payroll provides a tax penalty protection of up to $25,000 per year.
QuickBooks Payroll integrates with QuickBooks Online, meaning you get a payroll and accounting system in one.
Cons:
There are limited third-party integrations.
Why We Recommend Using QuickBooks: If you’re focused on getting your accounting and payroll right, then QuickBooks is the way to go. With the tax penalty protection, you’re getting great coverage. That means if you make an error, they’ll not only help you to fix the issue but also cover any penalty and interest fines along with it.
Juggling customer data across scattered Excel sheets can be chaos. You may deal with missed follow-ups, forgotten birthdays, unsent emails, mixed signals, and frustrated teams and customers.
CRM apps eliminate this nightmare. They consolidate all customer data into a single, accessible platform. This empowers your sales, marketing, and customer support teams to:
Effortlessly access information: No more scrambling for details.
Boost efficiency: Automate tasks and free up time for strategic work.
Sales reps can prioritize high-value opportunities and close deals faster. Plus, marketers can leverage customer insights to craft impactful campaigns. Customer support gains a complete view of each interaction, providing exceptional service every time.
HubSpot CRM is the most popular CRM software on the market. It is cost-effective and offers a wide range of features, making it a great choice for most small businesses. You can get started with the free plan, which already gives you access to unlimited users and contacts.
Where HubSpot excels is its all-in-one capabilities. Since it combines sales, marketing, customer service, CMS, and operation hubs, you can easily connect data between departments. For example, you can easily pass contacts from your marketing team to the sales department without having to sync information to another system.
HubSpot is also really easy to navigate. It provides a full picture of customer interactions and comes with customizable reporting dashboards so that you can see how your team is performing. By looking at the opportunities and deal stages, you can quickly see what’s currently in the pipeline and focus on high-leverage prospects who are ready to buy.
Pricing: Hubspot CRM is free to get started. If you want the entire marketing suite, it’s $800 per month for 3 seats, billed annually, and an extra $45 per month per additional user. HubSpot Sales suite costs $90 per month per seat.
Pros:
HubSpot has an easy-to-use interface.
There are tons of features and even apps that you can download to make your experience better.
Visual dashboards and reporting make it very easy to track team performance and spot opportunities for growth.
Cons:
While HubSpot has a very generous free plan, its pricing gets steep quickly if you wish to upgrade.
Why We Recommend Using HubSpot: HubSpot is one of those can’t-miss tools for beginners. Sure, it could be more customizable or offer more affordable plans. But with that said, its free plan is enough to get small teams started.
FunnelKit Automations is the best CRM and marketing automation engine for WooCommerce. It’s filled with a wide range of features to help get your online more repeat sales and higher order values.
Geared towards e-commerce business owners, you have a complete 360-degree contact view of your customers. You’ll be able to see their name, gender, email, tags, lists, geographical location, and custom field data.
In addition to the CRM tool, you can build high-converting checkout pages and flows. The drag-and-drop builder connects with other major page builders, such as Divi, Elementor, Oxygen, and Gutenberg.
Once customers complete the purchase, you can create upsell pages to showcase higher-tier products, increasing your total order value.
Pricing: FunnelKit starts at $99.50 per year. That said, there is a free version as well.
Pros:
You get plenty of automation templates and workflows to increase conversions.
You can view the customer’s complete profile, including purchase history, order placed, etc.
Everything can be tracked, including what pages and workflows led to revenue.
Cons:
You’ll need a mailer plugin, such as WP Mail SMTP, since WordPress isn’t built for high-volume email.
Why We Recommend Using FunnelKit Automation: If you’re running an online store, adding FunnelKit Automation is a no-brainer. Keep your opt-in leads and customers organized so that you can send them more relevant product recommendations.
Pipedrive is a sales-focused CRM app for small businesses. It’s an all-in-one sales platform to boost revenue and track all of your leads and customers.
What we like about Pipedrive is its smart, in-platform tips. It comes with a sales assistant that provides performance tips and recommended features to help your team get acclimated to the software. For example, if you’re not sending follow-up emails after demo calls, it might send reminders to your reps.
Pipedrive goes beyond simple CRM with powerful automation features. Imagine automatically nurturing leads with timely emails, assigning tasks, and moving deals through your pipeline.
These automated workflows free up your sales reps to focus on closing high-value deals, not repetitive tasks.
Pricing: Pipedrive begins at $14 per seat per month, billed annually. But there’s a free 14-day trial you can get started with.
Pros:
Fairly affordable to use.
The smart assistant feature helps you improve your team performance.
It has a lead enrichment feature, which scrapes data online to find information about your prospects based on the email you’ve collected.
Cons:
It lacks phone support.
Why We Recommend Using Pipedrive: If you want a comprehensive sales tool to help manage your leads and drive home more revenue, Pipedrive is a solid choice. They offer many AI-powered features to make your life easier and save a lot of time.
Aside from these top business tools that we mentioned above, we also use and recommend the following plugins to better manage our WordPress sites.
WPFormsis the most beginner-friendly contact form plugin used by over 6,000,000 sites. It features an intuitive drag-and-drop form builder, allowing you to build beautiful contact forms, payment forms, user registration forms, multi-page forms, and more.
All in One SEO is a WordPress SEO plugin that helps you improve your WordPress SEO. It provides powerful on-page SEO optimization tools to help search engines better crawl and index your site, among many other capabilities.
SeedProdis the ultimate drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress. With this software, you can design high-converting and beautiful pages that convert visitors into leads and leads into customers. You can create everything from landing pages and custom home pages to 404 pages and more.
MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It brings the power of Google Analytics right to your WordPress dashboard, so you can get detailed reports of important metrics to see what’s working and what could be improved.
OptinMonster is the best lead generation and popup plugin that helps you convert website visitors into subscribers and customers. With this tool, you can create a wide range of campaigns, including popups, scroll boxes, floating bars, and fullscreen welcome mats.
MemberPress is a popular WordPress membership plugin for building membership websites. It has advanced membership features, including the ability to create gated content, add member levels, accept payments, create members-only forums, and more.
PushEngage is a web push notification software that helps you engage and retain visitors once they’ve left your site. When users leave, you can send them all types of reminders, such as product announcements, blog post notifications, cart abandonment reminders, and more.
WP Simple Pay is the best Stripe payments plugin for WordPress. It allows you to easily create payment forms or buttons that accept 13+ payment methods and collect recurring payments.
Smash Balloonis a social media feeds plugin for WordPress websites. It allows you to display custom Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube feeds on your site to boost followers and engagement.
WooCommerce is the world’s most popular eCommerce platform. It is cost-effective, super-flexible, and easy to use for beginners. You can easily create product pages, accept payments, manage orders, and much more. Basically, you can create your entire online store from scratch.
Frequently Asked Questions About Business Tools
What should you look for in a business tool?
The most important factors to consider when selecting a business tool are:
Integration with WordPress: If you own a WordPress site or WooCommerce store, you’ll want a business tool that easily connects the platforms. That way, no crucial information is lost in translation.
Ease of Use: The tool should be user-friendly and have an intuitive interface. Small businesses often have limited resources and may not have dedicated IT personnel, so it’s essential that the tool is easy for anyone on the team to use.
Scalability: Will it be able to grow with your business? Make sure the software can accommodate increasing data, users, and business complexity.
Cost-effectiveness: Evaluate the cost of the software pricing and its value for your business. Consider both upfront costs and ongoing fees. Some tools offer scalable pricing plans, which can be beneficial for small businesses.
Feature Set: Identify the specific features that are essential for your business. Whether it’s task management, CRM, eCommerce capabilities, or content marketing, make sure the service aligns with your business needs.
Customization: Look for a tool that allows some level of customization. This ensures that the tool can be adapted to meet your business’s unique requirements.
Customer Support: Reliable customer support is crucial. Check the availability, response times, and level of support provided. This is especially important when technical issues arise.
Security: Security is vital, especially when dealing with customer data. The tool should adhere to industry security standards and have measures in place to protect your business and customer information.
Mobile Compatibility: With an increasing number of users accessing websites through different devices, the software should be mobile-friendly.
Community and Reviews: Check for testimonials and user feedback to gain insights into the experiences of other small businesses using the tool.
Data Backup and Recovery: Make sure the software has reliable data backup and recovery mechanisms to prevent data loss in case of unexpected events. That said, if you don’t already have a WordPress backup plugin, Duplicator is our go-to recommendation.
Do business tools integrate with your WordPress site?
Yes, the best WordPress plugins should seamlessly integrate with the most popular third-party business tools. However, if there isn’t an integration, we recommend using Uncanny Automator.
It is the best automation plugin, allowing you to create unlimited automated workflows in WordPress. That means you can connect your website to a specific tool to complete an action.
Let’s say every time someone completes your contact form, you want to automatically add those contacts to your prospects list to your CRM tool. You can create an automated workflow through Uncanny Automator that will easily execute that action for you.
Are there any free business tools available?
Yes, many of these tools offer a free version with limited features. That means you can test the product and see if it meets your needs. That said, you can also check out our list of the best free business tools for small businesses.
Do you want to remove archive pages from your WordPress website?
Archive pages, like category or tag archives, automatically group your blog posts for visitors to browse. While they can be helpful for navigation and showcasing older content, there might be times when they’re not necessary.
In this article, we will show you how to remove archive pages in WordPress while keeping your website optimized and user-friendly.
What You Should Know About Removing Archive Pages
Have you ever noticed pages on your WordPress website listing older blog posts by month, category, or tag? These are called archive pages. They automatically group your WordPress posts, which can be helpful for navigation.
However, there may be cases where you may need to remove archive pages.
For example, maybe these pages are creating duplicate content issues. Archives often display excerpts of content already available on individual WordPress posts, which search engines can flag as duplicate content.
Each type of archive page also uses a different URL that may display similar content based on a specific filter. This can unintentionally create multiple URLs whose content overlaps.
Or, maybe you have a category that isn’t used much or doesn’t make sense anymore. Deleting that category archive page can clean up your website.
Before actually removing these pages, though, there are some things you must know. Some users may use these pages to discover and bookmark old blog posts they are interested in. If you delete them, these users might have trouble finding those posts again.
From an SEO (search engine optimization) standpoint, deleting archive pages improperly can create broken links. This can frustrate visitors who land on these broken pages and hurt your website’s ranking in search results.
While WordPress doesn’t allow you to directly delete archive pages, there are workarounds you can do to manage them. In this step-by-step guide, we will help you remove archive pages without harming your WordPress SEO.
You can use these quick links to skip to your preferred method:
Method 1: Noindex Archive Pages With AIOSEO (Recommended)
The first method is what we and many SEO experts recommend the most. Instead of removing the archive pages completely, it’s better to noindex them from search engines. This way, users can still find these pages on your website, but search engines won’t consider them.
John Mueller from Google was actually asked about this topic in a Q & A session one time. Here’s what he had to say:
You can remove the content of old things if you want to, [or] you can move them to an archive section. You can make those old pages noindex so that people can still go there when they’re visiting your website.
John Mueller, Search Advocate at Google
The easiest way to noindex archive pages is using a WordPress plugin like All in One SEO (AIOSEO). This method doesn’t require any code, making it beginner-friendly.
Plus, you get tons of other SEO features like an on-page content optimizer, an SEO audit checklist, schema markup support, and more.
First, you need to install the AIOSEO plugin. You can use the premium or free version, as both include the features needed to noindex archive pages.
For this option, you can go to All in One SEO » Search Appearance. Then, navigate to the ‘Taxonomies’ tab.
In the Categories section, go ahead and click ‘No’ in the ‘Show in Search Results’ setting.
You will then see this notification: “Your Categories will be noindexed and excluded from the sitemap so that search engines ignore them. You can still control how their page title looks like below.”
If you switch to the ‘Advanced’ tab, you will see that the default settings have been disabled.
The ‘No Index’ checkbox should have also been ticked in the Robots Meta Settings.
You can then scroll down to noindex your archive tag pages and other custom taxonomies you have.
Once done, just click ‘Save Changes’ at the top left corner.
To noindex date and author archive pages, switch to the ‘Archives’ tab.
You will see options to noindex the author and date pages.
Like before, simply click ‘No’ in the ‘Show Search Results’ setting and repeat the same step for the date archives page below.
Then, hit the ‘Save Changes’ button at the top.
Option 2: Noindex Specific Archive Pages (Taxonomies Only)
This option is for noindexing only specific archive pages. For example, maybe you have only one outdated category page that you would like search engines to not include on results pages, but you want the rest of your category pages to still be indexed.
What you need to do is open the category, tag, or custom taxonomy page on the front end of your website. Then, click ‘Edit Category’ on the top admin bar, like in the screenshot below.
This will open the category or tag editor. Here, just scroll down to the ‘AIOSEO Settings’ section and switch to the ‘Advanced’ tab.
In Robots Settings, disable the ‘Use Default Settings’ option and tick the ‘No Index’ box.
After that, click ‘Update.’
Unfortunately, AIOSEO doesn’t have a feature to noindex specific, non-taxonomy archive pages yet. Thankfully there’s still an easy way to do that using the method below.
Method 2: Noindex Archive Pages With Code (For Specific Non-Taxonomy Pages)
If you want to noindex non-taxonomy archive pages, you will need to add a custom code snippet to your website, specifically your WordPress theme’s functions.php file.
If this process sounds intimidating, don’t worry. The safest way you can add code to WordPress is by using WPCode, the best code snippet plugin on the market.
This plugin makes it easy to insert custom code without directly dealing with your theme files, so you’re less likely to break your website. Plus, your custom code won’t get overwritten when you update your theme, so your noindex code will stay in place.
First, you need to install and activate WPCode. Both the free and premium versions will work fine for this tutorial, though the premium version comes with a special mode to safely test your code before it goes live.
Next, go to Code Snippets » + Add Snippet. Then, select ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ and click ‘Use snippet.’
Now, go ahead and give your new snippet a name. It can be something as simple as ‘Noindex Archive Pages.’
Then, make sure the Code Type is ‘HTML Snippet.’
In the ‘Code Preview’ box, copy and paste the following code:
<meta name="robots" content="noindex">
This code is a robots meta tag specifically designed to instruct search engines not to index a particular web page.
Once done, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section.
Make sure the Insert Method is ‘Auto Insert’ and the Location is ‘Site Wide Header.’
Let’s move down the page again to the ‘Smart Conditional Logic’ section.
What you want to do is activate the ‘Enable Logic’ setting.
As for the Conditions, select Show and choose ‘Page URL’ and ‘Is.’ You can then insert the URL of the specific archive page that you want to noindex in the last field.
Feel free to click ‘AND’ to add more pages to noindex.
Once done, make the code ‘Active’ and click ‘Save Snippet.’
That’s it. To see if your page was successfully noindexed, you can open the archive page and view its page source.
If you use Chrome, then you will need to right-click anywhere on the page and click ‘View Page Source.’
Now, press Control/Command + F on your keyboard to bring up a search bar and type in ‘noindex.’ It should highlight the noindex tag you added earlier.
If it exists in between the <head>...</head> tags, then you have added the code properly.
Method 3: Redirect Archive Pages to Avoid Broken Links
Let’s say you’ve decided that removing certain archive pages from your WordPress blog is the best course of action. But you’re worried about broken links or frustrated visitors who might still try to access them. This can happen if someone has bookmarked an older archive page on your website.
What you can do is redirect the archive pages using a redirect plugin instead. This way, visitors who land on those old links won’t see an error message.
Note: This method will use AIOSEO Pro as it has the feature to easily redirect one page to another on your website.
In the ‘Redirects’ tab, insert the Source URL (your archive page) and Target URL (the page you want to redirect users to).
We recommend picking a page that aligns with what visitors might be looking for when they land on the old archive page.
For instance, say you have a software review website and want to redirect a category archive for a discontinued platform. A good target URL could be a recent post you wrote explaining why the software is no longer available.
This way, visitors get helpful information even though the original archive page is gone.
Alternatively, you can redirect the user to the homepage.
Below, choose a ‘Redirect Type.’ You can use ‘301 Moved Permanently’ if you want the target page to be the new permanent home for visitors who used to access the archive page.
Then, click ‘Add Redirect.’
Now, go ahead and open your old archive page. If you land on the target page URL, that means the redirection is successful.
Method 4: Remove Archive Pages With a Plugin (For Non-Blog Sites)
Perhaps your WordPress website doesn’t have a blog and archive pages don’t bring any value to your site. If that’s the case, then this method is for you.
You will need to install the Smart Archive Page Remove plugin, which will make it easy to remove the archive pages from your WordPress site.
Next, select which archive pages you’d like to delete and click on the toggle buttons. Once done, just click ‘Save Changes.’
When you go to your archive page, you should see a 404 error that says the page is not found.
Alternative: Create Custom Archive Pages
Instead of removing archive pages entirely, consider creating custom archive pages. This gives you more control over how the pages look and function, offering a better user experience for visitors.
If your archive page is easy to navigate, users will find it useful and stay longer on your website. In turn, you can increase your pageviews and reduce your bounce rate, and search engines will see this as a sign that users are liking your website.
The easiest way to create a custom archives page is with SeedProd. This drag-and-drop page builder has tons of templates and building blocks to design a user-friendly archives page that people find helpful.
Here are some tips to improve your archive pages:
Include a custom search form to help users filter through the content list.
WordPress is typically used to create blog posts and pages for your website. However, some users may need to add a separate static HTML page and make it accessible along with their general WordPress site.
The problem is that this page is not recognized by WordPress, and it may show a 404 error.
In this article, we will show you how to properly upload an HTML page to WordPress without causing a 404 error.
Why Upload HTML Pages to WordPress?
WordPress comes with a built-in content type to add pages to your website. Often, WordPress themes add pre-designed page templates to display your pages.
There are even WordPress landing page plugins that allow you to create beautiful page templates with a drag-and-drop builder.
This means that, in most cases, you shouldn’t need to upload an HTML page to your WordPress site.
Expert Tip: We recommend using SeedProd, the best WordPress page builder plugin, to design custom pages. You can use its drag-and-drop interface to design your landing page. Plus, it comes with professionally designed templates to use as starting points.
However, sometimes, you may have static HTML pages from your old website or a static template that you like and want to use.
In these scenarios, you will need to upload your HTML page to WordPress.
Since WordPress comes with its own SEO-friendly URL structure, it may cause a 404 error if you simply upload your HTML page and try to access it.
That being said, let’s look at how to upload an HTML page to your WordPress site without causing 404 errors.
Uploading HTML Page to WordPress Site
First, you need to prepare the HTML page that you want to upload.
If it is a single HTML page with no separate CSS or image files, then you can go ahead and upload it as is.
However, if the page you want to upload has separate CSS files and images, then you need to place them in a directory structure.
Ideally, you would want to place your files in a folder on your computer.
Don’t forget to open your main HTML file to make sure that everything works as expected.
Next, you need to connect to your WordPress site using an FTP client or the File Manager app in your hosting account control panel.
After that, you need to upload the folder you created earlier to the root folder of your WordPress website. The root folder is the one that has the wp-admin, wp-content, and wp-includes folders inside it.
After uploading your files, you can go to your website to view your HTML page.
If you uploaded the folder with HTML and accompanying CSS and image files, then you will need to add the name of the folder you uploaded to the end of your website address, like this:
https://example.com/landing-page/
Note: The main HTML file in your folder should be called index.html. Otherwise, you will have to provide the name of the HTML file, too.
On the other hand, if you uploaded a standalone HTML file, then simply add the HTML filename to the end of your website address:
https://example.com/landing-page.html
You will now see your uploaded HTML page.
If you run into an error page, then you will need to troubleshoot the error.
Troubleshooting HTML Page Upload in WordPress
Normally, you should be able to view your HTML page by visiting the page or folder directly.
However, due to the rewrite rules used by WordPress or your web server, there is a chance that you may run into some common WordPress errors.
1. Fixing 404 Error After HTML Page Upload in WordPress
The 404 error is one of the most common WordPress errors. However, it is quite easy to fix in most cases.
If you are seeing a 404 error after uploading your HTML page, then you just need to add a rewrite rule to your .htaccess file:
Upon activation, go to the All in One SEO » Sitemaps page. Under the General Settings page, make sure that the ‘Enable Sitemap’ toggle is turned on.
After that, scroll down a little to the Additional Pages section.
Slide the toggle to activate this section and then enter your HTML page or folder URL under the ‘Page URL’ option.
Click on the ‘Add Page’ button to add it.
After that, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.
All in One SEO will now include your custom HTML page URL in your WordPress XML sitemaps. Search engines will be able to find the URL and treat it as any other page from your website.
We hope this article helped you learn how to upload an HTML page to WordPress without causing errors. You may also want to see our WordPress SEO guide to get more traffic or take a look at our beginner’s guide to WordPress speed and 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.
Are you ready to see some eCommerce statistics that will help you take your online business to the next level?
It’s safe to say that in the last 20 years, eCommerce has grown beyond our wildest expectations. And it’s still evolving faster than ever. If you want to keep your customers happy and build a relationship with new prospects, you need to stay current on the latest stats and insights.
In this post, we will share some of the best and most relevant eCommerce statistics of 2024. Our goal is to help you stay informed and make meaningful, data-driven decisions the next time you work on your website or marketing strategy.
Ultimate List of eCommerce Statistics
Before we get started, here’s a list of all the topics we will be discussing today. Feel free to jump to the part that catches your attention or read the whole thing from top to bottom!
First, let’s start with some statistics about the general state of eCommerce and online stores.
1. Globally, there are over 12 million eCommerce websites.
Over 12 million eCommerce websites might sound like a saturated market at first glance. But you will be happy to know the answer is a little more complex than that.
While competition is fierce for online stores, this statistic also shows that this is a growing market and there’s room for new business owners across all industries. The keys to success are to choose your target audience, cater to their goals, needs, and pain points, and create a website that separates you from everyone else.
By catering to a specific audience and offering a unique, memorable customer experience, you can carve out your own spot in the eCommerce world. Remember, even giants like Amazon started small, so there’s room for you to succeed, too.
2. More than 80% of US shoppers say they occasionally buy from eCommerce stores.
If your goal is to get more customers, then this statistic is very exciting. Business owners across all industries can be sure that their audience is out there and interested in their products and services. All they have to do is reach them.
If you’re in this position, make sure you start an online store with a blog and write plenty of great content so people have a reason to stay once they discover your site.
Think about it this way: four out of every five in a population of 331.1 million is about 265 million people! And that’s just in the United States.
3. It’s estimated that the eCommerce market will be worth $6.8 trillion by the end of this year, an almost 10% increase year over year.
The eCommerce market share is currently projected to hit a whopping $6.8 trillion by year’s end – that’s a 10% leap from last year!
This huge growth is fantastic news for both established businesses and those just starting out.
For veterans, it means a bigger customer pool to tap into. With more consumers shopping online, there’s a chance to expand your reach and grow your brand in new and exciting ways.
New businesses can also benefit from this boom. As more people shop online, they are more open to discovering new brands. This presents a golden opportunity to get your foot in the door and establish yourself in the market.
4. Amazon made close to $575 billion in net sales revenue in 2023, making it the biggest eCommerce seller in the world.
There’s no question that Amazon’s success shows the potential of online sales. We were shocked to find that 44% of shoppers check Amazon for products before they turn to Google.
But here’s the thing – they aren’t the only ones profiting. The entire eCommerce market is thriving and ready for smart, dedicated people who want to build customer-centric products and services. This means there’s space for you to win, too.
5. When it comes to eCommerce platforms, WooCommerce leads the pack, with over 6.6 million active users.
WooCommerce is the most popular eCommerce platform, with an eCommerce market share of 37.7% and 6.6 million users.
For context, Squarespace Online Stores takes second at 14.67%, and WooThemes takes third at 14.95%. The runner-ups are popular enough, but they don’t compare to WooCommerce.
People prefer to use WooCommerce to start a store because it’s user-friendly, flexible, and comes with tons of great features and integrations. Plus, it’s customizable so you can use it to create an online store that matches your vision.
More General eCommerce Statistics
Across all industries, the average conversion rate on an eCommerce website is 2.86%.
The top four drivers of online purchases are free shipping (49.4%), discounts (37.9%), customer reviews (31.6%), and an easy return policy (30.4%)
The largest group of online shoppers are people between the ages of 25 and 34.
Nearly 55% of people prefer shopping online over traditional brick-and-mortar stores.
China contributes the most to the eCommerce market share, as it is responsible for 52.1% of all eCommerce sales.
But India is the fastest growing market, with a projected growth of 14.11% between 2023 and 2027.
There are 604 eCommerce platforms to choose from.
eCommerce Marketing Statistics
Marketing is key to an online store’s success. Let’s now take a look at some eCommerce marketing statistics.
6. eCommerce businesses with three or more marketing channels see 251% more engagement than those that stick to a single marketing channel.
Standing out online requires reaching your target audience, and this stat makes it clear: using just one marketing channel limits your reach. And if you can’t connect with your audience, then it’s hard to grow your eCommerce business.
The solution is actually quite simple – add more ways to get your message out, and you’ll unlock more opportunities to reach potential customers.
We suggest investing heavily in email marketing, social media outreach, and search engine optimization (SEO) since these are three of the best ways to generate traffic and conversions.
7. Content marketing helps brands generate 3x more leads than their non-blogging counterparts.
Imagine getting 3x more leads just by writing informative blog posts! That’s the advantage that content marketing offers.
Businesses that blog regularly see a huge jump in leads. Here’s why it works: blogs attract potential customers looking for answers.
By consistently creating helpful content related to users’ goals and interests, you can build trust and become an expert in their eyes. This makes them more likely to choose you when they are ready to buy. It’s like giving away valuable advice to build relationships—and ultimately, sales.
Our advice is to spend plenty of time doing keyword research so that you know what matters to your target audience. It’s much easier to create eye-catching content if you know what matters to your audience.
8. 71% of shoppers expect businesses to use personalization in their marketing and 76% get frustrated when that doesn’t happen.
Forget one-size-fits-all marketing. Today’s shoppers crave personalization, and the numbers back this up. A vast majority of shoppers want businesses to use macro and micro-personalization in their marketing, and people get annoyed when that doesn’t happen.
Including things like an email subscriber’s first name or referencing a product they purchased in the past shows that you are paying attention and want to build rapport to help them reach their goals.
If you don’t personalize at least a few parts of your marketing campaigns, then you may struggle to generate leads and connect with your prospects.
Similarly, if someone buys from your site and doesn’t see personalized messages or offers based on their interaction, they may choose another business that offers these experiences the next time they need to make a purchase.
For example, if someone is looking at a specific product page, you can use OptinMonster to create a popup that only shows up on that page with a unique offer. This is a great way to drive sales and grow your email list.
9. SEO marketing matters, because search engines are the number one way people discover new products (30.6%).
SEO is more important now than ever before. Most people discover products through search engines, with TV and word-of-mouth coming in second and third place respectively.
If your site does not appear on search engine results pages (SERPs), you are missing out on a massive chunk of potential customers. The good news is that there are plenty of ways to optimize your site for search engines.
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best WordPress plugin you can use for the job. Currently, over 3 million people use it to check their on-page SEO, optimize their websites, and so much more. It’s a great tool for beginners and experts alike because it manages to be both user-friendly and has plenty of advanced features.
Video is a powerful marketing tool, with 73% of people saying they’d be more likely to buy a product if they could watch a video about it first.
75% of shoppers say they need to see photos of a product before they buy it.
eCommerce advertising influences over 56% of in-store purchases.
Ad spending for eCommerce is worth $38.4 billion, which is 3x what it was in 2019.
75% of shoppers say they’ve used a paid search ad on Google to find a new product.
Nearly three-fourths (73%) of people shop across multiple marketing channels.
Mobile eCommerce Statistics
Mobile browsing is more popular than ever, and the same goes for mobile shopping. Here are some key eCommerce statistics for mobile shoppers.
10. 71% of U.S. shoppers say they’ve made a purchase from their mobile phone.
This stat is a wake-up call for all eCommerce business owners: having a mobile-friendly website is no longer optional. It’s necessary.
If your website isn’t easy to navigate and use on a smartphone, then you are missing out on a ton of traffic and potentially losing a huge chunk of sales.
Mobile optimization includes things like a smooth user experience, clickable calls-to-action, fast loading times, and a layout that adapts to different screen sizes. By prioritizing mobile users, you will be meeting your customers where they are and making the buying process as convenient as possible.
11. During Q3 of 2023, 74% of all eCommerce visits happened via mobile.
Based on this statistic, it’s clear how people prefer to browse websites and shop online. This means you need to go beyond a responsive design and instead focus on creating a mobile-first experience.
Imagine what would happen if 3 out of 4 people who visited your site had trouble browsing your product landing page, contacting your customer support, or reading your blog. Odds are, you’d see a significant dip in engagement.
If you follow mobile-first practices, then you’ll be in a much better position to capture your audience’s attention and turn them into customers.
12. 40% of shoppers say they are likely to leave an online store if it isn’t optimized for their device.
At a glance, it’s concerning to see that almost half of shoppers say they’ll leave a site if it’s not optimized for mobile. This could lead to a significant portion of potential customers bouncing off your website, simply because it isn’t user-friendly.
The good news is there’s a solution: SeedProd. It is one of the best page builders on the market and features a responsive option that allows you to fine-tune how your website displays on desktops, tablets, and mobiles. This ensures a smooth user experience for all visitors, regardless of their device.
Expert Tip: If you are looking for a different option for building a mobile-friendly website, Thrive Architect is another great choice!
More Mobile eCommerce Statistics
The average mobile order is between $90 and $110, which is less than the average desktop purchase.
However, mobile eCommerce is growing faster at 29%, which is better than the 22% growth rate of desktop eCommerce.
In the United States, there are 187 million active smartphone shoppers.
Mobile apps convert 3x more customers than mobile websites.
49% of smartphone shoppers use their devices to compare prices of different products when shopping online.
38% of shoppers say they’ve never used a mobile device to shop, while 7% report never using desktop computers to make a purchase.
eCommerce Payment Statistics
Next, let’s see some impressive eCommerce statistics for online payments.
13. When it comes to paying for online orders, credit cards are still the most popular payment method, making up 53% of transactions.
Credit cards might reign supreme for now, but the future of eCommerce payments is digital. While a solid 53% of customers still prefer credit cards, this statistic shouldn’t overshadow the rise of digital wallets and debit cards, which follow closely behind at 43% and 38%.
There’s no question that digital payment methods, like Apple Pay and PayPal, offer a faster, more convenient experience for shoppers, so integrating them into your website can dramatically boost conversions.
The bottom line is every step a customer has to take to complete a purchase adds friction to the process. Digital wallets eliminate the need to manually enter card details, which will streamline your checkout process and result in more happy customers.
14. In one survey, half of eCommerce business owners say they lose about 10% of their international revenue because their payment vendors do not have flexible payment options.
Not having the right payment gateway on your site will result in people leaving without taking action. You don’t want to put your visitors in this position because not only are you leaving money on the table, but there’s a good chance they will not come back even if you add their preferred payment method later.
The solution is to offer a wide range of payment methods as soon as possible. When customers have options they trust and use regularly, they are more likely to complete their purchases.
Here’s where a plugin like WP Simple Pay can be a game-changer. This Stripe payment plugin allows you to easily integrate over 10 different payment methods into your website. This ensures a smooth checkout experience for customers, regardless of how they want to pay.
15. Optimizing your checkout page can improve conversions by 35%.
Optimizing your checkout process will have a noticeable impact on sales. When customers can quickly place an order with little to no friction, they’ll take action.
You’ll be happy to know that getting your checkout page in good shape is easier than you might think. The key is to simplify as much as possible by offering a guest checkout option, limiting forms, and providing a progress bar so that customers can see how close they are to the end of the process.
Be transparent, too. Don’t surprise customers with hidden fees. Clearly show taxes, shipping costs, and anything else upfront so they don’t get frustrated and leave. Building trust leads to happy customers, and happy customers mean more sales!
Over 65% of shoppers look up price comparisons in physical stores before they pay.
Venmo is growing at an impressive pace, with a 9% year-on-year increase, bringing its revenue to $6.7 million.
However, their totals don’t come close to touching PayPal, which handles countless eCommerce transactions every day. They made $7.4 billion in revenue in 2023.
Experts predict that the total number of Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) customers will increase by 400% between 2021 and 2026.
Social Media eCommerce Statistics
Social media is one of the best ways to reach new customers and promote your online store. Here are some important social media eCommerce statistics you need to know.
16. Businesses that use social media generate an average of 32% more revenue than ones without it.
Social media platforms aren’t just for entertainment anymore – they are a direct line to your target audience. So, don’t underestimate the value of social media marketing. We are confident that all eCommerce business owners would love to see a 32% boost in revenue!
Beyond direct sales, you also get plenty of opportunities to engage with your audience. Think about it: you can showcase your products, highlight special offers, and build brand awareness – all without spending a dime on traditional advertising.
You can use a plugin like Smash Balloon to share your social media on your website. This can have a dramatic impact on engagement and help you get more followers. Plus, adding a social feed to your site is fast and easy.
17. 74% of shoppers turn to social media when they are thinking about buying a product.
It turns out that social media is also one of the most widely used research tools for online shoppers. This statistic highlights that about 3/4s of people turn to their favorite social sites when they want to learn more about a product or discover something new.
For you, this means social sites are the perfect place to introduce yourself to prospects, show off your products, and get to know your existing customers.
It’s a good idea to spend some time on social media every day so you can connect with your audience and build a community. Then, once your page gets to a certain point, the algorithm will begin recommending your channel or profile to people who don’t follow you. This is an easy way to build your social audience and customer base.
18. 67% of affiliates and virtually all influencers use social media sites to boost their sales.
There’s no question that affiliates and influencers have a strong relationship with eCommerce business owners.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise when you consider these groups often partner together on social media because it’s a win-win-win situation. The brand sells more products, the affiliate makes a commission on their sales, and the customers get great products.
The increase in profits and ease of access is probably why 68% of marketers say they plan on investing in an affiliate program this year.
We suggest using AffiliateWP to create and manage your affiliate program. This easy-to-use WordPress plugin allows you to set commissions, issue one-click payouts, and collaborate with your affiliates in new and exciting ways.
19. 80% of marketers who sell products on social media say consumers have made a purchase through these platforms.
Some business leaders think that social media is just for window shopping. However, many people are turning to social media to make purchases, and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.
This can seem intimidating if you are currently not using social sites like Facebook and Instagram to sell your products. But there’s still plenty of time for you to get involved.
By integrating social commerce features, you can streamline the buying journey for customers. They can discover your products, learn about them, and complete their purchase – all within the familiar social media interface.
34% of marketers say Facebook generates the most sales, which makes sense when you consider that over 53.5 million people have bought something from the site.
16% of social media managers use automation to communicate with prospects.
When it comes to Gen-Z and millennial shoppers, 28% have bought something directly from social media in the last 3 months.
The top categories for social media shopping in order are apparel, beauty, and home products.
70% of people say they are far more likely to buy a product from a brand if they have a positive experience with them on social media.
Almost one-third of shoppers say they turn to social media to learn about new brands or products.
Email eCommerce Statistics
Email is an important tool for any online business. Here are some of the most important email eCommerce statistics.
20. A vast majority (86%) of eCommerce marketers use email to build rapport with their audience and improve brand awareness.
There’s a reason why email marketing remains a favorite among eCommerce marketers: it’s a direct line of communication to prospects and existing customers. When you can have a one-on-one conversation with people, there’s a better chance you can learn about their goals and pain points while overcoming their objections.
With what you learn from these encounters, you can share relevant content, advertise exclusive promotions, showcase new products, and ask for feedback, among other things.
If you are looking for a good email marketing service, then Constant Contact is our number one choice. It’s extremely easy to use and allows you to do everything you’d expect, like create templates, design a calendar, and more.
21. 52% of people say they’ve made a purchase as the result of a marketing email.
This statistic highlights the value of email marketing for eCommerce businesses. There’s no doubt that it’s a cost-effective, powerful way to reach your audience and directly influence their buying decisions.
If you want to create emails that capture the attention of your subscribers and boost sales, then make sure you focus on personalization. About 80% of people say they are more likely to engage with a business if it personalizes content and offers to match their needs.
For instance, we suggest using information subscribers have sent you, as well as their purchase history, to curate an email campaign that aligns with their interests.
22. 14% of marketing emails never reach their destination.
It’s shocking to think that so many emails never reach their destination. For business owners who use email marketing to engage with their customers, these deliverability issues could result in missed opportunities to build rapport and lost sales.
Luckily, tools like WP Mail SMTP can help with this problem. This powerful WordPress plugin tackles deliverability issues head-on and makes sure that your emails will end up in your users’ inboxes.
72% of email marketers struggle with low open rates.
Personalized subject lines can get between 10-14% more people to read your email.
Emails letting customers on a waitlist know a product is back in stock convert a staggering 8695% better than a traditional, generic email.
78% of people say they don’t mind getting emails once a week from brands they love.
57% of marketers have between 1,000 and 10,000 email subscribers.
Mobile-responsive emails are essential because 70% of people will delete an email if it looks bad on their phone.
eCommerce Shopping Cart Statistics
Next, let’s take a look at some eCommerce shopping cart statistics.
23. Across all industries, the average shopping cart abandonment rate is 70.19%.
Shopping cart abandonment occurs when someone adds an item to their cart but leaves your website before checking out. And it’s way more common than you might think.
It doesn’t matter what industry you are in. You will see this happen more often than you’d like. Instead of letting it bother you, you can find ways to reduce abandonment, such as by creating a cart recovery email series.
Sending 3 emails to people who joined your list after they abandoned your cart can help you recover around 60% of lost sales. Generally, it’s a good idea to send one email after they leave, another 24 hours later, and the last one about a week after they leave with items still in their cart.
24. The number one reason shoppers abandon their shopping carts is unexpected costs.
Most people have decided to abandon a shopping cart without taking action because of unexpected costs. You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who hasn’t.
That’s because shoppers expect the price at the end to be close to what they were shown when they added the items to their cart. Imagine thinking a new shirt will cost $25, only to see $60 after shipping and taxes.
You can reduce this type of abandonment by embracing an “always-on” shopping cart that shows visitors their total regardless of where they are on your site. Then, you can offer free shipping on orders over a specific amount.
25. 26% of people who leave items in their cart will go on to buy a similar item from a different store.
You may be shocked to learn that people will buy the same type of product from a different eCommerce website after they first view it on another site. This means you need to do everything you can to capture visitors’ attention so you don’t lose sales and opportunities to engage with your customers.
To win people over, there are two key areas you need to focus on: product information and enticing offers.
Additionally, strategic discounts are a game-changer. Consider offering targeted promotions or deals specifically for recovering abandoned carts. This sweetens the deal and incentivizes customers to complete their purchase at your store instead of heading to a competitor.
26. Exit-intent popups can help you connect with 53% of visitors before they leave.
This is why you shouldn’t underestimate the power of a well-timed popup. This statistic reveals that exit-intent popups, which appear when a visitor shows signs of leaving your site, can help you reconnect with a whopping 53% of departing customers.
With a tool like OptinMonster, you can streamline this process and turn more visitors into subscribers, which can later be converted into customers.
With its drag-and-drop builder, you can design beautiful, high-converting popups – even if you don’t know how to code. OptinMonster offers customizable campaigns, from exit-intent popups to lightbox forms, which lets you reach visitors at various touchpoints in their journey.
92% of visitors don’t intend to buy something the first time they land on your site.
54% of shoppers say they are more likely to revisit a website and complete their order if they are offered a discount.
Despite this, only 38% of marketers say they use email to reduce abandonment.
Organic search traffic is less likely to abandon their cart (76%) than visitors who find your site through social media (91%).
A little less than half (46%) of shoppers have left items in their cart because a discount code they received didn’t work.
Using predictive AI to personalize product and content recommendations can reduce abandonment by up to 18%.
While it’s hard to pin down an exact number, experts estimate over $4 trillion worth of products are left in abandoned shopping carts each year.
Customer Experience and eCommerce Statistics
Providing a good customer experience is important if you want your eCommerce business to succeed. Here are some statistics to keep in mind.
27. 76% of people say they are more likely to buy from an online store if they personalize their shopping experience.
This stat highlights a crucial factor for eCommerce business owners: creating unique shopping journeys that resonate with each customer.
Think about it: People who see generic offers that don’t resonate with their needs will likely ignore them in favor of ultra-personalized, relevant promotions. Personalized content and product suggestions will make customers feel like you are there with them, understand their needs, and are committed to their success.
Interestingly, 85% of leaders believe they are already doing a good job personalizing content and offers, but only 60% of shoppers agree. In other words, there’s a gap that you need to be mindful of when designing your personalization strategy.
28. 95% of shoppers look for reviews and other forms of social proof before making a purchase.
It’s impossible to deny the power of social proof in eCommerce. We bet that you look at reviews every time you buy something new online – after all, most people do.
When potential customers see positive reviews, testimonials, or user-generated content, it builds trust and validates your brand’s credibility. Imagine walking into a store and seeing it packed with happy customers – that feeling of social validation translates to the online world as well.
It’s a good idea to display reviews and testimonials on key parts of your website. The social wall plugin Smash Balloon can help with this because it lets you embed a reviews feed and show website visitors what people are saying about you on social media and other websites.
Plus consider using the social proof plugin TrustPulse to add engaging real-time live sales notifications to your site.
29. If your customer service team is unresponsive and a user has a question, 79% will leave and may never return.
You probably know that customer support is essential to your business, but did you know that 4 out of 5 people who don’t get their questions answered will leave for good? This startling statistic highlights why it’s so important to have a well-rounded customer support plan in place.
The consequences of having an unresponsive customer service team are quite severe. You’ll miss opportunities to connect with potential customers, people will think poorly of your brand, and existing customers may churn in favor of a company that offers 24/7 support.
Our advice is to use a mix of live support agents and chatbots to help your customers quickly and easily find what they are looking for.
Groove is a great help desk option that can make life easier for your support team. It allows you to quickly and easily respond to customers, track user history, create tasks, monitor feedback, and much more.
More Customer Experience Statistics
78% of people are more likely to place an order if there’s a fast and affordable shipping option.
Around 35% of shoppers say they would shop online more if they could virtually try a product before they buy it.
48% of internet users say if a site has a bad web design, it instantly loses credibility.
Less than 20% of people say customer service interactions with retailers exceeded their expectations.
Solving a customer’s problem could result in them telling 4 to 6 other people about their experience.
Globally, poor customer experiences cost businesses $75 million a year.
82% of people claim they are willing to spend more money on a product if they consistently receive excellent service.
The Future of eCommerce
We already know that online shopping has been growing over the years. So, let’s take a look at the future of eCommerce.
30. By the end of 2024, global eCommerce sales are projected to grow by 10% from the same time last year. Meanwhile, in-store sales are expected to see a 2% boost.
The future is bright for eCommerce businesses! This statistic paints a clear picture: online shopping is on a steady upward trajectory, while traditional brick-and-mortar stores see a more modest increase.
Plus, we expect this trend to continue in the years to come.
31. Experts predict the eCommerce market share to be worth over $8.1 trillion by 2026.
This is a very exciting prediction for eCommerce business owners across all industries. This means there’s a booming marketplace on the horizon, which translates to a wider audience for your products and more sales.
If you want to take advantage of this surge of new eCommerce traffic, make sure you are doing everything you can to align with your customers’ needs. This will give you the knowledge and experience you need to scale your business.
We recommend using a plugin like MonsterInsights to learn more about your eCommerce visitors. You can see at a glance who is visiting your site, how they found you, and more. Combine all of this data and you can learn so much about your target audience, like their needs, interests, and goals.
32. About 20% of all retail sales occur online. It’s estimated that this number will reach 25% by the end of 2025.
This statistic aligns with the others we have already listed – eCommerce is on the rise.
Over the course of the next year, we will see retail sales jump to 25%. This is partially due to new businesses opening up, and existing brands building a website and taking their products online.
More eCommerce Predictions
By the end of 2025, it’s estimated that PayPal, Venmo, and other digital wallets will make up over 52% of payments.
Most professional marketers agree that mobile eCommerce sales will reach $710 billion by 2025.
Mobile eCommerce sales are expected to bring in $729 billion in revenue by the start of 2026.
By the same time, subscription eCommerce will be worth an estimated $904.2 billion.
In 2027, eCommerce revenue in the United States alone is estimated to hit $6.43 billion.
There you have it! We hope this extensive list of eCommerce statistics helps you on your journey. If you are looking for more interesting statistics, check out some of our other posts below!
Are you looking to create an online thrift store website?
Many people think that to start an eCommerce business, they’ll need to create a new product. However, there’s another way. You can find pre-owned items and sell them online through a thrift store.
In this article, we will show you how to start an online thrift store using WordPress.
What is an Online Thrift Store?
A thrift store is a type of eCommerce business where you can sell used or pre-loved products. It can be anything ranging from clothes to automobiles, electronic items, toys, books, furniture, and more at bargain prices.
One of the benefits of starting an online thrift store is its low startup cost. You don’t need a lot of money to buy and maintain an inventory. Plus, the cost of building an eCommerce site is also low.
For example, if you have an expensive dress that doesn’t fit you anymore. Instead of throwing it away, you can have it cleaned and sell it online.
Besides that, it is a great side hustle to make money online. You can start small and slowly expand your business.
What Do You Need to Start an Online Thrift Store?
When it comes to starting an online store, many people think it is too complicated. However, it’s a lot simpler than you might think.
There are 3 main things you’ll need to get started:
Domain Name – This is the name of your thrift store that people will enter in their web browser (like wpbeginner.com). Think of it as an address to your home.
Web Hosting Service – It’s where your website lives on the internet and where all your website files are saved. You can think of it as a house for your online thrift store.
SSL Certificate – This adds an extra layer of security to your online store, so you can easily accept online payments from customers.
It’s really that easy!
You can build an online thrift website without any technical skills, coding, or complicated setup.
We’ll show you step-by-step how to get started. Simply click the links below to jump to any section:
Choosing an eCommerce Platform for Online Thrift Store
The first and most essential step is to find the right platform for your online thrift store.
Choosing the wrong eCommerce platform can be a costly mistake for new store owners. Moving to a new service later on would mean you’ll have to re-do all the work and spend money again.
To avoid making this mistake, we’re here to help.
There are two popular eCommerce platforms that we recommend for your online thrift store: Shopify or WooCommerce (built on WordPress).
Shopify is a fully hosted eCommerce solution that lets you create an online store quickly.
However, the biggest drawback is its pricing. You’ll need to pay $25 per month, which can be quite expensive for individuals and small business owners. You also get limited payment options unless you pay extra.
This is why most users choose WordPress + WooCommerce. It is more flexible and cost-effective compared to Shopify. WooCommerce does require some setup, but it’s worth it in the long run.
For this tutorial, we will walk you through how to start an online thrift store using WooCommerce + WordPress.
Select a Web Hosting Service and Install WordPress
As we mentioned earlier, you will need a domain name, web hosting service, and SSL certificate to create an online thrift store.
If purchased separately, a domain name costs around $14.99 per year, web hosting will cost around $7.99 per year, and an SSL certificate will cost roughly $69.99 per year.
This cost can go even higher if you add extra features and addons to your hosting plan.
Thankfully, our friends at Bluehost offer an exclusive offer for WPBeginner readers. You can save up to 61% on website hosting plans and get started for as little as $1.99 per month.
Bluehost is an official WordPress and WooCommerce-recommended hosting provider. The best part, you get a free domain name and SSL certificate with each hosting plan.
Note: At WPBeginner, we believe in transparency. If you sign up with Bluehost using our referral link, then we will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you (in fact, you will save money and get a free domain).
We would get this commission for recommending just about any WordPress hosting company, but we only recommend products that we personally use and believe will add value to our readers.
If you’re looking for an alternative to Bluehost, then we suggest using SiteGround WooCommerce hosting. It is another officially recommended WordPress hosting service.
To start, simply visit the Bluehost website and click the ‘Get Started Now’ button.
Next, you’ll need to select a pricing plan.
You can get started for $1.99 per month. However, Bluehost also offers an Online Store plan costing you $6.99 per month. It comes with an exclusive store theme, store analytics, and $450 worth of eCommerce plugins included in the plan.
We’ll select the ‘Online Store’ plan for this tutorial.
Next, Bluehost will ask you to enter a name for your online thrift store.
If you don’t have a domain, then simply enter a website name under the ‘Create a new domain’ section, select a domain extension, and click the ‘Next’ button.
Make sure that the domain name relates to your business, is easy to pronounce and spell, and is memorable. You should also try to get a domain with a ‘.com’ extension.
After that, you’ll need to provide details like name, address, email, and more to create a new account.
Bluehost will also show extra features to add to your hosting plan. We don’t recommend purchasing these additional features, as you can always add them later on.
Lastly, you’ll need to enter the payment information to complete the purchase.
Once that’s done, Bluehost will open the account dashboard from where you can manage your websites.
The best part is that Bluehost offers a one-click WordPress installation. However, if you are using another hosting provider or somehow skipped the setup step, then please see our guide on how to install WordPress for more details.
For instance, in Bluehost, you can log in to your account and navigate to the ‘Websites’ tab. From here, simply click the ‘Add Site’ button in the top corner.
This will launch the WordPress setup wizard in Bluehost.
You can click the ‘Install WordPress’ option and click the ‘Continue’ button.
After that, you’ll be asked to enter a name for your online thrift store website.
Once you’ve entered a title, click the ‘Continue’ button.
Bluehost will now install WordPress and create your thrift store site.
After the installation is complete, you can go to the ‘Websites’ tab to see your new website. Go ahead and click the ‘Edit Site’ button to view the WordPress admin panel.
As an alternate, you can also log in to your WordPress dashboard by going to ‘yourthriftstore.com/wp-admin’ directly from the browser.
Here’s what the WordPress admin area will look like:
Next, you’ll need to view WordPress settings and ensure everything is set up properly.
First, you need to go to the Settings » General page and add a WordPress site title and tagline. If you’re happy with the site title, then you don’t need to change it.
A tagline acts as a small description for your thrift store. However, this is optional, and you can add it later on.
Besides that, you’ll also need to ensure that your WordPress Address (URL) and Site Address (URL) are using HTTPS instead of HTTP.
Next, you can go to the Settings » Discussions page from the admin panel and scroll down to the ‘Before a comment appears’ section.
Here, click the ‘Comment must be manually approved’ checkbox. This way, your comments will go into moderation and help prevent spam.
Upon activation, the WooCommerce setup wizard will launch. You can click the ‘Set up my store’ button to continue.
Simply follow the onscreen instructions to complete the WooCommerce setup. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to start an online store.
Once the setup is complete, you can set up payment options on your thrift store.
WooCommerce supports some of the most popular payment gateways. You can accept credit cards, cash on delivery, bank transfers, Stripe, PayPal, and more.
Simply go to WooCommerce » Settings from your WordPress dashboard and switch to the ‘Payments’ tab.
You can click the ‘Set up’ button for the payment service you’d like to add to your online thrift store.
For example, let’s say you want to configure Stripe credit card payments. Simply connect your Stripe account or enter account keys to add the payment method to your store.
Another optional setting you can configure in WooCommerce is shipping zones. It lets you add different shipping methods and costs for various regions.
Simply head to Appearance » Themes and click the ‘Customize’ button to edit the theme.
This will launch the WordPress Full Site Editor (FSE). It was first introduced in WordPress 5.9 and uses blocks to edit the theme, just like editing content in the block editor.
The goal of the full site editor is to simplify website editing and make it user-friendly.
If you don’t like the default theme, then you can simply change it. There are thousands of WordPress themes to choose from. You can see our list of the best WooCommerce WordPress themes to pick the on you like.
On the other hand, you can create a custom theme for your online thrift store using a WordPress theme builder.
For instance, SeedProd is the best theme and landing page builder that offers a drag-and-drop interface. It comes with pre-built templates, which you can easily customize without editing code.
Once you’re done, simply click the ‘Publish’ button.
Now, you can repeat this step and add more products to your online thrift store.
You can then visit your site to see all the products listed on the store page.
Sourcing Products for Your Thrift Store
Finding products on a regular basis for your online thrift store can be a challenge for many business owners.
However, there are different places from where you can source used or pre-loved products. For instance, a quick search on other thrift stores and sites like eBay and Craigslist can help discover multiple products that you can list on your site.
Similarly, visiting flea markets, other local stores, and garage sales can also help you find the right products for your store. This is a great option if you’re selling clothes, books, and second-hand electronic items.
Another option is to allow users to upload their items for consideration on your online thrift store. This way, you’ll get to build an inventory without having to invest and simply share the revenue from the sale.
You can also create an online marketplace using WordPress where users can sell their products using your eCommerce platform. For example, people can sell their used items on your site and give you a percentage or a fee for using your site.
Add Plugins to Grow Your Traffic and Drive Sales
WordPress offers different plugins that act like apps for your website. They allow you to add extra features and functionalities and help customize your online thrift store.
For example, there are plugins for adding a contact form, product image galleries, product comparisons, gift cards, giveaways, popups, and more.
You can choose from over 59,000 free WordPress plugins. There are also premium plugins that are sold by third-party sites and developers.
That said, we’ve handpicked some essential plugins that you should install on your thrift store.
Add Extra Features and Functionality
WPForms – It is the best form plugin for WordPress that lets you add a contact form to your site. You can also create other types of forms, like a file upload form, order/billing form, online payment form, and more.
MonsterInsights – You can connect Google Analytics to your site using MonsterInsights without editing code. Using the plugin, you get insights about how users behave in your store, where they click, which products they purchase, and where they are from.
SeedProd – It’s the best drag-and-drop builder for creating custom landing pages, layouts, and website themes without any technical knowledge.
Envira Gallery – Create stunning image galleries for products on your online thrift store.
Website Optimization for SEO, Performance, and Conversions
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) – Optimize your site for search engines without technical knowledge, improve your WordPress SEO, and boost website traffic.
OptinMonster – It is the best lead generation and conversion optimization software. You can create dynamic popups, modals, floating bars, and more. It offers personalization features to grow your email list and optimize your thrift store for conversions.
PushEngage – Show push notifications on your site to connect with your visitors, bring them back to your site, and increase website traffic.
TrustPulse – Leverage the power of social proof with real-time notifications and boost eCommerce conversions.
UserFeedback – Add interactive surveys to your online store and collect user feedback. Use the data to improve user experience and satisfy customer needs.
Smash Balloon – Display social media content on your store and boost engagement.
Uncanny Automator – Automate workflows to save time and streamline work. Connect plugins, sites, and apps to automate your thrift store.
Constant Contact – It is the best email marketing service that you can use for all your email needs. Easily set up email campaigns, autoresponders, A/B testing, WooCommerce integration, and more.
WP Mail SMTP – Ensure your WordPress emails reach your customer’s inbox and don’t end up in spam. Fix email deliverability issues.
LiveChat – Offer real-time support to customers through live chat software. Answer customer queries, improve user experience, and boost sales.
At WPBeginner, our main goal is to provide helpful and beginner-friendly WordPress tutorials for non-techy users, small business owners, bloggers, and eCommerce store owners.
To help you learn more about WooCommerce and WordPress, you can follow these guides:
Are you looking for a way to convert your Figma design into a WordPress theme or page?
Figma is a cloud-based design tool that allows you to create an attractive user interface for your website. It lets you quickly test ideas through prototyping and also supports real-time collaboration. By converting these designs to WordPress, you can make your website more visually appealing for users.
In this article, we will show you how to easily convert Figma to WordPress, step by step.
Why Convert Figma to WordPress?
Figma lets you create beautiful layouts for your website and offers amazing tools like animation effects, prototyping, vector editing, and more.
If you have a WordPress website, then using this tool to create a layout for your site will allow multiple designers and developers to work on the same Figma file. This can improve collaboration and reduce the need for back-and-forth emails.
Plus, you can create interactive mockups of your blog to test user flows and get feedback before your site goes into development.
You can also use Figma’s advanced tools like grids, guides, layers, and auto layouts to create visually appealing pages and templates including:
However, keep in mind that Figma does not integrate with WordPress by default, so you will need to use a conversion tool. That being said, let’s see how to easily create a Figma design and convert it to WordPress, step by step:
To design a page with Figma, you will first need to create an account on the website.
To do that, visit the Figma website and click the ‘Get started for free’ button in the top right corner of the screen.
This will open a new tab in your window, where you must provide your email address and password.
After that, click the ‘Create Account’ button.
Once you do that, you will be sent a verification email.
Simply open this email from your inbox and click the ‘Verify email’ button.
You will now be taken to the Figma website, where you will be asked for your name.
After that, you must provide some details on how you plan to use the tool and then click the ‘Continue’ button at the bottom.
You will then be asked to choose a pricing plan. You can select the ‘Starter’ plan, which is free, and click the ‘Continue’ button.
Step 2: Design a Page on Figma
You will now be directed to your Figma dashboard
Once you are there, go ahead and click the ‘Design File’ button at the top right corner to create a Figma page.
The Figma builder will now open up on your screen. Here, you have to select the ‘Frame’ option from the top.
This will open a list of design frames in the right column, where you must select the ‘Desktop’ option. This is because the plugin we will use to convert Figma to WordPress currently only supports the desktop canvas.
Next, you can add images to the canvas by clicking on the square icon at the top and choosing the ‘Place image/video’ option.
This will open your computer folder, where you can upload an image or video of your choice.
You can also add text to your page by clicking on the ‘T’ icon at the top of the screen.
Once you do that, you can adjust the text size, alignment, font, and spacing from the settings in the right column.
You can also use free style tools like ‘Pen’ and ‘Pencil’ from the top, add feedback questions, create more layers and pages, change the background color, and much more.
If you are a developer and want to add CSS code to the page, then you can also do that by switching to ‘Dev Mode’ using the toggle in the top right corner of the screen.
Step 3: Copy the Figma Page’s API Key
Once you are satisfied with your Figma page’s customization, it is time to get its API key. This key will allow the plugin to embed the Figma page in WordPress.
To do this, click on the ‘Figma’ icon in the top left corner of the screen. This will open a menu prompt, where you must select the Help and account » Account Settings option.
A new prompt will now open up on the screen.
From here, scroll down to the ‘Personal access tokens’ section and click the ‘Generate new token’ link.
This will open some new settings, where you must provide a name and expiration date for the token that you are creating. We recommend selecting the ‘No Expiration’ option for the token if you don’t want the Figma page to disappear from your website after a specific time period.
After that, you can set all the scopes except for File Content to ‘Write’ and then click the ‘Generate token’ button.
You will now be taken back to the ‘Personal access tokens’ section.
From here, you can copy the newly generated token and paste it into Notepad or another plain text editor.
Step 4: Convert Figma to WordPress
Once you have gotten the API key, it is now time to convert your Figma page to WordPress.
Upon activation, open up the page or post where you want to add the Figma page. Once you are there, simply click the ‘Import From Figma’ button at the top of the screen.
This will open a prompt, where you must paste the Figma page access token that you copied earlier.
After that, you have to add the Figma page URL into the ‘FIGMA FILE URL’ field.
To get this URL, open your Figma file and copy the link in the browser tab. Keep in mind that the desktop frame should be selected before you copy the URL.
Upon pasting the link in WordPress, click the ‘Start Import’ button.
The plugin will then convert your Figma page into the Group block. You can now customize the block’s alignment, position, typography, and color from the block panel.
After that, click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button to store your settings.
This is how the converted Figma file looked on our demo website.
Alternative: Use Seahawk Media Services to Convert Figma to WordPress
If you have created your entire website using Figma, then the above method will not be suitable because the plugin only works with the desktop frame.
Plus, the plugin may have trouble transferring complex designs accurately because Figma focuses on design only while WordPress requires coding for dynamic content and functionality. This means that some of the elements that you have added in Figma may not work in WordPress.
That’s why we recommend using Seahawk Media services to convert Figma to WordPress because they consider all these factors during the conversion.
Seahawk Media is a premier WordPress services company that offers numerous services, including development, design, maintenance, migration, support, and more.
They are trusted by over 1000+ businesses and will perform a fully responsive, cleanly coded, SEO-ready, and pixel-perfect Figma to WordPress conversion for you.
All you will have to do is send your Figma files to the business.
After understanding your requirements, Seahawk will set an approximate timeline and convert your Figma files to a WordPress site in just a few days.
You can also use the company’s services for an SEO audit, content writing services, white label services, support, and hacked site repair.
Bonus: Use SeedProd to Build a Visually Appealing Website
If you feel like it’s too much to work to build pages with Figma and then convert them to WordPress, then you can use SeedProd instead.
It is the best WordPress theme builder and page builder on the market that it super easy to build custom themes and landing pages for your website using drag and drop.
SeedProd comes with a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder, 300+ premade templates, advanced WooCommerce blocks, and integrations with email marketing services.
You can easily drag and drop images, headings, videos, CTA, optin forms, giveaways, or paragraph blocks from the left column in the builder to create an attractive page.
Once you’ve done that, simply click on the block you added to open its settings in the left column. From here, you can insert dynamic text and change the font size, alignment, color, and more.
Finally, click the ‘Save’ and ‘Publish’ buttons at the top to store your settings and make your changes live. For detailed instructions, you can see our tutorial on how to create a landing page in WordPress.
For more information about the plugin in general, see our SeedProd review.
Frequently Asked Questions About Converting Figma to WordPress
Here are some questions frequently asked by our readers about Figma and WordPress.
Do Figma and WordPress work together?
By default, Figma and WordPress cannot directly integrate. However, you can use tools and plugins like UiChemy, pxCode, or Animation and Design Converter for Gutenberg Block to convert a Figma design to WordPress.
If this method is too complex for you, then you can simply hire a developer or dedicated company like Seahawk Media for this conversion.
Do I need to know coding to convert Figma to WordPress?
You don’t need to know coding to create and convert Figma designs to WordPress because you can easily do it with a plugin or hire a developer.
However, if you want to do it yourself without a plugin, then you must know HTML, CSS, and possibly PHP to hand-code your website. This is because some of the Figma design elements will need to be coded to provide functionality in WordPress.
Does converting from Figma to WordPress hurt SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?
If you convert a Figma design to WordPress, then your content or backlinks won’t be affected. However, Figma designs can negatively affect your website structure, page speed, and images.
That is why we recommend using Seahawk Media services for a Figma to WordPress conversion because they will make sure that your website is fully responsive, cleanly coded, and SEO-ready after the conversion.
Do you want to create a news website but are not sure how to get started?
News sites are popular among users all around the world. You can attract an audience from every corner of the world and build a brand. While it can be difficult to compete with established sites, you can write about your favorite topics, cover local area news, and report on specific niches.
In this article, we will show you how to make a news website step by step.
Here is an overview of everything we will cover in this guide. You can click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section.
People are constantly in search of the latest information about different topics. Be it current affairs, technology, lifestyle, fashion, or updates about your local area, creating a news website can open a world of opportunities.
For instance, it helps you reach a wider audience. You can attract readers from different parts of the world and grow traffic on your website.
It also allows you to make money online. You can partner with brands and companies in different countries. Or start a subscription service like The New York Times and offer exclusive access to premium content.
Besides that, a news website lets you create a brand for a specific niche. You can cover training topics or the latest news from different industries and build brand recognition over time.
Another benefit of making a news site is that you can create different content formats. For example, simply turn textual news articles into videos, start a newsletter to inform your subscribers, or start a podcast.
That said, let’s see what you’ll need to make a news site.
What You’ll Need to Start a News Website
To get started, the first thing you’ll need to do is find the right platform for your news website. This is essential because moving to a new host can be tricky and technical later on.
There are many platforms that you can use to make a news website, but each one of them has its own pros and cons. You can learn more by seeing our comparison of the best blogging platforms.
For example, you can start for free on WordPress.com, Tumblr, Blogger, Medium, and more. However, free platforms offer limited features and flexibility, which makes it hard to monetize your site and scale your business.
This is where WordPress.org comes in. It powers more than 43% of the websites on the internet. Plus, it is a powerful website builder that gives you full control and ownership of your website.
In fact, many notable news brands like CNN Press Room, Microsoft News, The New Times, and more use WordPress.
Do note that WordPress.org and WordPress.com are two different platforms. Please see our comparison of WordPress.com vs WordPress.org to learn more.
Once you’ve selected WordPress.org as a platform for your news site, you’ll also need:
Web Hosting – This is the home for your news site where all the files, content, images, and other data will be stored.
Domain Name – It is your site’s address that users will enter in their browser (like wpbeginner.com or google.com)
Your undivided attention for the next 30 minutes.
In just a few minutes, you can easily create a news website using WordPress. Let’s dive into the steps.
Selecting Web Hosting and Installing WordPress
When creating a WordPress website, there are several costs you’ll need to look after.
For instance, a domain name usually costs $14.99 per year, and web hosting costs $7.99 per month. If you add an SSL certificate and more features to the web hosting plan, then this cost can go even higher.
That’s a lot for beginners and new website owners.
Luckily, our friends at Hostinger are offering an amazing deal where you get a free domain name and free SSL with each hosting plan. That’s an 81% discount on hosting for our readers.
So you can get started for as low as $2.24 per month.
To start, you’ll need to visit the Hostinger website and click the ‘Claim Deal’ button.
Next, Hostinger will ask you to select a pricing plan and click the ‘Add to Cart’ button.
We recommend that you start with the ‘Premium’ plan, but you can always upgrade to another plan later on.
On the next screen, you’ll need to select a hosting time period. For instance, you can choose to host for 1 month, 12 months, 24 months, or 48 months.
The 48 months plan gives you the best discount and maximum saving.
After that, you can create a new account on Hostinger.
There is also an option to log in using your Google or Facebook account.
Next, you will need to enter your personal details and select a payment method.
From here, simply complete the payment process and finish your purchase. After completing the purchase, you can go ahead and create a new website.
Simply head to the ‘Websites’ tab from your Hostinger dashboard. From here, click the ‘+ Create or migrate a website’ option.
This will launch the website setup wizard by Hostinger.
Next, you can choose the type of website you want to create. There are multiple options like online store, blog, business, portfolio, and others.
To create a news website, go ahead and select the ‘Blog’ option.
In the next step, Hostinger will ask if you’d like to create a new site or migrate an existing website.
Go ahead and select the ‘Create a new website’ option.
Next, Hostinger will ask you to select a platform for your news website.
You will have to choose the ‘WordPress with AI’ option and click the ‘Select’ button.
After that, Hostinger will require setting up login details for your WordPress account.
Simply enter an administrator email and select a password. Once that’s done, click the ‘Continue’ button.
In the next step, Hostinger will ask you to automatically install specific WordPress plugins on your website.
You can simply choose the plugins you want and click the ‘Continue’ button. Or skip this step and install plugins later on.
After that, Hostinger will show different website templates to choose from.
You can simply skip this step and choose a news theme later on for your WordPress site.
In the next step, Hostinger offers you the option to automatically create a few pieces of content using AI. You can add a brand name and description and let ChatGPT handle the rest.
Or you can skip this step and create content for your news website later on.
After that, Hostinger will ask you to select a desired domain. You can claim a free domain, buy a domain, or use a domain name that you already own.
For this tutorial, we will select the ‘Claim a Free Domain’ option.
After choosing a domain name, the WordPress installation will start.
To view your newly created site, you can go to the ‘Websites’ tab from your Hostinger dashboard.
Go ahead and click the ‘Admin Panel’ option to open the WordPress admin area.
This is where you can choose a theme for your news site, install and manage plugins, add content to posts and pages, and more.
Choosing a Theme for Your News Site
Now that you’ve created a news website using WordPress, the next step is to choose a theme. Choosing the right theme is essential, as it should display your latest and trending news prominently while making the reading experience pleasant.
WordPress offers over 11,000 free themes to choose from. To add a theme, simply head to Appearance » Themes from your WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Add New Theme’ button.
Next, you’ll see different WordPress themes.
You can filter them by ‘news’ and choose the one you like.
If you’re looking for a beginner-friendly theme to get started, then we recommend Astra. It has many customization options and is a perfect choice for news websites.
The best part about using Astra is that it supports popular page builders out of the box. Plus, it’s optimized for WordPress SEO (search engine optimization) and ensures fast performance.
With Astra, you get multiple templates for a news site. You can simply select one and customize it. For instance, here’s a preview of a news template offered by Astra.
On the other hand, you can also create a custom news theme using SeedProd. It is the best WordPress website builder that lets you create a theme without editing any code.
There are plenty of templates to choose from and different customization options. The best part, SeedProd offers a drag-and-drop theme and page builder, so it’s very easy to edit your site.
WordPress offers 2 default post types called posts and pages. Posts are part of the blogging functionality. On the other hand, pages are static content used for different landing pages, like an about us or contact us page.
To start adding content, you’ll need to use the WordPress block editor (also called Gutenberg).
Unlike the old Classic editor, you get modern features and more flexibility in creating content in the block editor. It makes it very easy to format text and add media like videos and images to your content.
We recommend starting with the static content, as it will not change on a regular basis. There are pretty common kinds of static content that almost all websites on the internet share.
These include a contact form page, an about us page, a privacy policy page, a terms of service page, and more.
For instance, here’s a preview of what the Contact Us page from OptinMonster looks like. You can use a page builder to create custom landing pages just like this.
Next, you can start creating news articles as blog posts.
We recommend publishing new content on a frequent basis. Large news sites post multiple news articles daily. You can start with a few posts per week and then gradually increase the frequency.
Customizing and Adjusting Your News Website Settings
After adding content to your WordPress news site, you can tweak different settings on your site and customize its appearance.
Let’s look at some of the things you can adjust on your site.
1. Edit the News Website Title and Tagline
You can change the site title and add a tagline to your news site.
The site title will be the name of your website, like WPBeginner. While the tagline helps describe your website briefly.
Simply go to Settings » General page from the WordPress dashboard. From here, enter the site title and tagline.
Note: If you’re using an SEO plugin like All in One SEO (AIOSEO) or Yoast SEO, then leave the site title field blank. Otherwise, the plugins will override the title text for better search engine optimization.
2. Create Categories to Organize Your Content
WordPress categories are a powerful tool that helps sort your content. Users can quickly view news from different regions, industries, or topics by navigating different categories.
Categories also develop a proper structure for your site. This is great for your site’s SEO, as it helps search engines understand what your page is about.
You can easily create categories and subcategories by going to Posts » Categories from the WordPress dashboard. Then, enter a name and click the ‘Add New Category’ button.
The navigational menu helps your readers to browse your site. It also lets you organize your content and make it easy for users to access important articles and pages.
For example, The Guardian shows a menu at the top of its website where you can access content based on different categories, like news, sports, culture, and lifestyle.
Many news themes come with built-in menus, and you can also create your own using WordPress’s powerful navigation menu system.
You can allow users to leave comments on your news article and participate in discussions. This is great for boosting engagement on your site.
However, if you don’t have comment moderation enabled, then it can lead to a lot of spam on your site.
To ensure that comments don’t automatically appear on your site, head to Settings » Discussion from the WordPress dashboard. Next, you’ll need to scroll down to the Before a comment appears section and click the ‘Comment must be manually approved’ checkbox.
Optimize Your WordPress News Site for Search Engines
The next step is to ensure that users can easily find your news website on the internet. This is where optimizing your site for search engines is essential.
You can drive a lot of traffic from search engines like Google and Bing. By optimizing your content, you can rank higher in search engine page results and get more people to visit your news site.
The best part is that WordPress is SEO-friendly out of the box. However, you still need to ensure that your site is optimized correctly.
The easiest way to do that is by using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin. It is the best SEO plugin for WordPress and helps you configure your site for search engines without hiring a professional or any technical knowledge.
AIOSEO offers powerful features like TruSEO on-page analysis, rich snippets schema markup, XML sitemaps, breadcrumb navigation, social media integration, and more. It handles all the technical SEO optimization for your WordPress news site.
Besides using AIOSEO, you can also ensure that you’re following the basics of SEO. For instance, check your site is visible to search engines, your site has an SEO-friendly URL, you’re using HTTPS, adding internal links to your content, and more.
To ensure your news site is properly optimized, please follow our step-by-step guide on WordPress SEO.
Submit Your WordPress News Site to Google News
Aside from following the basics of SEO, you can go a step further and submit your site to Google News. This can skyrocket your website traffic, attract a new audience, and build authority.
Google News is a news aggregator that shows the latest stories and news from different sources. Getting your site featured in Google News can improve visibility and also help capture the Top Stories featured snippet.
Before submitting your site to Google News, you’ll need to ensure that you follow Google News policies. For example, your content should not be dangerous, deceptive, hateful, sexually explicit, violent, or manipulative.
Once you’ve followed all the policies, you can use the AIOSEO plugin to set up a news sitemap. The news sitemap helps Google to quickly discover your content and show it in the news section.
After creating a sitemap, you can head to the Google Publisher Center website.
Here, you can enter your news site’s URL and follow the onscreen instructions to submit it to Google News.
Did you know that 70% of people who visit your news site will never come back again?
You can change this by using OptinMonster. It is the best lead generation and conversion optimization software for WordPress. OptinMonster lets you create popups, spin-to-win campaigns, floating bars, and more. Plus, it offers powerful display rules, allowing you to show the campaigns to the right audience at the right time.
For example, you can offer free resources, coupons, discount deals, and other incentives in exchange for users’ email addresses.
Once you start getting subscribers, you can build an email list and set up a newsletter to send the latest news, trending stories, and more. This will help bring people back to your site and build authority.
Website push notifications help you stay in touch with your audience after they’ve left your site. They get a higher engagement rate compared to social media or email.
You can use PushEngage to get started. It is the best push notification software for WordPress. It is super easy to use and helps set up automated campaigns, create segments for different subscribers, detailed analytics, and more.
You can send notifications to inform users about new articles, breaking news, the latest trends, and more.
Another way to grow your website traffic is by sharing content on social media platforms.
For instance, you can send out a tweet on X (formerly known as Twitter) about the latest news and share news articles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more.
You can also add social sharing buttons on your site so visitors can share the news with their friends and followers.
With WordPress, there are ways to automate the process and automatically share content to social media when they’re published. Simply use Uncanny Automator to create automated workflows and integrate social media profiles with your website.
Once you start adding more content and attracting more visitors, you can take your news site to the next level.
Here are some tips for boosting engagement on your website.
1. Adding a Scrolling News Ticker in WordPress
A scrolling news ticker is a single line of text that appears continuously across the screen and shows small snippets of information.
For instance, you can use it to show breaking news, sporting results, live financial and currency information, weather, discount deals, upcoming events, and more.
The easiest way of adding a scrolling news ticker is by using the Ditty plugin. It is a free plugin that is very easy to use and set up. For more details, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add a scrolling news ticker in WordPress.
2. Show Popular and Trending News Articles
Another way to boost engagement on your site is by displaying popular and trending news articles within or at the end of your content
You can also show related news articles and other blog posts on similar topics within your content. This makes it easier for users to discover new content and stay longer on your site.
You can curate news from multiple sources and display them on your site as an aggregator.
News aggregators are useful for many niches and allow users to view news from their favorite websites in one place. It also lets you make money online by selling subscriptions, advertisements, and sponsorships.
Some popular news aggregators include Feedly, Google News, and Alltop. You can also create your own news aggregator site using a plugin like WP RSS Aggregator.
We hope this article helped you learn how to make a news website step by step. You may also want to see our ultimate guide to boosting WordPress performance and the best WordPress plugins to have on your 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.
Do you want to add a customer reviews page in WordPress?
Many businesses add a review page on their website to showcase testimonials from their satisfied customers. This builds trust among potential buyers by proving that your product or service is of good quality.
In this article, we will show you how to easily add a customer reviews page in WordPress.
Why Add a Customer Reviews Page in WordPress?
If you are running an online store or a business website, then you probably already have customers who are happy with your products and services.
Showing social proof like customer reviews and testimonials helps you gain the trust of new customers. This can lead to increased sales by convincing potential buyers to make a purchase.
Plus, testimonials can also improve your search engine rankings by bringing fresh and unique content to your WordPress website.
Reviews can also increase engagement and create a sense of community, building brand loyalty among users.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to add customer review pages in WordPress. You can use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use:
It is the best WordPress customer reviews plugin on the market that allows you to add reviews from the biggest platforms on the internet, including Google, Yelp, and Facebook.
It also automatically copies your website design so that the reviews suit your WordPress theme and look like a natural part of your blog.
Note: Reviews Feed also has a free version that you can use to integrate with Google or Yelp. However, we will be using the Pro version in our tutorial as it has more features and integrations.
Upon activation, head over to the Reviews Feed menu tab from the WordPress admin sidebar.
Once there, simply copy and paste your license key into the field and click the ‘Activate’ button.
You can get your license key from your account page on the Smash Balloon website.
Once you have done that, the ‘Create a Review Feed’ page will open up on your screen.
From here, just click the ‘+ Add Source’ button to add a source for your customer reviews.
This will open up the ‘Add Sources’ prompt on the screen, where you can select the source for your reviews. For this tutorial, we will be using Google as the source.
After making your choice, click the ‘Next’ button to move forward.
You will now be directed to the next step.
Here, you need to add an API key for Google reviews so that the Reviews Feed plugin can fetch data from your account and display it on your WordPress website.
Create a Google API Key
To get an API key for Google reviews, visit Google Console and sign in using your Google account.
Once you are on the ‘Google Cloud’ page, click the ‘Create Project’ button.
This will take you to the ‘New Project’ page, where you can start by typing in a name. For instance, we will be naming our project’ Customer Reviews Plugin API’.
After that, choose an Organization and Location for the project from the dropdown menus and click the ‘Create’ button.
Once you have created the project, you will be redirected to the ‘APIs & Services’ page.
From here, first, make sure that the project you have created is the one that is selected in the dropdown menu at the top.
After that, click the ‘+ Enable APIs & Services’ button.
You will now be taken to the API library.
Here, click on the ‘Places API’ option in the right corner of the screen.
This will take you to a new page where you can activate the key for making Places API requests.
To do this, simply click the ‘Enable’ button.
Now, head back to the ‘APIs & Services’ page and switch to the ‘Credentials’ tab in the left sidebar.
Once you are there, just click the ‘+ Create Credentials’ button to open up a dropdown menu and select the ‘API Key’ option.
After your API key is created, a new prompt will open up on the screen.
From here, simply copy your key and head back to the WordPress admin dashboard.
Once you are there, open up the ‘Add Sources’ prompt once again.
After that, paste your Google Reviews API key into the field and click the ‘Next’ button to continue.
Now, you will need to enter the Place ID of the cafe, restaurant, or other physical business that you want to use in your feed.
To do this, visit Google’s Place ID page and scroll down to the ‘Find the ID of a particular place’ section.
From here, enter the address or name of the venue that you are locating and click on the right one when it appears.
Google will now show the Place ID in a small popup. Simply go ahead and copy the ID.
Now, head over to the WordPress dashboard and paste the Place ID into the box.
After that, click the ‘Finish’ button to complete the setup.
You have now successfully integrated Google Reviews with Smash Balloon Reviews Feed Pro.
Customize the Reviews Feed
The Google Reviews feed will now be displayed in the ‘Add Sources’ section.
From here, simply choose the feed and click the ‘Next’ button at the top.
You will now be taken to the ‘Select a Template’ page.
Here, select a template for the reviews feed according to your liking.
Once you have done that, the feed editor will automatically open up on your screen.
It will show a live preview of your feed on the right and a sidebar with different settings on the left.
Note: SeedProd also has a free version that you can try. However, we will be using the premium version in our tutorial as it has more features.
Upon activation, head over to the SeedProd » Settings page to enter the plugin license key.
You can find this information in your account on the SeedProd website.
Next, go to the SeedProd » Landing Pages section from the admin dashboard and click on the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button.
For this tutorial, we will be adding customer reviews to a landing page.
This will direct you to the ‘Choose a New Page Template’ screen.
SeedProd offers many pre-made layouts that you can use for your landing pages. Simply choose one and click on it.
You will then be asked to enter a page name and choose a URL. After entering this information, click on the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button to continue.
This will launch SeedProd’s drag-and-drop page builder, where you can now start editing your page. For detailed instructions, please see our tutorial on how to create a landing page in WordPress.
Once here, you need to look for the Testimonials block in the block panel on the left side of the screen. Upon finding the block, simply drag and drop it to your preferred location on the landing page.
Now that the ‘Testimonials’ block has been added, just click on it to open up its settings in the left sidebar.
After that, click on the demo testimonial to open its settings in the sidebar.
Next, you can add the text, image, name, and title for the customer review.
Once you have done that, scroll down to the ‘Carousel Settings’ section in the left column.
From here, you can choose the testimonial color mode, autoplay speed, the number of testimonials shown in a row, and more.
You can even change the color of the speech bubble by clicking on the ‘Bubble Color’ option to open up a color picker.
Once you are done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your settings.
Finally, click the ‘Publish’ button to publish the landing page on your website.
This is how the customer reviews looked on our demo reviews page.
As you can see, we have different colors for our customer reviews.
Bonus: Add Social Proof in Real-Time to Increase Conversions
Another way to encourage users to buy your products or services is by adding real-time social proof to your WordPress website.
Social proof is a psychological phenomenon where users have a natural urge to copy other people’s actions.
This means that you can show a notification bubble with recent purchases and form submissions by other users on your website in order to encourage potential customers to take action.
You can easily do this using TrustPulse. It is the best WordPress social proof plugin on the market that allows you to display real-time user activity notifications on your website, such as products being purchased or form submissions.
The plugin also comes with features like real-time event tracking, smart targeting, flexible design options, actionable analytics, and more. For more information, you can see our complete TrustPulse review.
With this plugin, you can use FOMO to create anticipation and excitement around your products or store, which can ultimately lead to increased conversions.
The news that Google is shuttering Google Business Profile websites has made many users ask us how to migrate their site to WordPress before the service shuts down for good.
In March 2024, Google will be shutting down more than 21.7 million websites created with Google Business Profiles. This is the latest in a history of Google removing products and services.
If you’re one of the users who will be affected by this change, then now is the perfect time to relocate your website.
In this article, we will show you how to migrate a Google Business Profile website to WordPress.
Here’s an overview of what we will cover in this guide. You can click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:
Why Migrate a Google Business Profile Site to WordPress?
When you create a Google Business Profile, you get an option to add a website. Previously, if you didn’t have a website, Google would allow you to create a free single-page site instantly.
This way, users looking up your brand on a local search will see a detailed business profile, including a business site, working hours, store locations, directions, phone numbers, and more.
Unfortunately, that redirection will only work until June 10, 2024. People visiting your site after this date will see a ‘page not found’ error.
This can have a negative effect on your business, as it will look less professional. Not to mention, customers won’t be able to view detailed information about your company, products, and services.
As a result, your conversions may drop, and you could end up losing customers to your competitors.
That’s why it’s important to migrate your Google Business Profile site to WordPress.
Note: Google is only shutting down the service that hosts sites through Google Business Profiles. The profile for your business itself will still be available in search results. Later in this post, we will show you how to link your new WordPress site with your business profile.
Why Choose WordPress as a Platform for Your Website?
WordPress is the most popular website builder in the world, as it powers more than 43% of websites on the internet.
The best part is that WordPress is free to use and open-source. By migrating your Google Business Profile site to WordPress, you get more control and flexibility.
For instance, you get to own all your content and don’t have to rely on a third-party platform. All you need is a web hosting service and a domain name to get started.
With WordPress, you get multiple themes. This makes it very flexible, as you can create a simple 1-page WordPress website or a complete online store. It also offers thousands of plugins which help add more features and functionality.
Besides that, WordPress is SEO-friendly. What this means is that you can easily optimize it for search engines like Google. This helps attract users to your website and boost conversion.
Note: Remember that WordPress.com and WordPress.org are different platforms. WordPress.com is a hosted solution that offers limited features, whereas WordPress.org is the famous platform that everyone has come to love and use. You can see our complete comparison of WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org.
That said, let’s look at how you can easily migrate your Business Profile site to WordPress.
Step 1: Create a Backup of Google Business Profile Site
Before you can migrate your website to WordPress, the first step is to backup data from your Google My Business site.
Note that Google Business Profile doesn’t offer an export option, so you’ll need to download all the images, videos, and other media files manually.
To do that, simply open your Google Business Profile website and then right-click on the image you want to save.
After that, simply click the ‘Save as’ option and save the image anywhere on your computer.
Similarly, you can simply copy the text on your website and paste it into a document.
To start, first highlight the text on your website and then hit the right-click button on your mouse. From here, select the ‘Copy’ button.
You can also use keyboard shortcuts to copy the text. For instance, you’ll need to hit ‘Ctrl + C’ on Windows and ‘Command + C’ on Mac.
Next, open a Notepad file, Google Docs, or a Microsoft Word document and simply paste the content from your website. If you have links in the text, it’s a good idea to use Google Docs or Microsoft Word because they will keep those in the pasted text.
You can right-click anywhere on the document and select the ‘Paste’ option. Or use the ‘Ctrl + V’ keyboard shortcut on Windows and ‘Command + V’ on Mac to paste the text.
Since Business Profile sites are small and single-page, downloading and copying your data should be a quick process.
Step 2: Choosing a Web Hosting Platform for Your Site
Next, you will need a web hosting service to run a website using WordPress. Web hosting is where all your website files are stored. You can think of it as a house where your site’s content lives.
While WordPress is free to download, you’ll need to subscribe to a platform like Bluehost to host the site
Usually, web hosting costs around $7.99 per month (paid annually), and domain name prices start from $16.99 per year, depending on the domain extension. The cost to build a WordPress site can go even higher if you want a custom theme and more features.
This can be a significant investment, considering it was free to create a website using Google Business Profile.
Luckily, Bluehost is offering an exclusive discount for WPBeginner users. You can get started for as low as $1.99 per month and get a free domain + SSL certificate.
Bluehost is one of the best hosting companies in the industry. It is an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.
WPBeginner users can enjoy up to 61% off and get a 1-click WordPress install. To start, simply visit the Bluehost website and click the ‘Get Started Now’ button.
After that, you will need to select a hosting plan.
Simply click the ‘Select’ button to choose a pricing plan. You can select the Basic or Choice Plus plans to get started, as they should be suitable for small business websites.
On the next screen, you will need to pick a domain name for your website. A domain name is your site’s name that users will enter in their browsers (like wpbeginner.com or google.com).
Bluehost lets you create a new domain name, or you can use an existing domain that you own.
Pro Tip: If you need help picking the right name, then try our free business name generator tool. Simply enter words related to your business, and the tool will generate lots of ideas for your domain name.
After choosing a name for your website, you’ll need to fill in your account details and finalize the Bluehost package.
Bluehost will add extra options to your package. We recommend unchecking all the additional options as you’ll save money. Plus, you can always add them later on if needed.
Next, you can add your payment details and complete the purchase.
Once that’s done, Bluehost will create your hosting account and email you the login details.
Step 3: Install and Set Up WordPress
Next, you can log in to the Bluehost account to view the dashboard. From here, you’ll be able to manage your website, get support, and install WordPress.
The best part about using Bluehost is that it automatically installs WordPress for you.
You just need to head to the ‘Websites’ tab from the menu on the left. After that, simply click the ‘Edit Site’ button.
This will open the WordPress dashboard, where you can log in and start adding content, customizing the design, and creating new pages.
Bluehost offers an AI-powered setup wizard that will guide you through the initial configuration. You can simply follow the on-screen instructions to create a WordPress website. You can also opt-out of the AI assistant.
Step 4: Add Content From Business Profile Site to WordPress
Now that your WordPress site is ready, the next step is to import content from the Google Business Profile site.
Since there is no way to directly import data from your Google My Business site into WordPress, you’ll need to add content manually.
You can start by creating different pages for your website, like an about us page, a contact page, and more. Simply head to Pages in the WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Add New Page’ button.
Next, you will need to enter content that you copied from the Google Business Profile site in the content editor.
To start, enter a title for your page at the top. After that, you can type the text or simply copy it from the file you created earlier and paste it into the content editor.
Simply use the keyboard shortcut keys to copy and paste the text. For Windows, you’ll need to press ‘Ctrl + C’ to copy and ‘Ctrl + V’ to paste. If you’re using Mac, then simply press ‘Command + V’ to copy and ‘Command + V’ to paste.
WordPress also lets you add images, videos, and other media files to your content.
To add a picture, you can click the ‘+’ sign and add an Image block in your content. From here, you’ll need to click the ‘Media Library’ button.
Once you’re done, go ahead and click ‘Publish’ at the top of the page. Simply repeat this step to create as many pages as you want for your website.
Next, you can add the content to each of these pages that you saved and copied from your Google Business Profile site.
Pro Tip: We highly recommend checking out our guide to the important pages that every WordPress site should have. This will take you through the pages that ensure your migration from Google Business Profile to WordPress is as complete as possible.
We recommend that you create a custom landing page for your website using the block editor or a plugin like SeedProd.
SeedProd is the best WordPress theme and landing page builder. It offers a drag-and-drop builder, pre-built templates, and lots of customization options.
You can easily edit and control the appearance of your site using the plugin. Plus, there are different blocks to add to the design.
After creating pages, you can also add new blog posts to your business website. For more details, please see our guide on how to add a new post in WordPress.
There are various topics you can write about related to your business. These can be helpful guides, list articles, how-to tutorials that help explain how to use different features of your products and services, and more.
Step 5: Optimizing Your Business Site for Local SEO
After adding content from your Google My Business site to WordPress, you will need to optimize your site for local search results. This way, people searching for your business can easily find it on search engines like Google.
A simple way of doing that is by using All in One SEO (AIOSEO). It is the best WordPress SEO plugin that helps optimize your website for search engines. It automatically adds schema markup and helps configure local SEO settings without any technical knowledge.
Schema markup is a special code format that’s used on your site, and it tells search engines extra information about your business. For instance, schema markup helps you show details like address, opening hours, map location, and more on Google search results.
Note: To use the Local SEO feature in AIOSEO, you will need at least the Plus plan.
Next, you can scroll down and enter your business information. For instance, you can provide a name, logo, image, address, select type of business, phone number, and more.
Add Opening Hours for Your Business
After that, head to the ‘Opening Hours’ tab and enable the option.
Simply click the ‘Show Opening Hours’ toggle to Yes.
Next, you can scroll down and add your business hours.
There is also an option where you can show your business is open 24/7.
Show Business Location on Google Maps
AIOSEO also lets you integrate Google Maps and help users find where your business is located.
You can do that by going to the ‘Maps’ tab and entering the Google Maps API key.
Step 6: Update Website URL in Google Business Profile
Now that your new WordPress website is ready, the next step is to update the link in Google Business Profile.
You can do that by visiting your Business Profile on Google. From here, simply click the ‘Edit Profile’ option.
You should now see a new popup window open with your business information.
Next, you can navigate to the ‘Website’ section and replace the URL with your new WordPress website.
That’s it! You’ve successfully migrated your Google Business Profile website to WordPress.
Now, users who click the ‘Website’ link on your Business Profile will land on your new WordPress website.
Bonus: Install WordPress Plugins to Get the Most of Your Site
The best part about using WordPress is the plugins. You can think of them as apps, and they help add additional features and functionality to your site.
For instance, there are plugins for creating backups, improving security, boosting speed and performance, starting an online store, and more.
That said, there are over 59,000 free and paid plugins that you can use. This can get overwhelming for new users who don’t know which plugin to pick and install.
To help you out, here are some of the top plugins we recommend using on your WordPress site:
WPForms – It is the best form builder for WordPress. You can easily create different types of forms and add them to your site. For example, it lets you create simple contact forms, payment forms, surveys, registration forms, and more.
MonsterInsights – It is the best Analytics plugin for WordPress. You can connect Google Analytics to WordPress without editing code using MonsterInsights. Plus, it helps you find out how people behave on your site, where they come from, which links they click, and uncover other useful insights.
OptinMonster – A powerful conversion optimization and lead generation toolkit for WordPress. You can create different campaigns to grow your email list, get more leads, and increase sales.
Duplicator – It is the best WordPress backup plugin. You can create backups of your WordPress site and store them on the cloud. This way, you’ll have a fresh copy to restore your site in case there’s a security breach, or something goes wrong.
Do you want to create your own custom page layouts in WordPress?
Elementor is a drag-and-drop WordPress page builder that allows you to easily design custom WordPress layouts without having any coding knowledge.
In this article, we will show you how to easily create custom WordPress layouts with Elementor with just a few clicks.
Why and When Do You Need Custom WordPress Layouts?
Many free and premium WordPress themes come with multiple layout choices for different kinds of pages. However, sometimes, none of these layouts will meet your requirements.
If you know how to code in PHP, HTML, and CSS, then you can create your own page templates or even build a child theme for your site. However, the majority of WordPress users are not developers, so this option doesn’t work for them.
Wouldn’t it be great if you could just design page layouts using a drag-and-drop interface?
This is exactly what Elementor does. It is a drag-and-drop WordPress page builder plugin that allows you to easily create your own custom WordPress layouts without any coding skills.
It has an intuitive user interface that lets you build custom layouts with a live preview. It comes with many ready-to-use modules for all kinds of web design elements.
Elementor has several professionally designed templates that you can instantly load and use as a starting point. It works with all standard-compliant WordPress themes and is compatible with all popular WordPress plugins.
Having said that, let’s take a look at how to create custom WordPress layouts with Elementor.
Getting Started With Elementor
First, you will need to purchase the Elementor Pro plugin. It is the paid version of the free Elementor plugin and gives you access to additional features and 1 year of support.
Next, you will need to install and activate the Elementor plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you must visit the Elementor » Settings page to configure the plugin settings.
Here, you can enable Elementor for different post types. By default, it is enabled for your WordPress posts and pages. If you have custom post types on your site, then those will also appear here, and you can enable them as well.
You can exclude or include user roles that can use Elementor when writing posts or pages. By default, the page builder is enabled only for administrators.
Then, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save changes’ button to store your settings.
Creating Custom WordPress Layouts With Elementor
First, you need to create a new page or post on your WordPress site. On the post editing screen, you will notice the new ‘Edit with Elementor’ button.
Clicking on it will launch the Elementor user interface, where you can edit your page using Elementor’s drag-and-drop page builder.
You can add sections and build your page from scratch, or you can pick a template.
Templates give you a quick and easy way to get started. Elementor comes with several professionally designed templates that you can customize as much as you want.
Let’s start with a template by clicking on the ‘Add Template’ button.
This will bring up a popup where you will be able to see the different templates that are available. You should look for a template that is similar to what you want for your page layout.
Now, you need to click to select the template you like and then click on the ‘Insert’ button to add it to your page.
Elementor will now load the template for you.
You can now start editing the template to match your needs. Simply point and click on any element to select it, and Elementor will show you its settings in the left column.
How Elementor Layouts Work
Now, let’s talk about how Elementor layouts work.
Elementor layouts are built using sections, columns, and widgets. Sections are like rows or blocks that you place on your page.
Each section can have multiple columns, and each section and column can have its own styles, colors, content, and so on.
You can add anything in your columns and sections using Elementor widgets. These widgets are different kinds of content blocks that you can place in your Elementor sections.
Simply select a widget and drop it into your section or column. There is an extensive set of widgets available that cover all the popular web design elements that you can think of.
You can add images, text, headings, image galleries, videos, maps, icons, testimonials, sliders, carousels, and so much more.
You can also add default WordPress widgets and even the widgets created by other WordPress plugins on your site. For example, if you are using WPForms to create different forms for your site, then you can use its widget in Elementor.
Once you are done editing, you can click on the arrow next to the ‘Publish’ button to view different save options.
Note: Saving a page layout will not publish the page on your WordPress site, but it will save it.
You can now preview your page or go to the WordPress dashboard.
This will bring you back to the WordPress post editor. You can now save your WordPress page or publish it on your website.
Creating Your Own Templates in Elementor
Elementor allows you to save your own custom layouts as templates. This way, you can reuse your own templates to create new pages even faster in the future.
Simply edit the page you would like to save as a template with Elementor.
In the Elementor builder interface, click on the arrow next to the ‘Publish’ button. You will now see more options to save your post. Simply click the ‘Save as Template’ option.
This will bring up a popup where you need to provide a name for your template.
After entering the name, click the ‘Save’ button.
Next time you are creating a custom page layout, you will be able to select it from the ‘My Templates’ tab.
All you have to do is click the ‘Insert’ button for your custom page layout.
You can also export this template and use it on other WordPress sites using Elementor.
Simply click the 3 dots icon and then click the ‘Export’ option.
From here, you can download the template onto your computer.
Elementor Alternatives for Creating Custom Layouts
Here are some of the best Elementor alternatives you can use:
SeedProd is the best drag-and-drop WordPress website builder that lets you create custom layouts for your landing pages. There are 300+ theme or landing page templates to choose from. SeedProd also offers tons of customization options and blocks to create stunning pages. For more details, you can see our complete SeedProd review.
Divi is a visual theme and page builder. It’s been in the industry for over 14 years and offers different features for creating WordPress layouts, including a layout library. There are lots of customization options in the visual builder, and you don’t have to edit any code.
Thrive Architect is a powerful and beginner-friendly page builder that you can use to create beautiful layouts. It comes with 352+ templates and many customization options. You can use its front-end visual builder to edit any element on the page. For more details, see our Thrive Architect review.
Beaver Builder is another popular drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress. It is easy to use, and you can easily set up layouts for pages and posts using Beaver Builder. It also offers pre-built templates for landing pages, but there are not as many as with SeedProd or Divi.
We hope this article helped you learn how to create custom WordPress layouts with Elementor. You may also want to see our expert comparison of Elementor vs. Divi vs. SeedProd and our picks for the best web design software.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you wish you were getting more conversions from your landing page?
A landing page is a standalone web page created with one focused objective. It leads visitors towards a single action, such as making a purchase or subscribing to a newsletter. This is the page’s CTA or call to action.
According to a study, the average landing page conversion rate is 26% and only less than 10% accomplish conversion levels of over 70%.
So, what makes less than 10% of high-converting landing pages different, which lead them to over 70% conversions?
In this article, I am going to reveal the anatomy of a high converting landing page, so you can skyrocket your conversion rate.
I’ve spent years analyzing and designing the most successful landing pages. So, let’s get started.
Note: This is a guest post by John Turner, the co-founder of SeedProd, the best landing page builder plugin. We publish an expert column on WPBeginner every other Thursday. This is an invite-only column, meaning we don’t accept unsolicited guest post offers.
I will cover quite a few topics in this post. Here’s a handy list so you can jump to the section you are most interested in:
A landing page should have a single purpose: conversion. So when designing your page, you should only include elements that will entice users to convert. Eliminate the rest.
That’s why the highest-converting landing pages get rid of distractions like the navigation bar, header, and footer that you see on general-purpose websites.
These elements distract users from your call to action by inviting them to go elsewhere.
Currently, only 16% of landing pages don’t have a navigation bar. This is one reason why so many landing pages have poor conversion rates.
For similar reasons, you should also include only the most essential links on your landing page. Reducing distractions like this can increase conversions by at least 10%.
It’s easy to reduce distractions using a landing page plugin like SeedProd. It lets you quickly build a distraction-free landing page without the extra elements that are included in your WordPress website’s theme and built-in layouts.
One of our customers, OptinMonster, quickly built a distraction-free landing page for an ad campaign they run, which helped them increase conversions by 340%.
On some landing pages, users give up because it’s unclear what they actually need to do, or it takes too much work. High-converting landing pages make conversion easy.
Aim to offer a frictionless and efficient user journey by focusing on a clear message and ease of conversion. Here are a few things you can do to optimize your landing page for usability.
Minimize the Number of Clicks Required
Make your landing page easier for users by minimizing the number of clicks required to convert. Every extra click can reduce your conversion rate by 10%.
I tell my customers to track how many clicks it takes for users to sign up or make a purchase and then work out ways to reduce that number.
Next, I recommend thinking about the lead capture form on your landing page. The harder it is to complete, the less conversions you will ultimately have.
Now, the average number of form fields on a landing page is 5, and many experts recommend using just 3 or 4. But in my experience, reducing the number of fields is not always the best approach.
For example, even less motivated visitors who are not very interested in your product might be willing to fill out a very short form. This will result in more conversions, but you may get better quality leads by using a longer and more detailed form.
Also, fewer form fields will provide you with less information, robbing you of valuable insights about your users.
So aim to design a form that balances ease of conversion with the quality of information.
Capture Partial Entries
No matter how straightforward your landing page is, you will always have users who start to fill in a form and then give up. Normally you’d simply lose the information they entered.
The average form abandonment rate is 68%, so you are missing out on a lot of information.
The best WordPress form plugins offer smart tools to combat form abandonment, such as WPForms’ Form Abandonment addon, which lets you capture partial entries.
This means that the plugin will collect all of the information entered into a form as a user types, even if they don’t end up submitting the form.
You can use the partial information you captured to follow up on these potential customers, such as by setting up automated emails to recapture their attention.
3. High Converting Landing Pages Use Compelling Copy
A landing page needs to grab your visitors’ attention, tell a story that compels them to keep reading, and ultimately drive them to take the desired action (convert).
Here are a few things you can do to make your landing page copy more compelling.
Understand Your Audience
To write compelling copy, you will first need to understand your target audience. This is the group of people who are interested in your products, services, or content.
They are likely to have similar interests, needs, demographics, or other characteristics that draw them to your products and services.
Discovering these factors using tools like Google Analytics will let you create better content that resonates with your users, leading to more conversions and sales.
Start With an Attention-Grabbing Headline
Only 20% of visitors will read the full text of your landing page, but 80% will read the full title. Make sure it grabs their attention.
You can optimize your headline using online tools like WPBeginner’s free headline analyzer.
This tool will give your headline a score, and suggest ways you can improve it to get a higher score. Just repeat this a few times to create the perfect headline for your landing page.
Include the Right Keywords
Chances are that most of your landing page visitors will come from Google, whether from organic search or your pay-per-click ads.
To maximize your traffic, you need to discover the keywords that will bring customers to your landing page and write great copy based on those keywords.
Include Your Unique Selling Proposition
Some beginners make the mistake of just listing the features and benefits of their products and services on their landing pages. In my experience, this isn’t very convincing when you want someone to convert into a subscriber or customer.
If you want to get more conversions on your landing page, then you will need to focus on your unique selling proposition (USP). Essentially, this is the thing that makes your product/service different and better than anything that’s already available.
For example, here’s a small coffee business with a USP focused on the strength of their coffee and innovation.
Make sure that your unique selling proposition is clear and reflected throughout your copy. This is the best way to convince someone to pick your product over the competition.
Add Images and Video
Use eye-catching images to grab attention, break up your text, and illustrate your offering. Content combined with pictures has an 80% greater chance of being read.
Videos also improve conversions. 96% of people report that they watch explainer videos, and studies show that adding a video to a landing page increases conversions by 86% on average.
Increase the Perceived Value
Increasing the perceived value on a landing page is very important for convincing visitors to convert, whether it’s subscribing, buying a product, or taking another desired action.
It’s best to quantify the benefits with a number, such as the percentage saved. The WPBeginner team did this by showing a dollar value for a video course they offer for free.
Offering lead magnets such as eBooks is another way to incentivize users and increase perceived value. Studies show that 55% of landing page submissions come from lead magnets.
4. Foster Trust Among Your Audience
Building trust on your landing page is very important because it reduces perceived risk. Visitors who don’t trust you won’t risk spending their money or sharing their personal information.
Social proof builds trust with new users by demonstrating that your previous customers found your product or service valuable. 9 out of 10 customers trust reviews and testimonials, and social proof can increase landing page conversions by 5%.
Your users have probably already left genuine testimonials and reviews on Facebook, Yelp, Google, TrustPilot, and other platforms. Tracking these reviews down and including up-to-date testimonials on your landing page can be a lot of work.
That’s why I recommend using Smash Balloon Review Feeds Pro. It will automatically find testimonials and reviews from multiple platforms and showcase them on your page using stunning layouts.
This will save you time and keep your landing page looking fresh. Best of all, these genuine testimonials will build trust with your audience and improve your landing page conversions.
5. Have a Compelling & Prominent CTA
Now that your landing page has an attention-grabbing headline and compelling content, and you are building trust using social proof, you will want to make sure your users click your CTA button or fill in your lead capture form.
Don’t leave this to chance! You can use directional cues to guide your visitor’s attention and nudge them towards taking the desired action.
These cues can be quite obvious, such as an arrow pointing at your CTA button or using a contrasting background color that’s hard to miss.
They can also be quite subtle. For example, you might use an image with people who are looking in the direction of your call to action or a mouse hover effect to highlight your CTA button.
Notice the visual cues on the landing page below. It features a photo of a man looking toward the form that needs to be filled in, and that form is placed in a box. Also, the ‘Step 1’ and ‘Step 2’ labels guide the user to what needs to be done next.
6. Turn Abandoning Users Into Customers
Even the most effective landing page will have visitors who decide to leave without taking action. Research shows that as many as 9 out of 10 visitors abandon landing pages.
A super effective landing page will grab the user’s attention before they leave and redirect their attention back to your offer. This is where opt-ins can come in handy.
OptinMonster is the best conversion optimization toolkit for WordPress. It has Exit-Intent technology that lets you track when users are about to leave your landing page so you can pop up a tailored message just in time.
In my experience, you can expect to see a 2-4% increase in conversions simply by using Exit-Intent. In some cases, this can be significantly more.
For instance, the lead SEO consultant at Fastrack used an OptinMonster Exit-Intent popup to recover 53% of abandoning visitors.
You can use the popup to offer incentives such as custom coupons, time-limited offers, a BOGO (Buy One Get One) offer, and other promotional tools to convert those visitors into customers.
Are you looking for WordPress FAQ plugins to use on your website?
Using FAQ plugins can improve the customer experience by making it easier for visitors to find answers to their questions without leaving your website. It can also boost your search engine rankings and help more people find your content.
In this article, we will share some of the best WordPress FAQ plugins that can help you add an attractive FAQ section to your website.
Why Use a WordPress FAQ Plugin?
FAQ plugins create a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on your WordPress website with a list of some commonly asked questions and their answers.
This helps build trust and credibility with your customers by letting them know that you understand their questions and worries. FAQs can even increase conversion rates.
An FAQ section allows users to find an answer to their questions without needing to contact customer service. This saves time and enables your customer support team to focus on other issues.
Additionally, using these plugins can improve your search engine rankings because most FAQs contain long-tail keywords that users commonly look for using search engines.
Your answers may even appear in Google answer boxes. This can bring a lot more organic traffic to your website.
That being said, let’s look at some of the best WordPress FAQ plugins that can help improve user experience on your website.
Disclaimer: When choosing the WordPress FAQ plugins for this article, we downloaded and tried out each of the plugins on our test website. This allowed us to explore all the features, pros, and cons to give you the best recommendations.
All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market that allows you to easily optimize your website to improve search engine rankings. The plugin comes with an FAQ block that helps you create an attractive FAQ section in the content editor. Within the block, you can directly enter questions and answers.
You can also customize the FAQ section from the block panel, including the text color, background color, typography, and title wrapper.
Moreover, All in One SEO allows you to add FAQ schema to your WordPress website. This schema markup can increase your visibility on Google and bring more traffic.
To activate the FAQ schema, you must scroll down to the AIOSEO section in the block editor and switch to the ‘Schema’ tab. After that, click the ‘Generate Schema’ button to open up a prompt.
Once the Schema Generator opens up, click on the ‘FAQ’ option to add the schema.
Next, you can add questions and answers to the schema template. For more detailed instructions, please see our tutorial on how to add FAQ schema in WordPress.
Pros
Apart from FAQs, AIOSEO has custom sitemaps, advanced redirects, SEO titles and descriptions, support for multiple keyphrases, and more.
It comes with a headline analyzer and provides suggestions to use active voice, insert transition words, distribute subheadings better, and hit a specific Flesch reading score. This makes it the best writing assistant software in WordPress.
AIOSEO can also integrate with social media and WooCommerce.
Cons
AIOSEO has a free plan that you can use to add an FAQ block. However, you will need the pro plan to unlock the FAQ schema.
Why we recommend All in One SEO: It is the best WordPress FAQ plugin on the market that allows you to add an FAQ section directly from the WordPress block editor. Plus, it lets you add FAQ schema to improve search engine rankings.
Heroic FAQs by HeroThemes is a premium WordPress plugin that comes with a drag-and-drop interface to organize, reorder, or group related questions together.
It offers 5 pre-designed FAQ templates and a visual editor that lets you insert images, blockquotes, lists, videos, and more into your FAQ content.
You can display the FAQs in accordion or toggle format. You are also able to choose from 15 different FAQ icon styles to match your website’s design.
Pros
Using the Heroic FAQs plugin can improve your website visibility and search engine rankings because it has built-in FAQ schema.
Some of its other features include fast loading, FAQ search, analytics reports, mobile responsiveness, and page builder integrations.
Heroic FAQs is a premium plugin and does not have a free plan.
It only offers five pre-designed styles. To create an FAQ section unique to your website, you will need to use CSS.
Why we recommend Heroic FAQs: Overall, Heroic FAQs is the perfect solution if you are looking for an all-in-one FAQ management kit. It is ideal for small business sites with its drag-and-drop builder, FAQ schema, analytics, page builder integrations, and more.
It also comes with an Accordion block that lets you create FAQs by adding text sections that expand and collapse to any part of your page.
First, you will need to choose a template and start building your page with SeedProd. Then, you can drag and drop the ‘Accordion’ block onto the landing page from the left column on the screen.
Once you add the questions and answers, you can also customize the font size, icon image, typography, text color, and background color for your FAQs.
Pros
You can add custom CSS and animation effects to your FAQs.
SeedProd comes with built-in SEO features that will allow you to optimize your landing pages for search engines and increase visibility.
It is the best theme builder that lets you create custom themes for your website.
SeedProd can integrate with any email marketing service, and you can also add a contact form, optin form, or giveaways using advanced blocks.
Cons
SeedProd is a page builder and is not designed specifically for FAQs.
It does not offer any FAQ templates or reports and analytics.
SeedProd has a free plan, but some of its features can only be unlocked in the pro version of the plugin.
Why we recommend SeedProd: If want to design custom landing pages for your site, then we recommend using SeedProd to add FAQs to those pages. The plugin will help you create a simple accordion FAQ.
Thrive Architect is another powerful drag-and-drop page builder that helps you easily create custom landing pages, layouts, and content for your WordPress site.
It comes with a Toggle element that lets you add an FAQ section in an accordion style. To expand the toggle and add an answer to the question, click the ‘Expand’ button in the block toolbar above each toggle.
Once you do that, you can customize the FAQ section by adjusting the columns, width, vertical space, and dropdown animations.
With Thrive Architect, you can further customize the FAQs section by changing the icons, typography, layout, background color, borders, adding HMTL attributes, and more.
It comes with prebuilt templates, conversion elements, A/B testing, parallax effects, and smart color technology.
It is a page builder that can be used to add FAQs, but it lacks some of the advanced features offered by the other FAQ plugins on the list.
Why we recommend Thrive Architect: If you are already using Thrive Architect on your website to build pages, then we recommend using the same plugin to add FAQs.
It allows you to create an FAQ section for your product pages and also enables customers to submit their own questions that can be answered by your support team.
This can help increase user engagement in your WooCommerce store and provide a better customer experience.
Pros
It is a highly customizable plugin with a category filter and search feature to make it easier for users to find the answers to their questions.
The plugin lets you implement a voting system, hide inappropriate questions, and encourage users to post their own answers in the FAQ section.
It has an email notification feature that tells you any time a user submits a question or answers the query of another customer.
Cons
The plugin won’t work if you do not have an online store with WooCommerce.
The plugin allows users to submit their questions, which can lead to spam, offensive language, or irrelevant content. To counter that, you will have to actively monitor and manage the FAQ sections.
The plugin offers limited customization options and may not be able to integrate with all WordPress themes seamlessly.
Why we recommend YITH WooCommerce Questions and Answers: If you have a WooCommerce store, then this is the perfect plugin for you. It is specifically designed for WooCommerce and even allows users to submit their questions on your site. This can help boost engagement and lead to more conversions.
Ultimate FAQ is a popular WordPress plugin that provides shortcodes and blocks in the Gutenberg editor that let you add an FAQ section to your website.
It comes with unlimited support for categories and tags and even lets you add an unlimited number of FAQs to a single section.
By default, the plugin comes with accordion and toggle styles. However, you can also use custom CSS to style your FAQs according to your liking.
Pros
The plugin lets you import FAQs in bulk using Google Sheets and even offers a search and filtering feature for customers.
It is super easy to use and helps you create SEO-friendly FAQs to boost website rankings.
Ultimate FAQ integrates with WooCommerce, so you can easily add an FAQ section to your online store.
Some of its other features include email support, social sharing, custom fields, video/image support, and more.
Cons
The plugin offers limited design options for FAQs.
It can add loading time to your pages depending on the customizations you make and the number of FAQs.
The plugin’s built-in search feature can be limited in scope and accuracy.
Why we recommend Ultimate FAQ: If you have a simple WordPress blog, then you can use this plugin to add an attractive FAQ section for free.
Easy Accordion is a powerful FAQ builder that provides a drag-and-drop interface to create an accordion-style FAQ section.
It’s lightweight, fast, and SEO-friendly, helping you quickly optimize your website content for search engines.
The plugin offers more than 16 pre-designed templates and other customization options, including typography, icon sets, font colors, themes, animation effects, padding, color schemes, and more.
Pros
Easy Accordion has a responsive layout that works on various devices, including mobile phones, iPads, desktops, and tablets.
It lets you adjust the accordion height and select activator events for the accordion, including click, mouseover, or automatic.
You can create unlimited accordion sections and also add advanced CSS for custom styling.
Cons
The plugin can add loading time to your pages depending on the number of accordions you have added to your website.
It can have compatibility issues with third-party plugins.
Why we recommend Easy Accordion: The free plugin is a great choice if you want to create a highly customizable FAQ section.
Helpie FAQ comes with a user-friendly interface that allows you to easily create and manage FAQ pages. It also offers built-in FAQ schema that increases your search visibility and can improve your website rankings.
The plugin provides you with complete flexibility to add an FAQ section to your pages, posts, or WordPress sidebar.
Pros
Helpie FAQ includes an AJAX search feature, basic sorting, color themes, import/export, user submissions, and more.
You can integrate this plugin with WooCommerce to create an FAQ section for your online store.
It can easily integrate with HelpieKB, which allows you to build documentation for your site.
Cons
It does not have a drag-and-drop builder and offers limited styling options.
Why we recommend Helpie FAQ: If you have just started your business and are on a shoestring budget, then you can use Helpie FAQ to build a simple FAQ section on your website. The plugin can also integrate with HelpieKB to create a knowledge base.
WP Responsive FAQ with Category is a simple WordPress plugin that uses shortcodes to add FAQ sections to your pages or posts.
It comes with a drag-and-drop interface and 15+ pre-designed templates to create an aesthetically pleasing FAQ section for your website.
Other than that, WP Responsive FAQ offers WooCommerce support and makes it super easy for you to display an FAQ section in your online store.
Pros
The plugin comes with image/video support for FAQs.
It offers customization settings and accordion animation adjustments.
It creates search-friendly URLs for FAQ pages.
Cons
WP Responsive does not offer FAQ schema.
Why we recommend WP Responsive FAQ With Category: If you are looking for a beginner-friendly and easy-to-use solution to create FAQs with images and videos, then this plugin is for you.
Which Is the Best WordPress FAQ Plugin?
In our expert opinion, All in One SEO is the best WordPress FAQ plugin because it allows you to easily add FAQ sections and FAQ schema to your pages and posts.
However, if you want to create an FAQ section on a landing page, then you can also use SeedProd or Thrive Architect. They are the best WordPress page builders on the market that offer built-in features to create attractive FAQ sections.
You can also use the Heroic FAQs plugin if you are looking for an all-in-one solution. Its user-friendly, drag-and-drop interface allows you to easily build FAQs and FAQ schema.
Here are some questions that are frequently asked by our readers about FAQ plugins:
Do FAQs improve SEO?
Adding FAQs on your website can improve SEO because they directly address your user’s query, boosting your relevance to search engines.
Plus, FAQs also contain target keywords and encourage users to spend more time on your website.
How many FAQs should I have on a page?
The best number of FAQs on a page can depend on several factors, including the target audience, topic complexity, layout, and more.
If you are creating a separate dedicated page for FAQs, then you should have at least 10 questions on this page.
However, if you have written an average blog post of about 1500 words and want to add a short FAQ section at the bottom, then you can just add about 3-5 FAQs for your users.
Which is the best free FAQ plugin for WordPress?
If you are on a budget, then you can use the free plan of AIOSEO to add FAQs to your WordPress site. This plugin will improve your SEO and let you add FAQs for free.
Alternatively, if you have a WooCommerce store, then Ultimate FAQ is also a good choice due to its seamless integration with the eCommerce plugin.
Are you a new WordPress.org user who wants to learn how to edit your WordPress site?
Here at WPBeginner, we have helped millions of beginners build their websites using WordPress, which is the most popular website builder on the market. If you need help with editing your website, then you have come to the right place.
In this article, we will show you the basics of editing a WordPress website.
An Overview of Ways to Edit a WordPress Site
As an open-source content management system, WordPress has a lot of features to build and edit your website.
If you installed WordPress recently, then you may have come across Gutenberg, which is WordPress’s drag-and-drop block editor that allows you to customize a page or post. This feature is pretty easy and beginner-friendly.
You may have also seen the Full Site Editor.
This is an extension of Gutenberg that lets you use the block editor to customize block-based WordPress themes.
That said, if you use a classic, non-block WordPress theme, then the FSE won’t be available to you. Instead, you will have to use the WordPress Theme Customizer.
This feature doesn’t come with a drag-and-drop function, so it’s not as user-friendly. You have to edit your theme using some menu settings in the left-hand panel.
If you need more customization options that aren’t available in WordPress’s built-in features, then you can install a page builder plugin like SeedProd.
This is what we usually recommend to WordPress beginners. Like Gutenberg, SeedProd has a drag-and-drop feature. However, it offers more ways to get creative, like animation effects and more content block options to build your pages.
Some WordPress users also use the Classic Editor. It’s WordPress’s legacy page and post editor that looks a bit like a document editor.
This feature is no longer enabled by default in the latest WordPress versions. However, some people still use it because they are more familiar with it and want to keep their current website designs.
In this article, we will show you how to edit different parts of your WordPress website using the editors we’ve mentioned.
One of the first things you should do after installing WordPress is to choose and customize your theme. We will show you 3 ways to do that.
Customizing a Block Theme With the Full Site Editor
Full Site Editing was introduced in WordPress 5.9. It’s designed to make it easy to edit WordPress block themes using the block editor.
One tell-tale sign that you are using a block WordPress theme is you will see Appearance » Editor in your WordPress admin area. If you see Appearance » Customize instead, then you can skip to using the Theme Customizer.
If you want to find some free options, go to Appearance » Themes. Then, click ‘Add New Theme.’
After that, just switch to the ‘Block Themes’ tab.
You will then see dozens of block themes on your screen. For installation instructions, check out our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress theme.
Once you have the theme installed, you must go to Appearance » Editor.
Now, you will see the main Full Site Editing dashboard. You can then edit your theme’s navigation menu, styles, pages, templates, and patterns.
We will discuss these topics in the rest of the tutorial, but we will show you briefly how to change the style of your theme.
To do this, click the ‘Styles’ menu.
Now, you will see a list of the color scheme and typography pairings provided by the theme.
Every time you click on a style, the interface will preview it for you.
Once you are satisfied with your choice, just click ‘Save.’ Alternatively, you can create a custom style.
Customizing a Classic Theme With the Theme Customizer
If you use a classic WordPress theme, then you will work with the Theme Customizer to edit it. Simply head to Appearance » Customize from the WordPress admin area to access it.
Now, what you can customize here varies by the theme you are using.
For instance, if you have the Astra theme, then you can customize the style of your entire website, header, footer, sidebar, page, logo, and so on.
For this reason, we recommend reading your theme’s documentation for more instructions.
Our guide on the Theme Customizer can give you more detailed pointers.
Once you’ve made your changes, you can preview the website in different screen resolutions. Then, you can hit the ‘Publish’ button at the top to make your edits live.
One downside of the Theme Customizer is its user experience isn’t as flexible or easy as the block editor. If you feel this way, then we recommend using the next method instead.
Customizing a WordPress Theme With a Page Builder Plugin
Many WordPress users who aren’t satisfied with the platform’s built-in design features use a page builder to edit their site. This is a WordPress plugin that can replace the default editor for designing different parts of your website.
Most page builders come with a drag-and-drop functionality, so they are just as easy to use as the block editor. What’s more, they come with more page blocks and templates to personalize your website.
Out of all the page builders we’ve tried, we find SeedProd to be the best. It comes with 300+ templates for various industry categories, from eCommerce and accommodation to services.
Note: While SeedProd comes in a free version, we recommend upgrading to the Pro plan to access the Theme Builder. This is what we will use in this tutorial.
To use SeedProd, you will need to install the WordPress plugin first. After that, go to SeedProd » Settings to activate your Pro plan license. Simply insert your license key and click ‘Verify Key’ to complete this step.
As you can see, there are many theme template kits available, from online stores to service sites. Feel free to use the filtering and sorting settings to find the right one for your needs.
Once you’ve made your choice, just hover over the theme template and click the orange checkmark button to use it.
Now, just go back to the Theme Builder page and select a theme template you’d like to edit.
For demonstration purposes, we will show you how to edit the style of your SeedProd theme template. To do this, locate the ‘Global CSS’ theme template, hover over it, and click ‘Edit Design.’
You are now inside the SeedProd page builder and can customize your theme template’s style. Here, you can change your website’s colors, fonts, backgrounds, buttons, forms, and layout.
Let’s see how to change the theme’s default font. To do this, open the ‘Fonts’ menu. Then, just choose one of SeedProd’s many font and color options for the heading and body text.
All the changes you make will show up automatically in the right-side preview.
Once you are happy with the style, just click ‘Save’ to make these changes official.
Then, you can go back to SeedProd » Theme Builder and turn on the ‘Enable SeedProd Theme’ toggle in the top right corner.
If you have updated WordPress to the latest version, then most likely, you will use the Gutenberg block editor to edit a page or post.
You can create a new page by going to Pages » Add NewPage. This will automatically make an entirely blank page and direct you to the block editor.
On the other hand, if you want to edit an existing page, like the homepage or blog page, then you can go to Pages » All Pages. Hover your cursor over the page you want to edit, and then click ‘Edit.’
Alternatively, there is also the Quick Edit feature.
This allows you to modify the page’s title, URL slug, and last modified date.
You can do various things with the Quick Edit feature.
Examples include setting a password for the page, making it private, assigning it as a parent page, changing the page template, allowing/disallowing comments, and changing the page status.
To create a new post, simply head to Posts » Add NewPost to make a new blank post and edit it using the block editor.
Like before, you can edit an existing WordPress blog post by hovering your cursor over the selected post and clicking ‘Edit.’
The Quick Edit feature for posts is similar but with some minor differences.
Typically, you will start by clicking the ‘+’ add block button in the top left corner.
This is where you will find all the available blocks from WordPress and the plugins you use.
You can then drag and drop a block to the main editing area.
After that, you can use the block’s toolbar and settings sidebar to configure the block’s style, dimensions, spacing, and more.
If you have installed a WordPress plugin, then you may also see some settings below the editing interface.
For instance, the All in One SEO plugin will show you a section where you can optimize the page or post’s meta title and description for search engines.
We have plenty of guides for you to learn more about editing posts and pages, so be sure to check them out:
After that, just create a new post or page by going to Posts » Add New Post or Pages » Add New Page, and the Classic Editor will show up on your screen.
Unlike the block editor, you won’t add blocks to insert content into your page or post. Instead, you can only type text, format it using the controls at the top of the editing panel, and add media files to your content by clicking on the ‘Add Media’ button.
At the bottom and the sides of the editing interface, there are settings to publish the page/post, set the page or post’s categories/tags, upload a featured image, and so on.
You can also switch between the visual and text editing modes. With the second editor, you can modify the post or page’s HTML code.
How to Edit a WordPress Page With a Page Builder
If you already use a page builder like SeedProd to edit your theme, then you can use it to edit a page as well. This way, you can maintain your design’s consistency throughout all of your pages.
You will need to create a new page and open the block editor. If SeedProd is active, then you will see a button at the top that says, ‘Edit with SeedProd.’ Go ahead and click on it.
You can also do this with an existing page. However, do note that the content will not be transferred over, and you will have to create the page from scratch.
In the page builder, you will see that the SeedProd theme’s header and footer have been added. All you need to do is start building the page.
First, choose one of the 8 layouts to use on the page.
On the left-hand side, you will find all the blocks and sections that you can drag and drop onto the right-hand side, which is the template preview.
You can use these to insert content into the page.
Whenever you click a block or a section, the left-hand side will show the available settings to customize the element.
In the screenshot below, you can see that clicking on the Text block will make the block settings appear. You can customize the text, insert dynamic content, edit the HTML, change the alignment, and so on.
Once you are done editing the page, don’t forget to click ‘Save’ to make the changes live.
If you want to create a custom landing page from scratch, then you can also do that with SeedProd. All you need to do is go to SeedProd » Landing Pages. Then, click the ‘+ Add New Landing Page’ button.
Alternative: Thrive Architect is another great page builder option for designing attractive and conversion-focused landing pages.
How to Edit a WordPress Header, Footer, and Other Template Parts
You may also want to edit the WordPress header, footer, sidebar, and other parts of your theme template.
These are sections on your site that are not part of the main page or post content. However, they are essential for giving additional information or helpful navigation.
How you can edit these sections depends on what theme you are using, so let’s go through each option.
How to Edit a Block Theme’s Header, Footer, and Other Template Parts
If you have a block theme, then you can use the Full Site Editor to edit your theme’s header and footer.
In the Full Site Editor, a header and footer are considered template parts. These are also known as WordPress patterns (a set of reusable blocks) that appear throughout your website.
Other examples of a template part include the comment section and the post meta.
For the sake of example, we will show you how to edit your WordPress header, but you can repeat these steps with other template parts.
First, go to Appearance »Editor. Once you are in the Full Site Editor, just click ‘Patterns.’
You will now see a list of patterns provided by your WordPress theme.
Go ahead and scroll down to the Template Parts section. Then, select ‘Header’ and click on the Header template part.
Now, you need to click the pencil button next to the Header text.
This will open the block editor.
The block editor works the same way with template parts as it does with pages and posts. You can add various blocks to the header, configure the block, and update the changes when you are done.
Headers usually include a Site Logo (or the favicon), so feel free to add that here, too.
If you want to completely change how the header looks but don’t know where to start, click the ‘+’ add block button in the top left corner.
Then, navigate to the ‘Patterns’ tab and click ‘Headers.’ You will find many ready-to-use header layouts there.
Once you are done changing the header, click ‘Save.’ Since the header is a synced template part, all the changes you make here will apply across all pages that use the header.
Now, if you want to create a new header or any other template parts rather than editing the existing ones, you can go back to the ‘Patterns’ page. After that, click the ‘+ Create pattern’ button and select ‘Create template part.’
In the popup, give the template part a name and select the type of template part.
Then, click ‘Create.’ You will then be directed to the block editor and you can edit the template part like usual.
How to Edit a WordPress Header, Footer, and Other Widget-Ready Areas in a Classic Theme
In a classic theme, a WordPress widget is basically a block that you can add to widget-ready areas, like headers, footers, sidebars, and so on.
Every classic WordPress theme has different widget-ready areas. Some may include a sidebar, and some may not. So be sure to check your theme’s documentation for more information.
To use widgets, you have to go to Appearance » Widgets. Here, you can add, configure, and remove blocks in the available widget-ready areas.
How to Edit a WordPress Header, Footer, and Other Template Parts With a Page Builder
One of the benefits of using a page builder is you will have more options to customize headers, footers, sidebars, and other parts of your theme.
If you use SeedProd, you can go to SeedProd » Theme Builder. We will assume that you have installed a theme template kit from earlier.
The kit usually includes various theme templates. This may be a built-in page template, like a 404 or single post, or a part of a page, like a header, footer, pricing tables, and so on.
Go ahead and hover over a theme template. Then, click ‘Edit Design.’
Now, you can edit the header the same way as you would with a page.
Let’s say you want to add your social media links here. What you can do is hover over the header until the blue border appears and click the ‘+ Add Row’ button. Then, go ahead and select a row layout.
In our example, we want to add one more column so that the header can fit the image, menu, and social media links. That means we will need three columns in one row.
You can then drag and drop the blocks from the top row to the new row.
After that, just delete the top row so that your new row becomes the new header.
Now, just look for the Social Profiles block in the left-side panel.
Drag it into the right column, and you are done.
For more information about editing template parts, you can read these WordPress tutorials:
A navigation menu makes it easy for visitors to explore all your content without getting lost on your website. That’s why it’s important to design a menu that shows your essential pages and links to other relevant information.
If you use a block WordPress theme, then you can select the ‘Navigation’ menu from the Full Site Editor page.
If you use a classic WordPress theme, then you can go to Appearance» Menus. This is a dedicated page for you to add, arrange, and remove pages/posts and links to your menus.
Toward the bottom, you can change the links’ font size, spacing, divider, and alignment.
Don’t forget to click ‘Save’ to make the changes live.
How to Edit a WordPress Site With Code
If you are comfortable with code, then you can also use custom code snippets to edit your WordPress website. That said, we only recommend this method if you have the right technical know-how to avoid breaking your website.
One way you can edit a WordPress site with code is by adding CSS, which is a stylesheet that can change how HTML looks on the front end.
Classic theme users can go to Appearance »Customize and find the ‘Additional CSS’ field in the Theme Customizer.
Here, you can insert CSS code to style different HTML elements like colors and fonts.
This may be handy if your theme’s built-in options aren’t enough for your needs.
As for block theme users, you cannot add custom CSS within the Full Site Editor.
Instead, you have to go to the URL below to open the Theme Customizer and find the Additional CSS field. Make sure to replace the domain name with your own.
Another way to add CSS is with CSS Hero. This plugin makes adding custom CSS to WordPress themes easy, even for beginners. If you are interested in using it, then just check out our CSS Hero review.
How to Edit WordPress Theme Files
At times, some tutorials may require you to edit your WordPress theme files to make changes beyond what your built-in theme features allow. In this case, we recommend:
Creating a child theme first. This is like a copy of your WordPress theme that you can safely customize with some coding.
Backing up your website. It’s a good measure to do so that you can restore your website to a previous version in case of errors.
Editing a WordPress theme file requires going to your WordPress file directory from the backend. To do this, you will need to open your hosting provider’s file manager or connect to your website with an FTP client.
If you use Bluehost, then you can go to your dashboard and open the ‘Websites’ tab. After that, click ‘Settings’ on the website for which you want to open the theme files.
Now, simply scroll down to the ‘Quick Links’ section.
Then, click ‘File Manager.’ If you’re not sure where your root folder is, you can check the ‘Document Root’ function to see its path.
Once inside the file manager, you can go to your website’s root folder (usually named public_html).
Then, head to /wp-content/themes and find your current theme folder.
After that, you will find all of your WordPress theme files, which you can edit using a text editor.
Here are some things you can do by editing WordPress theme files:
If you want to add new custom code rather than editing the code that is already within your theme files, then we recommend using WPCode. It’s the best WordPress code snippets plugin for easily inserting and managing custom code snippets.
With this plugin, you won’t have to worry about accidentally breaking your website. WPCode will let you know if there are errors in the code and deactivate it. Plus, you can create PHP shortcodes for inserting custom content into your website.
To see WPCode in action, you can check out our full WPCode review in the WPBeginner Solution Center.
What Is the Best Way to Edit a WordPress Site for Beginners?
For beginners, we always recommend installing a page builder plugin like SeedProd to edit WordPress websites. The reason is that it’s just as easy to use as the block editor yet gives you much more control over your website design.
If you don’t want to use a plugin, then the next best thing is a block theme with the Full Site Editor. This feature is not entirely developed yet because WordPress is constantly working on the Gutenberg project. But as of now, it’s pretty user-friendly.
The Theme Customizer is not as flexible as the Full Site Editor because it lacks drag-and-drop functionality. That’s why we suggest classic theme users install SeedProd to improve their user experience.
As for coding, we only recommend it if you have created a child theme and backups of your site to avoid errors. But with the WPCode plugin, adding custom code to edit your WordPress site is much safer and won’t cause any errors or break your website.
Do you want to create an animated background for your WordPress website?
An animated background can add some visual appeal to your website. It will make your site more attractive and memorable, leaving a lasting impression on your visitors.
In this guide, we will show you how to add a particle background in WordPress using particle.js, a JavaScript animation library.
Why Add an Animated Background in WordPress?
Customizing your website background might seem unimportant. That said, it can actually shape visitors’ first impressions of your brand and affect their experience on your site.
An animated background can enhance your website’s visual appeal, making it more interactive and eye-catching to visitors. It gives the impression that your WordPress site uses a high-quality and innovative design.
Many websites also use animated effects when they want to celebrate a special occasion.
For example, you may see eCommerce stores adding animated snowflakes or falling Christmas trees on their web pages to create a festive atmosphere for the holiday season.
Some websites also use a preloader background animation on their website.
With this, visitors can get the sense that the site is loading, making them more likely to wait patiently for the web page elements to appear. You can read our article on adding a preloader background animation for more information.
In this guide, we will show you how to add an animated background using particle.js. If you want to find out what that is, just continue to the next section.
What Is particle.js?
particle.js is a JavaScript library that lets you create stunning visual effects with particles, which are small, graphical, animated elements.
These particles can be customized by size, color, shape, and movement. They also respond to user interactions, such as mouse movements or clicks, to add an extra layer of engagement to your website.
Now that you know what particle.js is, let’s see how you can use it to add an animated background in WordPress. There are two methods for beginners, and you can navigate through this guide with the quick links below:
Method 1: Adding an Animated Background With SeedProd (Recommended)
The first method is to use SeedProd, which is the best WordPress page builder plugin on the market. It offers a built-in and highly customizable particle background feature.
With it, you can choose one of the particle animations that are already available or add a custom one yourself. It’s also possible to modify the number of particles, animation movements, and hover effects to suit your preferences.
For more information about SeedProd, you can check out our in-depth SeedProd review. We’ve covered everything, including the customization options, template and block choices, and third-party integrations.
In this guide, we will be using the premium version of SeedProd, as the particle background feature is available there.
After that, simply copy-paste your license key to the plugin. Just go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to SeedProd » Settings,and insert the license key in the appropriate field. Then, click ‘Verify Key.’
Now, you need to open the drag-and-drop builder for the page you want to insert the particle background into. If you have created a theme with SeedProd, then you should already have some pages added in WordPress for you.
Next, simply go to Pages » All Pages and hover your cursor over a page, like a homepage, about page, or something else. Then, choose the ‘Edit with SeedProd’ button.
If this option does not appear on your end, don’t worry.
Just click the ‘Edit’ button instead, and in the block editor, click the ‘Edit with SeedProd’ button.
You should now be inside the page builder of SeedProd.
Just hover your cursor over the page section where you want to add the particle background in WordPress and select it. You will know that you’ve selected a section if a purple border and toolbar appear at the top of it.
Once you have clicked on a section, the Section sidebar on the left should show up.
All you have to do now is switch to the ‘Advanced’ tab and toggle the ‘Enable Particle Background’ setting.
There are several Particle Background settings you can configure.
One is Style, where you can choose any of the available animation effects, which are Polygon, Space, Snow, Snowflakes, Christmas, Halloween, and Custom.
We will talk more about adding a custom particle background animation later in the article.
There is also Opacity, which controls how opaque the animation looks, and Flow Direction, which sets the direction that the particles should head toward.
However, for Christmas and Halloween, there are no color settings, as the particles are in the form of images.
Below Color is ‘Advanced Settings.’ Enabling it lets you customize the Number of Particles, Particle Size, Move Speed, and Enable Hover Effect.
With the last feature, the particles will move according to the direction of your mouse. Note that this won’t work when you view the website in the page builder area or if the content within the section takes up the entire space of that section.
And that’s all you need to do.
Once you’ve finished customizing your WordPress particle background, you can click the ‘Save’ button at the top right corner to publish the changes. You can also choose the ‘Preview’ button to see what the particle background looks like.
Creating a Custom Particle Background for Your Website
If the animated effects available don’t suit your needs, then you can also create a custom one. What you should do is select the ‘Custom’ style in the Particle Background settings.
After that, click the link in the line ‘Please visit the link here and choose required attributes for particle.’
On this website, you can customize your desired particle design, its interactivity, and the background color.
Within the ‘particles’ setting, you can adjust the particle numbers, color, shape, size, opacity, lines that link the particles, and movement.
Below that is ‘interactivity.’
This is where you can adjust how the particles behave when you hover over them and click on them.
Finally, you have ‘page background (css).’ Here, you can change the background color of the particle animation and modify its size, position, and repetition.
Once you are done, you can click the ‘Download current config (json)’ button at the bottom.
This will download the particle background’s JSON code file, which you need to open using a text editor app. Keep the text editor window open as you continue to the next steps.
Now, let’s go back to the SeedProd page builder.
Navigate to the Particle Background menu within the Advanced settings again. Then, copy and paste the JSON code into the appropriate text box.
You should now see your particle background in the preview section.
Click ‘Preview’ to see what the particle background looks like on the front end and ‘Save’ to finalize the changes.
Here’s an example of what the particle background may look like:
Method 2: Adding an Animated Background With Particle Background WP (Free)
The second method is a free alternative to using SeedProd. For this, you will need the Particle Background WP plugin.
Like before, make sure to install and activate the Particle Background WP plugin. If you need some guidance, you can check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After the plugin is active, go to Particle Background from the WordPress dashboard. Here, you will see several sections.
One is Deploy. It includes a shortcode for the finished particle background if you want to add it later to your pages or posts.
You can also tick the ‘Add to front page’ and/or ‘Add to blog page’ boxes to automatically insert the background into those pages.
Scrolling down, you will see the Content section, which looks slightly like the classic editor. This is where you can add some text on top of the particle background.
If you know HTML, then you can add some HTML code to customize the text. Alternatively, you can click ‘Add Media’ to insert images or files from the WordPress media library.
Below are the Settings for the WordPress particle background animation. You can adjust the Particle Density, which controls how close and far the particles are, the particle’s Dot Color, and the Background Color. It’s also possible to make the background transparent.
One downside of this WordPress plugin is you can’t adjust the particle shape the same way you would with SeedProd. So, that’s something to consider if you are looking to use this plugin.
And you are done!
Here’s an example of what the particle animated background looks like using this WordPress plugin.
Do Animated Backgrounds Slow Down Websites?
If not done right, animated backgrounds can slow down your website. But there are ways to avoid this.
For particle backgrounds, the number of particles and how fast they move can affect how quickly your page loads. More particles and faster movement need more processing power, which can slow things down.
To fix this, you can try different settings for particle density and speed to find what works best for your website. During this process, you can run WordPress speed tests to see the effects.
It’s also a good idea to only use animated backgrounds on pages where they matter the most. You don’t need them everywhere, or they might get boring.
Lastly, to keep your website fast with a particle background, make sure to follow the best practices for website speed. You can learn more in our ultimate guide on making WordPress faster.
John Mueller, Search Advocate at Google
