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WordPress has a native way of sending emails. It uses the PHP mail() function to deliver all those newsletters, password resets, or any other type of email you’re sending to your audience. While this method should theoretically be sufficient, it’s far from perfect. In WordPress, sending emails with SMTP is a much better alternative. And […]
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Breadcrumbs are now baked into SmartCrawl, along with another hotly requested feature… setting primary categories for posts and products!
SmartCrawl 3.5 gives you the ability to improve your WordPress site navigation for users and search engines with two new powerful features: breadcrumbs, and the ability to specify primary categories when assigning multiple categories to your posts or product pages.
In this article, we explain the benefits of using SmartCrawl’s latest new features and how to get the most out of them. We’ll cover:
Let’s get cooking…
In the classic fairytale, siblings Hansel and Gretel left a trail of breadcrumbs when they went deep into the forest so they would not get lost and have a path to navigate on their return.
Aptly named, breadcrumbs are an essential navigation aid that can help visitors and search engines better understand your website’s structure.
According to research, 38% of first-time website visitors look at navigational links on a page. So, the easier you make it for users to navigate your site, the better their experience. Especially if your website has a hierarchical structure with lots of nested pages.
And it goes without saying that improving your site’s navigation is also good for SEO, as it helps search engine bots crawl your pages and index your content more efficiently.
Here are some other reasons why you should use breadcrumbs on your WordPress site:
Breadcrumbs are a type of secondary navigation scheme that show users the path they have taken to reach a particular page on a website.
They don’t replace your site navigation menu, they support and complement it. So, a good place to put them is at the top of a page, just below your site’s primary navigation menu or the main header section.
However, you can also use them at the bottom of your page or even on your sidebar.
As you will see later in this post, you can pretty much add a breadcrumb anywhere on your site using a shortcode.
The best way to find what works best for your site is to test different locations and use tools like heatmaps or analytics to measure your results.
What happens if you assign multiple categories to a post? How do breadcrumbs choose which path to display?
The answer is… breadcrumbs will choose whichever category you have specified as the primary category for the post.
Primary categories are the main classification of your business, product, or service and can help search engines understand the primary focus of your website, so the ability to select primary categories in SEO is important.
If you assign a primary category to your posts, breadcrumbs don’t have to guess. It’s as simple as that!
SmartCrawl not only makes it easy to add breadcrumb navigation to your website and assign primary categories to your posts and product pages, but it automatically adds structured data to your breadcrumbs. This helps search engines to understand and categorize your content and present it correctly to users.
Plus, SmartCrawl gives you complete control over how your breadcrumbs appear, making it easy to provide visitors with the information they need to navigate your site.
To activate SmartCrawl’s breadcrumb feature, go to SmartCrawl > Advanced Tools > Breadcrumb and click on activate.
Activating the feature gives you access to a range of settings and options for configuring your breadcrumbs.
Let’s go briefly over SmartCrawl’s breadcrumb settings:
Let’s look at a few ways to customize breadcrumbs by tweaking SmartCrawl’s settings.
The Breadcrumb Separator section lets you specify a separator symbol from a list of presets, but you can also add your own by entering HTML characters.
So, for this example, let’s add an emoji into the custom separator field…
Here’s the result…
You can also add a prefix to your breadcrumbs in the Configurations section…
And here’s the result…
Let’s do one more tweak and hide the post title from our breadcrumb trails…
And here’s our customized breadcrumb sans title…
SmartCrawl gives you additional options to customize breadcrumb label formats across your site.
Customize breadcrumb label formats with a wide range of options.
This allows you to add additional information to your breadcrumbs such as post authors, dates and time, your site title, etc.
Breadcrumbs improve your website’s SEO and search engine visibility, provide visitors with an easy way to navigate your site, reduce bounce rates, and increase click-through rates.
Smartcrawl’s breadcrumb feature is customizable, flexible, user-friendly, SEO-friendly, and compatible with all WordPress themes and plugins.
Additionally, SmartCrawl automatically ads breadcrumb schema markup and the ability to specify a primary category for posts and product pages with multiple categories assigned.
SmartCrawl is the free SEO plugin that lets you have your cake and eat it too… right down to the tastiest breadcrumbs!
See our documentation section for more information on using this feature and, if you have any questions, ask our 24/7 support team or check out our new AI Assistant by clicking the Support tab inside The Hub.
Do you want to learn how to password-protect your WordPress admin directory?
Adding another layer of password protection to your WordPress admin directory can be a great way to improve your WordPress security.
In this article, you’ll learn how you can password-protect your wp-admin directory easily.
By password-protecting your WordPress admin directory, you improve the security of the most important entry point to your WordPress website.
Your WordPress admin dashboard is the central hub of your site. It’s where you’ll publish posts and pages, customize your theme, install WordPress plugins, and more.
Often, when hackers try to get into your website, they’ll do it through the wp-admin screen. You can help to protect your website against potential attacks by using a secure password and limiting login attempts.
To be even more secure, you can also password-protect the wp-admin directory. Then when someone attempts to access your admin area, they’ll need to enter a username and password before they ever make it to the WordPress login screen.
With that said, let’s take a look at how you can password-protect your WordPress admin directory step by step.
The first method is recommended for most users, and you can use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
The easiest way to password-protect your WordPress admin directory is by using your WordPress hosting provider’s Directory Privacy app.
First, you need to log in to your hosting account dashboard and click on the ‘Directory Privacy’ option in the Files section of your website’s advanced settings.
Note: Most web hosts using cPanel, like Bluehost, will have similar steps. However, your dashboard might be slightly different from our screenshots depending on your hosting provider.
This brings you to a screen that lists all of the different directories on your server. You need to find the folder that contains your website files.
For most website owners, this can be found by clicking on the ‘public_html’ folder.
This brings up all of the website files you’ve installed on your server.
Next, you’ll need to click on the folder with your website’s domain name.
In that folder, you’ll see a ‘wp-admin’ folder.
Instead of clicking the folder name, you’ll need to click the ‘Edit’ button next to that folder.
This brings you to a screen where you can turn on password protection.
Simply check the box that says ‘Password protect this directory’. If you like, you can also give your directory a name like ‘Admin Area’ to help you remember.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll need to click the ‘Save’ button.
This will take you to a page where the confirmation message will appear.
Now you’ll need to click the ‘Go Back’ button and you’ll be taken to a screen where you can create a user that will be able to access this directory.
You will be asked to enter a username and password, and then confirm the password. Make sure to note your username and password in a safe place, such as a password manager app.
Make sure you click the ‘Save’ button when you’ve done that.
Now, when someone tries to access your wp-admin directory, they will be prompted to enter the username and password you created above.
You can also password-protect your WordPress admin directory manually. To do this you’ll need to create two files called .htpasswd and .htaccess.
Note: Adding any code to your website can be dangerous. Even a small mistake can cause major errors on your site. We only recommend this method for advanced users.
Creating the .htaccess File
First, open up your preferred text editor and name the new file .htaccess.
After that, you need to copy the following code snippet and add it to the file.
AuthName "Admins Only"
AuthUserFile /home/user/public_html/example.com/wp-admin/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
AuthType basic
require user yourusername
Make sure you change the ‘AuthUserFile’ path to the location where you’ll upload the .htpasswd file and change ‘yourusername’ to the username you want to use to log in.
Don’t forget to save the file when you’re finished.
Creating the .htpasswd File
Once you’ve done that, you need to create a .htpasswd file.
To do this, open up a text editor and create a file called .htpasswd. This file will list your username along with your password in an encrypted format.
The easiest way to generate the encrypted password is with a htpasswd generator.
Simply enter your username and password, select the encryption format, and click the ‘Create .htpasswd file’ button.
The htpasswd generator will display a line of text that you need to paste into your .htpasswd file. Make sure you save the file once you’ve done that.
Uploading .htaccess and .htpasswd to the wp-admin Directory
The last step is to upload both of the files you created to your website’s wp-admin folder.
You will need to connect to your WordPress hosting account using an FTP client or the online file manager tool provided by your hosting provider. For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to use FTP to upload files to WordPress.
For this tutorial, we’ll use FileZilla because it’s free and works on both Mac and Windows.
Once you have connected to your website, you will see the files on your computer in the left window, and the files on your website in the right. On the left, you need to navigate to the location where you saved the .htaccess and .htpasswd files.
Then on the right, you need to go to the wp-admin directory for the website you wish to protect. Most users will need to double-click the ‘public_html’ folder, then the folder with their domain name, then the ‘wp-admin’ folder.
Now you can select the two files on the left and click ‘Upload’ from the right-click menu or simply drag the files onto the left window.
Now your ‘wp-admin’ directory will be password protected.
Depending on how your server and website are set up, there’s a chance you might run into errors. These errors can be fixed by carefully adding code to your .htaccess file.
Note: This is the .htaccess file located in your main website folder, not the one you uploaded to the ‘wp-admin’ folder. If you’re having trouble finding it, then see our guide on why you can’t find .htaccess and how to locate it.
Fixing the Ajax Not Working Error
One of the most common errors is that Ajax functionality may stop working on the front end of your site. If you have WordPress plugins that require Ajax, such as live Ajax search or Ajax contact forms, then you will notice that these plugins won’t work anymore.
To fix this, simply add the following code to the .htaccess file that’s located in your ‘wp-admin’ folder.
<Files admin-ajax.php>
Order allow,deny
Allow from all
Satisfy any
</Files>
Fixing the 404 Error and Too Many Redirects Error
Two other errors you might run into are the 404 error and the too many redirects error.
The simplest way to fix them is to open up your main .htaccess file located in your website directory and add the following line of code before the WordPress rules.
ErrorDocument 401 default
We hope this article helped you learn how to password-protect your WordPress admin (wp-admin) directory. You may also want to see our expert picks of the best email marketing services for small businesses and our guide on how to get a free email domain.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The post How to Password Protect Your WordPress Admin (wp-admin) Directory first appeared on WPBeginner.
Are you looking to limit/restrict access to certain parts of your WordPress site? In this article we’ll show you how you can restrict your site’s content based on who is logged into your website using popular WordPress plugins. In other words how to setup a membership style website with WordPress. There are many reasons to create a […]
The post How to Restrict Content By Member in WordPress appeared first on WPExplorer.
Want to display your author’s Twitter and Facebook links on their WordPress profile page?
By default, WordPress user profile pages don’t include fields for adding social media profiles such as Facebook or Twitter.
In this article, we will show you how to easily display your author’s Twitter and Facebook profile links in WordPress.
Social media platforms are an important source of traffic for your WordPress website. That’s why we put together a social media cheat sheet that will help you set up your social media profiles the right way.
Your authors will also have their own social profiles, and you can display them on your site to build credibility with your readers and strengthen your site’s authority.
Your visitors will be able to follow their favorite authors on social media and discover new articles on your site sooner. You can also add their social media profiles to your site’s schema, boosting your site’s trust score on Google and other search engines.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how to display an author’s Twitter and Facebook links on their user profile page.
Some of the best WordPress themes will display an author info box below each article. You can use this feature to display simple links to your author’s social profiles.
Simply go to Users » All Users in your WordPress admin panel and click the name of the author, or the ‘Edit’ link underneath to open the Edit User page.
Next, you should scroll down to the ‘About the user’ section and look for the ‘Biographical Info’ box.
If it is there, then your theme has built-in support for an author box.
Here you can type a description of the author using text or HTML. You can manually add HTML links for the author’s Twitter and Facebook profile URLs, like this:
ADD BIO HERE. Follow them on <a href="https:/twitter.com/USERNAME">Twitter</a> and <a href="https://facebook.com/USERNAME">Facebook</a>.
Make sure you add a short biography about the author and change ‘USERNAME’ to their actual Twitter and Facebook usernames.
Once you’re finished, don’t forget to scroll to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Update User’ button to store your settings.
You will now see Twitter and Facebook links with the user’s bio on the posts that they write. Here’s how it looks on our demo website:
If your theme doesn’t display an author bio box, or if you want one that is more customizable and displays social icons instead of links, then you can use a plugin.
Simple Author Box is the best free author bio box plugin. It lets you customize nearly every Aspect of your author bio box, including adding social media links for your authors.
First, you need to install and activate the Simple Author Box plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
If you want even more features, then there’s a pro version that lets you display an author box before or after content, add website links, get more social icon styles, include guest authors and co-authors, and more.
Upon activation, the plugin adds social media fields to each user profile. Simply navigate to the Users » All Users page in your WordPress admin area and click on the author’s name or the ‘Edit’ link below.
Tip: To quickly edit your own user profile, you can go to the Users » Profile page.
When you scroll to the bottom of the author profile, you will notice some new fields that have been added by the Author Bio Box plugin.
Scroll until you see the section labeled ‘Social Media Links (Simple Author Box).’ Now you need to select ‘Facebook’ from the drop-down menu, and then paste the URL to their Facebook profile into the next field.
Now you can click the button labeled ‘+ Add new social platform.’
A new drop-down and field will be added where you can add their Twitter URL.
Once you’ve done that, make sure you click the ‘Update User’ button to store your settings.
Note: Don’t worry if the Facebook and Twitter URLs vanish after clicking the button. At the time of writing, there is a minor bug that hides the URLs, but the settings have been saved.
Now Facebook and Twitter icons will be displayed with the author’s profile at the bottom of their posts. Clicking these icons will take your visitors to their social profiles, but these links will open in the same window as your blog.
If you would prefer that the links open in a new tab, then you can navigate to the Appearance » Simple Author Box page and then click on the Elements tab. Once there, you need to find the option to ‘Open social icon links in a new tab’ and toggle it to the on position.
Now the author’s social profiles will open in a new tab.
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the original WordPress SEO plugin that’s used on over 3 million websites. It can also be used to add social profile fields on the author’s profile page.
Unlike the other methods, this method will improve your website’s SEO since AIOSEO adds these social profiles to your site’s schema markup.
The problem is that AIOSEO does not automatically display them in the author bio. But don’t worry, we will show you how to do that.
For this tutorial, we’ll use the free version of All in One SEO since it allows you to add social profiles for your website and each user. However, AIOSEO Pro offers even more features to help you rank better in search engine results pages.
The first thing you need to do is install the free All in One SEO Lite plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once you have the AIOSEO plugin set up, you need to head over to the Users » All Users page, and then click on the author’s name or the ‘Edit’ link just below.
This will open the Edit User page for that author.
Notice that AIOSEO has added a Social Profiles tab at the top of the page. You need to click on that tab now.
You can now enter the URL to the user’s social profiles in the boxes provided, such as:
https://facebook.com/johnsmith345
https://twitter.com/johnsmith345
Note that simply adding the username is not enough.
Alternatively, if the author uses the same username on multiple social networks, then you can click the box labeled ‘Use the same username for multiple social networks.’
You can then type in that username and check the social networks it is used on. For other social networks, you can simply type the full URL as before.
Once you are done, click on the ‘Update User’ button at the bottom of the page to store your changes.
Pro Tip: If you have Twitter and Facebook profiles for your business or website, then you can add these to your site’s schema in a similar way by visiting All in One SEO » Social Networks and adding the links on the Social Profiles tab.
The author’s social media profiles have now been added to your site’s schema, helping search engines understand your site better. But they are not yet being displayed on your website.
Displaying AIOSEO Author Twitter and Facebook Links in Your Theme
Now you need to display these fields as links in your theme.
If you are an advanced user, then you can display links from All in One SEO’s social profiles by editing your WordPress theme files. If you haven’t done this before, then check out our guide on how to copy and paste code in WordPress.
Note: If you’re not familiar with editing your theme’s core files and adding custom code, then we recommend you use AIOSEO to add the social profiles to your site’s schema, and then display them on your website using method 1 or method 2 above.
Advanced users can add the following code to your theme files where you want to display the author profile links.
<?php
$twitter = get_the_author_meta( 'aioseo_twitter', $post->post_author );
$facebook = get_the_author_meta( 'aioseo_facebook', $post->post_author );
echo '<a href="' . $twitter .'" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Twitter</a> | <a href="'. $facebook .'" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Facebook</a>';
?>
Save your changes and view a post on your website.
Here’s how it looks on our demo website. We added the code snippet to the biography.php file in the template-parts folder of the Twenty Sixteen theme.
We hope this article helped you learn how to display the author’s Twitter and Facebook profile links in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to display recent tweets or how to display your Facebook timeline in WordPress.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The post How to Display Author’s Twitter and Facebook on the Profile Page first appeared on WPBeginner.
Have a domain purchased from somewhere else besides WPMU DEV? It’s now easier than ever to transfer them to our platform in The Hub with our domain transfer-in feature.
As you’ll see, it only takes three steps to quickly establish a domain into a new home at WPMU DEV – so you can manage everything under one roof!
Plus, you’re in control regarding nameservers, autorenewal, associating a domain with a client, and more.
In this article, we’ll look at:
After reading this, you’ll immediately be able to implement transferring domains into one easy-to-manage system – cheaply and effectively.
Before we get into the steps to transfer a domain, here are some general guidelines to get you in good shape:
Now, if you’re ready — let’s begin!
There are several ways to transfer a domain over. Whether it’s an established domain with us or you have a third-party domain service, it’s a breeze.
There are just a few differences…
If you’re a new user with no registered or connected domains, you’ll get started in The Hub by clicking the Domains tab and Transfer a Domain.
Already have domains registered or connected? Under Registered Domains, you’ll start by clicking Transfer Domain.
Another route is if you have connected any domain(s), click on the ellipsis icon on any domain’s row to show the available management options for that domain. From that, click on the Transfer Domain to Us button.
Additionally, you can click on any connected domain’s row, which will open up Nameserver details for that specific domain. Clicking the Transfer Domain to Us button is another way to get the process going.
Whatever option you choose will lead to an area where you can start the 3-step process.
In this first step, we check whether the domain is transferable.
To start, you’ll specifically enter the domain you want to transfer. Enter it completely with its TLD (e.g. .com).
If a domain is ineligible, you’ll get an error message. The messages will vary, depending on the issue.
Almost any domain TLD is okay to transfer. We have over 260 TLDs that are available for use and transfers. For any questions or issues about this, please contact support or see our documentation for rules and reasons a domain doesn’t transfer.
That being said, if all is good and the domain is eligible, once you hit Transfer, it will take you to the nameserver step.
This step is where you can choose to use our nameservers and DNS records, or keep current nameservers. If existing DNS records are available, they will be shown here. If not, it will be blank and state that there are no records to display.
If you choose to Keep Current Nameservers, it will keep the current nameserver records for the domain.
Once you decide on what’s best for you, you can continue on…
And for help pointing a domain to our nameservers, check out our complete guide on how to do so.
Registering a domain is all done in one area.
You can start by viewing the Registration Terms. You’ll notice the transfer price, renewal price, auto-renew option, and whether domain privacy is active or not.
Next, the domain will need an Authorization Code from your current registrar. This is a normal process that is universal amongst domains. You’ll get this from the losing domain register you’re transferring from.
Additionally, you’ll also add the Registrant Information. You can associate the domain with a client or add personal details.
Then, checkout in the Summary. This has the Domain Name, Registration Period, and Price. Plus, it shows whether Auto-Renew is activated or not.
After hitting Pay Now, you’re all set!
By default, the Registration Period of all the transfer-in domains is set to One year. Pay the transfer fee on our pricing page to transfer a domain to WPMU DEV. Upon successful transfer, the domain’s expiration date will be extended by one year.
It’s also important to note that if the Authorization code is invalid, the domain transfer will fail, and the transfer amount will be refunded to your account.
Once the new domain transfer-in payment is complete, the Domain Registration process begins. You’ll be able to see the status under Domain Overview.
The system will verify three registrant contact data pieces: First Name, Last Name, and Email Address. For more information about registrant verification, please read our documentation.
When complete, you’ll see that it’s Active OR Verifying. Also, additional information will be displayed (e.g. Registration Date, Expiration date, Costs, etc).
Be aware that the domain transfer can take up to five days – and that’s out of our control. It depends on how quickly the verification can take place from the losing register (e.g. GoDaddy).
Once completed, your domain will then be available in the Domains area in The Hub – along with any others you have.
Last but not least, if you need to do a Bulk Domain Transfer, contact our 24/7/365 support to help assist with this. It’s the easiest and quickest way to get any bulk domains transferred over to our system.
As you can see, bringing in domains from third-party providers is quick and easy, with only three steps. And once done, you can manage all your domains in one place with The Hub!
Adding domains to a client’s site, setting up auto-renewal, connecting nameservers – the process couldn’t be more streamlined. So, try bringing a new domain in today. Good luck, and enjoy!
Oh, and if you’re not on our Agency Plan yet, give it a go. Not only do you get domain management like bringing in third-party domains, you’ll also have access to unlimited site licences, 500GB CDN, $144 hosting credits, and more.
Every business wants to know what their customers think about them. That too not just for vanity. It’s actually an actionable customer metric that tells you what’s right and what’s not with your business. The best way to find out how your customers perceive your business is through customer feedback surveys. Even though feedback surveys […]
The post Create a Customer Feedback Survey for WordPress appeared first on WPExplorer.
SmartCrawl version 3.4 adds multiple keyword analysis, additional SEO recommendations, the ability to disable SEO & Readability Analysis in the post list, and more. For free.
SmartCrawl has been SEO optimized from the start, but each new version further improves site performance while boosting your PageRank on Google.
With automated SEO scanning, automatic XML sitemaps, real-time keyword and content analysis, and detailed audits/reports – not to mention one-click recommendations – SmartCrawl lets you create targeted content that ranks at the top of your favorite search engine.
In this post, we’re going to take a closer look at the latest features added to version 3.4, and why they make SmartCrawl even better.
Continue reading, or jump ahead with these links:
Let’s get cracking.
SmartCrawl has had keyword analysis for a while now. It also previously allowed multiple key phrases to be added, but analysis was only done on the first one.
Now, you can analyze your post content for up to three different focus keywords (or phrases). The first keyword entered will be considered primary, while the second and third keywords will be analyzed as secondary.
Doing this is easy. First of all, let’s make sure analysis is turned on. Navigate to SmartCrawl > Settings > General Settings > In-Post Analysis > Visibility, and make sure Page Analysis is toggled on (it will turn blue), then click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.
Now, open any Page or Post, and scroll to the SmartCrawl section at the bottom. In the Add Keywords field, enter up to three keywords or phrases, separating each by a comma, then click on the Add Keyword button. (You can enter them individually or all at once.)
SmartCrawl will instantly analyze all of your keywords, showing results directly below them.
Clicking on any of the keywords will put you on its own tab, with details listed beneath.
For each focus keyword, SmartCrawl will give you a list of recommendations to improve the SEO of your post. Suggestions will be made in yellow and gray, while passed audits will be green.
Click on the dropdown arrow to the right of any recommendation to see details specific to it.
If for any reason you decide a certain recommendation isn’t needed, simply click the Ignore button beneath it, and it will stop appearing every time you run the analysis.
As you go through making content adjustments based on SmartCrawl’s recommendations, follow them up with a click of the Refresh button (at the top of SEO section), so you can reanalyze and see what improvements your changes made.
You’ll also find a handy SEO Status column on Category & Taxonomy pages, providing the SEO status for all of your taxonomies.
It’s just a quick way to indicate whether an SEO description has been set, and remind users to craft good SEO descriptions so they do well in search results.
Green check marks mean the SEO description is set and contains the recommended 120-160 characters. Red means a description is missing. Yellow means the description provided is too long/short in length.
You can also hover over any icon in the SEO Status column for a popup with more detailed information.
SmartCrawl suggests In-Post SEO Recommendations for every focus keyword that your post content has been analyzed for.
Each of these will click to expand, providing additional information about how to better improve your post SEO.
The list of important recommendations in SmartCrawl was already significant, but we added four more in this version release.
1. Check if the URL contains underscores
Google recommends the use of hyphens over underscores in URLs, stating that hyphens make crawling and interpreting URLs easier for search engines.
2. Check for recommending a hand-crafted meta description
Using best practices for meta descriptions increases the likelihood of your content ranking higher in SERPS. That includes handcrafting your meta description using relevant information about the page content, instead of using the auto-generated one.
3. Primary focus keyword is already used on another post/page
Optimizing more than one post for the same focus keyword confuses search engines and can affect your SEO ranking. SmartCrawl will check to see if your Primary Focus Keyword is used in other Posts/Pages, and then list the 10 most recent ones.
4. Check if all external links are nofollow links
Relevant outbound site links help search engines determine the relevance and quality of your content, improving credibility, authority, and value to users. While having some nofollow links is okay, best practice is to have at least one external dofollow link in your site, so SmartCrawl will check for this.
Posts and Pages in SmartCrawl are analyzed one at a time by default, in order to prevent excessive loads on the server.
In the newest version, you now have the ability to completely disable these checks if you prefer. To do so, navigate to SmartCrawl > Settings > General Settings > In-Post Analysis, and toggle the Disable Page Analysis Check on Pages/Posts Screen on (it will turn blue).
If you change this setting, be sure to click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.
SmartCrawl is built with ease-of-use in mind. Set up is a cinch, with one-click recommendations that improve your PageRank in minutes, each full of details so you can better understand and improve on them.
Now with the newest features, like analyzing multiple keywords at once, even more recommendations that benefit your post SEO, and improved readability analysis, using SmartCrawl on your WordPress site is a win-win-win.
Sign up for a WPMU DEV free membership to take a test run with us. In addition to SmartCrawl, you’ll get Smush and Hummingbird – our two most highly rated (and awarded) plugins for image and performance optimizations – as well as the rest of our popular free plugins.
If you want to up the ante even more, we recommend going with one of our Premium Memberships, which include SmartCrawl Pro (plus the rest of our Pro plugins), along with our exclusive, feature-packed Hub client portal, blazing-fast CDN, and our 24/7/365 five-star support. SmartCrawl Pro adds features like scanning, reports, automatic linking for specific keywords, 404s and multiple redirects.
You can also Host with us, and join the tens of thousands of satisfied WordPressers who see the difference our fully dedicated, fully optimized, and lightning-fast resources make.
However you go, SmartCrawl your way to the top of the search game.
Our new Global IP Banning feature saves you loads of time securing sites. Simply create your IP block and allowlist once, then automatically sync to some or all of your WordPress sites with a few clicks.
A global IP allowlist and blocklist feature has been a top Defender security request for a while. So now…
“I logged into a client site this morning and saw a notification about the new global IP list-banning feature that allows us to sync our IP ban lists across Hub sites. I have raised this request in previous topics with Support and I am sooooooo happy that it has been made live. You guys rock!”
Andre – WPMU DEV Member
It’s here, free to use, and managed directly from your Hub! As you’ll see, it’s easy to quickly apply the same allowlist and blocklist IPs to all of your sites in bulk.
This article will cover:
So, let’s show you how it’s done! First though…
Just to touch on it quickly, there are many reasons for configuring a WordPress site to allow or block IPs.
For example, maybe you want to monitor online behavior (e.g. to restrict specific web platforms from accessing an educational site). Or, to protect your website from attacks. Also, you may not want a particular country or place to access your online information.
So, there are practical scenarios (like not allowing access to unwanted sites) and security protocols (preventing unwanted or harmful sites or servers from connecting with your network or computer).
Whatever the purpose, allowing and banning IPs should be in your control. With Defender, they are.
Let’s show you how our Defender security plugin makes it easy.
The Hub makes it easy and simple to create and manage IP Banning.
You can block and allow IP addresses from this area and automatically sync those lists with all or several of your WordPress sites.
The IP Banning section is located in the My Sites menu area.
In this section, you can see your Global Blocklist and Global Allowlist, where you’ll add your IPs.
Simply insert one IP address per line and keep in mind that IPv4 and IPv6 are supported. Plus, IP ranges are also accepted in CIDR or hyphenated format.
Ever want to edit? It’s no problem. You can add and remove IPs at any time!
It’s up to you to determine what sites of yours you want IPs blocked or allowed. So, before syncing IPs with sites, decide what sites you want to associate with IP block and allow lists.
Head to Activate on Site(s) to pick what site you want to include.
After clicking, you’ll see all the available sites to activate global IP banning.
You’ll also be able to see any website that doesn’t have Defender activated and any other issues that would affect syncing.
If you want, you can search with Filters & Labels when browsing through your websites. There are options for filtering by ‘Hosted with us,’ ‘Hosted elsewhere,’ favorites/non-favorites, and labels.
Plus, you can enter a site title and search relevant sites.
When your sites are selected, tap Activate – and that’s it! It takes just a few moments for the sites to be included.
With that being said, it’s time to…
It takes one click to sync your IPs with your WordPress sites. Just tap on the bright blue Sync IPs with Sites, and all the selected sites will be synced.
A message informing you of what is about to take place will pop up to ensure you’d like to proceed.
Sounds good to still sync? Then click Continue.
After hitting Continue, you can sit back and relax as all of your chosen sites are synced with IPs on your blocklist and allowlist! It takes just a few moments.
Now that you know how to set up global IPs from The Hub, you can also monitor and sync IPs from Defender’s dashboard.
It’s all accessible by going to Firewall, and IP Banning while in the WordPress admin and Defender.
After syncing, all the IPs you have entered in The Hub will be in a list.
One thing to note is that you can’t add new IPs from Defender’s dashboard. Simply add them in The Hub and re-sync – and that’s it!
It’s also an area where you can enable and disable the global IP feature anytime.
As you can see, allowing and blocking global IPs can be done in just a few clicks with Defender and The Hub. It’s never been simpler to control global IPs across any number of sites simultaneously!
If you aren’t using The Hub yet, sign up for free. The same goes for Defender, which also doesn’t cost a thing from wp.org.
And now, blocking and allowing IPs is a breeze!
Pointing domains… nameservers… figuring out DNS… it can all feel daunting! Fortunately, WPMU DEV makes it easy, whether you’re working with a domain purchased from us or from another provider. We break it all down in this article.
Keep reading to learn how to easily connect your domain to our hosting service.
Here are the topics we’ll be covering:
With our new domain service recently rolled out, you can directly purchase domains and register them through WPMU DEV – in which case we automatically do the DNS hookup (i.e., the pointing part) for you.
If you purchased your domain through another DNS provider and are hosting with us, the tutorial below will show you exactly what you need to do and explain why this is also a great choice.
Nameservers are often referred to as the phone book of the internet, sending you to the correct domain when you type in a web address.
There are two primary components to making your website accessible to the public:
The first must point to the second to connect the two.
The registrar you purchased your domain from also has its own nameservers (if it offers hosting), however if you want them managed elsewhere you must change the DNS records.
Doing it all from a single location is ideal, as it cuts out the middle agent and puts the same quality that powers your sites behind your DNS.
DNS propagation is the term for your site’s nameservers and other records (e.g., A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, etc) updating across the web. This process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a couple days to finalize.
If your site was already live, it might become briefly inaccessible to visitors during the nameserver change. You could create a temporary page with info regarding the approximate downtime, then publish it just prior to the server change. (Remember to change it back once the process is complete).
It’s also helpful to handle nameserver changes during a period when traffic volume is typically on the low end.
Alright, we’re ready to start our edits. The first thing we’re going to do is navigate to The Hub on WPMU DEV.
Click on Domains from the top menu bar, then Connected Domains from the submenu, then the Connect Existing Domain button.
The Add New Domain modal will pop up. Here you will enter your domain name in the text field – making sure to include the extension (e.g. .com, .net, .xyz) – then click the blue button.
The Hub DNS Manager will run a scan for common DNS records, then automatically import and list them for your verification.
Here you’ll see the summary of record information, which will include:
You can remove any records, if you want to exclude them from being imported, by clicking on the Trashcan icon.
You can also manually add any records that are missing. See Add or Edit DNS Records for details.
If you’re in any doubt as to whether records should be added or deleted, just reach out to support (any time, day or night) and they’ll happily walk you through it.
Once you’re satisfied with the populated DNS records, click the blue button once more.
After the ellipsis bounce, the page will load with the imported information specific to your domain.
WPMU DEV nameservers are listed towards the top of this page, where you’ll see there are three of them.
Keep your Hub page open, as we’ll be copying & pasting the nameservers in the next step. (Or, do what I do, and just copy the first one, then replace the “1” with “2” then “3” as you paste each, since these ordinal numbers are the only difference.)
Now that we’ve imported your domain details into WPMU DEV, the next step is to overwrite the nameserver records of your registrars with ours.
There are a lot of registrars, so how your domain details are kept and displayed will vary, but they should all have the same key elements. We cover more than a dozen of the most popular ones here.
In the case of registrars that serve as hosts, what they permit when it comes to allowable changes in nameservers can vary. For example, pointing nameservers to another host is not permissible for a Wix-purchased domain. However, you can transfer your domain away from them (although it involves a different process).
Assuming your domain registrar allows for pointing nameservers away from them, or that you’ve taken any necessary prior steps in preparation, login to their website and locate the records for your domain.
Popping back over to the Hub, copy that first nameserver, then head back to your domain registrar details page, pasting it in the appropriate text field. Do this for all three nameservers, then save your input.
Depending on your registrar, you’ll probably get a confirmation message with time estimates on how long it will take the DNS hosting server to update.
It’s rare, but on the outside chance your domain registrar requires identifying our nameservers by IP address, you can find them here.
As with any significant edit, verifying everything is working as it should is an important last step.
Some registrars will send you an email notifying you that the propagation is complete. With others, you might need to revisit the site and continue checking.
Either way, we can verify things through The Hub. Let’s head there, and navigate to Domains > Connected Domains.
For the domain name in question, if you see the green check marked Propagated correctly under Nameservers Status – you’re good to go. If it says Pending, click on the vertical ellipsis icon to the right, and select Manage DNS from the dropdown.
If everything was done properly and the process has completed, you’ll see a row of green highlighted text, confirming Your nameservers are propagated correctly. If that message isn’t displayed, click on the Check nameservers button.
You’re all set! Your nameservers are successfully pointing to WPMU DEV as your acting DNS provider.
If you don’t get a confirmation or see an error message, check out our detailed documentation, or reach out to our always-on-call support team.
As an additional option, you can use this DNS propagation checker to verify the current IP address and DNS record information for your domain name(s).
Nameservers are essential in directing internet traffic as they locate and translate hostnames into IP addresses.
If you host your own or your client sites with WPMU DEV, pointing your domains to our nameservers has definite advantages.
For starters, subpar nameservers will experience difficulties more often, and your visitors could get “DNS server not responding” messages. Quality nameservers, like ours, can limit or avoid that altogether.
Additionally, pointing your domains to our nameservers allows you to keep the settings with your current email client as is, eliminating the hassle of making a bunch of changes in that regard. (Just make sure existing MX records are imported during the DNS record setup.)
Finally, with the ability to purchase domains now directly through WPMU DEV, managing client sites becomes even more centralized, as your hosting provider and domain provider will be one in the same.
This gives you all of your domains in one place/one dashboard, with auto renewal, free protection, and a built-in grace period; priced incredibly low for Agency members.
Not a member yet? Give us a go, and see how much our hosting has to offer. If you’re not thrilled, we’ll refund you 100%; simply cancel within 30 days. Chances are good you’ll find our value and service are unmatched.
Register, manage, and connect unlimited affordable domains directly from WPMU DEV – making creating websites for you and your clients easier than ever!
Domain registration is all done right from WPMU DEV’s Hub. It just takes a few clicks, with unlimited options for picking top-level domains.
As you’ll see, domain management has been streamlined for web developers on our Agency Plan. Especially when managing domains for multiple clients.
In this article, we cover everything you need to know about using domains with WPMU DEV, including:
If you’re a member, you can get started here. Not a member yet? Get started with a trial of our Agency plan today!
Now that you’re ready to go let’s…
Registering a New Domain is quick and simple. Whatever domain you’re looking for, we have 120+ extensions — whether it be .com, .org, .shop — you name it! They’re all affordable. (And P.S. — We’ll be adding another 100-150 TLDs VERY soon.)
It’s also important to note that domains are for Agency Plan members ONLY. We can only offer this kind of service at wholesale pricing by making it exclusive (just as we did with Quantum hosting).
We provide domains purely at cost (purchase and renewal), with no margin for us (except to cover transaction fees) so that you can resell them to your clients with your own markup and save money on your existing provider.
So, now that you know the gist of our domains, here’s…
Registering a new domain starts from the Domains tab and Register New Domain. Just type the domain name you want to use.
Once you type in the domain name you prefer, a list of options will appear with various prices.
In this example, I’d like to register the name ‘awesomewebguy.’ As you can see, many top-level domain options appeared (e.g. .org, .net, .online, etc.) under Matches.
Want to see other options? Click Load More, and you’ll get others.
WPMU DEV domains also have Suggestions for a new domain based on your search criteria.
Once you have a domain name, click Buy Now. And that’s it!
You’ll be directed to a registration page. From this page, you pick out the Registration Terms. This includes the Registration Period, Renewal Price, and Auto-Renew.
To start, select a Registration Period. This can be anywhere from one to ten years!
Choose between 1-10 years in a click.
Also, determine whether you’d like to auto-renew or not (you can always change this later – as you’ll see).
Next, enter the Registrant information. This is information about you as the domain owner. None of this information is publicly shared or on WHOIS.
Once your domain is successfully registered, you can automatically add DNS records by clicking connect to a hosted site. If you don’t want to connect your domain to a hosted site – no biggie. Click Skip for Now.
That being said, let’s say you want to connect domain to a hosted site. Here’s how it’s done…
Adding a domain to a hosted site with WPMU DEV doesn’t take much at all to set up.
You can do this while creating your domain or after the domain is verified and completed. Just select from the dropdown what site you would like the domain to be hosted on.
Add your domain to a hosted site at any time. From the Domains tab, you’ll see by your site a Link Icon.
Just click Connect to a Hosted Site, and select from the dropdown what site you’d like to use.
Click Save, and you’ll see your domain’s DNS status. It may take a little while to complete. You can recheck your status by tapping Settings (the ellipsis).
Below this area, you’ll also see the DNS information for the site you’re using with your domain. It includes the CNAME Record, A Record, and AAAA Record.
Note: if you use the Connect Domain feature, you don’t have to manually add any DNS record.
Ready to go live? We have an awesome guide that takes you through how to do it step by step.
Once you register a new domain, it will be located under Registered Domains. If you view it soon after registering a domain, you’ll see that its Registrant Status maybe be ‘verifying.’
A message will appear indicating that as well.
So, how do you go about verifying the registrant status?
Once you register your domain, you’ll receive an email. This is to ensure that you are who you say you are regarding your domain ownership and to complete your registration.
Whatever email address you include in your Registrant Information is where this email will be sent. Once opened, this is what it says:
It contains two links: one is to review ICANN’s Policy, and the other is to continue on with verification.
When verified, you’ll get notified immediately.
Please keep in mind that if you don’t verify within 15 days, the domain will be suspended until you verify it. So, make sure to complete this important step.
All of your domains are in one place in The Hub under Domains. This is your one-stop area where you can new, update, manage, and more.
By clicking on the ellipsis by individual domains, you instantly have access to key features, such as:
To make it easier for you and your clients, you can activate Auto Renew in one click.
Click on the name or status of the domain to get to the Domain Overview page. From the Overview, you can view a ton of information. Everything from Domain Status, Registration Date, GDPR status- – and more!
Be sure to check out our documentation for an in-depth look.
Get a 360-degree view from the Domain Overview.
This is an overlook where you can see the domain status (active or inactive), expiration date, whether auto-renew is activated – and more!
Perform tasks from this area as well, such as renewing a domain, activating auto-renew, and implementing transfer lock.
Find out more in our documentation.
All the contact information regarding the domain Owner, Admin, Billing, and Tech are in the Contact Information tab. You can always adjust, add, and delete information.
All of the current DNS records are located in the Manage DNS area. From you, you can add a Subdomain, email, or custom DNS records.
Learn a lot more in our guide on how to add a Subdomain.
Filtering domains is a way to quickly and easily find specific domains, organize the list of domains you want to view, find who’s registered for domains, and more!
Once clicking Filter, you have options for:
Each option has different varibles in their dropdowns. For example, if you choose Domain Status, the dropdown includes Active, Suspended, and Expired.
View all of your Connected Domains in one place. This section displays all your connected domains and their status (e.g. propagated correctly or pending).
You can Manage DNS, Recheck DNS, and Delete on the ellipsis.
If you click Manage DNS, you can add the Nameservers and view Records (e.g. AAAA and A). It also displays the TTL for each record.
It also indicates where it directs to by each type of DNS record.
You can see how simple and easy it is to set up, implement, and manage domains with WPMU DEV and The Hub! With a new domain, you can be up and running in just a few clicks.
Plus, coming soon in 2023 — you’ll essentially be able to create your own GoDaddy! More on that to come…
So, what are you waiting for? To get started, if you haven’t tried our Agency plan, start your 7 day no obligation free trial today. And if you are already an Agency member, begin registering domains immediately!
Do you want to disable the default WordPress sitemap on your website?
The default sitemap feature was introduced in WordPress 5.5, and it enables WordPress to publish XML sitemaps for your website automatically. The challenge is that this feature is lacking advanced WordPress SEO features that you need to rank higher.
In this article, we will show you how to easily disable the WordPress sitemap and improve it with a more powerful solution.
An XML sitemap is a file that lists all your website content in an XML format, which makes it easy for search engines to discover and index your content.
Sitemaps are very beneficial for your website as they bring more traffic and improve the SEO rankings of your site.
However, numerous WordPress SEO plugins like All in One SEO, Yoast SEO, and Google XML Sitemaps already implement sitemaps on your website, which results in WordPress pages having two sets of sitemaps.
Duplicate sitemaps for the same WordPress page can confuse search engines and can drop your SEO rankings.
If you’re not using a SEO plugin for your sitemap, then you’re missing out on advanced features. For example, many popular WordPress SEO plugins offer features like Video Sitemap, News Sitemap, RSS Sitemap, etc that you need to outrank your competitors in SEO.
With that being said, let’s see how you can easily disable the default WordPress sitemap.
If you’re using any of the popular WordPress SEO plugins, then they will automatically disable the default WordPress sitemap feature and replace it with a more powerful solution.
For the sake of this tutorial, we will be demonstrating AIOSEO plugin because that’s the plugin we use on WPBeginner.
All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin that allows you to easily optimize your WordPress website for search engines and social media platforms. Over 3 million websites use AIOSEO including our own.
By default, All in One SEO will enable their Sitemap feature for you which automatically replaces the basic WordPress sitemaps upon activation.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the AIOSEO plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once activated, you will need to configure the AIOSEO plugin. If you need help, then you can follow our step-by-step guide on how to set up All in One SEO in WordPress correctly.
After that, head over to the All in One SEO » Sitemaps page from the WordPress admin dashboard to review your sitemap settings.
Next, navigate to the ‘General Sitemap’ tab. Here, make sure that the ‘Enable Sitemap’ switch is set to ‘Active’. This will disable the default WordPress sitemap.
Aside from the General Sitemap, we recommend that you enable the video sitemap, news sitemap, as well as the RSS sitemap on your site to maximize your SEO rankings.
You can also easily disable the default WordPress sitemap using code, too. You can add the code snippet in your theme’s functions.php file.
However, the biggest problem in adding code to your functions.php file is that even a tiny mistake can break your website.
That is why we recommend using WPCode to add custom code to WordPress. This free plugin makes it easy to add code snippets in WordPress without having to edit your theme’s functions.php file.
First, you need to install and activate the free WPCode plugin. For further instructions, check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Next, go to the new Code Snippets entry in the left-hand menu of your WordPress dashboard. This will bring you to the ‘All Snippets’ page.
Next, just click on the ‘Add New’ button.
WPCode will then take you to the ‘Add Snippet’ page where you can choose to add your own custom code or search to find an existing snippet from the WPCode library.
As we have to add custom code, simply hover over ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ option and click ‘Use snippet.’
Now you will be directed to the ‘Create Custom Snippet’ page. You can start by typing a name for your code snippet. It can be anything you like.
Then, select a ‘Code Type’ from the dropdown menu to the right. As we will be using a PHP code, simply click on the ‘PHP Snippet’ option.
Next, simply copy and paste the following PHP code snippet in the ‘Code Preview’.
add_filter( 'wp_sitemaps_enabled', '__return_false' );
It will look like this when you’ve done so.
After pasting the code, scroll down to the ‘Insertion’ section where you will find two insert methods.
Simply choose the ‘Auto Insert’ option since you want it to run sitewide.
Now, go to the top of the page, toggle the switch from ‘Inactive’ to ‘Active’ at the top right corner, and then click the ‘Save Snippet’ button.
Once, you have saved and activated the code snippet, it will be active and the default WordPress sitemap disabled.
We hope this article helped you learn how to disable the default WordPress sitemap. You may also want to check out our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to improve your rankings, and see our comparison of the best managed WordPress hosting.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
The post How to Easily Disable the Default WordPress Sitemap first appeared on WPBeginner.
Content sliders are everywhere these days! They can also be very polarizing. Tons of people love them, while others despise them. But it’s important to realize that sliders aren’t a cure, they are merely a tool. This means that they need to be used appropriately and populated with great content in order for you to realize their main […]
The post Save Time and Engage Visitors with Content Sliders appeared first on WPExplorer.
Do you run an online business? Want to sell more products or services? Answered yes to either of those questions? In that case, you need a sales funnel. A sales funnel is the best way to sell your products and services. It’s the process that helps you identify prospective customers and guide them through a […]
The post How to Create a Sales Funnel with WordPress appeared first on WPExplorer.
The header and footer are one of the most important parts of a website. Your website’s header is the first thing a visitor notices while landing on your site. A header refers to the navigation bar that displays the business logo, links to all important pages, any CTA, and a way of contacting you via […]
The post How to Create a Sticky Header in Elementor appeared first on WPExplorer.
Are you looking to display recently registered users in WordPress?
Sometimes you may want to display your recently registered users on your site to create a sense of community and encourage others to become a member, join your forum, or simply create an account.
In this article, we’ll show you how to display recently registered users on your WordPress site.
If you run a membership site, online course, forum, or any other type of WordPress website that allows for user registration, then you may want to display your recently registered users.
This adds social proof an also give other members a chance to welcome new members to the community. If you run a small business website, then you can even create a filterable directory of your team members or contributors.
There are all kinds of reasons to display your recently registered users in WordPress:
With that said, let’s show you how you can display recently registered users in WordPress. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
The best way to display recently registered users is by using the Formidable Forms plugin. It’s one of the top contact form and best user registration plugins for WordPress in the market.
It comes with advanced features that let you format, filter, and display user-submitted data on the front end of your website, including user profile data.
You can use it to create all kinds of useful online tools like web directories, online calculators, user directories, and more. Plus, you have complete control over how your user directories look and function.
It even integrates with MemberPress, so you can easily display a list of your recently registered members on your membership website.
Note: Formidable Forms won’t automatically display all new users. Instead, it gives you complete control over which users and what information is displayed. To display a user in your directory, a separate form will need to be created and filled out. We’ll show you how.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the Formidable Forms plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to go to Formidable » Global Settings and then click the ‘Connect an Account’ button or manually enter your license key and click the ‘Save License’ button.
You can find this information under your account on the Formidable Forms website.
Next, you need to install the Formidable Directory addon. Depending on your plan, this addon may already be active.
If not, then you need to go to the Formidable Directory page and click the ‘Get Formidable Directory’ button. After you complete the purchase, it will automatically be added to your account.
Next, go to Formidable Forms » Add-Ons and search for the ‘Directory’ addon.
Then, click the ‘Install’ button.
After that, navigate to Formidable » Global Settings.
Then, click the ‘Directory’ menu option.
This will automatically start the setup wizard to help you create your user directory. If you haven’t connected your site to Formidable Forms, then you’ll be asked to do that now.
Then, click the ‘Install & Activate’ button to install and activate any required addons.
Next, click the ‘User/Member’ box to display your recently registered users and choose a ‘Two Column’ or ‘Table List’ display.
Then, enter a page name for your listing form and your directory page and click the ‘Create Now’ button.
This will automatically create the necessary forms, views, and pages to display your users, but it doesn’t publish them yet, so you can still make changes.
After that, click the ‘View Page’ button in the ‘Customize Your New Pages’ section.
This will automatically take you to a page with your registered user list.
It includes a search bar, A-Z filter, and boxes containing each of your registered users.
After that, you need to make your page live.
To do this, simply click the ‘Edit Page’ button at the top of the screen.
This brings you the page editor screen. You can edit this page just as you would any other WordPress page.
When you’ve finished editing the page, you need to click the ‘Publish’ button to make it live.
If you want to customize how your registered user directory looks, then go to Formidable » Views.
Then hover over the view that was just created and click ‘Edit’.
This brings you to the view editor screen.
Here, you can fully customize how your user directory looks. For example, you could limit the number of users per page, filter and sort the user entries, or add more content to their individual profiles.
Once you’re finished making changes, click the ‘Update’ button.
It will automatically update the user directory you published earlier.
Publish Your Form to Collect Information From New Users
After you customize and publish your user directory, you’ll need to publish the form connected to the directory too.
Users who have already registered on your WordPress site will need to fill out this separate form to be listed in the user directory.
First, you need to go to Pages » All Pages and then click on the page that was created earlier, in this case, it’s ‘Add a Listing’.
This brings you to the page editor screen, where you’ll see the page title and a shortcode.
Next, click the ‘Publish’ button to make your page live.
After that, you can view your page with the user registration form.
New users can use this form to fill out their user directory profile information on your website.
If you want to customize the form fields, then navigate to Formidable » Forms.
Next, click on the form you named earlier, in this case, it’s ‘User Directory Profile’.
This will bring up the form builder.
If you want to add new form fields, then simply drag them from the options panel on the left onto your form.
To delete existing form fields, click on the field and click the ‘Three Dots’ menu option.
Then, click ’Delete’.
Once you’re finished customizing your form, make sure to click the ‘Update’ button to save your changes, and your form will automatically update.
Another way to display recently registered users is with the free Dynamic User Directory plugin.
It’s not as advanced or customizable as Formidable Forms, but it lets you display a simple list of your recently registered users.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After that, you need to go Settings » Dynamic User Directory to configure your directory settings.
First, you can control how your registered user list is sorted in the ‘Sort Field’ drop down and choose which kind of directory type you want to display in the ‘Directory Type’ drop down.
After that, you can enable a directory search feature by checking the ‘Directory Search’ box.
If you want to exclude certain user roles, or specific users, then you can select them from the drop down list.
Next, you can control how your directory looks and the user information that will display in the ‘Listing Display Settings’ section.
You have control over the user’s name, avatars, borders, and more.
Below that, in the ‘Directory Totals Settings’ meta box, you can choose the total number of users, customize the text, and more.
Displaying the total number of users can be helpful if you want to use social proof to encourage new users to create an account on your site.
Next, you can customize how the letter links and pagination displays on your user list.
You can set the number of users to show per page, change the spacing, and more.
Once you’re finished, click the ‘Save options’ button at the bottom of the screen to save your directory.
This will create and display a shortcode for your user directory at the top of the page. You need to copy this to add your directory to your site.
Then, open the page, post, or widget area to display your list of users.
Next, click the ‘Plus’ add block icon, search for ‘Shortcode’, and select it.
After that, simply paste the shortcode into the box.
Then, click the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button.
Now, you can view your list of recently registered users on your site.
If you want to add the list of recently registered users to a post or widget area, then simply follow the above steps.
Another way you can display your recently registered users is by adding code to WordPress. If you haven’t done this before, then see our guide on how to copy and paste code in WordPress.
Then, you can add the following code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file, or by using a code snippets plugin like WPCode (recommended):
function wpb_recently_registered_users() {
global $wpdb;
$recentusers = '<ul class="recently-user">';
$usernames = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT user_nicename, user_url, user_email FROM $wpdb->users ORDER BY ID DESC LIMIT 5");
foreach ($usernames as $username) {
if (!$username->user_url) :
$recentusers .= '<li>' .get_avatar($username->user_email, 45) .$username->user_nicename."</a></li>";
else :
$recentusers .= '<li>' .get_avatar($username->user_email, 45).'<a href="'.$username->user_url.'">'.$username->user_nicename."</a></li>";
endif;
}
$recentusers .= '</ul>';
return $recentusers;
}
This code snippet creates a simple list of your recently registered users and displays the avatar image and username.
After that, there are two different ways you can display your recently registered users. The first is by adding a template tag to your theme’s template files, like sidebar.php, footer.php, and more.
To learn more, see our WordPress template hierarchy cheat sheet to help you find the right theme template file.
Then, add the following template tag code snippet:
<?php wpb_recently_registered_users(); ?>
The second method is easier for beginners and lets you display newly registered users by using a shortcode.
First, add the following code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file or by using a code snippets plugin, just below the code you added earlier.
add_shortcode('wpb_newusers', 'wpb_recently_registered_users');
This code will create the following shortcode you can use in your posts, pages, and widget areas.
[wpb_newusers]
To add the shortcode to your website, simply open the page where you want the list of users to display.
Then, click the ‘Plus’ add block icon, search for ‘Shortcode’, and select it.
After that, paste the shortcode you copied above into the shortcode box.
When you’re done making changes, click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button to make your changes live.
You can follow the same steps by adding the shortcode to a post or a widget area.
Now you can view your list of recently registered users. To adjust how they appear, you would need to add custom CSS to your website.
We hope this article helped you learn how to display recently registered users in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate, and our expert picks of the best business phone services for small businesses.
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