If you’re encountering the “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance, check back in a minute” error message when accessing your WordPress site, there’s no need to panic. This common issue is usually caused by a failed WordPress update and is relatively easy to resolve.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through the process of completing the update manually. We’ll also show you how to take your site out of maintenance mode and remove the error message and ensure your site is back up and running smoothly in no time.

Table of Content:

• What Causes the “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance” Error in WordPress?
• Steps to Solve Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance Error
  • Option 1. Manually Update WordPress
  • Option 2. Remove WordPress from Maintenance Mode
    • Delete .maintenance with FTP client
    • Delete .maintenance with cPanel
  • Option 3: Update the wp-activate.php File
  • Option 4: Deactivate all WordPress Plugins
• How to Prevent the WordPress Maintenance Mode Error in the Future
• When You Need to Put Your Site in Maintenance Mode
• Conclusion

What Causes the “Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance” Error in WordPress?

When WordPress performs an update, it temporarily places your site in maintenance mode to ensure a smooth and secure process. 

During this period, the “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. check back in a minute.” message is displayed, preventing user access to the WordPress site. This is a built-in safety measure designed to protect your site and maintain a positive user experience by preventing access to a site that is in the process of being updated.

Typically, this message is displayed only for a few seconds. Once the update is completed, WordPress automatically exits maintenance mode, and the message disappears. 

The maintenance mode process involves creating a `.maintenance` file in the root directory of your WordPress installation. This file signals that the site is under maintenance. When the update is finished, WordPress deletes this file, allowing normal site operations to resume.

When everything functions correctly, this brief interruption is not an error but a necessary part of the update process. 

However, issues can arise if the WordPress update does not complete successfully. Common causes of incomplete updates include server timeouts, interruptions in the connection, or conflicts with other plugins or themes.

In such cases, the update script fails to execute completely, meaning the `.maintenance` file is not removed. 

Consequently, your site remains stuck in maintenance mode, and the “Briefly unavailable” message continues to be displayed. This is when the maintenance mode message becomes an error, requiring manual intervention to resolve and restore normal site functionality.

Steps to Solve Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance Error

To quickly fix the “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. check back in a minute” WordPress error message, follow these two steps:

• Option 1. Manually Update WordPress Installation: Complete the failed update by updating WordPress manually.
• Option 2. Remove WordPress from Maintenance Mode: Ensure your site is no longer in maintenance mode by removing the maintenance file.
• Option 3: Update the wp-activate.php File
• Option 4: Deactivate all WordPress Plugins

Option 1. Manually Update WordPress – Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance in WordPress

Since your WordPress update is likely incomplete, you could run into many more problems if you remove WordPress from maintenance mode without first completing the update.

Follow the steps in this guide to complete your WordPress update: How to Update WordPress Manually.

Option 2. Remove WordPress from Maintenance Mode

WordPress puts your site into maintenance mode by placing a .maintenance file in the main directory containing your WordPress files.

To stop your site from displaying the “briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance” message, all you need to do is delete the maintenance file.

You can do this using either FTP or cPanel.

Delete .maintenance with FTP client – Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance in WordPress

To delete this file, connect to your site using FileZilla FTP client program. If you are not sure how to connect with FileZilla, watch this video: How To Use FTP.

When connected to the root folder, open the main folder containing your WordPress files (it could be Public_html folder). In this folder, look for the .maintenance file and delete it.

After deleting the .maintenance file, you would no longer see the error message ‘Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance’ and your site should load properly.

Note: If you do not see the .maintenance file, it is likely hidden by your server. To view the file, go to the “Server” menu and click on Force showing hidden files.

Delete .maintenance with cPanel

As an alternative to using FTP, you can delete this file with cPanel. If you often manage your site with cPanel, this may be the easier option for you.

To do this, log into your cPanel account (obtain your details from your WebHost if you do not have them) and click File Manager.

Next, double-click the folder containing your WordPress files to open it. If your WordPress site URL is like www.yoursite.com, then this folder is public_html. Otherwise, try to locate the folder.

When in your main WordPress folder, you may not see your .maintenance file. This is because most servers hide dot configuration files.

To view the file, click Settings on the top-right of the screen, tick “Show Hidden Files (dotfiles)”, and click Save.

Next, locate the .maintenance file, right-click on it, and hit Delete.

In the pop-up confirmation, tick the option to skip trash (if present) and click Confirm.

And that’s it. You have successfully removed your site from maintenance mode using cPanel in order to solve ‘Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance’ Error.

Option 3: Update the wp-activate.php File – Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance in WordPress

If your WordPress site is still stuck in maintenance mode after following the previous fixes, you may need to update the ‘wp-activate.php’ file. This file is located in your main WordPress directory, the same place where you previously found and deleted the ‘.maintenance’ file.

Using your Hosting Account/FTP Client

First, log in to your hosting account. This is typically done through your hosting provider’s website. Once logged in, locate the file manager app provided by your hosting company. It’s often found in the control panel (such as cPanel or Plesk).

Alternatively, you can use an FTP client (such as FileZilla) to access your website’s files. You will need your FTP credentials (hostname, username, and password) provided by your hosting provider.

Next, navigate to the directory where your WordPress files are stored. This is usually the public_html or www directory.

In the file manager or FTP client, find the `wp-activate.php` file in the main WordPress directory. This is the same directory where you previously found the `.maintenance` file.

Now, you need to open the `wp-activate.php` file. If you are using the file manager, right-click on the `wp-activate.php` file and select the option to edit or open. If you are using an FTP client, download the `wp-activate.php` file to your computer and open it using a text editor (such as Notepad or Sublime Text).

Once the file is open, search for the following line of code within the `wp-activate.php` file:

define('WP_INSTALLING', true);

Change the `true` to `false` so that the line of code looks like this:

define('WP_INSTALLING', false);

After making the change, save the file. If you are using the file manager, simply save the file after making the change. If you are using an FTP client, save the file on your computer and then upload it back to the same directory on your hosting server, overwriting the existing `wp-activate.php` file.

Finally, check your WordPress site to see if it is no longer in maintenance mode. You should now be able to access your site normally.

Option 4: Deactivate all WordPress Plugins – Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance in WordPress

If your site encounters issues after a plugin update, you can temporarily deactivate all plugins to resolve the problem.

Connect to your website via FTP and navigate to the wp-content/plugins/ directory. Rename the plugins folder to plugins_deactivated to deactivate all plugins.

This step ensures that any corrupt or problematic plugin is disabled, allowing your site to come back online.

Next, log in to your WordPress dashboard. Once you have access, rename the ‘plugins_deactivated’ folder back to plugins. In the WordPress dashboard, go to the Plugins section and reactivate each plugin one by one.

After activating each plugin, check your site to identify which plugin is causing the issue. Once the problematic plugin is found, manually update it to ensure it functions correctly.

If the issue occurred while updating the WordPress core software, follow our guide on how to safely update WordPress to avoid similar problems in the future. This process will help you maintain a stable and functional website.

How to Prevent the WordPress Maintenance Mode Error in the Future

To prevent the ‘Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance’ mode error in the future, you can take several proactive steps. Below are some tips to prevent WordPress maintenance mode errors on your website:

Ensure Complete Updates

Ensure you are completing updates properly. It’s advisable to update one thing at a time, such as individual plugins, themes, or the WordPress core, rather than updating everything simultaneously. This approach reduces the risk of conflicts and errors during the update process. Additionally, make sure you have a stable internet connection while performing updates to avoid interruptions that could leave your site in maintenance mode.

Use Reliable Hosting

Using a reliable hosting provider is crucial. Choose a host that offers good server performance and support. Some hosting providers also offer automated backup and restore features, which can be invaluable if an update fails.

Backup Your Site

Regularly backing up your site is essential. Utilize plugins like UpdraftPlus or BackupBuddy to create scheduled backups. Regular backups ensure that you can quickly restore your site if an update does not go as planned.

Increase Server Resources

Increasing server resources can also help. Specifically, increasing the PHP execution time limit in your server settings ensures that larger updates have enough time to complete. Similarly, increasing the PHP memory limit helps handle larger processes more efficiently.

Optimize Plugins and Themes

Optimizing your plugins and themes is another important step. Deactivate and delete any plugins you are not using, as having fewer plugins reduces the chances of conflicts and errors during updates. Additionally, use themes that are well-coded and lightweight to ensure smooth updates.

Manual Update Process

Consider performing manual updates if automatic updates frequently cause issues. You can do this by downloading the latest version of WordPress, plugins, or themes and uploading them via FTP.

Maintenance Mode Plugin

Using a maintenance mode plugin can provide more control over the maintenance mode page and ensure it exits maintenance mode correctly. Additionally, monitoring tools can alert you if your site goes down, allowing you to quickly address any issues that arise during updates.

Test Updates on Staging Site

We recommend testing updates on a staging site before applying them to your live site. A staging environment allows you to identify potential issues in a controlled setting.

Clear Caches

Finally, remember to clear your site’s cache after updates to ensure that old cached files do not interfere with the new updates.

When You Need to Put Your Site in Maintenance Mode

During an update or any other development on your live site, putting your site in maintenance mode prevents user activity, database connections and updates, and any other actions that could ruin your site or ruin user experience.

You can use maintenance mode plugins to activate this message on your site. A good plugin for this purpose is “Maintenance Mode” by Lukas Juhas.

When installed and activated, this plugin shows a maintenance message to users but allows you to access your admin panel as usual.

Better yet, you can customize the message with text, images, and links.

Whenever you are making development changes to your live site or doing any major custom work on your WordPress themes, WordPress plugins, etc., it is a good idea to place your site in this mode.

Conclusion – Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance in WordPress

By following the steps in this guide, you can effectively resolve the “Briefly unavailable for scheduled maintenance. check back in a minute.” error and get your WordPress site back online. Ensure you complete the update manually before removing the maintenance message to avoid further issues.

It is important to note that this error often occurs due to slow server responses or limitations in server settings. To prevent such errors in the future, consider upgrading to a better web host. For more information, read our Best WordPress Hosting guide.

Additionally, regular backups are crucial for maintaining your site. We recommend using backup plugins to simplify this process. Learn more in our “How To Perform Regular WordPress Backups” guide.

For more WordPress tips and tutorials, visit our WP College blog.

The post How to Fix Briefly Unavailable for Scheduled Maintenance in WordPress appeared first on FixRunner.com.

Learning how to edit footer in WordPress is an essential skill for any DIY WordPress website builder. Usually, after installing WordPress, you’ll find the “Proudly Powered by WordPress” or “Powered by ‘a specific’ theme” footer copyright text on your new site. This text can create the wrong impression about your website. So you’d want to change or remove it.

Thankfully, you can modify the text and make several other modifications to your website footer. You can also add custom text, links, images, and several other widgets to your footer.

We created this tutorial to show you how to edit footer in WordPress in a few steps. Keep reading to learn more.

Table of Contents

• What is WordPress Footer?
• Importance of Having a Footer on Your Website
• How to Remove “Proudly Powered by WordPress” Copyright Text From Footer Content
• How to Modify the WordPress Copyright Text
• How to Edit WordPress Footer Widgets
• How to Add Various Footer Components
  • 1. Modify Footer Layouts (Columns)
  • 2. Add Footer Menu
  • 3. Add Navigational Footer Links
  • 4. Add Social Profiles and Communities
  • 5. Add ‘About Us’ Content
• How to Change Footer Color
• Tip to Make Your Footer Responsive
• Conclusion
• FAQs

What is WordPress Footer?

The footer, as the name suggests, is the section of a website that appears at the foot (bottom) of a website. You can see the footer of your site by scrolling all the way down. It typically contains copyright text like ‘Proudly powered by WordPress,’ as well as menus, navigation links, about us content, images, and more.

Importance of Having a Footer on Your Website

Here are some of the benefits of having a footer section on your site:

• Keyword Placement: Including relevant keywords in footer links can improve SEO by providing context to search engines.
• Internal Linking: Properly structured internal links in the footer improve site navigation and help search engines index pages more efficiently.
• Alt Text for Images: Adding descriptive alt text to footer images aids SEO and makes content accessible to visually impaired users.
• Semantic HTML: Using appropriate HTML tags (e.g., <footer>) helps search engines understand the page structure and boosts accessibility.
• Build Trust: You can use the footer section of your website to incorporate security tags, reliable certificates, great reviews, etc. Customers will view your site as more trustworthy.
• Branding: Your company name, logo, and tagline are best displayed in the website footer. This helps buyers recognize your company’s brand identity.
• Integrate Contact Details: You can embed interactive features like a contact form, location information, contact data, etc., in the footer to create a line of communication with your visitors.
• Contrast and Readability: Ensuring high contrast and readable text in the footer improves accessibility for users with visual impairments, improving overall user experience and engagement.

Now let’s look at how to edit your website’s footer.

How to Remove “Proudly Powered by WordPress” Copyright Text From Footer Content

Before we show you how to remove the proudly powered by WordPress copyright text, we first need to tell you how not to do it. While researching this topic, we saw that people recommend editing CSS and adding a code to remove the footer content. The code they recommend using looks something like this:

.site-info(

display:none;

)

While this code may seem super handy, you should never use it. why? Because it doesn’t remove the text; it only hides it, and secondly, because it might end up hurting your SEO.

Google hates this practice, and using the code can mean your site won’t rank well in the search results. There are other ways to edit your WordPress footer to change or remove the copyright text without hurting your SEO.

How to Modify the WordPress Copyright Text

Almost all WordPress themes will let you modify the footer text of your website. There are multiple ways you can do this, including using the customizer, code, and plugin.

i. Edit Copyright Text With WordPress Customizer

One of the easiest ways to modify the text is to use the WordPress customizer. For this illustration, we’ll use the OceanWP theme. Follow these steps to edit the footer copyright text using the customizer:

First, log into your WordPress admin Dashboard. Then go to Appearance>>Customize

On the customizer, look for the footer section. It’s called the “Footer Bottom” for this theme.

Click on it.

Next, find the field that contains the copyrighted text. Change the text or remove it entirely.

In this example, we will modify it to include FixRunner.

Once done, click on Publish at the top to update the text. Here’s our updated footer text.

ii. Edit Theme Footer Code

Not all themes will allow you to change footer copyright text using the customizer. Thankfully, you can also edit theme files directly to remove footer text.

But before you start editing your WordPress footer, it’s recommended that you create a child theme and a backup. Here’s our guide on how to perform a WordPress backup.

For this example, we are going to edit the WordPress theme called “Twenty Seventeen”. The theme comes with a “Proudly powered by WordPress” footer text but doesn’t have the option to edit the footer text on the customizer.

To change the footer copyright text, you have to modify the code in thetheme file. Depending on your theme, there are two ways to do this;

Method 1: Edit the Footer.php File

One way to change the footer text is to edit the footer.php file. To do this, navigate to the same theme editor; Appearance >> Theme Editor.

Next, click on the Theme Footer (footer.php) file. Then find the code below:

get_template_part( ‘template-parts/footer/site’, ‘info’ );

Replace the code with the one below.

//get_template_part( ‘template-parts/footer/site’, ‘info’ );

echo ‘add text here’;

Replace “add text here” with the new footer text you want.

For example: //get_template_part( ‘template-parts/footer/site’, ‘info’ );

echo ‘Copyright (2024) Fixrunner’;

Then click Update File, and you are done.

And here it is. The footer copyright text has been update.

How to Delete the Footer Copyright Text

If you don’t want the text at all, then just delete the code to remove the entire copyright text.

To remove the text, navigate to the Theme Footer (footer.php) file, then find and delete the code:

//get_template_part( ‘template-parts/footer/site’, ‘info’ );

Then click on Update file

This will remove the footer entirely, as seen below.

Method 2: Edit the Template File

Another way to modify the copyright text is to edit the template file. To do this, first open WordPress admin dashboard, then go to Appearance >> Theme Editor

In Theme Files, go to template-parts >> footer >> site-info.php.

Now you have to find the footer text. If the text is “Powered by WordPress,” do a search for the text by pressing Ctril+F. Typically, if you find the text, you just need to replace it with your preferred text.

For this theme, you can find the code below, which contains the text and link.

<a href=”<?php echo esc_url( __( ‘https://wordpress.org/’, ‘twentyseventeen’ ) ); ?>” class=”imprint”>

<?php

/* translators: %s: WordPress */

printf( __( ‘Proudly powered by %s’, ‘twentyseventeen’ ), ‘WordPress’ );

?>

</a>

Replace ‘https://wordpress.org’ in the code with your url (the url you want to text to redirect to). E.g https://www.fixrunner.com/

Next, divide your custom footer text into two parts. Replace ‘Proudly powered by’ with the beginning part of the text and replace ‘WordPress’ with the ending part of the text.

Note: Ensure all the text remains inside the single quotes.

Once you are done, click Update File.

Here’s how we changed the footer text to ‘Copyright (2024) Fixrunner’

Here’s the outcome:

Deleting the Footer Text

If you don’t want the text at all, then just delete everything in between tags <a and </a> and click Update File. This will remove the entire footer copyright text.

iii. Use a Plugin

There are several plugins that allow you to modify your WordPress footer copyright text. Some of the top plugins include:

• Visual Footer Credit Remover: This plugin allows users to easily remove or edit the footer credit text on their WordPress site without any coding.
• Remove Footer Credit: A straightforward plugin designed to help users modify or delete the footer credit text on their WordPress site with a user-friendly interface.
• Elementor Header & Footer Builder: This plugin enables users to create custom headers and footers using Elementor’s drag-and-drop interface, providing extensive customization options, including editing footer credits.
• Footer Credits: This plugin offers an easy solution for changing the footer credit text on WordPress sites, allowing users to personalize their site’s footer content effortlessly.

All you have to do is install one of these plugins and follow the prompts to modify your footer text using code.

How to Edit WordPress Footer Widgets

Almost all WordPress themes have a footer section that you can edit to add links, menus, images, and other content. There are three ways you can do this.

The easiest way to go about it is to use the WordPress customizer. There is also the option of adding a widget to the footer through the WordPress admin panel. Otherwise, you can use a plugin to edit it.

Method 1. Use a Customizer to Edit the Footer

To edit the footer in WordPress with Customizer, follow these steps:

Go to Appearance >> Customize

When the customizer loads, go to the Footer Widgets section. The footer section differs for each plugin. We are using the OceanWP theme for this example.

Most plugins don’t have a footer section set up by default, especially if its a free theme. So you have to set it up yourself.

To start, ensure the footer feature is turned on.

Set Up Column/ Layout

Next, you have to set up the columns and layouts. Most themes allow you to decide on the number of columns, whether its one, two, three, four, or more.

The column is set to four by default for this theme. This means that you can add four or more widgets to your footer. One or more for each column.

Add Widgets

Once you’ve set the columns, then it’s time to add the widgets. Widgets are the building blocks of the footer.

To add a footer, go to Appearance>>Customize. Then go to the widgets section of the customizer.

This should take you to the area where you can add widgets for different parts of the website, including the footers. To proceed. Click on each footer and add the widgets you want.

For example, if you want to add the “latest posts” widget to Footer 1, just click on the add widget + button and search for the widget. Then add the widget once you find it.

If you scroll downward, you can see a preview of the changes.

You can follow the same steps to add a widget to Footer 2, Footer 3, and Footer 4. You can even add multiple widgets to a single footer column.

Here’s a preview of our footer update with one widget in each column.

Method 2. Adding Widgets Through WordPress Admin Dashboard

Another way to edit the footer is through the WordPress admin panel.

To do this, open the WordPress admin panel, then go to Appearance>>Widgets

Just like with the customizer, you can add one or more widgets to each footer column, from Footer 1, Footer 2, Footer 3, and Footer 4.

To add a widget to a footer column, click on the Add footer + button.

Alternatively, you can also click on Browse all.

Drag and drop the widget from the left side to the desired footer section on the right side.

Add as many widgets as you want to the footer columns. Once you are satisfied with the look of the footer section, click on Update.

Here’s the outcome with one widget for each column.

Method 3. Edit Footer with a Page Editor

WordPress page editors like other page builders like Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, and Brizy allow you to edit your footer. These editors breaks up different components of a page, allowing you to add and remove various components.

The “Twenty Twenty Four” theme comes with the WordPress site editor by default. To edit the footer copyright text with the WordPress Editor, navigate to your homepage and click on Site Editor.

Once in the editor, scroll down to the footer. Now you can edit any part of the footer you want.

For instance, you can change the footer copyright text. To do this, click on the text to make it editable. Then delete the old text and enter your new footer text.

You can also change the footer background, delete existing elements, add new ones, etc. To do this, you have to click on the + sign at the top-left side of the screen.

Then drag and drop your desired elements into place.

This article explains how to use the WordPress Block Editor.

Widgets can be a great way to add extra functionality to your footer, but they need regular updates and optimization. WordPress support and maintenance services can help you manage and maintain these widgets, ensuring they stay functional and error-free.

Method 4: Use a plugin

Just like for most things on WordPress, there are plugins that allow you to edit the footer section. Here are some recommended WordPress plugins to edit your plugin.

• Head, Footer and Post Injections: This versatile plugin enables the insertion of scripts and HTML code into the header, footer, and individual posts, offering flexibility for customization.
• Insert Script in Headers and Footers: This plugin lets users add custom scripts to the header and footer sections of their WordPress site for added functionality.
• Scripts To Footer: This plugin moves scripts to the footer, improving page load times by ensuring that scripts are loaded after the main content of the page.
• Head & Footer Code: This plugin provides a simple way to add custom code to the header and footer sections of a WordPress site without editing theme files.
• Elementor Header & Footer Builder: Designed for use with the Elementor page builder, this plugin allows users to create custom headers and footers using Elementor’s drag-and-drop interface.

Edit Footer with the Remove Footer Credit Plugin

To use the Remove Footer Credit, you will first need to install the plugin. Here’s a guide on how to install WordPress plugins.

Once you install the plugin, you will find it under Tools on your WordPress dashboard. Navigate to your dashboard, then go to Tools>>Remove Footer Credit

This will take you to the plugin’s dashboard, where you can enter the HTML code you want to remove in first box and the one you want to add in the lower box.

How to Add Various Footer Components

Here’s how to add various components to your footer:

1. Modify Footer Layouts (Columns)

One of the first things to do when building a footer is to create the layout. The footer section is divided into different columns, whether it is one, two, three, four, or more columns. There are two simple ways you can do this:

i. Use WordPress Customizer:

To set your footer layout, navigate to the Customizer from your dashboard Appearance>>Customize.

Once in the customizer, look for the footer or layout option. These options differ depending on the theme. For the OceanWP theme, you can find the footer column option under Footer Widgets. Set the number of columns and choose the layout you want for your footer.

Some themes like Astra come with a footer builder feature that provides a visual structure to guide you while building your footer.

To set the layout and columns using a footer builder, click on the setting icon, then choose the number of columns you want for each section and the layout for the footer section.

Click Publish to save your changes.

ii. Use a Page Editor

Using a page editor provides more flexibility when setting up your footer layout.

To set your footer layout using the WordPress editor, go to your homepage while logged into WordPress and click on Site Editor

This will take you to the editing interface where you can set the footer layout and add new elements to it.

2. Add Footer Menu

It’s common to add menus to your footer to help with navigation. However, you’ll need to first create the menus before you embed them in the footer. Here’s our guide on how to create a custom menu.

Once your menu is set, the next step is to add them to your footer. You can do that with the customizer or directly from your WordPress dashboard.

To add menus with the customizer, go to Appearance>>Customize>>Menu>>View All Locations.

Select the footer menu category and choose the footer menu you created from the drop-down.

Click Publish once you are done to save the changes.

Alternatively, you can go to Appearance>>Menus, then click on Manage Locations. Click on the drop-down under the footer menu and select the footer menu you created earlier.

3. Add Navigational Footer Links

Adding essential links in the footer can help with navigation. You can add links to pages like About, contact, privacy policies, terms of service, and copyright notices.

To add footer links, you need to add a ‘navigation menu’ or a ‘page list’ widget to your footer.

• The page list widget adds links to all the pages on your site on your footer.
• The navigation menu widget allows you to add a menu with essential links to your footer.

To use the navigation menu widget, you first need to create a menu that contains all the links you want included. Here’s our guide on how to create and manage custom navigation menus in WordPress.

4. Add Social Profiles and Communities

Another component you can add to your footer is your social profiles, like Facebook, Twitter, and others. You can add these social links with a menu, but if you want a stylish look, then you can use the’social icons’ widget.

To add the social icon widget, navigate to the customizer, Appearance>>Customize>>Widgets>>Footer. Click on the plus sign to add a new widget, and search for and add the social icons widget.

Once you add the widget, edit it, and click on the plus (+) sign to add all the social profiles you want. Add the link to each profile to activate it, and then click Publish once done.

You will end up with something like this, which users can click to access your social profiles.

5. Add ‘About Us’ Content

Adding “about us” content to the footer page is another common practice. The About Us content tells users about your website or services.

To add the ‘about content,’ you will need to add text widgets to your footer. Go to Appearance>>Customize>>Widgets>>Footer, and click on the add widget + icon. Now add a ‘Heading’ widget for the about us header, and add a paragraph widget for the about text.

Edit the header and enter your ‘About Us’ content into the paragraph widget.

How to Change Footer Color

Changing the color of your footer is another step you can take to customize your website. You can change your footer from the default color to any color you want using the customizer or with CSS code.

i. Change Footer Color With Customizer

To change the footer color with the WordPress customizer, go to Appearance>>Customizer. Then search for the footer color section.

Now use the color picker to choose the color you want for your footer.

Click Publish to save your changes.

ii. Change Footer Color With Additional CSS

Another way to change the footer color is to use the additional CSS feature. The additional feature allows you to assign properties like color, size, and display to the HTML tags.

To change the footer color using additional CSS, go to Appearance>>Customizer>>Additional CSS, and paste in the code below:

footer {

background-color: #yourcolorcode;

color: #yourtextcolorcode;

Replace ‘yourcolorcode’ with the code for the color you want to use for the footer background. Also replace ‘yourtextcolorcode’ with your desired footer text color.

Click Publish once you are done to save the changes you’ve made. Check your footer section to ensure the color has been updated as desired.

Footer Troubleshooting tips

Here are some tips to troubleshoot common footer issues:

1. Footer Not Displaying:
   • Check Theme Settings to ensure the theme supports a footer section and that it is correctly configured.
   • Confirm footer.php is included in the theme and properly referenced.
2. Styling Issues:
   • Use browser developer tools to identify conflicting or missing CSS styles.
   • Clear browser and plugin caches to see recent changes.
3. Misalignment:
   • Check HTML Structure to ensure proper closing of tags and correct nesting.
   • Apply CSS Flexbox or Grid for better control over footer alignment.
4. Responsive Design Problems:
   • Use CSS media queries to adjust the footer for different screen sizes.
   • Test the footer on multiple devices to ensure it looks good everywhere.
5. Widget Issues:
   • Ensure widgets are correctly placed and configured in the footer widget area.
   • Keep all plugins updated to avoid compatibility issues that may affect the footer.

Tip to Make Your Footer Responsive

• Apply CSS media queries to adjust the footer layout for different screen sizes to ensure optimal display on all devices.
• Utilize percentage-based widths and flexible grid systems to allow the footer to adapt to various screen sizes seamlessly.
• Implement responsive font sizes using relative units like em or rem to maintain readability across devices.
• Use CSS to hide or show specific footer elements based on screen size to ensure a clean and functional design.
• Regularly test the footer on various devices and screen resolutions to ensure consistent and appealing appearance.

Conclusion

We presented you with a few options on how to edit a footer in WordPress. Now you need to go and create an awesome footer for your website. We also highlighted several footer modification plugins you should check out.

Using one of those plugins might save you time, so it’s something worth looking into. Also, if you are in the process of building a website, choosing a theme with good footer options is a good idea.

Also, ensure to check out our guide on how to customize WordPress header. Check out our WP College for more WordPress tutorials. If you have further questions, write them in the comments section below. Have a great day!

More Resources:

• Hide Page Title in WordPress – 4 Easy Methods
• How to Completely Delete WordPress Site
• How to Add Dummy Text to WordPress Sites

FAQs on How to Edit a Footer in WordPress

1. How do I edit a WordPress footer?

There are several ways to edit the WordPress footer. You can use the WordPress Customizer: To do this, go to Appearance>>Customize and find the “Footer” section. Adjust settings as needed. Alternatively, you can edit your footer in the widget section. Go to Appearance > Widgets and add or modify widgets in the footer widget area.

Another option is to edit the theme files. Go to Appearance>>Theme Editor, open footer.php, and make the necessary changes. (Backup files before editing.)

2. Where is the footer menu in WordPress?

Before you set up the footer menu, you must first create a unique menu that incorporates all the relevant links you want in your footer menu. To do this, go to Appearance>>Menus. If there’s no existing footer menu, then create one and add the relevant pages and links you want to it. Now you can assign the menu as your footer menu if your theme has the option. Otherwise, you can add the menu to your footer using a navigation menu widget.

3. How to edit footer in WordPress Astra theme?

The Astra theme comes with a footer builder that allows you to easily setup and modify your footer as you want. To access the builder, go to Appearance>>Customize>>Footer Builder, then use the drag-and-drop interface to customize footer layout, content, and style.

Alternatively, you can edit the Astra footer in the WordPress widget section. Go to Appearance>>Widgets then add the widgets you want to the footer areas.

4. How do I add a background color to my footer?

To change the footer background color, you can use the customizer. To modify footer color with the customizer, go to Appearance>>Customize>>Color>>Footer. Then use the color picker to choose your idea footer color. Alternatively, go to Appearance>>Customize>>Additional CSS, then enter the code below, replacing ‘yourcolorcode’ with the footer background code and ‘yourtextcolorcode’ with your preferred footer text color code.

footer {

background-color: #yourcolorcode;

color: #yourtextcolorcode;

5. How do I fix the footer at the bottom of all pages?

To fix the footer at the bottom of your page, first check your theme settings for options related to footer positioning and adjust accordingly. You can also use plugins like “Sticky Footer” to ensure the footer remains at the bottom. Alternatively, you can add the following CSS to ensure the footer stays at the bottom:
body {

display: flex;

min-height: 100vh;

flex-direction: column;

}

.site-footer {

margin-top: auto;

}

The post How to Edit Footer in WordPress appeared first on FixRunner.com.

Looking to learn how to start a blog? Creating a blog is an exciting adventure – it is a journey to share your story, knowledge, and experience with the world.

However, blogs have several moving parts, and it can get overwhelming to figure it all out. This is why we have created this simplified guide to show you how to start a blog successfully using WordPress. Just keep reading as we explain the various steps to creating a successful WordPress blog.

If you find the process overwhelming or need professional assistance, our team is here to help. Contact us for a free WordPress installation, and we’ll handle the setup for you.

Table of contents

• What a blog is and isn’t?
• Should You Start a Blog?
• What you Need to Start a Blog
• How to build a successful blog in 10 easy steps
  • Step 1: Pick a niche
  • Step 2: Choose a Name for your Blog and Register a Domain Name
  • Step 3: Get a Web Host – How to Start a Successful Blog
  • Step 4: Choose your Blogging Platform
  • Step 5. Install WordPress – How to Start a Blog
  • Step 6: Install a WordPress Theme and Customize it
  • Step 7. How To Customize Your Theme
  • Step 8: Install WordPress Plugins – How to Start a Successful Blog
  • Step 9: Optimize your Blog for Search engines
  • Step 10: Start creating content – How to Start a Successful Blog
  • Step 11: Set up Google Analytics
  • Step 12: Promote and Monetize your Blog
• How to start a Successful blog with no money
• Conclusion – How to Start a Successful Blog

What a Blog Is and Isn’t?

A blog is just like a website – except that blogs are regularly updated with fresh content, while websites are more static in nature.

The content of a blog (known as ‘blog posts’) is usually arranged in descending chronological order – which means new posts appear first. See the screenshot below:

Blog readers can scan through the topics and click to read any topic they want.

Note that your blog content may not appear in ‘grid format’ like it is in the screenshot. The arrangement of your posts depends on your active WordPress theme (more on this later).

Now, a blog could be a part of a website, in the form of a separate page. Like this:

Or it could be an entire site of its own.

Most blogs have a comments section where readers can respond to the write-up. This creates a connection between the blogger and the reader.

Should You Start a Blog?

No doubt, building a successful blog is no child’s play. It takes a lot of time and effort. If you are passionate about blogging and you don’t mind giving it all it takes, go right ahead. Here are some benefits of being a blogger:

• You get to share your ideas with the world.
• Establishes you as an authority.
• Creates a connection between you and the reader.
• You have an opportunity to make money from your blog.
• Refines your writing skills.

What you Need to Start a Blog

It doesn’t take much to start a blog. Basically, all you need is:

• Access to the internet.
• A functional computer device.
• Some money is needed to buy a web hosting service and a domain.

How to Build a Successful Blog in 12 Steps

This is the part you’ve been waiting for! Here are the steps involved in building a blog.

Step 1: Pick a Niche

A niche is a specific subject or field on which a blog is focused. It could be anything from technology, education, business, food, adventure, robots, automobiles, entertainment, fashion, parenting, blogging, etc.

But you may be asking, – why can’t I discuss everything on my blog?

Well, you won’t get into trouble for writing on many random topics. In fact, several bloggers have recorded significant success using the ‘any subject’ approach. However, sticking to one subject will help you build a more dedicated audience.

According to research by GrowthBadger, most bloggers who earn more than $50,000 in a year focus on a specific niche. Lower-income bloggers tend to worry about having a small audience, so they write about anything and everything.

Now, if you focus on ‘Fashion’, you are more likely to become an authority in that field faster than someone who blogs about fashion, food, business, etc.

Also, internet users who love what you do can identify with your blog easily (if you constantly update your blog with great content).

How do you choose a blog niche?

Many brilliant ideas are probably running through your head right now. But answering the following questions will help you choose the one that is perfect for you.

• What topic do you enjoy discussing? Fashion? Then you should consider blogging about fashion.
• What topic do you know more about than many others? Business? You could teach people how to start and manage their businesses via your blog.
• What are your hobbies? Car racing? What if you discuss all you know about cars on your blog?
• What profession have you spent a better part of your life doing? Nursing? Then a health blog will make a lot of sense.

Use this chart to ease things up:

In summary, if you are passionate about it and a group of people need it – blog about it. Blogging about something you love will keep you motivated every time.

Don’t be in a hurry to leave this stage. Take your time. Do some brainstorming. The perfect idea will come.

Step 2: Choose a Name for your Blog and Register a Domain Name

When starting your blog, one thing is indispensable – A domain name. It’s a unique name for your blog.

Here are the factors to consider when naming your blog:

i. Use a descriptive name:

Use a name that emphasizes what your blog is all about. For instance, if your blog is all about food, names that include recipes, meals, kitchen, etc., are great choices.

Using a name that properly describes your blog will give your visitor an idea of what to expect.

On the other hand, you can make your blog a bit more personal, by using your name or a variation of it.

Ii. Keep it as short as possible (3 words at most):

A domain name can contain as many as 63 characters. But having a name that’s so long is pretty awkward. Keep your blog’s name short. The shorter, the better!

iii. Use a name that is easy to remember:

Not everyone uses the ‘Bookmark’ feature on their browsers. Choose a blog domain name that is memorable, easy to spell, and easy to pronounce.

For instance, the word ‘Pochemuchka’ is used to describe someone who asks too many questions. As beautiful as it sounds, it isn’t a good choice for a domain name. It is quite easy for an internet user to misspell such a word.

iv. Avoid numbers:

Using numbers can mislead your site visitors. Think of this – ‘Head2toe.com’ is a lovely domain name. But a user may try to access your site using ‘headtotoe.com’. This is quite confusing. If you can, avoid using numbers.

v. Avoid hyphens:

Hyphens are misleading. In most cases, a web user may type ‘domainname.com’ instead of ‘domain-name.com’. That could cost you a significant number of visitors.

vi. Use an appropriate domain extension:

There are lots of extensions available from .com, .co, .org, .net, .us, .blog, .io, .biz, and so much more.

A survey conducted by GrowthBage on the memorability of domain extensions revealed that .com URLs are 33% more memorable. This is followed by .co, .org, .biz, .us, .net, and .blog, in that order.

If you can’t get a .com extension, feel free to try the others. However, bear in mind that your visitors will find it easy to remember your blog if it has a .com extension.

That said, there are domain extensions to avoid.

Top Level Domains (TLDs) to avoid – How to Start a Blog

According to Spamhaus (a company that fights spam on the internet), there are Top Level Domains with bad reputations. They include:

• .buzz
• .wang
• .top
• .ryukyu
• .work
• .tk
• .rest
• .loan
• .gq
• .live

Using these extensions could affect your site’s traffic.

Check for domain availability

After choosing a domain name, check to see if it’s available. To do this, visit the whois lookup page and search for your chosen name.

If it isn’t available, that’s fine. Think of something different.

Finding a perfect and available name is hard, so take your time, search, and find a good one. Although you can change your domain name later, it is best to select the right name from the beginning.

Side note: To know more about changing your site’s domain, read our beginner’s guide on how to change a domain name in WordPress.

Register your domain name

Domain registrars are companies that let you purchase domain names. Although there are hundreds of domain registrars out there, they offer different services. Some domain registrars are only licensed to sell domain names with specific extensions. Others can sell any domain.

Look out for the following when choosing a domain name registrar:

• Pricing: Don’t be carried away by attractive offers from domain registrars. In many cases, they offer low introductory prices for the first year. But that’s just for the first year. Renewal prices are significantly higher. For instance, some registrars offer $9.99 as an entry fee.

From the second year on, you’ll have to pay $20.17 for renewal. Learn about all the hidden fees before you commit. On average, though, a domain name costs about $12/year.

• Domain Transfer Policies: Domain names can be moved from one registrar to the other. Review a registrar’s transfer policy to know if you will be charged for transferring your blog.
• Expiration Policy: When your domain registration expires, a domain registrar may give you some time to pay up. Some others may simply resell your domain. So, check out a company’s expiration policy first before pitching your tent.

Top domain registrars include:

• Namecheap
• Domain.com
• GoDaddy
• Bluehost
• IONOS
• Hostinger
• Hover
• Dynadot
• DreamHost

Step 3: Get a Web Host—How to Start a Blog

Web hosting gets your blog up and running on the internet. Hosting is like the building that houses your blog online. Without it, your blog remains offline.

There are plenty of web hosts available on the market right now. How do you know which to go for? Every good web host is expected to have the following:

• High Speed: Slow-loading blogs can be a nuisance. 53% of mobile web visitors tend to leave a website/blog if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds. Choose a hosting company that offers good speed. How do you know which hosting company has great speed? Simple! Check the reviews from their previous users.
• Uptime Guarantee: Uptime is the amount of time a website/blog is online. Your blog has to be online most of the time. Generally, 99.9% uptime is the hosting industry standard. 99.9% uptime means your blog may be offline for about 8.64 hours in a year. Downtime could be a result of ongoing maintenance. When shopping for a host, read the Terms of Service to know how much uptime guarantee they offer.
• Support: A good web host is expected to have a group of experts that offer all-day support to customers. It could be through any of these means: live chat, e-mail, or phone.
• Security: Poor security could cost you a lot. Choose a web host that offers good security. Want to know more about WordPress security? Check out this tutorial on WP security.

The next question is, where do you get reliable WordPress hosting?

We have created a list of the best WordPress hosting providers. They include:

• Bluehost
• Dreamhost
• Hostinger
• Namecheap
• Siteground
• A2 hosting
• HostGator

Some companies offer free hosting, but it is often limited. You can check out this guide to see a list of the best free WordPress hosting services. We also compiled a list of the Best cheap WordPress hosting.

AWS (Amazon Web Services) also offers free hosting services. You can check out our guide on how to install and use WordPress on AWS (Amazon Web Services).

Step 4: Choose your Blogging Platform – How to Start a Blog

To start a blog, you need content management software (CMS), and choosing the right one is crucial for your success. As the name suggests, content management software is a web application that makes it easy to create and manage pages and web resources.
There are several content management systems out there, including WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Ghost, Joomla, and Drupal.

WordPress is undoubtedly the best option for both newbies and experienced bloggers. It provides numerous customization options for your blog, with thousands of themes and plugins at your disposal. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy to manage your blog and content with no technical knowledge.

Managing your blog and publishing content on WordPress requires no technical knowledge. WordPress also comes with strong SEO tools to ensure your blog is search engine optimized from the beginning. It also has a large developer community and a wealth of internet information to provide the answers you need.

Most interestingly, 96% of the top 1 million blogs use WordPress. So you can’t go wrong with a self-hosted WordPress blog (WordPress.org).

Step 5: Install WordPress – How to Start a Blog

Once you’ve decided on WordPress as your ideal CMS, the next step would be to install it. Installing WordPress isn’t such a big deal, especially if your web host offers a one-click WordPress install. You just need to log into your hosting cPanel and install WordPress.
If things don’t go well with this easy method, don’t fret. You can still install WordPress manually. Click the text below to see how to install WordPress manually.

Step 6: Install a WordPress Theme and Customize it

Although your WordPress blog is ready, it will look plain. You need to install a theme to give it the structure you want. The WordPress theme controls how your blog looks and feels.

There are thousands of themes out there, both free and paid, suitable for all niches, from travel to personal finance and technology.

Here’s how to install a theme: How to Start a Blog

Start by logging into your WordPress dashboard. Here’s how:

• Type in “www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin” on your web browser. e.g., “www.fixrunner.com/wp-admin”. This will take you to the WordPress login screen.
• Fill in your username and password and click on Login.

If, for some reason, you can’t access your WP admin area, read our instructional guide on how to fix WordPress login issues.

Once you’ve logged in, look at the tabs on the left-hand side of your screen. Hover your cursor around Appearance and click Themes.

WordPress comes with some themes installed by default. You can simply click on any one of them to activate it. They are absolutely free.

However, if you want more design, click Add New and explore a new world of eye-catching themes.

Choosing a theme can be a big deal. Most of the themes are lovely. Click on a theme’s thumbnail to preview it. You can always change your WordPress theme later on.

You can use the ‘feature filter’’ to make things easier. Click on it and select the features you’d love to have in your theme.

Once you have decided on the theme to use, click ‘install’ right next to it. Once the installation is done, click ‘activate’. And that’s all.

But that’s just one way to install a WordPress theme. Here’s our guide on how to install a WordPress theme In 3 different ways.

If you are looking for a free theme, then you should checkout our list of the best free WordPress themes.

Best Premium WordPress Blog Themes

Apart from these free themes, you can also buy premium themes. Here are some of the top WordPress blog themes:

• Astra
• Writee
• OceanWP
• Poseidon
• Newspaper
• Neve
• Mantra News
• Barletta
• Ashe
• Hemingway

Check out this article on the best 20 WordPress blog themes to see more themes and get detailed information about each of those theme. We’ve also curated the fastest WordPress themes.

Best WordPress Them Provider

Here are the best websites to get premium themes:

• ThemeForest
• CodeCanyon
• Elegant themes
• WooThemes
• MojoThemes
• WPExplorer
• Premiumwp
• TemplateMonster
• StudioPress
• ThemeRoulette
• ThemeGrill
• MyThemeShop
• Theme Fuse, etc.

If you purchase a premium theme or get a theme outside of WordPress, then you have to install the zip file. This guide explains how to install a new WordPress theme.

Most people also stumble upon nulled WordPress themes, but there’s a lot you should consider before you use them.

Step 7. Customize Your Theme: How to Start a Blog

What you have at this point is a freshly installed theme bearing a name that isn’t yours. It’s time to make the theme yours. The level of customization varies for every theme. Here are some steps you can take:

1. Import theme demo content (if applicable):

Some themes come with demo content to help you set up your site quickly. If your theme has a demo, then you should first import the demo.

Follow the theme’s documentation to import the demo content.

2. Set up menus:

Create new menus and assign them to the theme’s menu locations (e.g., primary menu, footer menu). To create menus, go to Appearance >> Menus. Here’s a guide on how to create a custom menu on WordPress.

3. Customize widgets:

Add, remove, or rearrange widgets in the available widget areas. Go to Appearance >> Widgets to manage widgets. Here’s our guide on how to create custom widgets.

4. Set up the homepage and blog page:

You can make your homepage static or a blog. If you choose blog, your homepage will be updated whenever you post a new blog. Go to Settings >> Reading to set up your homepage.

5. Customize your blog’s appearance

WordPress has a theme customizer that allows you to modify various aspects of your blog. To access the WordPress Customizer, go to Appearance >> Customize.

This will take you to a customizer like this. We used the Astra theme for this illustration. However, most themes have similar customization options.

Below are some of the top customization you can make with a customizer.

• Header Builder: This feature allows you to customize how your header looks. You can add different elements to the header, from buttons to menus and widgets. Here’s our guide on how to customize WordPress Header.
• Global: this section allows you to modify the topography (font size, weight, etc), colors, buttons, etc.
• Site Identity: Change your site title tagline and upload a logo.
• Colors: Modify the primary colors of your site.
• Header and Background Image: Set a custom header and background image.
• Menus: Create and manage navigation menus.
• Widgets: Add and arrange widgets in your sidebar or other widget areas.
• Homepage Settings: Choose what displays on your homepage (latest posts or a static page).
• Additional CSS: If you need further customization, you can add custom CSS. Go to Appearance >> Customize >> Additional CSS and enter your custom CSS code.

Once you’re satisfied with the customizations, click the Publish button in the WordPress Customizer. If your customizer isn’t coming up, then you should check out this guide on 7 easy ways to fix a WordPress customizer that isn’t working.

6. Use WordPress drag and drop:

Drag and drop is a simple way to customize your WordPress blog by clicking and holding an element, then moving it to a desired location. To customize your WordPress blog using drag and drop, you need to install a drag-and-drop page builder plugin like Elementor or WPBakery or use the WordPress Gutenberg editor.

These builders allow you to select your desired elements (text, images, buttons, etc.) from the builder’s sidebar and drag them into place on your page. You can then rearrange elements by dragging them to new positions.

Here’s our guide to the best drag-and-drop WordPress theme builder.

Step 8: Install WordPress Plugins – How to Start a successful Blog

WordPress plugins improve the functionality of a WordPress site. Plugins make it easy to add more functionalities to your website. What makes WordPress awesome is that there are plugins for most features you want to add to your blog.

Here are some plugins you may need for your blog:

WordPress Security Plugin:

Implementing robust security measures is essential to protecting your blog from brute force attacks and other WordPress vulnerabilities. This includes installing security plugins and using practices like regular backups and strong passwords. Additionally, optimizing performance enhances the user experience and protects against potential security vulnerabilities.

Here’s our recommended list of WordPress security plugins:

• iThemes security plugins
• Jetpack
• WordFence
• MalCare
• Sucuri
• All-in-One WP Security & Firewall

Other WP security tips:

Here are other tips to keep your WordPress website safe.

• Ensure all passwords are complex, combining uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and special characters to reduce the risk of brute-force attacks.
• Regularly update WordPress core, themes, and plugins to patch security vulnerabilities and improve overall security.
• Implement two-factor authentication (2FA) to add an extra layer of security, requiring a second form of verification beyond just a password.
• Install an SSL certificate to encrypt data between your site and its visitors, ensuring secure connections and improving trust.
• Restrict the number of login attempts to prevent brute-force attacks by using plugins like Limit Login Attempts Reloaded.
• Schedule regular backups of your site to ensure you can quickly restore it in case of a security breach or data loss.
• Avoid using “admin” as the default username to make it harder for hackers to guess login credentials.
• Keep track of user actions on your site using activity log plugins to detect any unauthorized or suspicious behavior promptly.

Here’s our guide on how to secure your website.

WordPress Backup:

Every WordPress blog needs a backup. You need to perform regular WordPress backups to ensure you can recover your data in case of any issues. If, by any chance, your blog crashes, you can restore your files quite easily when backed up. Here’s a list of the top 6 best WordPress backup plugins to protect your database and files.

WordPress Contact Form plugin:

Creating a relationship with your readers is vital to building a successful blog. Use a WordPress contact form plugin to add forms to your blog. To learn more, read this guide on the best contact form plugins.

Tips to consider before installing a plugin:

• Download plugins from the WordPress Plugin directory or from any trustworthy plugin developer. Stay away from plugins from questionable sources. To verify the quality of a plugin, check its reviews and ratings.
• Download plugins that won’t conflict with your WordPress version.
• Too many plugins can reduce your site’s speed. They occupy valuable space and bandwidth.
• Install updates regularly.

Top WordPress Plugins to Consider

Here’s a list of WordPress plugins you should consider for your blog:

• Yoast SEO – Optimizes your site for search engines.
• Akismet Anti-Spam – Filters out spam comments and protects your site from malicious content.
• Jetpack – Offers a suite of features, including site stats, security services, and performance improvements.
• WP Super Cache – Generates static HTML files to speed up your site.
• Elementor – A drag-and-drop page builder that makes it easy to create custom layouts.
• UpdraftPlus – Provides backup and restore functionality to keep your site safe.
• Contact Form 7 – Allows you to create contact forms easily with a drag-and-drop interface.
• MonsterInsights – Connects your site with Google Analytics to track visitor data.
• Smush – Compresses and optimizes images to improve site speed.
• Wordfence Security – Protects your site from security threats and malicious attacks.
• Redirection – Manages 301 redirects and keeps track of 404 errors.
• Broken Link Checker – Scans your site for broken links and helps you fix them.
• Social Warfare – Adds social sharing buttons to your posts and pages.
• W3 Total Cache – Improves site performance by caching files and optimizing delivery.
• MailChimp for WordPress – Integrates your site with MailChimp to grow your email list.
• Google XML Sitemaps – Creates a sitemap to help search engines index your site.
• WP Rocket – A premium caching plugin that enhances site speed and performance.

Step 9: Optimize Your Blog for Search Engines

If you hope to have lots of readers someday, don’t skip this step. There are about 152 million blogs on the internet. To stay afloat and visible, you need to optimize your blog for search engines.

Fortunately, WordPress makes this process amazingly easy. To get started, install and activate a WordPress plugin. We’ve done several analyses to find the best WordPress SEO plugin, including a comparison between All In One SEO vs. Yoast and Rank Math vs. Yoast SEO.

Here are the top WordPres SEO plugins out there:

• Yoast SEO
• Rank Math
• SEOPress
• All-in-one SEO
• The SEO Framework
• W3 Total Cache
• Squirrly SEO

Ultimately, we found Yoast to be one of the best and most popular SEO plugins. You can learn more about Yoast in the article on how to use Yoast SEO.

First, you need to install Yoast on your blog. To do this, go to Plugins >> Add New page and search for Yoast SEO.

It’s most likely to be the first plugin to appear in your search results. Click Install and activate it.

At this point, Yoast SEO is fully activated on your blog. There are two ways of accessing your settings – the ‘SEO’ menu in the sidebar and the ‘Yoast’ icon on top of your dashboard.

Also, when creating a page or post, a section with SEO tools appears below the editor to help you optimize your content for search. You should use this section for each piece of content you create.

Here are the steps to optimize your blog posts with Yoast:

• Set a Focus Keyword: Choose a primary keyword or phrase for your post. Ensure it accurately represents the content and is included in the key areas like the title, headings, and text.
• Improve SEO Title: Craft an engaging SEO title that includes the focus keyword. Ensure the title is within the recommended length, and encourage users to click on the post
• Optimize Meta Description: Write a compelling meta description with the focus keyword to attract clicks from search engine results and summarize the post’s content.
• Use Internal Linking: Add internal links to other relevant posts or pages on your site to improve navigation and boost SEO through better link equity distribution.
• Add Alt Text to Images: Add descriptive alt text with the focus keyword for all images to improve accessibility and help search engines understand the image content.
• Check Readability: Use Yoast’s readability analysis, which suggests improvements like shorter sentences and paragraphs to make your content easier to read.
• Use Outbound Links: Include outbound links to authoritative sources to provide additional value to readers and improve your post’s credibility.
• Optimize for Social Sharing: Configure social sharing options by setting custom titles, descriptions, and images for Facebook and Twitter to improve your post’s appearance when shared on social media.
• Check Keyword Density: Review the keyword density to ensure the focus keyword is used appropriately throughout the content without keyword stuffing.
• Set Canonical URLs: Define canonical URLs to prevent duplicate content issues by indicating the preferred version of a page to search engines.

Before you proceed, ensure to check out this guide on five SEO tips for WordPress that you should know.

Step 10: Start Creating Content – How to Start a Blog

Here is the part you’ve been waiting for—to start sharing your ideas with the world.

Content is everything when it comes to blogging. When you create the right content, your audience will love you, and so will search engines like Google.

The first step to creating blog content is to undertake keyword research. This allows you to know what to write about. You also need to research your competitors to see what they are writing about.

You can aggregate everything about your content writing and publishing into a content plan. The content plan will highlight how often you will update your blog. Whether daily, once a week, or twice weekly.

It should also contain the ideal blog post length. A blog post needs to contain a minimum of 300 words to do well in search engine rankings. However, longer posts (1000 words and more) perform better and are more likely to be shared on social media by readers.

You can write many articles as inspiration comes and schedule them to be posted in the future. To schedule a post, log into the WordPress dashboard. Paste your blog post into the editor, customize it, and click on Schedule Posts on the right side of the screen.

Creating a content plan

Here are some steps to create a content strategy:

• Identify your target audience: Careful planning and a strong content strategy are essential for the success of any blog. Start by determining who your target audience is and getting to know their needs, interests, and challenges. This information will help you create content that is both relevant to and helpful to them.
• Keyword research: Use tools like Ahrefs or Google Keyword Planner to find keywords that people in your audience are searching for. Naturally, include these keywords in your content to improve your blog’s organic traffic and search engine rankings.
• Competitive analysis: Analyze popular blogs in your industry to learn what makes them successful. Take note of their posting schedule, types of content, and engagement strategies. Use this insight to improve your plan.
• Create a content calendar. Plan your posts in advance, balancing various topics and formats to keep your audience engaged. Include evergreen content that remains relevant over time and timely posts that address current trends or news in your niche.

Step 11: Set up Google Analytics

Integrating Google Analytics into your blog allows you to track important metrics such as traffic, user behavior, and engagement. GA allows you to analyze the performance of your content and can provide you with insight into the performance of your blog, including the following:

• How many people have visited your site?
• Which pages are popular?
• What kind of content do your visitors prefer?
• Your current blog speed.
• Where do your visitors live?
• What time do they visit?
• How your visitors got to your site, etc.
• How long your visitors stayed on your site, and more.

How to set up Google Analytics

Setting up Google Analytics on your site is pretty simple. There are three major steps involved in the process:

• Set up a Google Analytics account.
• Copy your tracking code.
• Paste it into the code of any page you want to track.

To learn more about this, check out our guide on how to add Google Analytics to your WordPress site. And if you are still using Universal Analytics, this guide explains how to safely switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress.

Step 12: Promote and Monetize your Blog

To effectively start a blog and ensure its success, promoting your content is just as crucial as creating it. Here are some key strategies to enhance visibility and engagement:

• Write guest posts on popular blogs within your niche to drive high-quality traffic to your site and increase your blog’s visibility.
• Connect with other bloggers in your niche through comments, social media, and guest posting. Collaborate on projects, share each other’s content, and participate in blogging communities to increase your blog’s exposure.
• Share your blog posts across various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
• Build an email list and send regular newsletters featuring your latest blog posts. Offer incentives such as free resources or exclusive content to encourage sign-ups.
• Register on platforms like Medium, LinkedIn Pulse, and industry-specific websites to republish your blog content.
• Optimize your in-site search to make it easier for people to search for their desired topic on your blog.

Monetization

Now, to the monetization aspect:. There are a couple of ways to make money by blogging. They include:

• Affiliate Marketing: Join affiliate marketing programs like Amazon Associates or ShareASale and promote products or services to earn a commission for each sale made through your referral links. to get started.
• Advertisements: Display ads on your blog through networks like Google AdSense. Earn revenue based on the number of impressions or clicks the ads receive.
• Physical items. Selling physical products on your blog lets you leverage your audience to generate sales, whether through a dedicated online store or affiliate partnerships.
• Sponsored Content: Partner with brands to create content that promotes their products or services. This can include blog posts, reviews, or social media promotions, for which you get paid.
• Digital products: Create and sell your own digital products like eBooks, online courses, or merchandise. Use plugins like WooCommerce to set up an online store on your blog.

Before we conclude, it is important to highlight the legal considerations you should know when creating a blog.

Legal considerations:

When starting a blog, it’s crucial to address legal considerations to ensure compliance and protect yourself and your readers. Here are some factors to consider:

• Copyright: Copyright laws dictate that you should only use content that you have the right to use, whether it’s images, text, or other media.
• Privacy: Privacy policies are essential to inform visitors how their personal information is collected, used, and protected on your site. Additionally, having clear terms of service outlines the rules and guidelines for visitors interacting with your blog.

How to Start a Blog With No Money

The steps we described above are for the self-hosted WordPress version, which would cost you some money (hosting, custom domain name, theme, etc.). If you want to build your blog without spending money, there is a way out. WordPress.com allows you to create blogs at no cost (note that we do not recommend this for professional, or even serious blogging).

Follow these steps:

Head over to www.wordress.com and click Get Started.

Create an account by filling in your email address, preferred username, and password in the provided spaces. Click Create Account.

Next, confirm your WordPress account. To do this, open the email you receive from WordPress.com. And click Confirm Now.

Choose a domain. WordPress offers you a list of available domain names related to your preferred name. Each with varying prices. Since we are interested in starting a blog that takes no money, you should go for ‘domain.wordpress.com’. They are absolutely free.

Next, select Start with a free site.

Choose a blog design. Select a theme that meets your needs and install it.

Write and publish your first blog post.

Truth be told, using a self-hosted blog is a better option. A blog that ends with ‘WordPress.com’ isn’t always a good option. However, if you just want to get a feel for what blogging is about before making any financial commitment, you may try it.

Conclusion – How to Start a Blog

You have just learned how to start a successful blog. What next?

The secret to having a profitable blog lies in one word: CONSISTENCY. Keep dishing out great content and your dream blog is only a while away.

You may experience some technical issues as time goes on, don’t worry. That’s why we are here – to support you on this journey. To start with, go through our WP college for more WordPress tutorials.

You can also get a free report on your site’s performance, security, and SEO delivered to your email in 60 seconds.

Starting a blog is a fulfilling endeavor that combines creativity with technical know-how. By following these steps and prioritizing security measures—including being prepared for tasks like WordPress hack repair—you set the foundation for a successful and enduring online presence.

More Resources:

• Speed Up WordPress Website
• WordPress Malware Cleanup Services
• WordPress Support

The post How to Start a Blog – Easy Step by Step Guide appeared first on FixRunner.com.

WooCommerce is a great WordPress plugin that can turn any website into an online store. It’s easy to set up, compatible with most plugins, and most importantly, it’s free.

Once you’ve set up your WooCommerce store, the next step is to optimize it for search engines. Thankfully, you don’t have to be an SEO guru to properly optimize your store to rank highly on searches.

In this SEO guide, we will share the steps you can take to make your WooCommerce store rank highly on search engines and a list of WooCommerce plugins to make it easier to do.

We’ve made this guide super easy to follow. So, even if you are just starting out on the web, you will catch up pretty quickly.

Table of Content

• Why You Should Take WooCommerce SEO Seriously
• Steps to Optimize your WooCommerce Store for Search Engine
  • 1. Write Catchy Product Page Titles
  • 2. Add Compelling Meta Descriptions
  • 3. Make Proper Use of Category and Tag
  • 4. Optimize Your Product Slugs
  • 5. Upload High Resolution Images
  • 6. Add Alt Text to Your Images
  • 7. Implement Structured Data and Schema Markup for products
  • 8. Add Social Sharing Buttons
  • 9. Optimize Your Focus Keywords
  • 10. Write Detailed Product Description
  • 11. Security Measures for WooCommerce Stores
  • 12. Improve Navigation with Breadcrumbs
  • 13. Make Your Product Page is Mobile-friendly
  • 14. Make Your Website Load Faster
  • 15. Add a Blog to Your Store
  • 16. Embed Customer Testimonials
  • 17. Add Video Content
  • 18. Track Your Stats on Google Analytics
• Best WooCommerce SEO Plugins
• Conclusion on WooCommerce SEO

Why You Should Take WooCommerce SEO Seriously

There are about 4.7 million WooCommerce stores running on the internet. For your store to be visible to your customers, you need to optimize it to outrank thousands of other websites in your niche. Here are some statistics that highlight the importance of WooCommerce SEO.

• Nearly half of all online shoppers—44%—kick off their search with Google.
• Organic searches account for 53.3% of total website traffic.
• SEO drives over 1000% more traffic compared to organic social media.
• An ecommerce site can lose 67% of organic traffic if it is on the second page of search results.
• Over 70% of search engine users focus solely on organic results.

Another benefit of SEO is that the traffic coming from search engines has higher buyer intent. This means that people coming to your WooCommerce website from Google and other search engines are more likely to make a purchase.

Steps to Optimize your WooCommerce Store for Search Engine

Google ranks websites based on over 200 factors, according to Backlinko. To improve your WooCommerce store’s search engine ranking, you need to optimize for the following factors:

1. Write a Catchy Product Page Title

The first step in optimizing a store page is to write a catchy title. Product page titles appear bolded on Google search results.

A well-written title allows you to capture the attention of a prospective buyer, thereby driving more traffic to your store. Search bots also read the product page title to understand your webpage. So it is important to spice it up with relevant keywords.

Use clear, concise, and descriptive titles. Also make it catchy, precise, and short.

Here’s an article on how to write a catchy product description.

2. Add Compelling Meta Descriptions

Meta descriptions give a brief summary of what your product is all about on the SERP.

It’s the block of text you see beneath the product/page title, after the title link.

Just like product page titles, meta descriptions play an important role in eCommerce SEO. It’s where you give searchers more convincing reasons to visit your page. Your descriptions should be compelling and descriptive. It’s also essential to keep within the 160-character limit

To add a product page description, you first need to install an SEO plugin like Yoast SEO. Once you’ve installed and activated Yoast SEO, edit the product page you wish to edit. Then scroll down and click on Edit Snippet.

In the Meta description box, type in your desired description.

Then update your page/post.

Here’s the article on how to use meta description in WordPress.

3. Make Proper Use of Categories and Tags

Aggregating similar products on your website in the same category makes it easy for buyers to find their way around. And Google loves it when you do so.

Let’s say you sell men’s, women’s, and kids’ wristwatches, and you have them categorized accordingly. If a buyer makes a search for “men’s wristwatch”, your category pages for men’s wristwatch will pop up on Google. That way, the customer will have a plethora of options.

Here’s an example:

You could see the men’s watches collection (category), which appears when a buyer searches for “men’s watches.”

Another added benefit of the category is that it prevents your products from competing with each other for attention on SERP.

Adding categories and tags to WordPress websites is easy. To do this, go to Posts >> Categories or Posts >> Tags. Next, set a name for the new category. If there’s a parent category, specify it in the drop-down box.

Set a description, if you want to, and click Add New Category to create your new category.

Here’s a guide on how to create, edit, and assign WordPress categories.

So what about tags? Well, tags add extra bits of information to your products. Using the wristwatch example, your tags could be “Rolex”, “Tag Heuer”, “gold,” etc.

To add tags, click on the Tags tab and follow the same process to add new tags for your site.

Here’s an article on how to use WordPress tags on your website.

4. Optimize Your Product Slugs

In WordPress, slugs mean the URL to a page or post. They are sometimes referred to as permalinks.

The good thing about WordPress is that it automatically generates a slug for you when you publish a page or a post.

However, most times, these generated slugs aren’t particularly SEO-friendly, thus denying you enhanced eCommerce visibility.

As a rule of thumb, the slug for your products must be spiced with your focus keywords. Also, keep them descriptive.

To create your own slug, scroll down your post/page and click Edit snippet. Then set your slug.

To learn more about this, please read our article on WordPress slug.

5. Upload High-Resolution Images

Images are one of the most essential parts of an eCommerce state, as the right image can entice your customers to buy. But images are also essential for SEO.

Search engines give preference to websites with visually appealing, relevant, and high-resolution images because they increase user engagement and lower bounce rates. As such, it’s important to use high-resolution images and, when possible, use zoom and 360-degree view options.

It is, however, essential to be mindful of the image sizes. High resolution images often have large sizes, which can slow down the speed of your website. So its important to strike a balance between image quality and size.

6. Add Alt Text to Your Images

Oftentimes, prospective buyers search for products using the image search tool on Google. Now, if your product images aren’t properly optimized, they will never show up.

Secondly, search bots depend on alt texts to understand what an image is about.

There’s nothing hard about optimizing images. All you have to do is add alt text (alternative text) to your images. Like everything else, your alt text should be descriptive and contain your focus keywords.

WordPress provides you with a box to add an image alt text for each image you upload to your Media Library. You can also edit existing images and add alt text to them.

Here’s a guide on how to optimize image for web.

7. Implement Structured Data and Schema Markup for products

Google uses structured data to create rich snippets in the search results. Both structured data and schema markups allow you to provide more information about your page and product to search engines.

For example, you can add product details like prices, customer ratings, and availability, and they will be displayed alongside your product in search results. Adding structured data and schema markups to your WooCommerce page can increase your visibility.

An SEO plugin like Yoast SEO makes it easy to add schema markup and structured data to your web pages. Here’s a guide on how to add schema markup to your site.

8. Add Social Sharing Buttons

Social share is another essential factor Google uses for ranking product pages. Google loves websites that have traffic coming from other sources than search engines. Adding a share button allows your shoppers to share products on social media, which will drive in more traffic.

Here’s a guide on how to add shared buttons to your store.

9. Optimize Your Focus Keywords

Keywords are the bread and butter of SEO. They determine where and when your product appears in search engines. It’s important to do extensive keyword research and analysis before you start writing your product description. Here are some steps you can take:

• Start by using tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz to find relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition.
• Analyze competitors’ keywords to identify gaps and opportunities.
• Leverage customer reviews and queries to find more natural keywords.
• Implement keywords strategically in titles, meta descriptions, headings, and image alt texts.
• Incorporate these medium- and long-tail keywords in product descriptions and categories to capture specific search queries.
• Include location-specific keywords, if applicable.

10. Write a Detailed Product Description

The product description is the most important content on your Woocommerce product page. It not only convinces your buyers, but also allows search engine crawlers to understand what the page is all about and the keywords to rank it for.

It is important that your product description is compelling and should include all necessary product details. You should also incorporate all the relevant keywords naturally and use bullet points to improve the content’s readability.

Here’s a guide on writing a product description.

11. Make sure your WooCommerce Store is Secure

A secure website will rank a lot better on Google. As such, putting strong safeguards in place to stop SEO spam and hacks is crucial for WooCommerce store optimization. You can use security plugins like iThemes Security, Wordfence, or Sucuri to ensure all-encompassing protection. Also, ensure to update your plugins, themes, and WordPress to fix security flaws.

Use a strong WordPress password and set up two-factor authentication on all user accounts. Also, backup your website regularly and use SSL certificates. Here’s a guide on how to deal with WooCommerce security vulnerabilities.

12. Improve Navigation with Breadcrumbs

Search engines use breadcrumbs to help them understand the hierarchy of your website and to determine which pages are more important. Breadcrumbs also help your users navigate your website.

Most SEO plugins, including Yoast SEO, allow you to add breadcrumbs to your web pages. To improve SEO, include descriptive keywords in your breadcrumb links. Also, place the breadcrumbs prominently at the top of each page for easy access.

This guide explains how to add breadcrumbs to your site.

13. Make Your Product Page Mobile-friendly

Mobile friendliness is a major factor in SEO. Google has even rolled out a mobile-first indexing approach. You can use a tool like the Responsive Test Tool to check how your site looks on mobile. If your page looks good on mobile, then fine; otherwise, follow these steps to increase the mobile-friendliness of your eCommerce pages.

• Use responsive web design to guarantee that pages adjust to different screen sizes. Here’s our list of the best 10 mobile friendly WordPress themes.
• Create a simple, user-friendly menu so that each section is easily accessible.
• Ensure the text has the right font size and line spacing to be readable on small screens.
• Use sizable and easily tappable buttons to simplify actions and navigation.
• Incorporate payment gateways that are optimized for mobile devices to ensure smooth transactions.
• Use forms optimized for mobile devices and fewer steps to streamline the checkout process.
• Use drop-down menus and autofill to simplify form filling on mobile devices.
• Call-to-action buttons should be placed prominently and clearly to improve user engagement.
• Test the compatibility of your website frequently across a range of mobile devices.

14. Optimize Your Website Loading Speed

Loading speed is an important ranking factor Google uses to decide which site comes on top. If you don’t want your competitors to win you out, you must take your site’s loading speed seriously.

The very first thing you have to do is check how fast your site loads. To do this, run your site on Google Pagespeed Insights. The tool can tell you how fast your page loads and how to improve your site speed. Here are some steps to increase your site’s speed:

i. Compress your images: One of the easiest things you can do to reduce loading time is to compress your images. Compressed images are lighter and load faster. Check out this article to learn how to enable GZIP compression in WordPress.

ii. Change your image format: image formats like WebP and HEIF offer the same quality of images at a much smaller file size. This article explains more about how to use WebP images to speed up your site.

iii. Use a CDN: You can also use content delivery networks to serve your content to your visitors. CDN services reduce loading time by serving the content of your site from servers nearest to your visitors. Check out our list of the best content delivery networks.

iv. Choose the Right Hosting Solution: Your choice of a hosting provider affects your website’s performance in more ways than you may think. Going for any cheap WordPress hosting solution, such as shared hosting, can lead to frequent downtimes. Something you definitely wouldn’t want for your business.

The best thing to do is to go for dedicated WooCommerce Hosting solutions. This type of hosting, though quite similar to managed WordPress hosting, is specifically tailor-made for WooCommerce.

v. Get a Premium Theme: Finally, go for premium WordPress themes, especially if your business has started growing. Cheap themes can harm your site’s performance.

Here’s our ultimate guide on how to make your WordPress site’s loading speed faster.

15. Add a Blog to Your Store

A blog adds value to your WooCommerce store’s SEO by boosting the quantity of keyword-rich content on your website. Blogging is also an effective way to interact with your audience, establish authority, and boost traffic.

Consider writing about industry news and trends, producing product-related how-to guides, and showcasing customer success stories. Maintain a consistent publishing schedule, since consistency is essential. Prioritize producing unique, high-quality content, and don’t forget to organically incorporate relevant keywords.

16. Embed Customer Testimonials

Embedded customer testimonials help search engine optimization by increasing trust signals and allowing you to add keywords naturally. You can use social media to collect and display testimonials, offer incentives for submitting reviews, or follow up with letters asking for feedback.

Use both text and video formats in these testimonials, and make sure to feature them prominently on your website. Emphasize particular benefits and outcomes that clients have encountered to boost their relatability and persuasiveness. Here’s a list of the best WordPress testimonial plugins to add testimonials to your store.

17. Add Video Content

Adding video content to your store can boost engagement metrics like time on page and decrease bounce rates—both of which are good signals to search engines.

Consider producing industry-related instructional content, customer testimonials, behind-the-scenes tours, and product demos. Aim for SEO-friendly titles, descriptions, and tags for your videos, and keep them short and direct.

Here’s a guide on how to embed videos in WordPress.

18. Track Your Stats on Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a great webmaster tool you need to keep track of your website’s statistics. It provides you insights into the behavior of your website’s visitors.

Though Google Analytics will not directly improve your site’s visibility on SERPs, it will provide you with the data and guidance you need to rank your site better.

For better eCommerce visitor tracking, you can install Google Analytics together with Monsterinsights, a Google Analytics plugin.

Best WooCommerce SEO Plugins

The success of your WooCommerce SEO efforts is also affected by your choice of plugins. These plugins were specifically created to do the heavy lifting for you.

Here is a list of plugins that can help increase your visibility on search engines.

i. Yoast WooCommerce SEO Plugin

Yoast SEO is a behemoth when it comes to search engine optimization. The plugin comes in two variations: regular and WooCommerce. If you run a regular website or blog, the former would suffice. But we will be spotlighting the latter: Yoast WooCommerce SEO plugin.

So, what can this plugin do for you? Quite a lot! We mentioned a few things you can do with Yoast earlier. Here are others:

• Page preview on Facebook and Twitter. Want to know how your product pages will be displayed on social media? Yoast can help.
• Internal link optimization. Internal linking is very important in SEO, so you need to get it right.
• 24/7 support for up to a year.

ii. All-in-One SEO Pack

Maybe you are just starting out, and so you don’t have the upfront capital to invest in a premium plugin like Yoast. All-in-one SEO is where you can look. This plugin has all you will ever need to optimize your WooCommerce products. Here are a few features of the plugin that might be of interest to you:

• Automatic Meta tags generation: That is, you only get to write product descriptions, and the Meta tags are generated for you.
• Beginner friendly
• Automatically submits your sitemap to Google
• Optimizes your SEO titles for better visibility
• Can be integrated with Google Analytics
• Supports AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages). It is great if you are looking to attract more mobile users to your site.

All-in-One SEO has a premium version with lots of loaded benefits. This allows you to optimize your product categories, control how your product pages appear on Facebook, and do so much more.

iii. The SEO Framework

One important feature you need to be on the lookout for when choosing a plugin is speed and lightness. Thankfully, the SEO Framework plugin combines both features.

Here are a few takeaways about the plugin:

• It saves you an intense amount of time by automatically generating meta tags for you.
• Once you have the plugin installed, everything you need to make SEO a success is automatically set up for you. All you need to do is tweak things.
• Automatically notifies Google as well as Bing search bots when you make a change to your website.
• Designed for speed and performance
• It allows you to share posts and product pages to Facebook, Discord, etc. at the click of a button.

This eCommerce SEO plugin comes with extensions to better improve your visibility on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).

For instance, it has an extension called Local. This is an excellent solution if you are looking to target a market within a particular locality.

iv. Jetpack

Though more of a performance and security plugin, Jetpack also performs well when it comes to SEO. At least you need to keep your site safe from malicious attacks.

It has a free and paid version. The free version offers you quite a lot. For instance, it gives you access to your website’s statistics, thus helping you understand your audience preferences.

Additionally, the plugin comes with numerous pre-built themes you can choose from to improve your website’s user experience.

In the paid version, you can connect your website to advertising programs like AdSense, AOL, Amazon, Facebook ads, etc.

Conclusion on WooCommerce SEO

Improving your website’s visibility on search engines is a serious matter, and it should be treated as such.

In this guide, we have shared with you tested and proven tactics for making a WooCommerce store rank highly on search engines. We also listed the top WordPress SEO plugins to give your WooCommerce store a better ranking.

Now is the time to take action. Read through the article again, and implement each of those steps to improve the ranking of your WooCommerce store. If you need help implementing these SEO strategies, our WooCommerce expert assistance team can guide you through the optimization process.

If you want to learn more about WooCommerce, then head over to our WP College to find more exciting tutorials.

You can also reach out to us if you need to optimize your WooCommerce store. Our team of WordPress experts is available to provide all the help you need. Contact us for a free WooCommerce stor review.

The post WooCommerce SEO – How To Make Your Store Rank High appeared first on FixRunner.com.

As you already know, WordPress has an amazing feature that allows users to schedule posts for later. However, sometimes the scheduled posts fail to publish on the set date and time.

This error can be discouraging, but fortunately, there are effective solutions to this issue. By following our detailed guide, you can identify the root causes and permanently fix the missed schedule error.

Table of Content

• Why Does WordPress Fail to Publish Scheduled Posts?
• Steps to Troubleshoot WordPress Missed Scheduled Error
  • 1. Check Your Timezone Settings
  • 2. Clear the WordPress Cache
  • 3. Increase the WordPress Memory Limit
• How Can I Solve the WordPress Missed Schedule Error Permanently?
  • Method 1: Install A Plugin to Fix WordPress Missed Schedule Error
  • Method 2: Check Your wpconfig.php File
  • Method 3: Disable Default WP Cron and Enable Alternate Cron
  • Method 4: Replacing WP-Cron with a Real Server-Side Cron Job
• Final Thoughts

You can also check out our step-by-step video guide on how to fix the missed schedule error.

Why Does WordPress Fail to Publish Scheduled Posts?

You may have heard the term ‘cron,’ also called’schedulers’ in UNIX-based systems. The cron is responsible for scheduling commands to run at a specific time and date without human assistance. The scheduled tasks to be executed are called ‘cron jobs’. For instance, you can set a cron job to handle repetitive tasks like:

• Backing up your files daily.
• Deleting temporary files.
• Monitoring your disk space.
• Maintaining your WP system.
• Checking for software updates daily.

WordPress uses crons to publish scheduled WordPress blog posts. A missed schedule is caused primarily by ‘failed cron jobs’.

The WordPress cron system is a faux cron system. This means WordPress cron jobs do not depend on your server. Instead, they depend on front-end requests. As a result, your scheduled post won’t be published if no one loads your site around the time it was supposed to go live. So if your site doesn’t have a lot of traffic yet, you may experience more missed scheduled posts.

For example, if you set a post to publish at 11:00 p.m. and no one visits your website within that time frame, you will likely get a missed schedule error.

Websites with loads of traffic also have their own scheduling problems of a different nature. Since an event is triggered at every page visit, the interval between cron events may be too small. This may lead to a server overload, which can reduce the page’s speed and cause a missed schedule error.

For example, if you schedule a WordPress post to publish by 11:00 p.m. and thousands of people visit your website around that time, the scheduled post may fail due to server overload.

If you experience missed scheduled post errors, the first step is to check for specific factors. Below are the steps to troubleshoot missed schedule errors.

Steps to Troubleshoot WordPress Missed Scheduled Error

1. Check Your Timezone Settings

Incorrect timezone configuration can cause scheduled posts to be missed. Since WordPress uses the server’s time to publish posts, the posts won’t publish at the scheduled time if there’s a discrepancy between the time on the server and the timezone settings on your website.

To change your timezone, go to Settings>>General from your WordPress dashboard. Scroll down to the “Timezone” section and choose the city closest to your location or select the UTC offset that matches your local time. Then click Save Changes.

2. Clear the WordPress Cache

Clearing the WordPress cache is one important maintenance step that can help fix several problems, including missing scheduled posts. WordPress caching plugins save static versions of your website to improve performance and loading times. However, these cached data can occasionally cause problems with planned tasks when they become outdated or damaged.

It’s important to clear your cache regularly to prevent issues. The process to clear the cache differs depending on the cache plugin you are using.

• If you are using WP Super Cache, navigate to your WordPress dashboard, then go to Settings > WP Super Cache > Delete Cache to clear your cache.
• For W3 Total Cache, go to Performance > Dashboard > Empty All Caches.
• If you are using WP Rocket, go to Settings > WP Rocket > Clear Cache.

Once you clear the cache, you can try scheduling a sample post to see whether it works. You can also set your cache plugins to prevent it from interfering with your scheduled posts. Here are some tips to do that:

• Add wp-cron.php to the excluded list to ensure the cron jobs can run without interference. Most plugins allow you to exclude specific URLs from caching.
• Set a shorter cache expiration time, so the pages are refreshed more often, allowing scheduled posts to publish as intended.
• Regularly clear your cache to ensure that it does not hold outdated content.

3. Increase the WordPress Memory Limit

A low memory limit can affect how your website performs in all activities, including publishing scheduled posts. It even worsens when resource-demanding plugins are active or during heavy traffic.

You can give WordPress extra resources to handle these activities effectively by raising the memory limit. To do this, you must access your wp-config.php file via cPanel or an FTP client.

Note: It is best to back up WordPress before altering your wp-config file. Just to be safe. Here’s our guide on backuping your WP files.

If you are using cPanel, navigate to File Manager>> Public_html folder. Then scroll down to locate the WPconfig.php file. Once you find the file, right-click on it and click on Edit.

Now add the code below before the line that says; ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing.’

define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ‘500M’);

And that’s it. You have successfully increased your memory limit.

You can try to publish a sample post to see if it works.

If none of these troubleshooting measures work, then it’s time to move on to more permanent methods for fixing WordPress missed schedule errors.

How Can I Solve the WordPress Missed Schedule Error Permanently?

There are four ways to fix a WordPress missed schedule error. If one method doesn’t fix the problem, try the next.

Method 1: Install A Plugin to Fix WordPress Missed Schedule Error

One easy way to fix the WordPress missed schedule error is to use a plugin. There are WordPress plugins out there to prevent missed schedules, like Scheduled Post Trigger and WP Scheduled Post plugins for this illustration.

i. Use Scheduled Post Trigger to fix WordPress Missed Schedule Error

Scheduled Post Trigger has over 70,000 active installs and is compatible with WordPress version 3.0.1 and higher. Once installed, this plugin checks if there are any missed scheduled posts. If it finds any missed posts, it publishes them immediately.

To install the Scheduled Post Trigger plugin, go to Plugins>>Add New from your WordPress dashboard

Type ‘Scheduled Post Trigger’ in the search bar (at the top-right corner of your screen) and click Install Now.

Once the installation is complete, click Activate.

And that’s all! You don’t need to configure the plugin. Once it’s activated, you no longer need to worry about missing scheduled posts.

If you install this plugin and your scheduled posts still go unpublished, check your time settings. Ensure your time zone is set correctly, or set it as I explained earlier. Also, watch out for plugin conflicts. You can do this by turning off your other installed plugins one after the other to identify the conflicting ones.

Ii. Use WP Scheduled Post Plugin to Solve WordPress missed schedule error

WP Scheduled Post is another incredible plugin to help you take care of your missed schedule. This plugin offers you three other functions, which include:

• Managing your content with a visual calendar.
• Creating schedules for your posts.
• Automatically share your WP posts on social media.

It is compatible with WordPress version 4.0 and higher.

To use this plugin, go to Plugins >> Add New from your dashboard. Next, type the name of the plugin, “WP scheduled post,” in the search bar. Once you find it, click ‘install now’ and then activate.

Once you activate the plugin, it will publish any missed scheduled posts on your website. The plugin also allows you to schedule your new posts and view all the posts on a calendar.

That’s all for this method. Plugins for WordPress are very helpful pieces of software. We have compiled a list of the best WordPress plugins every WP site owner must have. You should check it out.

Plugins can help resolve missed schedule errors, but they need to be kept up-to-date and compatible with your site’s setup. With WordPress website maintenance plans, you can ensure that all your plugins, including those managing post schedules, are maintained and updated regularly.

Method 2: Check Your wpconfig.php File

Sometimes, the WP cron may have been disabled, and that could be the reason why WordPress isn’t publishing your scheduled posts. To know if your WP cron is disabled, check your WPconfig.php file.

To locate the WPconfig.php file, log into your cPanel (most hosting providers will give you access to your cPanel). Alternatively, you can access your files using FTP.

Using cPanel, go to File Manager>> Public_html folder. Scroll down and locate the WPconfig.php file.

Right-click on the wp-config.php file and select ‘edit’. Check if the file has this line of code;

define (‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);

If it does, it means WP cron is disabled on your site. To enable it, simply delete this line and save your changes. And that should fix the issue.

If you do not see the line of code, then cron was enabled, and you should try the next fix.

Method 3: Disable Default WP Cron and Enable Alternate Cron

This method works most of the time, especially if your server settings conflict with your WP crons. All you need to do is disable the default WP cron. And then go ahead and enable an alternative one.

To do this, you have to edit your wpconfig.php file to include two new lines of code. As I stated earlier, you can find the wp-config file by logging into your cPanel or FTP. And then go to File Manager >> Public_html folder.

Once you find it, right-click on the file and select edit. Paste these lines of code at the bottom, just before the line that says “stop editing, happy blogging”:

define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);

define(‘ALTERNATE_WP_CRON’, true);

And that should fix your missing schedule error in WordPress. You should test if this procedure worked by scheduling a post.

Method 4: Replacing WP-Cron with a Real Server-Side Cron Job

This method is a bit more technical than the first three methods. If you are comfortable working with your server, then you should use this method. It’s a permanent way to fix the ‘missed schedule errors’.

Once you complete this process, you’ll be using real crons to trigger WP schedules (instead of faux crons). Here’s how it’s done.

Step 1: Disable WordPress Cron to prevent any conflict.

To do this, log into your cPanel and open the file manager >> public_html folder. Scroll down in search of the wp-config.php file. When found, click ‘edit’. Next, add the following line of code at the bottom of the file and save changes.

define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);

And that’s it. You have successfully disabled the WordPress cron.

Step 2: Implement manual crons

The next step is to implement manual crons through your server again. To do this log in to your cPanel and scroll to the advanced section. You’ll sthis,ee ‘Cron Jobs’. Click on it.

To add a new cron job, scroll to the add new cron job section. First, you need to set how often you want cron events to take place.

To do this, click on the ‘Common Settings’ dropdown and pick an option that suits you.

If you set a 5-minute interval, it means your cron will trigger WP cron every 5 minutes. That could be overbearing on your server. As such, it is best to give a wider interval between cron events, like twice per hour, or even once per hour.

Step 3: Input cron command

Next, you need to input the cron command that should be run. You can do this by pasting the following line of code in the input box labeled ‘Command’:

wget -O /dev/null http://yourwebsite.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron

Don’t forget to replace ‘yourwebsite’ in the code with the actual name of your site.

Example: wget -O /dev/null https://fixrunner.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron

Finally, click ‘Add New Cron Job’ to finish the process.

Now WordPress won’t miss any of your scheduled posts since you no longer depend on WP faux crons but on real crons.

Use a third-party Cron Service

If your hosting provider doesn’t offer the option to create custom cron jobs, then you should consider using third-party cron services like EasyCron or FastCron. These third-party services can handle the execution of WordPress cron jobs externally, bypassing server limitations.

To use EasyCrone, you need to first disable the WP Cron System by editing your wp-config.php file and adding the following code to it:

define(‘DISABLE_WP_CRON’, true);

Once you are done, open your EasyCron dashboard and click on the + Cron Job button.

Input the crone command wget -O /dev/null http://yourwebsite.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron in the “URL to call” field (replace yourwebsite your website).

Choose an appropriate cron job execution frequency. For WordPress post schedules, we recommend setting the cron job to run every 30 minutes or 1 hour.

Complete any other optional settings if necessary.

Click the Create Cron Job button, and you’re done. EasyCron will trigger your WordPress schedule cron job command to ensure your post publishes at the specified time.

Note: Most managed WordPress hosting can help you configure your cron. See a compilation of the best WordPress hosting providers.

One of these methods would likely work for you and resolve your missed scheduled post issue. However, it is still important to manually check your scheduled posts and publish any failed posts. To do this, go to Posts > All Posts in your WordPress dashboard, and filter by Scheduled to see upcoming posts. Then manually publish any posts that have missed their scheduled time.

Final Thoughts

The scheduling posts feature available in WordPress is a relief to most WP bloggers. With it, you can keep engaging your audience even when you are away on a vacation. However, many WP users who rely on this feature complain about WordPress not publishing their posts.

If you have been getting WordPress missed schedule error messages, I hope this article has helped you. Having gone through the methods covered, you should no longer be bothered about missing your scheduled WordPress posts.

Have you ever experienced the WP missed schedule error? Did you solve it some other way? Let us know in the comments below. And if you want to know more about WordPress cron, you should check out this article on how to automate tasks with WordPress cron job.

More Resources:

• WordPress Vulnerabilities (And How to Fix Them)
• How to Fix Error 521 with WordPress and Cloudflare
• How to Add Dummy Text to WordPress Sites

The post WordPress Missed Schedule – How to Fix This Error Permanently appeared first on FixRunner.com.

With version 3.8 WordPress introduced Dashicons, the WP admin icon font set. The WordPress Dashicons are a set of over 300 font icons included in the WordPress core. Just like any other font icon, each font icon set contains symbols instead of letters and numbers.

These icons are high-quality SVG files, meaning they will scale to any size without any pixelization. Although these icons were added for Dashboard menu items, there is nothing stopping you from using them elsewhere. So you can use them for custom plugins, themes, admin panels, and front-end theme design.

To start using WordPress Dashicons, you have to do two things. First, enable Dashicons for the theme you are using. Then go to WordPress.org and find HTML or CSS code for the icon you plan to use. Yes, it’s that simple. So let’s go over how to do this in more detail.

Contents:

• Enabling Dashicons on the WP Front-end
• How to get Dashicons HTML and CSS code
• Display Dashicons directly in Posts and Pages
• Customizing Dashicons
• How to use WP Dashicons for Navigation Menu
• Using Dashicons on the Backend
• Embed Menu in a Custom Post Type using a Plugin
• How to create a Shortcode
• Conclusion

Enabling Dashicons on the WP Front-end

Before you start using dashicons, you’ll have to enable them for the theme you are using. This is done by adding a small snippet of code to functions.php file. To do this, follow these steps:

• First, in the WordPress Admin Dashboard, go to Appearance/Theme File Editor.
• Then open functions.php file.
• Next, scroll to the end of functions.php and add this code:

add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'load_dashicons_front_end' );
function load_dashicons_front_end() {
wp_enqueue_style( 'dashicons' );
}

We recommend creating a child theme before you edit functions.php. If you edit the theme file directly and later on there is a theme update, then the update will override changes you made to functions.php. For this reason, it’s always better to have a child theme.

How to get Dashicons HTML and CSS Code

WordPress.org provides a dashicons library where you can find HTML and CSS code for every icon. Once you are on WordPress.org, look for Developer Resources: Dashicons or click on this link. Then follow these steps:

1. First, click on any icon that you like.
2. Then click on Copy HTML or Copy CSS depending on what you need.
3. A popup window with code will appear. Copy this code to the clipboard by pressing CTRL + C.

With Dashicons enabled and code copied to clipboard, all you need to decide is where to use Dashicons icons on your wp dashboard. For example, You can use them for post meta things like date, category, tag, or author. Also, maybe menu navigation or custom post types on the backend.

Display Dashicons Directly in Posts and Pages

If you want to add icons to posts or pages, this is easy. To do this, just add this code in the text editor:

<h2 class="dashicons-before dashicons-smiley">A Cheerful Headline</h2>

Or alternatively, you can use this code:

<h2><span class="dashicons dashicons-smiley"></span> A Cheerful Headline</h2>

Then once you save your post and reload the page you should see the smiley icon.

Customizing Dashicons

In 2020, the Dashicons project stopped accepting new icon requests. As a result, you can only create a new icon by modifying one using CSS. Like a text, Dashicons can be styled by changing their size and color using standard CSS properties.

To change the size and color of an icon, you only need to place a code snippet in your site’s style.css file. Head on to Appearance >> Theme File Editor. Next, click on style.css. Paste the code at the bottom of the file:

.dashicons-{icon-name} { 
font-size: 50px; 
width: 50px; 
height: 50px; 
color: blue;
}

How to use WP Dashicons for Navigation Menu

The more useful example of using WordPress Dashicons is for the navigation menu. To add icons in menus follow these steps:

1. First, in the WordPress Dashboard go to Appearance/Menus.
2. Then add the HTML code of the menu icon you got from WordPress.org to the Navigation Label.

As you can see, adding an icon to a navigation menu is also simple. In case you need to display text next to the icon, just add text at the end of the Navigation Label field.

If everything worked correctly you will see the icon displayed on your home page navigation menu.

Using Dashicons on the Backend

In case you want to use different icons for custom post types, post titles, or widgets, this is even easier. There is no need to change functions.php file since this is on the backend of WordPress. So you can skip the first step we did. To make custom post type with custom icon, follow these steps:

• • Go to WordPress Dashboard Appearance/Theme Editor.
  • Next, open functions.php file.
  • Then to register custom post type, add this code at end of the file:

function create_posttype() {

    register_post_type( 'movies',

       array(

            'labels' => array(

            'name' => __( 'Movies' ),

            'singular_name' => __( 'Movie' )

            ),

            'public' => true,

            'menu_icon' => 'dashicons-format-video',

            'has_archive' => true,

            'rewrite' => array('slug' => 'movies'),

       )

    );

}

add_action( 'init', 'create_posttype' );

When making your own post types you will want to change code for each post type. So for example to change the post type icons you need to change ‘menu_icon’ => ‘dashicons-format-video’ part of code. In case you don’t want to mess with code you can use the Custom Post Type UI plugin. However, just note that if you deactivate the plugin, you won’t have access to the custom post type you made with that plugin.

Embed Menu Icon in a Custom Post Type Using a Plugin

Using a plugin simplifies the whole process. So if you do not want to take the coding route, this is for you. For this tutorial, we will be using the Custom Post Type UI plugin.

To begin, go to Plugins >> Add New Plugin page on your WordPress dashboard. On the search field, type in the Custom post type plugin. Next, install and activate the plugin.

Upon activation, a menu item ‘CPT UI’ will appear in your admin menu.

Click on the Add/Edit Post Types, then, open the Edit Post Types tab. From the drop-down menu, select the custom post type you wish to modify.

Next, scroll down to the Menu Icon section. If you select the Choose dashicons button, you will get a box with different icons.

Simply pick an icon that fits the custom post type you created.

On the other hand, if you have an image you wish to use, click the Choose image icon button. This will allow you to import the image from WordPress media library.

Once you are done, scroll down and click the Save Post Type button to register your changes. The new icon should appear next to your custom post type.

How to Create a Shortcode

To make Dashicons easier to use for your clients, you can make shortcodes for Dashicons. To do this simply add this code to function.php file:

add_shortcode( 'dashicon', function( $atts ) {

    $atts = shortcode_atts( array(

        'icon' => 'menu',

    ), $atts, 'bartag' );

    if ( ! empty( $atts[ 'icon' ] ) ) {

        return '<span class="dashicons dashicons-' . esc_attr( $atts[ 'icon' ] ) . '"></span>';

    }

} );

Then, you can use shortcode like this one:

[dashicon icon=”format-video”]

Conclusion

In case you need some icons for a WordPress website, Dashicons are a good choice. But if you are doing backend WordPress development, you can keep the look of your WordPress Dashboard consistent by using the same font icon set as WordPress does.

If you are happy with Dashicons but you are missing some icon, you can request for more icons. The icon request process is done on github.com/WordPress. Also, if you want to add your icon to the Dashicons library, that is also possible through the GitHub page.

The dashicons icon set is somewhat limited and there are larger icon fonts out there. So if you need a bigger set of icons, we recommend Font Awesome. They offer a large selection of free icons. But if you need more icons, they offer more if you upgrade to the PRO version.

For more WordPress tutorials check the rest of our blog out here. If you have further questions write them in the comment section below. Have a great day!

Dashicons are a great tool for adding visual appeal to your WordPress site, but ongoing care is essential to ensure they work correctly over time. With WordPress maintenance plans, you’ll receive the support and updates needed to keep all your site features, including Dashicons, running smoothly.

More Resources:

• • How to Fix ‘sorry you are not allowed to access this page’ Error in WordPress
  • How to Enable Twitter Cards on a WordPress Site
  • How to Fix Error 521 with WordPress and Cloudflare

The post What are Dashicons and How to Use Them in WordPress appeared first on FixRunner.com.

There are many reasons why you might have to use plugins to duplicate pages and posts in WordPress.

For instance, when redesigning your website, you want to maintain consistency in your design layout. An easy way to achieve that is by duplicating your pages rather than building them up from scratch.

Another typical example is if you run an eCommerce site. To save time and minimize layout problems, it’s best you duplicate your product pages.

Thankfully, you can easily clone posts and pages in WordPress. And you can do so without compromising the safety and integrity of your website.

In this article, we will show you how to use plugins for duplicating posts and pages in WordPress. If you prefer to do so manually, we’ve also got you covered.

Content:

• Reasons to Clone or Duplicate posts and pages in WordPress
• How to Duplicate pages and posts with plugins
• How to Duplicate posts Manually
• Other plugins for Duplicating
• SEO points to Remember when Handling Duplicate Contents
• Conclusion

Reasons to Clone or Duplicate Posts and Pages in WordPress

We briefly listed out reasons why you might want to clone your pages and posts in WordPress. Now, we will elaborate more on them.

Reason 1: Editing a Page on a Live Site

You might find yourself needing to make edits to a page on your live WordPress website. At such times, you have two options:

• Editing the live page directly: This method is pretty risky – you might end up breaking your site. Even if you don’t break your site, the live changes could confuse your audience.
• Duplicating the page, making all needed edits to the duplicate, and then replacing the original page with the duplicate. If you go this route, the chances of breaking things is greatly minimized.

To duplicate a post or page in WordPress, you can either use a plugin or do so manually. There are quite a number of duplicate post plugins you can use for this task. We will be looking at a few shortly.

Reason 2: Creating multiple, similar products in WooCommerce

If you run an e-commerce store, you might find yourself creating several product pages with a similar design and layout. This can become extremely tedious, especially if you have a large product collection.

To save time and energy and improve efficiency, simply create a page that will serve as a template. Then duplicate it as many times as the number of products you have.

Reason 3: Maintaining Design Structure across Pages

Let’s say your website has become old and outdated, and you find yourself needing to redesign it. During the redesign process, you will want your pages and posts to maintain the same design across.

To achieve this, you have the option of manually copying and pasting the contents into your new site. But this would be tedious. Worse, when you copy the content of a post, the media files and SEO data will be left out.

The best way to go about this is by creating an original version, and then duplicating it as many times as you wish. And in turn, making tweaks across the duplicates.

Reason 4: Alternative Staging Site

A staging site is like a test version of your live site. So instead of going through the whole process of creating one, you can create a duplicate post or page to experiment with your content.

Reason 5: A/B Testing

In the case of split testing, you do not have to create another page/post from scratch. Simply clone the original make and make the changes needed.

Reason 6: Multilingual Content

If you have a site that offers multiple languages, duplicating your posts eases the process of translation. All you need to do is clone the post design and contents, then convert the texts to different languages.

How to Duplicate Pages and Posts in WordPress with a Plugin

Using a plugin is the easiest way to duplicate a WordPress post. For this demo, we will be using the Duplicate Post plugin. Of course, there are many more you could use, and we will be discussing them later on.

Step One

So, the first thing you have to do is to install and activate the plugin. We explained in detail how to do that in this article. After you must have installed the plugin, proceed to step two.

Step Two

With the plugin installed and activated, you can now proceed to duplicate a page or post on your WordPress website.

To duplicate a page, navigate to Pages >> All Pages.

Hover over the page you would like to duplicate. Beneath it, you will see a series of links. Among these links are Clone and New Draft.

If you wish to just duplicate the page without needing to edit it, click Clone. Bear in mind that if the original post is live – that is, has been published – the duplicate will also go live.

On the other hand, clicking New Draft will duplicate the page, and then open it in editor mode. That is to say, you will get to first edit the duplicated page before publishing it.

So basically, that’s how you duplicate pages in WordPress with this plugin. To duplicate a post, follow the same steps, but this time navigate to Posts >> All Posts.

Customizing the Duplicate Post Plugin

There are still tons of things you can do with this plugin when properly customized.

To customize the plugin, you first need to open its settings by navigating to Settings >> Duplicate Post.

Upon click, you will see three tabs, namely What to Copy, Permissions and Display.

The What to Copy section is where you get to choose what to copy from the original post to the duplicate post.

If you would like the date, status, slug etc. of the original post to be copied to the duplicate, simply tick their checkboxes.

You can also uncheck items you don’t want to copy over.

In the Permissions section is where you get to permit user roles. That is, where you select which user has the permission to duplicate a post.

By default, only the Administrator and Editor have the power to duplicate posts or pages. But you can extend this responsibility to the Author and Contributor.

Also, if your WordPress site supports custom post types, in the Permission section, you can enable this feature on your duplicated post. Just ensure that Posts and Pages are checked.

Finally, in the Display section, you can select where you want the clone and new draft links to appear.

By default, they show only in the Post list, but you can make them show in other places like Admin bar, Edit screen, etc.

When you are done customizing, scroll down and click Save Changes.

How to Duplicate Posts Manually

WordPress Gutenberg has the option of duplicating a post just at the click of a button.

However, due to its limitation, it’s recommended you use a plugin rather than manual duplication.

But if you would still like to proceed manually, here’s how to:

Step 1

Log into your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Posts >> All Posts.

Step 2

In the post list, select the post you would like to duplicate and open it. With the post opened, click on the three-dot icon at the top right corner.

Upon click, locate the Copy All Content option, and click on it.

Doing this will copy all content of the post, including images and other media inserted into it.

Step 3

Create a new post by navigating to Posts >> New Posts. Then paste the content you had copied earlier. With that, you have a brand new duplicated post.

Copy and Paste Code Manually

This is a pretty simple method to duplicate your WordPress posts. All it requires is that you copy and paste the code of the post you want to edit manually.

To begin, click the edit link on the post or page you want to clone. Next, switch to its “Text” editor.

Copy the entire code shown for the page.

Next, open a new page, switch to its “Text” editor and paste the code you just copied there. Once that is done, switch back to the “Visual” editor to see the cloned content. You can now twerk the changes as you wish.

The downside to this method is that it has to be done individually for each post or page. This can take quite some time. Hence, we recommend the use of WordPress duplicate plugins to save time.

Manually Adding Code

Another way you can manually duplicate a post or page is to activate a duplication link in the post/pages sections. This can be done by editing the code in your function.php file. You can edit this file from an FTP client like FileZilla, your web host’s file manager or your WordPress editor.

For this tutorial, we will be using the built-in WordPress editor. Remember to make a backup of your website first.

To begin, head on to your Appearance >> Theme File Editor.

Next, paste this line of code at the end of the file:

/*
 * Function for post duplication. Dups appear as drafts. User is redirected to the edit screen
 */
function rd_duplicate_post_as_draft(){
  global $wpdb;
  if (! ( isset( $_GET['post']) || isset( $_POST['post'])  || ( isset($_REQUEST['action']) && 'rd_duplicate_post_as_draft' == $_REQUEST['action'] ) ) ) {
    wp_die('No post to duplicate has been supplied!');
  }
  /*
   * Nonce verification
   */
  if ( !isset( $_GET['duplicate_nonce'] ) || !wp_verify_nonce( $_GET['duplicate_nonce'], basename( __FILE__ ) ) )
    return;
  /*
   * get the original post id
   */
  $post_id = (isset($_GET['post']) ? absint( $_GET['post'] ) : absint( $_POST['post'] ) );
  /*
   * and all the original post data then
   */
  $post = get_post( $post_id );
  /*
   * if you don't want current user to be the new post author,
   * then change next couple of lines to this: $new_post_author = $post->post_author;
   */
  $current_user = wp_get_current_user();
  $new_post_author = $current_user->ID;
  /*
   * if post data exists, create the post duplicate
   */
  if (isset( $post ) && $post != null) {
    /*
     * new post data array
     */
    $args = array(
      'comment_status' => $post->comment_status,
      'ping_status'    => $post->ping_status,
      'post_author'    => $new_post_author,
      'post_content'   => $post->post_content,
      'post_excerpt'   => $post->post_excerpt,
      'post_name'      => $post->post_name,
      'post_parent'    => $post->post_parent,
      'post_password'  => $post->post_password,
      'post_status'    => 'draft',
      'post_title'     => $post->post_title,
      'post_type'      => $post->post_type,
      'to_ping'        => $post->to_ping,
      'menu_order'     => $post->menu_order
    );
    /*
     * insert the post by wp_insert_post() function
     */
    $new_post_id = wp_insert_post( $args );
    /*
     * get all current post terms ad set them to the new post draft
     */
    $taxonomies = get_object_taxonomies($post->post_type); // returns array of taxonomy names for post type, ex array("category", "post_tag");
    foreach ($taxonomies as $taxonomy) {
      $post_terms = wp_get_object_terms($post_id, $taxonomy, array('fields' => 'slugs'));
      wp_set_object_terms($new_post_id, $post_terms, $taxonomy, false);
    }
    /*
     * duplicate all post meta just in two SQL queries
     */
    $post_meta_infos = $wpdb->get_results("SELECT meta_key, meta_value FROM $wpdb->postmeta WHERE post_id=$post_id");
    if (count($post_meta_infos)!=0) {
      $sql_query = "INSERT INTO $wpdb->postmeta (post_id, meta_key, meta_value) ";
      foreach ($post_meta_infos as $meta_info) {
        $meta_key = $meta_info->meta_key;
        if( $meta_key == '_wp_old_slug' ) continue;
        $meta_value = addslashes($meta_info->meta_value);
        $sql_query_sel[]= "SELECT $new_post_id, '$meta_key', '$meta_value'";
      }
      $sql_query.= implode(" UNION ALL ", $sql_query_sel);
      $wpdb->query($sql_query);
    }
    /*
     * finally, redirect to the edit post screen for the new draft
     */
    wp_redirect( admin_url( 'post.php?action=edit&post=' . $new_post_id ) );
    exit;
  } else {
    wp_die('Post creation failed, could not find original post: ' . $post_id);
  }
}
add_action( 'admin_action_rd_duplicate_post_as_draft', 'rd_duplicate_post_as_draft' );
/*
 * Add the duplicate link to action list for post_row_actions
 */
function rd_duplicate_post_link( $actions, $post ) {
  if (current_user_can('edit_posts')) {
    $actions['duplicate'] = '<a href="' . wp_nonce_url('admin.php?action=rd_duplicate_post_as_draft&post=' . $post->ID, basename(__FILE__), 'duplicate_nonce' ) . '" title="Duplicate this item" rel="permalink">Duplicate</a>';
  }
  return $actions;
}
add_filter( 'post_row_actions', 'rd_duplicate_post_link', 10, 2 );

This code can also be used to duplicate a page. You will only need to replace the last line of code with this:

add_filter('page_row_actions', 'rd_duplicate_post_link', 10, 2);

Afterwards, click on the Update File button to register your changes.

Next, head back to your WordPress Dashboard. A duplication link should now appear when you hover over a page or post you want to clone.

Other Plugins for Duplicating Posts and Pages

The Duplicate Post plugin isn’t the only plugin that can get the job done, there are a slew of others. Let’s look at a few.

Duplicate Page

The Duplicate Page plugin is a simple and lightweight tool that simplifies the process of duplicating pages and posts in WordPress. With a single click, you can easily clone your posts or pages. This makes the process quick and efficient.

With this plugin, you get the option to duplicate your posts/pages as draft, private, public and pending. It also allows you to duplicate various types of contents, including custom post types, making it a versatile plugin.

The Duplicate Page plugin comes with a user friendly interface, making it easy for users of all skill levels. Further, being lightweight, the plugin has minimal impact on site performance. It also ensures a smooth user experience.

Overall, the plugin works to save time and effort while providing users with the needed functionality to manage their contents.

Post Duplicator

Post Duplicator plugin is another tool that can be used to duplicate WordPress posts, pages and custom post types. The plugin is flexible as it supports various content types. This includes custom taxonomies and custom fields.

The Post Duplicator plugin handles bulk duplication. So you can duplicate multiple posts or pages at once. This makes it easy and efficient for users that handle large volumes of content. Further, you get to choose the elements of the content you wish to duplicate.

The plugin comes with a friendly user interface, ensuring a seamless integration with the WordPress dashboard.

Yoast Duplicate Post

Yoast Duplicate Post is a simple and straightforward plugin. With a single click, you can duplicate posts, pages and custom post types.

The plugin supports bulk duplication. So users can duplicate multiple posts, pages and custom post types simultaneously. The plugin is also flexible as it allows you to duplicate contents as drafts, private posts or published posts.

In addition, Yoast Duplicate Post comes with customizable settings. So users can customize their post status, title format, taxonomies and more. Further, the plugin provides a prefix and suffix option. This is to enable you to differentiate the original post from the clone.

The Yoast Duplicate Post plugin provides a selective duplication feature. This gives users the chance to choose which elements of their content to duplicate, thus, giving users control over the duplication process. The plugin is a useful tool for bloggers, content creators, and site administrators who need to quickly replicate existing content.

SEO Points to Remember when Handling Duplicate Contents

Duplicate contents, when done wrongly, can negatively affect your site’s seo. To prevent this, here are some seo points you should keep in mind when duplicating contents:

Implement Canonical Tags

Canonical tags are HTML code snippets that tell search engines the version of a url that is original and you want indexed. Doing this helps to avoid duplicate content issues and secures your ranking signals.

Use 301 Redirects

This is important as 301 redirects help to guide users and search engines to the from the duplicate URLs to the correct URL.

Update Content

It is vital to update duplicated contents to ensure your users are provided with unique and valuable contents.

Monitor Regularly

Make sure you regularly monitor for duplicate content and seo issues. This helps you to detect any issues early on and maintain your site’s seo health. One of the tools you can use to monitor your site’s seo health is the Google search console.

By applying these strategies, you will be able to manage possible SEO issues effectively. Further, you will be able to maintain your site’s visibility and ranking in search engines.

Conclusion

Duplicating posts and pages is a great way to save time when working on a WordPress web design project.

If you manage several websites for a client, for instance, you will better appreciate what duplicator plugins can do.

We have shown you three different duplicator plugins that work pretty well.

Do bear in mind that these plugins may not work if the pages you want to duplicate were created with page builders like Divi, Elementor, etc. Some page builders give you the option of duplicated designed pages. It’s best you use them rather than duplicator plugins.

WordPress Gutenberg gives you the option of duplicating your pages manually, and we showed you how to go about it in this article.

If you found this article useful, do share.

More Resources:

• • How to Create and Manage Custom Navigation Menus in WordPress
  • Copy link9 Best WordPress Migration Plugins On The Market
  • How to Use the WordPress Image Editor

The post How to Duplicate Pages and Posts in WordPress appeared first on FixRunner.com.

So, you got this far making your site great. We showed you some of the basic and advanced stuff. We also presented you with solutions on how to fix certain errors. Today, we will change the topic a little, and talk about a technique that can help you with your page ranking. Have you heard anything about nofollow links in WordPress? No? That’s totally fine. That is why we are here to show you how to add nofollow links in WordPress! This tutorial works on any WordPress theme.

In this article, you can find out:

1. What is a nofollow link?
2. What are the basic examples of the nofollow links?
3. Google’s Evolving Stance on Nofollow Links
4. SEO Implications of Nofollow Links
5. How To Add Nofollow Link Manually or via Plugin?
6. Conclusion
7. FAQ

In short, a “Nofollow” is a part of the HTML tag (specifically, an attribute). It is used as a virtual note on our door (link) saying “search engines are not welcome here“. It tells Google not to go further than the line we create. When your site has an external link pointing to a potentially harmful site, you lose both the “link juice” and Google’s trust with it. Link juice is essentially a value divided among pages and sites linked from your site. It works as a measure that adds or detracts from your page ranking score. So avoiding problems like the one we just mentioned is a priority. There are 2 types of links – dofollow and nofollow.

To explain “nofollow tags” in more detail we will present some of the situations you would want to put this attribute on.

Links we are not fully confident about (untrusted links)

As described before having a link that refers to a site with suspicious data will directly hurt your site. Sites that look too good to be true are usually the ones you should stay away from (e.g. “get-a-small-loan-of-1000000-dollars-in-just-one-click.com”). To be safe, you should avoid linking these in the first place, but if you must, absolutely use the nofollow attribute!

Comments on your blog 

Yes, a big part of your audience will comply with your rules, and love you unconditionally, but, there is always that other side of the internet. The Dark Side! Some of the people will intentionally link spam or untrusted links. In this instance, you should use nofollow links in WordPress in all of the comments. Nevertheless, you are in luck. WordPress already does that automatically, so you just need to worry about links you post (since they are by default a dofollow link). As a bonus tip, we think the best practice is to just turn off links in the comments completely. This way you are protecting both your site’s score and your users.

Sponsored Content And Affiliate Links

This is another thing you should remember. Google likes to connect related content and promote sites that are based on a particular thing. However, in some situations, sponsored posts/links don’t follow this logic. If you link a sports magazine to your wedding gowns store site, Google may think you are trying something fishy (though it would definitely be great for a sport that somehow incorporates wedding theme). We all know money makes the world go round, but you should absolutely use nofollow attribute here. It will make the site you are referring to not interfere with your page ranking.

Posts or Sites Outside Of Your Niche

If you are trying to make a brand and make your site associated with a distinct subject or theme, you should avoid experimenting. The problem is not that this is going to create concern among your viewers. You should make all of the links on your site revolve around a brand you chose because it will increase your score. For other subjects/posts use nofollow technique!

Links that appear on every page

This is one of the huge minuses. If for example, you link your homepage (or any page) in all your other pages (in the footer, a sidebar or somewhere similar) every time there is an update on your site a backlink will be generated, making your site fall lower in page rankings. To fix this, just use nofollow links in WordPress and there will be no problems.

*Note that this attribute doesn’t block any user activity, so no worries there! The only things getting blocked are google bots.

Will Nofollow Link Always Be Respected By Google?

Google’s algorithm uses these things called crawlers or crawler robots to gather as much information as it can about stuff on the internet. Sites that are found are then indexed. Sometimes, the page with nofollow link will be indexed in search engines. However, Google bots won’t really search through the content and that link won’t affect your score!

Google’s Evolving Stance on Nofollow Links

As the digital landscape evolves, so does Google’s approach to nofollow links. Initially introduced in 2005 to combat spam and control outbound link quality, the nofollow attribute (rel=”nofollow”) has been a staple in the SEO toolkit.

However, Google’s perspective on nofollow links has undergone significant changes, reflecting its continuous effort to better understand and interpret web content.

From Directive to Hint

In the early days, a nofollow tag served as a strict directive to Google: “Do not follow or pass authority to this link.” This was straightforward but somewhat rigid. Recognizing the need for more nuanced link analysis, Google announced in September 2019 that nofollow would be considered a “hint” rather than a mandate.

This shift allows Google’s algorithms to decide whether to consider a nofollow link for crawling and indexing based on the link’s context and other signals.

Introduction of rel=”sponsored” and rel=”ugc”

Alongside this shift, Google introduced two new link attributes — rel=”sponsored” for paid or sponsored links and rel=”ugc” for user-generated content, such as comments and forum posts.

These additions offer webmasters more granular control over signalling the nature of their links to Google, enabling a more refined interpretation of the site’s link structure and intent.

Strategic Adaptations

For webmasters and SEO professionals, adapting to these changes means reassessing link management strategies. The use of rel=”sponsored” and rel=”ugc” should be incorporated into the site’s SEO practices, ensuring that links are appropriately tagged based on their origin and purpose.

This not only aligns with Google’s guidelines but also enhances the site’s integrity in the eyes of both search engines and users.

SEO Implications of Nofollow Links

Understanding the SEO implications of nofollow links is crucial for any website owner or content creator aiming to optimize their site’s search engine performance.

Nofollow links, marked with a rel=”nofollow” tag, instruct search engines not to follow a particular link. This simple directive has nuanced implications for your site’s SEO strategy and link juice distribution.

Link Juice and Its Distribution

In the field of SEO, “link juice” refers to the value or equity passed from one page or site to another through hyperlinks. Typically, this value contributes to the linked page’s ranking in search engine results.

When you apply a nofollow tag to an outbound link, you’re essentially telling search engines not to pass on your page’s valuable link juice to the linked page. This decision can be strategic, especially when linking to external sites that you may not fully trust or when the link doesn’t add direct value to your content’s authority.

Influencing Your Site’s Ranking

While nofollow links do not directly contribute to the linked page’s search engine ranking, their strategic use can impact your site’s overall SEO health.

By selectively determining which links to nofollow, you preserve your site’s link equity, ensuring that you’re not inadvertently boosting the rankings of irrelevant or low-quality external pages. This careful management of outbound links enhances your site’s credibility and trustworthiness in the eyes of search engines.

Strategic Use in Content

The strategic use of nofollow tags is particularly relevant in certain contexts, such as sponsored content, affiliate links, or user-generated comments.

In these cases, nofollow external links is a best practice, helping to maintain the integrity of your site’s link profile and preventing any potential penalties for perceived manipulative linking practices.

Balancing Nofollow and Dofollow Links

Achieving a healthy balance between nofollow and dofollow links is key. While it’s important to be cautious with your link juice, excessively nofollow links can make your site appear guarded or unhelpful to search engines.

Offering some dofollow links to reputable, authoritative sites can enrich your content and reinforce its relevance and value in a particular subject area.

There are two ways you can do it. The manual way, and using WordPress plugins. Each way is as easy and efficient as the other, so choose whichever you like. You can also do this with robots.txt. If you want to know more about this specifically, you can check our robots.txt guide.

Manually 

To make a nofollow link with WordPress all you have to do is:

1. Make a link by pressing on the “Insert/edit link” button.
   
2. Change the mode from Visual to Text.
   
   
3. Add the “rel nofollow” attribute so it changes from this:
   
   to this:
   
4. And you are done!

Using The Plugin

We first need to install the plugin. To do this you need to:

1. Go to Plugins.
   
2. Click on “Add New“.
   
3. Find nofollow plugins you need (we will be using the “Title and Nofollow For Links” plugin)
   
4. Press “Install Now” and then “Activate“

Once you install and activate, select the text you want to make a link out of. Click on the “Insert/edit link” button and press this little gear button to configure the link.

Check the “Add rel=”nofollow” to link” option and press “Add Link”.

That’s it. It wasn’t so hard, wasn’t it!

Plugins can simplify the process of adding nofollow links, but keeping plugins updated and ensuring they don’t cause conflicts is crucial. With our WordPress site maintenance services, you can ensure that all plugins are regularly updated and functioning without disrupting your site’s performance.

Conclusion

In your pursuit of making the Greatest Site In The World, you must’ve come across at least some of the basic knowledge about Google’s algorithm and page ranking system. Thus, we have shown you one of the ways to play on their terms and now you know how to add nofollow links in WordPress. Use it wisely! For more step by step WordPress tutorials follow our WordPress blog.

FAQ Section on Nofollow Links

What is a nofollow link?

A nofollow link is a type of hyperlink on a webpage that tells search engines not to pass any credit or “link juice” to the linked page. It’s achieved by adding the rel=”nofollow” attribute to the link’s HTML code.

When should I use nofollow links on my website?

You should consider using nofollow links in several scenarios, including:

• Links within user-generated content like comments and forums to avoid associating your site with potentially untrustworthy content.
• Affiliate links or paid sponsorships to comply with search engine guidelines and maintain transparency.
  Links to login, registration pages, or internal administrative links that don’t need to be indexed by search engines.

Do nofollow links affect my site’s SEO?

Nofollow links primarily affect the distribution of your site’s link equity. They do not pass on link juice to the linked page, which helps you maintain your site’s ranking power. Strategically using nofollow links can help protect your site’s credibility and prevent potential negative SEO impacts from linking to low-quality or unrelated content.

How can I add a nofollow attribute to links in WordPress?

You can add a nofollow attribute manually by editing the HTML of your link to include rel=”nofollow” within the anchor tag. Alternatively, you can use WordPress plugins like Yoast SEO or All in One SEO, which offer options to easily add nofollow tags to your links.

Can I apply nofollow tags to internal links?

Yes, you can apply nofollow tags to internal links, but it’s generally not recommended unless there’s a specific reason, such as directing search engine bots away from unimportant pages. For most internal linking, allowing search engines to crawl and index your pages freely is beneficial for your site’s SEO.

How do nofollow links differ from dofollow links?

Dofollow links are the default state of a link without any rel attributes specifying otherwise. These links pass link equity and can influence the search engine rankings of the linked page. In contrast, nofollow links do not pass link equity due to the rel=”nofollow” attribute, and they have less impact on the linked page’s search engine ranking.

Are there other link attributes similar to nofollow?

Yes, Google introduced two additional link attributes in 2019:
rel=”sponsored”: Used for links created as part of advertisements, sponsorships, or other compensation agreements.
rel=”ugc”: Stands for User Generated Content and is used for links within user-generated content, such as comments and forum posts.

Will using nofollow links protect my site from spam?

Using nofollow tags on user-generated content can help protect your site from linking to spammy or malicious content, which could potentially harm your site’s reputation and SEO. It’s a common practice to automatically add nofollow tags to all user-generated links.

How do search engines treat nofollow links now?

As of a recent update, Google treats the nofollow attribute as a “hint” rather than a strict directive. This means Google might choose to crawl and index a nofollow link if it believes the link adds value, but it typically won’t pass link equity through these links.

Can I mix nofollow with other link attributes?

Yes, you can combine rel=”nofollow” with other link attributes such as rel=”sponsored” or rel=”ugc”. For example, rel=”nofollow sponsored” is valid and indicates that a link is both sponsored and that you prefer not to pass link equity to it.

More Resources:

• How To Easily Clean Up Your WordPress Database
• The Fastest WordPress Themes Of 2019
• WordPress Meta Description

The post 2 Easy Ways To Add Nofollow Links in WordPress appeared first on FixRunner.com.

Setting up your site to run regular WordPress Backups will take you a few minutes of work, but it can save you a ton of trouble.

Sadly, many WordPress users learned this the hard way. As a result, when their site goes down, what seemed like a temporary glitch, turns out to be an all-out data loss situation.

Since it is now so easy to backup WordPress website, there is no reason why you shouldn’t. But why is WordPress backup so important? Do not web hosting companies swear to take care of this?

Table of contents:

• Why Should You Run Regular WordPress Site Backup?
• Security Practices for Backups
• What Method Should You Use For WordPress Backup
• How to Backup your WordPress Website
  • Backing up your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus
  • Manually Backing Up Your Files And Database To Your Computer
• Cloud Storage Options for WordPress Backups
• How Can You Use This Information?
• FAQ

Why Should You Run Regular WordPress Site Backup?

There is a long list of things that could bring down your website. Data loss in your WordPress hosting, a malware infection, your files getting hacked, etc. Sometimes, you may even install a plugin or theme that takes down your site.

Many web hosts promise regular backups of your data. But we (and many others) have found you cannot fully rely on these. Even when they do a complete backup, it is jumbled up with the data of several other websites.

In many cases, when you do a restore from WordPress hosting backups, you still loose weeks or even months of work. And even then, you should be happy you were able to restore your site. There have been cases where a website gets lost and no one could do anything to get it back. Not the webhost, not the site owner.

Since it is now so easy to run regular WordPress site backups, it makes sense to secure all the effort you put into creating your website by running regular backups and storing them away from your server.

Security Practices for Backups

When it comes to WordPress backups, ensuring the safety of your backup files is just as crucial as creating the backups themselves. Secure backup practices protect your data from unauthorized access and potential cyber threats, safeguarding the integrity and confidentiality of your website’s information.

Here are some essential security practices to consider for your WordPress backups.

Use Encryption

Encrypt your backup files to add an extra layer of security. Encryption converts your data into a coded format, making it unreadable to anyone without the decryption key.

This step is vital, especially when storing backups on cloud services or external drives, as it protects your data in transit and at rest.

Secure Storage Locations

Choose secure storage locations for your backups. Whether you opt for cloud storage solutions like Google Drive, Dropbox, or Amazon S3, ensure that you understand their security features and use strong passwords and two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect your accounts.

For physical storage devices like external hard drives or USB sticks, keep them in a safe, controlled environment to prevent theft or damage.

Limit Access

Restrict access to your backup files. Only trusted individuals within your organization should have the ability to retrieve or restore from backups.

Implement role-based access controls (RBAC) and audit logs to monitor who accesses your backup files and when ensuring accountability and reducing the risk of internal threats.

Regularly Update Security Measures

Cyber threats are continually evolving, and so should your security measures. Regularly update your backup and security software to the latest versions to benefit from enhanced security features and vulnerability patches.

Stay informed about new security threats and best practices to ensure your backup strategy remains robust.

Verify Backup Integrity

Periodically verify the integrity of your backup files. Ensure that backups are complete, uncorrupted, and free from malware.

Regular integrity checks confirm that your backups are reliable and usable when needed, providing peace of mind and swift recovery in the event of data loss.

What Method Should You Use For WordPress Backup

There are many who still prefer a manual backup process, where you download your site files and database to your computer from time to time.

At FixRunner, we prefer automated backups. This way, you can use WordPress backup plugins to backup your WordPress database and files according to a schedule you set.

In this guide, we will show you how to use the UpdraftPlus plugin (which we highly recommend) to run automated backups to a remote location.

We will also show how to backup WordPress manually to your computer, for those who prefer this option.

How to Backup your WordPress Website

Your files, which include your themes, plugins, uploads, etc; and your database, which is used to store posts, pages, comments, users, etc are what make up your WordPress website.

A full backup of your WordPress site involves keeping a copy of both your files and your database in a remote location. In this guide, we will show you how to do this using two methods:

1. Using the UpdraftPlus backup plugin.
2. Manually backing up files and databases to your computer.

Backing up your WordPress site with UpdraftPlus

Using UpdraftPlus, you can easily backup your WordPress site to remote locations such as Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, etc.

The free version comes with ample features to help you run WordPress backups. However, you would only need the paid version if you need special features like encryption.

UpdraftPlus creates backups of the files in your wp-content folder, which is the only folder you really need to backup. This folder contains your themes, plugins, uploads, and other files unique to your website. The other folders contain WordPress core files which you can always download from WordPress.org.

UpdraftPlus can be set to automatically backup your site according to a schedule, or you can directly run a backup using the interface.

Automatic Backups With UpdraftPlus

In this section, we will show you how to set UpdraftPlus to backup your Website to Google Drive once every week. Depending on how busy your site is, you may decide that backups should run more often. For example, if your site gets 20 new posts daily, you may choose to set the daily backups.

For someone who adds two posts per month, setting the schedule to monthly might just be good enough.

Here’s how to set up scheduled WordPress backups:

Firstly, you need to install the UpdraftPlus plugin.

To do this, login to your WordPress dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New.

Secondly, search for “UpdraftPlus” and click Install Now.

When the installation completes, click Activate.

Next, go to Settings > UpdraftPlus Backups.

Switch to the “Settings” tab.

Set the “Files” and “Database” backup schedule to weekly, and leave the number of backups retained set to 2.

Scroll down to the “Choose your remote storage” section and click on Google Drive. When it expands the Google Drive options, right-click on “Follow this link to your Google API console…” and select “Open in new tab”.

Next, click on the My Project dropdown and click the plus button to create a new project.

Name your project and click Create.

Click on the My Project dropdown and click the project you just created.

Click Enable API at the top of the screen. When the API library opens, click Drive API.

Next, click Enable.

WordPress Backup – Creating Credentials

To use the API you just enabled, you have to create credentials for it. These credentials are the actual information used to connect UpdraftPlus to Google drive.

To start this step, click on the Credentials tab on the left, click the Create Credential dropdown, and select “Help me choose”.

Select “Google Drive API” as the API you are using, select “Web browser (JavaScript)” as the place you would be calling the API from, select “User data” as the kind of data you would be accessing, and click What credentials do I need?

Next, enter a name you choose for your OAuth client. Under “Authorized Javascript origins”, enter the URL of the site you want to backup with the updraft.

To get your authorized redirect URI, switch to the tab where UpdraftPlus is open. You will find this in the Google Drive section. Copy this URI and paste it into your credential setup page.

After pasting the redirect URI, click Create client ID.

In the next step, enter a product name and click Continue.

Click Done to complete the creation of your credential. You will be taken to a page listing your credentials.

Click on the credential you just created to reveal your “Client ID” and “Client Secret”.

Copy the Client ID into the “Google Drive Client ID” input box in your Updraft Settings, and copy the Client secret into the “Google Drive Client Secret” input box.

Scroll to the bottom of the page, check the box to enable email notifications and click Save Changes.

Authenticate Google Drive

You will be prompted to authenticate Google Drive. Click on the authentication link.

If you are taken to the Google login page, select the account you set up your credentials with. Next, click Allow to authenticate UpdraftPlus.

After authenticating, you will be taken back to the plugin page and an authentication success message will be seen at the top of the screen. Also, your first backup would begin automatically.

And that’s it. You’ve successfully set UpdraftPlus to backup your WordPress files and database once every week.

A note about authentication: In some cases, when you try to authenticate, you get an error message like the one below.

To resolve this, click the Learn More link. On the next page, scroll to the “Apps for testing or personal use only” section and click the “Risky Access Permission By Unreviewed Apps” link. Lastly, click Join Group.

You can now go on to authenticate UpdraftPlus to use Google Drive.

Running a One-Time Backup Using UpdraftPlus

Beyond setting up a backup schedule, you may sometimes need to run a one-time backup of your WordPress site. For example, this would be necessary if you are about to make changes to your site that can break it.

To run a one-time backup with UpdraftPlus, go to Settings > UpdraftPlus Backups

Click Backup Now.

Leave all items selected to backup everything in your “wp-content folder” and your database, and click Backup Now.

If you however decide to make changes to what is backed up, note that you can expand each section by clicking the dotted lines.

After, clicking Backup Now, you will see a backup progress report indicating the backup has started. Depending on the size of your website, this might take a while.

When the backup completes, you will see a message in the “Last log report” like the one below.

That’s it. Your backup is complete!

Manually Backing Up Your Files And Database To Your Computer

Another way to backup your WordPress files and database is by storing them locally either in your computer, or in other physical media like an external hard disk, or a DVD.

To use this method, you would need to download your WordPress files and export your MySQL database.

As we already mentioned above, the main folder you would need to download is your “wp-content” folder. All other folders can simply be re-downloaded from WordPress.org.

However, you may also choose to download your “wp-config” file, especially if you have made many custom changes to this file.

Downloading WordPress Files using FTP

To download and backup your files using this method, you would need to connect to your web server using FTP. Read this guide to learn how.

After connecting to your server using FileZilla as explained in the guide, your website files will be displayed on the bottom right, while your computer files will be displayed on the bottom left.

In the computer files area, double-click Desktop to open the desktop folder. This is so you can easily find the folder we are going to download to your desktop.

In the website files area, search for the folder that contains your WordPress files (usually the “public_html” folder) and double-click to open it.

Next, search for the “wp-content” folder, right-click on it, and click download.

Depending on the size of your website, the download may take a while. Wait for it to complete.

When the download completes, look at the transfer count section in the bottom left.

If the download was successful, “Queued files” should be empty, “Failed transfers” should be empty, and “Successful transfers” should show a high number.

Also, on your desktop, you will see a “wp-content” folder.

Next, you may decide to also backup your wp-config file. To do this, scroll down to find this file, right-click on it, and click Download.

This download should only take a moment. When it completes, the wp-config file will also be seen in your Desktop.

Now, create a folder named WordPress Backup and move both the “wp-content” folder and the “wp-config” file into this folder.

Manually Backing Up Your Database

You can easily backup your database with PhpMyAdmin.

This guide will show you how to do this using cPanel as your web admin panel, but the process should be very similar in other admin panels.

Firstly, login to your cPanel account. The login details are usually the same as you used in accessing your server through Filezilla, but you may ask your hosting company for the login link if you do not have that.

In cPanel, scroll to the “Databases” section and click on ‘phpMyAdmin‘.

In phpMyAdmin, click on Databases to view all databases in your account.

However, if you do not know which one is your WordPress database, you can find it in the wp-config file we downloaded in the previous section.

Open this file and search for the line that looks like this:

define(‘DB_NAME’, ‘Database_Name’);

The part “Database_Name” will contain the actual name of your database. Find this database in phpMyAdmin and click on it.

When this database opens, click Export.

Leave “Export Method” set to Quick, and “Format” set to SQL. Click Go to start the export.

Your database SQL file would begin to download shortly. When this download completes, you have backed up your database.

Move the downloaded SQL file to the WordPress Backup folder which already contains your WordPress files. You may now decide to burn this folder to a DVD or store it in an external storage device.

If you are using this backup option, you have to repeat this process often. Depending on how busy your site is, you could do it daily, weekly, or monthly.

Cloud Storage Options for WordPress Backups

In today’s digital age, cloud storage has become a cornerstone for securely managing and storing vast amounts of data, including WordPress site backups.

With several cloud storage services available, it’s crucial to understand the distinct features, benefits, and limitations of each to make an informed decision that best suits your backup needs.

Let’s explore some of the most popular cloud storage options: Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3.

Google Drive

Pros:

• Generous Storage: Google Drive offers 15 GB of free storage, which is ample space for small to medium-sized WordPress sites.
• Seamless Integration: For those already using Google Workspace services, integrating Google Drive for backups is straightforward and adds to the ecosystem’s convenience.
• User-Friendly Interface: Google Drive is known for its simple, intuitive interface, making it easy to manage and access backup files.

Cons:

• Privacy Concerns: Some users might have reservations about Google’s data privacy practices, given its extensive data collection across services.
• Limited Free Storage: For larger websites, the initial 15 GB might not suffice, necessitating a paid upgrade for more storage space.

Dropbox

Pros:

• Easy Sharing: Dropbox excels in file-sharing capabilities, allowing users to easily share backup files with team members or across devices.
• High Security: Dropbox offers robust security features, including file encryption and two-factor authentication, ensuring your backups are well-protected.
• Version History: It keeps versions of your files for up to 30 days, enabling you to revert to earlier versions of your backups if necessary.

Cons:

• Smaller Free Storage: Dropbox offers only 2 GB of free storage, which is on the lower side compared to its competitors.
• Bandwidth Limits: There are limitations on the bandwidth for file sharing, which might be a concern for those needing to access backups frequently or share them extensively.

Amazon S3

Pros:

• Scalability: Amazon S3 stands out for its scalability, making it an excellent choice for websites of all sizes, as you pay only for the storage you use.
• Reliability and Availability: Backed by Amazon’s massive infrastructure, S3 offers high durability and availability, ensuring your backups are safe and accessible.
• Advanced Features: S3 provides a range of advanced features, including detailed access controls and integration with other AWS services for more complex backup strategies.

Cons:

• Complexity: Amazon S3’s wide range of features and settings can be overwhelming for users unfamiliar with AWS, making it less user-friendly than some alternatives.
• Cost Predictability: While you pay for what you use, the pricing structure can be complex, and costs can escalate as your needs grow, making it challenging to predict expenses.

How Can You Use This Information?

We cannot stress enough how important it is to run regular WordPress sites backup. If this was not a practice for you, please use the steps covered in this guide to set up a reliable backup process.

Also, we would recommend that you utilize the scheduled backup option using UpdraftPlus. This method is simple, works well, and is being used in millions of WordPress sites.

You may also add an extra layer of safety by performing manual backups every once in a while in addition.

If, on the other hand, you prefer only manual backups, go ahead and use the steps covered, but remember to do it often.

As a reminder, do not store backups within your server. It should always be in a remote location, such as in cloud storage (Google Drive in our example), or in your local computer.

Also, another thing you need to address to improve your site safety is to secure it against hackers. Read this article to find out how best to do this.

FAQ Section for WordPress Backups

Why is it important to regularly back up my WordPress site?

Regular backups ensure that you have a recent snapshot of your site, which is crucial for restoring your website in case of data loss, hacking, server failures, or accidental deletions.

Backups act as a safety net, allowing you to recover your site quickly and minimize downtime.

How often should I back up my WordPress site?

The frequency of backups should align with how often your site’s content changes. For dynamic sites with daily updates, daily backups are recommended.

For less frequently updated sites, weekly backups may suffice. Consider real-time backups for e-commerce sites or sites with high transaction volumes.

What’s the difference between manual backups and using a plugin?

Manual backups involve manually exporting your site’s files and database, typically using FTP and a database management tool like phpMyAdmin.

Plugin-based backups automate this process, allowing you to schedule backups and store them on cloud services easily. Plugins offer convenience and consistency, while manual backups give you more control.

Are cloud storage services safe for storing WordPress backups?

Yes, reputable cloud storage services like Google Drive, Dropbox, and Amazon S3 offer robust security features, including encryption and access controls, making them safe options for storing backups.

Ensure you use strong passwords and enable two-factor authentication for added security.

Can I store my WordPress backups on my hosting server?

While you can store backups on your hosting server, it’s not recommended as your primary storage method due to the risk of server failures or hacking incidents affecting both your live site and backups.

Offsite storage, like cloud services, provides a safer alternative by keeping backups separate from your live environment.

How do I restore my WordPress site from a backup?

Restoring your site depends on how the backup was created. For plugin-based backups, most backup plugins offer a restoration feature within your WordPress dashboard.

For manual backups, you’ll need to upload your files via FTP and import your database using phpMyAdmin or a similar tool. Always test backups and restoration processes periodically to ensure they work as expected.

Do WordPress backups include my posts, images, and plugins?

Yes, a complete WordPress backup includes all your site’s components, such as posts, pages, images, plugins, themes, and the database, which contains your settings and content.

Ensure your backup method is configured to include all necessary files and directories.

What is the best WordPress backup plugin?

The “best” plugin varies based on individual needs and preferences. Popular options include UpdraftPlus, VaultPress (Jetpack Backup), and BackupBuddy.

Each offers a range of features from automated scheduling to cloud storage integration. Evaluate your site’s specific needs and choose a plugin that aligns with those requirements.

The post How To Perform Regular WordPress Backup appeared first on FixRunner.com.

WordPress push notifications have risen in popularity over the years, and chances are you have come across them severally. Most modern websites have them.

Have you ever seen a popup box, asking your permission to send notifications? Those are web push notifications or WordPress push notifications as we will refer to them in this article. Browsers like Chrome, Opera, Firefox and Safari, support them both on mobile and desktop.

The idea behind WordPress push notifications is to encourage repeat visits from your visitors. To achieve this, it sends push alerts to subscribers whenever you publish something new on your website. The end goal, of course, is to drive more website traffic.

In this article, we will look into what WordPress push notification is all about. Not only that, we will also walk you through how to set it up on your WordPress website. You don’t have to write any code – WordPress push notification plugins will do the work.

In this article:

• What is WP push notification?
• Benefits of adding push notifications to your WordPress website
• Times when you need push notification
• Implementation Challenges and Solutions for WordPress Push Notifications
• How to add push notifications to your website
  • How to setup Pushcrew
  • Other push notification plugin solutions
• Performance and Optimization for WordPress Push Notifications
• User Engagement Strategies with WordPress Push Notifications
• Conclusion

What is WordPress push notification?

This is how WordPress push notification looks like:

Push notifications are popup prompts that appear whenever a visitor lands on a website. If the visitor clicks Allow, he/she will get an automatic notification any time new content is published on the website. Even if the visitor isn’t currently on the website when new content is published, he/she would still get an alert. However, if the visitor clicks Block, no notification will be sent.

Basically, that’s how push notifications work. They work well both on desktops and mobile devices.

Benefits of Adding Push Notifications to Your WordPress Website

Building loyal, enthusiastic followers to your website is no easy feat. This is because most people visit a website once, never to visit it again. Your biggest challenge is converting these once-in-a-while visitors to repeat visitors.

Thankfully, there are a couple of marketing channels you could use to overcome this challenge. Email marketing, social media marketing, and web push notifications are the most common.

Email marketing works, for one thing. No doubt about that. What you may not know is that push notification, if done right, is as effective. Any visitor that permits your notifications has an interest in your website. They will likely come to your site when they receive a notification. That means very little marketing effort on your part gets you more engagement.

Other benefits of adding push notifications to your website include:

• Very little upfront investment of time and money
• Effective for driving real-time traffic. Let’s say you are offering a product on your website, and visitors have limited time to make a purchase. With push notifications, you can drive traffic quickly to your website.
• You can get it up and running quickly, and see results immediately. Email marketing, on the other hand, requires a long-term approach.

Times When You Need Push Notification

Here are the best instances when web push notifications will be of great help:

• You run an eCommerce store and want to send out coupon deals from time to time.
• When you are about to launch a webinar and want to alert your visitors about it.
• You just made a social media update, and wish to get many eyes to it.

It’s important, however, that you use push notifications moderately. Otherwise, you risk annoying your visitors.

Implementation Challenges and Solutions for WordPress Push Notifications

Implementing push notifications on a WordPress site can be a straightforward process with the right tools and plugins. However, like any website feature, you might encounter a few challenges along the way.

Below, we’ll explore some common obstacles website owners face when adding push notifications to their WordPress sites and provide practical solutions to overcome these hurdles.

Browser Compatibility Issues

One of the primary challenges with push notifications is ensuring they work seamlessly across all popular browsers your audience might use. To address this, choose a push notification service that offers broad browser support.

Regularly test your push notifications on different browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, to verify they’re being delivered as expected. If issues arise, consult your push notification service’s support documentation or reach out to their customer service for browser-specific troubleshooting advice.

User Opt-In Rates

A low opt-in rate for push notifications can limit your ability to communicate with your site visitors. To improve opt-in rates, customize the prompt message to make it more engaging and clearly communicate the value your notifications will provide.

Consider the timing of the opt-in prompt as well. Allowing visitors to engage with your content before prompting them can lead to higher acceptance rates. A/B testing different messages and timing can help identify what works best for your audience.

Notification Overload

Sending too many notifications can overwhelm users, leading to higher opt-out rates. Develop a strategic notification schedule that balances keeping users informed without bombarding them.

Segment your audience to ensure that notifications are relevant and targeted, which can reduce the likelihood of users disabling notifications. Monitoring engagement metrics will also help you adjust frequency and content based on user preferences.

Ensuring GDPR Compliance

Compliance with privacy regulations like GDPR is crucial when implementing push notifications. Ensure your push notification service offers features that support compliance, such as easy opt-out options and transparent data usage policies.

Include a section in your privacy policy that explains how and why you use push notifications and how users can manage their preferences. Regularly review your push notification practices to ensure they align with the latest privacy laws and guidelines.

Technical Integration Issues

Integrating push notifications with custom themes or plugins can sometimes lead to technical challenges. If you encounter conflicts or issues, start by deactivating other plugins temporarily to identify any incompatibilities.

Consult the documentation of your push notification service for integration tips, and consider reaching out to the support teams of both the push notification service and the conflicting plugin or theme for assistance. In some cases, custom development may be needed to ensure smooth integration.

With that said, let’s see how to set up push notifications on your WordPress website.

How to Add Push Notifications in WordPress Website

Push notifications are quite easy to set up, and just about anybody – developer or non-developer – can set it up.

An efficient push notification plugin solution is all you need, and there are a couple of them out there. The popular ones include:

• PushCrew
• Push Engage
• OneSignal
• PushAssist
• Pushalert

Most are free, but there is a catch: you get to pay once your subscribers exceed a certain number. PushCrew, for instance, is free, but once your subscribers exceed 2000 you start paying.

Let us walk you through the process of setting up push notifications via PushCrew.

How to Setup Push Notification via PushCrew

PushCrew offers a 14-day trial on all its plans, after which you can decide to continue or discontinue. To test the waters, start with their Startup Plan – it’s free.

Step #1: Create a PushCrew Account

First things first, head over to PushCrew website and create a free account. Not to worry, you won’t be asked for your credit card details.

When creating an account, be mindful of the format of your domain – HTTP or HTTPS. Once you have typed in all the needed information, click Create Free Account.

Next, fill out the required information in the popup box.

Note: The name of the company can’t be changed once you click the save button. Also, in the Subdomain field, type in your website’s domain. Say your website domain is mytestwebsite.com, type in “mytestwebsite” in the subdomain field.

Step #2: Customize the WordPress push notification popup box

PushCrew lets you add a custom logo and message to the popup box. While still signed in to your PushCrew account, navigate to Settings>> Opt-in.

From here, you can add a custom logo and change the title as well as the subtitle. You can use different messaging for the title on mobile devices if you wish to.

Don’t forget to click the Save button at the top right corner once you are done.

Step #3: Add PushCrew to Your Website

There are two ways to add PushCrew notifications to your website: one is adding a snippet of code between the <head></head> tags on every page of your website. The second is using a plugin. Since the latter is a lot simpler, it makes sense to go for it.

While still logged in to your PushCrew account, click the Account button at the top bar. Here you will see your account’s id, copy it.

Now log into your WordPress dashboard and navigate to Plugin >> Add New. Search for PushCrew, install and activate it.

Once installed and activated, navigate to Settings >> PushCrew. Next, paste your PushCrew ID in the given box and save the changes.

Step #4: Send Notifications

If you’ve followed the steps so far, you should have a notification popup on your website that looks like this.

Now you surely have the push notification up and running. It’s about time you send out your first notification.

Head back to your PushCrew account, and click the One-Time button in the dashboard panel.

Set the title, message and landing page of your notification. Click Next. On the next page, configure your notification and click Send Now.

That’s it, you are done!

PushCrew is quite easy to implement. You can always upgrade your plans at any time. Check out PushCrew’s pricing page for more.

Other Push Notification WordPress Plugins You Could Try

You are not limited to using PushCrew – there are other plugin solutions that work pretty fine. Let’s see some of them.

Push Engage

Push Engage has a free plan which you will only have to upgrade once your subscribers exceed 2500. Their business plan starts at $29/month and can be used on up to 3 multi-sites.

Push Engage supports all major browsers, including Microsoft Edge. They offer a 15-day free trial period.

OneSignal

OneSignal really went up and above with their free plan. Their free plan has a bandwidth of 30,000 subscribers on desktop and unlimited on mobile. That’s huge! Excellent solution if you have a large following, but don’t want to make any upfront financial commitment.

In addition, you can use OneSignal to set up an email campaign. That’s the price of two for one!

You can get started right away for free. However, their starter plan starts at $99/month and the Pro plan is $600/month.

PushAssist

PushAssist, just like its predecessors, has a free plan which accommodates up to 3,000 subscribers. There is no limit to the number of notifications you can send, both on mobile and desktop.

Their Starter Plan has a price tag of $9/month, Business Plan starts at $25/month and Elite plan starts at $299/month. Though seemingly cheaper than the rest, you are restricted to 3500 subscribers in the Starter and Business plans while the Elite plan is 75,000. So, look before taking the leap.

Pushalert

The last on our list is Pushalert. Pretty much similar to other plugin solutions – a 15-day free trial period, a free plan with a bandwidth of 3,000 subscribers.

Performance and Optimization for WordPress Push Notifications

While integrating push notifications into your WordPress site can significantly enhance user engagement, it’s crucial to ensure that this feature doesn’t detract from your site’s performance or user experience.

In this section, we’ll cover essential tips on optimizing push notifications to maintain a swift, seamless website while delivering value to your audience through timely updates.

Optimize Loading Times

Push notification plugins or scripts can add extra load to your website, potentially affecting page loading times. To mitigate this, select a push notification service that loads asynchronously, ensuring that the loading of notifications doesn’t block or delay your website content from rendering.

Additionally, review the plugin’s impact on your site’s performance using tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, and consider leveraging caching solutions to further enhance loading times.

Streamline Notification Delivery

The mechanism behind sending push notifications should be as efficient as possible. Opt for a push notification service that offers an optimized delivery system, capable of handling high volumes of notifications without causing server strain.

Implementing a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can also distribute the load, ensuring that notifications are dispatched promptly without affecting your server’s performance.

User Experience Considerations

The frequency and timing of notifications are critical to maintaining a positive user experience. Bombarding users with too many notifications can lead to annoyance and opt-outs.

To prevent this, strategize your notification schedule based on user behaviour and preferences. Employing user segmentation allows you to tailor notifications to specific groups, increasing relevance and reducing the likelihood of users finding them intrusive.

Mobile Responsiveness

With a significant portion of web traffic coming from mobile devices, ensuring that push notifications display correctly and unobtrusively on smaller screens is paramount.

Test your notifications on various devices and screen sizes to ensure they are clearly visible without obstructing content or navigation. Responsive design techniques can help achieve a seamless experience across all devices.

Prioritize Consent and Customization

Respecting user consent is not only a legal requirement under regulations like GDPR but also a best practice for maintaining trust.

Provide clear options for users to opt-in or out of push notifications and offer customization settings where users can choose the types of notifications they want to receive. This approach respects user preferences and can reduce the likelihood of users disabling notifications entirely.

Monitoring and Adjusting

Regularly monitor the performance of your push notifications in terms of click-through rates, opt-in/opt-out rates, and user feedback. Use this data to adjust your notification strategy, fine-tuning the frequency, content, and targeting to better meet your audience’s needs.

Continuous optimization based on real user data will help you maintain an effective push notification strategy that enhances user engagement without compromising site performance.

User Engagement Strategies with WordPress Push Notifications

Leveraging push notifications as a pivotal component of your broader user engagement strategy can transform how you interact with your audience on your WordPress site.

This section delves into the art of crafting compelling notification messages, the science behind timing your notifications for maximum impact, and the analytics behind measuring the success of your push notification campaigns.

Crafting Compelling Notification Messages

The key to an effective push notification lies in its ability to grab attention and prompt action. Keep your messages concise and focused, ensuring they convey value within the limited space.

Use action-oriented language and personalize the message to resonate with the recipient. For example, “Hey [Name], your favorite blog just updated! Check it out now!” is more engaging than a generic “New blog post published.” Testing various messages can help identify which ones resonate best with your audience.

Timing Your Notifications for Maximum Impact

The timing of your push notifications can significantly affect their effectiveness. Analyze your audience’s online behavior patterns to identify peak engagement times. Many push notification services offer scheduling features that allow you to deliver messages at the optimal moment.

For instance, sending a notification about a new blog post in the morning might catch your audience during their daily routine checks, while an evening schedule might work better for promotional content.

Segmentation and Targeting

Not all notifications will be relevant to your entire audience. Use segmentation to categorize your users based on their interests, behaviour, or demographic data. Tailored notifications to specific segments can dramatically increase engagement rates.

For example, notifying users about a discount on a product they’ve viewed on your site can be more effective than a generic sale notification.

Interactive and Rich Notifications

Modern push notification services allow for richer content, including images or action buttons. Utilizing these features can make your notifications more interactive and engaging.

For example, a notification about a new fashion blog post could include an image from the post, along with buttons like “Read Now” and “Bookmark for Later.”

Measuring Success and Analytics

To continually refine your push notification strategy, it’s essential to track their performance. Key metrics to monitor include click-through rates (CTR), opt-in rates, and conversion rates.

Most push notification services provide analytics dashboards to help you track these metrics. Analyzing this data will help you understand what works and what doesn’t, allowing for data-driven adjustments to your strategy.

A/B Testing

A/B testing, or split testing, is a method to compare two versions of a notification to see which performs better. By changing one element at a time, such as the message, timing, or imagery, you can determine which variations yield the best results. This continuous testing loop can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your notifications over time.

Feedback Loop

Encourage and monitor feedback from your audience regarding your push notifications. This can be done through direct feedback channels on your site or by analyzing engagement trends.

User feedback is invaluable for fine-tuning your approach and ensuring your notifications remain a welcome touchpoint rather than an annoyance.

Conclusion

All the push notification plugin solutions we looked at in this article generally work fine – it just depends on what you are looking for. Some allow you to schedule notifications while others let you run email campaigns from the same dashboard.

Integrating any of these plugins is quite straightforward. We already showed you how to integrate PushCrew into your WordPress website. Other platforms and even custom sites basically follow a similar process.

We hope you found this article helpful. Should you run into hiccups in the process, don’t hesitate to reach out and get WordPress help. If you found this article helpful, kindly share. You might be helping someone.

More Resources:

• Professional WordPress Assistance
• Vary Accept-encoding Header Error: How to Fix in WordPress
• How To Find, Create And Use htaccess File In WordPress

The post WordPress Push Notifications: How to Set Them Up appeared first on FixRunner.com.

Are you considering converting your rather static HTML site to a more dynamic WordPress site? Certainly, that is good thinking! WordPress currently powers 35% of all websites on the internet and has surely grown to be the most popular among other website builders.

Converting HTML to WordPress may seem like a very daunting task. However, we’ll teach you how shortly.

In this HTML to WordPress tutorial, you’ll definitely learn two (2) ways of doing it. Firstly, it is the manual method. Secondly, it is the child-theme method.

Feel free to try any of the methods depending on your coding skills, time, money, as well as personal preference. So, let’s go.

Content

• WordPress vs HTML
• Before you convert HTML to WordPress
• First method: Convert HTML to WordPress with a theme
• Second method: Using a child theme
• Completing your site
• Technical Aspects of Conversion: Navigating CSS, JavaScript, and Images
• Troubleshooting and Common Errors
• Finally

WordPress vs HTML

Before we go into how to convert HTML to WordPress, let’s first make a brief comparison between them.

Coding skills

To begin with, anyone can use WordPress. Yes, definitely anyone. Important to realize, it requires little or no coding skills. HTML sites, on the other hand, require an in-depth knowledge of coding. If you love to code and are willing to spend time making every change, then using an HTML site may be a good option. Otherwise, save yourself some stress and use WordPress.

Ease of Usage

To point out, WordPress uses an easy drag and drop interface. As a result, this makes content creation and management a walk in the park. However, we can’t say the same thing about an HTML site. So many lines of code aren’t so easy to handle, especially for a beginner.

Flexibility

There are thousands of WordPress templates to choose from – free as well as premium. Furthermore, with just a few clicks, you can give a WordPress website a new look. The case is rather different with an HTML site.

Functionality

For the most part, with WordPress plugins, you can add more functionality to your WP site. Altogether, no coding is required. Just search for the plugin, install, and then activate it. Improving the functionality of an HTML site is also possible. Though, it’s just more difficult to achieve.

Additionally, WordPress sites have great SEO and Security features.

Before you Convert HTML to WordPress

So far, we have dealt much on how beneficial WordPress is over a static HTML site. But before you move to WordPress, you need the following:

1. Web Hosting provider

   First thing to remember, you need a hosting service for your new WordPress site. Take note that your website’s stability, speed, as well as security largely depends on your web host. So, be sure to go for the best. We have made a list of the best WordPress hosting providers in order for you to make the most informed decision. On the other hand, you can install WordPress on localhost and then go live later on.

2. WordPress installation

   If you haven’t installed WordPress yet, do so. At the same time, read our WordPress resource on how to create a WP site in three easy steps.

3. Code Editor

   To point out, this will be useful for handling your HTML codes. Notepad++, Sublime, as well as Aptana Studio are great examples.

We’ll be explaining how to convert HTML to WordPress using 2 methods, viz Manual and Child Theme. For many users, however, the child theme method will be easier to follow. But if you have WP experience, you may prefer the manual method.

Side Note: In case you do not feel comfortable working with codes or WordPress, you can hire an expert to do this for you. Otherwise, roll up your sleeves and let’s get to work.

First Method: Convert HTML To WordPress With A Theme

For the most part, you may decide to retain the design on your HTML website. That’s often because you want your site visitors to have the same experience as they did on your HTML site. If that’s so, follow this procedure.

As we mentioned, this method requires more experience, and more work to make complete. That means you do not get the full features of a WordPress theme unless you code them in one after the other later on (info that cannot be covered here).

On the plus side, this option gives you full customization of your theme as you will be putting all parts in there.

Ideally, only use this option if you are quite confident in coding, or if you want to get a developer to help you with it.

Ready to start? Let’s go.

Step 1: Create a theme folder to hold your theme files

Firstly, create a new folder on your computer and give it a name such as my-theme. Then, open your code or text editor and create five (5) files namely;

• style.css
• header.php
• sidebar.php
• Footer.php
• index.php

We’ll work with these files one after the other, starting with style.css

Step 2: Create a WordPress Stylesheet from the Existing CSS – HTML to WordPress

The style.css file we created in the previous step is indeed our WordPress style sheet. Since we intend to maintain the style of the existing HTML site, we’ll use its CSS code. CSS is in fact what determines how your website looks. So, open your style.css file and paste the following header code:

Say, we’re creating a theme for FixRunner. Therefore, the header would look like this:

Afterward, copy and paste the existing site’s CSS in the WordPress style sheet. Then save the style.css file and close it. Easy, right! Let’s move on.

Step 3: Create your header, sidebar, and footer from existing HTML

As you recall, we created four .php files in the first step: header.php, sidebar.php, footer.php, and index.php. WordPress uses the first 3 PHP files to determine which part of the code is the header, sidebar or footer.

This method certainly makes managing your code easy. As you know, every page on your site must have your header items, such as the navigation menu. The same goes for footers. Furthermore, these parts do not change from page to page. Hence, it makes sense to keep them in their own file and pull them into pages.

That way, if you need to adjust your nav menu structure or something else in your header, you edit just one file (header.php), and that does it for your entire site.

With that said, we’ll now show you how to divide your HTML code into parts (header, sidebar, footer).

Let’s see an example using the following code (you should use your site’s HTML in your index.html file for this).

HTML Code – HTML to WordPress

Now it’s time to divide the codes into parts for HTML to WordPress

• Header.php file:

Paste everything from the beginning of the code to the start of the main content area (that’s the section from the start to the end of the yellow highlights). In addition, you should add this line of code: <?php wp_head();?> right before the </head> tag. The purpose of this action is to ensure that WordPress plugins work as they should.

• Sidebar.php file:

Then copy and paste the section that starts with <div id=”rightcol”> into the sidebar.php file (the section from the start to the end of the green highlights). This section is what displays the sidebar (or in this case, right column) of your HTML site.

• Footer.php file:

Further on, copy all lines of codes from the end of the sidebar to the end of the file and paste in the footer.php file (the section from the start to the end of the blue highlights).

Also, add this line of code <?php wp_footer();?> right before the </body>  tag. This will ensure that your WordPress plugins work as they should.

That’s all for step 3. You can close all other files but we still have some work to do in header.php and index.php files.

Step 4: Edit the Header.php – HTML to WordPress

Look through the header.php file, as you’ll come across this line of code within the <head> section:

Now replace it with the following:

That’s great! We have successfully converted the ‘call for style sheet’ from HTML to WordPress format. We are done with the header.php file so you can save and close it now.

 Step 5: Edit the Index.php files

Next, copy and paste this code on top of the index.php:

Leave a space, then paste these lines of code.

As you may be able to tell already, the first one (get_header) pulls in the header.php file into the index.php file we’re editing. Likewise, the next 2 pull in the sidebar and footer.

All your main content is generally placed between the header and sidebar (the space we left above).

For index.php, we will next paste the Loop within this space. The loop is a PHP code snippet that displays your posts.

So, paste the following after <?php get_header(); ?>

All in all, save the index.php file. Now, to the final step.

Step 6: Upload theme

Now that we have successfully completed the theme folder, it’s time to upload it to WordPress. To do this, paste or upload the theme folder in /wp-content/themes/ (in your WordPress folder). Now go to your WordPress dashboard and open Appearance >> Themes.

If you have followed our steps accordingly, your new theme will appear in the list of themes. Since that’s the case, go on to activate it.

If you are not comfortable with the amount of manual work involved in this method, the next method is surely less daunting.

Second Method: Using a Child Theme

In this method, we’ll be using a WordPress Child Theme. A child theme is one that exhibits the styling and functionality of another theme (parent theme).

Aside from being easier, you also end up with a more robust theme with important functions like controlling menu items from the “Themes” menu.

Without delay, let’s see how to convert your static HTML site to WordPress via a child theme.

Step 1: Choose a theme

First, select a theme that is similar to your existing HTML design. In order to see your options, check our list of the top 10 free WordPress themes. Then again, you could go for a paid theme. Once you have made a choice, install the theme but don’t activate it. This theme only acts as a base as we will work more with the child theme.

Step 2: Create a theme folder

That is to say, the theme folder will contain files relating to the child theme. Give the folder a name that is related to the parent theme (e.g. “parent theme’s name-child”). Assuming we’re creating a child theme for the Twenty Twenty WP theme, the folder should rather be named twentytwenty-child.

Within this folder, we will be creating our style.css as well as functions.php files.

Step 3: Create a Style Sheet – HTML to WordPress

Open a new file in your code editor and save it as style.css. Then copy and paste the following lines of code (edit as required).

To illustrate this section properly, we will assume that we want to create a child theme for Twenty Twenty WP theme. In that case, here’s how this header would look:

Of all these, take special note of the template item. The value must be the folder name of the parent theme, otherwise, your theme won’t work.

With this part added, copy and paste all your site styles from the HTML site. Then save this file.

Step 4: Create functions.php file

It’s time to inherit the styling of the parent’s theme. To do this, create a new file and name it functions.php. Then, paste the following code into the file.

By pasting this code, the child theme automatically inherits the styling of the parent theme.

Step 5: Activate the Child theme

Now it’s time to activate your child theme. Simply add the theme folder to /wpcontent/themes/. Then, visit your dashboard and activate the theme.

Completing Your Site

Whether you choose to use the manual or child theme method, you would need to move over the rest of your content when done.

Since you are now in WordPress, they will be done via the dashboard.

For example, to create a page, go to Pages > Add New in your dashboard.

Next, enter your page title (e.g. About Us), and begin creating your content.

Alternatively (and often easier), you can switch the content editor from  Visual to Text. Then copy the About Us code from your HTML site to this page, taking care to ensure you exclude the header, sidebar, and footer parts (as these are already in your theme).

As you do, some things like images will become broken links, for these, switch back to the Visual editor and upload these images in the right places.

Note: If you are using Gutenberg editor (which will be the case if you just installed WordPress), you cannot switch from Visual to Text. Instead, add a new “Custom HTML” code block and paste in your HTML.

As you follow these steps, it’s essential to keep your site’s long-term maintenance in mind. Enrolling in a WordPress care plan can provide ongoing support to handle any issues that may arise during and after the conversion process.

Technical Aspects of Conversion: Navigating CSS, JavaScript, and Images

Embarking on the journey from a static HTML site to a dynamic WordPress platform encompasses more than just transferring content. It’s about ensuring your website’s aesthetics and functionality transition seamlessly.

Let’s dive into the crucial technical elements, CSS, JavaScript, and images, that play pivotal roles in this transformation.

CSS: The Style Behind the Substance

CSS, or Cascading Style Sheets, is the backbone of your website’s design, dictating everything from layout to font styles.

When converting your site, it’s essential to integrate your existing CSS into WordPress to preserve your site’s unique look and feel. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

• Preserve Your Style: Begin by locating your HTML site’s CSS file. This file contains all the style rules for your website.
• Incorporate into WordPress: Create a new file in your WordPress theme directory named style.css. This will be your primary stylesheet in WordPress.
• Transfer Styles: Copy the contents of your original CSS file into the newly created style.css file within your WordPress theme. This action ensures that your site retains its original styling post-conversion.

JavaScript: Enhancing Interactivity

JavaScript adds interactivity and dynamic content to your site, from simple animations to complex user interfaces. Integrating JavaScript into your WordPress site involves:

• Identify JavaScript Files: Locate the JavaScript (.js) files used in your HTML site. These might include custom scripts or libraries such as jQuery.
• Upload to Your Theme: Place these .js files within your WordPress theme folder, ideally in a subdirectory named js to keep things organized.
• Link Scripts in WordPress: Use the wp_enqueue_script function within your theme’s functions.php file to properly link these JavaScript files. This ensures they are loaded correctly on your site.

Images: Visual Continuity

Images are the visual pillars of your site, and maintaining their quality and placement is crucial. To manage images during the conversion, do the following:

• Gather All Images: Collect all images from your HTML site. This includes icons, backgrounds, and content images.
• Upload to WordPress: Within your WordPress theme directory, create an images folder and upload all your images here.
• Update Image Paths: Ensure all image paths in your CSS and HTML (now PHP) files point to the new locations within your WordPress theme. This might involve updating URLs to reflect the WordPress structure.

Troubleshooting and Common Errors

While converting HTML to WordPress offers a plethora of opportunities to enhance your website’s functionality and user experience, the path may occasionally present obstacles.

Here are some common hurdles you might encounter, along with practical solutions to overcome them.

File Type is Not Permitted for Security Reasons Error

This error often occurs when trying to upload custom HTML files directly into WordPress. WordPress restricts certain file types for security reasons.

To avoid this, you can insert your HTML code into a WordPress page using the ‘Custom HTML‘ block in the Gutenberg editor. This method allows you to safely include custom HTML without altering the core files or compromising security.

CSS and JavaScript Not Loading

After migrating your HTML content, you might notice that some styles or scripts aren’t functioning as expected. This issue usually stems from incorrect paths to CSS and JavaScript files.

Ensure that these files are correctly enqueued in your WordPress theme’s functions.php file. Utilizing the wp_enqueue_style and wp_enqueue_script functions allows WordPress to manage these resources effectively, ensuring they load in the right order and only when needed.

Broken Links and Missing Images

Links to internal pages or images might break during the conversion process, leading to 404 errors or missing media. This typically happens due to absolute paths in the HTML that no longer align with the WordPress structure.

To fix this, update all links and image paths to reflect their new locations within the WordPress directory. Plugins like ‘Search and Replace’ can automate this process, helping you update paths in bulk.

Theme Compatibility Issues

Custom HTML elements might not display correctly with your chosen WordPress theme. If you encounter layout breaks or styling issues, consider creating a child theme to implement custom templates or styles.

This approach preserves your modifications and ensures compatibility with future theme updates.

Plugin Conflicts

Plugins enhance WordPress functionality but can sometimes conflict with custom HTML or scripts. If you notice new issues after installing a plugin, deactivate it temporarily to see if the problem resolves. Identifying and replacing conflicting plugins can restore site functionality.

Finally – HTML to WordPress

In the final analysis, converting an HTML site to WordPress seems like a daunting task. However, with some work and dedication, you can migrate your site from HTML to WordPress without issues.

As you move to WordPress, you will need to get up to speed with the WordPress platform. Without delay, check our WordPress tutorials to learn more about WordPress.

Equally important, you can extend your site’s functionalities by installing and activating WordPress plugins.  Wondering which plugin to download? Read our list of the best WordPress plugins every site should have.

Did you have any issues while converting from HTML to WordPress? Let us know in the comments below.

The post HTML to WordPress – How to Convert a HTML Site to WordPress appeared first on FixRunner.com.

WordPress image sizes are a major factor in the performance of any site. Marketing professional Jeff Bullas found out that web pages with images get about 94% more total views.

But despite the benefits of images, using the wrong image size can affect the look and feel of your website. Large images can affect your loading speed and search engine ranking, while images that are too small can make your website look messy.

As such, it’s important to learn about WordPress image sizes, and how to apply them properly. This article explains everything you need to control your image sizes and improve their overall performance.

Table of Content:

• What is an Image Size?
  • Why are WordPress Image Sizes Important?
  • How Does WordPress Process Images?
• How to Change Default Image Sizes
• How to Change Image Size Using WordPress Image Editor
• How to Change Image Size on your Posts or Pages
• How to Add Custom WordPress Image Sizes
  • How to Add Custom WordPress Image Sizes With the Perfect Images Plugin
  • How to Add Custom WordPress Image Sizes Manually
• How To Optimize Your Image
  • Choose The Best Image File Format
  • Compress Your WordPress Images
• Conclusion
• Frequently Asked Questions

What is an Image Size?

The term “image size” refers to the dimensions (width and height) of the WordPress image sizes in pixels. The image size is an important attribute that determines the visual resolution and overall quality of the image.

The size of an image can also refer to its file size. An image with dimensions of 8000×8000 pixels may be too large for a webpage. Similarly, an image with a file size of 9 MB is also too large for a webpage.

When working on WordPress image size, you need to create a balance between the dimensions and file size.

Why are WordPress Image Sizes Important?

Improperly sized images can hurt your site in a lot of ways. Here are the roles WordPress image sizes play on WordPress websites.

• Page Load Speed: large images can significantly slow down the loading speed of your website. Large images can result in longer loading times on your site.
• User Experience: The chances of a visitor leaving your WordPress site increase with every second it takes to load. Optimizing the size of your images ensures a faster browsing experience for your visitors.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Mobile users often have limited data plans and slower connections. When you optimize image sizes for smaller screens and lower bandwidth, it helps deliver a better experience for mobile visitors.
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Page speed is a major ranking factor on Google and other search engines. Faster-loading pages have a higher chance of ranking in search results. Using the right image sizes increases your site speed and the likelihood of ranking highly on search engines.

How Does WordPress Process Images?

When you upload an image to the WordPress image library, WordPress generates three additional default image sizes; thumbnail, medium, large, and full-size.

As such, you will end up with 4 images. The first three are the generated images, while the ‘full-size’ is the original you uploaded. The default resolution of the generated image sizes may be as follows:

• Thumbnail: 150px square
• Medium size: 300px maximum width and height
• Large size: 1024px maximum width and height
• Full size: the original size you uploaded

WordPress uses various image sizes for different areas. Thumbnail images are typically used for blog previews, while the large WordPress image sizes are used for WordPress header images.

The default image sizes on your website may, however, slightly differ from what we have here, depending on the theme you use.

Fortunately, you can change the image sizes as you want.

How to Change Default Image Sizes

You can adjust the default WordPress image size set to whatever you want.

To do this, go to Settings >> Media from your WordPress dashboard.

This will take you to the “Media Settings” page, where you can change the default image sizes.

For instance, if you want to change the Thumbnail size, you will just type in the new height and width.

Once you are done, scroll down and click on Save Changes to save the modified sizes.

How to Change Image Size Using WordPress Image Editor

The WordPress image editor provides one of the easiest ways to set the sizes for featured images, blog images, and other image applications on your site. The editor allows you to manually edit the size of each image you upload to the WordPress Media library.

To edit an image using the editor, go to Media>>Library.

Then click on the image you want to edit.

Next, click on Edit Image.

This will open the image editor. Now, you can set custom width and height.

For example, the original size of the image below is 2560 x 2048. Let’s say we want to change the image size to 1380 x 1024. We will enter the size and then click Scale to process the image editing.

Then click Save.

Now, the full size of the image will change to 1380 x 1024.

How to Change Image Size on your Posts or Pages

WordPress allows you to edit the size of images when you add them to posts or pages. Typically, you will see the edit icon when you select the image you want to edit.

Click on the icon.

This will take you to the image editor.

Click on the “size” section to reveal a drop-down list.

Choose Custom Size from the drop-down.

Now, enter the new width and height you want for the image.

Click Save.

And that is it. The new image size will be applied to the blog or page.

How to Add Custom WordPress Image Sizes

Most often, the three default image sizes may not be sufficient to meet all your needs. Fortunately, you can add custom image sizes to your site. 

You can do this either with a WordPress image sizes plugin or by editing your theme’s code.

How to Add Custom WordPress Image Sizes With the Perfect Images Plugin

Perfect Images is an exceptional plugin that gives you control over your image sizes. The plugin allows you to easily create custom image sizes, regenerate existing images, and optimize your images.

To get started, you need to first install the Perfect Images plugin.

Go to Plugins >> Add New Plugin.

Type in ‘’Perfect images” in the search bar. Then look for Perfect Images (Manage Image Sizes, Thumbnails, Replace, Retina) and click Install Now.

Next, click Activate.

Once you activate it, the plugin will appear as “Meow Apps” on the WordPress dashboard.

To create a new WordPress image size, go to Meow Apps >> Perfect Images.

On the “Perfect Images” page, scroll down and click on Add New.

This will bring up a form to fill out. Enter the name for the new custom image size, as well as the weight and height.

Next, decide whether you want to crop images for that size. Cropped images are good for featured images and profile pictures. Selecting Yes crops the image. Choose No if you don’t want cropping.

Click OK once you’ve filled out everything.

The plugin will create the new WordPress image size for your WordPress site.

And that’s it. You’ve successfully added a new image size to your website. You can follow the same steps to add additional image sizes.

Most WordPress plugins have no way to check the image sizes. As such, you can use a plugin like Regenerate Thumbnails for this. The plugin lists all the image sizes on the website.

How to Add Custom WordPress Image Sizes Manually

Now let’s look at the steps to adding custom images by editing your theme’s code. While it is simple, this process requires some technical knowledge. So it’s best to leave it to a professional if you have no coding experience.

To get started, you first have to create a backup for your website. It’s important to do this to protect your data in case anything goes wrong during the process. This article explains how to perform a regular WordPress backup for your website.

Once you have completed the backup process, navigate to the WordPress dashboard.

Then go to Appearance >> Editor or Theme File Editor.

You will likely get a warning about editing the code.

Just click I understand to proceed.

Activate Custom Images Support

The first step to adding custom images to your website is to activate support for post thumbnails. To do this, you need to add the add_theme_support string below into the WordPress image sizes php file of your website:

add_theme_support( 'post-thumbnails' );

Click on the functions.php file.

Next, search to see whether the add_theme_support string is already there.

If the code is not there, paste it in. Then click Update File.

This will activate the function that allows you to add custom images to your site.

Add Custom Image Code

The next step is to add the code for the custom image size you want to create.

To do this, you have to locate and edit the “add_image_size” code in the functions.php file.

First, check whether the code is already there using the search function to find it. If it’s not there, then you can add it. Here’s the “add_image_size” code:

add_image_size( 'name', width, height, true/false );

Now let’s look at the parameters in the code. The first argument is the ‘name,’ which represents the name you want for the image size. It is important to choose a descriptive image sizes name.

The second and third arguments are the width and height in pixels. You can choose any specific image size you want. The last parameter is the cropping. This allows you to define the cropping type or its positioning (we will discuss this subsequently).

How to Add a Custom Image Using Code

For example, let’s say you want to add a new image size for blog posts with a height and weight of 1200 x 630 px.

In that case, the code will look like this with no cropping applied:

add_image_size( 'blog-image-size', 1200, 630 );

Once you have pasted the code, click Update File.

Cropping Your Image

Cropping is the last argument of the add_image_size code. This allows you to set the cropping status of the image size by choosing either true or false.

add_image_size( 'name', width, height, true/false );

When you don’t apply cropping to your code, the image just gets shrunken to the new size. However, when you crop an image, a part of it is cut off while the remaining part will adjust to the new size.

If your goal is to reduce the size of the image, then cropping may not be for you since it involves removing elements of the image. Cropping makes sense if cutting out part of the image wouldn’t affect the overall output.

How to Add Cropping for Your Size

To add cropping to an image you have to add “true” to the end of the image size code.

If you don’t want the images to be cropped, then add ‘false’ at the end of it or remove the whole argument. WordPress will not apply cropping if you leave it out entirely.

For example, let’s say we are still considering cropping the 1200 x 630 px blog post image size. In that case, the cropping side of the code will be ‘true,’ like this:

add_image_size( 'blog-image-size', 1200, 630, true );

Your code will look like any of this if you don’t want cropping for the image size.

add_image_size( 'blog-image-size', 1200, 630, false );

add_image_size( 'blog-image-size', 1200, 630,  );

Add New Custom Image Sizes to Your Theme

Once you’ve added the custom image size, the next thing is to make your theme display it. To do this, you need to edit the index.php theme file, which contains the posts loop, and add this code to it:

the_post_thumbnail( 'image-size-name' );

Go to Appearance >> Editor or Theme File Editor.

Then click on the index.php file.

Now add the code above to display the new image size for your theme.

Replace the image-size-name with the name of the image size you used in the earlier steps. In our case, the name of the image size was blog-image-size. So our code will look like this:

the_post_thumbnail( 'blog-image-size' );

And that’s it. You will now see the new image size as an option when you upload a new image to your website.

Apply New Image Size to Old Images

The problem with this manual configuration is that it only applies to new images. Older images will retain their current sizes, and you need to update them to apply the new image size.

Fortunately, some plugins allow you to do this. One of those is Regenerate Thumbnails, a free plugin that allows you to update your image sizes.

Update Image Sizes with Regenerate Thumbnails

The Regenerate Thumbnails plugin, as the name suggests, regenerates the WordPress thumbnail sizes for the images in your Media Library. Since we’ve added a new image size, Regenerate Thumbnails will ‘regenerate’ this new size for older images.

To get started, you need to first install the plugin. Go to Plugins>> Add New Plugin.

Now type in “Regenerate Thumbnails” into the search box. Find the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin and click Install Now.

Once installed, click Activate.

The Regenerate Thumbnails Plugin will appear under the Tool menu on your WordPress dashboard.

To regenerate your images, go to Tools >> Regenerate Thumbnails.

Once on the plugin page, you just have to click on Regenerate Thumbnails for all Attachments.

The plugin will take a few seconds/ minutes to regenerate the images to the new WordPress image sizes. And that’s it.

How To Optimize Your Image

WordPress image sizes also entail the image file size. While changing the image dimensions allows you to control the size, you may need to optimize the image without changing the dimensions.

Here are two ways you can optimize your WordPress images size:

Choose The Best Image File Format

The file format you choose, whether it’s PNG, JPEG, or WebP, can affect your image size. For instance, webP images have smaller file sizes compared to PNG files.

As such, you can convert your PNG images to the WebP format to reduce their size. This article explains more about WordPress WebP Images.

Converting your images can, however, potentially lower the image quality. You must compare the quality of the original image to that of the converted one to ensure there’s no noticeable drop in quality.

Plugins like EWWW Image Optimizer, Optimole, and ShortPixel Image Optimizer allow you to control your website image file format.

Compress Your WordPress Images

Another way to reduce the size of an image is to compress it. Image compression involves minimizing the size of an image without degrading its quality.

Compressed images are far lighter than images that aren’t optimized.

Several plugins allow you to quickly compress your images, including Optimole. Once you set up the plugin, it can automatically compress any image you upload.

Conclusion

WordPress image sizes are an important issue that can affect the look, speed, and ranking of WordPress websites.

This guide to WordPress image sizes has explained what image sizes are and how you can change your website’s image sizes. So you can follow the steps outlined above to edit your WordPress default image sizes and add custom sizes.

If you also want to learn more about WordPress images, you should check out this article on how to fix image upload issues in WordPress. A well optimised WordPress image can improve website speed. However, there certain issues that can arise with your site’s image. The article, therefore, explains how to fix these issues.

Remember, the team at FixRunner is ready to meet all your WordPress website needs. We offer custom development, WordPress maintenance, and more. Fill out this form to get a free website review.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the Image Size Functions in WordPress?

The image size function in WordPress is add_image_size(), which allows you to add custom-size images. The full function is add_image_size( ‘name’, width, height, true/false );. You can also change your default WordPress image sizes by going to Settings >> Media.

How do I get Custom Image size in WordPress?

You can add custom image sizes on WordPress using a plugin like Perfect Images, or you can do it manually with code. The add_image_size() allows you to add custom image sizes by editing your theme’s code.

How do I get the full size Image in WordPress?

When you upload an image to WordPress, it automatically generates three default images in addition to the full-size image. So you will typically have four image options and can just choose the full-size image option when creating a post or page.

Does WordPress Reduce Image Size?

No. WordPress doesn’t reduce your image sizes. However, there are options to reduce your image size after it’s uploaded. You can also use various plugins to reduce the image size.

The post What are WordPress Image Sizes and How to Change Them? appeared first on FixRunner.com.