All posts by Editorial Staff

How to Write Content Using AI Content Generator in WordPress

19.01.2023aioseo, artificial intelligence, chatgpt, GPT3, Tutorials, wordpress artificial intelligenceEditorial Staff

Do you want to use AI (artificial intelligence) to write content in WordPress?

Artificial Intelligence tools like ChatGPT and GPT3 can produce well-researched content in natural language. Many users want to explore it to see if it can help with writing content.

In this article, we’ll talk about how to write content using artificial intelligence like ChatGPT and GPT3 in WordPress as well as the pros and cons of it.

How to Write Content Using AI in WordPress

What are ChatGPT and GPT3 AI?

ChatGPT is a computer program that uses artificial intelligence to have conversations in a chatbot-like interaction environment.

GPT3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3) is a similar artificial intelligence based computer program that is designed to be more generic and broader than ChatGPT.

Both programs use a type of machine learning called Natural Language Processing that allows them to understand and respond to user input.

In simpler words, they learn by going through vast amounts of information publicly available, so they can answer your questions in a well-thought out manner.

You can visit the OpenAI website and try both tools for free. Following are a few examples of what it can do.

Example 1:

You can provide more details in your prompt to adjust the response according to your given parameters.

For instance, here we asked it to write an essay about black holes at a 6th grade reading level, using simple words, and keeping the response between 600-800 words.

This is how it responded.

Example 2:

ChatGPT can also write code, poetry, music, explain mathematical equations, and more.

Are ChatGPT and GPT3 AI Good Enough to Write Content?

ChatGPT and GPT3 are really good at providing detailed responses that are very well written. This leads many users to believe that it can be used to write content for their websites or be used as an autoblogging tool.

However, before you put it to the test on your actual website, the following are a few things that you need to be mindful of.

1. Accuracy of Information

The information provided by ChatGPT could be outdated or sometimes even false. It’s critical that you double-check all the information included in the article.

2. No Recent Events Are Considered

ChatGPT is trained on resources up to the year 2021, so it has limited knowledge of events after that. This may get fixed soon, but if the content you want to generate is time sensitive, then keep this in mind.

3. Doesn’t Give Strong Opinions

ChatGPT is trained to be impartial and unbiased. Unlike a human writer, it lacks the creativity required to argue for a particular opinion, be passionate, and have preferences.

Can ChatGPT AI be Good for SEO?

ChatGPT AI can generate content in a web-friendly format. However, it does not specifically follow any SEO best practices.

Researchers at Google have worked for years to detect content generated by artificial intelligence tools. In the past, they have penalized them for being low quality.

We feel that artificial intelligence tools like GPT3 can be used as writing assistants rather than full writers.

For instance, GPT AI can be used to create an article outline, gather information, and pick up some key research points.

After that, a human writer can work on it to make it more comprehensive, opinionated, factual, and SEO-friendly.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to use ChatGPT AI to create content in WordPress.

Using ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence to Write Content in WordPress

First, you need to install and activate the GPT3 AI Content Writer plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to click on the GPT3 AI Content Generator menu from the admin sidebar to view plugin’s settings page.

From here, you need to provide an API key. You can get one by creating a free account on the OpenAI website.

After copying and pasting your API key, don’t forget to click on the Save button to store your plugin settings.

Other default options would work for most users but you can review and change them if needed.

For instance, you may want to change the image size generated by the AI or leave it blank if you would want to generate AI images by yourself or add other images.

Now you are ready to start generating AI content.

Simply create a new post or page, and you will find the GPT 3 Content Generator settings below the text editor.

First, you need to choose a language for your article.

Currently, the plugin supports English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Dutch, Indonesian, Turkish, Polish, Ukrainian, Arabic, Romanian, Greek, Czech, Bulgarian, Swedish and Hungarian.

Below that, you can provide a title for your article. The Pro version of the plugin also allows you to add or exclude keywords.

After that, you can set the number of headings you want to include in your article and which heading tag to be used.

Next, you can choose a writing style and tone for your article. For example, you can choose an informative writing style with a casual writing tone.

Below that, you can add an anchor text and set a link. However, we’ll recommend that you manually enter internal links when you are editing the article.

The plugin also allows you to add a call to action and choose position where you want to display it.

Finally, click on the Generate button to start generating content.

The plugin will then begin generating content using artificial intelligence.

It may take a while depending on your settings and the topic of your article. Once finished, you will see the generated text in the box.

From here, you can simply click on the Save Draft button. The plugin will then load the text inside the WordPress editor wrapped in the Classic block.

This will allow you to edit the text using the block editor. You can convert the text inside the Classic block into regular blocks and start editing.

Tips on Editing AI Generated Content

GPT3 AI content generator will write a comprehensive article covering different aspects of the topic you choose as your article title.

However, it is far from perfect.

It can be easily identified by search engines as AI generated content, and you could get penalized and lose your search rankings.

We recommend only using GPT3 AI content for research and quick outlines. Once you have an outline, you can then thoroughly review, fact check, and edit it by yourself to expand the article further.

Following are a few things you can do to make the article unique and in your own voice:

1. Check All Information for Accuracy

Depending on your topic, GPT3 can make mistakes and may sometimes include information that is incorrect.

2. Create and Use Your Own Images

GPT3 AI Content Generator can generate images using artificial intelligence. However, for most topics these images they do not look very good. Here’s an example image that it generated for us.

Create images for blog posts as you would normally do for any article that you write.

3. Add Internal and External Links as Needed

GPT3 AI doesn’t know which articles on your website are related to the topic and it cannot automatically generate internal links.

You need to manually add internal and external links to provide more context and make your article more user-friendly.

4. Use Table of Content, FAQs, and Lists

GPT3 is a text generator and does not concern itself with formatting to make the reading experience better.

You need to manually add any table of contents, lists, and FAQs needed make your content more user-friendly.

5. Personalize the article with your expertise & knowledge

As AI-content gain in popularity, it will become more critical for authors to add their own voice, expertise, and experiences. This differentiator will play an important role in determining authentic content vs not.

It’s important to personalize the article with your experience and make it more coherent, so it’s user-focused.

6. Optimize Content for SEO

By default, GPT3 generates easy to read text. However, this text is not exactly optimized for on-page SEO.

You need to optimize your content with All in One SEO for WordPress. It is the best WordPress SEO toolkit on the market.

It allows you to easily check your content for SEO, add SEO title and description, social media images, and schema markup.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to optimize a blog post for SEO.

Final Thoughts on AI Content in WordPress

This is just the beginning, and there will be many other tools that will come to the market in the coming months and years.

If you don’t want to use an AI content plugin for WordPress, then you can directly go to ChatGPT website and write the prompts there to experience the technology for yourself.

We hope this article helped you learn how to write content using AI in WordPress. You may also want to see our pick of the most useful WordPress plugins, or see our complete WordPress SEO handbook to grow traffic on your website.

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

The post How to Write Content Using AI Content Generator in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Add One-Click Login With Google in WordPress

18.01.2023gmail login in wordpress, how to add one-click gmail login, how to add one-click gmail login in wordpress, one-click gmail login, one-click gmail login in wordpress, WordPress PluginsEditorial Staff

Do you want to add one-click login with Google to your WordPress site?

When your users can sign in with their Google account, they won’t have to create, remember, or track another username and password just to access your website. This helps save them time and increase your conversion rates.

In this article, we will share how to easily add one-click Google login in WordPress.

How to Add One-Click Login With Google in WordPress

Why Add One-Click Google Login in WordPress?

Many internet users stay logged in to their Google accounts. This lets them quickly access Google apps like Gmail, Drive, and Docs without signing in separately for each app.

Having one-click Google login activated on your WordPress login page allows your users to do the same on your website. They can save time by quickly signing in with their Google account. This saves them from having to enter their login credentials each time.

If you run a simple WordPress blog, then you might not find this feature useful.

But if your organization uses Google Workspace for professional business email addresses, then your team members can use your organization’s Google apps accounts for login.

Also, a single sign-on feature like one-click Google login is very helpful for any websites that require users to log in such as multi-author websites, membership websites, and websites selling online courses.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add one-click login with Google to your WordPress website.

Tip: To add one-click Google Login, your site needs to have secure SSL encryption. To learn how to set up a secure connection, see our beginner’s guide on how to switch from HTTP to HTTPS in WordPress.

How to Add One-Click Google Login in WordPress

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Nextend Social Login and Register plugin. For more details, please see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the free plugin that supports Google, Twitter, and Facebook login. There is also a paid version of Nextend Social Login that adds social login for lots of different sites including PayPal, Slack, and TikTok.

Upon activation, you need to go to Settings » Nextend Social Login in the WordPress admin area. On this screen, you see the different social login options that are available.

Adding social login to your WordPress website

To add a Google login to your WordPress website, you need to click the ‘Getting Started’ button under the Google logo.

Here you will see that your first step will be to create a Google app.

Creating a Google app sounds technical, but don’t worry.

The Nextend Social Login Getting Started Tab

You don’t need to know any code, and we’ll walk you through all the steps.

Creating a Google App

To create this app, you’ll need to switch between your WordPress dashboard and the Google Developers Console. It’s a good idea to leave your WordPress dashboard open in the current tab and open a new browser tab.

Now you can visit the Google Developers Console website. If you are not already logged in, then you will be asked to log in with your Google account.

Next, you need to click on ‘Select a project’ from the top menu. It will open a popup where you would click the ‘New Project’ button to continue.

Create a New Project in the Google Developers Console

This will open the New Project page. You will need to add a project name and select the location. The project name can be anything you like, such as ‘Google Login.’

If you logged in using a Google Workspace account, then the location will be filled in with the name of your organization automatically. If not, then you should leave it as ‘No organization.’

Next, click the ‘Create’ button to continue.

You’ll now be redirected to the ‘APIs & Services’ dashboard. On this page, you need to click on ‘OAuth consent screen’ in the left menu.

Decide Whether Your Users Are Internal or External

Here you choose the type of user you’re allowing to log in.

Select ‘Internal’ if only users with your organization’s Google account will be logging in. Alternatively, you should choose ‘External’ if your users have email addresses outside of your organization. For example, anyone with an @gmail.com account versus an @yourcompanyemail.com address.

When you’re ready to continue, click the ‘Create’ button. Now you can start to add information about your app.

First, you should enter your business name in the app name field. This will be shown to the user when logging in, such as, ‘Smith Training Services wants access to your Google account.’

You also need to add the email address you logged into Google with. This will allow your users to ask questions about the Google login screen.

Tip: We recommend that you do not upload a logo for your app. If you do, then your app will need to go through a verification process with the Google Trust and Safety Team. This process is lengthy and can take 4-6 weeks.

Once you’ve done that, scroll down to the ‘App domain’ section. Here you need to add links to your website’s home page, privacy policy page, and terms of service page.

Add Links to These Important Website Pages

Then you need to click the ‘Add Domain’ button to add your website’s domain name, such as ‘example.com.’

If you want to add one-click Google login to more than one website, then you can click the ‘+ Add Domain’ button to add another domain.

Add Your Website's Domain and an Email Address

Finally, you need to add one or more email addresses so that Google can notify you about any changes to your project.

When you’re finished, make sure you click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.

Next, you will come to the Scopes and Test Users pages. For both of these pages, simply scroll to the bottom and click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.

Click Save and Continue on the Scopes and Test Users Pages

The final page for this step will show you a summary of your OAuth consent screen settings.

The next job is to create the keys your plugin will need to connect with Google Cloud.

You should click ‘Credentials’ from the left menu and then click the ‘+ Create Credientials’ button at the top of the screen. You need to select the ‘OAuth client ID’ option.

Click Create Credentials and Select OAuth Client ID

This will take you to the ‘Create OAuth client ID’ page.

You should select ‘Web application’ from the ‘Application type’ dropdown.

Select Web Application for the Application Type

Some settings will be added to the page. You need to scroll down to the ‘Authorized redirect URIs’ section and click the ‘+ Add URI’ button.

Now you should enter this URL:

http://example.com/wp-login.php?loginSocial=google

Make sure you replace example.com with your own website’s address.

Paste This URL Under Authorized Redirect URIs

Once you’ve done that, you should click the ‘Create’ button to store the setting. It may take five minutes to a few hours for the setting to take effect.

Your OAuth client has now been created!

You will see a popup containing ‘Your Client ID’ and Your Client Secret.’ You will need to paste these keys into the plugin’s settings page back in your WordPress admin area.

You can just click the ‘copy’ icon to the right to copy the keys one at a time.

You Will Now See Your Client ID and Client Secret

Adding Your Google Keys to Your Plugin

Now, simply switch back to your website’s browser tab and click on the ‘Settings’ tab under Settings » Nextend Social Login. Here you will see fields for the Client ID and Client Secret.

You need to copy your keys from the Google Cloud Console and paste them into these fields.

Paste Your Google Client ID and Client Secret Into the Plugin's Settings

Once you’ve done that, make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Now you’ll need to test that the settings are working correctly. This is important because you don’t want real users to encounter errors when trying to log in to your website.

Click Verify Settings to Make Sure the Google App Is Working Correctly

Simply click the ‘Verify Settings’ button and the plugin will make sure that the Google app you created is working correctly.

If you followed the steps above correctly, then you should see a notification saying ‘Works Fine – Disabled.’

You can now safely click the ‘Enable’ button to allow users to log in using their Google ID.

You will see a message confirming that Google login is now enabled.

Selecting Your Button Style and Labels

Nextend’s default button style and label are pretty standard and will work for most websites. However, you can customize them by clicking on the ‘Buttons’ tab at the top of the screen.

You will now see all the different styles that you can use for the social login button. To use a different style, simply click to select its radio button.

Select a Skin by Clicking Its Radio Button

Once you’ve done that, you can also change the button text by editing the text in the ‘Login label’ field.

If you like, you can apply some basic formatting to the login label using HTML. For example, you can make text bold using <b> and </b> tags.

You Can Customize the Button Labels and Button

You can also edit the ‘Link label’ and ‘Unlink label’ fields that allow users to link and unlink your website with their Google accounts. Technical users can use HTML code for buttons to create their own Google login button.

Make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Taking Your Google App Out of Testing Mode

Now there is one last thing you need to do back on the Google Cloud browser tab. You should still see the popup with your client ID and client secret. You can dismiss the popup by clicking ‘OK’ at the bottom of the popup.

Now you need to click ‘OAuth consent screen’ from the left menu.

You can see that your Google app is in ‘Testing’ mode. This allows you to test your app with a limited number of users. Now that you have received a ‘Works Fine’ notification when verifying the settings with the plugin, you can move it to In ‘Production’ mode.

Click Publish App to Move it to In Production Mode

You do this by clicking the ‘Publish App’ button. Next, you will see a popup with the title ‘Push to production?’

Simply click ‘Confirm’ to allow everyone to use a one-step Google login on your site.

If you followed this tutorial carefully, then the Verification Status should now be ‘Verification not required.’

Your app will now work with all Google users.

Your Verification Status Should Be Verification Not Required

Now when users are logging in to your website, they will have the option to log in with Google.

However, if they prefer, they can still log in using their standard WordPress username and password.

Keep in mind that users can only log in with the Google account address that they have used on your website. Also, if you have allowed user registration on your WordPress site, then users can quickly register on your site using one-click Google login.

If you wish to add the Google login button anywhere else on your website, then you can do so using a shortcode. You can learn more by clicking on Nextend’s ‘Usage’ tab.

Adding a Google Login Button Using Shortcode

We hope this article helped you learn how to add one-click login with Google in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to create a WordPress membership site, and see our list of the best WordPress business directory plugins.

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

The post How to Add One-Click Login With Google in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Create a HubSpot Form in WordPress

18.01.2023CRM, crm plugin for wordpress, crm software, hubspot, hubspot crm, HubSpot Forms, Tutorials, wordpress, wordpress forms pluginEditorial Staff

Are you looking to add a Hubspot form and add it to your WordPress site?

HubSpot is a popular all-in-one marketing platform designed to help grow your business used by over 113,925 people across the globe. Hubspot also enables you to create engaging forms for your website.

In this article, we will show you how to create a HubSpot in WordPress.

How to Create a HubSpot Form in WordPress

Why Use HubSpot to Create Forms

Hubspot is a marketing and sales platform that helps companies grow. It comes with numerous tools including a customer relationship manager (CRM), a content management system (CMS), built-in email marketing, and lead generation.

They also have a robust WordPress form builder, which seamlessly integrates with WordPress, allowing you to create hassle-free forms.

This form builder is an easy drag-and-drop builder that enables you to create interactive forms without a single line of code, making it one of the best contact form plugins.

Also keep in mind that HubSpot can also easily integrate with other form tools like WPForms, Formidable Forms, and more. With that being said, let’s see how you can create a HubSpot form in WordPress.

Method 1. Creating a HubSpot Form Using The HubSpot Plugin

You can easily create a HubSpot form for your WordPress website using the HubSpot plugin.

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

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item WordPress admin sidebar. Just click on HubSpot to be taken to the setup wizard where you can create a HubSpot account if you don’t already have one.

If you have an account, you need to click on the ‘Sign in here’ link at the top.

Go to HubSpot from the dashboard and click Sign in here link

This will open up a ‘HubSpot Login’ popup.

Simply type your username and password and then click the ‘Login’ button.

After you’ve logged in, HubSpot will ask if you want to continue with the account you’ve just logged in with.

Simply click the ‘Continue With This Account’ button.

Then you’ll be asked to connect your HubSpot account with your WordPress website.

Just click on the ‘Connect Website’ button.

Once you’ve connected the WordPress website with your HubSpot account, head over to HubSpot » Forms from the WordPress admin dashboard.

This will take you to the ‘Forms’ page. Now, simply click on the ‘Create a Free Form’ button at the top right corner.

Next, you’ll have to select your form type and then click the ‘Next’ button on the top.

For this tutorial, we will be creating an ‘Embedded form.’

After that, you’ll be taken to the HubSpot template library.

Simply choose your preferred template, such as ‘Registration’ or Contact us.’ Then, just click the ‘Start’ button at the top.

Now that you’re on the Form Editor, you can edit the pre-made form template by dragging and dropping fields from the left into the preview at the right.

When you’re done customizing, click the ‘Submit’ button at the top.

This will open up a ‘Review And Publish’ popup.

Simply scroll down and click the ‘Publish’ button.

After you click the ‘Publish’ button, a popup will appear on your screen. As this is an Embedded form, a shortcode will be provided.

Now, just click the ‘Copy’ button beside the shortcode.

You can embed this code on any page where you want to add your HubSpot form. For more information, check out our guide on how to add shortcodes in WordPress.

Method 2. Creating a HubSpot Form Using WPForms

You can also create a HubSpot form using WPForms as this plugin comes with a HubSpot integration addon. WPForms is the most popular drag & drop WordPress form builder with over 5 million active installs.

Note that you need at least a WPForms Elite license to access the HubSpot addon.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. Check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for details.

Upon activation, go to WPForms » Addons from the admin dashboard. This will take you to the ‘WPForms Addons’ page.

Simply locate the HubSpot addon and click the ‘Upgrade Now’ button.

Click Upgrade Now button below HubSpot addon

This will take you to your ‘WPForms Account’ page. Here, simply scroll down to the ‘HubSpot Addon’ and click the download button.

After that, you can install and activate the HubSpot addon the same way that you installed and activated the plugin.

Next, go to WPForms » Settings from the WordPress dashboard. Then, head over to the ‘Integrations’ tab.

Here you will find HubSpot in the list of integrations. Just click the arrow icon to expand the section, and then you can click the ‘Add New Account’ button.

A prompt will open up, asking you to connect with your HubSpot account. Simply type your HubSpot account login credentials.

If you don’t already have an account, then you can create one here.

Next, you’ll be asked if you want to continue with this account.

Simply click the ‘Continue With This Account’ button.

After that, you’ll be shown a popup asking you to connect WPForms with Hubspot.

Click on the ‘Connect App’ button at the bottom of the page.

Click Connect App button to connect WPForms and HubSpot

On your WordPress dashboard, return to the ‘Integrations’ screen.

You should now see ‘Connected’ beside the section for HubSpot.

Now go to WPForms » Add New from the dashboard to create your HubSpot form.

First, select a form template from the WPForms template library.

Select a template for yourself from the WPForms template library

After selecting the template, you’ll be taken to the WPForms interface where you can edit the form template.

Now, click on the ‘Marketing’ option on the menu bar to the left. Simply select ‘HubSpot’ from the list of integrations.

A HubSpot popup will then appear on the screen. Simply click the ‘Add New Connection’ button at the top.

WPForms will now prompt you to enter a connection nickname.

You’re free to choose any name you like, as no one will see this but you. Just click the ‘OK’ button when you’re done.

WPForms will then ask you to select your HubSpot account and choose an action to perform. Simply choose your account from the ‘Select Account’ Field.

Then choose the ‘Create/Update Contact’ option from the ‘Action to Perform’ field.

After selecting this option, various new settings will appear within the form.

Fill in those fields accordingly.

Next, you’re ready to customize your form in the form builder.

Simply create drag and drop fields from the left-hand side into the live preview on the right.

You can add any information that you want to collect and organize in your HubSpot account.

Once satisfied, click the ‘Embed’ button present at the top of the form builder.

This will open the ‘Embed in a Page’ prompt.

If you want to embed your HubSpot form on a new page, click the ‘Create New Page’ option.

To embed a form on an existing page, click the ‘Select Existing Page’ option.

After that, simply choose the right page from the dropdown that appears.

Now click the ‘Let’s Go’ button.

You will automatically be directed to the page that you selected from the dropdown menu. The HubSpot form will already be embedded there.

Simply click the ‘Publish’ button at the top of the content editor to push your new form live.

Click Publish button after embedding the form

That’s it! We hope you learned how to create a HubSpot form in WordPress. You may also want to check out our ultimate guide on SEO for beginners and our expert picks of the best multipurpose themes to create an engaging site.

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

The post How to Create a HubSpot Form in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress

17.01.2023insert headers and footers, microsoft clarity, microsoft clarity analytics, Tutorials, website analyticsEditorial Staff

Are you looking to use Microsoft Clarity analytics on your WordPress website?

Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool that helps you analyze how users engage with your website with click tracking, scroll tracking, and heatmaps.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily install Microsoft Clarity in WordPress, step by step.

How to Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress

This is what we’ll cover in this tutorial:

What Is Microsoft Clarity and Why Use It?

Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool for websites. It helps you see the most popular pages on your website and how users click, scroll, and interact with those pages.

The most important feature of Microsoft Clarity is its data visualization. This includes click tracking, heatmap reports, session recordings, and more.

Heatmaps show a visual report of how users move their mouse, as well as where they click, select, and scroll.

Heatmap showing user interactions on a website

Similarly, session recordings help you see how users view your content, where they spend more time, and what takes them away from your WordPress website.

This information helps you create a better user experience for your users, improve performance, and boost sales conversion.

Viewing the Microsoft Clarity analytics dashboard

Note: Microsoft warns that Clarity should not be used on sites that contain sensitive data including user health care, financial services, or government-related information.

Microsoft Clarity vs Google Analytics: What’s the Difference?

Google Analytics is the best analytics solution on the market because it offers a lot of in-depth tracking features. Microsoft Clarity, on the other hand, focuses on the visualization of user interactions with heatmaps and session recordings.

Google Analytics helps you track almost anything on your website. It also has enhanced eCommerce tracking, conversion tracking, and detailed reports.

Microsoft Clarity is a newer platform, and it’s currently not an alternative to Google Analytics’ far superior features. However, you can use Microsoft Clarity alongside Google Analytics to unlock features like heatmaps and visitor session recordings because Google doesn’t offer those features yet.

Before Microsoft’s analytics feature, many website owners would use paid heatmap solutions like Hotjar or CrazyEgg alongside Google Analytics, but now you have a free alternative to those tools.

We recommend installing Google Analytics on all your websites. After that, you can follow our guide below to install Microsoft Clarity in WordPress.

They both work along quite well without affecting your website’s functionality.

It’s easy to add Microsoft Clarity to any website. You need to sign up for Microsoft Clarity and then add a tracking code to your website. We’ll take you through the process step by step.

Signing Up for Microsoft Clarity

First, head to the Microsoft Clarity website and click on the ‘Get Started’ button. You need a Microsoft, Facebook, or Google account to sign up.

After signing up, you will see the Clarity dashboard with a popup to add a new project.

Go ahead and enter a name for your project. You can use the name of your website to make it easily recognizable. Next, enter your website URL.

Setting up a new project in Microsoft Clarity

Once you’ve created your new project, you will be asked how you want to install Clarity. You should click the ‘Get tracking code’ option.

You will now see the tracking code that you need to add to your WordPress website. Simply click the ‘Copy to clipboard’ button.

Depending on the method you use to add this code to your WordPress site, you may need the complete tracking code, or just your project ID. You’ll find the project ID at the end of the tracking code, just before </script>. In the screenshot above, it is ‘ejbjp9k5ge’.

We recommend leaving this tab open or copying the code to a safe place. You will need it in the next step of this tutorial.

Adding Microsoft Clarity Code to WordPress

Now you need to add the Microsoft Clarity tracking code to your WordPress website in a way that makes it present on all pages. Luckily, there are a number of easy ways to make this happen without manually editing any WordPress files.

You can choose your preferred method from the following three.

Method 1: Adding Microsoft Clarity Code Using the Microsoft Clarity Plugin

The first thing you need to do is install the Microsoft Clarity plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » Clarity page in WordPress admin. Here you need to paste the project ID. That’s the last item in your Clarity tracking code and will look something like ‘ejbjp9k5ge’.

Make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom to store your settings. Your WordPress site is now connected to Microsoft Clarity.

Method 2: Adding Microsoft Clarity Code Using WPCode

The safest and easiest way to add code to your website is WPCode, the best WordPress code snippets plugin. This plugin lets you add any script in your website’s header or footer right from your WordPress dashboard (no FTP or cPanel needed).

Once you have installed and activated the WPCode Free Plugin, you need to visit the Code Snippets » Header & Footer page. Once there, you should paste the entire Microsoft Clarity tracking code into the ‘Header’ field.

Paste the Microsoft Clarity Tracking Code Into WPCode's Header Field

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

The plugin will now automatically add the Microsoft Clarity analytics code to all pages of your WordPress site, so you can track website visitor activity on your website.

Method 3: Adding Microsoft Clarity Code Using All in One SEO

All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin that allows you to easily optimize your WordPress website for search engines and social media platforms. We show you how to get the most out of it in our guide on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress correctly.

If you have All in One SEO installed on your website, then you can use it to add the Microsoft Clarity tracking code.

Simply head over to All in One SEO » General Settings » Webmaster Tools and click on the ‘Microsoft Clarity’ icon. A field will appear where you can paste your Clarity project ID. That’s the last item in your Clarity tracking code and will look something like ‘ejbjp9k5ge’.

Pasting the Microsoft Clarity Project ID into AIOSEO

Make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button afterward, and your WordPress site will be connected to Microsoft Clarity.

Pro Tip: If you’re using a WordPress caching plugin, then you need to clear your WordPress cache after you add the project ID or tracking code. This is important otherwise Microsoft will not be able to verify your site for a few hours.

Using Microsoft Clarity

Once you have installed the tracking code and cleared your WordPress cache, Microsoft will then start recording visitor session data.

However, it will likely take up to 2 hours before you can see any results in your Clarity account.

Using the Microsoft Clarity Dashboard

Simply log in to your Clarity account after a few hours, and you should be able to see the activity summary in your dashboard.

You can see useful insights like the percentage of sessions that have ‘dead clicks’. These are clicks that don’t go anywhere. For instance, users might be clicking on an image thinking that it’s a button or a link.

Another useful statistic is rage clicks when users rapidly click or tap in the same area. Paying close attention to these metrics can help you make your site more user-friendly.

The dashboard also shows you the number of ‘quick backs’. These occur when a user moves off a page and then very quickly comes back to it.

It also tracks excessive scrolling, when users scroll through a page more than expected. And like Google Analytics, Microsoft makes it easy to see the most popular pages on your site.

Using Microsoft Clarity Recordings

The ‘Recordings’ tab shows you recordings of different user sessions. You get the details of the user’s device, operating system, and country.

Clarity also tells you the number of pages they visited, the duration and time of their session, and the number of clicks they made.

Clarity showing the recordings of user sessions

The recordings let you watch an animation of mouse movements and clicks. In the screenshot above, you can see a user moved their mouse to the November archives link and clicked it.

Using Microsoft Clarity Heatmaps

The ‘Heatmaps’ tab shows you a heatmap of your website. These help you see which sections are popular on your site based on the number of people clicking.

The heatmap will also show you how far users scrolled down the page, and which areas on the page received the most clicks.

Final Thoughts on Microsoft Clarity Analytics Tool

Microsoft Clarity is a new analytics tool with some neat features. While it’s no alternative to the powerful Google Analytics platform, it definitely offers some interesting features like free heatmap and session recording.

Often new website owners want to see heatmaps and session recordings, but they don’t have the budget to purchase premium solutions like HotJar or CrazyEgg. Well, now you can use Microsoft Clarity.

Using the heatmaps and session recordings, you should be able to optimize your website or online store experience to improve user experience and boost sales.

We hope this article helped you learn how to install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison of the best WordPress page builders to create custom layouts without any code, and our pick of the best email marketing services to grow your business.

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

The post How to Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Properly Change, Move and Delete WordPress Categories

17.01.2023aioseo, Beginners Guide, categories, categories vs tags, category hack, seo, seo best practicesEditorial Staff

Do you want to change, move, or delete WordPress categories?

Categories help organize your content and make it easy for visitors to find interesting posts. However, as your website grows and you learn more about your audience, you may need to change your categories.

In this article, we will show you how you can easily change, move, and delete the categories on your WordPress website.

How to properly change, move and delete WordPress categories

Why Change, Move or Delete WordPress Categories?

Categories help sort your blog posts and make it easier for users to find what they are looking for. This will keep them on your website for longer and encourage them to convert.

However, it can be difficult to plan all your categories in advance. This is especially true if you’re just getting started with WordPress, or aren’t sure which direction to take your new blog, online store, or small business website.

You may also want to try out different categories and content, and then analyze what works the best by installing Google Analytics in WordPress. You can then use this insight to fine-tune your categories.

With that being said, at some point, you may need to change your WordPress categories. This might involve renaming a category to include the keywords that got the most clicks during A/B split testing, or fixing a spelling mistake.

You might even organize your categories and subcategories into new parent-child relationships to help visitors discover new content.

If you don’t make these changes carefully, then it could hurt the visitor experience, damage your SEO, and make it more difficult for visitors to navigate your website.

With that being said, let’s see how you can properly change, move, and delete WordPress categories. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the change you want to make.

How to Rename or Edit a WordPress Category

To start, you can change a category’s name, assign it to a different parent category, or display a category description to help other authors understand how to use that category.

To make any of these changes, head over to Posts » Categories.

Here, find the category that you want to change and hover the mouse over it.

When the ‘Edit’ link appears, give it a click.

How to edit the categories on your WordPress website

This will take you to a screen where you can rename the category, add a parent or subcategory, or write a category description. For example, if you’ve used a keyword research tool to find some new keywords or phrases, then you may want to change the category’s name to include these words.

To rename a category, simply type the new title into the ‘Name’ field.

When you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, don’t forget to click on ‘Update’ to store your settings.

After that, WordPress will automatically update all the posts within this category.

How to Properly Move a WordPress Category (Without Causing Broken Links)

Every category has an archive page in WordPress, as you can see in the following image. These pages help visitors find related content, which can increase your pageviews and reduce the bounce rate in WordPress.

Sometimes you may want to change where this archive page is located. For example, if you’ve renamed a category, then you might also change its archive URL to avoid confusing visitors.

However, changing the slug means that anyone who tries to visit the original URL will get a 404 error.

A 404 error page on a category archive page

This is a bad user experience and can impact your WordPress SEO. Thankfully, you can easily fix this problem by creating a redirect.

With that in mind, go ahead and change the slug by going to Posts » Categories. Then, find the category that you want to edit and hover the mouse over it.

When the ‘Edit’ button appears, give it a click.

How to move a WordPress category to a new slug

In the ‘URL’ field, you’ll see the current slug for this category’s archive page.

Simply type in the new URL that you want to use. Just be aware that you can only use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens in the URL.

How to edit the URL slug for a category archive page

When you’re happy with how the slug looks, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Update’ to store your changes.

Now, you’ll see the archive page if you visit the new URL, but you’ll get an error if you type in the original link.

The easiest way to redirect from the old URL to the new link is by using AIOSEO.

AIOSEO is the best SEO plugin for WordPress and can help you get more visitors from search engines like Google. It even has a setup wizard that will help you choose the best SEO settings for your website and improve your rankings, even if you’re completely new to search engine optimization.

For this guide, we’ll be using the AIOSEO Pro version because it has the Redirection Manager that you’ll need to set up a redirect. However, there is also a free version of AIOSEO that you can use to optimize your website no matter what your budget.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, AIOSEO will automatically launch the setup wizard. You can simply click on ‘Let’s Get Started’ and then follow the onscreen instructions to improve your site’s search engine rankings.

Click let's get started AIOSEO setup wizard

To learn more, please see our step-by-step guide on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress correctly.

Since we want to use the plugin’s premium features, you’ll need to enter a license key when asked. You can find this information under your account on the AIOSEO website.

After entering the license key, click on the ‘Finish Setup’ button to save your settings and close the setup wizard.

With that out of the way, head over to All in One SEO » Redirects in the WordPress dashboard. You can then go ahead and click on Activate Redirects.

Now you’ve activated the Redirection Manager, you can start by typing in the source URL. This is the category archive’s original web address, and will usually start with /category/ followed by the original category name.

Here, we’re redirecting anyone who tries to visit /category/search-engine-optimization.

Adding a source URL for your category redirect

After typing in the source URL, make sure you click on the small cog icon to see some extra settings that you can configure.

You’ll need to check the box next to ‘Regex.’

Now, it’s time to move to the target URL, which is our new category archive page.

In the following image, visitors will be redirected to /category/seo.

Adding a 301 redirect to your WordPress website

Your next task is choosing the type of redirect that AIOSEO should use. There are various types of redirects that are identified with numbers such as 301, 302, and 307.

If you’re permanently moving the archive to a new location, then you’ll want to use a 301 redirect as this tells search engines that the page will always be at this new location. This way, all the old archive’s traffic and backlinks are transferred to the new page.

Simply open the ‘Redirect Type’ dropdown and choose ‘301 Moved Permanently.’

Choosing a redirect type for your WordPress website

If you’re only temporarily moving the category archive page to a new URL, then you should choose ‘307 Temporary Redirect’ instead.

When you’ve done that, go ahead and click on the ‘Add Redirect’ button.

Now, if you try to visit the original category archive page, AIOSEO will automatically redirect you to the new target URL.

How to Properly Delete a WordPress Category

Sometimes you may no longer need a particular category. For example, you may have accidentally created two very similar categories or changed the direction of your WordPress blog so you no longer cover the same content.

Before deleting a category, it’s important to think about how this will affect your WordPress website. Firstly, WordPress will remove the deleted category from all your posts. Any posts that no longer have a category, will be marked as ‘uncategorized.’

Lots of uncategorized content will make it more difficult for visitors to explore your website. With that being said, you may want to look through all the posts within the category you plan to delete, to make sure they have at least one alternate category.

You can also set up a redirect for that category’s archive page by following the same process described above. This can help you fix any broken links before they hurt your search engine rankings or the visitor experience.

When you’re ready to delete the category, simply go to Posts » Categories. You can then hover the mouse over the category and click on the ‘Delete’ link when it appears.

How to Change the Default Uncategorized Category

If you don’t assign a category to a post, then WordPress will assign one automatically. By default, this is ‘uncategorized’ but you may want to change this to an alternative category.

Another option is to continue using the ‘uncategorized’ category, but give it a more descriptive and useful name.

This change is particularly important if you run a WordPress multi-author blog or accept guest contributions, as these people may forget to add a category to their posts.

Changing the default category can also improve your WordPress SEO by making sure that every post has a descriptive category.

Let’s start by renaming the uncategorized category by going to Posts » Categories.

Here, find ‘Uncategorized’ and hover your mouse over it. When the ‘Edit’ link appears, give it a click.

Renaming the default uncategorized category

You can now type a new title into the ‘Name’ field.

After that, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save.’

How to rename the default WordPress category

Another option is to change the default category. This can be useful if you’ve already created a general category, and now want to use it as your default.

To make this change, head over to Settings » Writing in the WordPress dashboard. You can then open the ‘Default Post Category’ dropdown and choose any category from the list.

After that, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.

How to Add a Subcategory in WordPress

WordPress allows you to add category hierarchy, so you can add sub categories as needed.

You can do this easily by using the Parent category dropdown on the Add New Category screen.

For more details, see our step by step guide on how to add subcategories in WordPress.

How to Easily Convert Categories into Tags

Categories and tags are both important ways to organize and group your posts. However, to help visitors find their way around your site, you should use them in slightly different ways.

Categories are great for broadly grouping your posts, while tags are meant to describe the specific details of each post.

Visitors can use categories to quickly find the type of content they’re interested in, or their favorite subject. They can then use tags to pinpoint the exact post within that category.

At WPBeginner we have a Beginner’s Guide category, which is aimed at new WordPress users. Each post in the Beginner’s Guide has different tags, such as custom taxonomy, SEO, and sorting your content.

It’s easy to get categories and tags mixed up, especially if you’re just getting started with WordPress. Your website may also change over time, to the point where one of your tags would now work better as a category.

You can easily turn categories into tags, using the Categories to Tags Converter plugin. For example, you can turn a ‘Beginner’s Guide’ category into a ‘Beginner’s Guide’ tag with the click of a button. Even better, all posts that were categorized as ‘Beginner’s Guide’ will be assigned the new ‘Beginner’s Guide’ tag automatically.

This can save you a ton of time and let you test different ways of organizing your content.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Categories to Tags Converter plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to Tools » Import. Here, find ‘Categories and Tags Converter’ and click on its ‘Run importer’ link.

Converting a WordPress category into a WordPress tag

You’ll now see all the different categories and tags you’ve created for your website, organizied into tabs.

To convert a category into a tag, simply check the box next to it. You can then click on the ‘Convert Categories’ button.

After a few moments, you’ll see a ‘Converted successfully’ message. To turn more categories into tags, simply repeat the process described above.

To turn a tag into a category, select the ‘Tags’ tab. You can now check the box next to the tag that you want to change, and click on the ‘Convert Tags’ button.

Converting a WordPress tag into a WordPress category

We hope this article helped you learn how to properly change, move, and delete WordPress categories. You can also go through our guide on the best email marketing services and proven ways to make money online blogging with WordPress.

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

The post How to Properly Change, Move and Delete WordPress Categories first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Display Your Facebook Timeline in WordPress

16.01.2023custom facebook feed pro, facebook timeline, facebook timeline plugin for wordpress, smash balloon, smash balloon custom facebook feed pro, TutorialsEditorial Staff

Do you want to show your Facebook timeline posts in WordPress?

By adding your Facebook updates to WordPress, you can keep your site fresh and interesting while also encouraging visitors to follow you on Facebook.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily display your Facebook timeline in WordPress.

How to display your Facebook timeline in WordPress

Displaying Your Facebook Timeline in WordPress

The easiest way to embed your Facebook timeline in WordPress is by using the Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin.

This plugin lets you embed Facebook albums, comments, reviews, community posts, and more on your site.

An example Facebook timeline, created using Smash Balloon

For this guide, we’ll use Smash Balloon premium as it allows you to show photos and videos from your Facebook timeline.

Visitors can also scroll through your content in a lightbox popup, without ever leaving your website. However, there’s also a free version that allows you to show text and links from your timeline, no matter what your budget.

Upon activation, you’ll need to go to Facebook Feed » Settings and enter your license key into the ‘License Key’ field.

You’ll find this information under your account on the Smash Balloon website.

After entering the key, click on the ‘Activate’ button.

Connecting a Facebook Page or Group to WordPress

Next, you need to decide whether to display the timeline from a Facebook page or group timeline. We’re going to use a Facebook page but the steps will be largely the same for Facebook groups.

For a more detailed look at groups, please see our complete guide on how to embed a Facebook group feed in WordPress.

To connect your Facebook page or group to WordPress, go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then click on ‘Add New.’

Displaying your Facebook timeline in WordPress

Smash Balloon lets you create different feeds to show your Facebook photo albums, events, timeline, and more.

Since we want to display our Facebook timeline in WordPress, you’ll need to click on ‘Timeline’ and then click on ‘Next.’

How to add a Facebook timeline to your WordPress website

After that, you can choose the Facebook page or group that you want to add to your site.

Simply click on ‘Add New’ to get started.

Adding a Facebook group or page timeline to WordPress

On the next screen, choose whether you want to embed the timeline from a page or group.

After making this decision, go ahead and click on ‘Connect to Facebook.’

Connecting a Facebook page or group to WordPress

This opens a popup where you can log into your Facebook account and choose the pages or groups that you want to use.

After that, click on ‘Next.’

Embedding a Facebook page or group in WordPress

Once you’ve done that, Facebook will show all the information that Smash Balloon will have access to, and the actions it can perform on your Facebook page or group.

To restrict Smash Balloon’s access to your Facebook account, just click any of the switches to turn it from ‘Yes’ to ‘No.’ Just be aware that this may limit the Facebook content that appears on your WordPress blog or website.

With that in mind, you should leave all the switches enabled whenever possible.

Giving Smash Balloon permission to access your Facebook page or group

Next, click on the ‘Done’ button.

After a few moments, you should see a message confirming that you’ve linked your WordPress website to Facebook. Now you’ve done that, it’s time to click on ‘OK.’

Smash Balloon will now take you back to the WordPress dashboard automatically.

How to Embed Your Facebook Timeline in WordPress

At this point, you’ll see a popup with the group or page you just connected to WordPress.

Simply select the radio button next to this source and then click on the ‘Add’ button.

Adding a Facebook page timeline to WordPress

If you accidentally closed the popup, don’t worry. Simply refresh the tab to reopen the popup.

After that, WordPress will take you back to the Facebook Feed » All Feeds page automatically. Just like before, click on the ‘Add New’ button, select ‘Timeline’ and then click on the ‘Next’ button.

Now, select your Facebook page or group, and click on ‘Next.’

Choosing a Facebook page or group as your timeline source

You can choose a template to use as the starting point for your embedded timeline. All of these templates are fully customizable so you can fine-tune the design depending on how you want to display the timeline on your WordPress website.

We’re using the ‘Default’ template, but you can choose any template you want. You can also change the template at a later date if you’re not happy with it.

Choosing a template for your embedded Facebook timeline

When you’re ready, click on the ‘Next’ button.

Smash Balloon will now go ahead and create a timeline feed based on your template and your Facebook page or group. This is a good start, but you may want to fine-tune how the timeline looks on your WordPress site.

How to Customize Your Embedded Facebook Feed

The Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin gives you lots of ways to customize how the timeline appears on your site. With that in mind, let’s see the different changes you can make to your Facebook timeline.

On the Facebook Feed » All Feeds page, find your timeline feed and then click on its ‘Edit’ button, which looks like a small pencil.

This opens the Smash Balloon feed editor, which shows a preview of the Facebook group or page timeline to the right.

On the left-hand side, you’ll see all the settings you can use to change how the timeline looks. Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly cover each area.

If you’re not happy with how the feed looks, then you can try a different template by clicking on the ‘Template’ menu option.

Then, select the ‘Change’ button.

The Smash Balloon social media templates

After that, you can change how your posts are displayed by clicking on ‘Feed Layout.’

On this screen, you can switch between list and masonry layouts. As you make changes, the preview will update automatically so you can try different layouts to see what looks the best for your Facebook timeline.

Changing the layout for your Facebook social media feed

You can also change the feed height, and the number of posts that Smash Balloon shows on desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets.

If you do change the number of posts, then you can preview how your feed will look on desktop computers and mobile devices using the row of buttons in the upper-right corner.

Testing your social media feed on mobile

When testing the mobile version of your WordPress website, you may also want to change the number of columns that Smash Balloon shows on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

For example, in the following image, we’re splitting the content into 4 columns on desktop, 3 columns on tablets, and 2 column on mobile devices. This can help your timeline fit comfortably on the screen, no matter what kind of device the visitor is using.

Changing the number of columns on smartphones and tablets

When you’re happy with the layout, click on the ‘Customize’ link.

This will take you back to the main Smash Balloon editor, so you can move on to the next menu option, which is ‘Color Scheme.’

Changing the color scheme of your social media feed

By default, your timeline will use the same colors as your WordPress theme, but this screen also allows you to switch between ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’ layouts.

You can even create your own color scheme by selecting ‘Custom’ and then using the settings to change the background color, the link color, change the text color in WordPress, and more.

Changing the colors of your embedded Facebook timeline

By default, Smash Balloon adds a header to your feed, which is your cover photo, profile picture, and the name of your Facebook page.

To change how this section looks, click on ‘Header’ in the left-hand menu.

Adding a cover photo and header to an embedded Facebook timeline

On this screen, you can change the size of the header and color, hide or show your Facebook profile picture, and more.

You can also switch between the default ‘Visual’ header and a ‘Text’ header.

Adding a header to the Facebook timeline

Want to remove the header completely? Then simply click on the ‘Enable’ toggle to turn it off.

After that, you can change how the individual posts look inside your group feed by selecting ‘Post Style’ from the left-hand menu.

On the next screen, you’ll have two different options.

To start, go ahead and click on ‘Post Style.’

Styling the individual posts inside an embedded Facebook feed

On this screen, you can choose between a regular and boxed layout.

If you select ‘Boxed’ then you can create a colored background for each post. This can help your Facebook posts stand out from the rest of your website and may also make the text easier to read.

Using the boxed post style in your Facebook feed

You can also make the border-radius larger to create curved corners, or you can add a shadow.

If you choose ‘Regular,’ then you can change the thickness and color of the line that separates your different social media posts.

You can also customize the individual parts within each post by going back to the main settings screen.

Once again, select ‘Post Style’ but this time choose ‘Edit Individual Elements’ instead.

On this screen, you’ll see all the different content that Smash Balloon includes in each timeline post, such as the post author, event title, shared link box, and more.

To remove a piece of content from your posts, simply click to uncheck its box.

How to edit individual elements inside a Facebook feed

You can also change the size and color of these individual elements. Simply click on the element’s name such as ‘Post Author’ or ‘Post Text.’

You can then use the settings to customize this content. For example, you might make the text bigger so that it stands out, or add a new color.

By default, Smash Balloon doesn’t include the Facebook ‘like’ button in your timeline. To grow your Facebook followers, you may want to add this button by selecting ‘Like Box’ from the editor’s left-hand menu.

After that, simply click on the ‘Enable’ button so that it turns blue.

Adding a Facebook Like button to your WordPress website

By default, Smash Balloon adds this button below the timeline, but you can change this by opening the ‘Position’ dropdown and choosing ‘Top’ instead.

On this screen, you can also change how the ‘like’ section looks including adding a custom call to action, showing how many people follow you on Facebook, adding your page’s cover photo, and more.

When you’re happy with how the ‘like’ button looks, you can move on to the ‘Load More Button’ settings.

The ‘Load More’ button gives visitors an easy way to scroll through more of your Facebook timeline, so Smash Balloon adds it to the feed by default.

This is a good start, but since it’s such an important button you may want to help it stand out by changing its background color, hover state, and label.

You can also change the text that appears on the button, by typing into the ‘Text’ field.

Customizing the Load More button in WordPress

If you prefer to remove the Load More button, then go ahead and click the ‘Enable’ toggle.

By default, Smash Balloon allows visitors to look through the photos and videos in your timeline without leaving your website.

The visitor can simply click on any photo or video to open a lightbox popup, as you can see in the following image.

The visitor can then use the arrows to scroll through all the photos and videos in your Facebook timeline.

If they want to like a photo, leave a comment, or share the image with their Facebook friends, then they can click on the ‘Comment on Facebook’ link.

Visiting a post in your embedded Facebook timeline

This opens a new tab and takes the visitor directly to the post on your Facebook page.

There are a few different ways to customize Smash Balloon’s lightbox feature. To see your options, click on ‘Lightbox’ in the left-hand menu.

Customizing Smash Balloon's lightbox feature

Here, you can change the color of the lightbox text, links, and background.

By default, the lightbox shows any comments that people have left on your photos and videos. If you prefer to hide these comments, then you can click the ‘Show Comments’ switch to turn it from blue (enabled) to grey (disabled).

Disabling social media comments on your WordPress website

The lightbox feature allows people to scroll through your photos and videos directly on your WordPress website.

However, you may prefer to encourage people to visit your Facebook page instead. In this case, you can disable the lightbox feature by clicking on the ‘Enable’ toggle.

How to disable the Smash Balloon lightbox feature

Now, the visitor will need to click on the ‘View on Facebook’ link in order to take a closer look at any photo or video.

When you’re happy with how the Facebook timeline looks, don’t forget to click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.

Saving your custom social media timeline

How to Add Your Facebook Timeline to WordPress

You’re now ready to add the timeline to your website using a block, widget, or shortcode.

If you’ve created more than one feed using Smash Balloon, then you’ll need to know the feed’s code to add it to a block or widget.

Just go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then look at the feed="" part of the shortcode. You’ll need to add this code to the block or widget, so make a note of it.

In the following image, we’ll need to use feed="2".

Adding a Facebook page to WordPress using shortcode

If you want to embed your Facebook timeline in a page or post, then we recommend using the ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ block.

Just open the page or post where you want to show your Facebook timeline. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon and start typing ‘Custom Facebook Feed.’

When the right block appears, click to add it to the page or post.

The block will show one of your Smash Balloon feeds by default. If this isn’t the feed you want to show, then simply find ‘Shortcode Settings’ in the right-hand menu.

You can now add the feed="" code to this box. After that, click on ‘Apply Changes.’

Adding your Facebook status updates to WordPress

The block will now show the timeline from your Facebook page or group. Simply publish or update the page to make the timeline live on your website.

Alternatively, you can add the feed to any widget-ready area, such as the sidebar or similar section. This is an easy way to promote your Facebook page across your entire website.

Just go to Appearance » Widgets and then click on the ‘+’ button.

After that, find the Custom Facebook Feed widget.

Then, drag it onto the area where you want to show the Facebook timeline.

Just like the block, the Custom Facebook Feed widget will show one of the feeds you created using Smash Balloon.

To show a different feed, simply type that feed’s code into the ‘Shortcode Settings’ box and then click on ‘Apply Changes.’

Adding the Facebook timeline to your WordPress blog using a widget

You can now make the widget live by clicking on the ‘Update’ button. For more information, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

Finally, you can embed the timeline on any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode.

Simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and copy the code in the ‘Shortcode’ column. You can now add this code to your WordPress blog or website.

For a detailed walkthrough, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Additionally, if you’re using a block theme, you can use the full-site editor to add the ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ anywhere on your site.

We hope this article helped you learn how to display your Facebook timeline in WordPress. You might also want to check out our guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress, or see our expert pick of the best Instagram WordPress plugins.

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

The post How to Display Your Facebook Timeline in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress

16.01.2023ads addon, conversion tracking, google ads, google ads conversion tracking, google analytics, google analytics 4, google analytics conversion tracking, monsterinsights, track google ads, Tutorials, wpcodeEditorial Staff

Do you want to know how much revenue you’re generating from Google Ads on your website?

Setting up Google Ads conversion tracking will help you uncover insights about your ad campaign’s performance. You can find out which campaign is performing the best, how users interact with your ads, and how you can improve conversions.

In this article, we’ll show you how to properly set up eCommerce Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress. This is the exact same method that we use on our own websites.

How to setup Google Ads conversion tracking

Why Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress?

If you’re running Google Ads for your WordPress blog, eCommerce store, or membership site, then it is important to know how they’re performing. You can’t improve, what you can’t measure.

Tracking Google Ads conversions helps you see how much revenue you earned from users who clicked on your ad campaigns. It also helps you see which paid keywords and ad groups drive the most conversions. This way, you can optimize your campaigns and budget for more profitable search terms.

Besides that, Google Ads conversion tracking also uncovers how users behave on your WordPress site after clicking an ad. For instance, you might see a lot of users arrive on a landing page, but abandon it after adding products to the cart.

You can use this information to improve the checkout process, offer discounts and incentives as users are about to leave your site, and provide a better user experience.

That said, let’s see how you can add Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress.

Adding Google Ads to WordPress Website

The easiest way of connecting Google Ads with WordPress is by using MonsterInsights. It is the best Analytics plugin for WordPress that helps set up Google Analytics without editing.

MonsterInsights offers an Ads addon that lets you setup comprehensive conversion tracking without touching a single line of code or hiring a developer.

We will use the MonsterInsights Pro license for this tutorial because it includes the Ads addon. There is also a MonsterInsights Lite version you can use for free.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you will be redirected to the welcome screen in your WordPress dashboard. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button.

Next, you can follow the onscreen instructions to connect Google Analytics to your site. For more details, you can see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

With MonsterInsights, you can also use dual tracking to set up a Google Analytics 4 property. It is the latest analytics version and will soon replace Universal Analytics. You can learn more by following our guide on how to switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress.

Once you’ve connected Google Analytics with WordPress, the next step is to install the Ads addon. Simply go to Insights » Addons from your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the ‘Ads’ addon.

Go ahead and click the ‘Install’ button. The addon will now automatically install and activate on your site.

Creating a Conversion Action in Google Ads

Next, you’ll need to create a conversion action in Google Ads.

First, you can visit the Google Ads website and log in to your account.

After that, go ahead and click the ‘Tools and settings’ option at the top. Under the ‘Measurement’ column, simply select the Conversions option.

On the next screen, you’ll need to create a conversion action.

You can click the ‘New conversion action’ button to get started.

Next, Google Ads will ask you to select the type of conversions you want to track. It will show you 4 options, including a website, app, phone call, or import.

For this tutorial, we’ll choose the ‘Website’ option for tracking ad conversions.

After that, you’ll need to enter the website URL where you’d like to measure conversions.

Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Scan’ button.

Google Ads will now show 2 options to create conversion actions, including an automatic and manual method. In the automatic method, you’ll need to select the conversion goal, choose a match type, and enter the URL. This way is suitable if you know which events to count as conversions.

However, we recommend selecting the manual method. Simply scroll down and click the ‘+ Add a conversion action manually’ option.

Next, you’ll need to enter the Conversion action details.

First, you can select the ‘Goal and action optimization’ for your conversion. This is the action you’d like to track. For example, when a user subscribes to your newsletter, makes a purchase, adds a product to a cart, submits a contact form, and more.

For the sake of this tutorial, we will select ‘Subscribe’ as the goal. After that, you can enter the Conversion name.

You can now scroll down and select a Value for your conversion. Google Ads lets you choose the same value for each conversion, assign different values for conversions, or don’t use a value for conversion action.

We will select the ‘Use the same for each conversion’ option, select the currency, and enter a value for this tutorial.

Besides that, you can also choose how many conversions to count per click.

If you’re tracking email newsletter signups, then we recommend selecting the ‘One’ option. This way, each subscriber is counted once. However, you can use the ‘Every’ option in an eCommerce store and count each purchase as a conversion.

After selecting these options, simply click the ‘Done’ button at the bottom.

You can now see your conversion action under the ‘Create conversion actions manually using code’ section.

Go ahead and click the ‘Save and continue’ button to get instructions for adding the tracking tags for conversion action to your site.

On the next screen, you’ll see 3 options to add the conversion action to your site.

Simply select the ‘Use Google Tag Manager’ option. You should see the Conversion ID and Conversion Label. Copy these to a notepad file or keep the browser window/tab open.

To finish the setup process, you’ll need to head to your WordPress website dashboard and view the MonsterInsights settings.

From here, go to Insights » Settings and click on the ‘Publisher’ tab.

After that, you can scroll down to the ‘Ads Tracking’ section.

Go ahead and enter the Conversion ID. Make sure you follow the format, which will look like this: AW-123456789.

If you are tracking Google Ads on Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, and MemberPress, then enter the Conversion Label in the respective field.

That’s it. You’ve successfully set up Google Ads conversion tracking on your WordPress website.

View Google Ads Conversion Tracking Data in Google Analytics

You can take it a step further and connect Google Ads with Google Analytics to get more insights about how people use your website after clicking on an ad.

For instance, you can see the number of visitors from paid search and find out which pages they view after landing on your site. You can also use different filters and create custom reports in Google Analytics.

Let’s see how you can link your Google Ads account with Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics.

Connect Google Ads with Google Analytics 4

First, you’ll need to log in to your GA4 account and then go to the ‘Admin’ settings.

After that, you can click the ‘Google Ads Links’ option.

It is located under the Property column.

A new window will now slide in from the right.

Go ahead and click the ‘Link’ button in the top right corner.

Next, you will see different options for Link setup.

First, you can click the ‘Choose Google Ads accounts’ option.

On the next screen, you’ll need to select the Google Ads account you wish to connect.

Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Confirm’ button at the top.

You will now see the Google Ads account that you want to link.

Go ahead and click the ‘Next’ button.

In the next step, Google Analytics will give you options to enable personalized advertising and enable auto-tagging.

You can use the default settings and click the ‘Next’ button.

After that, you’ll see a summary of your Link setup settings.

If everything checks out, then go ahead and click the ‘Submit’ button.

You should now see a ‘Link Created’ notification in front of your Google Ads account. This means that you’ve successfully connected Google Ads with Google Analytics.

Do note that it can take up to 24 hours for your Google Ads data to appear in Analytics reports.

Next, you can view the Google Ads conversion tracking report in Google Analytics 4.

First, you can head to Acquisition » Traffic acquisition from the menu on your left and scroll down to see how many visitors came from the Paid Search channel.

After that, you can go to Acquisition » Acquisition overview and view the Session Google Ads campaign report. This will show which campaign got the most traffic.

You can also click the ‘View Google Ads campaigns’ option at the bottom to view more details.

For each campaign, you can see the total number of users, sessions, number of Google Ads clicks, cost per click (CPC), conversions, and more.

Using the information from this report, you can see which campaigns perform the best.

Connect Google Ads with Universal Analytics

If you’re using Universal Analytics, then you can first log in to your account.

After that, head to the ‘Admin’ settings.

Next, you’ll need to go to the Google Ads Links option.

You can find the option under the Property column.

On the next screen, you’ll need to select the Google Ads account you want to connect.

After selecting your account, simply click the ‘Continue’ button.

Next, you will need to enter a Link group title.

You can then select the Views to link with your Google Ads account. Simply click the toggle to ON for the correct Views.

Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Link accounts’ button.

Google Analytics will now show a summary of your settings. Simply scroll down and click the ‘Done’ button.

That’s it. Your Google Ads account will now be linked to the Universal Analytics property.

To view data from your ad campaigns, head to Acquisition » Google Ads » Campaigns from the menu on your left. You can see the number of clicks, cost, CPC, and more for each campaign.

Final Thoughts on Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress

When it comes to setting up any conversion tracking, the most important thing you want to make sure is that the setup is done properly. This is why we use and recommend MonsterInsights because it just does everything for you behind the scenes without touching any code.

However if you prefer to add code directly on your WordPress site, then you can do that as well by using a plugin like WPCode. This will help future-proof your customizations. There’s a free version of WPCode that you can use by following our tutorial on adding custom code in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to set up Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide and the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your store.

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

The post How to Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Create Your Own Customized Short URL for Your Blog

15.01.2023Beginners Guide, custom branded short url for wordpress, custom branded short urls for your blog, customized short url for wordpress, customized short urls for your blog, pretty links, wordpress short urlsEditorial Staff

Do you want to create your own customized short URL for your blog?

Customized short URLs are often branded short URLs that are easy to remember and share. We use wpbeg.in for our own branded custom short URLs.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create your own customized short URLs for your blog.

Creating customized short urls in WordPress

Why Use a Branded Customized Short URL in WordPress?

You may have noticed how popular websites like The New York Times, Twitter, Facebook, and TechCrunch use branded short URLs on social media.

The New York times uses nyti.ms, TechCrunch uses tcrn.ch, and WPBeginner uses wpbeg.in domain name for shorter customized URLs.

These branded domain names are called domain hacks.

They are created by combining the brand name and a domain TLD to cleverly spell a brand name.

Since most websites use .com as their primary domain, this is a good way to create a short url for your WordPress site. See our tips on picking the best domain for your blog.

Using your own customized short URL improves brand recognition among your users. It also allows you to create shorter URLs for easy sharing on social platforms.

Most importantly, you can easily track these URLs to see how many clicks you got when you shared a URL.

Having said that, let’s see how to create your own branded customized short URLs in WordPress.

Note: If you’re just looking to create memorable short URLs using your main domain, then we recommend using the Pretty Links plugin. This is what top podcasters and YouTubers use to mention short links in their videos.

Step 1: Buy a Short URL or Short Domain Name

Most of us do not have a short URL as our primary domain name. This means you will need to register a new domain name that is much shorter than your current domain.

For example, when choosing a branded shorter domain for WPBeginner.com we registered WPBeg.in. This made our short URL 6 characters shorter than our primary domain.

There are many free domain name generators that allow you to automatically generate domain name suggestions. See our list of 14 best free domain name generators.

Domainr is the one that specializes in helping you find short domains using domain hacks.

Try different combinations and explore creative ways to spell your brand name.

Once you have found a domain name that meets your needs and is available, you can register it on any of the top domain registrars.

We recommend using Domain.com. They are the best domain registrar on the market and you can get a 25% discount using our Domain.com coupon code.

Other domain registrars that we recommend include Network Solutions and GoDaddy.

The cost of domain name registration depends on which TLD you select. Country-specific TLDs cost a little more than some other new TLDs.

Once you have registered your domain name, you will be able to manage it from your domain registrar’s control panel.

Step 2: Setup Your Custom Domain in Bitly

Bitly is a popular URL shortner service that allows you to manage and track links. We use it to shorten our WordPress URLs and manage them.

First, you will need to create a Bitly account. You’ll need at least Basic plan to use your own custom domain name for link shortening.

After completing the sign up, you’ll reach your Bitly account dashboard.

From here, you need to click on Account settings » Custom domains menu and then click on the Add a domain button.

On the next screen, you’ll see options to buy a new domain name or use your own domain name.

Go ahead, and click on the ‘I want to use my own domain name’ option to continue.

Next, enter the domain name you recently purchased.

Below that, select ‘No, this is an unused domain name’ option and click Next.

Now you will see the option to choose a group.

Bitly allows you to organize your links, domains, and users into groups. This allows you to limit certain domains to specific users.

Choose All groups to make your custom domain available for all groups.

Next, you will be asked to add DNS records to your branded domain name before continuing.

You can leave this window open and proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Set DNS A Record to Point to Bit.ly

In order to create your own branded custom short URLs, you need to point your domain to Bitly servers.

To do that, you will need to add DNS records to your custom domain name. DNS records are kind of instructions that point domain name to proper servers.

You can find the DNS records that you need to add on Bitly website.

There are two types of DNS records that you can add.

For root domain names (e.g. wpbeg.in), you’ll need to enter A records.

However, If your custom domain is a subdomain (e.g. on.wsj.com), then you’ll need to enter the CNAME records.

To add the records, simply visit the domain management area on your domain registrar’s website and look for DNS records.

If you took our advice and registered your domain with Domain.com, then you will find the DNS & Nameservers settings under the left column.

Switch to the DNS Records tab and then click on the Add DNS Record button.

This will bring up a popup where you need to enter the following information

Hostname under the Name field
Choose A as the Type
Copy and paste the Bitly IP address
Choose 1 hour under the TTL

Click on the Add DNS button to save your settings.

If you are using a subdomain for example on.wsj.com, then you need to set a CNAME record and point it to cname.bitly.com

After adding DNS records you can switch back to Bitly website and click on the Add Domain button.

Now, you will see a notification that your domain settings are being verified.

Bitly will check your domain for DNS records and if everything looks ok you’ll recieve an email notification.

Step 4: Set up Short URL on Your WordPress Site

The best part about using Bitly is that you can easily manage, share, and track your short URLs directly from your WordPress site.

First, thing you need to do is install and activate the Bitly’s WordPress Plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Writing page and scroll down to the ‘WP Bitly Shortlinks’ section.

Simply click on the Authorize button and then Allow Bitly to connect your WordPress site.

Once connected, you can choose which post types you want to generate shortlinks for. Below that, you can choose the default domain that you added earlier.

Don’t forget to click on the Save changes button to store your settings,

The plugin will now start generating your custom branded short URLs. You can see them by visiting your Bitly dashboard.

WP-Bitly plugin will also show you BitLy stats for each post. You can see those stats by editing a post and look for WP Bitly metabox.

Bitly stats inside WordPress post editor

This will allow you to track how many times your short URL for this post has been clicked and from which websites.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create your own customized short URLs in WordPress. You may also want to see our complete WordPress conversion tracking guide or see our pick of the best social media plugins for WordPress.

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

The post How to Create Your Own Customized Short URL for Your Blog first appeared on WPBeginner.

What is rel=”noopener” in WordPress? (Explained)

14.01.2023affiliate links, Beginners Guide, seoEditorial Staff

Have you been wondering what rel="noopener" means in WordPress?

When you add a link that opens in a new tab, WordPress will automatically add the rel="noopener" attribute to the link.

In this article, we will explain what rel="noopener" means in WordPress and how it affects your website.

What Is rel=”noopener” in WordPress?

When you add links to your WordPress website, you can use HTML attributes to control what happens when you click the link.

For example, when you create a link, there is a toggle switch that allows you to open it in a new tab.

The HTML code generated by WordPress for this link looks like this:

<a href="http://example.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">external link</a>

Notice that some HTML attributes have been added to the link, rel="noopener" and rel="noreferrer". These attributes are added to address a security vulnerability.

The problem is that JavaScript code can be used to allow a new tab to get control of its referring window. If you link to an external website affected by the malicious code, then that website can use the window.opener property in JavaScript to change the original page (your website) to steal information and spread malicious code.

WordPress adds rel="noopener" to prevent the new tab from taking advantage of this JavaScript feature. Similarly, the rel="noreferrer" attribute prevents passing the referrer information onto the new tab.

How Does rel=”noopener” Affect Your WordPress SEO?

It doesn’t.

Even though the rel="noopener" attribute improves WordPress security, some users avoid using it because they think it will impact their WordPress SEO.

But that’s just a myth.

It has no impact on your site’s SEO rankings or your overall WordPress performance.

What’s the Difference Between “noopener” and “nofollow”?

It’s easy to confuse rel="noopener" with rel="nofollow". However, they are completely separate attributes.

The noopener attribute prevents your website from cross-site hacking and improves WordPress security.

On the other hand, the nofollow attribute prevents your website from passing on SEO link-juice to the linked website.

Search engines look for and consider the nofollow attribute when following a link on your website. However, they do not give any consideration to the noopener tag.

By default, WordPress does not allow you to add nofollow to your external links. If you want to add nofollow in WordPress, then you will need to use a plugin.

To learn more, see our article on how to add title and nofollow to links in WordPress.

Does rel=”noreferrer” Affect Affiliate Links in WordPress?

The rel="noreferrer" does not affect affiliate links in WordPress. Some users believe that it does because rel="noreferrer" prevents the referrer information passing to the new tab.

However, most affiliate programs provide you with a unique URL that has your affiliate ID. This means your affiliate ID is passed along as a URL parameter for the other website to track.

Secondly, most affiliate marketers use a link cloaking plugin for their affiliate links.

With link cloaking, the affiliate link that your users click on is actually your website’s own URL, which then redirects users to the destination URL.

How Do You Disable rel=”noopener” in WordPress?

There is no need to remove rel="noopener" from links on your website. It is good for your website’s security and has no performance or SEO impact on your website.

However, if you must remove it, then you will have to disable the Gutenberg block editor in WordPress and use the old classic editor.

That’s because if you remove rel="noopener" from the link manually, the block editor will automatically add it back in to keep your website safe.

Once the block editor is disabled, you will need to add a code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file or to the WPCode plugin (recommended). You can learn how to use the WPCode Free Plugin in our guide on how to easily add custom code in WordPress.

Simply copy the following code into a new PHP snippet:

add_filter('tiny_mce_before_init','wpb_disable_noopener');
function wpb_disable_noopener( $mceInit ) {
    $mceInit['allow_unsafe_link_target']=true;
    return $mceInit;
}

Make sure you change the ‘Active’ toggle on and then click the ‘Save Snippet’ button.

This will stop WordPress from adding rel="noopener" to new links. You will also need to manually edit any old links to remove the attribute.

Want even more control over which rel attributes get added to your links in WordPress? We recommend using the AIOSEO plugin because it lets you add title, nofollow, and other link attributes right inside the WordPress editor.

We hope this article helped you learn about rel="noopener" in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to get a free email domain, or see our list of tips to speed up WordPress performance.

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

The post What is rel=”noopener” in WordPress? (Explained) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Set Up Email Newsletter Tracking in Google Analytics

13.01.2023email tracking in Google Analytics, Google Analytics email tracking, track email conversions in Google Analytics, track email newsletter traffic, TutorialsEditorial Staff

Recently, one of our readers asked how do we measure the impact of our email newsletter?

You can use Google Analytics combined with special tracking links in your email newsletter to see how effective each email is for your business.

In this article, we will share how to set up email newsletter tracking in Google Analytics, step by step.

Why Track Your Email Newsletter Traffic in Google Analytics?

When you send out an email newsletter, it likely contains at least one link to your site. Your email marketing service should be able to tell you how many people click on a link (also called your click-through rate). However, most providers can’t show you what happens afterward.

That’s where Google Analytics comes in. You can use it to track what people do after clicking a link from your newsletter.

Let’s say you run a restaurant that offers home delivery. You want to see which of your weekly newsletters led to the most people filling out your online food ordering form.

Or perhaps you’re about to start an online store. It would be great to know which of your email campaigns drove the most sales.

Maybe you’re aiming to make money blogging. You want to know which campaigns got people to sign up for your online course.

With Google Analytics, it’s pretty easy to set up email newsletter tracking and see how many sales each email generates for your business.

With that said, let’s get started.

Creating Trackable URLs for Your Email Newsletter

If you want detailed insights in Google Analytics, then you need to add special tracking parameters to each link in your newsletter.

In other words, you can’t use a standard link like this:
https://www.site.com

Instead, you need to use a URL with special parameters that look like this:
https://www.site.com?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jan_sale

The ending part of this URL, everything after the question mark, is called a UTM code.

It might look complicated, but don’t worry. It’s actually quite easy to create.

Let’s take a look at two easy ways to create these trackable URLs for your email campaigns.

Method 1: Create Trackable URLs using MonsterInsights (Recommended)

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It allows you to easily install Google Analytics in WordPress and shows beautiful traffic reports inside the WordPress dashboard.

It also helps you set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property. GA4 is the latest Analytics version by Google and it will replace Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023. With MonsterInsights, you can easily switch to GA4 in WordPress and start tracking your data.

To track email newsletters, you can use the free version of MonsterInsights to access the URL builder tool. However, we recommend upgrading to the pro plan in order to unlock more advanced features like eCommerce tracking (we will talk more about eCommerce tracking later in this article).

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

Upon activation, you can go to the Insights » Tools page in your WordPress dashboard and select the ‘URL Builder’ tab.

In the URL Builder tool, the first piece of information you’ll need to enter is the URL you want to add to your newsletter. This might be your main website URL if you’re linking to your home page.

In this example, we’re running a sale and linking to the website’s online store:

Google Analytics will track your email newsletter visitors as a ‘campaign’. This is simply the term Google Analytics uses for email or advertising promotions.

You’ll need to enter the source, medium, and name for your campaign, so Google Analytics can easily track them.

Source: Set this to ‘newsletter’ or something else meaningful
Medium: This should be set to ’email’
Name: You can use whatever makes sense, e.g. ‘jan_sale’ or ‘april_tshirts_sale’

If you’re using more than one word for the source, medium, or name, make sure you use underscores between words. Don’t use spaces or hyphens.

Besides that, you’ll see more options in the URL Builder.

The Campaign Term field is used if you’re running ads, so you can leave that blank. The Campaign Content can be used if you’re split-testing your emails or ads. Again, you can leave it blank for this example.

Next, you can scroll down.

At the bottom of the page, you should now see your special URL, with the tracking details included:

You can now use this URL in your email newsletter and later track clicks in your Google Analytics account.

Method 2: Manually Create Trackable URLs in Google Analytics

MonsterInsight’s URL builder is a handy tool for saving time, as it creates the UTM codes for you. If you prefer to create your trackable URLs manually, here’s how to do it.

First, get the URL you want to use. We’re going to use https://www.site.com/shop for this example.

Next, you’ll need to create the UTM code yourself. We’ll take it to step by step.

Add a question mark to the end of your URL, like this:

https://www.site.com/shop?

Then, add the utm_source:

https://www.site.com/shop?utm_source=newsletter

Next, add the ampersand (&) symbol and the utm_medium:

https://www.site.com/shop?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

Finally, add another ampersand (&) and the utm_campaign:

https://www.site.com/shop?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jan_sale

You can use any word or phrase you want for the campaign’s name. If you’re using multiple words for the source, medium, or campaign name, you can separate the words with an underscore.

That’s it. Your tracking URL is ready to be used in your newsletter.

Using Trackable URLs in Your Newsletter Campaigns

Once you’ve created your URL, either using the MonsterInsights URL builder or manually, you can use it in emails.

You can copy and paste the URL into your email wherever you would have used the standard URL before.

Here’s how that looks when inserting a URL in Constant Contact:

Constant Contact Inserting Trackable Link

Tip: You can even use trackable URLs in your regular emails. This would make sense if you do a lot of email outreach. You can also create trackable URLs to use on social media, in ads, and more.

Once you are done with your email, send out your newsletter and wait for some clicks. After that, you can go to Google Analytics to view your report.

Viewing Your Email Newsletter Report in Google Analytics

Now that you’ve set up custom URLs for tracking in email newsletter, the next step is to view the reports in Google Analytics.

View Email Newsletter Report in Universal Analytics

First, you’ll need to log in to your Google Analytics account.

After that, simply click the Acquisition » Campaigns » All Campaigns link.

You should then see data for the campaign(s) you’ve created.

Tip: If you’ve only just sent out the newsletter, change the date for the report to the current day. Google Analytics defaults to showing you data for the previous 7 days.

View Email Newsletter Report in Google Analytics 4

First, you’ll need to log in to your Google Analytics 4 account.

From here, head to Reports » Acquisition » Traffic Acquisition from the dashboard on the left.

Here, you’ll see all the traffic sources for your website, including direct, organic search, paid search, and email.

To see traffic from your newsletter, simply enter ’email’ in the search bar and hit enter.

This will filter the report and only show traffic from emails.

Next, you can click the blue ‘+’ button under the search bar.

You’ll now see more options to short your website traffic.

Go ahead and select Traffic source » Session source from the dropdown list.

After that, you should see traffic from different email campaigns.

This way, you can which campaign was most effective and helped generate revenue.

Tracking Email Newsletter Conversions

The most important part of your newsletter tracking is what users do after they arrive on your website.

For instance, if you run an online store you might want to see which emails led to a sale. If you wanted users to fill out an order form, then you might want to track that.

The easiest way to do this is by using MonsterInsights to do almost all the setup for you.

Switching on eCommerce Tracking in Google Analytics

First, you’ll need to switch on eCommerce tracking in Google Analytics. This is a quick and easy process.

Simply log in to Google Analytics and make sure you have the correct website. After that, click the Admin link on the bottom left.

You will now see different settings.

In the View column, go ahead and click the ‘Ecommerce Settings’ option.

You can now toggle ‘Enable Ecommerce’ on. We recommend also enabling the ‘ Enable Enhanced Ecommerce Reporting’ option at this point.

This will track additional data and also lets you see eCommerce reports in MonsterInsights.

Enable ecommerce and enhanced ecommerce reporting

Don’t forget to click the Save button when you’re done.

Switching on eCommerce Tracking in MonsterInsights

You’ll need the Pro version of MonsterInsights in order to use its eCommerce features. These work with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, MemberPress, and LifterLMS.

Next, you can go to Insights » Addons, find the eCommerce addon, and then click the Install button below it.

After that, you need to go to Insights » Settings and click the eCommerce tab. You should see that your eCommerce plugin (e.g. WooCommerce) has been automatically detected.

Tip: We recommend switching on ‘Use Enhanced eCommerce’ as this means you can view the MonsterInsights eCommerce report too.

That’s all you need to do because MonsterInsights handles everything else after that. Google Analytics will now be able to track eCommerce transactions on your site.

Now, when you visit Google Analytics, you’ll be able to see details of your eCommerce transactions.

In Universal Analytics, simply go to Acquisition » Campaigns and then click the ‘All Campaigns’ link. Next, select ‘E-commerce’ from the Conversions dropdown menu.

For detailed instructions, see our article on how to setup WooCommerce conversion tracking.

Tracking Links, Clicks, Buttons, and Forms

Not all websites use an eCommerce platform with a shopping cart.

For instance, if you have a simple order form, then you can track which email campaigns led users to submit that form. If you have a click to call button on your website, then you can track that as well.

We have a separate detailed guide on tracking links and button clicks in Google Analytics with step-by-step instructions.

We hope this article helped you learn how to set up email newsletter tracking in Google Analytics. You might also want to see these tested and easy ways to grow your email list faster and must-have WordPress plugins for business websites.

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The post How to Set Up Email Newsletter Tracking in Google Analytics first appeared on WPBeginner.