Are you looking to add a passwordless login system to your website, such as magic links?
This will allow your users to log in to your WordPress website without needing to remember a password. They will simply click on a link that is sent to their email inbox to gain access to the site and their account.
In this article, we’ll show you how to add a passwordless login in WordPress with magic links.
What Is Passwordless Login?
You use passwords to keep our WordPress websites secure. By requiring each user to enter a username and password when logging in, you keep unauthorized users from visiting sensitive areas of your websites.
But passwords are hard to create and remember, and they can cause security issues. For example, users may make weak passwords that can be easily guessed or use the same password on multiple sites.
They may also be costing you money. 75% of users quit when they forget and need to reset their password, and 30% of customers abandon their shopping cart when prompted to create a password. Password problems also place a burden on your support team.
However, you may wish to avoid passwords altogether. A passwordless login system allows your users to log in to your website without entering a password.
What Are Magic Links?
Magic links are the most common method of passwordless login.
When logging in to your WordPress website, a user is asked for their username or email address. Next, a special link is sent to that email address, and the user just has to click on the link to be taken to your website and automatically logged in.
This form of passwordless login is secure because the link can only be used once and will expire after a certain number of minutes. Also, the link can only be found in the user’s email account, which confirms that the user is who they say they are.
This is different from a temporary login link that you would give to a plugin developer or security expert who needs to run tests on your website. In that case, the login solution is only temporary, and an email address does not need to be entered each time.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how to add a passwordless login in WordPress with Magic links.
How to Add Passwordless Login in WordPress with Magic Links
Note: In this tutorial, we’ll use the free plugin. There is also a Magic Login Pro plan that adds support and additional features such as brute force protection, login redirection, and the ability to customize the emails sent.
Upon activation, the plugin will automatically add a ‘Send me the login link’ button to your standard login screen. This will let your users sign in using their username (or email) and password if they remember it, or request a magic link if they don’t.
If there is a valid account on your website for the username or email address entered, then the user will receive an email with a link to log in.
The link will work for 5 minutes and then expire. If you need, you can change the link’s lifespan in the plugin’s settings, as we show below.
Note: If you or your users did not receive the email and it isn’t in your spam folder, then there may be a problem with your website’s email. You should take a look at our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.
If there is no account on your website with the username or email address that was entered, then an error message will be displayed instead.
Configuring the Magic Link Plugin
You can configure the Magic Link plugin by visiting Settings » Magic Login in your admin sidebar.
This page contains all of the options for the plugin, including premium options that can be used by Pro users.
The first option is called ‘Force Magic Login.’ When enabled, your users will not be given the option of signing in with a password.
They simply enter their username or email address and then click the ‘Send me the link’ button. A magic link will be emailed to their inbox.
Alternatively, you can use the shortcode [magic_login_form] to add a magic link login form to any page or widget. See our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress for details.
The second option is enabled by default and adds a magic login button to the standard login form. When this switch is toggled off, the magic link button is removed from that login form.
The next two options are related to security. By default, the Token Lifespan setting makes magic links expire after 5 minutes. We recommend keeping this setting short, but you could increase it to 10 or 20 minutes if your users have issues.
The Token Validity setting is set to 1 by default. This means that each magic link will work for a single login. We recommend you keep this setting.
Next comes a feature called ‘Auto Login Links.’ When enabled, a magic link will be added to all emails sent out by WordPress, such as WooCommerce order confirmations, automated coupons, and comment notifications. The user will be logged in automatically when responding to the email.
After that comes a number of premium features for Pro users. These include:
Brute Force Protection
Login Request Throttling
IP Check
Domain Restriction
Email Subject
Email Content
Login Redirection
There is also a button for all users that will reset the tokens.
Once you have finished configuring the plugin, make sure you click the ‘Update Settings’ button at the bottom of the page to store the settings.
Do you want to redact text on your WordPress website?
Redaction can be a way to share information with your visitors without hurting anyone’s privacy. You can even use it as an unusual paywall or a game where you challenge visitors to fill in the missing words.
In this article, we will show you how you can redact text in WordPress.
Why Redact Text in WordPress?
Redaction is where you edit text by blacking out sensitive parts of it. It is a way to share information and documents with the general public while keeping confidential and sensitive information private.
Redaction can help you share real world examples without breaking your privacy policy. For example, if you’re showing visitors how to write a great CV then you might want to include a few examples of real CVs you’ve received. You can use redaction to block out each applicant’s name, address, and other personal information.
When you redact text, that content still exists in your WordPress dashboard. This means you can easily remove the redaction at any point.
Redaction can also be an eye-catching way to preview the kind of content visitors can expect when they sign up to your WordPress membership site. Visitors can then buy a membership to remove the redaction and enjoy the full, uncensored version.
That being said, let’s see how you can easily redact text on your WordPress website.
How to Redact Text in WordPress
The easiest way to redact text in WordPress is by using Eyes Only. This plugin will replace any redacted text with a black block.
If the visitor highlights the block, then they’ll simply see the word REDACTED in white letters.
You can see an example of how this might look in the following image.
Another option is to automatically replace any word or phrase with an alternative chosen by you. For example, if you can’t use a client’s name on your small business website then you might replace the information with a more vague word such as ‘client.’
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.
Then, click on the dotted icon in the top right corner and click on ‘Code editor.’
Next, find the piece of text that you want to redact. At the start of the text, type in the following tag:
[redact]
At the end of the redacted text, type in:
[/redact]
In the following image, we’re redacting ‘the Recipient.’
To redact more text just follow the same process described above.
If you want to switch back to the default plain text block editor at any point, then simply click on ‘Exit code editor.’
After adding tags to all the text that you want to redact, you can go ahead and publish or update the page.
Just be aware that the text won’t appear redacted while you’re logged into your WordPress account. To check that the text is redacted, you’ll either need to log out of your account or visit the page in an incognito tab in your web browser.
Another option is to automatically replace specific words with alternative words. This is useful if there’s a word that you never want to show on your site, such as the name of a confidential supplier or customer.
By configuring the plugin to automatically redact a word, you can make sure that information never shows up on your website. This automated workflow can also save you a lot of time and hard work.
Since it replaces each redacted word with an alternative word, this method can also make your pages easier to read and nicer to look at, particularly when compared to a page that has lots of blacked-out content.
To redact a word or phrase automatically, head over to Settings » Eyes Only. Then, go ahead and click on the ‘Add new’ button.
In the new ‘Text’ field, simply type in the text that you want to redact automatically. Just be aware that the text replacement is case sensitive.
In the ‘Replacement’ field, type in the text that you want to show instead of the redacted text.
In the following image, we’re replacing ‘Jane Smith’ with ‘Our Client.’
You can then go ahead and click on the ‘Add’ button.
If you want to automatically replace more words or phrases, then simply repeat the process described above.
As we already mentioned, the text replacement is case sensitive. If you want to redact a word no matter whether it’s capitalizated, you’ll need to create two separate text replacement rules.
One of these rules should replace the capitalized version, and another should replace the uncapitalized version, as you can see in the following image.
When you’re happy with the redaction rules you’ve created, click on the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen.
The plugin will now scan your site and automatically replace any matches that it finds.
At some point you may no longer want to hide a particular word or phrase. In this case, you can simply delete the redaction rule. This will automatically remove the masking and show the original words across your WordPress blog.
To delete a redaction rule, simply go to Settings » Eyes Only.
Then, just hover the mouse over the rule that you want to delete and click on the ‘Delete’ link when it appears.
You will need to confirm that you want to delete the rule.
If you still want to go ahead, then click on ‘Yes.’
Finally, it’s time to click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom. Now if you visit any page or post that has the original word, you’ll see that the plugin is no longer redacting the text.
Do you want to build an online question and answer community like Stack Overflow or Quora?
You can create a whole site dedicated to Q&A, or add a question and answer section to an existing WordPress site. No matter what approach you take, helpful questions and answers can improve the visitor experience and keep people on your website for longer.
In this article, we will show you how to easily create a question and answers site in WordPress.
Getting Started with a Question and Answer Website
To start your own question and answers website, you will need the following:
A domain name. This is the name of your website such as stackoverflow.com.
A web hosting account. This is where your website’s files are stored. All websites need web hosting.
A Content Management System. This is software that helps you create, publish, and manage all your questions and answers. For this guide, we’ll be using WordPress as it powers nearly 43% of all websites and gives you complete control over your content. To learn more about why we recommend WordPress to all our readers, please see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.
Extra software, plugins, or tools. These add special question-and-answer features to your WordPress website.
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Question and Answer Website?
The answer to this question depends on the features you need, how many visitors you get, how much content you create, and lots of other factors.
To help you budget, we’ve created a complete guide on how much it really costs to build a website. However, typically the cost of building a website can range from anywhere between $100 per year to as high as $30,000 per year.
We recommend you start small and then add more features to your question-and-answer site as it grows and gets more popular. This helps you avoid spending too much on your site, before it starts making a profit.
That said, let’s see how you can build a successful Q&A website for under $100.
Although the WordPress software is free, hosting and domain names are where the costs can really start to add up.
A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. This is A LOT for new websites or anyone who is working with a limited budget.
Luckily, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting. Basically, you can get started for $2.75 per month.
Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.
They’re also offering our readers a free SSL certificate so you have the option to accept payments online. This is perfect if you want to make money from your question and answer website in the future.
To buy a domain name and hosting, simply go to the Bluehost website in a new browser window and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.
This will bring you to a pricing page where you can choose a hosting plan for your question-and-answer website.
We recommend choosing a Basic or Plus plan, as they’re the most popular web hosting plans among our readers.
After selecting a plan, click on ‘Continue.’
On the next screen, you’ll need to choose a domain name.
Ideally, the domain name will be easy to pronounce and spell, and easy to remember.
After choosing a name, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.
Now you’ll need to provide your account information such as your name and business email address. After that, you’ll also see optional extras that you can purchase.
We generally don’t recommend purchasing these extras straight away, as you can always add them later on if you need them.
After that, simply type in your payment information to complete the purchase.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll get an email with instructions on how to log in to your web hosting control panel. This is your hosting account dashboard where you can manage your Q&A website, including setting up email notifications and asking for WordPress support, if you need it.
It’s also where you’ll install the WordPress software.
Step 2. Install WordPress on Your Question and Answer Website
When you signup with Bluehost using our link, you’ll get access to a one-click WordPress installer.
Simply log into your Bluehost account and click on ‘One Click Install.’
Here, you’ll see all the different software you can add to your account.
Simply find ‘WordPress’ and give it a click.
Here, just click on the ‘Install’ button.
You can now follow the onscreen instructions to install the WordPress software.
Once that process is finished, you can log in to the WordPress dashboard by simply going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/ directly from your browser.
After installing WordPress, you’ll typically want to change the default theme. WordPress themes are professionally designed templates that change how your site looks and acts.
Another option is to use a landing page builder plugin such as SeedProd.
SeedProd is the best drag-and-drop WordPress page builder and comes with built-in templates that you can use to build a professionally-designed question-and-answer website.
It even has a ready-made FAQ section that you can add to any page using drag and drop.
The easiest way to add question and answer features to your WordPress website is by using the AnsPress plugin. This plugin allows you to create a Stack Overflow-style question and answer site.
Even better, AnsPress automatically creates all the pages you need to launch a successful Q and A site.
This includes a page where visitors can type in their questions, in exactly the same way people use websites like Quora.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate AnsPress. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, AnsPress automatically adds question-and-answer pages to your WordPress website. To see these pages, head over to AnsPress »Settings in the WordPress dashboard.
Once there, you can select ‘General’ in the menu on the left-hand side.
This page lists all the different pages that AnsPress has created.
To take a closer look at any page, simply click on its ‘View page’ link.
The default AnsPress pages should be a good fit for most WordPress blogs and websites. However, you can always add your own content to these pages.
For example, you might add some text that encourages visitors to post their questions, and tells them when to expect an answer.
To add your own content to any AnsPress page, simply click on the ‘Edit page’ link next to it.
This opens the standard WordPress post editor where you can add text, images, and more.
As you can see, AnsPress adds all its content using shortcode, so don’t change this code in any way.
When you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, just click on ‘Update.’
You can edit any default AnsPress page by following the same process described above.
When you’ve finished, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Pages’ to store your settings.
By default, AnsPress adds the following message to all its pages: ‘Question and answer is powered by anspress.net.’ This can make your site look less professional.
It also links to the AnsPress site, which can hurt your pageviews and bounce rate by encouraging people to leave your site.
Because of that, it’s a good idea to remove this text by checking the box next to ‘Hide author credits’ and then clicking on ‘Save Changes.’
Now if you look at any AnsPress page, you’ll see the text has vanished.
With that done, scroll to the ‘Permalinks’ section in the AnsPress settings.
Here, you’ll see the permalink structure and settings that the plugin uses by default. These settings should work well for most websites, but you may be able to improve your WordPress SEO by making some small changes.
In the image below, each question will now use the slug /questions/wordpress-questions/question-name/ which will help us rank for the term ‘WordPress.’
If you do make any changes in this section, then don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes.’
Next, it’s time to fine-tune the layout by scrolling to the ‘Layout’ section. Here, you’ll see that AnsPress shows the user’s Gravatar in a few different places including next to questions, answers, and comments.
You can change the size of these avatars by typing into the different boxes.
By default, AnsPress will show 20 questions per page and 5 answers per page. You can show more or less content by typing new numbers into the ‘Questions per page’ or ‘Answers per page’ box.
If you show fewer questions and answers per page, then users will need to scroll less. This is particularly helpful for visitors who are using smaller devices like smartphones and tablets. It can also speed up your WordPress performance since you’re loading less content.
Just be aware that most visitors expect to get the right answer on the first page, so you’ll want to show a reasonable number of answers per page.
When you’re happy with how your Q&A site is set up, click on the ‘Submit’ button.
Email notifications are an important part of running a successful question-and-answer website. They let admins know when customers or potential leads post a new question, and they also let users know when their question gets an answer.
In this way, emails can keep users engaged and help your Q&A site run more smoothly.
AnsPress comes with built-in email notifications that work out-of-the-box. However, it’s still smart to see whether there are any changes you want to make by clicking on the ‘Email’ link.
Here, you can see all the different emails that AnsPress will send automatically.
To enable or disable an email, simply click on the box next to it.
Pro Tip: You need to make sure all your Q&A emails go to the user’s email inbox and not to the spam folder. The best way to do this is by using an SMTP service provider to improve email deliverability. For more details, see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.
As always, don’t forget to click on ‘Submit’ to save your changes.
Some question-and-answer sites are completely open to the public. This means that non-logged-in users can see the content, and may even be able to post questions and answers without creating an account.
Other Q&A sites are completely private or require user registration.
There are drawbacks and positives to the different approaches. A public question-and-answer site will typically get more traffic and engagement, but it may also get more spam and attract low-quality answers.
If you’re using questions and answers to make money online blogging with WordPress, then you may want to make some parts of your site members-only. This allows you to charge a subscription fee using a plugin like MemberPress.
Another option is allowing people to register with your website for free, so you can collect their email addresses. In this way, your question-and-answer site can help you do lead generation like a pro.
However you plan to use your question-and-answer site, it’s a good idea to review the posting permissions by selecting ‘User Access Control.’
Here, you can see all the different content that logged-in and non-logged-in users can access, and the actions they take. You can change these settings using the different dropdown menus.
You can also change whether questions and answers get posted automatically, or if they’re held for admin approval. By default, non-logged-in users can post questions and answers, but you’ll need to approve them manually in the admin area.
These settings are self-explanatory but they have a big impact on how your question-and-answer site runs. With that being said, it’s worth going through the different settings carefully and then making any changes.
If you do edit these settings, then don’t forget to click on the ‘Submit’ button.
AnsPress encourages users to engage with your site through gamification, by awarding reputation points for different actions. This reputation system works by default, but you can change how many points AnsPress awards for each action by selecting ‘Reputations.’
Here, you’ll see all the different actions and their reputation points.
To award more or less points for an action, simply type a new number into its box. When you’re happy with how the reputation system is set up, click on Save Events Points.
There are some more settings you may want to look through, but this should be enough to help you set up a successful question-and-answer website.
When you’re happy with how the plugin and pages are set up, it’s a good idea to add them to your website’s navigation menu so visitors can find them.
If you need reminding about all the different pages that AnsPress added to your site, then simply go to AnsPress »Settings and then click on the ‘Pages’ link.
Managing Your Question Answer Site
At this point, your site is ready to start accepting questions and answers from users. However, depending on how your Q&A site is set up, you may need to manually approve some, or all, of these posts.
By default, AnsPress will email the WordPress admin about any questions or answers that need manual approval. You’ll also see notifications in the admin dashboard.
To manually approve an answer or question, simply click on either ‘All Questions’ or ‘All Answers’ in the left-hand menu.
You can then hover your mouse over the post that you want to review and click on ‘View.’
This will show a preview of how the question or answer will look on your website.
If you’re happy to make it live, then click on the small cog icon and then select ‘Published.’
If you don’t want to publish the post, then select ‘Delete’ or ‘Delete Permanently’ instead.
The first release candidate (RC1) for WordPress 6.2 is now available for testing, marking a significant milestone in the release cycle. While we believe RC1 is ready for final release, community testing can only improve its quality. The official release is scheduled for March 28, just three weeks away. As is common in open-source development, [...]
Do you want users to easily change the currency on your WordPress website?
A multi-currency WordPress plugin lets you show different currencies on your website and automatically apply the exchange rate. This way, customers can switch their local currency when purchasing a product.
In this article, we’ll share the best multi-currency WordPress plugins that you can use on your site.
Why Use a Multi Currency WordPress Plugin?
A multi currency plugin allows you to offer multiple currencies on your WordPress website. Your customers can switch currencies from the US dollar to their native currency with a click of a button.
If you’re running an online store, then having a currency switcher plugin can come in handy.
You can reach a wider audience and target users from around the world. Customers from other countries can easily convert the product prices into their local currency without leaving your website.
It also improves the overall shopping experience for customers. The plugin removes any pricing confusion that people may have. As a result, you get to keep customers on your website and boost sales.
That said, let’s look at the best multi-currency plugins for WordPress.
It offers multi-currency support and lets you show prices in different currencies. You can select from over 200 currencies and have complete control over the exchange rate.
There is an automatic option where the plugin will auto-update the exchange rate and convert the price from USD to the customer’s local currency. On the other hand, you can also manually set the exchange rate.
Besides that, Easy Digital Downloads lets you sell digital downloads with ease. It offers unlimited file downloads, full data reporting, a shopping cart, and more. It also easily integrates with payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal and third-party tools like AWeber, ConvertKit and Slack.
Pricing: Easy Digital Downloads is a premium plugin with prices starting from $99.50 per year.
It is super easy to use and lets you add unlimited currencies to your WooCommerce store. You can show a currency switcher anywhere on your website and let customers choose their local currency.
Besides that, the plugin also automatically detects users’ geolocation and displays prices in their native currency. It integrates with APIs of the European Central Bank, Google Finance, and other providers to automatically update exchange rates.
You can also control the frequency of exchange rate updates. For example, the plugin can check it daily, twice daily, weekly, monthly, or every 15 days.
Other than that, you get options to customize the currency switcher, display different payment methods for specific countries, and more.
Pricing: YITH Multi Currency Switcher for WooCommerce is a premium plugin that will cost you $99.99 annually.
WP Simple Pay is the best Stripe plugin for WordPress that lets you accept one-time or recurring payments on your website. The best part, you don’t have to set up a shopping cart to collect payments.
WP Simple Pay lets you select from 135+ different currencies supported by Stripe. It also lets you choose your site’s region’s default currency, format, and tax rate. This way, you can charge customers in their native currency and receive funds in your preferred currency.
With WP Simple Pay, you get a drag-and-drop payment form builder and over 10 different payment methods. For example, you can collect payments through credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, ACH direct debit, and more.
Pricing: WP Simple Pay prices start from $49.50 per year. There is also a free version you can use to get started.
CURCY is a free WooCommerce multi currency plugin. It lets you accept payments in different currencies and helps customers to switch to their preferred currency.
The plugin is easy to use and set up. It automatically detects users’ location on your WooCommerce store and displays products in the native currency.
You can also allow the plugin to set the exchange rate automatically. However, there are different options for controlling the exchange rate. For example, you can manually set the rate, keep the product prices fixed in other currencies, and manage the exchange rate fee.
WooCommerce Multi-Currency is a premium WooCommerce extension that allows you to show product prices in the customer’s country’s currency.
Like many other plugins on our list, you can choose between automatic or manual exchange rate settings. The plugin supports different exchange rate providers’ APIs, such as Open Exchange Rate, Abstract, Exchange Rate API, and more.
Using a shortcode, you can display the currency switcher anywhere on your WooCommerce store. It also has a sidebar widget and helps customers quickly convert prices into their local currency.
Pricing: WooCommerce Multi-Currency prices start from $99 per year.
Currency Switcher for WordPress is another free and beginner-friendly plugin you can use to show different currencies on your website.
It works with Open Exchange Rate API and allows you to automatically convert the prices into different currencies depending on the exchange rate. There is also an option to manually control the exchange rate.
Currency Switcher for WordPress supports currency conversion for visitors from the United States, Australia, Europe, and India.
Currency Converter Widget is a premium WooCommerce plugin that you can use on your store. The multi-currency plugin offers a dynamic widget that converts product prices in real-time.
It automatically grabs the latest exchange rate and applies it to the products. You can add and convert as many currencies as you want.
The best part is that the plugin saves the converted total at checkout. This way, you can see the prices customers saw on your WooCommerce store.
Pricing: Currency Converter Widget will cost you $49 per year.
Which is the Best Multi Currency WordPress Plugin?
Based on our research, the best WordPress multi-currency plugin are Easy Digital Downloads, YITH multi currency switcher for WooCommerce, and WP Simple Pay.
The choice of picking the best multi-currency plugin depends on the type of website you’re running.
For instance, if you’re selling digital products, then Easy Digital Downloads is the best choice. It is super easy to use and lets you select from over 200 different currencies. You get full control over the exchange rate and can add as many currencies as you want.
On the other hand, YITH Multi Currency Switcher for WooCommerce is the best multi-currency plugin to use if you have a WooCommerce store. It automatically detects the user’s location and converts product prices. Plus, you can choose from different providers to set the exchange rate.
Lastly, you can also use WP Simple Pay to collect online payments without setting up a shopping cart. It is the best Stripe plugin and supports over 135 currencies.
When it comes to delivering outstanding customer experiences via your WordPress site, few things make a more significant impact than a fully-responsive theme. That said, ensuring your site looks good and works well across various screen sizes and resolutions isn’t always enough to blow your competition out of the proverbial water when it comes to [...]
Do you want to add an HTML sitemap page in WordPress?
Unlike XML sitemaps that are submitted to search engines for better crawling, HTML sitemaps present an organized list of your pages and posts for your website visitors.
In this article, we’ll show you how to add an HTML sitemap page in WordPress.
What’s the Difference Between XML and HTML Sitemaps?
An XML sitemap is a file that lists your website content in an XML format for search engines like Google and others.
On the other hand, an HTML sitemap is for your actual website visitors. It is a simple page that lists all your posts and pages in an organized way.
Now that you know the difference, let’s take a look at how to add an HTML sitemap page to WordPress using two different WordPress plugins. You can use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
Method 1. Add HTML Sitemap Page in WordPress With All in One SEO
We recommend using the All in One SEO plugin to add an HTML sitemap page in WordPress. It’s the best WordPress SEO plugin in the market used by over 3 million websites and lets you create an HTML sitemap with a couple of clicks.
Note: There is a free version of All in One SEO Lite available which includes the HTML sitemap feature below, but we will be using the premium version in our screenshots because it includes powerful features like smart sitemaps, redirection manager, SEO schema, and more.
Upon activation, the AIOSEO setup wizard will open, which will guide you through setting up the plugin and getting your SEO settings right.
Simply click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button and follow the steps.
After that, you’ll be taken to the WordPress admin dashboard, where you’ll have a new menu option called ‘All in One SEO’.
Then, you need to go to All in One SEO » Sitemaps, click on the ‘HTML Sitemap’ menu option, and make sure the ‘Enable Sitemap’ toggle is turned on.
Next, you can choose how you want to display your HTML sitemap.
For this tutorial, we’ll select the ‘Dedicated Page’ option, but you can also add it as a shortcode, block, widget, and more.
Then, enter the page URL where you want the HTML sitemap to display. The plugin will automatically create a new page for you.
Once you’ve done that, scroll down to the ‘HTML Sitemap Settings’ section.
Here you can customize how your HTML sitemap will display. You have control over what posts and pages will display, taxonomies such as categories and tags, sort order, and more.
You can also turn on ‘Compact Archives’ to display your HTML sitemap in a compact date archive format.
This is similar to how we display our compact archives on our 404 pages here at WPBeginner.
After you’re done customizing your HTML sitemap settings, make sure to click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Now your visitors can view your HTML sitemap and more easily navigate around your website.
If you chose the ‘Dedicated Page’ option above, then you can visit the page by clicking the ‘Open HTML Sitemap’ button.
Method 2. Add HTML Sitemap Page in WordPress With Simple Sitemap
Simple Sitemap is a free plugin that lets you easily add an HTML sitemap to your WordPress website.
Once the plugin is activated, you can open an existing page, or create a new HTML sitemap page by navigating to Pages » Add New.
Adding an HTML Sitemap With Simple Sitemap Using Blocks
This plugin has newly added Gutenberg blocks that you can use to simply add an HTML sitemap page.
All you need to do is click the ‘Plus’ icon, then select the ‘Simple Sitemap’ option.
Another block included with this plugin is the ‘Simple Sitemap Group’ that creates a branching visual sitemap. But, we’re going to use the ‘Simple Sitemap’ block for this tutorial.
Once you add the block, it will automatically create your HTML sitemap.
On the right-hand menu, you have customization options where you can choose to display ‘Posts’ or ‘Pages’, or both together.
In the box under ‘Select post types to display’, simply enter ‘Post’ or ‘Page’ to choose what you want to display.
Next, you can change how the list displays by changing the ‘Orderby’ or ‘Order’ drop-downs.
You can also display the excerpt for the pages or posts listed, and enable or disable links. However, we’re going to keep the default plugin settings to keep our HTML sitemap simple and easy to browse.
Once you’ve finished customizing your HTML sitemap page, click ‘Publish’ or ‘Save’ if you’re updating an older page.
When your visitors go to your HTML sitemap, they’ll see a navigation page that looks similar to the one below.
Adding an HTML Sitemap With Simple Sitemap Using Shortcodes
Another way to add an HTML sitemap to WordPress is by using a shortcode. This gives you more control over the placement of your HTML sitemap and works for those who are using the classic editor.
Simply create a new page by navigating to Pages » Add New, then give your new page a name.
After that, click the ‘Plus’ icon to add a new block to your page.
Then, type ‘shortcode’ into the search box and select the ‘Shortcode’ block.
After that, simply copy and paste one of the following shortcodes into the text editor. The first shortcode will list your posts by category, and the second shortcode will list your pages.
[simple-sitemap-group]
[simple-sitemap]
Once you’ve done that, click ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ to save your changes.
In this case, you would want your HTML sitemap to show pages in the proper hierarchical order.
Here is how you can add an HTML Sitemap with only pages.
Simply add this shortcode to the page where you want to display your HTML sitemap. Follow the same steps above to add the shortcode to a new WordPress page.
[simple-sitemap]
This is how it will display your HTML sitemap with all your WordPress pages listed in a hierarchical list.
Do you want to create a restaurant website with WordPress?
A restaurant website can help attract new customers and grow your business. It can also provide a better experience for your existing customers and keep them coming back to your restaurant, cafe, takeaway, or similar business.
In this article, we will show you how to create a restaurant website with WordPress.
Why Create a Restaurant Website?
A website is one of the best ways to market your restaurant to new customers and provide a better experience for your existing clients.
By creating an online presence for your restaurant, you can introduce your business to people who are looking for venues and food just like yours.
After a potential customer discovers your business, a professionally-designed and helpful restaurant website will tell them everything they need to know about your business. They can then decide whether your restaurant is right for them.
Even if you have lots of loyal customers and a positive reputation in the local area, a restaurant website can help you improve the customer experience.
For example, it can allow customers to book a table online, send you questions using a convenient contact form, check out the latest menu, and much more.
In this way, a restaurant website can keep your customers happy, so they carry on visiting you for months, or even years to come.
That said, let’s see how you can easily create a restaurant website with WordPress.
Which Is the Best Website Builder for Your Restaurant?
There are many website builders that can help you create a restaurant website but we recommend using WordPress.
According to our blogging research statistics, WordPress is the most popular website platform in the world. It powers nearly 43% of all websites on the internet including many top restaurant websites.
WordPress is also open-source and free. For more on this topic, see our article on why WordPress is free.
However, it’s important to realize that there are two types of WordPress software, so you don’t choose the wrong one.
First, there is WordPress.com, which is a blog hosting platform. Then, there is WordPress.org which is also known as self-hosted WordPress.
For a restaurant website, we recommend using WordPress.org because it gives you complete ownership of your site and allows you to install third-party plugins, including plenty that are designed specifically for restaurant owners.
To learn more about why we recommend WordPress to all our readers, please see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.
A domain name is your website’s address on the internet. This is what customers will type into their browsers to reach your website, such as justeat.com or tacobell.com.
Web hosting is where your website lives online. To help you out, we’ve hand-picked some of the best WordPress hosting that you can buy for a restaurant website.
Although the WordPress software is free, hosting and domain names are where the costs can really start to add up.
A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. This is a lot for restaurants that already have bills and expenses to pay.
Thankfully, Bluehost has offers a free domain name, and our readers can get 60% off on web hosting. Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world, and an official WordPress-recommended hosting partner.
They’re also offering our readers a free SSL certificate. If you want to accept payments online, then an SSL certificate will help keep the customer’s credit and debit card information safe.
You can click the button below to get started for as little as $2.75 per month.
Once there, you will need to go to the Bluehost website in a new tab and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.
This will bring you to a pricing page where you can choose a hosting plan for your website.
We recommend choosing a Basic or Plus plan, as they’re the most popular web hosting plans among our readers.
After selecting a plan, click on ‘Continue.’
On the next screen, you’ll need to choose a domain name.
Ideally, the domain name will be easy to pronounce and spell, easy to remember, and related to your business. The name of your restaurant is a great place to start, but sometimes that domain may already be taken by another business.
In that case, you can try extending the domain name by adding your restaurant’s location, your own name, or the type of food you serve.
After choosing a name, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.
Now you’ll need to provide your account information such as your name and email address. After that, you’ll also see optional extras that you can purchase.
We generally don’t recommend purchasing these extras straight away, as you can always add them later on if you need them.
After that, simply type in your payment information to complete the purchase.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll get an email with instructions on how to login to your web hosting control panel. This is your hosting account dashboard where you can manage your restaurant website, including setting up email notifications and asking for WordPress support.
It’s also where you’ll install the WordPress software.
Step 2. Create a New WordPress Website
When you signup with Bluehost using our link, Bluehost installs WordPress on your domain name automatically.
If you want to create a different WordPress website, then you can simply click on the ‘My Sites’ tab in the Bluehost dashboard.
Next, just click on the ‘Add Site’ button and select ‘Create New Site.’
The Bluehost wizard will now guide you through the setup process.
First, you’ll need to type in a site title and optional tagline.
Click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.
After that, Bluehost will ask you to select a domain name and path for your restaurant website. If you’ve already purchased a domain name, then you can simply select it from the dropdown menu.
If you don’t have a domain name then you can buy one by visiting the ‘Domains’ page inside the Bluehost dashboard.
After choosing a domain name, you can leave the directory path blank and let Bluehost fill it in for you. The installer will also show a few must-have WordPress plugins that you may want to install on your restaurant website including OptinMonster.
After that, click on the ‘Next’ button and the installer will set up your restaurant site.
Once it’s finished, you’ll see a ‘WordPress installed successfully’ message with information about your new website. You can now go ahead and click on the ‘Log into WordPress’ button.
This will take you to your site’s admin area.
You can also log in to the WordPress dashboard by simply going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/ directly from your browser.
Your typical restaurant website needs special features, like the ability to show a menu, photos, location information, business hours, and more.
With that in mind, it makes sense to look for a theme that’s designed for the food or hospitality industry. To help you out, we’ve collected the best WordPress restaurant themes.
You can also use a website and landing page builder plugin such as SeedProd.
After installing your theme, you may want to customize it by going to Appearance » Customize in the WordPress dashboard.
This will launch the theme customizer where you can fine-tune the theme settings and see your changes in the live preview.
If you’re using one of the newer full site editing themes, then you’ll see the option for Appearance »Editor, which uses blocks similar to the content editor to customize your site.
Pro Tip: No matter what theme you’re using, neither the default WordPress customizer nor the full site editing offers a user-friendly drag and drop customization experience. For that reason, we recommend using a page builder like SeedProd to customize your theme.
Just remember that you can always return to this screen and continue customizing your theme. You can even completely change your WordPress theme at any point.
Step 4. Create a Custom Home Page
WordPress has two two default content types called posts and pages.
You’ll typically use posts to create articles and blogs. By default, the home page shows these posts in reverse chronological order, so the newest content appears at the top of the list.
You might use a blog to build a stronger relationship with their customers, improve your WordPress SEO, and get more traffic to your restaurant website. For example, you could write about recipes, share cooking tips, or blog about the latest restaurant industry news.
However, even if you plan to publish blog posts, you typically won’t show these on the home page. Instead, we recommend creating a custom home page that introduces your business to new visitors.
Once you’re happy with the page’s design, it’s time to set it as your home page. To do this, go to Settings » Reading in the WordPress dashboard.
Here, scroll to ‘Your homepage settings’ and select ‘A static page.’
Next, open the ‘Homepage’ dropdown and choose the page that you want to use.
Then, simply scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes.’ Now, if you visit your website you’ll see the new home page in action.
If you are going to write blogs, then make sure you create a separate blog page to display your posts. If you don’t, then customers will struggle to find your latest WordPress blogs.
Step 5. Create an Online Restaurant Menu
Even long-term, loyal customers may want to look at your menu from time to time. By publishing your menu online, customers can look at it any time of day or night.
Publishing a menu can also help convince new customers to visit your restaurant.
It is possible to upload PDF files to your WordPress website. However, downloading a PDF menu can be difficult depending on the customer’s data plan and internet connection, and they’re non-responsive so they can be hard to read on some devices.
Plus, if you add new dishes or change your pricing, then you’ll also need to upload a completely new PDF.
For that reason, we recommend using SeedProd to add an online menu to your WordPress website. SeedProd also allows you to create a mobile responsive menu that looks great on every device.
You can also easily update the menu as you add new dishes, change the prices, remove dishes, and more.
SeedProd even comes with a ‘Menu Sales Page’ template that’s perfect for creating a menu.
Many restaurants allow customers to order food online. For example, you might give customers the option to pre-order their meal or place an order for delivery.
It may sound technical, but you can easily add online food ordering to your website using the WPForms plugin.
WPForms is the best WordPress form builder that allows you to create online order forms for all kinds of products and services.
It even comes with a ready-made ‘Takeout Order Form’ that you can customize to suit your restaurant website.
Every time someone completes the form, WPForms will notify you automatically so you can start working on that order straight away.
If you don’t want to accept cash on delivery, then WPForms supports all of the best payment gateways including PayPal and Stripe. This allows you to accept payments securely online, which is quick and convenient for your customers.
Today, most people expect to be able to book appointments through an automated system.
By adding a booking form to your restaurant website, you can accept reservations at any time of the day or night. You’ll never lose another customer just because you weren’t around to answer the phone.
Booking forms can also automate a lot of the booking process. This includes collecting payments and emailing your customers to remind them about their upcoming booking.
You can easily add a restaurant booking form to your website using WPForms. This plugin has a ready-made dinner reservation form template that you can customize for your restaurant.
WPForms also integrates with all of the top email marketing providers. This makes it easy to send reservation confirmation emails to your customers.
As their booking approaches, you can even send the customer a reminder email, ask them to share any dietary requirements, send a pre-order form, and more.
While visitors could ring your phone number or send a message to your business email address, we always recommend adding a contact form to your website.
Most of the best contact form plugins come with built-in spam protection, so you won’t get any contact form spam. A form will also collect consistent information from visitors, so you’ll have all the data you need to write a helpful reply.
The easiest way to add a contact form to your WordPress website is by using the free WPForms plugin.
This free plugin comes with a built-in Simple Contact Form template that you can quickly customize using the drag and drop editor.
Then, simply add the form to any page, post, or widget-ready area using the ready-made WPForms block.
Once you’ve added some content to your restaurant website, you’ll want to help visitors find their way around those pages and posts by adding a navigation menu.
No matter what theme you’re using, WordPress makes it really easy to add menus and sub-menus to your restaurant website.
Step 10. Add Social Proof to Your Restaurant Website
Social proof is one of the best ways to earn customer trust, and convince new people to visit your restaurant. After all, we’re more likely to try things that we see other people buying, using, or recommending.
Using this plugin, you can create a hashtag feed and show photos that customers have tagged your account in. This includes photos of your food, venue, and shots of customers having fun at your restaurant.
Customer reviews and testimonials can provide visitors with more information, and may even solve any question or worries customers have about visiting your restaurant.
If you want to show reviews from other platforms like Yelp or Google My Business, then there’s also plenty of customer review plugins for WordPress that you can use.
These plugins will collect reviews automatically and then organize them into a nice layout on your restaurant website.
We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to create a restaurant website with WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress security guide and our expert pick of the must have WordPress plugins that you should install on all business sites.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Are you looking for a way to keep spammers and scammers from stealing your WordPress blog posts using content scrapers?
It is very frustrating as a website owner to see that someone is stealing your content without permission, monetizing it, outranking you in Google, and stealing your audience.
In this article, we’ll cover what blog content scraping is, how you can reduce and prevent content scraping, and even how to take advantage of content scrapers for your own benefit.
What Is Blog Content Scraping in WordPress?
Blog content scraping is when content is taken from numerous sources and republished on another site. Usually, this is done automatically via your blog’s RSS feed.
Unfortunately, it is very easy and very common to have your WordPress blog content stolen in this way. If it’s happened to you, then you understand how stressful and frustrating it can be.
Sometimes your content will be simply copied and pasted directly to another website, including your formatting, images, videos, and more.
Other times, your content will be reposted with attribution and a link back to your website, but without your permission. Although this can help your SEO, you may want to keep your original content hosted on your site only.
Why Do Content Scrapers Steal Content?
Some of our users have asked us why scrapers are stealing content. Usually, the main motivation for content theft is to profit from your hard work:
Affiliate commission: Dishonest affiliate marketers may use your content to bring traffic to their site through search engines in order to promote their niche products.
Lead Generation: Lawyers and realtors may pay someone to add content and gain authority in their community, and not realize it is being scraped from other sources.
Advertising Revenue: Blog owners may scrape content to create a hub of knowledge in a certain niche ‘for the good of the community’ and then plaster the site with ads.
Is It Possible to Completely Prevent Content Scraping?
In this article, we’ll show you some steps you can take to reduce and prevent content scraping. But unfortunately, there is no way to completely stop a determined thief.
That’s why we finish this article with a section on how you can take advantage of content scrapers. While you can’t always stop a thief, you may be able to gain some traffic and revenue through the content they have stolen from you.
What Should You Do When You Discover Someone Has Scraped Your Content?
Since it’s not possible to completely stop scrapers, you may one day discover that someone is using content they stole from your blog. You may wonder what to do when that happens.
Here are a few approaches that people take when dealing with content scrapers:
Do Nothing: You can spend a lot of time fighting scrapers, so some popular bloggers decide to do nothing. Google already sees well-known sites as authorities, but that’s not true of smaller sites. So this approach is not always the best in our opinion.
Take Advantage: While we actively work at having content scraped from WPBeginner taken down, we also use a few techniques to get traffic and make money from scrapers. You can learn how in the ‘Take Advantage of Content Scrapers’ section below.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how to prevent blog scraping in WordPress. Since this is a comprehensive guide, we have included a table of contents for easier navigation.
1. Copyright or Trademark Your Blog’s Name and Logo
Trademark and copyright laws protect your intellectual property rights, brand, and business against many legal challenges. This includes illegal use of your copyrighted material or your brand’s name and logo.
You should clearly display a copyright notice on your website. While your content is automatically covered by copyright laws, displaying a notice will let you know that your content is copyrighted and that they cannot use your protected properties for business.
This may discourage some users from stealing it. It will also help in the case that you do need to send a cease and desist letter or file a DCMA complaint to take down your stolen content.
You can also apply for copyright registration online. This process can be complicated, but luckily there are low-cost legal services that can help small businesses and individuals.
Since blog content scraping is usually done automatically via your blog’s RSS feed, let’s look at a few helpful changes you can make to your feed.
Don’t Include the Full Post Content in Your WordPress RSS Feed
You can include just a summary of each post in your RSS feed instead of the full content. This includes an excerpt as well as post metadata such as the date, author, and category.
There is certainly debate in the blogging community about whether to have full RSS feeds or summary feeds. We won’t get into that now except to say that one of the pros of having a summary only is that it helps prevent content scraping.
You can change the settings by going to Settings » Reading in your WordPress admin panel. You need to select the ‘Excerpt’ option, and then click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Now the RSS feed will only show an excerpt of your article. If someone is stealing your content through your RSS feed, then they will only get the summary, not the full post.
There are other ways you can optimize your WordPress RSS feed to protect your content, get more backlinks, increase your web traffic, and more. One of the best ways is to delay posts from appearing in the RSS feed.
The benefit is that when you delay posts from appearing in your RSS feed, you give the search engines time to crawl and index your content before it appears elsewhere, such as on scraper’s websites. The search engines will then see your site as the authority.
The safest and easiest way to do this is using WPCode because it has a recipe that automatically adds the correct custom code to WordPress.
In the early days of blogging, trackbacks and pingbacks were introduced as a way for blogs to notify each other about links. When someone links to a post on your blog, their website will automatically send a ping to yours.
This pingback will then appear in your blog’s comment moderation queue with a link to their website. If you approve it, then they get a backlink and mention from your site.
This gives the spammer an incentive to scrape your site and send trackbacks. Luckily, you can disable trackbacks and pingbacks to give scrapers one less reason to steal your content.
4. Block the Scraper’s Access to Your WordPress Website
One way to stop scrapers from stealing your content is to take away their access to your website. You can do this manually by blocking their IP address, but most users will find it easier to use a security plugin such as a web application firewall.
Block the Scraper Using a Security Plugin (Recommended)
Blocking scrapers manually is tricky and a lot of work. Especially since many hacking attempts and attacks are made using a wide range of random IP addresses from all over the world. It’s almost impossible to keep up with all those random IP addresses.
That’s why you need a Web Application Firewall (WAF) such as WordFence or Securi. These act as a shield between your website and all incoming traffic by monitoring your website traffic and blocking common security threats before they reach your WordPress site.
For the WPBeginner website, we use Sucuri. It is a website security service that protects your website against such attacks using a website application firewall.
Basically, all your website traffic goes through the security service’s servers where it is examined for suspicious activity. They automatically block suspicious IP addresses from reaching your website altogether. See how Sucuri helped us block 450,000 WordPress attacks in 3 months.
Manually Block or Redirect the Scraper’s IP Address
Advanced users may also wish to manually block a scraper’s IP address. This is more work, but you can specifically target the scraper’s address once you learn it. Web developer Jeff Star suggests this approach when he wrote about how he handles content scrapers.
Note: Adding code to website files can be dangerous. Even a small mistake can cause major errors on your site. That’s why we only recommend this method for advanced users.
You can find the scraper’s IP address by visiting ‘Raw Access Logs’ in the cPanel dashboard of your WordPress hosting account. You need to look for IP addresses with an unusually high number of requests and keep a record of them, say by copying them into a separate text file.
Tip: You need to make sure that you don’t end up blocking yourself, legit users, or search engines from accessing your website. Copy a suspicious-looking IP address and use online IP lookup tools to find out more about it.
Once you are confident that the IP address belongs to a scraper, you can block it using the cPanel ‘IP Blocker’ tool, or by adding code like this in your root .htaccess file:
Deny from 123.456.789
Make sure you replace the IP address in the code with the one you want to block. You can block multiple IP addresses by entering them on the same line separated by spaces.
Instead of simply blocking the scrapers, Jeff suggests you could send them dummy RSS feeds instead. You could create feeds full of Lorem Ipsum and annoying images, or even send them right back to their own website, causing an infinite loop and crashing their server.
To redirect them to a dummy feed, you will need to add code like this to your .htaccess file:
It’s not just your written content that you need to protect. You should also prevent image theft in WordPress.
Like text, there is no way to completely stop people from stealing your images, but there are plenty of ways to discourage image theft on a WordPress website.
For example, you can disable hotlinking of your WordPress images. This will mean that if someone scrapes your content, their images will not load on their site.
While most scrapers use automatic tools, some content thieves may try to manually copy all or part of your content.
One way to make this more difficult is to prevent them from copying and pasting your text. You can do this by making it harder for them to select the text on your website.
However, this will not completely protect your content. Remember, tech-savvy users can still view the source code or use the Inspect tool to copy anything they want. Also, this method will not work with all web browsers.
Also, keep in mind that not everyone copying your text will be a content thief. For instance, some people may want to copy the title to share your post on social media.
That’s why we recommend you only use this method if you feel it’s truly needed for your site.
7. Take Advantage of Content Scrapers
As your blog gets larger, it is almost impossible to stop or keep track of all content scrapers. We still send out DMCA complaints. However, we know that there are tons of other sites that are stealing our content that we just cannot keep up with.
Instead, our approach is to try to take advantage of content scapers. It’s not so bad when you see that you’re making money from your stolen content, or receiving a lot of traffic from a scraper’s website.
Make Internal Linking a Habit to Gain Traffic and Backlinks from Scrapers
But there is a second benefit when it comes to scraping. Internal links will get you valuable backlinks from the people who are stealing your content. Search engines like Google use backlinks as a ranking signal, so the additional backlinks are good for your SEO.
Lastly, these internal links allow you to steal the scraper’s audience. Talented bloggers place links on interesting keywords, making it tempting for users to click. Visitors to the scraper’s website will also click the links, which will lead them straight back to your own website.
Auto Link Keywords With Affiliate Links to Make Money from Scrapers
If you make money on your website from affiliate marketing, then we recommend enabling auto-linking in your RSS feeds. This will help you maximize your earnings from readers who only read your website via RSS readers.
Even better, it will help you make money from the sites that are stealing your content.
You can use the All in One SEO plugin to add custom items to your RSS footer. For example, you can add a banner that promotes your own products, services, or content.
The best part is that those banners will appear on the scraper’s website as well.
In our case, we always add a little disclaimer at the bottom of posts in our RSS feeds. By doing this, we get a backlink to the original article from the scraper’s site.
This lets Google and other search engines know we are the authority. It also lets their users know that the site is stealing our content.
Are you wondering whether you should start a blog or YouTube channel?
Blogging and vlogging are good ways to engage with your audience and grow your brand’s credibility. We are often asked by readers which they should start first blog vs YouTube?
In this article, we’ll explain our pick on blog vs YouTube and which you should start first with detailed explanation of our take.
TLDR: we recommend you start with a blog and add a YouTube channel later if needed
This is a comprehensive guide, so we’ve included a table of contents for easier navigation:
A blog is a type of website where articles, called ‘blog posts’, are presented in reverse chronological order with newer content appearing first. Blog posts are a great way to share your expert knowledge with your audience, build credibility, and attract visitors to your site.
If you want to start an online business, or communicate better with your existing customers or audience, then you should think about starting a blog.
Blogs typically present information in a conversational style and are run by individuals or a small group of people. However, there are now tons of corporate blogs that produce a great deal of useful informational and thought-leadership content.
Typical blog posts also have a comments section where users can respond to the article by making comments or asking questions.
Blogging has been around since 1993 and has become an essential marketing tool for many businesses. But is it still relevant in the age of YouTube and social media?
Why Starting a Blog Is so Important Today
There are currently 1.9 billion websites in the world, and over 600 million are blogs. That means that blogs make up a third of the web.
Blogging has become an important marketing strategy for businesses due to its benefits. You or your business can use a blog to promote ideas, brands, stories, products, and more.
Here are some of the more important benefits of blogging and why you should consider starting a blog.
1. A Blog Will Bring More Traffic to Your Website
A typical business website consists of a few important pages. For example, you may have a homepage, landing pages for your products and services, and a contact page.
Unfortunately, search engines may often decide that your website is less important than thousands of other websites in the same industry, especially if they have been around longer.
That’s a major reason to start with a blog rather than a YouTube channel because YouTube videos will attract traffic to the YouTube platform instead of your own website. You own and control your blog, while the YouTube platform is owned by Google and will benefit them.
2. A Blog Will Help Strengthen Brand Recognition and Build Authority
A blog helps you strengthen your brand identity. It gives you more opportunities to use your custom logo across your website, your social profiles, search results, and more.
This brand recognition when combined with customer trust and authority adds enormous value to your digital assets.
Adding a blog allows you to establish authority by regularly publishing content on topics related to your industry.
If you are consistently publishing new content, you’ll become the go-to place for your users and other businesses interested in those topics.
3. A Blog Will Help You Generate More Leads and Conversions
More than 70% of people visiting your website today, will never find it again. That’s because there is so much content and information on the internet.
Starting a blog will help you convert website traffic into potential leads, subscribers, and social media followers.
For example, you can use tools like OptinMonster to build an email list and grow a social media following. And with push notifications, you can send targeted messages to your blog visitors and bring them back to your website.
4. A Blog Will Help You Build an Engaging Audience
A static website doesn’t leave much room for a conversation. Why not add a blog to your site where users can engage by leaving a comment and sharing your posts on social media?
This helps you build a community around your business which is extremely useful.
It will help your visitors develop an affinity with your brand which pays off when they are looking to make a purchase or recommend your products and services to friends and family.
5. A Blog Will Let You Educate Customers and Share News
Blog posts allow you to educate customers about different ways they can use your products. This will allow you to compare your product with competitors, showcase product features, inform users about benefits, and more.
They’re also the best place to share your business news, announcements, and sales events.
For instance, if you are launching a Black Friday sale, you can promote it with a blog post. And then promote that blog post across your website with a floating header or footer banner.
6. A Blog Will Let You Build Additional Revenue Streams for Your Business
Blogs provide many opportunities to generate additional revenue and make money online. For instance, you can display ads in your blog posts using Google AdSense.
You can also promote affiliate products and make money with affiliate marketing or use your blog to sell premium content using MemberPress or Easy Digital Downloads.
7. A Blog Helps You Repurpose Content for Other Marketing Channels
Adding a blog to your website allows you to actively use blog content across your other marketing channels, such as making YouTube videos based on blog post content.
For example, we use our written WPBeginner tutorials as a helpful starting point for creating YouTube videos. This makes our video producers’ jobs easier and saves time. Then we embed the YouTube videos into the tutorial so our visitors can choose to read or watch the content.
Still not convinced? You can learn even more reasons to start a blog by taking a look at our article on the benefits of blogging.
Starting a Blog vs Starting a YouTube Channel
Now that you know about some of the benefits of blogging, you can see why we recommend that you start a blog first, and then add a YouTube channel in the future if you need.
Let’s summarize the most important points. When you build a blog, you are creating a platform that you own and control. The content you create will attract visitors to your website where they can learn more about your products and services.
On the other hand, the YouTube platform will always be owned by Google. The search traffic generated by your content will take people to the YouTube website, not your own.
Creating blog posts first also makes it easier to create other types of content, such as YouTube videos. Usually, the first step in creating a video is to write a script. Because you have already created written content on your blog, a lot of the work is already done.
Besides that, creating YouTube videos requires expensive equipment such as a camera and lighting, and you’ll also need to purchase video editing software and learn how to use it.
Finally, your blog is the perfect place for your visitors to watch your YouTube videos. You can easily embed YouTube videos in a blog post, giving your visitors the choice of watching or reading your content. That’s a great user experience.
What You Need to Start a Blog
We know that starting a blog can be a terrifying thought specially when you are not geeky. Guess what – you are not alone.
You may also want to pay someone to design your website and purchase premium plugins to add features. The total cost will depend on your needs and goals.
The good news is that you can build a fully functional WordPress website for yourself and keep your costs under $100. Bluehost, an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider, has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.
Even better, when you signup with Bluehost using our link, they will automatically install WordPress for you, so you can start building your blog right away.
All you need to do is log in to your Bluehost account, and then click the ’Log in to WordPress’ button to get started.
After that, you will need to set up your WordPress install, choose a theme and some plugins, then get started on your first blog post.
We take you through the entire process step by step in our beginner’s guide on how to start a WordPress blog. We’ll summarize the main steps below.
The end result will be an attractive and functional blog that you own.
Selecting a Theme to Customize Your Blog’s Appearance
Customizing the look and feel of your blog is by far one of the most exciting and rewarding parts of the journey of creating your WordPress blog.
WordPress comes with a powerful templating engine that allows you to change the appearance of your website by installing themes.
There are thousands of free and paid WordPress themes available. You can choose one that looks closer to what you have in mind for your website.
You can look for themes under the Appearance » Themes page. It will show you a bunch of default themes that come with your WordPress install.
For more themes, click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top to find more free themes.
Once you have selected your WordPress theme, you are now ready to create your first blog post. You just need to click on the Posts » Add New menu in your WordPress dashboard.
You will see an editor area where you can write your first blog post.
WordPress uses a block-based editor that allows you to create beautiful content layouts for your blog posts.
Once you’re done writing, go ahead and click on the Publish button on the top-right corner of the screen to make your blog post publicly available.
On the posts screen, you will notice several other sections such as Categories and Tags. You can use these to organize your blog posts into sections. We have a great write-up on the difference between categories vs tags, which we highly recommend that you read.
A lot of pro bloggers choose their specific topics strategically by doing keyword research. This helps their content rank higher in Google searches and get more traffic.
We have a step-by-step guide on how to do keyword research for beginners using the exact same method that we use on WPBeginner.
Extending and Growing Your Blog With Plugins
Once you publish your first blog post, you’ll probably want to get started with adding other usual elements on your website such as a contact page, galleries, sliders, and an email list. To add all these additional features, you need to use plugins.
Plugins are like apps for your WordPress website. They allow you to add new features and extend the functionality of WordPress without writing any code.
There are more than 60,000 free plugins available in the WordPress.org plugin directory alone. Plus, there are premium WordPress plugins sold by third-party developers with priority support and guaranteed updates.
However, you also need to consider which plugins you need to use to keep your WordPress website secure, private, and anonymous.
Here are our top picks of the best plugins to grow your blog.
All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market and helps your anonymous website get more traffic from search engines.
SeedProd is a powerful WordPress page builder that allows you to use a drag-and-drop interface to create any type of page for your website.
MonsterInsights is the best WordPress Google Analytics plugin which helps you see where your visitors and coming from and what they see on your website.
OptinMonster is a conversion optimization software, which helps you convert website visitors into email subscribers and customers.
WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin and allows you to easily create forms for your website.
WordPress is the largest publishing platform on the planet, and it powers over 43% of all websites. Many bloggers have successfully monetized their blogs, and you can too.
Unlike other articles on how to make money online, this is a comprehensive guide on how to make money at home legitimately, using blogging and WordPress.
Many of these methods require some investment of time and money to get started. As long as you’re willing to put in the effort, you’ll reap the reward.
