54 Best ChatGPT Prompts for Bloggers, Marketers, and Social Media

Are you looking for ChatGPT prompts ideas to improve blog and marketing strategy?

ChatGPT prompts are the instructions that you type in ChatGPT AI to speed up your workflow. You can use ChatGPT to draft social media posts, come up with blog post ideas, and so much more. The key to getting best results with AI is to make your ChatGPT prompts better and more specific.

In this article, we’ll share the best ChatGPT prompt ideas for bloggers, marketers, and social media, so you can improve your marketing results.

Ultimate list of ChatGPT prompt ideas

This article will cover a lot of topics, so you can click on any of the links below to jump to a particular section that best suits your needs.

What is a ChatGPT Prompt?

A ChatGPT prompt is the starting point of a conversation in the form of a question or instruction given to an AI language model like ChatGPT.

ChatGPT is an AI-based software that uses machine-learning technology called Natural Language Processing.

To see it in action, you need to sign up for ChatGPT by visiting the OpenAI website.

Signup for ChatGPT

After that, you’ll see a simple chatroom. At the bottom, you can input your prompt in plain language.

For instance, ‘How old is the Universe?’ and hit the send button.

Entering your text prompt in ChatGPT

ChatGPT AI will then respond to your question in plain language.

The answer length and style may vary based on the prompt you entered.

ChatGPT conversation view

Writing better prompts allows AI to narrow down its approach and provide you with more specific details.

If you want to start a blog, then ChatGPT can help you find article ideas, the article outline, rough drafts, SEO optimization, proofreading, research, and more.

Many bloggers and marketers are exploring opportunities to generate content ideas using AI.

By learning some quick prompt ideas, you can speed up the process and unlock maximum benefits from ChatGPT AI to improve your workflow.

Note: ChatGPT and other AI apps are usually not able to create content that can be simply copied and pasted without any human edits. When you use an AI tool, be sure to go through the results thoroughly to be sure that all information is correct and that the messages are appropriate for your audience.

How to Write Better ChatGPT Prompts?

ChatGPT uses natural language processing which means you can write your prompts in a plain conversational style.

For instance, instead of typing a smaller sentence, you can instruct GPT on how to respond, which style to use, length limitations, ask for examples, and more.

Instead of asking ‘What is Marketing?’ a better prompt would be:

‘Write an essay on marketing for beginners, in a 1 3 1 format, emphasize the role of social media and search engine marketing, and persuade users to have a positive image of search engine marketing.’

Longer prompt example

While writing your prompts in natural language might seem really simple, many beginners may still be unsure about where to start. It can take a lot of practice to find a style of prompt that works best for your projects.

That being said, let’s take a look at some easy and quick ChatGPT prompt ideas bloggers and marketers and marketers can use to succeed.

Using AIPRM Extension to Generate ChatGPT Prompts

The easiest way to generate ChatGPT prompts is by using AIPRM for ChatGPT.

It is a Google Chrome browser extension with a curated list of ChatGPT prompts for SEO, blogging, content creation, and marketing.

Go to the AIPRM for ChatGPT extension page on the Chrome web store and then click the Add to Chrome button.

AIPRM for ChatGPT

Once the extension is added to your browser, it will automatically take you to the ChatGPT website.

If it doesn’t, you can click on the extensions button in your browser menu and click on the AIPRM for ChatGPT to launch it in a new tab.

AIPRM ChatGPT prompts

You’ll need to sign in to your OpenAI account. After that, you will see a curated list of ChatGPT prompts.

At the time of writing this article, AIPRM had 1600+ ChatGPT prompts.

You can browse the prompts by Topic and Activity, sort them, or search for specific prompts from the top toolbar.

Browse ChatGPT prompts

To use a prompt, simply click on it and it will appear in the prompt toolbar below.

If the prompt you are using requires user input, then you can provide it in the chatbox.

For instance, here it wants us to enter a keyword that we would like to target to make a content calendar.

User input requried for the prompt

You can also choose language, style, and tone for your response.

Hit the enter button after entering your input and ChatGPT will respond to the prompt.

You can regenerate a response or ask ChatGPT to modify or extend it by adding your instructions into chat.

You won’t be able to see the prompt that AIRPM uses at first. However, refreshing the page or switching back and forth between chats will reveal the actual prompt at the beginning of the chat.

Switch chats

AIPRM makes it extremely easy to find detailed, tested, and well-written prompts that you can use on your WordPress website.

Best ChatGPT Prompt Ideas for Bloggers and Marketers

With so many prompt ideas available with AIPRM extension, it could still be a bit overwhelming for users to find or use a prompt.

Here is our top pick of the most useful ChatGPT prompt ideas for blogs, SEO, and marketing.

Blogging ChatGPT Prompts

1. Generate a month-long content calendar targeting specific keywords.

“Make me a month-long calendar for the following keywords [Enter Keywords here]. Add [number of articles] articles each week, and use persuasive SEO-friendly titles for each article.”

2. Generate Blog Post Ideas

“Create a list of at least 10 blog post ideas on the following topics: [Enter topics separated by commas]. Suggest SEO-Friendly title for each post, and use an emotional and persuasive tone in post titles.”

3. Generate SEO title and meta description for a blog post

“Suggest at least 5 SEO-friendly titles and meta descriptions for the following blog post [Enter your blog post text here]. Use a persuasive and intriguing tone.”

4. Suggest tags for a blog post

“Suggest at least 5 tags for the following blog post [Enter your blog post text here].”

5. Generate related long-tail keywords for a blog post

“I want you to generate a list of long-tail keywords that are related to the following blog post [Enter blog post text here].”

6. Create an article outline

“Write an article outline for the following topic [Enter topic or blog post title here].”

7. Write an article on a specific topic

“Write an article on the following topic [Enter topic here]. The article should be at least [number of words] words in length. Use a persuasive tone and pretend to be an expert on the topic.”

8. Outrank a competitor for a specific keyword

“Write an article based on the topics covered in the following article [Enter competitor URL here]. Make the article more comprehensive than the URL provided by adding details that the source URL has missed or didn’t cover. Answer the most commonly asked questions about the topic at the end of the article.”

9. Write a motivational blog post

“I want you to write a motivational blog post about overcoming [fear/failure/challenge goes here].”

10. Generate call-to-action ideas

“I want you to come up with 5 effective call-to-action button ideas based on the contents of the following URL [Your website or landing page URL goes here].”

11. Generate a pros and cons outline for a topic

“Write down an essay on the pros and cons of [Your topic goes here].”

12. Write questions for an interview blog post

“Write interview questions for a blog post with [Guest Name] who is an expert in [Guest profession or area of expertise].”

13. Proofread a text and optimize it for the focus keyword

“I want you to act as SEO editor and copywriter. I need you to proofread and analyze the following text and optimize it for the focus keyword. I also need you to correct any grammar mistakes you find in the article. Ask me to provide you with the article text and focus keyword.”

14. Reuse a blog post for social media content

“I want you to act as a topic authority and social media influencer. I will provide you with the text or URL of an article. You need to summarize it and create content for social media platforms. Ask me to provide you with the text or URL of the article.”

15. Generate a list of tools to mention in a blog post

“Create a list of the most popular tools used by the [Field of Interest] professionals with the pros and cons of each tool.”

16. Write a conclusion for a blog post

“I want you to pretend to be a topic expert, and write a persuasive conclusion for the following blog post. [Your blog post text goes here].”

17. Come up with best practices for using something

“Pretend to be a topic expert and write down an essay on the best practices to follow when using [mention the tool or topic here].”

18. Write a comparison blog post

“I want you to pretend to be a topic expert and compare [Item 1] vs [Item 2] with pros and cons. I need you to show that [item 1] is better than [item 2] and persuade the reader to have a positive feeling about [item 1].”

19. Build reader personas to learn more about a target audience

“Build a reader persona for a blog post titled “[Your blog post title goes here].”

20. Polish your content to look more creative

“Analyze and improve the following content to make it more creative. Use an [Select tone style] tone and write in a casual and conversational style. “[Your content goes here]”

Social Media ChatGPT Prompts

21. Generate captions for Instagram posts, reels, and reels.

“Write an Instagram post description or caption using a few sentences for the post about “[Enter a description of what your Instagram post is about]”. Start the caption with an intriguing sentence and don’t make the first sentence a question. Use emojis in each sentence and add a paragraph after two sentences to make it more readable. Add the most popular hashtags related to the post.”

22. Write an Instagram post about a product / service

“Write an Instagram post promoting [product/services] using a few sentences. Start the post with a captivating sentence and end with a sentence including a call to action to check the link in bio. Use emojis and add the related hashtags at the bottom.”

23. Generate Instagram carousel ideas with slide descriptions

“Write me an Instagram carousel topic idea example. Also, write slide by slide with titles. Explain each slide with the exact content example I should use, not instructions. Also, give me images for every slide that explain all the titles for [Your Instagram Carousel Topic Here]. Do not include content instructions, instead, only write me an actionable text that I can just copy and paste.

After writing the carousel slides. Write me the Instagram post description/caption in just a few sentences. Format every new sentence with new lines so the text is more readable.

Include emojis and the best Instagram hashtags for that post.
The first caption sentence should be intriguing and captivating to the readers.”

24. Write Twitter Bio

“I want you to write an interesting Twitter bio for a [Your brand niche and industry / Profession ].”

25. Suggest Twitter Header Image Ideas

“Give me at least 5 ideas to create a Twitter header image for a [Profession/Industry niche].”

26. Generate Tweets for a specific profession, niche, or business

“I want you to act as a social media manager and come up with at least 20 Tweets for a [Profession/ Business niche or industry] include popular hashtags in each tweet.”

27. Generate a viral Twitter thread

“I am looking for a Twitter thread idea that will go viral and showcase [mention your service, product. or blog] to the ideal customer persona in a creative and engaging way. Include hashtags and emojis in each tweet.”

28. Generate a Twitter content strategy

“I need you to act as my social media manager promoting [Describe your business or brand and what it does]. Generate a Twitter content calendar for the next two weeks. Generate at least three tweets for each day targeting relevant customer persona. Include hashtags and emojis in each tweet.”

29. Generate YouTube Video Description

“Write a unique and intriguing description for a YouTube video titled [Enter your video title here]. Pretend you are an expert on the niche and give your personal best advice in 1st person. Explain why you thought sharing this video would be useful and what users will get out of watching this video.”

30. Generate an entire YouTube video script

“Create an attractive and captivating YouTube video script that is informative. I want you to create a persuasive headline, write a video description repeating keywords used in the headline, cite relevant keywords and tags, create the youtube video script and suggest ideas for a persuasive thumbnail to use for the video, from the following description: [Your video description].”

31. Create thumbnail Ideas for Your YouTube video

“Give me at least 3 ideas for creating an interesting and persuasive thumbnail for a YouTube video using the following description: [Enter your video description].”

32. Generate a YouTube content strategy with video ideas

“I want you to act as my social media manager promoting [mention your brand and what services or products it offers] and come up with a content calendar for our YouTube channel. Give me a monthly calendar of posts with at least one video each week. Suggest video ideas with detailed descriptions of what that particular video will be about. Include keywords and hashtags for each video.”

33. Generate a LinkedIn content calendar with post ideas

“I want you to act as my social media manager for my [Explain your business, brand, profession, and what you typically write about]. I need you to create a month-long content calendar with at least one post each day. Write the post for me including the relevant hashtags and use emojis. Write posts specifically for LinkedIn. My target audience is [companies/professionals interested in my brand product or services].”

34. Write a LinkedIn About section

“I want you to act as my social media manager for my [Explain your business, brand, or profession and what you usually post about]. Give me at least 5 examples of an interesting About section for my LinkedIn profile.”

35. Write a caption for Facebook Photo

“I want you to act as my social media manager and write at least 5 captions for a Facebook photo about [explain what the photo is about]. Use hashtags and emojis in the caption.”

36. Write a Facebook Ad Copy

“I want you to act as a professional copyrighter with experience in writing high-converting Facebook ads. I want you to write a Facebook ad copy for the following products/services [Describe your brand name, products and services you offer]. Produce ad copy that is between 100-150 words, with an attention-grabbing headline and a strong call to action that persuades users to take action. I want you to research the potential target audience and optimize the ad copy so that it appeals to that particular target audience.”

37. Plan a Facebook content strategy

“I want you to act as my social media manager promoting [explain your business brand and what you offer]. I need you to provide me with a two-week content calendar for Facebook posts that are highly engaging and generate emotional responses from the readers. Add one post for each day, using hashtags and emojis.”

E-Commerce ChatGPT Prompts

38. Write an eCommerce product description

“I want you to pretend that you are an eCommerce SEO expert who writes compelling product descriptions. I will provide you with one product title and I want you to come up with three distinct content sections for product description, each section should have its own headline.”

39. Write an eCommerce product short description

“I want you to pretend that you are an eCommerce SEO expert who writes compelling product descriptions. I will provide you with one product title and I want you to come up with a short product description of between 250-300 characters.”

40. Generate product ideas for your eCommerce store

“I want you to pretend as a product specialist for an eCommerce store with a specialty in finding and sourcing products to sell online. My store sells [define your store industry and product types] and I need you to come up with a list of [number of product ideas] product ideas that I can sell on my online store.”

41. Write an SEO Optimized landing page copy for a product

“I want you to pretend as a copywriter specializing in writing landing page copy for better SEO rankings and higher conversions. I need you to write the landing page copy for [Your product name]. I want you to start with an intriguing headline to captivate the target audience followed by a call to action button. Below that I want you to add three content sections with different headings each targeting a specific keyword for the product. I need you to end the landing page copy with a FAQ section answering at least 5 customer questions about the product.”

42. Create and sort products into product categories

“I need you to sort the products into product categories. Ask me to provide you with a list of products. Use hierarchal categories and create child categories as needed. Products can be placed into multiple categories. Show which products are placed under a category. Write a catchy short description for each category. Use this product list [enter your product list].

43. Create an ad strategy for an eCommerce product

“I want you to act as an advertiser. You will create a campaign to promote a product or service. You will choose a target audience, develop key messages and slogans, select the media channels for promotion, and decide on any additional activities needed to reach your goals. The product you will be promoting is: [Enter your product title and description here].”

ChatGPT Prompts for Businesses

44. Polish an email text to be more effective and professional

“Fix this email to write it in a human voice in perfect English, as someone with a charismatic personality, that is extremely professional and concise with their language. Also, give at least three samples to use as the email subject. [Enter your email text here].”

45. Write a job posting ad for hiring

“I want you to act as a recruitment manager specializing in finding talented professionals for a job. I need you to write a job posting for [job title] we are offering the following benefits [mention benefits here] and we are looking for [job requirements such as experience and skills].”

46. Generate a business model canvas

“I need you to help me create a business model canvas for a [explain what your business is about] company. Organize your answers in a table that reproduces the original format used in consulting. I want you to write detailed answers that are focused on adding value and act as an expert consultant in digital marketing.”

47. Generate logo design ideas

“I want you to act as a graphic designer specializing in brand identity development. I want you to come up with detailed ideas for unique and interesting logos for a business. Come up with at least 3 ideas and mention what is unique about each idea and how it is different from the other two ideas. The business name is [Enter your company name] and it offers [mention products/services]. I need you to present your ideas in a format that can be given to a professional graphic designer as initial instructions.”

48. Instantly generate domain name ideas

“I need you to help me find domain name ideas for a business. My company name is [enter business name] and it offers [products/services/industry]. Only give .com domain name ideas. domain name should not be more than 8 characters long.”

49. Write an email to terminate an employee

“Write an email to an employee informing them that they are being fired for the following reason [mention the reason for firing]. Make the email text sound professional and polite. Use a sympathetic and kind tone and thank the employee for their work.”

50. Write a job offer email

“I want you to write a job offer email using the following parameters:
1. Candidate name
2. Job position
3. Company name
4. Salary offered
Ask me to input these parameters one by one before writing the email.”

Miscellaneous ChatGPT Prompts

51. Generate a cover letter for a job application

“I need you to write me a professional cover letter to send with a job application using the following parameters:
1. Job Title
2. Years of Experience
3. Skills to mention
Ask me to input each parameter one by one before writing the cover letter.”

52. Plan your day

“I need you to help me plan my day. Starting at 9 am and ending at 5 pm. Ask me to input the task I will be performing and then ask me for the start time and end time for that particular task. Repeat until the end time of a task is 5 pm. Create a table and add one row for each task with start time, end time, and task detail as columns.”

53. TL:DR Summarize a text or article

“I want you to act as a very proficient researcher. I want you to pretend that you can extract all relevant information from a text or a URL I give you. Your task is to extract all facts and summarize the text in all relevant aspects, presented in bullet points and a 1-liner summary, pick a good matching emoji for each bullet point, and then add it after the 1-liner summary. Ask me to input text or provide you a URL.”

54. Generate a list of popular websites on any topic

“I want you to act as a topic expert. I will provide you with a topic and you will provide me with a list of at least 10 most influential websites on that particular topic. Present the websites in a table with serial number, website name, website URL, 1-liner website summary as columns. Ask me to provide you with a topic.”

Bonus WordPress AI Plugins & Tools Using ChatGPT

AI usage is becoming increasingly popular among marketers and bloggers. As the most popular blogging platform, WordPress has tons of add-ons and plugins that you can use to speed things up.

1. All in One SEO for WordPress

As the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market, All in One SEO comes with built-in ChatGPT integration to generate SEO-friendly headlines and meta descriptions.

Add your SEO post title

2. Uncanny Automator

Uncanny Automator is the best WordPress automation plugin on the market. It allows your WordPress plugins to talk to each other.

It comes with OpenAI integration that allows you to connect your WordPress website to ChatGPT.

Uncanny Automator OpenAI integration

You can then use ChatGPT with WordPress or your plugins to automatically perform certain tasks.

For instance, when a user submits a contact form you can use ChatGPT to create a new post in WordPress.

3. GPT AI Power

Allows you to generate content inside your WordPress admin area. It allows you to choose the writing style, tone, call to action, and more.

You can then copy the content and paste it into the block editor to create a new post or page and further editing.

GPT AI Power plugin settings

For details, see our tutorial on how to write content using AI in WordPress.

4. Imaajinn AI

Finding royalty-free images for blog posts is always a challenge for bloggers. Similar to Dall-E, Imajinn AI uses text prompts to generate images using machine learning AI.

All the images generated by the plugin are copyright-free and you can use them in your blog posts.

Imajinn AI WordPress plugin

To learn more, see our tutorial on how to use AI to generate images in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you find some useful ChatGPT prompt ideas for your blog and marketing campaigns. You may also want to see our pick of some more useful AI-powered WordPress plugins or take a look at our guide on how to grow your business online.

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 54 Best ChatGPT Prompts for Bloggers, Marketers, and Social Media first appeared on WPBeginner.

Weekly WordPress News: Microsoft Uncover Search Ads Targeting Based on Categories

Microsoft has introduced a fresh strategy for search advertising that intends to assist enterprises in efficiently connecting with their desired retail media audience. This inventive approach, which focuses on categories, is designed to overcome the constraints of conventional keyword targeting while using the potential of keywords to enhance campaign effectiveness. Marketers possibly miss out on [...]

Read More...

The post Weekly WordPress News: Microsoft Uncover Search Ads Targeting Based on Categories appeared first on Learn WordPress with WPLift.

How to Easily Add CSS Animations in WordPress

Do you want to add CSS animations in WordPress?

Animations are a great way to grab the visitor’s attention and highlight a page’s most important content. They can also encourage customers to click on your call-to-action buttons and links.

In this article, we will show you how you can easily add CSS animations in WordPress.

How to easily add CSS animations in WordPress

Why Add CSS Animations in WordPress?

You can use CSS animations to draw the visitor’s attention to different parts of a page. For example, if you have an online store then animations can highlight a product’s most important features or biggest selling points.

Animations will also make your CTAs stand out, which can help you reach a specific goal such as getting more people to subscribe to your email newsletter.

You can add CSS animations to your theme or child theme‘s stylesheet. However, this takes a lot of time and effort, and it can break your website’s design and even function if you make a mistake.

With that being said, let’s see how you can easily add CSS animations to your WordPress site. If you prefer to jump straight to a particular method, then you can use the links below.

Method 1. How to Easily Animate Any WordPress Block (Quick and Easy)

The easiest way to add a simple CSS animation is by using Blocks Animation.

This free plugin allows you to add an entrance animation to any block without having to write a single line of CSS. It also has a typing animation and a ticker-style effect that you can add to text and numbers.

A count animation, created using the Animation Blocks plugin

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, open any page or post in the WordPress editor. Then, simply click on the block that you want to animate and select the ‘Block’ tab in the right-hand menu.

You’ll see this menu has a new ‘Animations’ section.

How to animate any WordPress block

Simply click to expand the ‘Animations’ section, and you’ll see three different options: Animations, Count Animations, and Typing Animations.

‘Animations’ are short effects that play once when the page loads. To add this kind of entrance animation to your WordPress blog, just click on the dropdown next to ‘Animation.’

Adding a CSS animation to WordPress using a free plugin

This opens a menu where you can choose the animation you want to use.

The WordPress editor will show a preview of the animation, so you can try different options to see what looks the best.

Adding loading animations to WordPress

By default, the entrance animation will play as soon as the page loads, but you can add a delay if you prefer. If you use multiple animations on the same page, then you can even use delays to stagger your animations so they’re not overwhelming.

Simply open the ‘Delay’ dropdown and choose a time from the list.

How to add loading CSS animations to WordPress

You can also make the animation faster or slower using the ‘Speed’ dropdown.

As you’re trying different settings, you can preview the animation at any point by clicking on ‘Replay Animation.’

Previewing CSS animations in WordPress

The plugin also has ‘Count Animations’ and ‘Typing Animations.’

Typing Animations allow you to animate text, while Count Animations add a ticker-style effect to numbers. These animations work with any block that supports text or numbers, so you can use them to animate buttons, image captions, headings, and more.

To add either of these effects, start by highlighting the text or numbers that you want to animate. Then, click on the downward arrow in the small toolbar.

Adding a typing animation to a text block

You can now choose ‘Count Animations’ or ‘Typing Animations’ from the dropdown menu.

If these options are grayed out, then make sure you’ve highlighted the right content. For example, you won’t be able to select ‘Count Animation’ if you’ve only highlighted text.

Creating typing animations with a WordPress plugin

After adding the animation, you can change the speed and add an optional delay using the dropdown menus in the small popup.

For example, in the following image, we’re using a delay of one second.

Adding a typing animation to WordPress

When you’re ready to make the CSS animation live, either click on the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button. Now, if you visit your WordPress website you’ll see the animation live.

Method 2. How to Add CSS Animations to Custom Pages (Recommended)

If you want to add simple animations to the built-in WordPress blocks, then Blocks Animation is a good choice. However, if you want to really grab the visitor’s attention, keep people on your website, and get more conversions then we recommend using SeedProd.

SeedProd is the best page builder plugin that allows you to create beautiful landing pages, sales pages, and more using a simple drag-and-drop editor.

It also comes with an ‘Animated Headline’ block that you can use to create rotating and highlighted animated headlines.

An animated headline created using SeedProd

Despite the name, you can use the Animated Headline block to animate any text including a call to action, subheading, or any other text that you want to emphasize.

SeedProd also comes with over 40 entrance animations that you can add to any block including images, text, buttons, videos, and more.

SeedProd entrance animations

You can even animate entire sections and columns with just a few clicks. In this way, you can create engaging animated pages within minutes.

If you’re using animations to get more conversions and sales, then SeedProd integrates with WooCommerce and supports many of the top email marketing services you may already be using to promote your website.

How to Setup the SeedProd Page Builder

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

Upon activation, you need to enter your license key.

SeedProd license key

You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website. After adding the license key, simply click on ‘Verify Key.’

Create a Custom Page Design

To get started, go to SeedProd » Landing Pages and click on ‘Add New Landing Page.’

Creating a new landing page with SeedProd

On the next screen, you’ll be asked to choose a template.

SeedProd comes with over 180 beautiful templates that are organized into different categories such as 404-page templates and custom WooCommerce ‘thank you’ pages.

For this guide, we’ll show you how to create a sales page with animated text and entrance animations, but the steps will be similar no matter what kind of page you create.

Simply click on any tab to see the different templates within that category.

The SeedProd template library

When you find a template you want to use, just hover your mouse over it and then click on the checkmark icon.

We’re using the ‘Zen Sales Page’ template in all our images, but you can use any template.

Selecting a sales template in SeedProd

Next, you need to give the page a title.

SeedProd will automatically create a URL based on the page title, but you can change this to anything you want. For example, adding relevant keywords to a URL can often improve your WordPress SEO and help the page appear in relevant search results.

To learn more, please see our guide on how to do keyword research for your WordPress blog.

When you’re happy with the title and URL, click on ‘Save and Start Editing the Page.’

Adding a title to a custom page design

This will load the SeedProd drag-and-drop page editor.

On the right, you’ll see a live preview of the page design, with some settings on the left.

The SeedProd page editor

SeedProd comes with lots of blocks that you can add to your design, including blocks that allow you to add social share buttons, videos, contact forms, and more.

For more information, please see our guide on how to create a custom page in WordPress.

How to Add Animated Text to WordPress

To add some animated text to the page, find the Animated Headline block and drag it onto your page design.

The SeedProd Animated Headline block

There are two ways to animate your headline. First, the ‘Highlighted’ style adds a shape animation to your text, such as a circle or an underlined zigzag.

You can use this animation to draw attention to a particular word or phrase inside the headline. This can make your headline easier to read and understand by highlighting the most important content. It’s also a great way to draw attention to a call to action.

Adding a CSS animation to a headline in WordPress

The Highlighted style also has a few strikethrough shapes.

You can use strikethroughs to create interesting and eye-catching effects, or it can simply add some fun to your design.

A strikethrough animation created with SeedProd

To create a Highlighted animation, just open the ‘Style’ dropdown and select ‘Highlighted.’

Next, open the ‘Shape’ dropdown and choose a shape. When you click on a shape, SeedProd will show a preview of that animation, so you can try different shapes to see which one you like the most.

A curly CSS animation created with SeedProd

SeedProd also has a ‘Rotating’ animation style, which adds a transition effect to the text.

Often, animated text is the first thing visitors look at when a page loads, so it’s a great way to highlight the most important piece of text.

To create a transition animation, simply open the ‘Style’ dropdown and click on ‘Rotating.’

You can then open the ‘Animation’ dropdown and choose the type of transition you want to use, such as fade, zoom, or roll. Again, SeedProd will play the animation inside the page editor so you can try different effects to see which you prefer.

A transition animation in WordPress

No matter whether you’re creating a ‘Highlighted’ or ‘Rotating’ animation, you can add text before and after the animated text.

Simply type into the ‘Before Headline’ and ‘After Headline’ fields. In the ‘Text’ field, add the word or phrase that you want to animate.

If you want to animate the whole headline, then simply leave the ‘Before Headline’ and ‘After Headline’ fields empty.

Animating an entire headline in WordPress

By default, SeedProd will play the animation on a loop, which some visitors may find annoying.

To only play the animation once, click to deactivate the ‘Infinite Loop’ switch.

Disabling the infinite loop animation settings

By default, the animation will play for 1200 milliseconds after an 8000 milliseconds delay.

To use different values, type into the ‘Duration’ and ‘Delay’ fields. For example, you can make the animation faster by using a shorter duration.

Changing the animation duration

You may also want to style the text. For example, you can change the font size and alignment.

When you’re happy with how the animated headline looks, go ahead and click on the ‘Save’ button to store your changes.

Saving a CSS animation in WordPress

Add Entrance Animations in WordPress

Entrance animations play when the page first loads, so they’re a great way to catch the visitor’s attention.

You can also use them to highlight the content visitors should look at first. For example, if you have an online marketplace then you might animate the product’s hero image, or the banner advertising your Black Friday sale.

Inside the SeedProd editor, simply click on the content you want to animate, and then select the ‘Advanced’ tab in the left-hand menu.

Adding entrance animations using SeedProd

You can then go ahead and click to expand the ‘Animation Effects’ section.

After that, simply choose an animation from the ‘Entrance Animation’ dropdown.

Adding entrance animations using SeedProd

You can now add entrance animations to any block, section, or column simply by following the same process described above.

Publish Your CSS Animations in WordPress

When you’re happy with how the page is set up, click the dropdown menu on the ‘Save’ button and select ‘Publish.’

Publishing a WordPress landing page

You can now visit this page to see the CSS animations live.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add CSS animations in WordPress. You may also go through our ultimate guide to boost speed and performance, or see our list of the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them.

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

The post How to Easily Add CSS Animations in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

The Importance of Mobile Compatibility in Responsive Themes

Nowadays, most people use smart devices for quick fact-checking, grocery shopping, ordering clothes, and everything else in between. So, if you’re thinking about starting a blog or eStore your site must be responsive.  What most newcomers to the WordPress community fail to realize is the importance of mobile compatibility in responsive themes, which is why [...]

Read More...

The post The Importance of Mobile Compatibility in Responsive Themes appeared first on Learn WordPress with WPLift.

Know the Role of Page Load Speed in Responsive Themes

An overwhelming abundance of evidence indicates that responsiveness and speed are the two essential factors that determine the website’s performance on all devices.  Hence, the primary role of page load speed in responsive themes is to ensure users don’t have to wait for more than a few fractions of a second for a page to [...]

Read More...

The post Know the Role of Page Load Speed in Responsive Themes appeared first on Learn WordPress with WPLift.

WordPress Widgets vs Blocks – What’s the Difference? (Explained)

Are you trying to understand the difference between WordPress widgets vs blocks?

WordPress widgets and blocks are both used to add dynamic content elements to posts, pages, sidebars, and templates. Widgets have been a core part of WordPress for 16 years, while blocks have only been a part of the platform since 2018. They serve similar functions, but they aren’t the same.

In this article, we’ll explain the difference between WordPress widgets and blocks, so you can learn how to use them properly.

Understanding the difference between WordPress widgets and blocks

Here is a quick overview of the topics we’ll cover in this article.

What are WordPress Widgets?

WordPress widgets are dynamic-content elements that you can add to widget-ready areas like sidebars.

Widgets were introduced in WordPress 2.2 (May 2007). The purpose was to provide users with an easy way to add customizable elements to their website without having to repeatedly insert the same element at the end of blog posts, for instance, or edit their WordPress theme files to create a sidebar and manually code in something like Google AdSense tracking codes.

Users could simply insert content or features using widgets that didn’t have to be part of their overall theme files or blog posts.

Widgets made it much easier for users to create their ideal WordPress blog, letting them easily add banner ads or email sign-up forms.

Gradually, almost all WordPress themes adapted widgets by adding widget-ready areas in their design and layouts. These were most often sidebars and footers.

The WordPress widget editor looked like this until WordPress 5.8 was released in 2021.

Old widgets screen

What are Blocks in WordPress?

Blocks are the elements that users can add to an area using the WordPress content editor. WordPress switched to this block-based content editor in WordPress 5.0.

You may also see it referred to as the Gutenberg editor, which was its development codename.

Blocks are very similar to widgets because each one handles a single element of the page or post. Unlike widgets, however, blocks were introduced only as part of the post and page editor, which means they could not be easily added to areas like the site footer or sidebar.

A block can be inserted into a post or page for any element, including a paragraph, an image, a gallery, a plugin-specific feature like email signups, or a video embed.

Block editor in WordPress

There are also blocks to add design layout elements like covers, patterns, tables, columns, groups, and more.

To learn more, see our complete WordPress block editor tutorial which shows how to use the default editor to create beautiful content layouts.

The Difference Between Widgets vs Blocks in WordPress

Until WordPress 5.8, the difference between widgets and blocks was quite obvious.

Users added widgets to their theme’s widget-ready areas. They were primarily used to display elements that were not post/page content. For instance, recent posts lists, important links, banner ads, forms, and more.

However, the difference between widgets and blocks has become quite blurry now.

Widgets are self-contained elements that can be used in widget-ready areas like sidebars on a WordPress website.

Blocks are also self-contained elements that you can access through the block editor. They can be used in posts and pages, as well as widget-ready areas. You can also use them in templates if your theme has enabled the full site editor.

Widgets were the first to allow developers to output other elements like contact forms, testimonials, social media feeds, and more.

However, the same can be achieved using blocks. Many of the top WordPress plugins now come with blocks that you can add anywhere.

Plugin blocks

For instance, WPForms comes with a contact form block that you can add anywhere to display a form.

Similarly, All in One SEO comes with blocks for the table of contents, HTML sitemap, breadcrumb navigation, and more.

The Block-Based Widget Editor

WordPress planned to adapt the block editor for editing all areas of your website including the widget-ready areas.

To make this happen, the new block-based widget editor was introduced in WordPress 5.8.

Users were now able to use blocks in widget-ready areas of their themes.

Block widget editor

Widgets are still located under the Appearance » Widgets menu.

However, if you are using a block-based theme that doesn’t have any defined widget-ready areas, then you may not see it under there. You will see Appearance » Editor instead.

Site editor with no widgets screen

Many of the legacy WordPress widgets already have blocks that can do the same thing.

Click on the add new block button (+) and you will find a bunch of blocks categorized as Widgets.

Widget blocks

These are still blocks, but they are just categorized as widgets so that users can understand that these blocks behave like legacy widgets.

However, if a user still needed to use a legacy widget that doesn’t have an alternative block, then they can do so by using the Legacy Widgets block.

Legacy widget block

If a WordPress plugin has a block that you can add to the posts and pages, you can now also use the same block in widget-ready areas.

Theme developers can also create custom blocks that users can add to different areas of their websites.

The Future of WordPress Widgets

WordPress is moving forward towards using a more intuitive and unified way to edit the content on a WordPress website.

This means that older widgets will no longer be available going forward. WordPress themes and plugin developers are already adapting and adding support for the block editor in their products.

However, many WordPress themes still use older widgets. Similarly, many WordPress plugins still use shortcodes and legacy widgets.

If you still need to use the old widgets, then you can disable block widgets in WordPress.

The simple way would be to do it by using the free WPCode plugin which allows you to customize WordPress without adding dozens of plugins.

It has a pre-made snippets that you can use to disable block widgets.

Select the Disable Widget Blocks snippet from the WPCode library

Alternatively, you can also use Classic Widgets plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the plugin will simply replace the block-based widget editor with the older widget page.

Note: Classic Widgets plugin will only be supported until 2024. After then, the plugin will not be updated or maintained this is why we recommend using WPCode to future-proof your customization.

Blocks vs Widgets – Which One is Better?

We recommend users start using the new block-based widgets editor as soon as possible because that’s the direction WordPress development is heading.

It is easy to use, modern, and more flexible than the previous Widgets screen.

If a WordPress plugin or theme on your website doesn’t support block-based widgets, then you can reach out to the developer and ask them to convert their widgets into blocks.

If they don’t have plans to release an update, then you can easily find alternative plugins or themes to replace them.

We hope this article helped you understand the difference between WordPress widgets vs blocks. You may also want to see our pick of the best block plugins for WordPress or see our guide on the difference between the block editor vs page builders.

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 WordPress Widgets vs Blocks – What’s the Difference? (Explained) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Nextiva vs RingCentral vs Ooma: Which is Better? (Compared)

Are you comparing Nextiva vs RingCentral vs Ooma to find out the best VoIP provider for your business?

Many small businesses rely on phone services to communicate with customers and Nextiva, RingCentral, and Ooma are among the top business VOIP providers on the market.

In this article, we’ll compare Nextiva vs RingCentral vs Ooma to help you decide which one is the best small business VoIP provider.

Comparing Nextiva vs RingCentral vs Ooma

Comparing Nextiva vs RingCentral and Ooma VOIP Services

Many small businesses use VoIP phone services for sales, customer support, and team collaboration.

Nextiva, RingCentral, and Ooma are considered among the top VoIP providers for small businesses.

They offer toll-free numbers, virtual numbers, cheaper local and international call rates, easier team collaboration, and more.

Business phone services is a highly competitive industry and all of our top three contenders offer similar features and pricing. This makes it difficult for small business owners to choose one of them for their business.

To make this easier, we’ll do a side-by-side comparison of Nextiva, RingCentral, and Ooma for the best business VoIP service providers.

We’ll look into the following criteria.

That being said, let’s take a look at Nextiva vs RingCentral vs Ooma to find out which one is the best small business VOIP provider.

Pricing Comparison

Pricing is one of the top deciding factors for small businesses looking for a VoIP service provider.

All three of our contenders offer very competitive pricing for similar features. However, they use a variable pricing model based on the number of users, plan duration, and features.

This makes it difficult to decide which VoIP service provider is cheaper for small businesses.

Nextiva Pricing

Nextiva has a variable pricing model where your pricing changes based on the number of users, payment duration, and feature plans.

For instance, you can get started for $18.95 per user each month (paid annually) if you have more than 20 users.

Nextiva pricing

If you have fewer than 4 users, then you can get started for $23.95 per user each month (paid annually).

This means that your costs will go down as your team size grows and you need to add more users to your account.

RingCentral Pricing

RingCentral pricing plans use a slightly different pricing model.

Their Essential plan starts at $19.95 per user each month (paid annually) for up to 20 users.

RingCentral pricing

This means that if you have a smaller team of fewer than 20 users, then you can save some money and have room for growth too.

Ooma Pricing

Ooma offers pretty straightforward fees. Their rates differ based on which plan you choose regardless of the number of users.

This means that if you choose the Essential plan, then you will pay at the same rate when your team grows.

Ooma Pricing

Ooma only offers month-to-month payment plans which means you pay as you go and can easily cancel at any time.

Winner: Tie – All three of our contenders offer similar pricing that is very close to each other.

Feature Comparison

Perhaps the most important thing when choosing a VoIP provider is the features they offer.

Nextiva, RingCentral, and Ooma all offer a ton of features with each of their business phone service plans.

However, you’ll need to choose one based on your own requirements. For instance, video conferencing may not be important for some small businesses, while it could be a deal breaker for others.

Another important thing to consider is which pricing plan includes the features you need. As all of them offer different sets of features for each VoIP plan.

Nextiva Features

As one of the best business VoIP providers on the market, Nextiva offers a unified communications platform with the most value-to-money features.

  • Unlimited domestic calls in US and Canada
  • HD voice quality
  • Free local and toll-free number plus number porting allows you to bring your existing number as well.
  • Voicemail, voicemail to email notifications, voicemail to SMS, voicemail transcription
  • Support for desk phones, conference phones, and other telephone devices you may want to use.
  • Apps for browsers, iPhone, Android, and desktop computers
  • Video meetings and conferencing
  • Call logs, call recording, call routing, auto attendant, IVR, and more.

Plus, you can share the same number with different team members.

Contact management features make it super easy to follow up on calls and don’t let the leads slip away.

You can also integrate your own CRM software or use Nextiva CRM for better lead management.

Basically, you can run your own small cloud-based call center at the fraction of the cost with highly advanced features to save you time and resources.

RingCentral Features

When it comes to features RingCentral gives tough competition to Nextiva.

They offer all the business phone features that a small business would need and then some more.

  • Unlimited calling for the US and Canada.
  • Free local and toll-free phone numbers.
  • SMS and voicemail support
  • Team messaging
  • Voicemail to text alerts
  • Video meetings and conferencing
  • Desk phone support
  • You can receive calls on the go using your phone or laptop
  • Real-time call analytics

RingCentral offers all common VoIP phone features like call forwarding, number sharing, call waiting, call management, and more.

It also has integrations for popular CRM software like Salesforce, Zendesk, and more.

Ooma Features

Ooma Office offers a bunch of features in their VoIP plans that will help you grow your small business.

However, some features are available in their more expensive plans. For instance, you can only get access to the Desktop app and text messaging with their PRO plan.

Following are the features you can expect to get based on the plan you choose:

  • Local and toll-free numbers
  • Unlimited local calls to the US, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico
  • Call features like recording, call waiting, voicemail, and more.
  • Microsoft Dynamics, Office 365, and Google integrations are available
  • Salesforce Integration (only with Pro Plus plans)

While Ooma offers the most commonly requested features for a VoIP provider, it does lack several features offered by the other top contenders.

Winner: Nextiva

Available Integrations

Integrations help you connect your VoIP phone service to other apps and platforms that you may already be using.

Many businesses need integrations with CRM software like Salesforce, Zendesk, Hubspot, and more. This helps them easily manage customer relationships and can keep track of leads without losing them.

Let’s see how our top contenders stack up when it comes to integrations.

Nextiva Integrations

Nextiva offers comprehensive integrations suitable for all types of small businesses.

Nextiva integrations

It has ready-to-use integrations for all the top CRM software, productivity suites, team communication apps, and more.

This includes Salesforce, Zendesk, HubSpot, Zoho, Microsoft Outlook, Google Workspace, Microsoft Teams, and more.

RingCentral Integrations

RingCentral offers an extensive set of integrations as apps and add-ins that you can add to your account.

RingCentral Integrations

They offer several apps for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Dynamics, and more.

Their integrations also cover the top CRM software that you may already be using including Salesforce, Zoho, HubSpot, and more.

Ooma Integrations

Ooma does not offer as many integrations as Nextiva or RingCentral. Their Pro plan offers integration with Google and Microsoft Office 365.

You’ll need to upgrade to their Pro Plus plan to unlock Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 integrations.

Apart from that, you can still use it with your own CRM software but it will be less efficient to track contact history and manage leads within your phone or CRM software.

Winner: Nextiva

Customer Support Options

Unlike traditional phones, VoIP phones are a relatively new technology so many small businesses may need a little bit of help to make the most out of it.

This is why customer support is an important aspect to consider when choosing your VoIP phone service provider.

Let’s compare how our top contenders stack up in terms of customer support options.

Nextiva Customer Support

Nextiva customer support is available through 24/7 live chat, email tickets, and phone.

Nextiva customer support

Plus, they have a comprehensive knowledge base that covers all the commonly asked questions by users.

Finding answers in the knowledge base is fast and easiest way to fix things on your own. However, if you need to speak with someone, then you’ll find their phone and live chat support agents friendly and helpful.

Customer support representatives know their stuff very well and wouldn’t mind going to great lengths to help you out.

RingCentral Customer Support

RingCentral offers support through 24/7 phone, live chat, and email tickets. They also have an extensive library of articles, how-to guides, manuals, and more.

RingCentral customer support

Support response times are fast and representatives are well-trained and highly helpful.

Ooma Customer Support

Ooma offers the same customer support options as the other contenders on the list.

This includes 24/7 live chat support, email tickets, self-help articles, and phone support.

Ooma support

Winner: Tie

Mobile App Comparison

With many businesses switching to a remote or hybrid work model, it is important to consider the mobility of your VoIP service.

This allows remote teams to stay in touch and never miss a call even when away from the desk.

All three of our contenders offer mobile apps for Android and iOS devices. Let’s see how their mobile apps perform against each other.

Nextiva Mobile Apps

Apart from laptop and desk phone systems, Nextiva also offers apps for iOS and Android smartphones.

Nextiva mobile app for iPhone

These apps come with a sleek and easy-to-use interface that allows you to easily make and receive calls, text with team members, manage contacts, and more.

RingCentral Mobile Apps

RingCentral also offers mobile apps for Android and iOS smartphones. These apps are highly intuitive and allow you to easily manage calls while on the go.

RingCentral mobile app

Additionally, RingCentral offers separate apps for Meeting Rooms, which is their video conferencing platform.

Ooma Mobile Apps

Ooma doesn’t offer desktop apps for its Essential plan but it does offer mobile apps for all small business plans including the Essential plan.

Ooma app for Android phones

The app provides easier contact management, and call and text functions. However, user reviews indicate that it does not work very well for many users.

Winner: RingCentral

Conclusion: Nextiva vs RingCentral vs Ooma – Which is The Best Small Business VoIP Provider?

We believe that Nextiva is the best small business VoIP phone provider on the market.

It offers competitive pricing, a ton of features, the best call quality, lower rates for international calls, and a wide range of numbers to choose from (local, international, toll-free, vanity numbers, and more).

→ Click Here to Get Started with Nextiva ←

Note: WPBeginner users can use our Nextiva Coupon to get 20% off when they sign up.

RingCentral comes as a very close second. They offer many of the features offered by their competitors and a slightly better mobile app experience. You can use our RingCentral coupon to get a discount.

We hope this article helped you compare Nextiva vs RingCentral vs Ooma to find out which one is the best VoIP service. You may also want to see our pick of the best email marketing services for small business, or see our article on how to get a free business email address.

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 Nextiva vs RingCentral vs Ooma: Which is Better? (Compared) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Internal Linking for SEO: The Ultimate Guide of Best Practices

Are you looking for the best practices to maximize the SEO benefits of internal links?

Internal links play an important role in search engine optimization (SEO). They help search engines discover your content and rank them higher in search results.

In this article, we’ll list the best practices to use for internal linking for SEO.

Internal Linking for SEO: The Ultimate Guide of Best Practices

How Does Internal Linking Improve SEO in WordPress?

Internal links are links between posts on your own website. Having internal links is important for your WordPress SEO. They help search engines like Google crawl your website and discover new content to index and rank.

Generally, the more links a page has pointing to it, the more likely it is to rank higher in search results. That means that you can use internal links to point to important pages on your site as a way to increase their traffic.

Internal links also help your visitors easily find related articles and provide a better user experience overall. This can also help increase pageviews and reduce your bounce rate.

That being said, let’s take a look at the best practices for improving SEO by adding internal links in WordPress. Since this is a comprehensive guide, we have included a table of contents for easier navigation.

1. Make Internal Linking a Habit

We recommend that you make a habit of linking to your older articles from your new articles.

It’s a great way to develop a contextual relationship between your new and old posts. It also allows you to pass relevant link juice to your older articles.

Because internal links play such an important role in SEO, we have even made it part of our pre-publish blog post checklist for WPBeginner writers.

You can also edit your older articles to add links to your newer content whenever you publish. Many successful bloggers dedicate time to adding internal links that point to new articles on a weekly or monthly basis.

This will help you boost your pageviews, increase the time users spend on your site, and ultimately will improve the SEO score of your individual blog posts and pages.

WordPress makes it easy to search for your old posts right inside the post editor. Simply select the text you want to link and click on the link button in the toolbar that appears.

A text pop-up will appear below your highlighted words. Then, you can start typing to search for the older articles you want to link to.

Add a Link to a Post

To learn more, see our beginner’s guide on how to add a link in WordPress.

It’s helpful to see your website’s SEO performance in terms of links by using a tool such as the Links Report in Google Search Console. This is a helpful starting point for working out how to improve internal linking on your site.

Filter internal links

The Links Report will show you how many pages are linking to this page. You can compare it with other pages and see whether pages with more internal links are ranking higher than posts with many internal links.

If you find that posts with more links do rank higher, then you can go ahead and start adding internal links to pages that you want to rank higher. For the details, see our guide on using Google Search Console to effectively grow your website traffic.

Just make sure you are only linking to the article when it makes sense. Adding links where they don’t make sense creates a bad user experience.

Another way to monitor the impact of internal linking is to see which keywords are gaining or losing position. All in One SEO makes this extremely easy with the Search Statistics feature.

Once you connect the plugin with Google Search Console, All in One SEO will fetch your Google Search Console data and present it under All in One SEO » Search Statistics.

Search statistics dashboard

The keyword positions chart shows a graph of your site’s keyword positions.

Below this, you’ll see the Keyword Rankings overview box. This shows your top 10 keywords, and if you use them for internal links they are very likely to be clicked.

keywords overview

3. Improve Your WordPress Site’s Internal Linking With a Plugin

If you’re not sure which posts you want to link to, then you will often find it faster to add internal links in WordPress using an internal linking plugin.

We recommend using All in One SEO. It includes a unique Link Assistant feature that lets you add links to your old and new content without having to open up the post. Plus, it provides link recommendations, detailed link reports, and much more.

To set up the plugin, see our guide on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress correctly. After that, simply navigate to All in One SEO » Link Assistant in your WordPress dashboard.

Link Assistant will crawl every link on your website and then show a comprehensive list report.

Link assistant overview

The report will show you an overview of the links with total counts for internal, external, and affiliate links. It will also show you the number of orphaned posts that have not yet been linked to from another post or page.

You can switch to the Links Report tab for detailed information on all your links. Here you’ll see a list of all your posts and pages with columns for internal, external, and affiliate links.

Links report

It will also show a number of suggestions where you can add links.

For more details, you can click on the right arrow button next to a post or page. This will show all links organized in different tabs. From the suggestions tab, you can quickly view link suggestions and add links without directly editing a post or page.

View links details

Link Assistant also helps you discover more internal linking opportunities.

You can switch to the ‘Linking Opportunities’ tab to see suggestions about how to improve the internal linking on your website, and also see the list of orphaned posts so you can add links to them.

Linking opportunities

Another plugin useful for internal linking is Semrush SEO Writing Assistant because it can help you keep track of links inside your article.

For example, it lets you know when your article has too many or too few internal links and also suggests ways you can improve your links.

SEO Reporting Assistant Reports Issues With Links

This tool also comes in handy if you have other authors working on articles. Editors can quickly see if the article includes internal links to other posts on your website.

We show you how to use this plugin step-by-step to improve your SEO in our guide on how to use the SEO Writing Assistant in WordPress.

You can use a WordPress popular posts plugin to point users toward the articles that other users have already found helpful. These plugins automatically create a list of internal links to your most popular content.

Popular posts are usually your most successful content, which means they are more likely to increase user engagement, conversions, and sales. They are also a good opportunity for internal linking to your other less popular articles.

For example, MonsterInsights has a feature that allows you to show your popular articles anywhere on your WordPress site. You can use also use inline popular posts to show articles inside your content.

MonsterInsights Inline Popular Posts

If you want to show articles in the sidebar or at the end of your content, then you can select the Popular Post Widget. MonsterInsights even lets you display your top-performing products anywhere on your eCommerce store.

You can learn more in our guide on how to display popular posts in WordPress.

Another way to increase the number of internal links on your WordPress blog is to create roundups of your existing content. You do this by creating a new post that mentions your best articles on a certain subject to give a detailed overview of the topic.

In fact, you’re reading a post like that now.

Luckily, there are some plugins that make this job easy. For example, WP Tasty Roundups allows you to quickly repurpose your existing content into beautiful roundup posts that rank in search results.

All you need to do is type one or two keywords into the built-in search functionality, and the plugin will automatically pull images, titles, descriptions, and links from relevant posts into your roundup list.

WP Tasty Roundups

Sitelinks are a feature on Google search engine results pages (SERPs) where additional sub-pages appear under a website in the search results.

These are often internal links to the most popular pages of that website.

Google Sitelinks Example

The top 3 spots on Google get the most clicks. When sitelinks are shown for a website, it takes up the same amount of space as three regular search listings.

Having this much screen space dedicated to your site significantly increases your overall click-through rate. Simply put, more visitors will visit your website from the keyword.

While there is no guaranteed way to get Google to show sitelinks for your website, it certainly helps to create lots of internal links to your most important posts and pages.

You can learn more in our guide on how to get Google sitelinks for your WordPress site.

Link preloading is a browser technology that will load links in the background before a site visitor clicks them. This makes your website seem faster, which can improve SEO.

Because loading speed is one of the top indicators for search engine rankings and user engagement, when your internal pages are preloaded, your visitors are more likely to stay on your website longer.

They are more likely to view more pages because they’re loading instantly.

The easiest way to preload links is by using the Flying Pages plugin. It simply adds intelligent preloading to make sure preloading won’t crash your site or even slow it down.

Flying Links settings set the preloader delay

We show you how to set up the plugin step-by-step in our guide on how to preload links in WordPress for faster loading speeds.

Broken links are bad for your website’s SEO. Search engine crawlers find new content on your website by following internal links, so a broken link can stop them from indexing a new post.

They also negatively impact user experience because broken links will return a 404 error. If a visitor clicks on a link and is unable to find a page they’re looking for, then they may leave.

The MonsterInsights custom 404 error design

You can easily find and fix broken links on your WordPress website using All in One SEO.

AIOSEO offers a powerful redirection manager that helps track 404 errors on your website and lets you set up permanent 301 redirects to fix broken links.

404 error logs in AIOSEO

To learn more, see our detailed guide on how to find and fix broken links in WordPress.

If you ever move your WordPress site to a new domain name, then it is important to update all internal link URLs. Otherwise, you will have lots of broken links.

You should start by changing the WordPress address and site URL by visiting the Settings » General page from your WordPress dashboard.

Change the WordPress Address and Site URL to Your New Domain

But you will also need to change the URLs of every internal link added to your posts and pages.

You’ll find the simplest way to do this in our step-by-step guide on how to easily update URLs when moving your WordPress site.

If you want to make internal linking a habit, then it helps to use the most efficient method. Since WordPress 6.0, WordPress has supported standard MediaWiki syntax to quickly add internal links when creating or editing a post.

You can now quickly add links by adding two square brackets followed by the post title. The animated gif below shows you how easy this feature is to use inside WordPress.

Add link shortcut

The link will automatically add the correct URL to the post, and use the post title as an anchor link.

If you know the title of a post (or even just part of it), then using the double square bracket method is the fastest way of creating an internal link.

One of the best ways to uncover how users interact with your website is to track which internal links your visitors are clicking. Tools such as MonsterInsights can help you see which internal links your visitors are the most interested in.

You can then use these insights to improve the way you add internal links to your posts and pages.

We offer detailed instructions on tracking different types of links in our guide on how to track link clicks and button clicks in WordPress.

You might also like to see our guide on how to track user engagement in WordPress.

12. Enable Breadcrumbs in WordPress or WooCommerce

Breadcrumb navigation is a term used to describe a hierarchical navigation menu presented as a trail of links.

It’s often used as a secondary navigation that allows users to go up in the website’s hierarchy of pages.

Navigational links preview in WPBeginner

Breadcrumbs are great for internal linking because they define a clean path or trail to the page you are on.

These breadcrumbs also appear in search results giving your site an extra advantage in rankings.

Breadcrumb Navigation Links in Search Results

We cover two ways to add breadcrumbs in our guide on how to display breadcrumb navigation links in WordPress. Most users will find Method 1 easier, using All in One SEO.

The AIOSEO Breadcrumbs Settings Page

You can also use All in One SEO to enable breadcrumbs for your WooCommerce products. For details, see the fifth tip in our guide on WooCommerce SEO made easy.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how the best internal linking practices for SEO. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress security guide, or check out our list of tips on how to increase your blog traffic.

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 Internal Linking for SEO: The Ultimate Guide of Best Practices first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Sell Audiobooks Online (3 Simple & Easy Ways)

Do you want to sell audiobooks online?

By selling your books as downloadable audio files, you can make money without having to pay for shipping or printing. You can also sell the same audio file an unlimited number of times.

In this article, we will show you how to easily sell audiobooks online using WordPress.

How to sell audiobooks online

Why Sell Audiobooks Online?

There are lots of ways to share your experiences or knowledge online. You can create an online course, record a webinar, or even start a podcast.

Another option is recording that information as an audiobook. This is a great way to collect everything you want to say into a single, downloadable file that’s easy to distribute and sell to other people.

Unlike traditional printed books, you don’t have to pay printing or shipping fees for your audiobooks. You also don’t have to worry about physical storage, supplies, or managing your inventory. All of this means lower costs and bigger profits, which makes audiobooks the perfect way to make money online with WordPress.

If you have an ebook, then there are plenty of services that can help you turn it into an audiobook including ACX. Every audiobook you make on ACX will be available on Audible.com, Amazon.com, and iTunes, but it’s also a good idea to add the audiobook to your own website.

With that in mind, let’s see how you can sell audiobooks online. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.

Method 1. How to Sell Audiobooks With Easy Digital Downloads (Recommended)

The easiest way to sell audiobooks online is by using Easy Digital Downloads. Easy Digital Downloads is one of the best eCommerce WordPress plugins, and it’s designed specifically to sell digital products.

How to sell an audiobook in WordPress using Easy Digital Downloads

Unlike general eCommerce plugins, Easy Digital Downloads has the specific features you need to promote, sell, and distribute digital products with ease. This means you don’t have to waste time and effort with unnecessary settings, such as configuring your store’s shipping.

Even better, if you’re using SiteGround then Easy Digital Downloads already comes pre-installed on their EDD plan, so you can start using it straight away.

If you’re using a different hosting provider, then you’ll need to install and activate the Easy Digital Downloads plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to Downloads » Settings in the WordPress dashboard.

The Easy Digital Downloads plugin's settings

Even though you’re selling audiobooks, you’ll need to set your store’s location. This allows Easy Digital Downloads to auto-fill some fields in the order form, which will help improve the customer experience.

Easy Digital Downloads also uses your location to calculate sales tax.

To add your location, simply open the ‘Business Country’ dropdown menu. You can then choose where your business is based.

Setting the location for your audiobook store

Next, find the ‘Business Region’ field.

Here you can open the dropdown and choose the region where your store operates from.

Setting the region for your online audiobook store

After making these changes, go ahead and click on Save Changes to store your settings.

Next, you’ll need a way to accept credit card payments in WordPress by clicking on the ‘Payments’ tab. Then make sure the ‘General’ tab is selected.

Adding payment gateways to your WordPress website

In the Payment Gateways section, check the box next to each gateway that you want to add to your WordPress blog or website.

If you add more than one payment method, then you’ll need to choose a default gateway.

Adding multiple payment gateways to an online store

You can use any gateway you want, but Stripe can accept credit cards as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay. This is why we recommend using Stripe as the default payment gateway.

With that done, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

You’ll now see some new tabs where you can configure each payment method.

Configuring payment gateways including Stripe

Configuring the payment gateway will be slightly different depending on which gateway you’re using, but Easy Digital Downloads will walk you through the process.

Once you’ve set up at least one payment gateway, you’re ready to start uploading audiobooks to your WordPress website.

To create a digital product, select Downloads from the left-hand menu. Then, click on the ‘Add New’ button.

Adding a downloadable audiobook to your WordPress website

You can now type a name for the product into the ‘Enter download name here’ field. This will appear on the audiobook’s page, so you’ll want to use something that catches the visitor’s attention and accurately describes the book.

Next, type out the description that will appear on the ebook’s product page. You’ll want to give visitors all the information they need to decide whether this book is right for them.

Adding a title to a downloable audiobook

Many online stores use product categories and tags to help shoppers find what they’re looking for. If you’re selling lots of audiobooks, then these categories and tags help visitors find related audiobooks, which can get you more sales.

You can create new categories and tags in the Categories and Tags boxes.

Adding categories and tags to a downloadable ebook

For more information, see our step-by-step guide on how to add categories and tags for WordPress pages.

Next, you’ll want to set a price by scrolling to the Download Prices section. Here, type in how much visitors will pay to download the audiobook.

Adding prices to an audio book in WordPress

You’re now ready to upload the audio file that you want to sell. When it comes to audio, WordPress supports mp3, ogg, and wav. It also supports m4a, although this format may not work on all browsers.

Pro Tip: If you want to sell audiobooks in a file type that WordPress doesn’t support, then see our guide on how to allow additional file types in WordPress.

To add an audio file, simply scroll to the Download Files section.

How to upload a downloadable audiobook to WordPress

In the File Name field, type a name for the file that shoppers will get when they buy the audiobook. Then, simply click on ‘Upload a File.’

You can now choose any audio file from the WordPress media library, or you can upload a new audiobook from your computer.

Finally, you’ll need to add a product image, which will usually be your audiobook’s front cover. Simply scroll to the Download Image section and then click on the ‘Set Download Image’ link.

Adding a featured image to your audiobook

This launches the WordPress media library where you can choose an image or upload a new file from your computer.

When you’re happy with your digital download, click on the Publish button to make it live.

Easy Digital Downloads will now create the audiobook as a downloadable product, but visitors still need a way to access the product page.

This might mean adding the page to your website’s menu, creating a sales page where you advertise all your audiobooks, or even adding the book to a custom home page.

No matter what method you choose, you’ll need to know the audiobook’s URL.

To get this link, simply go to Downloads » Downloads. Then, find the audiobook you just created, and click on its ‘Edit’ link.

How to get a link to a downloadable audiobook product

You will then find the URL directly below the product title.

Now, you can link to this product page from any area of your website, simply by using its URL. To learn more, see our step-by-step guide on how to add a link in WordPress.

Easy Digital Downloads also creates a ‘Purchase’ button for this particular audiobook. Visitors can click this button to add the audiobook to their cart.

Adding an audiobook purchase button to an online store

You can add the button for this book to any page, post, or widget-ready area. This allows visitors to start the purchasing process without even Needing to visit the individual product’s page.

To get the audiobook’s shortcode, simply scroll to its Download Settings section. You can then copy the text in the ‘Purchase Shortcode’ field.

Adding an audiobook to your site using a product shortcode

For more information on placing the shortcode, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Every time someone buys an audiobook from your website, Easy Digital Downloads will send them an email and download link.

A purchase receipt for an audiobook

While this email has everything the customer needs to access their download, it’s a good idea to customize it. For example, we recommend adding your own logo and branding.

To customize the default email, simply go to Downloads » Settings. Then click on the ‘Emails’ tab.

Customizing the Easy Digital Download emails

When you’ve finished making changes, you may want to send a test email so you can see how the message will look to your customers.

To do this, simply click on the ‘Send Test Email’ button and Easy Digital Downloads will send an email to your admin email address.

Sending a test email for your downlodable audiobook

Have you clicked on the ‘Send Test Email’ button, but haven’t got a test email? If your site isn’t sending emails correctly, then customers won’t be able to download your audiobook.

With that in mind, you can follow our guide on how to fix the WordPress not sending email issue. You can use WP Mail SMTP to make sure the purchase confirmation emails arrive safely in the customer’s inbox.

When you’re happy with how the email looks, you can go ahead and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

This is all you need to start selling audiobooks online. However, Easy Digital Downloads has lots more advanced features that can help you sell audiobooks.

For more information on Easy Digital Downloads, please see our guide on how to sell digital downloads on WordPress.

Method 2. How to Sell Audiobook Memberships (Best for Recurring Revenue)

Another option is using your audiobooks to create recurring revenue streams.

For example, you might offer members unlimited monthly or annual access to all your audiobooks for a membership fee. In this way, you can get reliable recurring revenue over a longer period of time.

How to add an audiobook to your site using MemberPress

A membership site is also a great choice if you’re releasing your audiobooks as a series.

If you want to get recurring revenue, then MemberPress is the best WordPress membership plugin. It allows you to accept payments, create an unlimited number of membership levels, restrict access to audiobook pages based on membership subscription, and more.

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

Upon activation, go to the MemberPress » Settings page to configure the plugin settings.

How to configure the MemberPress plugin

To start, you’ll need to set up a payment gateway.

Out of the box, MemberPress supports PayPal (Standard, Express, and Pro), Stripe, and Authorize.net. You simply need to select the payment method you want to use and then type in the required credentials, such as your PayPal email address.

Adding a payment gateway to a membership site

You may want to add multiple methods, so members can use their preferred gateway. When that’s done, don’t forget to click on the Update Options button to save your settings.

With the setup out of the way, it’s time to create one or more membership levels. These are the subscriptions that visitors will buy to access your audiobooks, or other content.

MemberPress allows you to offer different content for different membership levels. For example, you might create Bronze, Silver, and Gold memberships and then give members access to different audiobooks.

To create the first membership plan, go to the MemberPress » Memberships page and then click on the ‘Add New’ button.

Adding a membership level to your audiobook website

On the next screen, you’ll need to provide a title for the membership plan and then add details in the post editor.

After that, you can set the pricing, billing type, interval, and expiration under the ‘Membership Terms’ section.

How to sell audiobooks online using MemberPress

Next, scroll to the Membership Options box below the editor.

Here, you can customize the plan permissions and membership options.

Adding a membership level to your WordPress blog or website

When you’re happy with how the plan is set up, go ahead and click on ‘Publish.’ To create more membership levels, simply repeat the same process described above.

Once you’ve created all the membership levels, it’s time to add some access rules. These allow you to restrict access to your audiobooks based on the user’s membership plan.

Just go to MemberPress » Rules and then click on the Add New button.

Adding a new rule to your WordPress membership site

Here, you can create all kinds of access rules, but you’ll typically start by selecting the audiobook that you want to restrict access to.

Under ‘Protected Content,’ open the dropdown menu and choose an option from the list. This might be the specific page where you embedded the audio file, content that has a particular tag, or any other option from the list.

Creating content restriction rules in WordPress

After that, open the ‘Access Conditions’ dropdown and choose ‘Membership.’

In the second dropdown menu, select the membership level people will need in order to access this content.

Creating subscriptions for your audiobooks

There are more settings that you can configure, but this is all you need to create a simple access rule.

When you’re happy with how the rule is set up, click on ‘Save Rule.’ To create more access rules, simply follow the same process described above.

Now that everything is set up, you’ll need to make sure visitors can buy memberships and log into their accounts. Thankfully, MemberPress comes with ready-made forms that you can add to your site.

We recommend adding the MemberPress login widget to a widget-ready area, so members can log in from any page.

Simply head over to Appearance » Widgets and add the ‘MemberPress login’ widget to the sidebar or similar section.

Adding a MemberPress login widget to WordPress

To learn more, please see our guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update’ button to save your widget settings.

There are a few different ways to add a signup page to your website, but MemberPress automatically creates a registration page for each membership level. This means you can simply add these pages to your main navigation menu.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Appearance » Menus. In the left-hand menu, simply click to expand the ‘Memberships’ section.

Adding membership subscriptions to your WordPress website

You’ll now see a list of all the different MemberPress levels.

To add a membership to the navigation menu, simply check the box next to it and then select ‘Add to menu.’

How to sell audiobooks online

For step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to add a navigation menu.

When you’re happy with how the menu is set up, click on ‘Save Menu.’

At this point, you’ve created a website where visitors can buy audiobook subscriptions. However, MemberPress has lots more settings you can use to sell audiobooks, grow your brand, and get more members.

For more information about MemberPress, check out our ultimate guide to creating a WordPress membership site.

Method 3. How to Sell Audiobooks With WooCommerce (Best For Online Stores)

Easy Digital Downloads makes it easy to sell audiobooks on any WordPress blog or website, without you having to configure lots of unnecessary settings like shipping and handling.

However, if you’ve already created a WooCommerce store, then you can sell digital products like audiobooks using this popular eCommerce plugin.

How to sell an audiobook online using WooCommerce

Although it’s mostly used to sell physical products, you can add support for digital products by going to WooCommerce » Settings and then clicking on the ‘Products’ tab.

Here, click on the ‘Downloadable products’ link.

Creating downloadable WooCommerce products

You can now open the ‘File download method’ dropdown and choose an option from the list.

When you’re selling digital downloads, there is a risk that customers may share the direct link with other people. This allows people to download your audiobook without paying.

‘Force Downloads’ helps to protect your site from direct linking, so it’s the recommended method. However, just be aware that very large files may result in a timeout, especially if your server has limited resources.

If this happens, then you may need to change your WordPress hosting plan or select a different file download method.

You may also want to enable the checkbox next to ‘Allow using redirect mode (insecure) as a last resort.’ If WooCommerce encounters any problems, then this setting will deliver the audiobook via an unsecured redirect link rather than showing an error.

This is a much better customer experience.

WooCommerce's downloadable product settings

The second option is ‘X-Accel-Redirect/X-Sendfile,’ which serves the file directly to the customer. This protects the audiobook from unauthorized downloads without impacting your site’s performance.

However, this method requires you to install and enable the X-Accel-Redirect/X-Sendfile module on your server, so it’s not very beginner-friendly. Depending on your plan, you may also need to speak to your WooCommerce hosting provider.

The final option is ‘Redirect only,’ which uses a direct link to the file. This means your audiobook isn’t protected and anyone can access it using the URL. That said, we don’t recommend the ‘Redirect only’ method.

After selecting a download method, you can choose whether visitors must be logged into an account in order to download the audiobook.

Allowing guest checkout can get you more sales and downloads, but requiring users to register with your online store can help you do lead generation.

To make this decision, either enable or disable the ‘Downloads require login’ checkbox.

How to disable guest checkout for audiobooks in WooCommerce

By default, customers can download the audiobook while their order is processing.

If you want to wait until the order is complete, then uncheck the following box: ‘Grant access to downloadable products after payment.’

By default, WooCommerce will download the audiobook to the customer’s computer.

Most of the time this is the best customer experience, but you can set the file to open in a new tab instead. The customer can then decide whether they want to save the file.

There are some use cases where this may be the better option. For example, if you’re showing the customer a free sample, or your audiobooks are short enough to enjoy in one sitting.

In this case, you may want to check the box next to ‘Open downloadable files in the browser.’

How to set up downloadable files in WooCommerce

When you’re happy with the settings you’ve entered, click on ‘Save Changes.’

With that done, you’re ready to add the audiobook as a downloadable product by going to Products » Add New. Here, you can type in a title, add a description, upload a product image, and set the price as normal.

Creating a downloadable WooCommerce product

Then, scroll to ‘Product Data’ and check the box next to ‘Downloadable,’ which adds some new settings.

To start, click on ‘Add File.’

Adding a downloadable audiobook to a WooCommerce online store

You can now either choose the audiobook from your media library or upload a new file from your computer.

After that, type in a filename for the audiobook.

Adding a downloadable audiobook in WooCommerce

By default, customers can download the audiobook as many times as they want, for as long as they want.

If you want to limit the number of downloads per customer, then type a number into the ‘Download limit’ field.

Adding a download limit for your audiobook

If you want the download link to expire after a certain number of days has passed, then type a number into the ‘Download expiry’ field.

When you’re happy with how the audiobook is set up, click on the ‘Publish’ button. The audiobook will now appear as a downloadable product on your online store.

We hope this article helped you learn how to sell audiobooks online. You may also want to check out our expert pick of the best WordPress plugins to grow your site, and our comparison of the best email marketing services for small businesses.

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 Sell Audiobooks Online (3 Simple & Easy Ways) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Fix the 500 Internal Server Error in WordPress

Are you seeing a 500 internal server error in WordPress?

The internal server error is one of the most common WordPress errors. Since the error doesn’t give any other information, many beginners find it quite frustrating.

In this article, we will show you how to easily fix the 500 internal server error in WordPress.

Fixing the internal server error in WordPress

Here is a quick overview of the topics we’ll cover in this article.

What is The 500 Internal Server Error?

The 500 internal server error is a common web server error. It is not specific to WordPress websites and can happen with any website.

The 500 in the error message is technically an HTTP error code. Looking up this code will only show its standard description.

500 Internal Server Error response code indicates that the server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request.

This is a generic catch-all error message which means that the server was unable to assign a better more helpful error message when it encountered the issue.

The error page looks different depending on which web server software (Nginx or Apache) your website is using and which browser you are using.

Here is how the Apache error page may look.

Internal server error page on Apache

It may look different if you are using Nginx and Google Chrome.

It will also look different if Google chrome is unable to find an error page to display:

Google Chrome http 500 error

For beginners, this can be incredibly frustrating. There is no clue or message that would point them in the right direction to quickly fix it.

Asking how to fix an internal server error is like asking your doctor how to fix the pain you’re experiencing without telling them where the pain is.

However, if we know the common causes that trigger this error, then we can try fixing them one by one to resolve the error without breaking anything.

What Causes The Internal Server Error in WordPress?

Internal server error in WordPress is often caused by a corrupt .htaccess file, poorly coded plugins, or your active WordPress theme.

Other possible causes of the internal server error in WordPress that we know of are: PHP memory limit or corrupt core WordPress files.

In some conditions, the internal server error may only show up when you are trying to access the WordPress admin area while the rest of the site works fine.

That being said, now let’s take a look at how to go about troubleshooting the internal server error in WordPress.

Video Tutorial

If you prefer written instructions, then continue reading.

Fixing The 500 Internal Server Error in WordPress

Before you begin troubleshooting, make sure that you have a complete WordPress backup of your website on hand.

If you have access to the WordPress admin area, then you can a WordPress backup plugin to create a complete backup of your website. We recommend using Duplicator to handle this.

On the other hand, if you don’t have access to the WordPress admin area, then you can manually create a WordPress backup using phpMyAdmin and an FTP client.

After that, you can follow the following steps to troubleshoot and fix the internal server error on your website.

Clear WordPress and Browser Cache

Browsers and your WordPress caching plugins can sometimes mistakenly store a cached copy of an error page.

The easiest way to fix this is by first clearing your browser cache.

Clear cache

After that, if you have access to the WordPress admin area of your website, then you can empty the WordPress cache by visiting your caching plugin’s settings page.

For details, see our tutorial on how to clear WordPress cache.

Checking for Corrupt .htaccess File

The .htaccess file is a server configuration file that is also used by WordPress to set up redirects.

One of the most common causes of the internal server error is the corrupt .htaccess file.

The easiest way to fix this is by simply visiting the Settings » Permalinks page in the WordPress admin area and then clicking on the ‘Save Changes’ button without making any changes at all.

Update permalinks to regenerate .htaccess file

WordPress will now try to update your .htaccess file or generate a new one for you. You can now visit your website to see if this has resolved the internal server error.

If you can still see the error, then you need to make sure that WordPress was able to generate or write to the .htaccess file.

Sometimes, due to file and directory permissions, WordPress may not be able to create or write to your .htaccess file.

You can now try to manually replace the .htaccess file. First, you need to login to your website using FTP or the File Manager app under your hosting account control panel.

Next, you need to rename your main .htaccess file to something like .htaccess_old. This lets you keep the file as a backup, but WordPress won’t recognize it.

To rename the .htaccess file, you will need to login to your site using FTP or File Manager app in your hosting account’s cPanel dashboard.

Once you are connected, the .htaccess file will be located in the same directory where you will see folders like wp-content, wp-admin, and wp-includes.

Simply, right-click on the .htaccess file and rename it to .htaccess_old.

Rename .htaccess file

Next, you need to create a new .htaccess file.

Inside your site’s root folder, right-click and then select ‘Create new file’ option in your FTP client or File Manager app.

Create new htaccess file

Name this new file .htaccess and click OK to save it.

Now, this .htaccess file is currently empty and you need to add default WordPress rewrite rules to it.

Simply right-click on the file and then select View/Edit in your FTP client or File Manager app.

Editing .htaccess file in WordPress

The empty file will open in a plain text editor like Notepad or TextEdit. Now, you need to copy and paste the following code inside it.

# BEGIN WordPress
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteRule ^index.php$ - [L]
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule . /index.php [L]
</IfModule>
# END WordPress

This code is the default rule set used by WordPress. Don’t forget to save your changes and upload the file back to the server.

You can now visit your website to see if this has resolved the internal server error.

If it did, then give yourself a pat on the back because you fixed the internal server error.

Important: Before you move on with other things, make sure that you go to Settings » Permalinks page in the WordPress admin area and click the save button without making any changes. This will regenerate the .htaccess file for you with proper rewrite rules to ensure that your post pages do not return a 404 error.

If checking for the corrupt .htaccess file solution did not work for you, then you need to continue reading this article.

Increasing the PHP Memory Limit

Sometimes the internal server error can happen if a script is consuming all the PHP memory limit.

The easiest way to increase the PHP memory limit is by editing the wp-config.php file. Be careful when you do this if you’re a beginner. You want to follow these instructions carefully because even small mistakes in WordPress core files can break your site.

To begin, simply connect to your WordPress website using an FTP client or the File Manager app under your hosting account control panel.

You’ll find wp-config.php file inside the main folder of your website. Right-click on it and select ‘Download.’ This will ensure that you have a backup of the file in case something goes wrong.

When you’ve saved that, you can right-click on it and select ‘View/Edit.’

Edit wp-config file

Inside the wp-config.php file, you need to add the following code just above the line that reads ‘That’s all, stop editing! Happy publishing’.

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

For more details, see our tutorial on how to increase PHP memory limit in WordPress.

If you are seeing the internal server error only when you try to log in to your WordPress admin or upload an image in your wp-admin, then you should increase the memory limit by following these steps:

  1. Create a blank text file on your computer and name it php.ini
  2. Paste this code in there: memory=256MB
  3. Save the file
  4. Upload it into your /wp-admin/ folder using FTP

If increasing the memory limit fixed the problem for you, then you have only fixed the problem temporarily. You still need to find the cause that is exhausting your memory limit.

This could be a poorly coded plugin or even a theme function. We strongly recommend that you ask your WordPress web hosting company to look into the server logs to help you find the exact diagnostics.

If increasing the PHP memory limit did not fix the issue for you, then you are in for some more troubleshooting.

Deactivate All WordPress Plugins

If none of the above solutions worked for you, then this error is most likely being caused by a specific plugin installed on your website.

It is also possible that it is a combination of plugins that are not playing nice with each other.

If you can access the WordPress admin area of your website, then you can simply go to the plugins page and deactivate all WordPress plugins.

Deactivate all plugins

However, if you are unable to access the WordPress admin area, then you can deactivate all WordPress plugins using FTP.

Simply connect to your WordPress website using an FTP client or the file manager app under your hosting account control panel.

Once connected, navigated to the /wp-content/ folder and rename the plugins folder to plugins.deactivated.

Plugins deactivated via FTP

WordPress looks for plugins in the plugins folder. If the plugins folder is not found, then it will automatically deactivate all plugins.

You can now try visiting your website to see if this resolved the internal server error on your website.

To restore all your plugins, you can simply rename the plugins.deactivated folder back to plugins.

Your plugins will now be restored but they will still be deactivated.

You can now activate plugins one by one and visit your website to figure out which plugin is causing the internal server error.

For more details, see our guide on how to deactivate all WordPress plugins without WP-Admin.

If deactivating all plugins didn’t fix the internal server error on your website, then continue reading.

Switch to a Default WordPress Theme

One possible cause of the internal server error could be some code in your WordPress theme.

To find out if this is the case, you need to switch your theme to a default WordPress theme.

If you have access to the WordPress admin area, then simply go to the Appearance » Themes page. If you have a default theme already installed then you can simply click on the Activate button to switch theme.

Activate a default theme

If you don’t have a default theme installed, then you can click on the Add New button at the top and install a default theme (Twenty Twenty-Three, Twenty Twenty-Two, etc).

Now in case you don’t have access to the WordPress admin area, you can still switch to a default theme.

Simply, connect to your WordPress website using an FTP client and navigate to the /wp-content/ folder.

Right-click to select the themes folder and download it to your computer as a backup.

Download theme folder

Next, you need to delete the themes folder from your website. Once it is deleted, go ahead and create a new themes folder.

Your new themes folder will be completely empty which means you don’t have any WordPress themes installed at the moment.

Next, you need to visit the WordPress themes directory and download a default WordPress theme to your computer.

Download a default theme

Your browser will then download the theme as a zip file to your computer.

Locate the file on your computer and then unzip it. Windows users can unzip file by right-clicking on it and then selecting Extract All. Mac users can double-click on the zip file to extract it.

Extract theme files

You’ll now see a folder containing your WordPress theme.

Switch back to your FTP client or File Manager up and upload this folder to the empty themes folder.

Upload theme files

Once uploaded, WordPress will automatically start using the default theme.

You can now visit your website to see if this resolved the internal server error.

If this didn’t work, then you can reupload your WordPress themes from the backup or switch back to the theme you were using.

Don’t worry there are still a few more things you can do to fix the error.

Re-uploading Core Files

If the plugin and theme options didn’t fix the internal server error, then it is worth re-uploading the /wp-admin/ and /wp-includes/ folders from a fresh WordPress install.

This will NOT remove any of your information, but it may solve the problem in case any file was corrupted.

First, you will need to visit the WordPress.org website and click on the Download button.

Download WordPress

This will download the WordPress zip file to your computer.

Go ahead and extract the zip file. Inside it, you will find a wordpress folder.

WordPress folder extracted

Next you need to connect to your WordPress website using an FTP client.

Once connected go to the root folder of your website. It is the folder that has wp-admin, wp-includes, wp-content folders inside it.

In the left column open the WordPress folder on your computer.

Now you need to select all files inside the wordpresss folder and upload them to your website.

Upload core WordPress files

Your FTP client will now transfer those folders to your server.

It will ask you whether you would like to overwrite the files. Select ‘Overwrite’ and then select ‘Always use this action’.

Overwrite WordPress core files

Your FTP client will now replace your older WordPress files with new, fresh copies.

If your WordPress files were corrupted, then this step will fix the internal server error for you.

Enable Debug Logs in WordPress

WordPress comes with a built-in system to keep logs for debugging.

You can turn it on by using the WP Debugging plugin. For more details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once activated, the plugin will turn on debugging logs on your WordPress website.

If you don’t have access to the admin area of your WordPress website, then you can turn on debugging by adding the following code to your wp-config.php file.

define( 'WP_DEBUG', true);
define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true); 

Once you have turned on debug logs, you can view these logs by using an FTP client and navigating to the /wp-content/ folder.

Debug log

You can open the debug log file in a text editor and it will show you a list of errors and warnings that occur on your website.

Some of these errors and warnings can be harmless incidents that may not need fixing. However, if you are seeing an internal server error on your website then these may point you in the right direction.

Ask your Hosting Provider

If all methods fail to fix the internal server error on your website, then it is time to get some more help. Contact your web hosting support team and they will be able to check the server logs and locate the root cause of the error.

If you want to continue troubleshooting on your own, then see our ultimate WordPress troubleshooting guide for beginners.

We hope this article helped you fix the internal server error in WordPress. You may also want to see our complete list of the most common WordPress errors, and our guide on how to choose the best web hosting provider.

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 Fix the 500 Internal Server Error in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.