How to Show Before and After Photo in WordPress (with Slide Effect)

before and after image, before and after photo in wordpress, photo difference, WordPress Plugins

Do you want to show a before and after photo in WordPress?

A before and after photo allows you to show a side by side comparison of two images with minor differences. This is perfect for showing the impact of your products and services, or simply encouraging people to interact with your content.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add a before/after photo to your WordPress website with a slide effect.

How to show before and after photo in WordPress (with slide effect)

Why Show Before and After Photos in WordPress (with Slide Effect)?

A before-and-after image is an interactive picture that typically shows some kind of change.

Visitors can use a slider to switch between the different ‘versions’ of the image in an engaging and interactive way.

How to show before and after photo in WordPress (with slide effect)

If you run an online store using a plugin such as WooCommerce, then a before and after photo can show the effect of your products or services.

You simply need to show a ‘before’ photo that the customer can relate to, and a desirable ‘after’ photo. This will make shoppers want to buy the thing that takes them from the ‘before’ state to the ‘after’ state.

If you’re an affiliate marketer, then showing persuasive before and after photos on your website is a great way to promote your affiliate links, and get more sales.

Before and after photos can also encourage visitors to interact with your content. Dragging a slider to reveal the ‘after’ photo is an easy way to get more engagement, which can keep visitors on your site for longer. This can also help increase your pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.

With that being said, let’s see how you can create a before and after photo in WordPress using a slide effect. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.

Method 1. How to Show Before and After Photos Using a Free Plugin (Easy)

The easiest way to create before and after photos is by using the Ultimate Before After Image Slider & Gallery (BEA).

The BEA plugin allows you to create horizontal and vertical sliders, and customize the image with different labels and colors.

An example of a before and after slider in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is to install and activate the Ultimate Before After Image Slider & Gallery (BEA) plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to Before and After Slider » Add New in your dashboard.

To start, type in a name for the image slider. This is just for your reference so you can use anything that will help you identify it.

How to create a side by side comparison image in WordPress

With that done, you can add the ‘before’ image by scrolling to the ‘Before Image’ section.

Here, click on ‘Add or Upload Image’ and then either choose a picture from the WordPress media library or upload a new file from your computer.

How to add a before comparison image to a WordPress website

To help search engines understand this image and show it to the right people, it’s a good idea to add some image alt text. To do this, simply type into the ‘Image Alt’ field.

For more information about alt text, please see our beginner’s guide to image SEO.

Adding image alt text to a before and after image

With that done, scroll to the ‘After Image’ section.

You can now add the ‘after’ image by following the same process described above. Don’t forget to add some alt text to this image, too, since it’s important for WordPress SEO.

Adding an 'after' comparison image to a website or blog

You can also show some text below the image, by adding a title and a description.

For example, you might encourage visitors to interact with the slider. This is especially important for visitors who might have never run across a before-and-after photo before.

An example of a comparison image with a title and description

This is also an easy way to add some context to the image.

To add some text, simply type into the ‘Slider Title’ or ‘Slider Description’ fields.

Adding a description to a before and after image

You can also add a ‘Read More’ URL, which can link to any post or page on your WordPress website, or even an external website. For example, you might send visitors to a page where they can buy the product featured in the slider image.

This link will appear below the before/after image, and also beneath any slider title or description you’re using.

Adding a Read More link to a comparison image with a slide effect

To add a link, type the destination into the ‘Read More Link’ field.

You can then decide whether to open the link in the same tab, or in a new tab using the ‘Read More Link Target’ dropdown.

How to add a link to a Read More button

If you’re linking to another website, then we recommend choosing ‘New tab’ so you’re not sending visitors away from your WordPress blog.

With that done, you can choose whether you want to create a vertical or horizontal slider by clicking on one of the thumbnails in the ‘Orientation Style’ section.

Creating a vertical or horizontal slide effect in WordPress

After that, scroll to the top of the screen and click on ‘Options.’

Here, you’ll see the ‘Default offset’ is set 0.5. This means the visitor sees half of the ‘before’ image when the page first loads.

How to customize a before and after slider in WordPress

If you want to show more of the before image, then type in a bigger number such as 0.6, 0.7, or higher.

If you want to show the entire before image, then type in 1. This will place the slider at the top or right of the before image, as you can see in the following image.

Customizing a side by side comparison image with a slide effect

By default, the plugin shows ‘Before’ and ‘After’ labels when the visitor hovers their mouse over the image.

You may want to replace these labels with something more descriptive.

Adding custom labels to a before/after slider

To do this, simply go ahead and type into the ‘Before Label’ and ‘After Label’ fields.

By default, visitors will move the slider using drag and drop. Some people may find this difficult, especially if they have mobility issues or they’re using smaller devices like smartphones or tablets.

With that being said, you may want to change how visitors move the slider.

If you select the ‘Yes’ button next to ‘Move slider on mouse hover,’ then visitors can move the slider simply by hovering their mouse over the image.

Creating a custom slide effect on a before and after image

If you select the ‘Yes’ button next to ‘Click to move,’ then visitors can click anywhere on the image to move the slider to that point.

These settings can make it easier to interact with the before/after image, but it’s typically not the way that sliders behave. With that in mind, we recommend using these settings carefully.

Next, click on the ‘Style’ tab.

Changing the style of a slide effect on a website or blog

Here, you can change the colors used for the different labels, backgrounds, headings, descriptions, and the read more button. This can help the before/after image blend in with your WordPress theme, or even stand out from the rest of your website’s design.

You can also change the font size and text alignment.

When you’re happy with how the slider is set up, click on the ‘Publish’ button.

Publishing a before and after photo to your WordPress website

This creates a shortcode that allows you to add the before/after image and slider to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

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

Adding a slide effect to your WordPress images using shortcode

After adding the shortcode to your site, simply click on the ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ button to make the before/after image and slider effect live.

Method 2. How to Show A Before and After Photo Using SeedProd (Advanced)

If you simply want to add a before and after image to a page or post, then the BEA plugin may be a good choice. However, if you’re using the image to promote a product, service, or business then we recommend using SeedProd.

SeedProd is the best drag-and-drop WordPress page builder. It comes with more than 180 ready-made templates that you can use to create high-converting landing pages, sales designs, and more.

SeedProd's ready-made templates

It also has a ready-made ‘Before After Toggle’ block that you can use to create beautiful before-and-after images your users can interact with.

Simply drag the block from the left-hand menu, and then drop it onto any page design that you may happen to be working on, including sales pages.

A before and after image created using SeedProd

If you’re using WooCommerce to sell your products, then SeedProd integrates with WooCommerce and even comes with special eCommerce blocks. This is perfect if you plan to use before and after images to promote your WooCommerce products.

Note: There is a free version of SeedProd that allows you to create custom pages no matter your budget. However, we’ll be using the premium version as it comes with the Before After Toggle block. It also integrates with many of the best email marketing services you may already be using on your website.

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

After creating a page, it’s easy to add a before and after image to your design. In the SeedProd page editor, simply find the ‘Before After Toggle’ block.

The SeedProd before and after toggle block

You can then drag and drop this block anywhere on your design, to add it to the page layout.

With that done, simply click to select the ‘Before After Toggle’ block. The left-hand menu will now update to show all the settings you can use to create your before-and-after image.

SeedProd's before and after toggle settings

To start, you’ll need to add the picture you want to use as the before image. Under ‘Before Image’ either click on ‘Use Your Own Image’ or ‘Use a Stock Image’ and choose the picture you want to use.

By default, SeedProd shows a ‘Before’ label above this image. However, you can change this to something more descriptive by typing it into the ‘Before Label’ field.

Creating a before and after image using a page builder plugin

With that done, scroll to the ‘After Image’ section.

You can now add an image and customize the default ‘After’ label by following the same process described above.

Adding an after image to a custom page layout

SeedProd can add a vertical or horizontal slide effect.

To switch between these two styles, scroll to the ‘Slider Orientation’ section and then click on either ‘Vertical’ or ‘Horizontal.’

A before and after image with a slider

By default, visitors will move between the before and after images by dragging the slider. However, some users may find it easier to move the slider by hovering their mouse over the image.

This is particularly true for larger images where the visitor would need to drag the slider a greater distance.

To try this setting, enable ‘Move on Hover’ in the left-hand menu.

Next, you may want to add a colored overlay to both the before and after images. This can help the image blend in with the rest of the color scheme, or stand out from the background.

You can even make the colored overlay semi-transparent, to create a more subtle effect.

To try different colors, click on the ‘Overlay Color’ section and then make your changes in the popup that appears.

Adding an overlay color to an interactive image using SeedProd

With that done, you can customize the slider handle by clicking to expand the ‘Comparison Handle’ section.

By default, SeedProd shows half of the ‘before’ image and half of the ‘after’ image. To change this, simply drag the ‘Handle Initial Offset’ slider.

Changing the initial offset on a before/after picture

To display less of the before image, drag the slider to the left so that it shows a lower number. To show more of the before image, drag the slider to the right, which increases the number.

Next, you can change the slider’s color using the ‘Handle Color’ settings.

How to customize a slider using SeedProd

You can also make the handle thicker or thinner using the ‘Handle Thickness’ slider.

In this way, you can make the handle stand out, or create a more subtle effect.

Changing the thickness of a slider using SeedProd

When you’re happy with the handle, you may want to change the circle. You can make the circle bigger or smaller using the ‘Circle Width’ settings, and change the ‘Circle Radius’ to create sharp or curved corners.

As you make changes, the live preview will update automatically so you can try different settings to see what looks the best.

Changing the width and radius of the slider circle

When you’re happy with the circle, you may want to change the size of the triangles inside that circle. For example, if you’ve made the circle bigger then you might want to increase the size of the triangles too.

To make this change, drag the ‘Triangle Size’ slider until you’re happy with how it looks.

How to customize a slider using a page builder plugin

With that done, you can continue adding new blocks and customizing the content on your SeedProd page.

When you’re happy with how the page looks, just click on the arrow next to the ‘Save’ button and then select ‘Publish.’

Publishing a before and after image using SeedProd

Now if you visit your website you’ll see your page design with the before-and after-image live.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add a before and after photo to your WordPress website with a slide effect. You can also go through our guide on the best social proof plugins for WordPress and how to choose the best web design software.

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 Show Before and After Photo in WordPress (with Slide Effect) first appeared on WPBeginner.

The Importance of User Experience and Design in Responsive Themes

WordPress Themes

To say that user experience is an important factor in responsive theme design is like saying human safety is important to the production of car seatbelts.  In other words, it’s the very reason it exists and the top concern that should influence every design decision. Of course, that begins with the fundamentals of responsive design, [...]

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The post The Importance of User Experience and Design in Responsive Themes appeared first on Learn WordPress with WPLift.

How to Automatically Add WordPress Products in Google Shopping

aioseo, ecommerce, ELEX Google Shopping, GMC schema, Google Merchant Center, Google Shopping, Product Schema, Tutorials, woocommerce

Do you want to add your WordPress products to Google Shopping?

Adding your online store products to Google Shopping can help you increase traffic, reach more customers, and generate greater revenue.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add WordPress products to Google Shopping.

How to Add WordPress Products in Google Shopping

Why Should You Add WordPress Products to Google Shopping

Google Shopping is a virtual marketplace like Amazon and Etsy, where users can search, view, and compare products from different online stores that have paid to advertise their products.

If you have a WooCommerce store, then adding your products to Google Shopping can prove to be extremely beneficial for your business.

Your products will be shown to all users browsing through Google shopping which will increase traffic on your WordPress website, generate more revenue and bring in more customers.

Google Shopping

That being said, let’s see how you can add WordPress products to Google Shopping.

How to Add WordPress Products in Google Shopping

Step 1: Creating a Google Merchant Account

To add your products to Google Shopping, you have to start by creating an account in the Google Merchant Center. This is the place where your product information will be stored for viewing by Google Shopping.

First, go to the Google Merchant Center page and click the ‘Sign up for free’ button.

Sign up for the Google Merchant account

After that, Google will ask you about your online business.

Just check the answers that apply to you, and then provide your website’s URL.

Provide the URL of your online store

After you’ve provided the details, you’ll be redirected to another page.

Here, you simply have to click the ‘Create a Google Merchant Account’ button at the bottom of the page.

Click the Create Google Merchant Account button

Now, you will be asked to provide your business details. You can start by writing your business name.

Next, select the country where your business is based from the dropdown menu below the ‘Registered Country’ option.

After that, click the ‘Continue to Merchant Center’ button.

Provide business details

You’ve successfully created your Google Merchant Account. Now all you have to do is provide your business info and shipping details.

Once you’ve filled in those details, simply click the ‘Save’ button at the bottom to store your settings.

Provide shipping and business details once a GMC account is created
Step 2: Linking Your Google AdWords Account

Now you’ll have to link your Google AdWords account to your Google Merchant Center account so that you can show your products via Google Shopping.

To link your account, simply go to the Google Merchant Center dashboard and click the gear icon at the top of the page.

Clicking it will open up a ‘Tools and Settings’ prompt. Here you simply have to choose the ‘Linked Account’ option present.

Click the Linked Accounts option from the Settings

This will take you to the ‘Linked Accounts’ page.

Now you simply have to click the ‘+’ button to create your Google Ads account.

Click the Plus button to create a Google Ads account

This will open up a ‘Create Your Google Ads Account’ prompt.

Simply choose your preferred time zone and currency and then click the ‘Create’ button.

Create a Google Ads account

You have now successfully created your Google Ads account.

This is how it will look once your account has been created.

GMC account has now been linked to the Google Ads account
Step 3: Adding WordPress Products to Google Shopping

To add your WordPress products to Google Shopping, we will be using the ELEX Google Shopping plugin to display your WooCommerce products in Google Shopping.

First, you need to do is install and activate the ELEX Google Shopping plugin. For more instructions, check our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, head over to the Google Shopping Feed » Create Feeds page from the WordPress admin sidebar.

From here, simply fill in your business details and click the ‘Continue’ button at the bottom.

Fill basic info on the Google Shopping Feed page

Next, you’ll be taken to the ‘Map Category’ page. Here you simply have to select your product categories.

Simply type your product categories in the ‘Google Categories’ tab and click ‘Continue’

Select Map Category

After that, you’ll be directed to the ‘Map Attributes’ page.

This is where you’ll have to fill in your product details including product id, product description, product link, pricing, image, and more.

Here select and fill in as many attributes as possible for more visibility in Google Shopping and click the ‘Continue’ button.

Map attributes

Now that you’re on the ‘Filtering Options’ page, simply fill in the details as required for your online store.

For example, you can include how many items you have in stock or note how many have sold already.

Next, simply click the ‘Generate Feed’ button at the bottom.

Click the Generate Feed button

After you’ve created your Google Shopping feed, go to the Google Shopping Feed » Manage Feeds page from the admin sidebar.

Here you will be able to view your Google Shopping Feed. Now you have to simply click the ‘Download’ button beside it.

Click the Download button

Once you’ve downloaded your feed as an XML file, go back to the ‘Google Merchant Center’ dashboard and click the Products » Feeds option from the sidebar.

This will open up the ‘Primary Feeds’ page where you have to click the ‘+’ button to add a new feed.

Click the plus button to create a feed

This will take you to the ‘New Primary Feed’ page where you can start by filling in basic details. First, start by adding all your target countries.

Next, select your preferred language and then click the ‘Continue’ button.

Fill in basic details

Then, you have to choose a name for your feed and select a method to connect your data to the Merchant center.

For this tutorial, we will be uploading the feed XML from WordPress.

After that, just click on the ‘Continue’ button.

Choose a name and method for uploading the feed

Now that you’re on the ‘Setup’ page, simply type the name for your Google Shopping Feed.

Next, just upload the Feed file you got from WordPress and click the ‘Create Feed’ button.

Upload file and click the Create Feed button

You have now successfully added your WordPress products to Google Shopping.

Bonus: How to Add Google Merchant Center Schema in WordPress

To improve your product search visibility in Google Shopping and increase conversion rates, you should add a Google Merchant schema in WordPress.

Schema markup is an HTML code that provides more details about your products to search engines.

A GMC listing schema will make your search snippets more prominent and will allow your products to be featured as popular products for the relevant search terms.

The easiest way to add a Google Merchant Center listing schema to WordPress is by using the All in One SEO for WordPress.

It is the best SEO plugin for WordPress that is used by over 3 million websites.

First, you need to install and activate the All in One SEO for WordPress. For more instructions, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, a setup wizard will open up. Simply go ahead and click the ‘Get Started’ button.

All in One SEO setup

After that, you need to follow the onscreen instructions in the setup wizard to configure the plugin. If you need help, please see our guide on how to properly set up AIOSEO in WordPress.

After the AIOSEO plugin has been set up, you need to visit the Products » All Products page from the admin sidebar.

From here, simply click on the ‘Edit’ link below a product to open up the ‘Edit Product’ page.

Click the Edit link below the product name

Once there, you need to scroll down to the ‘AIOSEO Settings’ section and click on the ‘Schema’ tab.

Now, you need to make sure that the schema type is set to ‘Product’ by default.

If that is not the case, then simply click on the ‘Generate Schema’ button.

Click the Generate Schema button to add another schema

It will open up the Schema Catalog which will list all the available schema templates.

From here, you need to click the ‘Add Schema’ (+) button beside the Product option to set it as your primary schema.

Note: You may see the ‘Article’ schema already applied. If so, you can remove it as you add the new one because this particular page isn’t an article or blog post in Google’s eyes.

Click the Add Schema button next to the Product option

Next, you will need to fill in the product information to add the GMC listing schema.

For that, you need to click the ‘Edit Schema’ button next to the ‘Schema in Use’ option.

Click the Edit button next to the Schema in use option

This will open up the ‘Edit Product’ modal where you will need to fill in the product details.

If you’re using WooCommerce, then AIOSEO will automatically pull most of the product data from your product information.

However, if you want to fill in the information manually, you need to simply toggle the ‘Autogenerate Fields’ switch to ‘No.’

Toggle the Autogenerate fields switch to No

The product attributes that you will need to add include the product name, description, image, ISBN, price, material, color, shipping details, and more.

We recommend that you provide all the details so that the schema markup can make your product snippets more engaging.

Once you’re done, simply click the ‘Update Schema’ or ‘Add Schema’ button to store your settings.

Click the Update Schema button

You have now successfully added the Google Merchant Center listing schema to WordPress, and your products can now be featured on the platform and hopefully earn you more sales.

We hope you learned how to add WordPress products to Google Shopping. You may also want to check out our best WooCommerce reporting and analytics plugins and our article on how to speed up your eCommerce website.

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

The post How to Automatically Add WordPress Products in Google Shopping first appeared on WPBeginner.

WordPress Conversion Tracking Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide

Beginners Guide, conversion, conversion rate optimization, conversion tracking, ecommerce conversion optimization, google ads conversion tracking, google analytics conversion tracking, monsterinsights, optinmonster, woocommerce conversion tracking, wpcode

Do you want to add conversion tracking features to your WordPress website?

Conversion tracking helps you measure the impact of your marketing efforts and makes it easier to understand how users interact with your website.

In this guide, we will show you how to add conversion tracking in WordPress and track your conversions like a total pro.

Ultimate Guide to conversion tracking in WordPress

This is a comprehensive WordPress conversion tracking guide, so we have divided it up into different sections. Here is what we’ll cover in this guide:

What is Conversion Tracking?

Conversion tracking is the ability to track and measure the success of your various marketing efforts.

Depending on your business, the conversion is the desired action you want users to perform on your website.

  • For an online store or eCommerce website, a conversion could be a successful purchase.
  • For a news/blog site, the conversion could be a successful subscription to the email newsletter.
  • For a professional services website, a conversion could be a user filling up a contact form.

Simply put, conversion tracking shows you how many of your website visitors successfully perform the desired action.

Why is Conversion Tracking Important?

Conversion tracking is important because it helps you make data-driven decisions to grow your business.

For instance, it shows that users from a specific traffic source are more likely to convert. You can then focus your attention on getting more traffic from that particular source.

Conversion tracking also helps you uncover the users who are not converting so well.

For instance, you may learn that users open the contact page, but many abandon it before submitting the form. You can then make your form easier by removing unnecessary fields, making it conversational, changing colors, setting up partial form submission, etc.

Basically, you need conversion tracking to measure your success and failures and then improve upon them to grow your online business.

That being said, let’s take a look at what tools we’ll need to set up conversion tracking in WordPress.

Tools You Need to Setup Conversion Tracking in WordPress

Most conversion optimization experts rely heavily on Google Analytics. It is a free tool provided by Google that helps you track your website traffic.

It shows where your users are coming from, and what they do while on your website.

If you are running Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, and Twitter Ads to promote your business, then you’ll need to set up those for conversion tracking.

This may sound complicated, but you’ll only have to set it up once, and we’ll walk you through every step of the way.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Setting Up Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics

First, you need to install Google Analytics on your website.

The easiest way to do this is by using MonsterInsights. It is the best Google Analytics plugin on the market that comes with enhanced eCommerce tracking, form tracking, and other conversion tracking tools built-in.

You’ll need the PRO version of the plugin to access eCommerce and other conversion tracking features. For basic tracking, the free version works as well.

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

Upon activation, you’ll see the setup wizard. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button.

Launch setup wizard

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

With MonsterInsights, you can also easily create a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property. GA4 is the latest version of the famous analytics platform, and it will replace the old version on July 1, 2023.

To learn more, please see our guide on how to switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress.

Now that you have installed Google Analytics, let’s set up conversion tracking on your website.

Turning on Enhanced Ecommerce Conversion Tracking

Ecommerce tracking helps you see which products are doing well on your site, which products are being looked at but not purchased, and what’s bringing you the most revenue.

Google Analytics comes with enhanced eCommerce tracking, which works for most eCommerce websites, including WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, MemberPress, and more. However, you’ll need to enable it for your website manually.

Step 1. Turn on eCommerce Tracking in MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights comes with an eCommerce addon that lets you properly set up eCommerce conversion tracking in Google Analytics.

It works with all top eCommerce platforms for WordPress, including WooCommerce, MemberPress, LifterLMS, Easy Digital Downloads, and more.

First, you need to visit the Insights » Addons page to install and activate the eCommerce addon.

Install the eCommerce addon

Step 2. Turn on Enhanced Ecommerce in Google Analytics

Next, you need to enable enhanced eCommerce tracking in your Google Analytics account. Go to your Google Analytics dashboard and select your website.

From here, you need to click on the Admin button located at the bottom left corner of the screen.

Go to admin settings

On the next screen, you’ll see different Google Analytics settings.

Under the ‘View’ column, click the ‘Ecommerce Settings’ link.

Ecommerce settings

After that, you need to turn on the ‘Enable Ecommerce’ and ‘Enable Enhanced Ecommerce Reporting’ options.

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

Enable ecommerce and enhanced ecommerce reporting

Google Analytics will now turn on the eCommerce reporting feature for your account.

Afterward, you can return to your WordPress dashboard and visit the Insights » Settings page. From here, switch to the eCommerce tab.

Use enhanced ecommerce option

MonsterInsights will automatically detect your eCommerce software and enable advanced eCommerce tracking for your store.

Note: the manual process for adding eCommerce conversion tracking has a lot of room for errors, so we strongly recommend using a plugin like MonsterInsights.

Viewing eCommerce Conversion Tracking Reports

Now that you have enabled eCommerce conversion tracking on your website. Let’s see how to view these reports and use them to make informed decisions about your business.

Ecommerce Conversion Reports in MonsterInsights

Simply go to the Insights » Reports page inside the WordPress admin area and then switch to the eCommerce tab.

Ecommerce report in MonsterInsights

At the top, you’ll see your most important metrics, like the conversion rate, transactions, revenue, and average order value.

Below that, you will see a list of your top products with quantity, sale percentage, and total revenue. This shows you which products are doing well in your store.

Next, you’ll see your top conversion sources with the number of visits, conversion share, and revenue. You can see which sources are bringing you more revenue and which traffic sources are not very effective.

Top conversion sources

MonsterInsights will also show you shopper behavior reports with the number of times products were added to and removed from the cart.

That’s not all the data. You can drill down these reports even further inside Google Analytics.

Ecommerce Conversion Reports in Google Analytics

In Google Analytics 4, you can head to Reports » Monetization » Overview to view the report.

View ecommerce report in GA4

Here, you can see the total revenue your online store is making. Besides that, there are more metrics you can track, like items purchased, first-time purchasers, and total purchases.

On the other hand, you can visit your Universal Analytics dashboard and click on the Conversions » Ecommerce from the left column.

Ecommerce report in analytics

The overview section offers the most important stats, such as revenue, conversion rate, transactions, and average order value.

You can further drill down to view different reports. For example, you can switch to shopping and checkout behavior reports to see how users reach the conversion page. You can also figure out what stopped them at the last minute from completing the transaction.

You may also want to see our guide on how to set up WooCommerce conversion tracking.

Turning on Form Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics

Not all websites use an eCommerce platform to conduct business. For instance, a restaurant website may use an order delivery form, or a salon may use a booking form.

Many businesses use contact forms to capture leads from their website. A lot of news and blogs use an email newsletter to convert website visitors into subscribers.

To track them, you need to enable form conversion tracking in Google Analytics.

MonsterInsights comes with a Forms addon that lets you easily track form conversions on your WordPress site. It works with all popular WordPress form plugins, including WPForms, Formidable Forms, Gravity Forms, Contact Form 7, and more.

Simply go to the Insights » Addons page. Scroll down to the ‘Forms’ addon, and then click on the Install button.

Install forms addon

Upon activation, you need to visit the Insights » Settings page and switch to the ‘Conversions’ tab.

MonsterInsights will automatically detect your WordPress form plugin and will also start tracking miscellaneous WordPress forms on your site.

MonsterInsights settings - conversions tab

Viewing Your Form Conversion Reports

You can now view your form conversion reports inside your WordPress admin area.

Head over to the Insights » Reports page and switch to the ‘Forms’ tab.

Forms report

You’ll see a list of forms on your website with their impressions, conversion, and conversion rates.

This helps in tracking how each WordPress form is performing. You can optimize low-converting forms while increasing the visibility of high-converting forms.

For more details, please see our guide on how to set up form tracking in Google Analytics.

Setting Up Goals for Conversion Tracking in Universal Analytics

So far, we have covered how to track eCommerce and form conversions.

What if you wanted to manually set up conversion goals and track them in Google Analytics?

For instance, you may want to consider users visiting a specific page as a conversion. Since it is not a form submission or an eCommerce transaction, it will not appear as a conversion in your reports.

Universal Analytics allows you to create your own goals and track their conversion.

However, an important thing to note is that Google Analytics 4 doesn’t have goals anymore. It is one of the major differences you’ll see between the new and old versions.

That said, let’s see how to set them up in Universal Analytics and track them on your website.

Go to the Google Analytics dashboard and click the ‘Admin’ tab on the bottom left. Then, in the View column, click on Goals.

Click on goals

Now, you will need to create a new goal.

Simply click the ‘+ New Goal’ button to set up a new goal.

Add a new goal

Next, you will need to select the goal type. Universal Analytics offers 4 types:

  • Destination: This tracks whether a visitor went to a specific page. This could be a thank you page or any conversion page on your site.
  • Duration: This tracks how long a visitor spends on your website. More time spent on a website means more engagement.
  • Pages/Screens per session: This tracks how many pages an average visitor looks at on your site.
  • Event: This can track all sorts of things, like button clicks, video plays, and downloads. It requires a bit more setup than the other options.

Destination and Event types are the most commonly used goal types for most businesses.

For this tutorial, we will create a ‘Destination’ goal to track visitors who view our thank you page after completing a form.

First, provide a name for your Goal. It needs to be something meaningful so that you can easily identify it in your Google Analytics reports.

After that, choose ‘Destination’ as your goal type and click the Continue button.

Enter goal description

Now you can simply provide the last part of the URL you want to track as the destination.

For instance, if your page is:
https://www.example.com/thank-you-for-booking/

Then you should enter the following:
/thank-you-for-booking/

Add goal details

Below that, you can optionally add value for the conversion. This makes sense if people are completing a payment form or if you know how much each lead is worth to you on average.

If you want to track a funnel, such as a customer moving through a checkout process, then you can also do this as part of the destination goal. This can help you pinpoint areas you might want to improve.

Once you’re happy with your goal, click the Save button. You should then see your goal listed in a table. You can edit it, switch it off and on, or create more goals here.

View new goal

Viewing Your Goal Conversions in Universal Analytics

Now that you have created your goal, allow Google Analytics to collect some data. After that, you can view your Goal Conversion report under the Google Analytics dashboard.

Simply, go to the Conversions » Goals and then click on Overview.

View goal conversions in analytics

Like all Google Analytics reports, you can drill down to view visitor journeys and get deeper insights.

For more details, see our complete guide on setting up goals in Google Analytics.

Setting Up Events in Google Analytics 4

Google Analytics 4 replaces goals with events. You can manually configure events to track different user interactions in GA4.

First, you’ll need to go to the ‘Admin’ settings from your GA4 property.

Go to admin settings

Next, you will need to navigate to the Property column.

After that, simply click the ‘Event’s option.

Go to events settings

You are now ready to create a new event in GA4.

Simply click the ‘Create event’ button to get started.

Create a new event

You should now see a new window slide in from the right. This is where all your custom events will be listed.

Go ahead and click the ‘Create’ button.

Create a custom event

On the next screen, you can enter details of your new event.

Google Analytics 4 already has pre-built events. Simply click the Custom event name dropdown menu and choose an event. For example, we’ll select the ‘file_download’ event for this tutorial.

Select an event name

GA4 will automatically enter the specific Parameter and Operator for your custom event.

Next, you can enter a value for your event. For instance, we will enter ‘.pdf’ since we want to track PDF file downloads. However, you can enter any specific word you use to organize filenames on your site.

Enter event parameter operator and value

After entering these details, click the ‘Create’ button at the top.

You will now see your new custom event listed under the Custom events area in GA4.

View custom event

Viewing Your Event Conversions in Google Analytics 4

Now that you’ve created a custom event in GA4, the next step is to view the conversions.

To do that, simply head to Reports » Engagement » Event: Event name from the menu on your left and view the report.

View custom events data

You can now repeat this step to track other custom events.

That said, an easier way of tracking user behavior is by using MonsterInsights. The plugin automatically sets up different events in Google Analytics.

This way, you don’t have to manually configure events or worry about messing up your tracking.

Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress

If you run Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) to bring targeted traffic to your website, then you may want to track those conversions.

Setting up is a bit complicated because it requires adding code to your website. However, with MonsterInsights, you can easily set up Google Ads conversion tracking without editing code or hiring a developer.

First, you can go to Insights » Addons from your WordPress dashboard and install the Ads addon.

Install the ads addon

Once you install the addon, it should automatically activate.

From here, you can go to Insights » Settings and head to the Publisher tab.

Publisher settings in MonsterInsights

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

Here, you will need to enter the Conversion ID, which will be in this format: AW-123456789.

Enter conversion ID and label

If you’re tracking Google Ads on an eCommerce store, then you can also enter the Conversion Label.

To find the Conversion ID and Conversion Label, you’ll need to go to your Google Ads dashboard and create a conversion action.

For more details, please follow our step-by-step guide on how to set up Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress.

Viewing Google Ads Conversion Reports in Google Analytics 4

Your Google Ads conversion tracking will now appear in your Google Analytics reports.

In Google Analytics 4, you can head to Acquisition » Acquisition overview and then navigate to the ‘Session Google Ads’ report.

After that, click the ‘View Google Ads campaigns’ option at the bottom of the report.

View session google ads campaign report

This will expand the report and show more details about your ad campaigns.

You can see the total number of users, sessions, Google Ads clicks, and more.

View detailed stats for each campaign

Viewing Google Ads Conversion Reports in Universal Analytics

For Universal Analytics, you can open your website property.

After that, view the Google Ads report by going to the Acquisition » Google Ads » Campaigns section. Here, you can see conversions for all your paid campaigns.

View Google ads report in UA

Use UTM Parameters for Conversion Tracking in Google Analytics

UTM parameters are special tags you can add to URLs to pass important information to Google Analytics.

For instance, if you want to track users coming from a particular ad, then you can add UTM parameters to your ad URL like this:

https://yourwebsite.com/special-offer/?utm_source=ads&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=bfad

You can also use UTM parameters anywhere you want to share your URLs.

For instance, your email newsletter, Tweets, SMS campaigns, and more.

https://yourwebsite.com/special-offer/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jan_sale

MonsterInsights makes it super easy to build URLs with UTM parameters. Simply head over to the Insights » Tools page and select the ‘URL Builder’ tab.

Go to tools in MonsterInsights

Simply enter the UTM parameters you want to use, and it will automatically generate the URL, which you can then use in your campaigns.

For instance, you can enter a campaign source, like a newsletter or Google, which tells you where the users are coming from. After that, you can define a campaign medium, such as emails or banner ads, and enter a campaign name.

Enter campaign source and medium

MonsterInsights will also give you additional options to add campaign terms and content.

This is useful if you’re split-testing different emails or paid campaigns.

For creating a custom URL, you can leave these options blank.

Additional options in URL builder

Next, you can scroll down to the bottom to see your custom URL.

Go ahead and use the link for campaigns and track conversions on your website.

The URL created by the MonsterInsights URL builder tool, with UTM parameters in place

Viewing UTM Parameter Reports in Google Analytics 4

Now that you’ve added UTM parameters to a URL, you can track its performance in Google Analytics.

First, log in to your GA4 account. After that, head to Reports » Acquisition » Traffic Acquisition from the menu on your left.

View traffic acquisition report

You should now see traffic from different sources on your website, such as organic search, email, display, and more.

You can use the search bar to filter the traffic source for your custom campaign. For example, if you’re tracking conversions from a newsletter, then you can look up ‘Email’ in the report.

View different traffic sources

After that, you further drill down and filter your traffic.

Simply click the ‘+’ button under the search bar.

Click the plus button

GA4 will then show different options to filter your traffic.

You can select Traffic source » Session source from the dropdown list.

Select session source

Next, Google Analytics will list your email campaigns.

You can now see which campaign performs best and gets the most conversions.

View newsletter URL report in ga4

Viewing UTM Parameter Reports in Universal Analytics

In Universal Analytics, you can track the conversions of your campaigns under your Google Analytics dashboard.

Simply switch to the Acquisition » Campaigns » All Campaigns report.

Go to all campaigns

Your campaigns will appear here.

You can click on any of them to drill down further.

View newsletter tracking report

Setting Up Facebook Conversion Tracking in WordPress

Facebook is the largest social media website on the planet, with billions of active users. This is why Facebook ads are sometimes the easiest way to reach a niche audience.

Now, if you are running Facebook ads, then you may want to see how well your ads are doing by implementing conversion tracking for your Facebook ads.

Usually, you’d need to add a code snippet to your WordPress website to track Facebook conversions. However, WPCode makes it very simple, and you can simply enter the Facebook Pixel ID to set up tracking.

First, you’ll need to log in to Facebook and visit the Meta Business Suite. Then, click on All Tools » Events Manager.

Go to event manager

Next, you need to add a data source to the Event Manager.

Simply click the ‘+ Connect to Data Sources’ button in the left-hand menu.

Connect data source

You should now see different options to connect your new data source.

Go ahead and select the ‘Web’ option and click the ‘Connect’ button to continue.

Connect new data source

After that, enter a name for your pixel.

Once that’s done, you can click the ‘Create Pixel’ button.

Create a Facebook pixel

Next, you need to choose how to connect your website and send activity to Facebook.

At the bottom, you will see the Facebook Pixel. Go ahead and copy the pixel ID.

Choose how to connect to your site

Next, you can return to your WordPress website dashboard and install and activate the WPCode Free Plugin plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note that you’ll need at least the WPCode Plus plan because it includes the Conversion Pixel Addon. However, there is also a free version of WPCode you can use to get started.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Code Snippets » Conversion Pixel page and go to the Facebook tab. From here, you need to paste the Facebook Pixel ID in the respective field.

Add Facebook pixel ID

WPCode will now automatically add the code to your site that’s needed to track Facebook ad conversions.

Setting Up Twitter Conversion Tracking in WordPress

If you run Twitter Ads to promote your business, then you’ll need to set up Twitter conversion tracking to measure the success of your ads.

Simply log in to your Twitter Ads account and click on the Tools » Event manager from the menu at the top.

Twitter event manager

You should now see a pixel created by Twitter.

Go ahead and click the ‘View Twitter Pixel’ option.

View the Twitter pixel

On the next screen, you will see different options to add the Twitter pixel to your site.

You can use the ‘Pixel Code’ method and simply copy the code.

Copy the pixel code

You will need to add this code to the header of your WordPress site.

First, you need to switch back to your WordPress website’s admin area.

If you haven’t already done so, then go ahead and install and activate the WPCode plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Code Snippets » Header & Footer page. Now you can paste the Twitter pixel code into the Header section.

Enter the Twitter pixel

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

After you have successfully installed the pixel code, you can track conversions on your Twitter Ads account.

Optimizing Conversion Rates to Boost Sales

Once you start tracking conversions on your website, the next step is to improve those conversion rates.

You’d be surprised how little things can make a huge impact on your business.

The best way to improve your conversions is by using OptinMonster. It is the best conversion optimization software on the market and helps you convert more visitors into customers.

OptinMonster comes with tools like lightbox popups, fullscreen welcome mats, countdown timers, slide-in boxes, and more.

Choose a campaign type and template

It integrates with any email marketing service and works with all popular eCommerce platforms.

OptinMonster’s display rules allow you to show targeted messages to your customers at the precise time and nudge them into making a buying decision.

Upsell popup preview

For instance, if you notice that customers are leaving a product page without taking any action, then you can offer them a discount when they are about to exit.

Similarly, you can run time-sensitive campaigns to trigger the FOMO effect and give customers a nudge in the right direction.

For more practical tips, see our guide on how ways to recover WooCommerce abandoned cart sales.

We hope this guide helped you set up conversion tracking in WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison of the best email marketing services and the ultimate guide to WordPress speed and performance.

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

The post WordPress Conversion Tracking Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Choose WooCommerce WordPress Themes for Your Business in 2023: A Comprehensive Guide

woocommerce, Woocommerce Themes

Wondering how to choose the best WooCommerce WordPress theme for your business? With thousands of FREE & PREMIUM WordPress theme options, picking the best theme for your eCommerce website is daunting. Worry not! We’ve got you covered. In this article, we’ll share a detailed guide on choosing WooCommerce WordPress themes for your business, so you [...]

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The post How to Choose WooCommerce WordPress Themes for Your Business in 2023: A Comprehensive Guide appeared first on Learn WordPress with WPLift.

ClickWhale Review: An All-In-One Link Management & Pages Tool

WordPress Tips & Tutorials

Does your WordPress website contain many long and cluttered URLs? Are you looking for a way to make these links look more presentable? With ClickWhale, you can easily shorten, manage, and analyze links on your site using your own domain. ClickWhale offers many advantages, from tidying up ugly affiliate links to branding site URLs with [...]

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The post ClickWhale Review: An All-In-One Link Management & Pages Tool appeared first on Learn WordPress with WPLift.

How to Redact Text in WordPress (The Easy Way)

formatting, redact text, show redacted text in wordpress, text formatting, WordPress Plugins

Do you want to redact text on your WordPress website?

Redaction can be a way to share information with your visitors without hurting anyone’s privacy. You can even use it as an unusual paywall or a game where you challenge visitors to fill in the missing words.

In this article, we will show you how you can redact text in WordPress.

How to redact text in WordPress

Why Redact Text in WordPress?

Redaction is where you edit text by blacking out sensitive parts of it. It is a way to share information and documents with the general public while keeping confidential and sensitive information private.

Redaction can help you share real world examples without breaking your privacy policy. For example, if you’re showing visitors how to write a great CV then you might want to include a few examples of real CVs you’ve received. You can use redaction to block out each applicant’s name, address, and other personal information.

When you redact text, that content still exists in your WordPress dashboard. This means you can easily remove the redaction at any point.

Redaction can also be an eye-catching way to preview the kind of content visitors can expect when they sign up to your WordPress membership site. Visitors can then buy a membership to remove the redaction and enjoy the full, uncensored version.

That being said, let’s see how you can easily redact text on your WordPress website.

How to Redact Text in WordPress

The easiest way to redact text in WordPress is by using Eyes Only. This plugin will replace any redacted text with a black block.

An example of redacted text on a WordPress website

If the visitor highlights the block, then they’ll simply see the word REDACTED in white letters.

You can see an example of how this might look in the following image.

An example of redacted text

Another option is to automatically replace any word or phrase with an alternative chosen by you. For example, if you can’t use a client’s name on your small business website then you might replace the information with a more vague word such as ‘client.’

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

Upon activation, you can redact any text by editing the HTML in the WordPress code editor. To get started, simply open the page or post.

Then, click on the dotted icon in the top right corner and click on ‘Code editor.’

The WordPress code editor

Next, find the piece of text that you want to redact. At the start of the text, type in the following tag:

[redact]

At the end of the redacted text, type in:

[/redact]

In the following image, we’re redacting ‘the Recipient.’

The WordPress code editor

To redact more text just follow the same process described above.

If you want to switch back to the default plain text block editor at any point, then simply click on ‘Exit code editor.’

Exiting the WordPress code editor

After adding tags to all the text that you want to redact, you can go ahead and publish or update the page.

Just be aware that the text won’t appear redacted while you’re logged into your WordPress account. To check that the text is redacted, you’ll either need to log out of your account or visit the page in an incognito tab in your web browser.

Another option is to automatically replace specific words with alternative words. This is useful if there’s a word that you never want to show on your site, such as the name of a confidential supplier or customer.

By configuring the plugin to automatically redact a word, you can make sure that information never shows up on your website. This automated workflow can also save you a lot of time and hard work.

Since it replaces each redacted word with an alternative word, this method can also make your pages easier to read and nicer to look at, particularly when compared to a page that has lots of blacked-out content.

To redact a word or phrase automatically, head over to Settings » Eyes Only. Then, go ahead and click on the ‘Add new’ button.

Creating a redaction rule in WordPress

In the new ‘Text’ field, simply type in the text that you want to redact automatically. Just be aware that the text replacement is case sensitive.

In the ‘Replacement’ field, type in the text that you want to show instead of the redacted text.

In the following image, we’re replacing ‘Jane Smith’ with ‘Our Client.’

The Eyes Only redaction WordPress plugin

You can then go ahead and click on the ‘Add’ button.

If you want to automatically replace more words or phrases, then simply repeat the process described above.

As we already mentioned, the text replacement is case sensitive. If you want to redact a word no matter whether it’s capitalizated, you’ll need to create two separate text replacement rules.

One of these rules should replace the capitalized version, and another should replace the uncapitalized version, as you can see in the following image.

Case-sensitive text redaction

When you’re happy with the redaction rules you’ve created, click on the Save Changes button at the bottom of the screen.

The plugin will now scan your site and automatically replace any matches that it finds.

At some point you may no longer want to hide a particular word or phrase. In this case, you can simply delete the redaction rule. This will automatically remove the masking and show the original words across your WordPress blog.

To delete a redaction rule, simply go to Settings » Eyes Only.

Then, just hover the mouse over the rule that you want to delete and click on the ‘Delete’ link when it appears.

The automatic redaction settings

You will need to confirm that you want to delete the rule.

If you still want to go ahead, then click on ‘Yes.’

How to delete a text redact rule

Finally, it’s time to click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom. Now if you visit any page or post that has the original word, you’ll see that the plugin is no longer redacting the text.

We hope this article helped you learn how to redact text in WordPress. You may also want to check out our ultimate WordPress security guide and the best live chat software.

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 Redact Text in WordPress (The Easy Way) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Create A Question and Answers Site in WordPress

Bluehost, question answer wordpress plugin, WordPress Plugins, wordpress question answer site

Do you want to build an online question and answer community like Stack Overflow or Quora?

You can create a whole site dedicated to Q&A, or add a question and answer section to an existing WordPress site. No matter what approach you take, helpful questions and answers can improve the visitor experience and keep people on your website for longer.

In this article, we will show you how to easily create a question and answers site in WordPress.

How to create a question and answers site in WordPress

Getting Started with a Question and Answer Website

To start your own question and answers website, you will need the following:

  • A domain name. This is the name of your website such as stackoverflow.com.
  • A web hosting account. This is where your website’s files are stored. All websites need web hosting.
  • A Content Management System. This is software that helps you create, publish, and manage all your questions and answers. For this guide, we’ll be using WordPress as it powers nearly 43% of all websites and gives you complete control over your content. To learn more about why we recommend WordPress to all our readers, please see our complete WordPress review with pros and cons.
  • Extra software, plugins, or tools. These add special question-and-answer features to your WordPress website.

How Much Does It Cost to Build a Question and Answer Website?

The answer to this question depends on the features you need, how many visitors you get, how much content you create, and lots of other factors.

To help you budget, we’ve created a complete guide on how much it really costs to build a website. However, typically the cost of building a website can range from anywhere between $100 per year to as high as $30,000 per year.

We recommend you start small and then add more features to your question-and-answer site as it grows and gets more popular. This helps you avoid spending too much on your site, before it starts making a profit.

That said, let’s see how you can build a successful Q&A website for under $100.

Step 1: Setting up Your Question and Answers Site

To create a WordPress website you’ll need a domain name and web hosting. To help you out, we’ve hand-picked some of the best WordPress hosting that you can buy for a question and answer website.

Although the WordPress software is free, hosting and domain names are where the costs can really start to add up.

A domain name typically costs $14.99/year and hosting costs start from $7.99/month. This is A LOT for new websites or anyone who is working with a limited budget.

Luckily, Bluehost has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting. Basically, you can get started for $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Bluehost is one of the largest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

They’re also offering our readers a free SSL certificate so you have the option to accept payments online. This is perfect if you want to make money from your question and answer website in the future.

To buy a domain name and hosting, simply go to the Bluehost website in a new browser window and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.

Bluehost web hosting packages

This will bring you to a pricing page where you can choose a hosting plan for your question-and-answer website.

We recommend choosing a Basic or Plus plan, as they’re the most popular web hosting plans among our readers.

Bluehost's pricing plans

After selecting a plan, click on ‘Continue.’

On the next screen, you’ll need to choose a domain name.

Choosing a domain name for your Q&A site

Ideally, the domain name will be easy to pronounce and spell, and easy to remember.

Need help choosing a domain name for your question and answer website? See these tips and tools on how to choose the best domain name.

After choosing a name, click on the ‘Next’ button to continue.

Now you’ll need to provide your account information such as your name and business email address. After that, you’ll also see optional extras that you can purchase.

We generally don’t recommend purchasing these extras straight away, as you can always add them later on if you need them.

Adding extra packages to your Bluehost hosting

After that, simply type in your payment information to complete the purchase.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll get an email with instructions on how to log in to your web hosting control panel. This is your hosting account dashboard where you can manage your Q&A website, including setting up email notifications and asking for WordPress support, if you need it.

It’s also where you’ll install the WordPress software.

Step 2. Install WordPress on Your Question and Answer Website

When you signup with Bluehost using our link, you’ll get access to a one-click WordPress installer.

Simply log into your Bluehost account and click on ‘One Click Install.’

Installing WordPress on your Q&A site

Here, you’ll see all the different software you can add to your account.

Simply find ‘WordPress’ and give it a click.

Installing the WordPress software

Here, just click on the ‘Install’ button.

You can now follow the onscreen instructions to install the WordPress software.

Installing the WordPress CMS

Once that process is finished, you can log in to the WordPress dashboard by simply going to yoursite.com/wp-admin/ directly from your browser.

If you’re using a different WordPress website host like SiteGround, Hostinger, HostGator, or WP Engine, then you can see our complete guide on how to install WordPress for all the top hosting providers.

Step 3. Select a WordPress Theme

After installing WordPress, you’ll typically want to change the default theme. WordPress themes are professionally designed templates that change how your site looks and acts.

There are lots of different premium and free WordPress business themes to choose from. You can generally categorize these as multipurpose WordPress themes, or niche industry themes.

Another option is to use a landing page builder plugin such as SeedProd.

The SeedProd page builder

SeedProd is the best drag-and-drop WordPress page builder and comes with built-in templates that you can use to build a professionally-designed question-and-answer website.

It even has a ready-made FAQ section that you can add to any page using drag and drop.

A SeedProd page builder, with an FAQ section

Once you’ve chosen a theme, please see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress theme.

Step 4. Setting up Your Question and Answers Site

The easiest way to add question and answer features to your WordPress website is by using the AnsPress plugin. This plugin allows you to create a Stack Overflow-style question and answer site.

How to create a question and answer site using WordPress

Even better, AnsPress automatically creates all the pages you need to launch a successful Q and A site.

This includes a page where visitors can type in their questions, in exactly the same way people use websites like Quora.

An example of a question and answer site, created using WordPress

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

Upon activation, AnsPress automatically adds question-and-answer pages to your WordPress website. To see these pages, head over to AnsPress » Settings in the WordPress dashboard.

Once there, you can select ‘General’ in the menu on the left-hand side.

The AnsPress question and answer WordPress plugin

This page lists all the different pages that AnsPress has created.

To take a closer look at any page, simply click on its ‘View page’ link.

Changing the question and answer settings in WordPress

The default AnsPress pages should be a good fit for most WordPress blogs and websites. However, you can always add your own content to these pages.

For example, you might add some text that encourages visitors to post their questions, and tells them when to expect an answer.

Customizing the default question and answer page in WordPress

To add your own content to any AnsPress page, simply click on the ‘Edit page’ link next to it.

This opens the standard WordPress post editor where you can add text, images, and more.

An example of question and answer WordPress shortcode

As you can see, AnsPress adds all its content using shortcode, so don’t change this code in any way.

When you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, just click on ‘Update.’

Customizing the question submission page in WordPress

You can edit any default AnsPress page by following the same process described above.

When you’ve finished, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Pages’ to store your settings.

Changing the AnsPress WordPress plugin settings

By default, AnsPress adds the following message to all its pages: ‘Question and answer is powered by anspress.net.’ This can make your site look less professional.

It also links to the AnsPress site, which can hurt your pageviews and bounce rate by encouraging people to leave your site.

An example of a question and answer site, with a 'Powered by' disclaimer

Because of that, it’s a good idea to remove this text by checking the box next to ‘Hide author credits’ and then clicking on ‘Save Changes.’

Now if you look at any AnsPress page, you’ll see the text has vanished.

Removing the 'Powered by' disclaimer from a question and answer site

With that done, scroll to the ‘Permalinks’ section in the AnsPress settings.

Here, you’ll see the permalink structure and settings that the plugin uses by default. These settings should work well for most websites, but you may be able to improve your WordPress SEO by making some small changes.

Changing the Q and A permalink settings on your site

For example, you may want to add some relevant keywords to the default ‘Question slug.’ This can help you create more SEO-friendly URLs in WordPress.

In the image below, each question will now use the slug /questions/wordpress-questions/question-name/ which will help us rank for the term ‘WordPress.’

Changing the permalink settings on a Q&A WordPress website

If you do make any changes in this section, then don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes.’

Next, it’s time to fine-tune the layout by scrolling to the ‘Layout’ section. Here, you’ll see that AnsPress shows the user’s Gravatar in a few different places including next to questions, answers, and comments.

Customizing the profile pictures on a question and answer website

You can change the size of these avatars by typing into the different boxes.

For more information on user avatars, please see our beginner’s guide on Gravatars and why you should start using them right away.

By default, AnsPress will show 20 questions per page and 5 answers per page. You can show more or less content by typing new numbers into the ‘Questions per page’ or ‘Answers per page’ box.

Showing more or less questions and answers on your Quora-style WordPress website

If you show fewer questions and answers per page, then users will need to scroll less. This is particularly helpful for visitors who are using smaller devices like smartphones and tablets. It can also speed up your WordPress performance since you’re loading less content.

Just be aware that most visitors expect to get the right answer on the first page, so you’ll want to show a reasonable number of answers per page.

When you’re happy with how your Q&A site is set up, click on the ‘Submit’ button.

Email notifications are an important part of running a successful question-and-answer website. They let admins know when customers or potential leads post a new question, and they also let users know when their question gets an answer.

In this way, emails can keep users engaged and help your Q&A site run more smoothly.

AnsPress comes with built-in email notifications that work out-of-the-box. However, it’s still smart to see whether there are any changes you want to make by clicking on the ‘Email’ link.

Customizing the email settings in your Stack Overflow-style WordPress website

Here, you can see all the different emails that AnsPress will send automatically.

To enable or disable an email, simply click on the box next to it.

Changing the email notifications on a Q&A website

Pro Tip: You need to make sure all your Q&A emails go to the user’s email inbox and not to the spam folder. The best way to do this is by using an SMTP service provider to improve email deliverability. For more details, see our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

As always, don’t forget to click on ‘Submit’ to save your changes.

Some question-and-answer sites are completely open to the public. This means that non-logged-in users can see the content, and may even be able to post questions and answers without creating an account.

Other Q&A sites are completely private or require user registration.

There are drawbacks and positives to the different approaches. A public question-and-answer site will typically get more traffic and engagement, but it may also get more spam and attract low-quality answers.

If you’re using questions and answers to make money online blogging with WordPress, then you may want to make some parts of your site members-only. This allows you to charge a subscription fee using a plugin like MemberPress.

Another option is allowing people to register with your website for free, so you can collect their email addresses. In this way, your question-and-answer site can help you do lead generation like a pro.

However you plan to use your question-and-answer site, it’s a good idea to review the posting permissions by selecting ‘User Access Control.’

The user access control settings

Here, you can see all the different content that logged-in and non-logged-in users can access, and the actions they take. You can change these settings using the different dropdown menus.

You can also change whether questions and answers get posted automatically, or if they’re held for admin approval. By default, non-logged-in users can post questions and answers, but you’ll need to approve them manually in the admin area.

This is similar to how you moderate comments in WordPress.

These settings are self-explanatory but they have a big impact on how your question-and-answer site runs. With that being said, it’s worth going through the different settings carefully and then making any changes.

Changing the posting permissions on your Stack Exchange-style WordPress website

If you do edit these settings, then don’t forget to click on the ‘Submit’ button.

AnsPress encourages users to engage with your site through gamification, by awarding reputation points for different actions. This reputation system works by default, but you can change how many points AnsPress awards for each action by selecting ‘Reputations.’

Here, you’ll see all the different actions and their reputation points.

Adding a reputation points-based system to a Q and A website

To award more or less points for an action, simply type a new number into its box. When you’re happy with how the reputation system is set up, click on Save Events Points.

There are some more settings you may want to look through, but this should be enough to help you set up a successful question-and-answer website.

When you’re happy with how the plugin and pages are set up, it’s a good idea to add them to your website’s navigation menu so visitors can find them.

A WordPress menu with question and answer links

For step-by-step instructions, please see our beginner’s guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.

If you need reminding about all the different pages that AnsPress added to your site, then simply go to AnsPress » Settings and then click on the ‘Pages’ link.

Managing Your Question Answer Site

At this point, your site is ready to start accepting questions and answers from users. However, depending on how your Q&A site is set up, you may need to manually approve some, or all, of these posts.

By default, AnsPress will email the WordPress admin about any questions or answers that need manual approval. You’ll also see notifications in the admin dashboard.

Managing your WordPress question and answer site

To manually approve an answer or question, simply click on either ‘All Questions’ or ‘All Answers’ in the left-hand menu.

You can then hover your mouse over the post that you want to review and click on ‘View.’

Approving questions and answers on a Q&A WordPress blog or website

This will show a preview of how the question or answer will look on your website.

If you’re happy to make it live, then click on the small cog icon and then select ‘Published.’

Approving a question or answer on your WordPress website

If you don’t want to publish the post, then select ‘Delete’ or ‘Delete Permanently’ instead.

We hope this article helped you create a question-and-answer site in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress or see our expert pick of the best live chat software 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 Create A Question and Answers Site in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

WordPress 6.2 Reaches Key Milestone with Release Candidate 1

newsletter, WordPress News, WordPress Tips & Tutorials

The first release candidate (RC1) for WordPress 6.2 is now available for testing, marking a significant milestone in the release cycle. While we believe RC1 is ready for final release, community testing can only improve its quality. The official release is scheduled for March 28, just three weeks away. As is common in open-source development, [...]

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The post WordPress 6.2 Reaches Key Milestone with Release Candidate 1 appeared first on Learn WordPress with WPLift.