Squarespace vs WordPress – Which Is Better? (Pros and Cons)

29.01.2023Opinion, squarespace, squarespace vs wordpress, wordpress and squarespace comparisonEditorial Staff

Are you looking for a Squarespace vs WordPress comparison to figure out which one is better?

Squarespace and WordPress are two popular website builders that allow you to easily make a website without coding.

In this article, we will compare Squarespace vs. WordPress with the list of pros and cons for each platform. Hopefully, it will help you decide which one is better for your needs.

Note: This comparison is between Squarespace vs self-hosted WordPress (not WordPress.com). See the difference between self-hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com.

Since we want to create the most detailed WordPress vs Squarespace comparison, we have broken down the article into multiple in-depth sections.

We will look at each section and see which platform offers the most benefit to a beginner-level user.

Ready? Let’s get started.

Ease of Use and The Learning Curve

Most business owners and beginner-level users are not familiar with HTML, CSS, and other code-related things.

They want a website builder that is beginner friendly and helps them make a website without hiring a developer.

Let’s see how both WordPress and Squarespace stack up in this category.

WordPress

WordPress is the top choice among users who want to start a blog or small business owners building a DIY website.

WordPress is the best website builder on the market. More than 43% of all websites on the internet use WordPress

While WordPress is fairly intuitive and easy to use, there is a slight learning curve.

Beginners will need to familiarize themselves with WordPress terminology and concepts such as the difference between posts vs pages, categories vs tags, and understanding themes and plugins.

The default WordPress content editor is fairly easy to use.

It comes with blocks to add common content elements to your pages so that you can build beautiful layouts with media-rich content.

Despite the slight learning curve, in our experience, most users quickly adapt to WordPress.

Need an even more flexible way to create pages?

WordPress gives you access to drag-and-drop page builder plugins like SeedProd. This allows you to create your own custom designs from scratch without writing code.

SeedProd a popular WordPress page builder plugin

Squarespace

Unlike WordPress, Squarespace does not come with a lot of choices.

This lack of choice makes it very simple and user-friendly. Even absolute beginners can quickly write content and publish it.

Squarespace also uses a block editor similar to WordPress. Adding images, videos, and audio files is simpler than WordPress.

There are plenty of content blocks, and each block has multiple layout control choices.

Squarespace lets you customize your templates and pages using a visual editor.

However, you are limited to the options available in the customizer, since it is a controlled environment.

Conclusion

Squarespace fares a little better than WordPress out of the box in terms of ease of use for absolute beginners. However, its limited features might not be ideal for all business owners.

On the other hand, WordPress users will get a lot of options right from the beginning, which might be confusing at first, but it is a lot more flexible in the long run.

Winner: Tie

Costs of Using Squarespace vs WordPress

Knowing how much each platform cost is important in making a business decision.

Let’s look at how much Squarespace costs vs. how much WordPress costs.

WordPress

WordPress itself is free. You are free to download, use, and build upon WordPress. It is open-source software with a GPL license which gives you all the freedom and control.

In order to build your website with WordPress, you will need to register a domain and signup for a web hosting account.

Depending on your needs, you can choose a shared hosting plan, VPS hosting, or even managed WordPress hosting.

Shared hosting plans work for most personal and small business websites.

See our guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting.

The cost of web hosting and domain name vary depending on your hosting provider. You are in charge of how many resources you need for your website and how much you will pay for it.

For instance, you can start with Bluehost. They are offering WPBeginner users 60% off and a free domain name with SSL certificate.

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If you can spend a little more, you can upgrade to SiteGround.

One of the reasons for WordPress’ popularity is that the overall cost of building your website with WordPress is very low.

Apart from that, you can change your hosting plan as your site grows. This means you will only pay for the resources you use, so it’s easier to control the cost of your website.

We have a detailed article on the cost of building a WordPress website and how to keep it under budget.

Squarespace

The personal plan for Squarespace starts from $16 per month (billed annually) or $23 month to month. That’s a little more than a shared hosting plan for WordPress.

However, unlike a shared WordPress hosting service, this Squarespace plan comes with limited features.

You can only add only two contributors to your site, and you cannot sell products.

Whereas you can start an online store with WordPress for less than that.

Squarespace business plan starts from $23 per month (billed annually) or $33 month to month.

It includes eCommerce support, but they charge a 3% fee on each transaction. This is separate from the fee charged by your payment processor.

The business plan comes with unlimited contributors, pages, and additional advanced features.

They also have separate plans for online stores starting from $27 per month with no additional transaction fee.

Conclusion

As an open-source platform, WordPress beats Squarespace with flexible pricing plans available from a variety of web hosting providers. Squarespace pricing is higher than WordPress and with less flexibility.

The cost depends on how many resources you use, and you get access to all WordPress features right out of the box.

Winner: WordPress

Design and Templates

WordPress and Squarespace come with ready-made templates and design tools to make it easy for you to create a custom website.

Let’s see which offers you more choices and tools to create well-designed websites.

WordPress

WordPress offers access to thousands of free and premium themes (website templates). These templates are highly customizable, allowing you to use your website logo, colors, upload your own images, and more.

Many WordPress themes come with multiple layout choices, a drag-and-drop editor, sliders, photo galleries, and tons of other features.

No matter what kind of web design you need, you will find hundreds of professionally designed templates for the job.

Many beginners find this abundance of choices a bit overwhelming. Here are some of our expert picks of the best WordPress themes for different kinds of websites.

For more on this topic, see our article on how to choose the best WordPress theme for your website.

Alternatively, you can also start with the SeedProd. It is a drag-and-drop WordPress website builder that allows you to design a custom WordPress theme from scratch without coding.

Squarespace

Squarespace offers ready-made website templates neatly organized into different categories.

There are Squarespace templates for all popular website categories, with professional designs that look good on all devices.

You can easily select a template for your Squarespace website and modify it using the built-in customizer.

However, this is a big area where Squarespace seriously falls behind.

The number of pre-made templates is very limited, and your design options are also limited to the set of features available in the Squarespace customizer.

Themes come with a limited number of layout choices with each template. You can still tweak colors, fonts, website logos, and other things, but these templates are not as customizable as WordPress themes.

Conclusion

WordPress comes out as a clear winner in terms of design choices, customization options, and flexibility. Squarespace offers great-looking templates, but they are limited in numbers and are not very flexible.

Winner: WordPress

Extensions and Integrations

All website builders come with a collection of built-in features. As your website grows, you would want to add more features and connect your site to work with third-party tools and services.

Let’s see how WordPress and Squarespace perform in this regard.

WordPress

The real power of WordPress comes from its massive ecosystem of plugins. These plugins are like apps for your WordPress site that you can install to add new features or change the default behavior of your site.

There are currently more than 60,000+ free WordPress plugins listed in WordPress.org plugin directory alone. There are also thousands of premium WordPress plugins available from third-party websites.

If you can think of a feature, there is a good chance that you’ll easily find a WordPress plugin that does it.

WordPress plugins are so robust that many of them are full-fledged platforms with their own add-on plugins and a thriving community built around them.

We have a list of the essential WordPress plugins that every website should have.

Then you have specialized plugins to create ecommerce websites, build membership communities, sell online courses, and more.

To learn more, see our article on how to choose the best WordPress plugin.

Because WordPress is the most popular website builder, most third-party services and tools have their own WordPress plugins which integrate their services to a WordPress website.

WordPress also has integrations available for all popular social media platforms.

All top email marketing services, SEO tools, live chat software, and lead generation tools offer seamless integration with WordPress.

Squarespace

Squarespace comes nowhere close to WordPress when it comes to extensibility and integrations.

They do offer a very limited set of extensions and integrations. However, unlike WordPress, Squarespace doesn’t have powerful APIs that developers can build upon.

The available integrations are often limited in functionality and you cannot use them as freely on Squarespace as you can do on WordPress.

For eCommerce, you can use their built-in platform, but you cannot extend it in any way.

Squarespace lacks the functionality to allow custom websites you might need for your online business idea.

Conclusion

WordPress is the clear winner with an incredible ecosystem of thousands of plugins and integrations at your fingertips.

Squarespace, on the other hand, has very few integrations and many of them are very limited.

Winner: WordPress

E-commerce Comparison – Squarespace vs WordPress

Are you building an online store? Let’s compare the eCommerce functionality of WordPress vs. Squarespace.

WordPress

WordPress allows you to integrate and use any payment processor or platform.

Many WordPress plugins allow you to easily accept online payments using credit cards via Stripe, PayPal, Google Checkout, 2Checkout, Payoneer, Skrill, and even Bitcoin.

Selling products in WordPress with WooCommerce

WordPress has plenty of eCommerce plugins that can turn your website into an online store within minutes.

The world’s most popular eCommerce platform, WooCommerce, is a WordPress plugin.

WooCommerce comes with its own ecosystem of WooCommerce add-ons and thousands of WooComemrce ready themes.

There is no limit on how many products you add to your website, how you display them, or how you sell them.

You can run your own affiliate program and use all the tricks to grow your sales without any restrictions.

Squarespace

Ecommerce features are quite limited on Squarespace. You can only use Stripe and PayPal for payment processing, both of which are only available in select countries.

There is no other payment system available, which restricts your ability to accept payments from a larger global audience.

For a growing business, starting with such limitations is not a great idea.

Apart from that, you can only sell products in Business or Commerce plans. Due to transaction fees, Squarespace users need to upgrade to an eCommerce plan to save on that.

Let’s say you want to sell only one product, you will still have to pay for the Business plan, and the yearly costs of hosting a site with just one product to sell will be way higher than a shared hosting plan or VPS for WordPress.

As for third-party services, there are very few external services that you can integrate with your Squarespace site.

This affects how you promote your website and the things you can do to make more sales and grow your business.

Conclusion

WordPress is way ahead of Squarespace when it comes to running an eCommerce website. The limitations of Squarespace can affect the growth of an online business.

The neat part about WordPress is that you can also use it alongside Shopify. See our comparison of Shopify vs WooCommerce.

Winner: WordPress

Data Portability

When signing a business agreement, you always have safety clauses such as, if you’re not happy, then you can leave without any hassle.

This concept extends to online businesses as well, and it is called data portability.

If you’re not happy with the platform, then you should be able to take all your work and move it somewhere else.

Let’s look at how WordPress and Squarespace compare in data portability and the freedom to switch.

WordPress

WordPress comes with built-in tools to easily export all your data.

Not just your content and images, but you can also back up your themes, plugins, and the entire database. See our list of the best WordPress backup solutions.

You can then easily move this content to any other Content Management System you want. You can store your content anywhere else and change web hosts at any time you want.

Squarespace

Just like everything else, the export feature on Squarespace is also very limited.

You can only export certain parts of your content in an XML file. This includes your pages, galleries, and one blog page with all its posts.

Your product pages, album pages, text, audio, and video blocks will not be exported.

Conclusion

The content you create on your site is yours, and you should have the freedom and tools so that you can move it elsewhere.

WordPress again beats Squarespace with easy-to-manage tools to export your entire site.

Winner: WordPress

Languages and Internationalization

We live in a global world and many businesses cater to a multilingual audience in different geographical locations.

Let’s see how Squarespace and WordPress handle languages, multi-lingual content, and geographical locations.

WordPress

WordPress is fully translated into dozens of languages. Users on a WordPress site can choose their own language from their profile settings.

Most WordPress themes are translation-ready and all popular WordPress plugins are also translated into many languages.

You can build a WordPress website in any language you want. You can even translate WordPress yourself if your language is not yet available.

WordPress does not come with multi-lingual functionality out of the box. However, there are excellent plugins to create multilingual websites that are SEO-friendly and incredibly feature-rich.

Squarespace

The Squarespace platform is fully translated into six languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese). It also partially supports a few more languages.

You can change your site language and choose a different timezone / country.

You can only use currencies supported by Stripe or PayPal for your store products.

You can create multilingual pages by basically duplicating your pages. You will have to manually create a site structure or different sites for each language (You will be billed for each site separately).

Alternatively, you can pay for Weglot, a third-party service to manage translations. Pricing for Weglot starts at $9.99 per month for one language.

Conclusion

WordPress is way ahead in terms of languages and localization options. Squarespace again comes out as very limited and not suitable for creating multilingual websites.

Winner: WordPress

Summarizing Squarespace vs WordPress Comparison

WordPress is a far superior platform to Squarespace when it comes to building a website. Our CMS market share report shows that WordPress powers over 43% of all websites while Squarespace is only used by 2.1% of websites.

Here is a quick breakdown of pros and cons of both platforms.

Pros of using Squarespace

Easier to use for small websites
Polished user experience
Hassle-free website setup
Customer support via Twitter, Live Chat, and email support.

Cons of using Squarespace

Costs higher than a website on shared hosting
Limited design choices
Limited set of features
Limitations put you at disadvantage in growing your business

Pros of using WordPress

Easy to use with a slight learning curve
Incredibly flexible to create any kind of website
Massive collection of themes and plugins
Truly powerful eCommerce platform
Can be started at a very low cost
Community support via online forums

Cons of using WordPress

You’ll have to install updates and make backups
You’ll have to manually scale resources by upgrading your hosting as your business grows
You’ll be responsible for managing your website security

Weighing the pros and cons, we can confidently say that WordPress is a better platform to start a website.

The freedom to grow your website as you see fit is important for all businesses.

You should not trade that for any cost. WordPress provides this freedom at a much lower cost than all other platforms.

Frequently Asked Questions about Squarespace vs WordPress

Following are some of the most commonly asked questions about Squarespace vs WordPress.

1. Is WordPress better than Squarespace?

Yes, WordPress is better than Squarespace because it gives you more freedom and flexibility to build any kind of website.

Squarespace is easy to use but it offers a free limited set of features and flexibility. It is comparable to platforms like Wix or Weebly which are also fully hosted site builders with similar limitations.

2. Is WordPress better for SEO than Squarespace?

Yes, WordPress is better for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) than Squarespace. With WordPress you can use SEO plugins like All in One SEO for WordPress, which allows you to add powerful sitemaps, schema markup, meta title and descriptions, and more.

With Squarespace, you are limited to the SEO functionality baked into the platform and cannot extend it.

3. How can I move my site from Squarespace to WordPress?

Squarespace offers limited export options but you can still switch from Squarespace to WordPress. See our tutorial on how to easily move from Squarespace to WordPress for step-by-step instructions.

4. Squarespace vs WordPress which one is better for bloggers?

WordPress is the better platform for bloggers. It started out as a blogging platform and still has the best blogging tools than any other site builder on the market.

We hope this article offered you a side-by-side comparison of WordPress vs Squarespace. You may also want to see our complete WordPress review for a detailed overview of the platform.

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 Squarespace vs WordPress – Which Is Better? (Pros and Cons) first appeared on WPBeginner.

9 Best Google Optimize Alternatives (Free and Paid)

27.01.2023a/b testing in wordpress, add google optimize, funnelkit, google optimize, google optimize alternative, optinmonster, Showcase, split testing, thrive optimize, vwo, woofunnelsEditorial Staff

Recently one of our readers asked us for our suggestion on the best Google Optimize alternative?

Google Optimize is a tool that lets you conduct experiments on your website. However, Google recently announced that the Optimize tool will be sunset in September 2023, and your experiments will stop after this date.

This has left many business owners and marketers scrambling to quickly find a Google Optimize alternative for their A/B testing needs.

In this article, we will share the best Google Optimize alternatives, so you can choose the solution that works for your needs. We will also share what we’re going to be switching to as well.

What is Google Optimize and Why Use an Alternative?

Google Optimize is a free tool by Google that allows you to split test pages on your WordPress website and improve user experience.

You can set up conversion experiments using the tool and see if making changes to a landing page increases conversions. For example, you can A/B split-test two versions of a sales page, use different headlines, or change the color of the call to action (CTA) buttons to see which one works the best.

However, Google announced that they will sunset Google Optimize on September 30, 2023. After this date, the tool will no longer be available, and all your experiments and personalizations will end on that date. Besides that, you won’t be able to access data after the sunset date.

You can use a Google Optimize alternative to continue experimenting and testing your site. There are many tools in the market that let you conduct A/B tests with ease, require no coding to set up, and offer powerful features.

Let’s look at the best Google Optimize alternatives especially the ones that works seamlessly with WordPress websites, but several of these Google Optimize competitors will work on all website platforms.

1. Thrive Optimize

Thrive Optimize is the best Google Optimize alternative for WordPress that is super easy to use. It is part of the Thrive Theme suite, which includes an ecosystem of WordPress plugins focused on boosting conversions on your site.

With Thrive Optimize, you can conduct experiments and A/B test landing pages without editing code. Unlike Google Optimize, the plugin is beginner friendly, as there is no need to add code snippets to your site.

You can get started in no time. Simply create a landing page using the visual builder and then create a variant. After that, pick a conversion goal, which includes page visits, opt-in form submissions, and revenue. Once that’s done, go ahead and run the test.

Thrive Optimize Visual Split Testing for WordPress

The best part is that you don’t have to switch between tabs or windows to view the results of your experiments. If you’re using Google Optimize, then you’d have to jump back and forth between tabs to see the results.

Instead, Thrive Optimize shows a report inside your WordPress dashboard. You can quickly view which variant is converting the best. Besides that, you can create as many variations of a landing page for testing as you want. The plugin also picks a winner and shows the best variant.

Pricing: Thrive Optimize is part of the Thrive Themes suite which costs $299 per year and includes 9 other powerful conversion tools. You can also purchase Thrive Optimize bundle for $199 / year.

2. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the best WordPress popup plugin and lead generation software in the market. You can create campaigns like floating bars, welcome screen mats, and popups to grow your email list, increase conversions, and get more leads.

OptinMonster offers an A/B testing tool that lets you test different popup and modal campaigns. It makes a great Google Optimize alternative because it’s very easy to use. You can customize and create different variants using the drag-and-drop campaign builder.

Once you’ve created a split test, OptinMonster will randomly show the variations to your visitors and pick a clear winner. You can then see in-depth stats about conversions inside your WordPress dashboard and find out which campaign performs the best.

Pricing: You will need the OptinMonster Plus or higher plan to use the A/B testing feature, with prices starting from $19 per month.

3. VWO Testing

VWO Testing is a popular A/B testing tool and a great alternative to Google Optimize. You get more features than Google Optimize, as it allows you to run multiple experiments on your website, products, apps, and server side.

It comes with a visual builder to change different elements on your webpage, like text, images, shapes, backgrounds, and more. After making the changes, you can run split tests and see which variant performs the best.

VWO Testing offers an AI-power copywriting tool. This way, you can automatically select different headlines, CTA copies, and product descriptions to test.

It also lets you run tests based on user segments and behavior. For instance, you can select a target audience based on time spent on a page, scroll depth, exit intent, and when someone clicks on elements.

Pricing: VWO offers a free plan that you can use for up to 50 thousand users per month. If you have more users, then you can upgrade to their premium plans.

4. FunnelKit

FunnelKit, formerly known as WooFunnels, is the best WordPress and WooCommerce sales funnel plugin. You can use the plugin to create funnels to generate leads, offer seamless checkouts, 1-click upsells, and more.

FunnelKit is another Google Optimize alternative that comes with an A/B testing feature specially for WooCommerce. You can split-test your product prices, page layouts, messages, designs, and funnels without editing code.

The plugin is beginner friendly and helps you set up experiments within minutes. You can test headings, images, prices, product descriptions, and every other component on a page. FunnelKit also helps declare a winner once there’s enough data to see which funnel converts the best.

Besides that, FunnelKit also offers other features. For example, it offers FunnelKit Automation which allows you to set up automated emails and SMS campaigns.

Pricing: FunnelKit offers multiple pricing plans. To use the A/B Testing feature, you’ll need the Plus plan. It will cost you $179.5 per year.

5. Convert.com

Convert.com is a proven A/B testing tool to help you boost conversions. It provides fast & flicker free A/B testing experience and is known for their speed.

They are a perfect Google Optimize alternative because it gives you access to all the features you’re accustomed to with Google Optimize and then some more.

Convert also let you seamlessly integrate your tests with Google Analytics as well as other tools like Hotjar, Heap, Segment, HubSpot, and more.

Their onboarding is a bit slow, but once you’re up and running, you can create unlimited tests and quickly deploy changes.

Pricing: Convert.com prices start from $99 per month, and you get a 14-day free trial.

6. Crazy Egg

Crazy Egg is a popular heatmap tool in the market. You can use heatmaps to see how users behave on your website, where they click, and how they move the mouse cursor and scroll through pages.

Crazy Egg offers an A/B testing tool that you can use to run experiments on your website and boost conversions. What makes it a great Google Optimize alternative is the features it offers along with A/B testing.

You get heatmaps, recordings of visitors using your website, error tracking, surveys, and traffic analytics. Plus, you can configure it without editing code, which isn’t possible if you’re Google Optimize.

Crazy Egg offers a multivariate engine where all you need to do is choose the elements you want to test and add your ideas. The engine then does the heavy lifting and conducts the test for you.

The best part is that it is easily integrated with website builders, including WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, Wix, and more.

Pricing: Crazy Egg offers different pricing plans starting from $29 per month. You get unlimited A/B tests in each pricing plan, and there is also a 30-day free trial to get started.

7. Adobe Target

Adobe Target is an enterprise-level solution to run split tests on their website and is part of Adobe Marketing Cloud. It is more powerful than Google Optimize and offers an omnichannel approach to the A/B test.

What this means is that instead of running isolated experiments, Adobe Target lets you run tests on every channel. This way, you get to see how users behave with different variants coming from other channels, like social media, organic traffic, paid search, and more.

The software is easy to use and set up. Plus, its AI-powered automation helps you test multiple experiences and then personalize them for each visitor.

On the downside, Adobe Analytics is only available for users that have Adobe Analytics. If you’re looking for a complete marketing solution with an A/B testing feature, then you can use Thrive Optimize instead.

Pricing: You will need to request a quote and get Adobe Target pricing according to your business needs.

8. Optimizely

Optimizely is one of the most popular Google Optimize alternatives in the market. Their digital experience platform allows you to create every kind of A/B testing experiment for your website.

You can use their visual editor along with advanced targeting features to optimize your A/B testing campaigns. Optimizely works on all website platforms and is a platform of choice by many large brands.

We have used Optimizely in the past when they had a free plan, and it’s an extremely powerful tool for what it does, however the prices are no longer small business friendly.

Pricing: Optimizely does not reveal it’s prices anymore and require that you submit a form to request a quote.

9. Kameleoon

Kameleoon is the next Google Optimize alternative on our list. It offers powerful solutions and lets you conduct different types of experiments.

For starters, you can run web experiments and A/B test your website and mobile apps. You can assign a business goal to your tests and see which variant is increasing conversions, retention, or engagement.

Kameleoon also offers A/B testing features to advanced users and developers. You can run server-side experiments to improve your product. It easily works in different development languages and frameworks, like PHP, Java, Ruby, Flutter, and more.

Besides that, it offers AI-power personalization. You can provide unique experiences to each visitor, target different segments for testing, and comply with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA.

Pricing: You will need to request a demo and get a quote for Kameleoon pricing.

Which is the Best Google Optimize Alternative (Expert Pick)

The best Google Optimize alternatives are Thrive Optimize, VWO Testing, and FunnelKit.

If you’re looking for a WordPress A/B testing tool, then Thrive Optimize is our first pick. It gives you all the powerful features, and it’s very affordable. Since it’s part of the Thrive Suite, you also get other solutions like a quiz builder, popup form builder, WordPress page builder, and more.

If you’re looking for an all-around SaaS alternative for Google Optimize that works on all platforms, then we recommend using VWO Testing. They have a generous free plan that should work for most small business owners.

And if you are an eCommerce store owner looking for the best Google Optimize alternative for WooCommerce, then we recommend using FunnelKit. They have deep integration with WooCommerce and allow you to customize every step of the funnel including adding custom 1-click upsells, order bumps, and more to help boost your average order value.

We hope this article helped you find the best Google Optimize alternative. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to improve your SEO ranking, and see our comparison of the best push notification software with A/B testing features to boost your 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 9 Best Google Optimize Alternatives (Free and Paid) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Import & Export WooCommerce Products with Images

26.01.2023funnelkit automations, Tutorials, uncanny automator, woocommerceEditorial Staff

Do you want to import and export WooCommerce products with images?

Importing or exporting WooCommerce products with images allows you to easily move your store or add new products in multiple stores.

In this article, we will show you how to easily import and export WooCommerce products with images.

How to Import & Export WooCommerce Products with Images

Why Import & Export WooCommerce Products?

Many users need to import and export WooCommerce products for a number of reasons.

You may want to move products from one WooCommerce store to another
You may want to start an online store with a new WordPress website but with the same WooCommerce products
You may want to move your website to a new server but need a better way to move products
You may want a faster way to add your products to multiple stores that you manage
and more

Now normally if you are moving your website to a new server, then you can just duplicate your entire website and set it up on your new host.

We have a complete step-by-step guide for that, see how to easily move WordPress to a new host or server.

On the other hand, if you only want to move products, then this tutorial will help you learn how to properly export and import WooCommerce products with images and other product data.

We’ll show you two methods, you can choose one that works best for you.

Method 1. Import & Export WooCommerce Products without a Plugin

WooCommerce comes with built-in functionality to easily import and export products with images, but without using any additional plugins.

First, you need to visit the Products » All Products page in your WordPress admin area. There, you will see two buttons at the top to ‘Import’ or ‘Export’ products.

Let’s first check out how the export feature works.

Exporting WooCommerce Products without Using a Plugin

Simply click on the ‘Export’ button at the top to continue.

On the next screen, you’ll see a bunch of options to choose what data you want to export.

Default WooCommerce product export options

For instance, you can choose to only export certain columns from product data. You can also choose to export specific product types or products in specific categories.

To export all products with images and all other data, you can leave these options unchecked.

Optionally, you can check the ‘Export custom meta.’ If you are unsure, then it’s better to check it so that you have the data.

Go ahead and click on the ‘Generate CSV’ button to continue.

WooCommerce will now prepare a CSV file and download it to your computer.

What is a CSV File?

CSV is short for Comma Separated Values, and it is file type of plain text that separates different columns or fields of data with a comma.

You can open it with any spreadsheet software like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel. Here is how it would look:

Importing WooCommerce Products without Using a Plugin

Simply go to the Products » All Products page and click on the Import button at the top.

If your WooCommerce store is empty, then instead of the buttons at the top, you will see buttons at the center of the page.

Click on the ‘Start Import’ button to begin the import.

This will bring up the import wizard.

First, you need to click on the ‘Choose File’ button to select the WooCommerce export CSV file you downloaded earlier.

Click on the continue button to upload the CSV file.

WooCommerce will now check to see if your CSV file is in a compatible format. After that, it will ask you to map that data to existing WooCommerce product data.

The default settings here will work for most WooCommerce stores.

However, you still need to review and if a column is missing, and then click on the drop-down menu next to it and select a matching field if available.

Particularly, if you are using variations attribute for products, then make sure to scroll down to the attributes columns and match fields.

This will allow you to ensure that the fields in your CSV file match the corresponding WooCommerce fields.

Click on the ‘Run’ the Importer button to begin.

WooCommerce will now start importing data from CSV file. It will also download any images attached to your products.

Once finished, you can visit the Products » All Products page to see the imported products.

Make sure to visit your shop and product pages to check that everything is working as expected.

Method 2. Import & Export WooCommerce Products with a Plugin

For this method, we’ll be using a plugin to import and export WooCommerce products.

The advantage of this method is that it offers more flexible options and also allows you to export / import product reviews.

Plus, it allows you to import / export WooCommerce products in batches which comes in handy if you have a large store with many products and images.

Exporting WooCommerce Products with a Plugin

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

The plugin comes as three separate addons. You’ll need to download and install all of them.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Webtoffee Import Export (Pro) » Export page and select the ‘Product’ as the post type you want to export.

Exporting WooCommerce products using a plugin

On the next screen, you need to select an export method.

The default Quick Export method automatically selects all your products for export.

Optionally, you can also choose ‘Advanced Export’ which allows you to filter products by category, tag, and status.

You can also exclude individual products manually.

Click on the Export button to continue and the plugin will start preparing your product data.

Once finished, you’ll be prompted to download the export file to your computer.

Importing WooCommerce Products with a Plugin

Now that you have your export file ready, you can use it to import products on another WooCommerce store.

Simply install and activate the Product Import Export for WooCommerce plugin on the store where you need to import the products.

After that, go to the Webtoffee Import Export (Pro) » Import page and select ‘Product’ as the post type you want to import.

Click on the ‘Step 2: Select import method’ button to continue.

Next, you need to select an import method and upload the exported file you downloaded earlier to your computer.

Click on the ‘Step 3: Map and Import Columns’ button to continue.

On the next screen, you’ll see a list of fields and the matching fields from your import file. If you see an empty field, you can choose a matching field for it in the next column.

If you are using product variations like sizes and colors, then make sure to click on the Attributes tab to match attribute fields.

However, if you are not using any products with variations or custom attributes then you can use the default settings.

Click on the ‘Step 4: Advanced Options / Batch Import’ button to continue.

On the final screen, you’ll see advanced options. For instance, you can choose to match products by ID or SKU, choose what to do if a product already exists, and more.

If you are importing products into an empty WooCommere store, then you can use the default settings.

Finally, click on the ‘Import’ button to run the product import process.

You’ll see the progress of the import on screen. Once finished, you can click on ‘View Products’ to check if everything has been imported correctly.

The plugin also allows you to import and export Product Reviews.

If you want to import or export the product reviews too, then simply choose ‘Product Reviews’ post type on the import or export page.

Improve Your WooCommerce Store with Automations

If you find yourself doing a lot of manual work around your WooCommerce store and want to save time, then we recommend using Uncanny Automator for workflow automation.

Uncanny Automator helps you connect over 100+ plugins and apps with a simple no-code visual builder. You can use it to create automated workflows for things that you normally do without writing any code.

There’s a free version that you can try out, and it’s already used by over 20,000 websites.

Aside from workflow automation, if you’re looking for a marketing automation tool for WooCommerce, then we recommend using FunnelKit Automation. It will help you grow your sales and improve conversions without the high costs.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily import and export WooCommerce products with images in WordPress. You may also want to see our pick of the essential WooCommerce plugins or see these practical tips on recovering abandoned cart sales in WooCommerce.

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 Import & Export WooCommerce Products with Images first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Fix the ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED Error in Chrome

25.01.2023common annoying wordpress issues, common errors, common problems, common wordpress errors, failed to load resource error, this site cant be reached error, TutorialsEditorial Staff

Are you seeing the ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED error when trying to access a website or when viewing a website resource using your browser’s inspect tool?

This error message appears when your browser is unable to connect to the website you’ve requested. You might also see it in your browser’s inspect tool when you are exploring why a certain resource on the website won’t load.

In this article, we’ll show you how to fix the ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED error in Chrome.

What Is the ‘ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED’ Error in Chrome?

The ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED message is displayed in Google Chrome when it is trying to open a web page or website resource but is unable to do so. This error code is usually included inside an error message such as:

‘This site can’t be reached’
‘Failed to load resource’

There are lots of common WordPress errors, but this error may stop you from visiting your own website and logging in to the WordPress admin area. You’ll typically want to solve this problem as quickly as possible.

Often when you see this error message, your WordPress website is still working, but something is stopping the browser from accessing it. In many cases, you will only need to fix a problem with your own browser or internet connection.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to fix the ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED error in Chrome. First, we’ll look at how to fix the error when you can’t access an entire website, then we’ll show the solution for when you can’t access a specific file or resource on a website.

How to Fix the ‘This Site Can’t Be Reached’ Error

Usually, this message is displayed when you can’t access an entire website.

You will see the Chrome error message ‘This site can’t be reached’ along with the ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED error code. The message may even suggest a few things to try to fix the error, such as checking the connection, proxy, firewall, and DNS configuration.

Other browsers will display similar messages, such as:

‘Unable to connect’
‘Hmmm…can’t reach this page’

There are many things that can interfere with your connection to the website, and you will need to follow some troubleshooting steps to identify and fix the problem.

We’ll briefly cover the steps you should take below. For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to easily fix the ‘This site can’t be reached’ error in WordPress.

Check Your Internet Connection

The simplest fix is to check that you’re connected to the internet and restart your modem and router. Resetting your internet connection may be all it takes to reconnect to your website.

If not, you should check to see whether your website is working. Simply visit the Website Uptime Status Checker website, then enter the URL of your own site.

If your site is down, then you should contact your WordPress hosting provider to let them know your website is down.

Clear Your Browser Cache

Your web browser stores files and data from the websites you visit, so it doesn’t have to download them again. However, this can cause problems if the cached files become outdated or corrupt.

You can easily clear the browser cache in Google Chrome by clicking on the three-dotted icon in the upper-right corner and then selecting ‘More Tools,’ followed by ‘Clear Browsing Data…’

How to clear the browser cache in Google Chrome

In the popup that appears, check the box next to ‘Cached images and files’ and then click the ‘Clear data’ button.

Now try revisiting the website to check whether you can access it.

Troubleshoot the Software on Your Computer

Some of the security and networking software you run on your computer may be interfering with your connection to the website. This can include your firewall, antivirus software, VPN, and proxy server.

We offer detailed instructions on how to troubleshoot each of these in our guide on how to fix the ‘This site can’t be reached’ error.

Troubleshoot Your DNS Settings

Similar to the browser cache, your computer stores the IP addresses of all the websites you visit. This means the browser doesn’t have to look up the same IP address multiple times.

By flushing your DNS cache, you’ll get the very latest information about a website, including its new domain name or address.

To help you out, we’ve created a complete guide on how to clear your DNS cache for Mac, Windows, and Google Chrome.

If you still can’t access the website after doing this, then you can try changing your DNS server as well. You can follow the detailed instructions in the change the DNS server step of our guide on how to fix the ‘This site can’t be reached’ error.

Add the Addresses for Google's DNS Servers

Reset the TCP/IP Settings

Finally, if there’s a problem with how your internet connection is configured, then renewing your TCP and IP protocol will return the connection to its default settings, which may solve the problem.

You can learn how to do this step-by-step in the reset the TCP/IP settings section of our guide on how to fix the ‘This site can’t be reached’ error.

How To Fix the ‘Failed To Load Resource’ Error

You might notice that, while your website loads, a certain resource or file doesn’t. This file could be an image or other media file, JavaScript, or a CSS stylesheet. A missing resource can cause your website to misbehave or not function properly.

When that happens, the browser will add a notice in the error console for debugging purposes.

In most cases, you would see this error in your browser’s error console when using the Inspect tool. You might see the error message Failed to load resource: net::ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED.

This error message happens when your website’s code mentions the file, but your browser is unable to download it. This can happen when there is a problem with the file itself, or the URL that points to it.

To fix the problem, you will need to either replace the resource in question or fix the URL. We offer detailed instructions for both of these in our guide on how to fix the ‘Failed to load resource’ error in WordPress.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to fix the ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED error in Chrome. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress security guide, or check out our list of easy ways 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 How to Fix the ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED Error in Chrome first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Create a Custom Home Page in WordPress

24.01.2023custom home page in wordpress, custom homepage, custom page hack, custom page in wordpress, how to create a custom home page in wordpress, Themes, wordpress cms, wordpress magazine styleEditorial Staff

Do you want to create a custom homepage in WordPress?

By default, WordPress shows your latest blog posts on the homepage. However, you can often create a better first impression by designing a custom homepage that highlights your site’s most popular content, products, services, and more.

In this article, we will show you how to easily create a custom homepage in WordPress.

How to create a custom home page in WordPress

What is a Homepage?

A homepage is the first page visitors see when they type in your domain name. For many people, this homepage is their introduction to your business, blog, or website.

A good homepage will make visitors want to learn more about your WordPress website. It will also provide easy access to the links, search bars, menus, and anything else that can help visitors find interesting content.

By default, WordPress shows your latest blog posts on the homepage.

This may be a good fit for personal blogs or hobby bloggers. However, many WordPress blogs and websites can benefit by replacing the standard homepage with a custom homepage.

The good news is that WordPress makes it easy to show a custom page as your homepage, rather than the default list of recent posts.

Selecting a Custom Page to be Used as Homepage in WordPress

In this guide, we’ll show you a few different ways to create a custom homepage. However, afterward, you’ll need to let WordPress know that it should use this page as the homepage.

To do that, simply go to Settings » Reading in the WordPress dashboard.

Here, scroll to ‘Your homepage settings’ and select ‘A static page.’

You can now open the ‘Homepage’ dropdown and choose the page that you want to use as the new homepage.

Then, simply scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save Changes.’ You can now visit your site to see the new custom homepage live.

If you have a blog, then make sure you create a separate blog page to display your posts. If you don’t, then visitors will struggle to find your latest blogs.

With that being said, let’s see how you can design a custom homepage in WordPress. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.

Method 1. Create a Custom Homepage Template Using the Block Editor

If you’re using a block theme, then you can design a custom homepage template using the full site editor.

This method doesn’t work with every theme, so if you’re not using a block-based WordPress theme then we recommend using a page builder like SeedProd or Beaver Builder instead.

To start, simply create a new page or open an existing page that you want to use as the homepage. Then, click on the ‘Page’ tab in the right-hand menu and click to expand the ‘Template’ section, if it isn’t already open.

WordPress will now show which template this page is currently using.

To create a custom homepage template, just click on the ‘New’ link.

In the popup, give your template a name. The name is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

After that, go ahead and click on ‘Create’ to launch the full site editor.

The template editor works similarly to the standard WordPress block editor.

To add blocks to your custom homepage, just click on the blue ‘+’ button. You can then drag and drop any block onto your layout.

Adding blocks to a custom homepage in FSE

Since we’re creating a custom homepage, you’ll typically want to start by adding a big hero image such as your website’s logo or banner.

To do this, simply find the ‘Image’ block in the left-hand menu and then add it to your layout using drag and drop.

Designing a custom homepage in the full site editor

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

To get more engagement, you may want to show recent comments on your homepage by adding a ‘Latest Comments’ block.

Showing the latest comments on a WordPress homepage

For more information, please see our guide on how to show comments on the homepage of your WordPress theme.

A good homepage helps visitors find interesting content. With that being said, it’s a good idea to add a ‘Navigation’ block to your custom homepage.

Adding a navigation menu to the WordPress home page

To learn more, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add custom navigation menus in WordPress themes.

After adding a block, make sure you click to select it in your layout. You can then configure the block using the settings in the right-hand menu and the buttons in the mini toolbar.

To build your custom homepage, simply keep adding more blocks and then configure them using the full site editor settings.

For example, you may want to add blocks such as Latest Posts, Search, Social Icons, Cloud Tag, and more.

A custom WordPress home page created using the FSE

When you’re happy with how the template looks, click on the ‘Publish’ button.

The page you created earlier will now be using the new homepage template. You can now tell WordPress to use this page as your homepage by following the process described above.

Method 2. Create a Custom Homepage in WordPress using a Page Builder (Recommended)

The WordPress block-based editor allows you to create a custom homepage using the tools you’re already familiar with. However, it doesn’t work with all themes and is limited in flexibility and features.

If you want to create a completely custom homepage that works with any WordPress theme, then you’ll need a page builder plugin.

For this method, we’ll be using SeedProd. It is the best page builder plugin on the market and allows you to create a custom homepage using a simple drag-and-drop editor.

It also comes with lots of professionally-designed templates and ready-made blocks that you can use on your homepage.

Note: There is a free version of SeedProd on available on WordPress.org but we’ll be using the Pro version since it has more templates, blocks, and features.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the SeedProd plugin. 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.

You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website. After entering the license key, go ahead and click the ‘Verify Key’ button.

Next, you need to visit SeedProd » Pages and click on the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button.

Creating a new homepage design with SeedProd

After that, it’s time to choose a template for your custom homepage. SeedProd has lots of professionally-designed templates that you can customize according to your website’s needs.

To select a template, simply hover your mouse over it and then click the ‘Checkmark’ icon.

Choosing a template for your custom WordPress homepage

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

Next, go ahead and type in a name for the custom homepage. SeedProd will automatically create a URL based on the page’s title, but you can change this URL to anything you want.

When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button.

How to create a custom homepage in WordPress using SeedProd

Next, you’ll be taken to the SeedProd drag-and-drop page builder, where you can customize your template.

The SeedProd editor shows a live preview of your design to the right and some block settings on the left.

A homepage template created using SeedProd

The left-hand menu also has blocks that you can drag onto your layout.

For example, you can drag and drop standard blocks like buttons and images or use advanced blocks such as the countdown, contact form, social sharing buttons, and more.

Adding a social sharing section to the homepage

To customize any block, simply click to select it in your layout.

The left-hand menu will now show all the settings you can use to configure that block. You can also change background colors, add background images, or change the color scheme and fonts to better match your brand.

Changing the branding of your WordPress homepage

To start, you’ll want to replace any placeholder images with your own photos or custom logo. To do this, simply click to select any Image block in the live preview.

In the left-hand menu, click on the ‘Select Image’ button.

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

SeedProd also comes with ‘Sections,’ which are collections of blocks that are often used together. For example, SeedProd has a header, hero image, call to action, testimonials, contact form, FAQs, features, footer sections, and more. These can help you create a custom homepage, fast.

To look through the different sections, simply click on the ‘Sections’ tab. To preview any section, just hover your mouse over it and then click on the magnifying glass icon.

Adding sections to the custom page layout

To add the section to your design, simply click on ‘Choose This Section.’

This will add the section to the bottom of your homepage.

A ready-made customer testimonials section

You can move sections and blocks around your layout using drag and drop.

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

SeedProd makes it super easy to connect your homepage to popular email marketing services like Constant Contact or Mailchimp.

To do this, simply click on the ‘Connect’ tab and then select your email service provider.

Connecting your email provider to the SeedProd page builder

SeedProd will now show you how to integrate the homepage with your email provider.

If your provider isn’t listed, then don’t worry. SeedProd works with Zapier which acts as a bridge between SeedProd and more than 3000+ other apps.

Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to publish your custom homepage. Simply click on the ‘Page Settings’ tab.

There are more options under the Page Settings tab that you may want to look at. For example, you can change the SEO settings, edit the page title, and connect a custom domain.

When you’re happy with how the page is set up, go ahead and select the ‘General’ tab.

You can now click on the ‘Page Status’ toggle to change it from ‘Draft’ to ‘Publish.’

Now, you simply need to head over to Settings » Reading and set this page as your new custom homepage.

Method 3. Manually Create a Custom Homepage in WordPress (Coding Required)

You can also create a custom homepage using code. However, this method is complicated and coding mistakes can cause all kinds of common WordPress errors.

That being said, we don’t recommend this method for beginners.

Your WordPress theme is made up of many different files. Some of these files are called templates and they control how different areas of your website look. For more information, please see our WordPress template hierarchy cheat sheet.

One of these templates is called front-page.php.

If your theme has this template, then WordPress will automatically use it to show your homepage. This means you can create a custom homepage by editing this file or replacing it with a new file.

To get started, you’ll need an FTP client such as FileZilla, or you can use the file manager supplied by your WordPress hosting provider.

If this is your first time using FTP, then you can see our complete guide on how to connect to your site using FTP.

After connecting to the server, go to /wp-content/themes/ and then open the folder for your current WordPress theme.

Connecting to your site using an FTP client

If this folder already has a front-page.php file, then you can go ahead and open that file in any text editor, such as Notepad. You can then make any changes you want by editing the code.

If your theme doesn’t have a front-page.php file, then you can create a new file with the name front-page.php.

After that, you just need to upload front-page.php to your current theme’s folder on your WordPress hosting account.

As soon as you upload this file, WordPress will start using it to display your homepage. However, since the file is completely empty, you will see a blank page as your homepage.

To fix this, just open the file in a text editor app and start adding HTML code.

If you’re starting with an empty file, then you can save yourself some time by using the existing code and templates in your WordPress theme.

For example, it usually makes sense to include the theme’s header and footer.

In the following sample code, we’ve removed the content and sidebars while fetching the header and navigation templates from the theme.

<?php /*
This page is used to display the static frontpage.
*/
 
// Fetch theme header template
get_header(); ?>
    <div id="primary" <?php astra_primary_class(); ?>>
 
    <div class="custom-homepage-container"> 
 
    You custom homepage code goes here
 
    </div> 
 
    </div><!-- #primary -->
//Fetch the theme footer template
<?php get_footer(); ?>

Tips on Making an Effective Custom Homepage in WordPress

The homepage is your site’s most important page. People will visit this page to learn more about your business, products, and services.

To help visitors find what they’re looking for, we recommend keeping your homepage design as simple as possible and avoiding any clutter.

It’s also a good idea to place your most important content at the top of the page so it’s the first thing visitors see.

Before designing your page, it may help to write down the goals you want to achieve. You can then design every part of the homepage to help you reach this clear target.

Many businesses and blogs want to convert visitors into customers. To achieve this, we recommend adding OptinMonster to your custom homepage.

OptinMonster is the best WordPress popup plugin and lead generation software. It allows you to create all kinds of popups, floating bars, full-screen welcome mats, slide-in scroll boxes, inline personalized lead forms, gamified spin to win optins, and more.

Next, you’ll want to track how your custom homepage is performing. You can then use this insight to fine-tune the page design and get even more conversions.

MonsterInsights is the best plugin for Google Analytics. It allows you to easily install Google analytics in WordPress and shows you helpful reports directly in the WordPress dashboard.

The MonsterInsights Google Analytics plugin

The best part about using MonsterInsights is that you can add the Google Analytics tracking code without editing code or hiring a developer. Plus, it has a Dual Tracking feature, which makes it super easy to switch to Google Analytics 4.

You should also make it easy for visitors and potential customers to contact you. For this, we recommend WPForms which is the best WordPress form plugin on the market.

Finally, it’s a good idea to look at your competitors and other popular sites in your industry or niche. While it’s never a good idea to copy, you can use them as inspiration or learn best practices that you can then apply to your own homepage layout.

We hope this article helped you easily create a custom homepage in WordPress. You may also want to see our proven tips to increase your blog traffic and our expert pick of the best social proof plugins for WordPress.

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

The post How to Create a Custom Home Page in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Track WordPress Widget History (Easy Method)

24.01.2023sidebar widgets, Simple History plugin, track WordPress history, WordPress Plugins, wordpress widgetsEditorial Staff

Do you want to track your WordPress widget history to monitor changes made to the widgets on your site?

Widgets are blocks of content that you can add to your website. They allow you to add different elements to your sidebars such as signup forms, images, recent posts, and more. Tracking widget history allows you to easily monitor changes and undo them as needed.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily track your WordPress widget history.

How to track widget history in WordPress

Why Should You Track WordPress Widget History?

By default, WordPress comes with a feature called revisions for content types like posts and pages. Revisions make it easier to what changes were made by which user, and allow you to easily undo those changes if needed.

However, there is no built-in revisions feature for WordPress widgets.

Tracking widget history will allow you to keep track of changes made to widgets on your WordPress website. You can see which user added, removed, or changed a widget, and then you can keep those changes or undo them by editing your widget.

Similarly, if something in a widget has stopped working, then you can pinpoint which changes caused the problem and fix them manually.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily track widget history in WordPress.

How to Easily Track WordPress Widget History

The easiest way to track WordPress widget history is by using the Simple History plugin.

First, you need to install and activate the Simple History plugin. For help, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Keep in mind that plugin will only track changes made after the plugin is activated.

After installing the plugin, let’s make a few changes to your WordPress widgets. Simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and make some changes to your existing widgets.

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

After that, you can go to the Dashboard » Simple History page inside WordPress admin area.

You’ll see the changes you made to your widgets appear at the top.

Apart from widget changes, Simple History will also be able to track the following changes and user activity on your website:

theme updates
plugin installation
sidebar widget history
Comments history
user logins
user profiles

If you want to change the settings of the plugin, then you can simply head over to Settings » Simple History from the WordPress admin dashboard.

Go to Simple history settings from the dashboard

From here, you can modify the plugin settings according to your needs.

If you want to track the widget history of your WordPress site directly from the dashboard, then you can check the ‘On the dashboard’ option beside the ‘Show History’ option.

This will allow you to access Simple History by simply heading over to Dashboard » Simple History from the WordPress admin panel.

You can also select the number of items you want to show on your log page as well as your dashboard page.

Additionally, you can enable the RSS feed option by checking the box next to it if you want to receive daily log updates about your website.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes button at the bottom once you’re satisfied.

Next, you may want to switch to the Debug tab. From here, you can view all the log events displayed as Loggers.

Plus, you will also be able to see the names of tables that plugin has created in your WordPress database.

The plugin also allowss you to easily downoad the logs file to your computer.

Siply switch to the Export tab on the plugin’s settings page and choose which format you want to use for the export.

You can choose either JSON or CSV format. We recommend using the CSV option as you can open the CSV files in any spreadsheet software like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel.

After that, click on the Download Export File button and plugin will send a download file to your browser.

Here is how it would look when you open it in a spreadsheet software.

Final Thoughts

Having an activity log is very important as it helps you keep your website safe. Simple History does that for widgets and many other plugins.

Other plugins like WPForms have added revisions to WordPress form building, and WPCode has also added version control for custom code snippets.

Lastly, if you’re looking for a comprehensive activity log solution for WordPress security, then we recommend taking a look at WP Activity Log plugin.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to easily track your WordPress widget history. You may also want to check out our guide on how to start a podcast, and our top picks of the best WooCommerce plugins for your store.

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

The post How to Track WordPress Widget History (Easy Method) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Welcome Thrive Themes to the WPBeginner Family of Products

23.01.2023awesome motive, News, thrive apprentice, thrive architect, thrive comments, thrive ovation, thrive quiz builder, thrive themes, thrive ultimatum, thriveleads, wpbeginner growth fundEditorial Staff

Today, I’m extremely excited to share that Thrive Themes is joining Awesome Motive, and they’re now part of the WPBeginner family of products.

Thrive Themes is the company behind some of the most powerful growth tools for WordPress. Over 200,000+ smart website owners use the Thrive premium plugin suite to easily convert website visitors into email subscribers, paying customers, and raving fans.

Welcome Thrive Themes to the WPBeginner Family

Introduction to Thrive Themes – Quick Overview

Thrive Themes is a popular brand among business owners because their suite of tools give you everything needed to build and grow your online business at drag & drop speed.

Although the brand name is Thrive Themes, it’s actually an ecosystem of powerful conversion focused WordPress plugins that work seamlessly together to help you start and grow your online business.

Thrive Suite consists of four key areas to help you grow your online business: Build, Convert, Sell, and Engage.

Powerful WordPress Website Building Tools

They offer two powerful drag & drop WordPress design building tools called Thrive Architect and Thrive Theme Builder. They work together to help you build high-converting websites without any coding needed.

Thrive Architect is a visual drag & drop page builder for WordPress that helps you build custom landing pages and blog post designs faster than ever before. It comes with over 350+ conversion focused landing page templates and conversion elements that you can use to build high-converting websites.

Thrive Architect - WordPress Page Builder

Thrive Theme Builder is a marketing centered custom WordPress theme builder that lets you visually build the conversion focused site of your dreams no matter your experience level (all drag & drop). Basically you can launch your site in under 15 minutes, update your brand everywhere in seconds, and everything is professionally designed with conversions in mind.

It comes with hundreds of design and site building elements to improve your workflow, and it integrates with just about every powerful business tool like WooCommerce, email marketing services, CRMs, and more to help save you time.

Don’t take my word, see what the users are saying.

WordPress Lead Generation & Conversion Tools

Thrive Suite is built by marketers for marketers which means there’s a big focus on creating advanced lead generation tools to help you get more email subscribers and grow your sales faster.

Their conversion tools for WordPress include Thrive Leads, Thrive Quiz Builder, Thrive Optimize, Thrive Ovation, and Thrive Ultimatum.

Thrive Leads is a drag and drop builder that allows you to create any type of lead generation form imaginable. It comes with a huge selection of opt-in form templates, or you can create your own custom one within minutes.

You can use it to create popups, sticky ribbons, in-line forms, 2-step optin forms, slide-ins, screen filler overlay, content lock forms, scroll mat, yes / no or multiple choice forms, and more.

The best part is that you get advanced targeting features that lets you display relevant and hyper-targeted offers to visitors based on posts, categories, tags, and more. You also get A/B testing for opt-in forms as well as actionable reports.

Thrive leads integrates with all the popular email marketing services and CRMs.

Thrive Quiz Builder is a WordPress quiz plugin that lets you create highly engaging quizzes to help grow your email list, social shares, while giving you the data you need to grow your business.

It lets you build those viral social media quizzes with branching logic with zero coding. You can also use it to build personalized product recommendation quizzes to help users make a decision on which product they should pick on your website.

The best part is that each answer helps you segment visitors based on their interests, so you can build a hyper-targeted email list and improve your email open rates.

You can also further improve your quiz conversions with A/B testing various quiz stages, and this is basically every marketers dream come true.

Thrive Optimize is a WordPress A/B testing tool that helps you launch tests faster, more often, and for crazy cheap prices compared to SaaS alternatives with no coding needed.

You can use it to create unlimited tests, unlimited variations, setup conversion goals, choose traffic distribution, and everything is done with visual editing (no code). Once the test is done, it automatically chooses your highest converting test as a winner.

Thrive Optimize - WordPress Split Testing Plugin

Thrive Ovation is a set-and-forget testimonial plugin for WordPress. Studies show that testimonials can boost conversions by 34%, and this is the easiest way to start taking advantage of one of the most underestimated conversion boosters.

It lets you gather testimonials without a hassle where you can transform WordPress comments into testimonials in a single click. You can also automatically convert any social media comment into a beautiful testimonial card.

Lastly, it has a built-in auto-pilot testimonial gathering feature to help you collect more relevant and meaningful testimonials for your business.

Thrive Ovation - WordPress Testimonial Template Example

Thrive Ultimatum is a powerful scarcity marketing tool for WordPress. You can use it to create both fixed and evergreen countdown timers on your website.

It comes with dozens of countdown timer designs that you can customize to match your style & brand with drag & drop ease. The targeting feature allows you to show the offer to the right audiences.

This is a must have tool for increasing product sales, building a buzz around your launch, and even boost established eCommerce sales.

Sell Online Courses with Results Focused LMS Plugin

Thrive Apprentice lets you create pro-looking courses straight from your WordPress dashboard. It’s a WordPress membership and LMS plugin to build and grow your online business.

It comes with a drag & drop course builder that lets you create modules, chapters, lessons, and more in a well-organized manner.

You get access to advanced drip functionality such as unlocking content at consistent intervals for each student or unlocking new content on specific weekday or day of the month.

You have the option to unlock lessons based on the results of a quiz in Thrive Quiz builder, and you can even add custom tags to each user for personalized communication using Thrive Automator.

Thrive Apprentice lets you protect content based on the user’s membership level, award certificates to those who complete your courses, and so much more.

Last but not least, it gives you detailed insights about your students and courses, so you can get insights like where are students dropping in your course, how many lessons did a particular student complete, overall engagement reports, and so much more.

Boost Your WordPress Engagement with Smart Comments

Thrive Comments help you turn the most overlooked feature on your WordPress website into your most valuable asset.

You can supercharge your WordPress comment area to spur engagement like Reddit and Facebook. It basically adds the most addictive elements of social media and community forms into your WordPress comments.

Users can get satisfaction by seeing likes / upvotes on their comments, unlock achievements through badges, get validation through being featured in comments, and get a chance to have their comments shared on social.

Thrive Comments Engagement Features for WordPress

Basically Thrive Comments help you turn your comments into conversions. Based on what the user does, you can show selective actions such as redirecting first time comments to a welcome to community gfit page, or repeat commenters to a share modal, and more.

And unlike third-party comment systems like Disqus, there is no lock-in, and definitely no intrusive ads. This is your comment area and you get to customize it the way you want.

Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketer, I highly recommend adding Thrive Suite to your WordPress toolkit.

Get Started with Thrive Suite →

And now that you know all about Thrive Themes, I think you’ll find the background story of this acquisition even more interesting.

Background Story – Why Thrive Themes?

In 2009, when I started WPBeginner, I spent hours every day learning and writing about new WordPress plugins, themes, and tools to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys.

In the process, I came across Shane and Paul’s work when they created Hybrid Connect back in 2012. It was a WordPress popup plugin that I tried before I ended up building OptinMonster in 2013.

Ever since then I have closely followed their journey as they launched multiple products and eventually rebranded everything under the Thrive Themes brand.

Over the last 8 years, we have been friendly competitors working on the same mission: helping small businesses grow & compete with the big guys.

What a lot of beginners don’t often see is that WordPress is an open source platform. Unlike other industries, the competition is fair and friendly. Most of us WordPress product owners have great relationships with each other, and we even collaborate at times. This type of competition is known as co-opetition. We have learned from Thrive, and I’m sure Thrive has learnt from our brands.

While there are similarities in few of our existing products, there are also unique differences in our offerings. For example, Thrive has a powerful quiz builder for WordPress, an engaging comments plugin, and a proper A/B testing solution. Whereas the WPBeginner family of brands offered solutions like AIOSEO, WPForms, and MonsterInsights. Between us, we had a lot of mutual customers.

That’s why the brands will continue to operate independently and serve our respective customers (of course with deeper integration with each other)..

Last year, Shane reached out to me through the WPBeginner Growth Fund page because he was looking to move on to the next chapter of his life. But he only wanted to sell the business to someone who will carry his legacy forward while taking care of customers and protecting the team, and they chose us because of our reputation and values.

I was extremely familiar with Thrive Suite and have a lot of respect for what Shane and Paul had built, so it was a no brainer for us.

We worked through the logistics, and outside of the two co-founders, the entire team will be joining Awesome Motive. The team will be led by Brad Stevens, the current General Manager of Thrive Themes.

I will be working closely with him, and I’m super excited about bringing you more powerful solutions to help grow your website.

Note: Want to join our remote team to work on something awesome & make an impact? We’re hiring. Come work alongside me and help shape the future of the web.

What’s Coming Next?

Our work is just starting.

While I have some ideas and features I’d like to add in certain Thrive suite plugins, there is already an amazing feature roadmap in place based on existing customer feedback.

My goal is to do everything I can to help make those features become a reality, as quickly as possible.

I’m really looking forward to doing a deeper dive in some of the conversion tools, especially quizzes because I know they can be a game changer when used properly.

Whether you’re a small business owner or a marketer, I think you will want to choose Thrive Suite to grow your business faster.

If you have suggestions on features you’d like to see in the various Thrive plugins, then please let us know by sending us a message via WPBeginner contact form.

As always, I want to thank you for your continued support of WPBeginner.

Every time I share an announcement like this, I realize that I’m only able to do what I love every day because of you, our amazing readers, and I’m extremely grateful for your support throughout the years.

WPBeginner and Awesome Motive would not be here without YOU, and I just want to say how much I appreciate all of you.

And I look forward to continuing serving you, and the larger WordPress / web ecosystem for years to come.

Yours Truly,

Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner

The post Welcome Thrive Themes to the WPBeginner Family of Products first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Create an Etsy-Like Store with WordPress (Step by Step)

22.01.2023Etsy, etsy to wordpress, etsy vs woocommerce, etsy vs wordpress comparison, etsy-like store with wordpress, Tutorials, woocommerceEditorial Staff

Do you want to build an Etsy-like store with WordPress?

Etsy is an online marketplace for creative folks who want to sell handmade goods, artwork, and other unique items. However, Etsy can be a bit limited in terms of what you can do with your store.

In this article, we will show you how to create an Etsy-like store with WordPress, and how to properly move an existing Etsy store to WordPress.

Making an Etsy like store with WordPress

Etsy vs WordPress – Which one is better?

Etsy is an online marketplace for creative folks. Usually, people use Etsy to sell handicrafts, custom designs, jewelry, clothing, and more. It has become a niche marketplace for such unique items.

However, as an eCommerce platform, Etsy is quite limited in terms of functionality. Plus, it also takes a significant portion of your earnings which reduces the profitability and long-term growth of your business.

On the other hand, WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder. It allows you to create almost any kind of website imaginable, including full-fledged eCommerce stores.

Using WooCommerce on your WordPress website you can sell anything online including handicrafts and other unique handmade items.

You can sell physical goods (that need shipping), as well as digital downloads (spreadsheets, software, music, worksheets, online courses, and memberships).

More importantly, WordPress doesn’t charge you a listing fee or a transaction fee on each item you sell.

Note that there are two different types of WordPress platforms.

WordPress.com which is a hosted platform and WordPress.org which is also called self-hosted WordPress. See the difference in our WordPress.com vs WordPress.org comparison.

Throughout this article, when we say WordPress, we are talking about the more popular, self-hosted WordPress.org platform. We recommend using WordPress.org because it gives you access to all WordPress features out of the box.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily create an Etsy-like store in WordPress. Here is a quick overview of the topics we’ll cover in this article.

Etsy and WordPress both enable you to sell products online but which one you should choose? Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of both platforms.

Pros and Cons of Setting up an Etsy Shop

Let’s take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of using Etsy to sell your products online.

Pros of Using Etsy

Ease of Use – Setting up an Etsy store is very easy and does not require any technical skills. Simply upload your product listings, add your payment information, and you are good to go.
Targeted Audience – Etsy has a large customer base of users interested in unique handmade products, gift items, artistic and creative products, and more. Opening up a shop on Etsy gives you access to a marketplace with interested buyers.
Security and Trust – Etsy takes care of payments and ensures product delivery. This has helped them build trust among both buyers and sellers.

Cons of Using Etsy

Higher Fees – Etsy charges $0.20 per listing (renews every four months) and a 6.5% transaction fee on the sale price (not including shipping costs). If you are using PayPal, then there is also a payment processing fee.
Lack of Control – You have no control over the platform, and how your products are featured. Etsy can remove a seller if they feel that the seller’s products don’t meet their policies or the seller fails to satisfy a customer.
Limited Growth Options – As your business grows, you will be paying a lot more to Etsy with limited options to grow your own brand and business.

Pros and Cons of Using WordPress

WordPress is the best platform to build any kind of website. However, it has its own pros and cons that you would want to consider.

Pros of Using WordPress

Complete Control – You have complete ownership and full control of your website.
Unlimited Features – You can add any feature to your website by installing extensions. There are more than 55,000 free WordPress plugins that you can install.
Unlimited Listings – You can add as many items to your shop as you want. There are no listing fees because you own and manage the platform yourself.
Low Costs – There is no commission and no transaction fee on each sale. You will only pay a small fee to your payment gateway.

Cons of Using WordPress

Website Management – You are responsible for managing updates and making backups. There are plugins that help you automate those tasks.
Learning Curve – WordPress is fairly easy to use. However, from time to time you may need some help. There are plenty of WordPress resources to help you out.

To learn more about WordPress, see our complete WordPress review with detailed pros and cons of the platform.

That being said let’s take a look at how to create an Etsy-like store with WordPress.

Requirements for Creating an Etsy-like Store with WordPress?

You’ll need the following things to build your own Etsy-like store with WordPress.

A domain name (This will be your shop’s address on the internet i.e wpbeginner.com)
A website hosting account (This will be the shop’s home and where all your files will be stored)
SSL Certificate (You need this to accept payments)
Your undivided attention for 30 minutes.

Ready? let’s get started.

Getting Started with Your Etsy-Like Shop in WordPress

Normally, a domain name will cost you $14.99 per year, website hosting $7.99 per month, and an SSL certificate around $69.99 per year.

This is a lot of money if you are just getting started.

Thankfully, the folks at Bluehost have agreed to offer WPBeginner users a free domain name + free SSL certificate, and a 60% discount on hosting.

They are also an officially recommended WordPress and WooCommerce hosting provider, and one of the largest hosting companies in the world.

Basically, you can get started for $2.75 / month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Let’s go ahead and purchase your domain + hosting + SSL.

First, you need to visit the Bluehost website and click on the green ‘Get Started Now’ button.

Getting started with personal website on Bluehost

On the next screen, select the plan that you need (basic and plus plans are the most popular among WPBeginner users).

After that, you will be asked to enter the domain name for your website.

Need help choosing a domain name? See our beginner’s guide on how to choose the perfect domain name for your website.

Lastly, you will need to add account information and finalize the package info to complete the process.

On this screen, you will see optional extras that you can purchase.

We don’t recommend purchasing these items because they will increase your hosting bill. You can always add them later if you think these are needed.

You can now go ahead and enter your payment information to complete the purchase.

After that, you will receive an email with instructions to log into your hosting control panel.

Bluehost will automatically install WordPress for you, and you will be able to log in to your WordPress site directly from the hosting dashboard.

Once logged in, you will see the WordPress admin area. This is where you will manage your online shop, change settings, and add new items.

Installing WooCommerce on Your Website

Now that you have purchased hosting and installed WordPress, the next step is to turn your website into an online store like Etsy.

To do this, you need to install and activate the WooCommerce plugin on your website. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, click on ‘Run the setup wizard’ button to quickly set up your WooCommerce store.

The setup wizard will guide you through the basic setup.

During step 4, you need to switch to the ‘Free features’ tab and uncheck ‘Add recommended business features to my site’ feature.

This option installs additional plugins. You can always install these plugins later if needed.

Click on the continue button to select a theme and then finish the setup. Don’t worry, we’ll talk more about theme and store design options later in this article.

Adding Items to Sell in WooCommerce

After setting up WooCommerce, let’s add a few items to sell on your online store.

Simply go to Products » Add New page to add your first item.

First, provide a title for your product and then a detailed description.

On the right-hand column, you can add product categories, tags, and images.

Below the description area, you will see the ‘Product Data’ box.

From here you can set product price, inventory, shipping, and other attributes.

Once you are satisfied with all the product information you have added, you can click on the ‘Publish’ button to make it live on your website.

Repeat the process to add more products as needed.

Importing an existing Etsy Store to WordPress

Do you already have an Etsy store that you want to move to WordPress? In this section, we will show you how to easily import your Etsy shop to WordPress.

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

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item labeled ‘Etsy Importer’ to your WordPress admin sidebar. Clicking on it will take you to the plugin’s settings page.

You will be asked to provide your license key. You can find this information under your account on the plugin’s website.

After activation, the settings page will ask you to provide the following information.

Etsy API Key
Etsy Secret Key
Your Etsy Shop Name

To get these API keys, you need to visit the Etsy Developers ‘Apps You’ve Made‘ website.

Once there, click on the ‘Create a new app’ link.

This will bring you to a new page where you will be asked to provide a name for your app.

You need to select that you are creating the app for yourself, and it will not be used for commercial purposes.

After that, click on ‘Read terms and create app’ button.

You will now see your app information page. From here you need to copy the ‘Keystring’ and ‘Shared Secret’ keys.

Now, switch back to the Easy Etsy Importer plugin’s settings page. After entering your API keys, click on the ‘Save & Verify’ button to continue.

This will take you to the Etsy website where you will be asked to allow access to the app. Click on the ‘Allow’ button to continue.

The plugin will now try to connect to your Etsy shop.

Once connected, it will show a success message.

Next, you need to switch to the settings tab.

The default settings will work for most websites, but you can still review and change them as needed.

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

Now you can move to the ‘Import’ tab. The plugin provides you options to selectively import items or import all listings.

The default settings will work for most websites, so you can just go ahead and click on the ‘Import’ button.

The plugin will now start importing your Etsy listings to WooCommerce. Once finished, you will see a success message, and you will be able to see the imported products under Products » All Products page.

Next, you can switch to the reviews tab to import your Etsy reviews to WooCommerce.

Congratulations, you have successfully imported your Etsy store listings to your WooCommerce website.

Choosing an Etsy-like WordPress Theme for Your Store

WordPress gives you access to thousands of free and paid website designs that you can use. These designs are called WordPress themes.

Each WordPress theme contains various template files to give your website a beautiful design.

You don’t need any coding or programming skills to use a theme, and each of them comes with different options that you can use to customize the design to your liking.

Due to such a large variety of WordPress themes available, often users feel overwhelmed by the choices. To make it easier, we have hand-picked the best WooCommerce WordPress themes that you can use on your website.

The list contains both free and paid WordPress themes and all of them are mobile-ready.

You may not find a theme that looks exactly like the Etsy website. However you can find a theme with the same design qualities and then use the theme’s settings to make it look more similar.

Need more help? See our beginner’s guide on how to choose the perfect WordPress theme for your website.

If you want to create a custom WordPress theme with drag & drop builder, then we recommend using the SeedProd plugin. We also have a detailed tutorial on how to create a custom WordPress theme with no code.

Extending Your Store with WordPress Plugins

Unlike Etsy, you have full control of your WordPress store. You can modify it in any way you want with the help of thousands of WordPress plugins.

Plugins are like apps for your WordPress website. You can install them to add new features to your website like contact forms, Google Analytics, and more.

With more than 55,000 plugins, you can easily find a plugin for almost anything.

Here are some of the plugins that we use on all our websites.

WPForms Lite – Add contact forms to your WordPress site
All in One SEO Lite – Improve your WordPress SEO and get more traffic from Google
MonsterInsights (Free) – Helps you track visitor stats using Google Analytics
OptinMonster Lite – Allows you to create popups in WordPress to increase sales and conversions.
UpdraftPlus – Free WordPress backup plugin
Sucuri – Free website malware scanner.
FunnelKit – Easily create sales funnels, add cart upsells, marketing automation, and more in WooCommerce.

There are also tons of plugins made specifically for WooCommerce. See our list of the best free WooCommerce plugins. You can also use drag & drop page builder plugins to further customize your website’s look and feel.

Mastering WordPress Skills

Now that you have a WordPress powered online store, you may want to expand your website by adding new features and growing your business.

WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site in the world. We have tons of articles, videos, and step by step tutorials to help you take your website to the next level.

Here are some of the handy resources you will find on WPBeginner, all of them are completely free.

WPBeginner Blog – This is where we publish our WordPress tutorials, how-tos, and step by step guides.
WPBeginner Videos – These step-by-step videos will help you learn WordPress FAST.
WPBeginner on YouTube – Need more video instructions? Subscribe to our YouTube channel with more than 283,000 subscribers and 40 Million+ views.
WPBeginner Engage – Our Facebook community with more than 90,000 users. Helps you quickly ask questions and get help from users like yourself.
WPBeginner Glossary – The best place for beginners to start and familiarize themselves with the WordPress terms and lingo.
WPBeginner Deals – Exclusive discounts on WordPress products and services for WPBeginner users.

You can also use Google to find tutorials on WPBeginner. Simply add ‘wpbeginner’ next to your search term, and you will find answers to all your WordPress questions.

We hope this article helped you move away from Etsy and create an Etsy-like store with WordPress. You may also want to checkout our list of the must have WordPress plugins for business websites.

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 an Etsy-Like Store with WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Track Link Clicks and Button Clicks in WordPress (Easy Way)

21.01.2023track button clicks in wordpress, track clicks in wordpress, track file downloads in wordpress, track link clicks in wordpress, track links in wordpress, Tutorials, wordpress ecommerce trackingEditorial Staff

Do you want to track link clicks and button clicks in WordPress?

Tracking links and button clicks help uncover how users interact with your website. You can use the insights to improve your website and plan your marketing and content strategies accordingly.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to easily track link clicks and button clicks in WordPress.

How to track link clicks and button clicks in WordPress

Why Should You Track Link and Button Clicks in WordPress?

Links and buttons are two of the most common ways users interact with any website on the internet. These elements also lead website visitors to make purchases, sign up, and convert into customers.

Tracking how your users interact with different elements on your WordPress website helps you learn what’s working on your website. More importantly, it helps you understand what’s not working and needs improvement.

For instance, if users are not clicking on the ‘add to cart’ button in your online store, then you can investigate what’s stopping them from doing so. Another great example is your affiliate links. You can track which links your users click more often than others.

These insights can help you make data-driven decisions for the success of your business. Having said that, let’s look at how you can easily track links and button clicks in WordPress.

We have broken down this guide into the following sections, so you can easily follow along.

Tracking Link and Button Clicks in WordPress Using MonsterInsights

The best tool to collect marketing data on your website is Google Analytics. However, despite Google’s best efforts, many beginners and even experienced marketers find it a bit intimidating.

This is where MonsterInsights comes in. It is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress that allows you to properly set up Google Analytics and make the most out of it.

MonsterInsights goes beyond just adding a tracking script in the footer. It automatically adds proper event tracking to all links, buttons, cart areas, and more. Most importantly, it also shows you human-readable reports inside your WordPress dashboard.

MonsterInsights has a free version, but you’ll need at least the Pro plan to take full advantage of all the powerful tracking features it offers.

Setting up MonsterInsights is super easy.

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

Upon activation, you’ll see the welcome screen and the setup wizard. Simply click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button and follow the onscreen instructions to connect your website to Google Analytics.

If you need detailed instructions, then see our tutorial on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress, which will walk you through the entire setup.

The MonsterInsights setup wizard automatically configures all the right settings based on the type of your website and also lets you set up a Google Analytics 4 property. It truly is effortless.

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

Once you have set up MonsterInsights, you can resume this tutorial. Now that everything is running, let’s start setting up click tracking.

Tracking Affiliate Links in WordPress

A lot of web publishers use affiliate marketing to make money online.

As an affiliate marketer, you’ll need to learn how your affiliate links are doing. Obviously, you can track your affiliate earnings from third-party resources, but that does not give you an accurate picture of how users interact with your affiliate links.

Most affiliate marketers use a link-cloaking plugin like ThirstyAffiliates. This allows you to create shorter affiliate links and manage all your links inside WordPress. For example, https://www.example.com/refer/awesomeproduct/.

MonsterInsights makes it easy to set up affiliate link tracking in WordPress.

Simply go to Insights » Settings and switch to the ‘Publisher’ tab. From here, you can add your affiliate link’s unique path to start tracking.

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

Within a few hours, you will be able to see your affiliate link performance in your Publisher reports located under the Insights » Reports menu in WordPress.

Tracking Outbound Links in WordPress

Outbound links are links pointing to external websites. These could also be uncloaked affiliate links, links to your partner websites, or other websites you own.

MonsterInsights automatically tracks all clicks on those outgoing links. You can view them by visiting the Insights » Reports page under Publishers report.

Pro tip: If you see that you’re sending a lot of clicks to an external website, then you should contact them to work out a strategic partnership. This can be a sponsorship, cross-promotion, affiliate partnership, etc.

For more details, please see our guide on how to track outbound links in WordPress.

Ecommerce Tracking in WordPress

If you run an eCommerce business using WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, then you should track which products get the most clicks.

MonsterInsights comes with powerful eCommerce tracking features. Now it’s time to turn on eCommerce tracking on your website.

First, you need to visit your Google Analytics dashboard. From there, you need to switch to the Admin view.

Next, you need to click on the eCommerce settings option.

It will be located under the ‘View’ column.

After that, you will see the options to turn on eCommerce tracking and reporting in Google Analytics.

Go ahead and click the toggles for the ‘Enable Ecommerce’ and ‘Enable Enhanced Ecommerce Reporting’ options.

Enable ecommerce and enhanced ecommerce reporting

Now that you have enabled eCommerce in Google Analytics, let’s enable the MonsterInsights eCommerce addon.

First, you need to go to the Insights » Addons page. From here, you need to install the ‘eCommerce’ addon for MonsterInsights.

After that, you need to head over to the Insights » Settings page and switch to the eCommerce tab.

From here, you can turn on enhanced eCommerce tracking. MonsterInsights will automatically detect your eCommerce plugin and turn it on for you.

That’s all you have successfully enabled eCommerce tracking on your website.

The best part is that MonsterInsights shows the performance of your online store in your WordPress dashboard. Simply go to Insights » Reports and switch to the ‘eCommerce’ tab.

On top, you’ll see an overview of your eCommerce conversions. Below, you will find your top referral sources, as well as the exact conversions and revenue for each source.

This information helps you learn which referral sources to maximize and which are not doing well.

You may want to see our step-by-step guide on how to properly set up eCommerce tracking in WordPress.

Tracking File Downloads in WordPress

If you have a membership site that sells digital downloads or offers downloadable content on your website, then tracking file download buttons will help you find how users interact with those files.

MonsterInsights automatically tracks file downloads for common file types like documents, spreadsheets, presentations, PDFs, and zip files.

You can also add other file types that you may want to track. Simply go to the Insights » Settings page and then switch to the ‘Engagement’ tab.

From here, you’ll need to scroll down to the File Downloads section.

Here, you can add the file type extension you want to track.

You can view file download stats by visiting Insights » Reports and switching to the ‘Publisher’ tab.

After that, scroll down to the ‘Top Download Links’ report to see which files get the most downloads.

Tracking Form Conversions in WordPress

Forms play an important role in the success of any website. You use forms for an email newsletter, shopping cart, purchase and order forms, and all your contact forms.

It is crucial to understand how users interact with your forms, which forms get more conversions, and which forms are not getting enough attention.

Let’s start tracking forms in WordPress using MonsterInsights.

First, you need to head over to the Settings » Addons page. From here, install the ‘Forms’ addon.

Once enabled, MonsterInsights will automatically detect the forms on your website and start gathering interaction data. It works seamlessly with all popular WordPress form plugins like WPForms, Formidable Forms, Gravity Forms, and more.

To view your form reports, you need to go to the Insights » Reports page and switch to the ‘Forms’ tab.

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

Tracking Any Custom Link in WordPress

So far, we have discussed how to track links and button clicks across your website automatically. What if you wanted to track a specific link on your WordPress site and create custom reports?

Luckily, MonsterInsights makes this easy as well. It’s called a custom link attribution feature, and here is how you can add that to any link on your website. Simply add your link in the following format:

<a href="https://www.example.com" data-vars-ga-category="Call to action clicks" data-vars-ga-action="CTA link click" data-vars-ga-label="Homepage CTA clicks">My custom link</a>

This link contains three new link attributes:

data-vars-ga-category: Sets a category for your link
data-vars-ga-action: Describes the action this link performs
data-vars-ga-label: A label for your link which helps you identify it

To insert the link in your content, first head to the content editor by editing a post or a page. Next, you’ll need to click the 3 dots to view more options and then select the ‘Edit as HTML’ option.

This will change your text from the visual view to the HTML view.

Now go ahead and add your custom link. Once that is done, simply update or publish your page or post.

MonsterInsights will now start to track your custom links in Google Analytics.

You can find your custom link tracking report in Google Analytics by going to the Behavior » Events » Top Events section.

We hope this article helped you learn how to track link clicks and button clicks in WordPress. You may also want to see our complete guide on WordPress SEO and our comprehensive guide on how to increase your blog traffic.

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The post How to Track Link Clicks and Button Clicks in WordPress (Easy Way) first appeared on WPBeginner.