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  • 9 Best Comment Plugins for WordPress in 2023

    Comments remain one of the primary forms of user engagement on most blogs. Allowing your readers to share their thoughts and opinions can help them feel more invested in your brand and build community. However, it also opens the door to spam, trolls, and other unsavory characters. This means it’s important to actively manage your blog’s comments. And beyond that, you can choose to alter or optimize your comments section from the WordPress default in order to encourage the types of interaction you want to see. That’s where this list of the best comment plugins for WordPress can help.

    A quality comment solution will provide advanced moderation functionality and user identification features. It may also help improve the User Experience (UX) of your comments section to make participation enjoyable for readers. In this post, we’ve curated a list of nine top tools for you to consider.

    Let’s dive in!

    Why You May Need a Comments Plugin for Your Website

    WordPress is used to build many types of websites, but it’s still incredibly popular for blogs and similar projects. If you want to create a strong readership or community of any sort, WordPress is an excellent choice.

    One of the reasons for this is the platform’s built-in comments system. By default, you can enable user discussion for any post or page on your site. Visitors can leave their thoughts, ask questions, and interact with both you and one another. This is a great way to drive engagement and keep readers coming back.

    However, the default comments system is fairly simple. There are a few settings to tweak, but if you want full control over the way comments operate on your website, you may find those basic options lacking. You might want readers to be able to log in and comment through third-party platforms, for example, or you may desire social features such as “likes.”

    Whatever the reason, there are plenty of ways to give your WordPress site’s comments system more depth and flexibility (and also protect against spam comments). In the following sections, we’ll introduce you to some of our favorite tools.

    9 Best Comment Plugins for WordPress in 2023

    The nine plugins below offer a wide variety of different improvements to your WordPress comments. We’ve selected them based on their diversity of features, as well as their reviews, ratings, and popularity. We’ve also made sure to choose plugins that are frequently updated by their developers, so you can feel confident that they won’t negatively impact your site.

    1. WordPress Comments Import & Export

    The WordPress Comments Import & Export plugin.

    At times, you may need to import or export comments on your WordPress site. For example, if you have multiple blogs and want to move a post from one site to another, you might want to migrate its existing comments along with it. Alternatively, if you’re making changes to your site in a staging environment, your live site will likely continue accruing comments while you’re working.

    WordPress Comments Import & Export provides a solution to these problems and is simple to use. It provides a sample CSV file to help you format your comments properly, and straightforward and user-friendly options on its settings page:

    The WordPress Comments Import & Export settings.

    If at any point you’re unsure how to proceed, you can click on the Help tab to access the plugin’s documentation.

    Key Features:

    • Filter comments for export by date or title
    • Import and export WooCommerce product comments
    • Schedule automatic comment imports and exports
    • Merge identical imported and existing comments to prevent duplicates

    WordPress Comments Import & Export is for you if…

    …you want to migrate comments from one site to another.

    Price: Free | More Information

    2. Disable Comments

    The Disable Comments plugin.

    Next up, we have Disable Comments, which lets you turn off comments on your WordPress site. Although this is technically possible via the default WordPress Discussion Settings, this plugin gives you more control over the process.

    In addition to turning off commenting for certain post types, it will remove all the related settings from the back end of your site:

    Removing the Discussion settings from WordPress with the Disable Comments plugin.

    It’s important to note that you should delete any existing comments on your site before activating the Disable Comments plugin. Depending on your theme, existing discussions may continue to be visible on the front end even if you turn off commenting for your entire site.

    Key Features:

    • Remove comment-related widgets from your site
    • Disable comment RSS feeds
    • Delete the X-Pingback HTTP header from your site
    • Turn off outgoing pingbacks

    Disable Comments is for you if…

    …you want to completely remove comments functionality from WordPress.

    Price: Free | More Information

    3. Simple Comment Editing

    Simple Comment logo

    Have you ever left a comment on a website, only to be left in horror at a misspelling or grammatical error? Well, Simple Comment Editing might be for you! This lightweight plugin provides a solution to this problem by allowing users to edit their own comments on your site.

    Key Features of Simple Comment Editing:

    • Allows users to edit their own comments
    • Allows website administrators to set a time limit for comment editing
    • Protects against spammers adding links to approved comments

    Simple Comment Editing settings page

    With Simple Comment Editing, users can quickly make changes to their comments, avoiding any confusion or frustration caused by spelling mistakes or other errors. The ability to set a time limit for comment editing ensures that your website stays protected from unwanted changes made by spammers.

    Simple Comment Editing is for you if…

    You have a WordPress website where user-generated comments are important, and you want to provide a better experience for your visitors by allowing them to make changes to their comments.

    Simple Comment Editing Pricing: Free with premium add-ons| Learn More About Simple Comment Editing

    4. Jetpack Comments

    The Jetpack plugin.

    Jetpack is a multipurpose plugin that can help with your site’s security, performance, and more. It also includes several discussion settings that you can configure to enhance your posts’ comments sections.

    To turn on these features, you’ll need to navigate to Jetpack > Settings > Discussion:

    The Jetpack Comments settings.

    Key Features:

    • Enable users to comment using a WordPress.com, Facebook, or Google account
    • Add pop-up business cards for users’ Gravatars
    • Turn on Markdown for comments
    • Let users “like” comments
    • Set up comment subscriptions

    Jetpack Comments is for you if…

    …you want a multi-featured solution for managing comments along with other key areas like security and performance.

    Price: Free, with premium versions starting at $5.97 per month | More Information

    5. Akismet

    The Akismet plugin.

    One of the best-known comment plugins for WordPress is Akismet, an anti-spam tool. It helps moderate your comments by using machine learning to identify low-quality submissions and delete them automatically.

    You can improve the plugin’s accuracy by marking comments in the moderation queue as spam. Over time, Akismet will start to pick up on recurring elements that indicate a comment is spam and will start moving them to the trash without requiring you to interfere:

    Marking a comment as spam in WordPress.

    Key Features:

    • View each comment’s status history
    • Show links in the comment body so you can remove suspicious ones
    • See the number of approved comments for each user
    • Discard the worst comments, so they don’t take up space in your database

    Akismet is for you if…

    …you’d like a largely automated way to moderate comments efficiently on your website.

    Price: Free, with premium versions starting at $10 per month | More Information

    6. Fancy Comments

    The Fancy Comments plugin.

    Along with blog comments, social media is another key channel through which you can drive engagement. With Fancy Comments, you can bring these two strategies together by pulling Facebook comments into your blog:

    A Facebook comment box on a WordPress blog post.

    Users will be able to leave comments by logging into their Facebook accounts. You can post their comments to your profile’s timeline as well as on your site in order to drive traffic from Facebook and vice versa.

    Key Features:

    • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance
    • Facebook comments widget and shortcode to display comments anywhere on your site
    • Comment sorting
    • Option to choose which posts, pages, and custom post types feature Facebook comments
    • Compatibility with WooCommerce, BuddyPress, and bbPress

    Fancy Comments is for you if…

    …you’d like to promote cross-engagement between your comments sections and Facebook.

    Price: Free, with a premium version starting at $11.99 | More Information

    7. Subscribe to Comments Reloaded

    The Subscribe Comments Reloaded plugin.

    If you’ve ever left a question for an author in a blog post comment, you know the frustration of having to check back periodically to see if you’ve received an answer. You can eliminate this problem for your readers by enabling comment subscriptions using Subscribe to Comments Reloaded.

    Users can sign up to receive email notifications whenever new comments are posted. On the back end, you can completely customize the message they’ll receive:

    Customizing the comment subscription emails.

    Key Features:

    • Turn off comment subscriptions for specific content
    • Enable users to suspend notifications for one post or all content
    • Show a subscription confirmation message so you don’t spam users’ inboxes
    • Enable subscriptions to all comments or replies only

    Subscribe to Comments Reloaded is for you if…

    …you’re looking to offer a more user-friendly comments experience for users.

    Price: Free | More Information

    8. wpDiscuz

    The wpDiscuz plugin.

    If you want to drive engagement on your blog, it’s important to make the process as easy and enjoyable as possible for your readers. With wpDiscuz, you can completely customize the native commenting system in WordPress to improve its UX for you and your visitors.

    One of the most notable features of this plugin is the comment form layouts it provides:

    The wpDiscuz comment form layout options.

    It also enables inline commenting, which can be useful for long-form content that covers several subtopics:

    The wpDiscuz inline commenting feature.

    Key Features:

    • Social commenting and social login
    • Real-time comment updates
    • Five-star article rating system
    • Read more buttons for long comments, and View replies buttons for comment threads
    • Author notifications and comment subscriptions
    • Smart comment voting system with cookie tracking

    wpDiscuz is for you if…

    …you want a fully customized commenting experience.

    Price: Free with premium add-ons | More Information

    9. WP Discourse

    The WP Discourse plugin.

    Finally, the last of our best comment plugins for WordPress is WP Discourse. Discourse is a third-party discussion platform that you can integrate with your website.

    Discourse is primarily a forum-style discussion platform. It’s open source, so you can download and install it on your own server, or purchase a hosting plan if you would prefer not to deal with the technical aspects of using it.

    You can publish your WordPress posts to Discourse to facilitate community interaction there, and also display Discourse forum comments on your site. This gives users multiple ways to engage with your content. Plus, you may pick up some new readers by featuring your blog posts in multiple locations.

    To help you manage all this, the WP Discourse plugin provides advanced comments settings for you to configure:

    The WP Discourse comments settings.

    Just keep in mind that the plugin only connects your site to Discourse. You still have to install the software yourself or pay to have it hosted for you.

    Key Features:

    • Automatically publish WordPress content to Discourse
    • Sync author accounts between WordPress and Discourse
    • Embed forum discussions in your blog posts
    • Log in to Discourse via WordPress using Single Sign On (SSO)

    WP Discourse is for you if…

    …you’d like to offer your users a more forum-like comment experience.

    Price: The plugin is free, while you can self-host Discourse or pay for a hosting plan starting at $100 per month | More Information

    Conclusion

    Whether you’re looking to gain more control over your WordPress comments settings or you want to integrate your site with a community platform, there’s a plugin that can help. With the right tool, you can boost user engagement and prevent unruly spam.

    In this post, we reviewed nine of the best comment plugins for WordPress. If you want more control over your site’s comment section, we recommend starting with Disable Comments. It’s simple to use and provides the settings you need for your comment section.

    Do you have any questions about which comment plugin to use on your WordPress site? Ask away in the comments section below!

    Featured Image Illustration via Julia Tim / shutterstock.com

    The post 9 Best Comment Plugins for WordPress in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • The beginner’s guide to Yoast SEO

    Let’s say you have a website but know little about SEO. But you’ve heard about Yoast SEO, and people have told you it’s a great tool to optimize your site for Google, Bing, Yandex and other search engines. So you install the Yoast SEO plugin. What now? Well, our plugin needs your input to help your pages rise to the top of the search results. In this beginner’s guide to Yoast SEO, we’ll guide you through the most important steps to get the most out of this plugin and your content!

    SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which means optimizing your pages to get them to a high position in the search results of Google or other search engines. If you have a website and want to attract more people to it, SEO should be a part of your marketing strategy. Our plugin, Yoast SEO, helps you with that by fixing a lot of the technical stuff. But also by giving you feedback on your content to optimize it for SEO and your website users.

    A beginner‘s guide to Yoast SEO

    Before we start, note that this isn’t a guide to every single detail of the Yoast SEO plugin. This post introduces some important things that you should use or configure first. In this beginner’s guide, we assume that you have the plugin installed. Not quite there yet? Check out how to install Yoast SEO Premium or our free Yoast SEO plugin before you read on.

    In this post, we’ll cover the following:

    Table of contents

    The first-time configuration

    The Yoast SEO first-time configuration is a great starting point to set up your plugin. You will get the option to start the first-time configuration right after installing Yoast SEO. Don’t see the welcome screen or already have the plugin installed? You can also the configuration in the backend of your WordPress website by going to Yoast SEO > General and clicking the First-time configuration tab:

    the first-time configuration in Yoast SEO
    Start your Yoast SEO journey with the first-time configuration

    The first-time configuration guides you through several steps that help you set up our plugin to suit your site’s needs. By answering a few simple questions, Yoast SEO will learn more about your website and how it can help out with your SEO. Even if your site has been around for a while, it still pays off to complete the configuration. It’s also a good idea to repeat it now and again to make sure your settings are still up to date. Because the information you fill in here helps Google and other search engines understand your site better.

    For example, in the second step, you’ll be asked if your website is about you or an organization you represent. This is relevant because the information you fill in here is used in Google’s Knowledge Graph. What is a Knowledge Graph, you ask? It is the block of information you often see on the right-hand side of the search results when you search for a company or person. So make sure to fill in all the fields you can in this step to provide Google with this information and increase your chances of a Knowledge Graph. But the first-time configuration also improves your site’s technical settings with SEO data optimization and asks for your social media profiles to help Google understand these belong to the same person or company. If you want more help getting Yoast SEO configured correctly for your site, check out the help article on how to use the first-time configuration.

    The tip of the technical iceberg

    There are many aspects to SEO and many more settings you can tweak in the plugin. But we set the first-time configuration so that it correctly configures the plugin’s general settings for your website. And there’s also loads of other stuff that Yoast SEO handles for you, to give you a head start on your technical SEO. Here are a few of the things Yoast SEO automatically takes care of in the background. Our plugin:

    • Outputs structured data for your pages, helping Google understand them even better.
    • Creates an XML sitemap that search engines use to find and index your pages.
    • Yoast SEO Premium also avoids dead ends on your site by automatically creating redirects when you move or delete content.

    There are lots more hidden features and settings that you control, we’ll talk about those later on. For now, it’s good to know that all of this allows Yoast SEO to roll out the red carpet for the search bots, making it easy for search engines to find and understand your content.

    Using the Yoast SEO sidebar or meta box

    Yoast SEO is known for its green, orange, and red traffic lights, giving you feedback that helps you optimize your content. Back in the day, you’d find these in the Yoast SEO meta box below your post editor. Nowadays, if you’re using the WordPress Block editor, you can also find them in the Yoast SEO sidebar on the right side of the editor.

    Are you using the block editor, but not seeing the sidebar? Make sure to click on the Yoast SEO sidebar icon at the top right of your screen:

    screenshot of Yoast SEO icon that opens up the Yoast SEO sidebar
    Click the Yoast SEO icon to open the Yoast SEO sidebar

    Here, we’ll highlight four essential elements you’ll find in both the Yoast SEO meta box and the Yoast SEO sidebar:

    • The Focus keyphrase
    • The SEO analysis
    • The Readability analysis
    • The Google preview

    When you write a post or page for your website, checking these four elements should be the bare minimum before publishing your content. If you have more time and want to fully optimize a post, we’d advise following the steps described in this blog post checklist.

    The focus keyphrase

    The focus keyphrase field is the first in the Yoast SEO sidebar and the meta box. In your Yoast SEO sidebar, on the right side of your editor, you’ll find this field at the top:

    the focus keyphrase field in the Yoast SEO sidebar
    The focus keyphrase input field in the Yoast SEO sidebar

    Below your post, you’ll find it in the SEO tab of the meta box:

    the focus keyphrase field in the Yoast SEO metabox
    The focus keyphrase input field in the Yoast SEO meta box

    In this field, you can enter the phrase you’d like this specific post or page to rank for in the search engines. By adding this keyphrase (or keyword), Yoast SEO will give you feedback on how well you’ve optimized the content for that specific keyphrase. It’s good to note that adding a keyphrase here doesn’t mean that Google will ‘know’ that you want the page to rank for that keyphrase. It simply helps Yoast SEO give you helpful feedback, so adding the keyphrase without looking at any of the feedback will not do anything for your rankings.

    You can add this keyphrase at any moment, but we suggest adding it immediately as a reminder to keep your content focused on this topic. Wondering how to choose the perfect focus keyphrase? Read our guide on choosing a focus keyphrase, as it will help you select the right keyphrase you want to (and can) rank for. You can select a keyphrase post-by-post, but if you’re serious about your rankings, you must conduct keyword research first.

    Yoast SEO Premium allows you to set related keyphrases and synonyms too, which is great if you want to take your SEO copywriting to the next level. You need user-focused and high-quality content to rank high in a (competitive) market. Because Google is getting smarter, Yoast SEO Premium recognizes variations of your keyphrase and helps you write natural and user-friendly content.

    The SEO analysis

    When you’ve added a keyphrase (and ideally a bit of content), Yoast SEO is able to run the SEO analysis. This analysis evaluates how well your content is optimized to rank for that keyphrase. For instance, it checks whether you’ve used the keyphrase enough and not too often. But also whether it’s in your SEO title, meta description, images, or subheadings. Moreover, it checks other SEO aspects of your content that are not related to your keyphrase, for instance, if you have any internal links to other articles on your website which is also important for search engines to understand your content.

    The SEO analysis in the Yoast SEO sidebar

    Getting orange or red traffic lights? Look at the feedback the analysis gives and try to make improvements where possible. To dive deeper into this, read our article on how to use Yoast SEO’s content analysis.

    The readability analysis

    Below the focus keyphrase field and SEO analysis, you can find the Readability analysis tab (in the Yoast SEO sidebar). It’s best to look at this tab after you’ve written the first version of your post or page. It gives you a red, orange, or green traffic light, which reflects your text’s readability score. This analysis contains a few different checks that our plugin automatically does on your content. Open the tab to find out how you score on all the individual checks and what you can improve on. You may wonder why you should look at this tab, but trust us: readability is crucial for SEO!

    The Yoast SEO readability checks in the sidebar

    If a traffic light is green, you’re doing great in that field. Is it orange or red? You can follow the instructions along with the traffic light to improve on this front. If there’s an eye icon, you can click that to see what part of the text still needs some checking. Now you don’t need to get every traffic light green but try to get the overall traffic light for the readability analysis green to end up with readable text. That way, the readability analysis helps you write easy-to-read content that your readers will love!

    Our readability analysis works for many languages, and our team is working hard to add more languages as we go. If you’re interested in finding more about the logic behind this analysis, you can read more on how to use this analysis in Yoast SEO.

    The inclusive language analysis

    The third analysis that you can find in Yoast SEO is the inclusive language analysis which gives you feedback on any potentially non-inclusive words or phrases you’re using in your text. We at Yoast strongly believe that you should inclusive language in your content. Because creating inclusive content is good for both your users and SEO. Wondering how that works? Read more about it in our post on inclusive language and SEO.

    The Yoast SEO inclusive language analysis in the sidebar

    Wondering how it works and what the analysis looks at? You can read all that and more on our page dedicated to the inclusive language analysis. Also, it’s good to note that the inclusive language analysis is opt-in, so it won’t be activated by default. It’s up to you whether you want to get feedback on the inclusiveness of your content. 

    Does every traffic light need to be green?

    No, not every single traffic light in the different analyses has to be green for your post or page to rank. Similarly, getting your post and traffic lights ‘all-green’ in no way guarantees that it will rank. While it’s tempting to aim for all-green traffic lights on every post or page without working on other aspects of your SEO, this isn’t the best SEO strategy. Proper keyword research and site structure always come before getting green bullets. Read more about properly using the colored traffic light system in Yoast SEO.

    The Google preview

    In addition to analyzing your content, we provide an editable snippet or Google preview. In the meta box below your post, it’s in the SEO tab, and in the sidebar, you can find it here:

    screenshot of Google preview tab in Yoast SEO sidebar
    You can find all the features of Yoast SEO in the sidebar in the block editor

    The Google preview shows you how the Yoast plugin displays your page to Google and other search engines. In other words, it gives an idea of how your page can appear in the search results:

    The Google preview feature in Yoast SEO
    The Google preview makes it easy to optimize your post for the search results

    In the Google preview, you can set an SEO title and meta description. Make an effort and write a title and meta description that reflect what your post or page is about. Let people know they’ll find what they’re looking for on your site and entice them to visit your page. There’s no guarantee that Google will display your meta description in the results pages. But if the meta description you add here is good, you’ll increase the odds of it being used.

    Other items in the sidebar and meta box

    As said before, we believe this is the minimum investment you should make before publishing a page or post. You may have noticed more items in the Yoast SEO sidebar and meta box, like the internal linking suggestions, social previews, Schema, cornerstone content, insights, and advanced section. It’s worth looking at those, as these can also help your SEO efforts!

    A bit more advanced: Yoast SEO Settings

    Of course, there is so much more you can do with Yoast SEO. You can access and change lots of settings in the Yoast SEO settings overview. There’s usually no need to change anything. Especially if you’re new to SEO, it’s wise to start with the settings you set with the first-time configuration. But let’s quickly look around to give you an idea of the options.

    Go to Yoast SEO > Settings in the left-hand side navigation in your WordPress dashboard to go to the Settings overview. Here you can select which features you want to use, how your site should appear in search engines and loads more! Use the menu on your left to navigate the different settings that are divided into four categories: General, Content types, Categories & Tags and Advanced.

    The Yoast SEO settings overview

    When you go to the Yoast SEO Settings, you land on the Site features page in the General section. Here you can select which Yoast SEO features you want to actively use and which ones you want to opt out on. Each feature that is listed there comes with a short explanation of what it does and you can use the toggle below to activate or deactivate the feature.

    Site basics

    In the General section, you can also find Site basics. As the name suggests, you can configure the basics of your website here. Take the Title Separator, for instance. You can choose whether you want a dash, asterisk, or something else between the different parts of your SEO title that will be shown in the search results. But, if you change your mind later, you can always change it here. Read more about the options in our help article on the Yoast SEO Settings: Site basics.

    Simply pick what you want, but the default option is usually the best one

    In addition to the separator of your SEO title, you might also want to change how your SEO titles are set up. Simply go to Content types, click on Posts or any other content type (depending on which one you want to change) and go to Search Appearance. Here you can change how our plugin sets up your titles and meta descriptions. Set up by using snippet variables that tell the plugin what the title of your post is or the separator of your choice.

    Change the variables in any way you like

    This simply means we will use the title of your page or post as the page title. Then we add a title separator (which we discussed in the first paragraph of this section) and the site name you set when creating your site. So, for example, the title for this Beginner’s guide to Yoast SEO post would look like this:

    Beginner's guide to Yoast SEO: Page titles

    Feel free to change this setup, but this is the one we recommend. It’s focused on the page title (Beginner’s guide to Yoast SEO) and has proper branding at the end (Yoast). We’re highlighting this to give you an example of the type of settings that you can find here, but of course, there are loads more.

    We hope this gives you an idea of the options that Yoast SEO gives you. Throughout the years, we’ve introduced a lot of new features to our plugins. With that said, there are also many things we haven’t done in Yoast SEO, a few of them being things that we probably won’t ever do. If you’re curious as to what these are, check out our blog post on things we don’t do in Yoast SEO and why.

    That’s it for our beginner’s guide to Yoast SEO. With Yoast SEO properly installed, your website is ready to take on the competition and climb to the top of the search results!

    If you want to become a pro user of the Yoast SEO plugin, here are a few more reading recommendations:

    Or some more general SEO guides for beginners:

    We also have a free Yoast SEO for WordPress training course that tells you all you need to know about our plugin, with the help of videos. It helps you master our plugin and take the first few practical steps into SEO! Or if have a question that you could use some help with, consider joining one of our live Q&A sessions to get the most out of Yoast SEO!

    The post The beginner’s guide to Yoast SEO appeared first on Yoast.

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  • 8 Best WordPress Newsletter Plugins Compared for 2023

    Newsletter plugins can help you grow your newsletter with opt-in forms and other list generating features. They also let you send newsletters to your subscribers directly from your WordPress dashboard. In this post, we’ve collected the best WordPress newsletter plugins to help you level up your newsletter game.

    The post 8 Best WordPress Newsletter Plugins Compared for 2023 appeared first on Themeisle Blog.

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  • How to Create a Block Theme for WordPress (The Easy Way)

    Creating a WordPress Block Theme for your website isn’t as hard as you might think. WordPress Block themes have been growing in popularity since their introduction in WordPress 5.9 with a growing number of premade block themes available in the WordPress repository. And, for those who want to create a WordPress block theme on your own, you’re in luck. The Create Block Theme plugin simplifies the process so you create a custom block theme quickly without extensive coding. Plus, you can even use it to create a child theme for your site.

    In this post, we’ll explain the benefits of using the Create Block Theme plugin and how to create your own block theme in a few clicks.

    What is a WordPress Block Theme?

    WordPress block theme

    A WordPress block theme is a full site editing theme for WordPress based on blocks. A block theme allows you to create any page or post using a drag-and-drop interface with blocks and block patterns you can use to build your content. You can even create custom templates and template parts (like headers and footers using the site editor.

    Additionally, it is easier to add custom styles to a block theme. There’s no need to edit the functions.php, style.css, or other theme files to create custom blocks, fonts, or add theme styling. Everything can be accomplished by editing one file – theme.json. WordPress considers block themes to be the future of WordPress. Thankfully, there are quite a few advantages to using them.

    Intro to the Create Block Theme Plugin

    For this post, we’ll be highlighting the Create Block Theme plugin, which is a free plugin available in the WordPress plugin repository. It allows you to create a new theme, blank theme, or child theme quickly. You can also embed Google fonts – either via CDN or locally.

    The Create Block Theme plugin saves you a ton of work creating child themes by allowing you to create and install one in a matter of minutes. Let’s take a look at the steps you’ll need to take to use the plugin.

    Key Features

    The Create Block Theme plugin has some amazing features to make theme creation easy and fast:

    • Create a block child theme with a single click.
    • There’s no extensive coding required.
    • It’s easy to clone a theme.
    • You can export WordPress block themes for use on other projects.
    • You can create a blank block theme.
    • Add a new style variation to the global styles in site editor

    How to Create a WordPress Block Theme?

    Before we use the plugin to create a block theme, you must first install and activate a parent block theme. For this tutorial, we’re going to use the Twenty Twenty-Three theme.

    Install A Parent Block theme

    To get started, log in to your WordPress dashboard. Next, navigate to Appearance > Themes.

    WordPress dashboard

    You can choose any theme you wish – as long as it’s a WordPress block theme. If you’d like to use a block theme other than Twenty Twenty-Three, start by clicking the Add New button in Appearance > Themes.

    Add new theme

    Click the block theme tab to reveal the options for available block themes.

    choose WordPress block theme tab

    Once you find the desired theme, hover over it, then click the Install button.

    Install block theme

    Install Create Block theme Plugin

    The next step is to install the Create Block Theme plugin. There a few ways to install a WordPress plugin, but this one can easily be installed from the dashboard. Start by navigating to Plugins > Add New in the WordPress dashboard.

    Add new plugin

    Type Create Block Theme in the search box. When the page refreshes, select the plugin, then click Install Now.

    Install Create Block Theme plugin

    Once installed, simply activate the plugin.

    activate plugin

    Configure the Create Block Theme Plugin

    Now that the plugin has been installed, navigate to Appearance > Create Block Theme.

    configure Create Block Theme plugin

    In the plugin’s settings, you’ll have a few options:

    create block theme settings

    1. Export (theme name)
    2. Create child of (theme name)
    3. Clone (theme name)
    4. Overwrite (theme name)
    5. Create blank theme
    6. Create a style variation

    Export Theme

    This setting allows you to export the activated theme along with any changes you’ve made. Any templates, global styling, fonts, or other structural changes will be present. Using this setting, you can export the theme, then use it in other WordPress installations. All of your settings will be preserved.

    To export your currently installed theme, select the export option, then click the generate button. The file will be downloaded to your downloads folder as a zip file, like any other WordPress theme.

    Create Child Theme

    create child theme

    This option allows you to create a child theme based off of your current parent theme. Before generating the child theme, be sure to give your theme a name, description, URL, note the author, as well as the author URL if you choose to. Once you click the generate button, the plugin will automatically download your child theme as a zip file.

    Clone Theme

    clone block theme

    When cloning your block theme, the plugin will create a new theme. The clone will retain all assets of the parent theme, as well as any user changes. Similarly to creating a child theme, be sure to name your theme, give it a description, and note a theme URL, author, and author URL.

    Overwrite Theme

    overwrite theme

    When you overwrite your block theme, all user changes will be saved and converted to theme changes. Any templates you create or style changes you make will be saved into theme files, making them a permanent part of the theme.

    Create Blank Theme

    create blank theme

    When you select this option, a blank theme will be created within your website’s theme directory. Before generating your new theme, give it a name, description, and theme URL (if desired), note the author, and author URL. Upon clicking the generate button, you can navigate to Appearance > Themes to view your new blank theme.

    new blank theme

    Create a Style Variation

    Style variations are located in Appearance > Editor. To locate them, navigate to the theme editor, then click the styles button at the top right corner of the editor. There, you can create new styles for text, colors, and buttons. There are additional options for styling individual blocks, too.

    theme styles

    Once you’ve created styles, you can create a style variation in the Create a Block Theme plugin by choosing the last option in the settings. Give your style a name, then click Generate.

    new style variation

    To view your new style, navigate back to Appearance > Editor, click the style icon, and select browse styles. There you can browse through the styles to locate the new one you just created.

    custom style

    Manage Theme Fonts

    To manage the fonts installed in your theme, navigate to Appearance > Manage Theme Fonts. There you’ll be able to view all of the installed fonts in your theme.

    manage theme fonts

    One of the most surprising and amazing features of the Create Block Theme plugin is the ability to manage your theme’s fonts. In this section of the plugin, you can remove entire font families or a single variation. Additionally, you can easily add Google fonts to your theme either by hosting them locally or calling them through the Google Fonts CDN. Here are some of the best Google fonts for the web.

    To remove a font family or font variation, simply click the remove link next to the family or variation you’d like to remove from your site.

    remove font

    Add a Google Font

    To add a Google font, start by clicking the Add Google Font button at the top of the page.

    add Google font button

    When the page refreshes, use the dropdown menu to select a font. You’ll be able to choose any font in Google’s font library.

    select a font

    Once you make a font selection, you’ll have the option to choose the variants you wish to include. You can choose all by clicking the checkbox at the top or choose individual ones. After choosing variants, click the Add google fonts to your theme button.

    Add Google font

    You can also add local fonts to your theme. Start by clicking the Add Local Font button. Fonts in the ttf, off, and woff2 file formats are supported.

    add local font button

    Upload a font by choosing a file saved on your local machine. Next, give it a name, and apply a font style, and font weight. Finally, click Upload local fonts to your theme.

    Once fonts are installed, they can be managed within the Create Block Theme plugin and applied to styles in the site editor.

    fonts in style editor

    After fonts are added, you can head back over to the Create Block Theme tab to apply one of the options to create a child theme, export it, clone it, or overwrite your current theme. All fonts will be preserved along with style variations, as well as templates that you create.

    Creating a WordPress Block Theme Doesn’t Have to Be Hard

    Thanks to the Create Block Theme plugin, it’s easier than ever to create a block theme for your website. You can create your own theme templates using the full site editor, add new styles, add and manage fonts, and even export your block themes for use on other projects. There’s no coding, no theme files to alter, and it’s all done within a few clicks. If you’re looking to start using block themes, or are looking for an easy way to manage them, consider using the Create Block Theme plugin.

    For those using page builders, there should be built-in options for creating custom themes. With Divi, you can easily import and export all of your templates and designs using the theme builder. This allows you save entire site styles to be used like a child theme to kickstart new website builds in a few clicks.

    Have you made the switch to WordPress block themes? If so, let us know in the comments below.

    The post How to Create a Block Theme for WordPress (The Easy Way) appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • 8 Best WordPress Events Calendar Plugins in 2023

    In the 21st century, planning any kind of event manually can feel too ‘old school’. If you have access to the right tools, you can easily set up a website that enables you to schedule events, manage attendance, send reminders, and even process payments. All of that is possible with the right WordPress events calendar plugin.

    In this article, we’re going to help you find the best WordPress events calendar plugin by checking what they have in common, and then we’ll introduce you to our top picks.

    Let’s get right to it!

    What Makes for a Quality WordPress Events Calendar Plugin?

    WordPress events and calendar plugins usually offer a variety of features that enable you to plan and manage multiple events (even simultaneous ones). In most cases, this type of plugin gives your users the opportunity to see a calendar of upcoming happenings, and decide which ones they want to sign up for:

    example event from event calendar plugin

    The primary goal of an events plugin is to make it so you don’t have to process attendance, confirmations, and payments manually. You can set up an event using your tool of choice, and let users sign up for it through your website at their leisure.

    Other features to look out for in a WordPress events plugin include:

    • Broad theme compatibility. The events plugin you choose should work with your favorite theme, so you don’t have to switch to a new one.
    • A variety of customization options. Ideally, your plugin of choice should provide you with plenty of calendar styling options and customization features for event signups.
    • Integration with third-party event planning and calendar services. If you want to use Google Calendar or Facebook (or any other service) to plan events, your WordPress plugin should offer easy integration options.

    By using a plugin to manage events, you’ll be able to focus more of your attention on other, more important tasks like SEO techniques, or growing your business. Fortunately, since this is WordPress we’re talking about, you get plenty of options to pick from.

    8 Best WordPress Events Calendar Plugins

    For this roundup, we put together a list of WordPress events plugins that offer free versions. In many cases, you can also opt to purchase a premium license to get access to additional features.

    It’s our goal to recommend plugins that work well and offer plenty of features, which may mean a premium license is necessary. Plus, these plugins have strong reviews, satisfied user bases, and consistent updates.

    1. The Events Calendar

    Events Calendar Plugin

    The Events Calendar is perhaps the most popular WordPress events plugin, and it’s one that we’ve covered in the past. This tool lets you import events from other calendars, and create your own using a simple editor:

    Adding a new event using The Events Calendar plugin

    With this plugin, you can set up a calendar that includes featured events and search functionality. It can also display date information for whichever time zone your users are in, show locations using maps, and much more.

    Key Features for The Events Calendar:

    • Set up an events calendar for your website
    • Add as many events as you want
    • Create featured events
    • Provide a search bar to help users find the events they’re looking for
    • Import events from third-party platforms
    • Customize your calendar’s style using CSS
    • Events Calendar Plugins for Divi

    The Events Calendar offers a basic template for your calendar that works well with most themes. However, you can also customize your calendar’s appearance using CSS or with a premium theme such as Divi.

    Divi users can benefit from using the Divi Events Calendar extension that adds dedicated modules to create custom events within Divi’s Visual Builder. If you’d rather spend time doing other important things for your site, there’s even an Events Calendar child theme for Divi available in our marketplace.

    The Events Calendar is for you if…

    • You want a responsive events calendar that looks good with most themes.
    • CSS customization isn’t a roadblock.
    • You need compatibility with Divi for easy customization.

    Price: Free, with premium licenses starting at $99 per year | Learn more about The Events Calendar

    2. Timetable and Event Schedule by MotoPress

    Timetable and Event Schedule by MotoPress

    When you need to create complex timetables with multiple types of events, Timetable and Event Schedule is a fantastic choice. For example, if you offer multiple types of classes, you can add custom columns to your calendar and use color coding to differentiate each one:

    An example of a color-coded calendar

    You can also use Timetable and Event Schedule to create event calendars. However, the plugin really shines when it comes to daily timetables. To insert a timetable on your website, you can use shortcodes or blocks.

    Key Features for Timetable and Event Schedule:

    • Create complex event timetables for your website
    • Color-code your timetables
    • Add custom columns to each table
    • Use shortcodes or blocks to insert timetables onto your website

    Timetable and Event Schedule is for you if…

    • You run a business that offers events on a set schedule.
    • Your visitors need to find events when they’re happening.
    • Timetables are a must.

    Price: Free | Learn more about Timetable and Event Schedule

    3. Modern Events Calendar Lite

    The Modern Events Calendar Lite plugin

    Next up, Modern Events Calendar Lite is perhaps the easiest WordPress events plugin to get started with. It provides an intuitive setup wizard that covers everything from calendar styles to colors, countdowns, and more:

    Configuring the Events Calendar Lite plugin

    With Modern Events Calendar Lite, you can add events manually and enable users to submit their own. The plugin also lets you store information about categories, locations, and organizers.

    This solution’s free version doesn’t include calendar theme functionality. However, it does let you customize your calendar’s style, including its typography and colors. You can also use custom CSS for further modifications.

    Key Features for Modern Events Calendar Lite:

    • Set up an events calendar
    • Add new events manually and enable users to submit their own
    • Use a setup wizard to configure your events calendar
    • Manage event categories, locations, and organizers

    Modern Events Calendar Lite is for you if…

    • You want to use a WordPress events plugin that’s easy to set up and customize.
    • A catalog of add-ons is available.

    This particular plugin also offers a broad range of add-ons, including one for Divi integration.

    Price: Free, with premium licenses starting at $75 per year | Learn more about Modern Events Calendar Lite

    4. Eventin

    Eventin Events plugin

    Eventin is a user-friendly events plugin for WordPress that allows you to organize and promote events with ease. It offers features like customizable event pages, integration with popular payment gateways, and the ability to manage event schedules, ticket sales with pricing tiers, and attendee data. It provides an intuitive interface for creating and managing events.

    Eventin Divi integration

    With the integration of Divi and Eventin, Divi users are given an extra advantage. This integration enables you to create a tailored event template using Divi’s Theme Builder, equipped with specialized modules like a calendar for events, advanced search, event listings, event tabs, schedules, and Zoom integration.

    Key Features for Eventin:

    • Divi integration
    • Front-end event management
    • Host Zoom meetings and webinars
    • Multiple ticket price tiers
    • Easy-to-use interface
    • Unique QR codes for attendees

    With Eventin, most of its features come with the free version. However, some exceptions require an upgrade to the premium license for full access. To brand events, use an advanced search widget, generate QR codes for attendees, receive notifications, or include unlimited FAQs for events, an upgrade to the premium license is necessary.

    Eventin is for you if…

    • You want highly-customizable events pages.
    • Event notifications for users are a priority.
    • You want to track attendees with a QR code.

    Price: Free, with premium licenses starting at $69 per year | Learn more about Eventin

    5. Event Manager

    Events Manager

    The Events Manager plugin lets you add events to a central calendar and manage locations, categories, and even bookings for them. Although the base plugin doesn’t include payment functionality, you can enable that using a WooCommerce add-on.

    Another feature that sets Events Manager aside is that you can enable users to submit events using a front-end form:

    Enabling users to submit events to your calendar

    Although you don’t get a lot of styling options for your calendar, this plugin gives you a lot of control over your events pages and how users interact with them.

    Key Features for Events Manager:

    • Set up an events calendar
    • Add events manually or enable users to submit their own
    • Manage event bookings
    • Customize the behavior of your events pages

    The premium version offers additional features such as recurring event limits, attendance tracking, mobile check-in with QR codes, PDF ticket downloads, waitlists, iCal attachments, and coupon/discount management.

    Event Manager is for you if…

    • You want a plugin that lets users add their own events to your calendar.
    • Need a useful tool to process bookings.
    • You don’t mind adding a plugin for processing payments.

    Price: Free, with premium licenses starting at $89 per year | Learn more about Events Manager

    6. WooCommerce Event Manager

    The WooCommerce Event Manager plugin

    If you want to manage events and sell tickets using WooCommerce, this is the plugin for you. WooCommerce Event Manager enables you to sell multiple types of tickets, include add-ons with each sale, and manage attendance:

    Configuring event tickets for sale

    Since this is a WooCommerce extension, you can set up any payment processors you’d like to use.  WooCommerce Event Manager also helps you send email confirmations and even PDF versions of the tickets users purchase.

    Key Features for WooCommerce Event Manager:

    • Use WooCommerce to sell tickets for your events
    • Manage events and create multiple ticket types with different values
    • Create add-ons for your event tickets
    • Process payments using your preferred WooCommerce-compatible gateways

    If you’re looking to enhance your events website, the pro version provides additional features such as the ability to download PDF tickets, customize registration forms, bulk edit event dates, and receive automatic email confirmation messages with custom email templates.

    WooCommerce Event Manager is for you if…

    • You’re already familiar with WooCommerce.
    • You want to process ticket sales.
    • The ability to add upsells to ticket purchases is important.

    Price: Free, with premium licenses starting at $60 | Learn more about WooCommerce Event Manager

    7. WP Event Manager

    The WP Event Manager plugin

    WP Event Manager enables you to add events to a calendar and lets users sign up for them. However, the plugin’s main selling point is that it enables users to create and submit events for your website’s calendar through the front end:

    Enabling users to submit events for your calendar

    Event organizers get access to dashboards where they can review their submissions, check signups, and edit entries. On your end, you can customize the form that visitors use to submit events, and even add new fields to it.

    Key Features for WP Event Manager:

    • Add events to your calendar manually
    • Enable users to submit events and add them to your calendar
    • Provide users with a dashboard they can use to review their submissions
    • Add custom fields to the public event submission form

    WP Event Manager is for you if…

    • You want to run a website that enables users to coordinate events with one another.
    • Create your own version of Meetup using WordPress.

    Price: Free, with premium add-ons available | Learn more about WP Event Manager

    8. Event Organiser

    The Event Organiser plugin

    Last on our list, Event Organiser enables you to create an events calendar and add as many entries as you need to it. It also lets you manage organizers and venues, as well as event categories.

    However, what really sets this plugin apart is that it makes it easy to create recurring events with complex schedules:

    Adding a recurring event to your schedule

    For example, you can set up events that occur on the third Tuesday of every month, or once every quarter. The plugin also helps you set up exceptions for recurring events, and you can add custom fields to the individual event information pages (in addition to the wide range of fields provided by default).

    Key Features:

    • Set up an events calendar
    • Add events to your calendar manually
    • Create one-off or recurring events
    • Configure recurring events with complex schedules and exceptions
    • Add custom fields to your event pages

    Event Organiser is for you if…

    …you want to set up a calendar that includes recurring events. In that area, this plugin gives you more control than almost every other option. However, it doesn’t include booking or user management options unless you opt for its premium extensions.

    Price: Free, with premium licenses starting at £50 (approx. $71) | Learn more about Event Organiser

    Which WordPress Events Calendar Plugin Will You Choose?

    Planning events is already a full-time job, and managing them as well is often too much for one person to do alone. With the right WordPress event plugin, you’ll be able to focus on planning and let your website handle the management for you. That can include sharing event information, processing bookings and payments, and simply sharing a calendar or featuring upcoming occasions.

    Fortunately, there are a lot of fantastic WordPress event plugins to choose from. One of the best all-around picks is The Events Calendar, which is fully compatible with Divi.

    The post 8 Best WordPress Events Calendar Plugins in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • 7 Best WordPress Security Plugins in 2023

    When it comes to website maintenance, the importance of security can’t be understated. With so many risks threatening sites today, making sure yours is protected is critical. Unfortunately, figuring out the best WordPress security plugin to use can be challenging.

    In this post, we’ll explain why you might want a dedicated tool to strengthen your site. Then we’ll introduce you to seven of the best WordPress security plugins, discussing their key features and pricing.

    Let’s get started!

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    Why You Might Want to Use a WordPress Security Plugin

    Unfortunately, many people don’t spend much time or effort on website security until it’s too late. As a site owner, one of the worst things you can do is put safety on the back burner.

    Between malware, data breaches, and the dozens of other threats plaguing the internet today, taking website security seriously should be a priority for all business owners. If you fall victim to an attack, it can compromise your customers’ data and both the integrity and reputation of your brand.

    Of course, being proactive about protecting your website is often easier said than done. This is why we recommend using a WordPress security plugin. Doing so can place an added layer of protection on your site and reduce your chances of being hacked.

    There is a wide range of functions that a WordPress security plugin can help with. This includes:

    • Strengthening passwords and enabling Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
    • Updating and backing up WordPress and database files
    • Adding file permissions and user role configurations

    However, it’s important to note that your entire site’s security shouldn’t be dependent on one plugin (nor could it be). Instead, you can think of a WordPress security plugin as a key way to accomplish specific tasks, rather than as a complete solution.

    This is something you may want to keep in mind when considering the following list of security plugins. It’s important to consider what security features you already have access to and what you’re lacking. For example, if backups aren’t something your hosting provider handles, then backup functionality may be a priority.

    7 Best WordPress Security Plugins

    Now that we’ve discussed why site security is so important, it’s time to look at some of the tools that can help. For the following list, we’ve compiled seven WordPress security plugins that cover a wide range of features and functionality. To ensure that we’re presenting you with the best options possible, we’ve also factored in ratings and reviews, customer support and updates, and pricing.

    1. iThemes Security

    The iThemes WordPress security plugin.

    iThemes Security, formerly known as Better WP Security, is another robust tool that deserves a spot as one of the best WordPress security plugins. It comes in both free and premium versions, with multiple tiers available depending on your specific needs.

    This solution helps to secure your site in over 30 different ways, including through password protection, user activity monitoring, and more:

    The iThemes Security plugin settings.

    If you upgrade to the paid version, you will get regular backups of your site. You’ll also be able to remotely manage multiple WordPress sites with the iThemes Security Pro features.

    Key Features:

    • Brute-force attack prevention
    • File integrity monitoring
    • Hidden login and admin pages
    • Limited login attempts
    • 2FA
    • Control over user roles and file permissions
    • Scheduled backups
    • Email alerts
    • 404 error detection
    • Google reCAPTCHAs

    iThemes Security if for you if…

    … you want a beginner- and user-friendly plugin with standard yet powerful security features. It’s also helpful if one of the main tools you’re looking for is backup functionality.

    It’s worth noting that the developers behind the iThemes Security plugin are also the ones who created the popular BackupBuddy plugin. Also, although this plugin doesn’t include a firewall or malware scanner, it does use Sucuri’s malware scanner, which we’ll discuss in more detail in the next section.

    Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $80 | More Information

    2. WP Activity Log

    The WP Activity Log plugin.

    WP Activity Log is a plugin that is slightly different than the others on this list. Rather than offering an all-in-one solution that includes a variety of different features, this tool aims to serve a specific purpose: to help you keep track of every change and activity occurring on your site.

    With this freemium plugin, you can leverage comprehensive activity monitoring to heighten your site’s security:

    The log viewer screen of the WP Activity Log plugin.

    This kind of tool can be particularly helpful if you manage a network of sites. For example, if you manage a team of users, having an easy way to monitor their activity can help keep your site protected from malicious behavior.

    Key Features:

    • Real-time user activity logs
    • Event enabling and disabling
    • Notifications and reports
    • User activity and site change monitoring
    • WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, and WPForms extensions
    • Multisite support
    • HTML and CSV reports (premium only)
    • Free and premium support

    WP Activity Log is for you if…

    … you’re looking for an activity logging and monitoring solution. It’s an awesome choice if you want to gain more insight into your site activity, which can be especially useful if you have a multisite network or need to manage multiple users. However, it’s probably not the best tool if you’re currently lacking a firewall, malware scanner, or other key security features.

    Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $99 | More Information

    3. Sucuri Security

    The Sucuri plugin.

    Similar to Wordfence, Sucuri Security is a popular plugin that can help you with a wide range of security-related tasks on your WordPress site. This includes scanning for malware and running checks:

    Sucuri WP plugin integrity

    One thing we want to note about this plugin is that because it runs a Domain Name Server (DNS)-level firewall, it’s a bit more effective than plugins such as Wordfence that use a built-in WordPress firewall. Therefore, if site performance is of particular concern, Sucuri is an option worth exploring.

    Key Features:

    • Malware scanning and removal
    • Website hardening
    • Application Program Interface (API) key connection
    • Web Application Firewall (WAF) with a premium license
    • Login security, password protection, and user tracking
    • Site tracking (file changes, failed login attempts, etc.)
    • Malicious traffic blocking
    • File integrity and blacklist monitoring
    • Quick and easy setup

    Sucuri is for you if…

    … you’re interested in a WordPress security plugin that operates almost completely offsite. The free version offers a powerful scanner that you can use directly from your WordPress dashboard. However, if you don’t mind paying for the paid version (which we highly recommend), you can get a comprehensive security solution with even more features, including WAF, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate support, and much more.

    Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $199.99 | More Information

    4. Wordfence Security

    The Wordfence WordPress security plugin.

    With over 4 million active installations and a 4.5 out of 5-star average rating, Wordfence Security is one of the best WordPress security plugins out there. This freemium tool lets you scan your site for malware or any other suspicious activity, such as code injections. Everything is easily managed from the custom Wordfence dashboard:

    The Wordfence plugin dashboard.

    With the paid version, you can access even more features, including advanced, coordinated scanning. Also, because this plugin is so widely used, you can expect to find a great deal of online support if you need it.

    Key Features:

    • Endpoint firewall
    • Scans for file changes
    • IP address blocking
    • Threat assessment features
    • 2FA
    • Monitoring for visits and hack attempts
    • Breached password alerts and custom email notifications
    • Login attempt limits to prevent brute-force attacks
    • Country blocking and redirects (premium only)

    Wordfence is for you if…

    … you’re looking for a premium tool with flexible pricing. The cost varies depending on how many licenses you’ll need. As such, it’s a solid option if you plan to use it on multiple websites or for your clients’ sites.

    The more sites you plan to use this plugin for, the less expensive the premium version becomes. Of course, the free version also comes with a lot of helpful features and can be a great solution on its own.

    Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $99 | More Information

    5. All-In-One WP Security & Firewall

    The All In One WP Security plugin.

    All In One WP Security & Firewall is not as popular as the first three WordPress security plugins on this list. However, it’s still a high-quality option that is worth considering, especially if you’re looking for a free tool. It’s incredibly user-friendly and presents information in visual graphics broken down into three main categories (Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced):

    The All In One WP Security plugin dashboard.

    This plugin also provides a handful of incredibly useful and robust features, especially considering that you don’t have to pay anything for it. This includes brute-force attack prevention, firewall protection, comment spam filtering, and more.

    Key Features:

      • Login Lockdown feature for protecting against brute-force attacks
      • Firewall protection
      • File change detection
      • File backups and restoration
      • Comment spam prevention
      • User account monitoring
      • IP filtering

    All In One WP Security is for you if…

    … you want a free, easy-to-use WordPress plugin to help secure your site. It’s an excellent choice if you only have one (relatively simple) website to manage, and don’t need any overly advanced bells and whistles. It’s also a strong contender if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to understand where your site can be improved, thanks to its grading system.

    Price: Free | More Information

    6. Jetpack

    Jetpack logo

    Next up, Jetpack is one of the most popular and commonly used WordPress plugins out there, so chances are that you’ve probably already heard of it. It can be used for a wide range of features, from performance to marketing purposes. However, there are a few features you may not know about that make it one of the best WordPress security plugins.

    This freemium tool offers intuitive, beginner-friendly security solutions that include real-time backups, malware scanning, and spam protection:

    The Jetpack plugin settings.

    It also helps with brute-force protection and uptime monitoring. Best of all, these features are included in the free plan. It’s also worth noting that this plugin is made by the team behind WordPress.com (Automattic), so you can feel confident knowing that it’s safe, secure, and reliable.

    Key Features:

    • Automatic, real-time backups and restores
    • Malware scanning
    • Spam protection and blocking
    • Brute-force protection
    • Uptime and downtime monitoring
    • 2FA
    • Plugin updates

    Jetpack is for you if…

    … you’re looking for a cost-effective plugin that can be used for a wide range of purposes. If you plan to use it for its security features specifically, however, we suggest upgrading to the premium version. It’s also a solid option if you’re looking to enhance your site’s performance.

    Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $4.77 | More Information

    7. Defender

    Defender Logo

    Defender is a relatively new but promising WordPress security plugin that has received over a million downloads so far. It only takes a few clicks to install and configure the program, and it starts defending your website right away.

    Defender provides an astonishing array of security capabilities without any cost. It offers a firewall with IP blocking enabled for free, just like Wordfence. Malware scans, brute-force login protection, threat notifications, and two-factor authentication via Google are also included in the free edition.

    Key Features of Defender:

    • 2-Factor Authentication
    • Brute force attack prevention
    • Blacklisting features

    Defender dashboard

    This plugin provides many of the key security features you might want to implement; it sports a five-star rating with over 70,000 active users, so you can be confident that this solution can provide you with the security your website needs.

    Defender is for you if…

    …you want to enhance the security of your WordPress website by implementing various security measures such as malware scans, two-factor authentication, brute force protection, and other security enhancements in a simple and user-friendly manner.

    Defender Pricing: Free, $49 per month for the pro version | More Information

    Final Thoughts on WordPress Security Plugins

    With so many WordPress plugins available, it could be a challenge to find the one that works best for you. Choosing the ideal tools for your site may seem difficult because there are so many features and options available in each one; hopefully, you found one that checks your boxes on this list.

    We advise looking into iThemes Security or WP Activity Log if you’re searching for a freemium, all-in-one solution. iThemes offers basic security tools like firewalls and virus scanners, as well as more sophisticated capabilities if you subscribe to a premium license. WP Activity Log, on the other hand, is incredibly useful for monitoring your website’s activities and always staying ahead of security risks.

    Featured Image via

    The post 7 Best WordPress Security Plugins in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • 15 Best WordPress SEO Plugins in 2023

    Despite how great your website may be, people won’t just stumble upon it accidentally (for the most part). You have to drive traffic to your site. In addition to paying for advertising, there’s also organic (i.e. non-ad) traffic to think about, which requires search engine optimization (SEO). There’s a lot to learn if you want to become an SEO expert, and no single method is going to cover everything there is to learn. However, some aspects are made easier on you by using the best SEO plugin for WordPress that caters to your specific needs.

    What Are SEO Plugins?

    In general, an SEO plugin will help you optimize your web pages so they’ll rank higher in search engines. Out-of-the-box WordPress already has a lot of SEO optimization features built in. You can write titles and headings, create metadata, add tags and alt text, customize URLs, and more. But SEO plugins make juggling these tasks – and other ones – much easier, especially if you’re not at an expert level yet.

    An SEO plugin isn’t going to guarantee that your content will rank higher with search engines. However, it will help you optimize your content for search engines so it has a better chance to rank highly. You still have to do the work, but it’s like having a coach there who already knows the field and can guide you through.

    14 Best SEO Plugins for WordPress

    The following plugins will help you implement an SEO strategy on your website. Some are simple, tackling just an element or two of SEO, while others are more comprehensive. Just about all of them, though, will clue you into audience and traffic stats so you can improve your content and boost engagement. And remember, the actual optimization is still up to you whether you use the best SEO plugin for WordPress or not – the plugin just holds your hand a bit as you make updates.

    1. Rank Math

    Rank Math SEO

    Rank Math’s leading feature is that it offers real-time insights that tell you about your posts so that you can optimize them as you write. On top of that, the SEO data that you can see on your dashboard includes the keywords you’re ranking for, the search impressions your website is getting, and errors that Google spots on your site. The plugin is speed-optimized, too, so it won’t impact the speed of your website.

    Rank Math also includes deep integration with Divi, bringing powerful SEO features right into Divi’s visual builder!

    Key Features of Rank Math

    • Integrates with Google Search Console to bring SEO info to your WordPress dashboard.
    • Snippet preview to optimize titles and metadata so SERPs won’t display errors.
    • Additional tools for 404 monitoring, link building, redirections, local and WooCommerce SEO, sitemaps, and more.
    • Integrates with Divi Theme

    Rank Math is for you if…

    • You’re a team of one that writes content, manages SEO, and is solely responsible for the health of your site.
    • You currently use multiple SEO plugins but are looking for a more compact solution.
    • You use Divi.

    Rank Math Pricing: Free; paid plans start at $59 per year | Learn More About Rank Math

    2. All in One SEO (AIOSEO)

    Best SEO Plugin for WordPress

    The All in One SEO plugin is primarily used for improving on-page SEO, and it’s best for local small businesses that have a high reliance on search. The plugin will analyze your entire site, alert you to errors and offer recommendations so you can improve SEO. Along with its sitemaps generation, AIOSEO helps make your website more present on the web, no matter which search engine is being used.

    Key Features of AIOSEO

    • SEO audit checklist to analyze your site.
    • Recommendations that guide you to improve SEO.
    • Sitemap generation and submission to various search engines.

    AIOSEO is for you if…

    • You’re a local or small business owner focusing on on-page SEO.
    • Your company relies on online searches, especially local ones.

    AIOSEO Pricing: Starts at $49.50 per year | Learn More About AIOSEO

    3. HubSpot

    Best Free WordPress Plugins for Business Websites

    You need good data to create an SEO strategy, and the HubSpot plugin’s main purpose is to collect and present that data. Analytics are shown on user-friendly dashboards that are easy to read. With the info you collect, you can figure out where to spend time improving SEO – and which areas are working just fine for now. Check out our guide on how to integrate Hubspot with WordPress.

    Key Features of HubSpot

    • Marketing performance analytics.
    • Monitor your site or a single page for web traffic.
    • Additional SEO tools, like email marketing, forms, and live chat.

    HubSpot is for you if…

    • You’re scaling a small business.
    • You use other HubSpot products, like its CRM.

    HubSpot Pricing: Free | Learn More About HubSpot

    4. Internal Link Juicer

    Internal Link Juice WordPress plugin

    Adding internal links to your post can be a pain, especially as your website grows. Internal Link Juicer is possibly the best SEO plugin for WordPress for automating internal linking so each post is optimized. Implementing a solid internal linking strategy is great for SEO. But it also makes it easier for visitors to find the content on your website and stay there.

    Key Features of Internal Link Juicer

    • Set anchor keywords for posts so that related internal content will be automatically linked to them.
    • Limit the number of links added to each post.
    • Block content that you never wanted to be linked to.

    Internal Link Juicer is for you if…

    • You have a large library of content and find it difficult to find the best articles to link to.
    • You want to view stats for your internal links.

    Internal Link Juicer Pricing: Free, $69.99 for Pro | Learn More About Internal Link Juicer

    5. MonsterInsights

    Monster Insights SEO

    MonsterInsights is one of the best Google Analytics plugins around. The plugin brings you Google analytics website performance data right to your dashboard. This lets you know how to improve your site so that the visitor experience can be enhanced. You’ll be able to see your Google Search Console reports on how people find your site and how they use it once they’re there. No code is needed to install the Google Analytics tracking script, either.

    Key Features of MonsterInsights

    • Tracks website analytics and performance.
    • Google Analytics is brought to the WordPress dashboard so you don’t have to open another site.
    • Content report shows the pages that are most visited.

    MonsterInsights is for you if…

    • You’re a marketer or stakeholder who wants to optimize your website for conversions.
    • You get overwhelmed by Google Analytics and want a more streamlined way to view the data.

    MonsterInsights Pricing: Starts at $99.50 per year | Learn More About MonsterInsights

    6. Schema and Structured Data for WP & AMP

    Schema and Structured Data for WordPress

    Rich snippets in Google display search results with additional content, like the author of a post, photos, pricing, or ratings. You need schema markup to customize how your content appears in rich snippets, though. The Schema and Structured Data for WP & AMP plugin helps you choose the schema to add for all sorts of content, including blog posts, news articles, product pages, and recipes.

    Key Features of Schema and Structured Data for WP & AMP

    • Auto-assign schema to 35+ types of content.
    • Manually select the markup to add to a post or page.
    • Exclude certain types of content and not include schema markup for them.
    • Supports AMP and AMP for WP for optimizing your site for mobile devices

    Schema and Structured Data for WP & AMP is for you if…

    • You have a blog, review site, or small business site that needs a better presence in SERPs.
    • You want an easy way to display multiple schema types in SERPs according to Schema.org guidelines.
    • You use AMP for WP or AMP by Automattic plugins

    Schema and Structured Data for WP & AMP Pricing: Free | Learn More About Schema and Structured Data for WP & AMP

    7. WP Meta SEO

    WP Meta SEO plugin

    If you’re redesigning your website and need a quick, efficient way to optimize the new pages, consider installing WP Meta SEO. It provides across-site optimization all at once instead of having to do it on each page. You can also use Google data to decide how to handle your keyword strategy.

    Key Features of WP Meta SEO

    • Meta information bulk editor.
    • Integrates with Google Search Console for keyword suggestion features.
    • Other SEO features include a redirection manager and a sitemap generator.

    WP Meta SEO is for you if…

    • You’re an entrepreneur in charge of content, SEO, and your website overall.
    • You want to speed up your workflow so you can focus on content creation.

    WP Meta SEO Pricing: Free or $49 for Pro | Learn More About WP Meta SEO

    8. SEO Press

    SEO Press WordPress plugin

    SEO Press offers a free WordPress plugin that provides all the necessary features to improve the SEO of your WordPress site. You can manage meta titles and descriptions, generate XML and HTML sitemaps, track your site’s visitors with Google Analytics, and optimize your social media presence, among other features.

    Key Features of SEO Press

    • Management of meta titles and descriptions
    • Generation of XML and HTML sitemaps
    • Integration with Google Analytics to track site visitors
    • Optimization of social media presence

    SEO Press Pro offers advanced features for optimizing your business’s WordPress site, including configuring WooCommerce SEO, targeting local audiences, generating video and news XML sitemaps, managing redirects, checking broken links, and monitoring 404 errors. The Pro plan also allows you to install the plugin on unlimited sites and includes 1 year of support.

    SEO Press is for you if…

    • You need an all-in-one SEO solution.
    • You want a plugin for managing SEO on multiple sites.

    SEO Press Pricing: Free or $49 for Pro | Learn More About SEO Press

    9. Ahrefs SEO WordPress Plugin

    Ahrefs SEO WordPress plugin

    Ahrefs is a leader in the world of website optimization, and the SEO WordPress Plugin focuses mainly on backlinks but also has a few other optimization features. Backlink analysis is powered by its backlink index…and that’s the largest one you can find online. You can get a good look at your backlink profile to uncover guest collaboration and partnership opportunities so that you can increase traffic to your site.

    Key Features of Ahrefs

    • Content audit tool offers recommendations as you create.
    • SEO analysis based on Google Analytics data.
    • Actionable insights on your dashboard.

    Ahrefs is for you if…

    • You’re a PR pro or a social media manager who needs to dig into data.
    • You want to know the website’s backlink profile.

    Ahrefs Pricing: Free | Learn More About Ahrefs

    10. Premium SEO Pack

    Premium SEO Pack plugin

    Premium SEO Pack has advanced SEO features that many other plugins don’t include. For example, it will give you insight into your internal linking structure. It also helps you maximize performance even if you have a lot of images on your site by making them more SEO-friendly.

    Key Features of Premium SEO Pack

    • Foundational tools include Google Analytics monitoring and sitemap generation.
    • Minifies CSS to help your site load faster.
    • Additional SEO tools include 404 checkings, page speed monitoring, and rich snippets.

    Premium SEO Pack is for you if…

    • You use your WordPress website as an image-heavy portfolio.
    • You use a lot of media on your site and don’t want to affect performance.

    Premium SEO Pack Pricing: Free light version or paid starting at $44 | Learn More About Premium SEO Pack

    11. Rankie

    Rankie

    Rankie is the best SEO plugin for WordPress to help you make wise optimization decisions. Its insights guide you to smartly modify your pages, without the need to go into Google Analytics or track everything (like keywords) on your own.

    Key Features of Rankie

    • Track target keywords to monitor performance.
    • Add the keywords that visitors are using to find your content.
    • Generate reports for a broader view of performance.

    Rankie is for you if…

    • You’re a marketing or SEO data analyst.
    • You want to know how both the SERPs and visitors feel about your site’s performance.

    Rankie Pricing: $21 | Learn More About Rankie

    12. Redirection

    Redirection

    301 redirects are an important part of an SEO strategy, allowing you to maintain what a page has achieved in the ranks without keeping it active on your site. You specify the new URL that the old page should link to and set up a 301 redirect so Google knows to look at another page instead of that one. The plugin’s URL manager lets you implement 301 redirects without having to use other redirect methods like modifying the .htaccess file or creating manual entries for each redirection.

    Key Features of Redirection

    • Create conditional redirects based on browser, IP address, login status, page type, or other conditions.
    • Change the site’s permalink structure.
    • Track 404 errors.

    Redirection is for you if…

    • You want to delete pages but they’re ranking highly.
    • You’re part of a development or marketing team that’s redesigning a website.

    Redirection Pricing: Free | Learn More About Redirection

    13. The SEO Framework

    The SEO Framework

    The SEO Framework plugin is a powerful SEO plugin that includes many useful features. What makes it unique is its automation. IT can show you SEO ratings (how well your pages are doing) based on your content and that of the competition, all while making sure your website speed stays fast. Their extension manager plugin gives your more functionality including the ability to guide you through the process of creating content with a focus on keywords and synonyms, automatically adding schema structured data to your articles, and much more.

    Key Features of The SEO Framework

    • Keyword targeting includes synonyms, which are aligned with how SERPs analyze content.
    • Colored scale shows you how close the content is to being optimized.
    • Extensions for the plugin add functionality, including local SEO and spam comment caching.
    • Built-in support for custom Social Sharing of content

    The SEO Framework is for you if…

    • You’re just getting started with writing SEO-optimized content.
    • You’re sick of trying to fit in awkward keywords and want to write more naturally.
    • You want an easy way to identify SEO errors automatically and make optimizations.

    The SEO Framework Pricing: Free | Learn More About The SEO Framework

    14. XML Sitemaps

    XML sitemaps

    A lot of SEO plugins will create XML sitemaps for you, but if that’s the only feature you need, then there’s no need to have all of the other features you won’t use. This is a super-simple plugin that will generate sitemaps and, if you want, let the SERPs know whenever your website has been changed in some way.

    Key Features of XML Sitemaps

    • Generates complete sitemaps.
    • Can also create HTML sitemaps.
    • Decide if you want the plugin to notify search engines every time there’s an update to your site.

    XML Sitemaps is for you if…

    • You have the rest of the SEO covered and only need to create sitemaps.
    • You want some control over when SERPs are made aware of site updates.

    XML Sitemaps Pricing: Free | Learn More About XML Sitemaps

    15. Yoast SEO

    Yoast SEO

    To many, Yoast is the absolute best SEO plugin for WordPress, powering many of the big sites you visit all the time. Once you set up Yoast on your site, it includes pretty much everything you need to optimize your site for SEO including content optimization to redirect management, SERP previews, XML sitemap creation, and more. It’s best known for its on-page insights feature that tells you how to include your target keyword and what you may be doing wrong in different areas, from the body copy to the metadata.

    Key Features of Yoast SEO

    Yoast SEO is for you if…

    • You have a team of writers and want to hold them all to the same quality level.
    • You’re not sure where you’re going wrong when writing content.
    • Want powerful SEO optimization site-wide and easy-to-access SEO page optimization when creating content per page/post

    Yoast SEO Pricing: Free; Premium is $99 per year | Learn More About Yoast SEO

    Final Thoughts on the Best SEO Plugins for WordPress

    While a plugin may not be necessary to optimize your pages if you have a good understanding of SEO and stay up to date with industry changes, using a quality SEO plugin can provide valuable guidance and help streamline the monitoring process, even for experts. Additionally, if your website starts experiencing a drop in rankings, an SEO plugin can track data and provide insight when it’s most needed.

    We suggest Rank Math for maximum value due to its extensive range of features for local, mobile, and WooCommerce SEO optimization, its intelligent sitemap and SEO audit features, as well as its seamless integration with Divi. In our view, its TruSEO on-page SEO evaluation is unparalleled. If you’re looking for a complete SEO solution for your WordPress site, you can’t go wrong with All in One SEO.

    Now that you’ve decided on the best SEO plugin for WordPress, let’s lighten the mood a bit. Here are seven fun (and weird) WordPress plugins.

    Featured Image via Sammby / shutterstock.com

    The post 15 Best WordPress SEO Plugins in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • 8 Best WordPress Popup Plugins in 2023

    Whether you’re looking to increase newsletter signups, generate more leads, or boost subscribers, adding opt-in and popup forms to your site can help. Plus, thanks to the many WordPress popup plugins available, you have plenty of options to choose from. However, deciding which tool is the right one for you can be time-consuming.

    In this post, we’ll introduce you to WordPress popup plugins and explain the benefits of using them on your website. Then we’ll provide you with a list of eight of the best options to choose from.

    Let’s get started!

    Why You Might Want to Use a WordPress Popup Plugin

    When most people think of ‘popup plugins,’ they assume these tools can only be used to increase email newsletter sign-ups. While they are certainly helpful for that use case, it’s not the only goal you can pursue.

    There is a wide range of ways you can use popup plugins, such as:

    • Newsletter sign-ups
    • Login forms
    • Subscription opt-ins
    • Exit intent content
    • Content downloads and upgrades
    • Reminders, updates, and announcements
    • Notices and privacy policies

    The purpose of using popups on your website is to grab visitors’ attention. However, you might fear that adding this element to your site could annoy or turn away customers.

    However, popups don’t necessarily need to be irritating. When used correctly, they can effectively and conveniently engage your visitors and help you generate more leads, subscribers, and conversions.

    The key is finding the right WordPress popup plugin for your needs. There are many options available and a handful of factors to consider depending on your specific needs. For example, some tools come with drag-and-drop builders that let you quickly and easily design popups, which can be a significant time saver.

    Other tools let you specify when and where the popups appear on your site. This level of customization can help you seamlessly create engaging and effective WordPress popups for your website.

    8 Best WordPress Popup Plugins

    Now that you understand a little more about the different ways you can use popup plugins let’s take a look at some of the top options. To compile this list, we took into account a handful of important factors, including features and functionality, updates and support, and pricing. Below are eight of the best WordPress popup plugins!

    1. OptinMonster

    OptinMonster banner

    OptinMonster is one of the most popular WordPress popup plugins out there. This freemium tool is designed to help you promote and increase newsletter sign-ups. The easy-to-use popup builder and template library let you create stunning popups and subscription forms for your WordPress site in a matter of minutes:

    OptinMonster settings

    It also includes targeting, personalization, and optimization features. In addition to A/B testing, OptinMonster also lets you gather useful statistics and insights into your conversions.

    Key Features:

    • Drag-and-drop popup maker
    • Pre-built popup templates
    • Intuitive dashboard
    • Exit Intent Technology
    • Page-level targeting and personalization
    • A/B testing
    • Popup analytics
    • Email marketing integrations

    OptinMonster is for you if…

    … you’re looking to create exit-intent popups for your site. Thanks to its unique Exit Intent Technology, OptinMonster excels in this area. It also includes a basic free version that you can use to build forms, as well as a handful of plans if you’re looking for more advanced features and functionality.

    Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $9 per month | More Information

    2. Thrive Leads

    The Thrive Leads plugin website.

    Thrive Leads is part of the Thrive Themes Suite. The premium plugin comes with a variety of opt-in types and customization features, which let you build and personalize popups for your site with ease.

    The features on offer include screen filler overlays, content locking, sticky ribbons, and more. In addition, you can use this plugin to create exit intent popups, timed displays, scroll triggers, and so on.

    Key Features:

    • Form builder for various opt-in types
    • Pre-designed templates
    • A/B testing
    • Advanced targeting and analytics
    • Yes/No, multiple-choice, and two-step opt-in forms
    • Reporting and insights

    Thrive Leads is for you if…

    … you’re looking for a Bloom alternative. While it doesn’t offer as many features and advanced customization options, it can be a powerful and intuitive solution for creating a wide range of popups. What’s more, it can be the ideal choice if you’re already using a Thrive theme.

    Price: Included with a Thrive Suite package, starting at $19 per month | More Information

    3. Icegram Engage

    Icegram logo
    Icegram Engage is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create popups, lead magnets, opt-ins, call-to-action buttons, and promotions for your website. It offers a wide range of customizable options for creating and designing these elements, as well as detailed analytics and reports. My favorite feature is its advanced targeting options that allow you to display popups to specific audiences based on their location or device.

    Key Features for Icegram Engage:

    • Wide range of customizable options for creating popups, lead magnets, opt-ins, and promotions
    • Intuitive form building
    • A/B Testing
    • Mobile-responsive
    • Campaign templates

    Icegram popup creator
    This plugin is highly customizable and lets you edit your content verbiage and placement to tailor-make your campaigns. It also integrates seamlessly with leading email services like MailChimp, Constant Contact, or MailerLite.

    Icegram Engage is for you if…

    … you want a wide range of customizable options for creating popups, lead magnets, opt-ins, and promotions with detailed analytics reporting. Keep in mind you’ll need the pro version to take advantage of the full suite of tools.


    Icegram Engage Pricing:     Free | Premium plans starting at $97 per year| More Information

    4. Bloom

    Bloom banner

    Bloom is our email opt-in and lead generation plugin, which you can use for free if you’re an Elegant Themes member. It’s a powerful tool that lets you easily convert your website visitors into loyal customers and subscribers.

    With Bloom, you can create highly-targeted content to help grow your email list and significantly increase engagement. Plus, you can choose from our library of over 100 stunning design templates:

    The template library of the Bloom plugin.

    The plugin also comes with six different display types. They include an automatic opt-in popup, fly-ins, below content opt-ins, and more.

    Key Features:

    • 100+ design templates
    • Extensive design options
    • 6 display types
    • User action triggers
    • 19 email marketing integrations
    • Highly-targeted display options
    • Custom admin panel dashboard
    • 24/7 support

    Bloom is for you if…

    … you’re already an Elegant Themes member and are looking for a quick, powerful, and effective way to add popups on your WordPress site. Our plugin is easy to use and highly customizable, with dozens of email marketing integrations and an extensive library of pre-made templates.

    Price: Free with an Elegant Themes membership, starting at $89 per year | More Information

    5. TrustPulse

    The Trust Pulse website.

    TrustPulse is a robust marketing platform that helps you streamline lead generation and conversion processes through your WordPress site. One of the things that makes this WordPress popup plugin so unique is its recent sales and social proof notifications.

    When used on your site, these features encourage shoppers to make purchases and instill a sense of urgency. They can also build trust among your visitors by showing users that other consumers are shopping on your site in real time.

    Key Features:

    • Social proof and recent sales popup notifications
    • Smart targeting
    • Flexible and customizable designs
    • Multi-platform support (WordPress, Shopify, Drupal, etc.)
    • Timed-display control
    • Real-time tracking

    TrustPulse is for you if…

    … you’re looking for a robust marketing and lead generation solution for your e-commerce site. While the platform is a bit more extensive and complex than some of the other WordPress popup plugins on this list, it has a lot of features to offer that make it worth the premium price. That’s especially true if you want plenty of insight into visitor activity.

    Price: Plans start at $5 per month | More Information

    6. Ninja Popups

    The Ninja Popups plugin.

    Next on our list, Ninja Popups is another popular premium tool. With nearly 40,000 sales and an almost 5.0-star average rating, it’s a widely-used and highly-rated option.

    This plugin features an intuitive and easy-to-use visual drag-and-drop builder and a popups library:

    The Ninja Popups theme library.

    It’s also popup blocker proof and includes eight free “opt-in panels”. If you’re looking to create more eye-catching popups, you can choose from over 74 animation effects.

    Key Features:

    • Visual drag-and-drop builder
    • Popups library
    • Over 60 beautiful popup themes
    • Highly customizable
    • Animation effects
    • A/B testing
    • Page-level targeting
    • Mailing systems support and email marketing integrations
    • Social network integrations
    • WooCommerce compatible

    Ninja Popups is for you if…

    … you’re looking for a premium WordPress popup plugin that only requires a one-time fee rather than an ongoing subscription. This tool offers an impressive array of features, and is easy to use for users of any experience level. Plus, it’s more affordable when compared to some of the other premium options on this list.

    Price: $24 | More Information

    7. Popup Maker

    The Popup Maker plugin

    If you’re looking to create email opt-ins for your website, Popup Maker is a WordPress popup plugin worth considering. This freemium tool isn’t as intricate or complex as some of the other options on this list. However, that might be an advantage if you’re looking for a beginner-friendly option.

    To create a new popup, you can use a built-in interface that is similar to the Classic WordPress Editor:

    The Popup Maker plugin interface.

    Beneath the editor, you can conveniently configure the popup’s settings. For example, you can create triggers, select targeting conditions, and more.

    Key Features:

    • Email opt-in, content upgrade, and lead generation popups (and more)
    • Form builder integrations
    • Timed-delay and click-based triggers
    • Conditional targeting
    • Popup campaign analytics (Premium)
    • Exit-intent popups (Premium)

    Popup Maker is for you if…

    … you’re looking for a simple, straightforward popup builder tool. It’s also an excellent choice if you want the option to upgrade if you eventually want more advanced features.

    Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $87 per year | More Information

    8. Popup Builder

    The Popup Builder plugin.

    Rounding out our list of the best WordPress popup plugins is Popup Builder. This flexible tool can help you create multiple elements to increase sales and conversions:

    The Popup Builder plugin interface.

    For instance, you can use it to build HTML, subscription, and image popups. In addition to being easy to use, it also offers a premium version with more advanced options, such as video, login, and exit intent popups.

    Key Features:

    • Unlimited popups
    • Drag-and-drop builder
    • Time-based segmentation
    • Advanced Targeting
    • Analytics
    • Promotion modal popups
    • Display locations
    • Triggers

    Popup Builder is for you if…

    … you want an easy-to-use, freemium plugin that offers unique popup types. However, keep in mind that if you want to create video or exit intent popups, you’ll need to upgrade to the premium tier.

    Price: Free, with premium plans starting at $39.95 per year | More Information

    Conclusion

    Adding popups to your website is a powerful way to help increase your newsletter subscribers. However, they can be used for far more than that. From exit intent to sign-up and lead generation forms, there are a variety of purposes popups can serve. The key is finding the right WordPress popup plugin to help you achieve your goals with ease.

    As we’ve seen, there are plenty of top-quality WordPress popup plugins you can choose from, depending on the specific functionality and features you’re looking for. For example, as a general freemium opt-in tool, OptinMonster and Thrive Leads have a lot to offer! Bloom, our own plugin, will also cover all your needs. Be sure to take a look at your websites and test the water before committing to a plugin.

    Do you have any questions about these WordPress popup plugins? Let us know in the comments section below!

    Featured Image via AI Studio / shutterstock 

    The post 8 Best WordPress Popup Plugins in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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  • 6 Best WordPress Membership Plugins in 2023

    Membership websites allow marketers, bloggers, and businesses to restrict content, create subscription-based membership levels, build forums, and even incorporate paywalls. In order to build a successful membership website, you’ll need a good membership plugin. In this post, we’ll explore some of the best WordPress membership plugins, both free and paid, so you can decide which one is right for you.

    Let’s get started.

    What is a WordPress Membership Plugin?

    A WordPress membership plugin restricts content to certain posts, pages, and other types of content. In addition to being able to password-protect or gate content, it utilizes user profiles and allows you to create new user roles to create membership tiers. They can be subscription-based, which can control the amount of content a user can access at the membership level.

    There are many membership plugins with different features. They usually have member levels, directories, gated content, forums, courses, and a paywall system.

    6 Best WordPress Membership Plugins

    We have listed popular plugins with good features for any membership website. Out suggestions are all paid options that give you more value instead of free ones that have limited features. We will briefly describe each plugin and show its important features. The best plugin for you depends on what you need for your membership site.

    1. MemberPress

    MemberPress

    MemberPress is one of the more popular membership plugins for WordPress. It serves not just as a membership plugin but also functions as a learning management system (LMS) This allows you to launch a comprehensive online academy without the extra cost for an LMS plugin.

    Key Features for MemberPress:

    • Paywall & content dripping
    • Subscription billing
    • Course/quiz creator
    • Digital downloads
    • Seamless integration with Divi

    MemberPress has built-in paywall functionality and allows you to create paid membership levels and accept payments via Stripe, PayPal, and others. The MemberPress Divi Add-On integration provides added benefits for Divi users by allowing them to restrict modules, rows, sections, or pages within Divi using the MemberPress tab in the Visual Builder.

    Key Features for MemberPress:

    • Paywall & content dripping
    • Subscription billing
    • Course/quiz creator
    • Digital downloads
    • Seamless integration with Divi

    Divi MemberPress integration

    Plus, you can create multiple membership levels to suit your needs, set up community forums without the need for additional plugins, and harness the power of Zapier for even more integrations and functionalities. If you have custom post types on your site, you’ll be pleased to learn that MemberPress supports Advanced Custom Fields and Toolset, which also integrate seamlessly with Divi.

    With MemberPress, you also get the ReadyLaunchâ„¢ page maker to easily create pricing, login, and registration pages with your branding and images. Plus, you can discount courses or subscriptions with coupons, launch affiliate programs, and set up member email automation.

    The lack of chat functionality is a drawback of MemberPress. However, incorporating chat software can enhance engagement with potential members who are considering your site. To address this, there are several good chat plugins that can easily integrate with your MemberPress site.

    MemberPress is for your if…

    • You want to create online courses with ease.
    • You want responsive, no-code custom landing pages.
    • Need a highly customizable option compatible with Divi.

    MemberPress Pricing: starting at $179.50/yr | Learn More About MemberPress

    2. Paid Memberships Pro

    Paid Memberships Pro WordPress membership plugin

    Paid Memberships Pro offers many of the same features as other membership plugins, but with a couple of unique capabilities. Firstly, it allows for content to be hidden based on post type, including posts, products, categories, or tags. Secondly, it provides a dedicated theme for those starting from scratch.

    Key Features for Paid Memberships Pro:

    • Dedicated theme, or seamless integration with page builders such as Divi
    • Restrict custom post types
    • Dedicated theme
    • Content dripping
    • Custom member homepages
    • WordPress multi-site support

    Divi users get seamless integration with Paid Memberships Pro. You’ll have the ability to restrict content to pages, as well as sections of pages or posts. Restricting content can be easily done within Divi’s Visual Builder.

    Paid Memberships Pro Divi-integration

    Paid Memberships Pro boasts several distinctive features, such as content dripping, which schedules the release of content based on a member’s start date. It also provides a dedicated theme and allows for the creation of custom member pages based on membership level. Additionally, comprehensive documentation is available through the Paid Memberships Pro website.

    Lastly, if you opt for the plus price tier, you have the ability to gate content and manage memberships over a network using WordPress multi-site installations.

    Paid Memberships Pro is for your if…

    • You want a highly customizable membership site.
    • A free theme is a must.
    • You need premium-level documentation and support.

    Paid Memberships Pro Pricing: Starting at $247/yr | Learn More About Paid Memberships Pro

    3. Wishlist Member

    Wishlist Member

    Wishlist Member is a powerful membership plugin for WordPress that you may not be familiar with. It enables you to establish a comprehensive membership site, equipped with various membership levels, subscription-based offerings, and payment integration options. Additionally, it functions as a complete Learning Management System, allowing you to create and administer courses and quizzes.

    Key Features for Wishlist Member:

    • Seamless integration with Divi
    • Functions as an LMS
    • Comprehensive configuration wizard
    • More than two dozen payment and email integration options
    • Woocommerce integration
    • Customizable member pages

    The first-time configuration wizard in Wishlist Member is an excellent tool that makes it easy to set up your membership levels, integrate with payment and email providers, and generate important pages such as the registration page, sales page, login page, member welcome page, and member dashboard.

    Wishlist Member dashboard

    The configuration wizard leads to the membership dashboard where you can manage email providers, customize member pages, view member metrics, use shortcode tools, backup data, and access tutorials.

    Wishlist Member is for your if…

    • You need a step-by-step process to set up your membership site.
    • You want a comprehensive dashboard for user metrics.
    • Payment and email provider choices are a necessity.

    Divi users will be pleased with the robust integration with Wishlist Member. Content can be assigned at the module level, assigned to various membership levels, and is easily visible in the content tab for any Divi element.

    Wishlist Member Pricing: Starting at $149.50/yr | Learn More About Wishlist Member

    4. Member Mouse

    Member Mouse WordPress membership plugin

    As one of the more expensive options on our list, Member Mouse is geared toward those who want to build a fully functional sales-based membership site. Rather than yearly billing, you’ll be billed monthly, which makes the cost easier to swallow. Plus, you’ll get a 14-day free trial, so you’ll have plenty of time to decide if it’s right for you.

    Key Features for Member Mouse:

    • Complete e-commerce solution for memberships and subscriptions
    • 14-day free trial
    • Multiple payment gateway options
    • One-click purchase technology
    • Extensive member management dashboard

    Member Mouse is a versatile tool for managing paid subscriptions, memberships, and products. With an intuitive interface, setting up your offerings is straightforward. You can create multiple membership levels and offer one-click product purchases. The dashboard provides a comprehensive membership management system, integration with email automation services such as Mailchimp, Active Campaign, and Constant Contact, and support for various payment options including Stripe, Authorize.net, and PayPal.

    Member Mouse training videos

    Member Mouse lacks the convenience of creating custom forms for your membership site, requiring knowledge of HTML and CSS. However, there are several form plugins available to bridge this gap and provide the functionality you need.

    Member Mouse is for your if…

    • You want a one-stop shop for subscriptions and marketing automation.
    • Want to track members’ purchase history, subscriptions, and revenue.
    • You need a comprehensive subscription system for your website.

    Member Mouse Pricing: Starting at $29/mo | Learn More About Member Mouse

    5. Restrict Content Pro

    Restrict Content Pro membership plugin

    Next on our list is Restrict Content Pro. It comes standard with unlimited membership levels, membership management, Stripe payments, invoicing, and content restriction, to name a few.

    Key Features for Restrict Content Pro:

    • Coupon and discount codes
    • Password sharing prevention
    • Multiple payment gateway options
    • Free trials
    • Member email customization
    • 34 pro add-ons and integrations

    The paid version of the product has extra features compared to the free one. You can create coupon codes to offer discounts to different membership levels, either just once or repeatedly. It also stops people from sharing passwords by limiting how many times certain content can be viewed. Plus, you’ll have more options for payment, like PayPal and Braintree.

    The best thing about the paid version is that you can offer free trials. This lets people try your products before they decide to buy.

    Restrict Content Pro is for your if…

    • You want to limit password sharing.
    • Coupons and discount codes are necessary.
    • You’d like to give your members the option of a free trial.

    Restrict Content Pro Pricing: Starting at $99/yr | Learn More About Restrict Content Pro

    6. Ultimate Member

    Ultimate Member WordPress membership plugin

    The last plugin on our list is Ultimate Member, a user-friendly WordPress membership plugin. With its convenient shortcodes and intuitive drag-and-drop builder, you can effortlessly create stunning member profile pages and directories in just a few clicks.

    Ultimate Member allows for customization of registration, login, and member profile forms using a drag-and-drop form builder with over 50 fields available, including options for member bios and social media profiles.

    ultimate member form creator

    Key Features for Ultimate Member:

    • Drag-and-drop form builder with conditional logic
    • Private messaging system
    • Woocommerce integration
    • Multi-payment gateway support
    • Mailchimp integration
    • User verification system

    Additional notable features include a private messaging system, real-time notification system, social login, online user notifications, and the ability to restrict content to registered users. As an added bonus, Ultimate Member integrates seamlessly with other plugins such as WooCommerce to create subscription and membership-based products for the ultimate sales-driven website.

    Ultimate Member is for your if…

    • You want to integrate a forum into your site.
    • Custom forms are a necessity.
    • You need Woocommerce integration.

    Ultimate Member Pricing: starting at $249/yr | Learn More About Ultimate Member

    We’ve picked the top membership plugins for this list. But we know that sometimes people don’t need such a complicated solution for their website. That’s why we’ve also made a list of the best free membership plugins you can choose from.

    Best Free WordPress Membership Plugins

    The free plugins listed here are very basic in nature, mostly allowing you to gate content, add members, and in some cases, create membership tiers. Don’t expect to run a complex membership site with any of these, but simple membership websites will work just fine using any of the following options.

    • Members s a free version of MemberPress and is one of the most popular options with over 200,000 installs. It doesn’t have many features, but you can add, clone, and edit user roles, restrict access to content using shortcodes, and make your site private.
    • Ultimate Member Free is a lightweight version of its paid version. It still offers custom forms, member directories, email configurations, and conditional navigation menus based on user login status.
    • Simple Membership offers gated content with payment options through PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree. It also has email automation and subscription features.
    • Paid Memberships Pro Free provides basic features to restrict content, create recurring payments, and integrates with Zapier. Ideal for simple paid subscriptions.
    • WP-Members is a simple plugin to gate content, show navigation links based on logged-in status, and create custom fields for profile and registration forms. Bear in mind, this is a no-frills plugin that doesn’t have a ton of options, but it’s easy to use and will have your membership site up and running in minutes.

    Final Thoughts on WordPress Membership Plugins

    There are dozens of membership plugins available for WordPress. Despite this, there is only a handful that has the features most WordPress users will need. Which plugin you choose largely depends on what you need it to do, but there is a couple of entries on our list that are a complete solution for building a successful membership site.

    MemberPress and Paid Memberships Pro tick all of the boxes when it comes to membership sites. Whether you need gated content, paid memberships or subscriptions, paywall integration, or a robust learning management system, both have something for everyone.

    The post 6 Best WordPress Membership Plugins in 2023 appeared first on Elegant Themes Blog.

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