How Many WordPress Plugins Should You Install? What’s too many?

We are often asked by readers about how many WordPress plugins should they install on their site? The real question everyone wants to know is how many plugins are too many?

Since there are a lot of misconceptions about WordPress plugins, and how they can impact website speed, performance, and security, we want to explain this topic in details for our non-techy users.

In this article, we will explain how many WordPress plugins should install on your site. We will also talk about how plugins can and cannot affect your website. Our goal is to help you learn how to run your website with the perfect combination of WordPress plugins.

About WordPress Plugins and How They Work

Before we dig deeper, let’s talk a little bit about WordPress plugins and how they work.

WordPress plugins are like apps for your website. They help you add new features and website functionality such as making an online store, adding contact forms, and more.

Like WordPress itself, plugins are also written in the PHP programming language. PHP code runs on your website’s hosting server and utilizes its resources.

This is why you must choose a good WordPress hosting company that gives you easy tools to manage those resources and run your website efficiently.

To learn more, see our detailed guide about how WordPress plugins work. If you want to dig even deeper, then take a look at how WordPress actually works behind the scenes (Infographic).

Ever since WordPress 1.2 (when support for WordPress plugins was added), plugins have been a blessing for users. WordPress without plugins is like a toy store with no toys. That’s no fun.

Why are Plugins Essential for WordPress Websites

Even though the WordPress core provides a strong publishing framework, it is the plugins that are widely responsible for making WordPress the most popular website builder in the world.

The number of total WordPress plugins available has grown over the years. At the time of writing this article, there are more than 54,000 free WordPress plugins available in the official plugins directory.

Apart from these free plugins, there are also thousands of premium WordPress plugins sold by third-party companies and developers.

Plugins can help you improve SEO, increase security, manage users, and more. It would be quite difficult to grow your business without using WordPress plugins on your website.

How Did WordPress Plugins Get a Bad Reputation

The purpose of plugins is to extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine. However, now we see a sense of fear or restraint towards plugins from many beginner users.

People get worried about performance, security, reliability, etc. This is mainly because designers, developers, and web hosting support technicians get really frustrated when they are troubleshooting a client’s websites.

In their frustration, they make comments like ‘have fewer plugins‘, or ‘it is the plugins that are slowing down your site‘.

These statements have resonated throughout social media, in-person meetups, and conferences. The biggest issue with those statements is their ambiguity.

What is less? How many WordPress plugins are too many?

We believe the problem is not the quantity of plugins, but rather the quality.

You can have dozens of good WordPress plugins running on your website without any issues, but an addition of a single poorly coded plugin can slow down your website.

When this happens and you ask for troubleshooting help, your hosting company support technician or another developer will blame the quantity of plugins.

This makes sense because troubleshooting a website with 5 plugins is much easier than troubleshooting a website with 30. Quantity of plugins make their job harder.

It’s extremely important to take any such advice resulting from frustration with a bit of caution.

You should politely ask them to identify which specific plugin is causing the issue because simply blaming the quantity is a result of laziness.

To put this in perspective, our WPBeginner website has 62 active plugins right now, and it loads extremely fast.

If we were to add one bad plugin that slows down the website, then we should only have to disable that one bad plugin (not all 62).

With that said, let’s take a look at how plugins can affect different aspects of your website.

How WordPress Plugins Impact Website Speed & Performance

There are many different types of WordPress plugins, and they each impact your website performance differently.

There are plugins that affect mainly the front-end. For example, page builder plugins, contact forms, galleries, sliders, etc.

Then there are plugins that are mainly made to perform tasks within the back-end or admin area. For example, WordPress backup plugins, editorial plugins, various background processes, etc.

There are also plugins that run everywhere including admin area and front-end. For example, SEO plugins, WordPress firewall plugins, and more.

A WordPress plugin’s impact on website speed and performance depends on where that plugin is being loaded.

For example, plugins that are only loaded when you are doing specific tasks in the WordPress admin area usually will not impact your website’s performance.

On the other hand, plugins that are loaded on the front-end are likely to have a larger performance footprint.

Also plugins that perform routine background processes like broken link checking, 404 monitoring, etc can also significantly slow down your overall website performance.

Plugins can impact your site performance by:

• Making additional HTTP requests – Some plugins (mainly front-end ones) may require custom styling or scripts to work properly. Because of this, they may add extra JS and/or CSS file(s). Loading these files require making additional HTTP requests which slows down your page load time.
• Additional DB Queries – Some plugins may increase your database queries. For example, plugins to display popular posts, related posts, or anything else that pulls database elements and displays it on the front-end.
• Background Processes & Database Writes – Some plugins can take up a lot of server resources while running background processes such as checking for broken links, monitoring and recording analytics like post views, etc.

Most good WordPress plugins will only load additional files when needed, and they will minimize the database calls. However, sometimes it is just unavoidable.

Luckily, there are optimizations available for most cases. Let’s take a look at a short term and a long term fix for these issues.

Before we do this, first make sure that you have caching enabled on your WordPress site. Without caching, your website will always be slow.

Now, let’s move on to other optimizations.

Fixing Additional HTTP Requests Issue

Plugins have to add additional HTTP requests (i.e JS and CSS file) to work out of the box. For example, when you install a contact form plugin, you want it to work and look good too.

People complain about additional HTTP requests while ignoring that they are sometimes necessary. Here is what an unstyled form would look like.

Most users would not like it, some would even think that it’s broken. Well, that is exactly what would happen if the contact form doesn’t add the additional HTTP requests to load CSS and JS files.

In short, the additional styles and scripts are needed for the plugin to function properly.

There are three ways to optimize the additional HTTP requests issue. All of them require some coding knowledge and WordPress know-how, but one will method is definitely easier than the others.

The first method would be to unregister the additional styles and scripts that are being loaded by the plugin. After that you can combine the plugin styles into your theme’s style.css file and combine the plugin scripts into your theme’s main JavaScript file.

The second method would be to conditionally load the plugin styles/scripts on pages where they are needed.

We have already explained both methods in our article about disabling additional scripts and stylesheets that WordPress plugins add.

As for folks who are not code-savvy, you can use a premium caching plugin like WP Rocket which allows you to minify and combine files with a single click. This will work for most cases, but in some cases it can cause conflicts with specific plugins.

With that said, you must understand that a few additional HTTP requests are not as significant as you may think. We are talking about milliseconds here. However if you have a lot of plugins that are adding additional HTTP requests, then this optimization will allow you to shave a few seconds off your load time.

A lot of non-techy business owners simply hire a WordPress developer from Codeable to speed up their website (which is a worthwhile investment).

Now that we have covered HTTP requests, let’s take a look at additional DB queries.

Fixing Additional Database Queries and Background Processes

Some plugins may increase the load on your database server. WordPress itself does a very good job at caching the queries and most well-coded plugins will not cause any significant issue.

However, if you have a high traffic website, then using database-driven plugins can become an issue especially if you don’t have proper server resources.

For example if you have a membership website or an online store with WooCommerce, then you are serving a lot of uncached requests. In this scenario the only real option is to use a managed WordPress hosting solution or even a specialized WooCommerce hosting solution.

Now there are some plugins that are extremely resource intensive, and you should avoid them at all costs.

For example, there are plugins that add various analytics functionality within WordPress such as some email opt-in plugin, website stats plugin, post views tracking plugin, etc. These plugins inefficiently write to the database on every page load which can significantly slow down your website.

You can track analytics in a more scalable manner with plugins like Google Analytics for WordPress by MonsterInsights or Jetpack Stats.

You can add email opt-in forms with more scalable tracking with plugins like OptinMonster or by using signup forms from your favorite email marketing services.

There are also plugins that monitor 404 errors and track broken links which can add heavy load and overwhelm the server resources. Instead of using those plugins, you should use a third-party cloud services like Ahrefs or SEMRush that automatically track broken links and offer a lot of other useful SEO insights as well.

If you don’t want a premium solution, then you can use a free tool like Broken Link Check which lets you check 300 pages at a time for broken links.

How WordPress Plugins Impact Security

Security is another major concern when it comes to installing WordPress plugins. Many users worry that having more plugins can make their site more vulnerable.

It is true, that a poorly coded WordPress plugin can be exploited by hackers and make your site vulnerable. However, it is also true for just about every software that exists.

Oversights are bound to happen. However, the best part about open source is that many people are using the software, which makes it faster for a vulnerability to be discovered and fixed.

You can keep your website secure by using a WordPress security plugin like Sucuri. They scan thousands of websites and will help you catch most security problems with a vulnerable plugin.

You can also protect your website by improving your overall WordPress security. This allows you to add layers of security before any vulnerability can be exploited by hackers.

WordPress Plugins and Reliability

Some folks are concerned about a plugin’s reliability. What if the plugin gets discontinued? What if the updates are slow?

The beautiful part about the open source WordPress ecosystem is that there are always alternatives.

If you use a popular plugin, chances are that it will not be discontinued. If it is, then someone else will likely fork it and continue the development. That’s the power of open source. This is also how WordPress came into existence (previous platform was called b2/cafelog).

As long as you pick plugins with a good track record and reputable authors, then you will be fine.

Can I Avoid Plugins by Adding Code Snippets?

There are articles throughout the web that shows you: “How to do XYZ in WordPress without a plugin” (like this one).

The purpose of these articles is not to discourage using plugins but to show you how to learn code. There are basically three ways you can add code snippets to your site. You can add them to your functions.php file, a site-specific plugin, or use a plugin to add custom code snippets.

Regardless of which method you choose, adding code snippets to your website has the same performance impact as a stand-alone plugin.

If you install code snippets that are identical to a plugin, then basically you are running the plugin without installing it. The downside is that you won’t get any plugin updates or security fixes for that code.

For more information on this topic, see our guide on WordPress plugin vs functions.php file which one is better.

How Many WordPress Plugins Should You Install? How many WordPress Plugins are too many?

You should install as many WordPress plugins as necessary to run your website and grow your business.

On average, its quite common for a business website to have at least 20 – 30 plugins.

If you’re using WordPress to it’s full potential and have many advanced features, then this count can easily go into 50+.

For example, here’s the number of active plugins on our websites:

• WPBeginner – 62 active plugins
• OptinMonster – 67 active plugins
• WPForms – 54 active plugins
• MonsterInsights – 68 active plugins
• Syed Balkhi’s blog – 42 active plugins
• RafflePress – 17 active plugins
• WP Mail SMTP – 39 active plugins

These count should highlight that it’s not the quantity of plugins that slow down your website.

You will be fine with a large number of plugins, as long as you are using high-quality plugins that follow the WordPress coding standards.

Here is our website’s performance result via Pingdom.

Despite using dozens of plugins and custom code snippets, our website still loads in half a second (479 milliseconds).

How to Pick the Best WordPress Plugins?

One of the most frequently asked question by our users is ‘how do I choose the best plugins for my website?’

If you are looking for a free plugin, then only download it from WordPress.org plugin directory. The official WordPress plugin directory also makes it easier to choose good plugins.

You can see a plugin’s rating and reviews provided by other WordPress users. You can also see when the plugin was last updated and how many websites have it installed.

On the other hand, if you are looking into a premium plugin, then make sure they are from a well-reputed WordPress company or developer. If you are unsure, then look around for reviews and testimonials.

For more details, see our complete guide on how to choose the best WordPress plugins.

If you are just starting out, then see our expert-pick of the essential WordPress plugins that every website should have. You can also check out WPBeginner’s WordPress plugins category where we regularly share the best WordPress plugins and how to use them.

We hope this article answered your questions about how many WordPress plugins should you install. You may also want to see our article debunking the most common WordPress myths.

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

The post How Many WordPress Plugins Should You Install? What’s too many? appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 07, 2019 at 05:00PM

7 Best Podcast Hosting for 2019 Compared (Most are Free)

Several of our readers have asked us about finding the best podcast hosting service.

Podcast hosting is different than website hosting because it offers specific tools built to optimize the subscriber experience (we’ll explain more later in the article).

Choosing a reliable podcasting hosting platform is crucial for your podcast because it will help you grow your audience faster while making it easier to manage your podcast files.

In this article, we’ll compare the best podcast hosting companies that you can use. Many of them are free and some charge a small fee because they offer better support and tools.

What is Podcast Hosting and Why You Need it?

Podcast hosting is a specialized service which offers to store and deliver media files associated with a podcast.

Just like you need a website hosting service to store all your website files, a podcast hosting offers the same service but for your podcast’s media files.

Now you may be wondering, couldn’t I just use my website hosting to store my podcast files as well?

You can do that, but that wouldn’t be good for your website or your listeners.

You see, podcast episodes are large files. Delivering them from the same server will take a lot of server resources.

This would make your website slower, and it can even crash during high load.

If several users start downloading at the same time, then most shared hosting services will simply block the processes that are taking up server resources. This means users will not be able to download your podcast.

And that’s precisely why you need a podcast hosting service.

These companies specialize in storing and delivering large media files. They are made specifically for podcasters and have specialized tools to handle media files.

You also get support from folks who are specialists in the industry. This makes a huge difference in the long run.

That being said, let’s take a look at the best podcast hosting services that you can use.

Best Podcast Hosting Services

There are many companies offering podcast hosting services. However, we will be looking for the ones that are the easiest to use, offer great tools and support, and of course flexibility in file sizes.

Here are our picks for the best podcast hosting services.

1. Podbean

Podbean is the best podcast hosting service provider on the market. They offer unlimited podcast hosting plans with unlimited bandwidth.

It also includes beautiful design tools to host your website with customizable themes. You can also easily embed the Podbean podcast player directly into your WordPress posts and pages.

Aside from that, they also have podcast promotion tools which automatically submit your episodes to all top podcast directories. This allows your audience to use their preferred tools to listen and download podcasts.

Podbean also offers an advertising marketplace which provides opportunities for podcasters to monetize their content. They also have a huge community of podcasters already using Podbean as their podcasting platform.

Pricing: Free Plan with limited storage, paid plans starting from $9 / month with unlimited storage.

2. BuzzSprout

BuzzSprout is one of the easiest to use podcasting hosting provider for beginners. They have been in the business since 2009 and has built a strong community of podcasters which includes some of the top podcasters around.

If you are just getting started, then you’ll find it to be incredibly easy to use. Just upload your media file and it automatically takes care of the rest.

They will also automatically submit your episodes to all the top podcast directories which ensures that your podcast is available on all devices and apps.

Their embeddable podcast player looks great and works well on all screen sizes. It shows the cover art, social sharing buttons, forward and backward skip controls, and more.

They also offer a free WordPress plugin which makes embeds even easier.

If you don’t want to make a website, then BuzzSprout can make one for you. You can customize its design and use your own custom domain name.

The downside is that even their paid plans have storage and bandwidth limits.

Pricing: Limited free plan for 90 days. Paid plans start at $12 / month for 3 hours upload.

3. Blubrry

Blubrry offers flexible podcast hosting plans for new and experienced podcasters alike. They offer a popular WordPress podcasting plugin called PowerPress which makes it super-easy to manage a podcast directly from your WordPress website.

Using Blubrry with PowerPress makes it easy to upload your podcast episodes directly to your podcast hosting provider. It also allows you to easily submit your podcast to Apple Podcasts (previously iTunes) and Google Podcasts.

This makes your podcasts easily discoverable on Google Home, Assistant, and Google Podcast app on Android devices.

Blubrry also offers monetization options, podcast statistics, social sharing features, and more.

Pricing: Starting from $12 per month with 100 MB storage each month.

4. Transistor

Transistor is a powerful yet easy to use podcast hosting service for professionals and beginners. They offer unlimited podcast hosting plans which means they don’t charge you for hours of upload as some other hosts do.

They make it incredibly easy to simply upload your podcast media and publish it. They also offer podcast analytics, so you can see how each episode performed.

Their embed code allows you to easily add each episode to your WordPress posts and pages. If you don’t have a website, then they can quickly create one for you.

One thing to watch out for is that their plans do limit the number of downloads. Which means you need to upgrade your plan as your podcast grows.

Pricing: Starting from $19 per month for upto 10,000 downloads each month,

5. Smart Podcast Player

Regardless of which podcast hosting service you choose, you will need a media player to properly embed and display podcasts on your website.

Some podcasting companies have their own embedded players and some don’t. The problem is that they don’t look anywhere as good as smart podcast player, and they definitely don’t have the same customization options.

Smart Podcast Player is the best media player for podcast websites.

It allows you to display a beautiful media player on your website. You can display on individual episode pages for your podcast or on your homepage. Users can browse the episodes, use on-screen controls, share your podcast, and more.

It looks beautiful on all devices and screen sizes. You can also customize its colors to match your website and make it sticky on top or bottom.

Apart from helping you find new listeners, it also helps you grow your email list and increase return visitors to your website.

This tool is used by every top podcaster in the world, and it’s created by Pat Flynn’s team.

Pricing: Starting from $8.09 per month (billed annually)

6. Libsyn

Libsyn is another reliable podcast hosting service provider. They offer an easy to use platform that puts your brand in the center and helps you promote your podcast across different platforms, apps, and devices.

Libsyn started in 2004, which makes it one of the very first podcast hosting service providers. It was created by podcasters for other podcasters and has a large community of users including some of the most influential podcasters.

They offer podcast hosting plans with different storage limits each month but with unlimited bandwidth. They offer monetization options, detailed analytics, and WordPress integration with their plugin called Libsyn Publisher Hub.

Pricing: Starting from $5 per month with 50 MB monthly storage.

7. SoundCloud

SoundCloud is a popular music and podcast hosting platform. The good thing is that you can embed any podcast epidsode from SoundCloud by simply placing the URL anywhere in your WordPress posts and pages.

SoundCloud is free for up to 3 hours of uploads. Their free plan gives a good starting point for beginners who want to test the waters first.

Their paid plans come with more storage, bandwidth, advanced statistics, monetization and distribution options. It is easy to use but not the most flexible or customizable podcast hosting plan.

Pricing: Free plan with 3 hours of upload limit. Paid plans start from $6 per month.

Which is The Best Podcast Hosting Service?

As you can see that many podcast hosting services offer similar plans with matching features. Some put limits on storage space and some limit downloads.

Considering these factors, we recommend Podbean as the overall best podcast hosting service. Their plans come with unlimited storage and bandwidth with an incredibly easy to use platform. They also allow you to easily promote your podcast across different services.

Our second recommendation Would be BuzzSprout. It is one of the easiest podcast hosting solution perfect for beginners to get started.

How to Start a Podcast?

Apart from a podcast hosting service, you will also need a website. This will be your podcast’s home on the internet where you’ll promote it and help users discover more content.

To make a website, you’ll need a domain name and a website hosting account.

The domain name will typically cost you $14.99 per year and website hosting plans start from $7.99 per month usually paid annually.

Since you are just starting out, you want to save money whenever you can.

Luckily, our friends at Bluehost are offering WPBeginner users a free domain and a generous discount on hosting.

→ Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

For complete step by step instructions, see our guide on how to make a website.

Next, you will need to set up your podcast. We have created a step by step guide to start a podcast for beginners, it will walk you through complete set up including how to record your podcasts.

What Equipment do You Need for Podcasting?

Many professional podcasters use a variety of equipment to record podcasts. This includes microphones, audio interface, mixers, windscreen, shock mounts, and more.

All of this equipment costs a lot of money.

However, you don’t need all of them just to record a Podcast. The only equipment we recommend buying from the start is a good microphone.

We recommend using Rode Podcaster, which you can plug into your computer using a USB port.

If you can spare a little more, then you can purchase the Rode Podcaster Kit which comes with a boom arm and a shock mount.

Alternative: Samson C01UCW is a good entry level microphone to record podcasts.

Once your podcast grows and you’re making money from it, then you can invest in improving your setup. But remember you can’t improve something if you don’t start it, so just start!

How to Promote Your Podcast

Many of the above-mentioned podcast hosting services allow you to automatically submit your podcast to different podcast directories and search engines.

You can also manually submit your podcast as well. Once approved your podcast and all its episodes will become discoverable on these platforms.

Your podcast is published as an RSS feed. You will need to copy the podcast feed URL provided by your podcast hosting service.

How to Submit Your Podcast to iTunes or Apple Podcasts

iTunes is the world’s largest podcast directory allowing users to subscribe to podcasts using their iPhones, Apple computers, iPods, and other Apple devices.

First, you will need to sign in to iTunes Connect website using your Apple ID. If you don’t have one, then you sign up to create one for free.

Once logged in, click on the Podcasts Connect button.

On the next screen, enter your podcast feed URL and click on the Validate button.

iTunes will now fetch your podcast information. Click on the Submit button to continue.

iTunes will now review your podcast submission and you’ll be notified via email once it is approved.

How to Submit Your Podcast to Google Podcasts

Google Podcasts is Google’s alternative to Apple Podcasts and iTunes.

To submit your podcast, you need to visit Google Play Music website and click on the Publish buttonn.

This will take you to Podcast management console where you need to enter your Podcast feed URL.

Next, you will need to verify ownership via email and submit your podcast feed for review. Once approved your Podcast will get listed on Google Podcasts.

Promoting your podcast on your own website

Having a WordPress website for your podcast gives you a ton of options to promote your podcast.

First, we will recommend you to follow our WordPress SEO guide to make sure that your podcast website is getting the search traffic.

Now as people start visiting your website, you will notice that most of them just leave without subscribing to your podcast. This is where email marketing comes in.

You need to start an email newsletter which allows users to subscribe to your podcast via email.

Many beginner podcasters find a ton of new listeners and subscribers by running a giveaway contest. We recommend using RafflePress which is the best WordPress giveaway plugin. It allows you to create viral giveaway contests that help you quickly get more visitors to your website.

For more tips, see our guide on how to increase website traffic and more visitors to your site.

We hope this article helped you find the best podcast hosting service to launch your podcast. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a professional business email address to outreach to sponsors and a virtual business phone number to go along with your podcast.

Last but not least, check out our guide on the must have WordPress plugins to grow your website.

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

The post 7 Best Podcast Hosting for 2019 Compared (Most are Free) appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 04, 2019 at 05:23PM

How to Fix WordPress RSS Feed Errors

Are you encountering RSS feed errors on your WordPress site? RSS feeds help users subscribe to your blog using news reader apps like Feedly.

Since RSS feeds are published in the XML markup language, a tiny mistake in the feed can make it unreadable, and users will not be able to see new content in their news feeds.

Other apps also rely on getting content updates from your WordPress RSS feed. For example, if you use IFTTT to automate social sharing of your new posts, then that would stop working as well.

In this article, we will show you how to easily fix RSS feed errors in WordPress. We will also talk about what causes those errors and how to avoid them in the future.

Most Common WordPress RSS Feed Errors

Most common WordPress RSS feed errors are caused by poor formatting.

WordPress outputs RSS feeds in XML which is a strict markup language. A missing line break or an extra tab can break your RSS feed.

The RSS error message will look something like this:

XML Parsing Error: XML or text declaration not at start of entity
Location: http://example.com/feed
Line Number 2, Column 1:

Depending on what browser you are using, your RSS feed error message may vary.

You can also see this error message when visiting your feed in a browser.

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/username/example.com/wp-content/themes/twentysixteen/functions.php:433) in /home/username/example.com/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 1228

If you are using FeedBurner, then your errors may look different.

Having said that, let’s take a look at what causes these RSS feed errors and how to fix them.

Manually Fixing RSS Feed Errors in WordPress

The most likely reason for your RSS feeds to show error is poor formatting. This poor formatting can be caused by a blank space after closing PHP tag in a plugin or in your theme’s functions.php file.

If you recently added a code snippet to your theme or child theme‘s functions.php file. Then you need to edit your functions file.

If there is a closing PHP tag at the end of your functions file, then you need to make sure that there is no extra space or line breaks after it.

Ideally, the closing PHP tag is not required at the end of the file. This is why it would be best if you remove the closing php tag altogether.

This should fix the problem in most cases. However, if it does not fix your RSS feed error, then continue reading.

Disable RSS Feed Related Plugins

If you are using a WordPress plugin that modifies your website’s RSS feed or creates a new one, then you need to disable that plugin.

If you are unsure, then you can temporarily disable all WordPress plugins.

Next, check your RSS feed for the error. If the error disappears, then this means one of the plugins installed on your website was the culprit.

You can now reactivate your installed plugins one by one and check your RSS feed after activating each plugin. This way you will be able to find out exactly which plugin is causing the issue.

Once you have located the plugin, you can contact the plugin’s support for an update or find an alternative plugin that does the same thing.

Temporarily Switch to a Default Theme

Occasionally, a poorly coded WordPress theme function can also affect your WordPress RSS feed. To see if the problem is caused by your WordPress theme, you need to temporarily switch to a default WordPress theme.

Simply go to Appearance » Themes page and if you already have a default theme installed then activate it.

Default themes include Twenty Nineteen, Twenty Seventeen, Twenty Sixteen, and so on. If you don’t have one installed on your website, then you can click on the Add New button to install and activate it. See our guide on how to install a WordPress theme for step by step instructions.

After switching to the default theme, check your WordPress feed for error. You can visit your feed in a browser window or test it with a feed validator tool.

If the error disappears, then this means your WordPress theme was causing the issue. You can contact the theme author for support or find a suitable new theme for your website.

We hope this article helped you fix WordPress RSS feed errors on your site. You may also want to take a look at our guide on how to increase your website traffic and why you need to build an email list right away.

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

The post How to Fix WordPress RSS Feed Errors appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 03, 2019 at 04:00PM

How To Bulk Install Your Favorite Plugins in WordPress

Are you looking for an easy way to bulk install your favorite plugins in WordPress?

If you frequently create new WordPress sites, then you likely have a list of must have plugins which you install on every website that you create.

By default, WordPress allows you to install one plugin at a time. Manually installing multiple one by one can take few extra minutes. This can become annoying if you do it quite often.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could quickly install all your favorite WordPress plugins at once? In this article, we will show you how to easily bulk install your favorite plugins in WordPress step by step.

Installing WordPress Plugins in Bulk (Step by Step)

There are more than 55,000+ plugins available in the free WordPress.org directory alone. However, most users stick to a set of must have WordPress plugins that they install on each new website.

Let’s see how you can bulk install all your favorite plugins in one go.

Step 1: Install WPCore Plugin Manager Plugin

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

WPCore Plugin Manager is a free online tool which lets you create a collection of your favorite WordPress plugins and quickly install them on your site.

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu labeled ‘WPCore’ in your WordPress admin panel. You need to click on it to configure settings.

On the WPCore plugin collections page, you will be prompted to add a collection key to import plugins.

So, the next step is to create a plugin collection with your selected plugins and get the key. Alternatively you can use many other pre-made collections from their website such as WPBeginner’s Favorite Plugins collection.

Step 2: Create a Collection of Your Favorite Plugins

To create a collection of your favorite plugins, you need to visit WPCore website and click on the ‘Create your FREE account’ button.

Next, you will see the registration page. Enter your username, email, and password, accept the terms, verify reCAPTCHA, and then click on the ‘Create Account’ button.

On the next screen, it will allow you to create your new plugin collection. Add your collection title, description, choose ‘Public’ or ‘Private’ collection you want to make and then click on the ‘Continue’ button.

After that, it will create the collection where you can add your favorite plugins in it. Simply click on the ‘Add’ icon next to ‘WordPress.org plugins’ to add plugins from the official WordPress plugin repository.

After that, a new popup window will appear where you can search for a WordPress plugin by its name. For example, we will search ‘MonsterInsights’.

Now it will search the plugin and show all the results related to the search term. Once the results are loaded, you need to choose the right option and click on it to add the plugin to your collection.

Once you select it, the plugin will be added to the collection.

Now you can add more plugins by following the same steps.

The free version of the WPCore Plugin Manager lets you add only the free plugins from WordPress.org. If you want to bulk install custom plugins and premium WordPress plugins from other third-party sites, then you need to use their paid plan.

Once you have added all the best WordPress plugins of your choice, navigate to a small box at the top right side of your screen. The code in the red color inside the box is your plugin collection key.

Go ahead and copy the code. Next, you have to add the key on your WordPress site using the WPCore plugin which you installed earlier.

Step 3: Bulk Install Your Favorite Plugins

Go ahead and open the ‘WPCore’ option on your admin panel and click on the ‘Add a collection key’ button there.

After that, it will show a field where you need to paste the plugin collection key. Paste the key that you copied earlier and click on the ‘Save Collections’ button. You can also use our collection key here too for installing WPBeginner’s Favorite Plugins collection.

WPCore plugin will now load your plugin collection and prepare for installation. It will add a notification which reads ‘WPCore recommends the following plugins:’ at the top. and shows the list of the plugins

Now you just need to click on the ‘Begin installing plugins’ option, and the plugin will start the job.

On the next screen, you will see the ‘Install Plugins’ page with your list of favorite plugins. To install the plugins in bulk, select all by clicking on the box next to ‘Plugin’ option at the top.

Once all the plugins are selected, click on the dropdown option and choose the ‘Install’ option. Next, click on the ‘Apply’ button.

After that, WordPress will install the plugins one by one. Once done, it will notify you with ‘All installations have been completed’ message.

Simply click on the ‘Return to Required Plugins Installer.’

On the next screen, you will see the list of plugins that you just installed. Now you have to activate these plugins.

First, select all plugins by clicking on the checkbox and choose ‘Activate’ option from the dropdown. Next, click on the ‘Apply’ button.

Now WordPress will activate all the plugins one by one. Once done, it will display a notification message to inform you that all plugins are active.

After that, you can see your installed plugins by going to Plugins » Installed Plugins page from your dashboard.

Now you can start configuring your plugin settings and other configurations on your website.

We hope this article helped you learn how to bulk install plugins in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to speed up WordPress and improve your WordPress security.

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

The post How To Bulk Install Your Favorite Plugins in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 02, 2019 at 06:45PM

How to Setup a Business Voicemail Greeting (with Examples)

When you call a business phone number, you are often greeted with an automated voicemail greeting that helps guide you through the phone directory and next steps.

These voicemail greeting makes your small business look professional, and they can help increase sales as well as boost customer satisfaction.

In this article, we will show you how to set up a voicemail greeting for your online store, business, or blog. We’ll also show you the best voicemail greeting examples that you can use as a template.

Why Voicemail Greeting is Important for Your Business?

More than 88% of local searches on mobile devices end up in a phone call. Mainly thanks to the nifty click to call buttons that appear in Google local search results.

For many small businesses, it may not be possible to answer all the calls immediately. Sometimes customers may call after business hours, and you may be busy or have no staff available at that time.

This is where your voicemail greeting comes in.

For many customers, this will be their first contact with your business. Not setting up a voicemail greeting can cause you to lose a customer to your competitor.

On the other hand, not getting the voicemail greeting right can also have serious consequences. Customers may hang up, not follow through, or simply reach out to your competitors.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to properly set up voicemail greeting for your online business.

The Best Way to Set up a Voicemail Greeting

Normally, small business owners use a landline or mobile phone number to manage calls. While it may get the job done, they do not allow you to properly manage business calls or set up an effective automated voicemail greeting.

The best way to manage business calls is by using a business phone service. A lot of small businesses use a virtual business phone number because it lets them effectively manage business calls without sacrificing their privacy.

Unlike a landline or mobile number, it uses the internet to manage calls. The official term for this technology is called business VoIP phone service (Voice over Internet Protocol).

Using a business phone service gives you the following advantages over the landline and mobile.

• You can set your business hours and record different voice greetings to be played based on the time of the day.
• You can set up auto attendant, add extensions to route the calls, let users leave a voice message, and more.
• It works on your computer, tablet, a desk phone, and even on your mobile phone using apps.
• Multiple users can use the same phone number regardless of their location.
• You can easily give access to new employees without calling in a technician or buying new equipment.

We recommend using Nextiva because it is the best business phone service provider on the market. They offer a comprehensive set of features with an easy to use web-based admin panel and apps for your phone.

We use Nextiva in our business to manage calls for WPBeginner and other Awesome Motive properties.

If you want a different solution, then take a look at RingCentral. It is another great business phone service. They offer an incredibly feature-rich platform, with lots of tools to manage voice greetings, auto-attendants, voice messages, call transcripts, and more.

Once you have set up a business phone service, you can set up voice greetings using their easy to follow settings.

Voice Greeting Examples for Businesses

There are some basic rules that you must follow to create the most effective voicemail greetings.

• Avoid cliches like ‘Your call is important to us’ they are overused and don’t feel sincere anymore.
• Make sure that your voicemail recording sounds friendly and personal.
• Try not to sound like you are reading from a script.
• If you can, then hire a voice artist to help you record voicemail greetings. You can even find someone on Fiverr.
• Make sure that your voicemail provides important information like business hours and contact information.

Following are some voicemail greeting templates that you can use for your business.

Off Hours Voicemail Greeting Examples

This voicemail greeting will be played when customers call you after business hours or during weekends. Make sure that this voicemail greeting informs users about office hours, alternative ways to reach customer service, or store location.

“Hi, you’ve reached [business name]. We are available by phone from [9 am] to [6 pm] [PST] Monday to Friday. You can also use the contact form on our website, [www.example.com] to leave us a message and we’ll get back to you via email. If you’d like us to call you back, then please leave your name and number after along with a short message, and our team will get back to you as soon as possible.”

“Hi, you’ve reached [business name]. We are currently unable to answer your call. Our office hours are [business hours] Monday to Friday. Our store at [store location] remains open for customers during weekends. You can also contact us via live chat on our website [www.example.com] [24 hours a day 7 days a week]. If this is not urgent, and you’d like us to callback then please leave your name and number after the beep.”

As you can see both examples deliver important information and offer customers alternate ways to contact via live chat or contact form.

Vacation Voicemail Greeting Examples

These greeting messages can be recorded during the holidays.

“Hello, you’ve reached [business name]. Our team is currently out of the office to spend holidays with friends and family. We’ll be back to work on [day and time]. Please leave us your name and number and we will get back to you ASAP. [Happy Holidays (or suitable greeting for that holiday)]”.

“Happy holidays! Our team at [business name] is away until [date]. If you are an existing customer, you can still open a support ticket on our website, we will try to get back to you within the next 24 hours. You can also contact us via live chat or contact form on our website [www.example.com]. If it is not urgent, then you can leave us your name and number after the beep. We will return your call as soon as possible.”

“Hi, you have reached [company name]. We are closed for (holiday name) and will get back to work on [date and time]. If you need an urgent response you can email us at (email_address) we will try to answer all emails within 24 hours. You can also leave us a message and we will get back to you after the holidays (Happy New Year / Holiday)”.

As you can see these voicemail greetings provide customers as much information as possible. These greetings also ensure that customers know how to get a quicker response using alternate contact methods during the holidays.

Away / Busy Voicemail Greeting Examples

If you are busy, away, or understaffed and cannot answer the customer calls immediately, then you can use these greetings as an example.

“Hi, you have reached [business name], we are unable to take your call right now but we would love to call you back ASAP. Please leave us your name and number after the beep.”

“Hi, we are currently away from the phone. If it isn’t too urgent, then you can email us at (email address). Otherwise please leave your name and number after the beep and we’ll call you back right away.”

If you are the only person answering calls, then you can make it a personal voicemail greeting.

“Hi, you have reached (Your Name). I am currently unable to answer the phone. You can send me an email to (email address) or you can leave your name and number after the beep and I’ll call you back as soon as possible.”

Test and Improve Your Voicemail Greetings

Another great reason to use a professional phone service is that you can track all your calls and view detailed reports about them. For example, this is how Nextiva’s call analytics page looks like.

You would need to track how many users hear each voicemail greeting and how they responded. Voicemail greetings with a higher score of customers leaving a message are working efficiently.

Voicemail messages that are not even heard completely are a failure.

We recommend trying different voicemail greetings to find the perfect balance. Updating your voicemail greeting periodically can also help you fill communication gaps that you didn’t even know existed.

Follow up Your Voicemail Messages

Now that you have set up balanced, informative, and friendly voicemail greeting, the next step is even more crucial.

What happens after a customer leaves you a voice message?

If you are using a professional business phone system, then you’ll be easily able to track and respond to those messages.

Make sure that you and your staff are equally well prepared for a quick followup. A prompt callback goes a long way in strengthening business relationships and closing sales.

We hope this article helped you learn how to set up voicemail greeting for your online business. You may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter for your business.

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

The post How to Setup a Business Voicemail Greeting (with Examples) appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 02, 2019 at 06:30PM

How to Hide a Post From Home Page in WordPress

Have you ever wanted to hide a blog post from your WordPress homepage or blog archive page?

While you can make WordPress posts password protected or private, in some cases you may simply want to hide the post from your homepage while still allowing others to view it if they have the direct link.

In this article, we will show you how to hide posts from selected pages in WordPress such as homepage, category archives, search results, and more.

Method 1. Hide a WordPress Post from Homepage Using a Plugin

This method is easier, and it is recommended for beginners.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the WordPress Hide Posts plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once the plugin is activated, go ahead and edit the post you want to hide. You will notice a new ‘Hide Posts’ section in the right column of the editor.

Clicking on it will reveal plugin options. You can hide the post on the front page and blog page, category or tag pages, authors page, and site search results.

Simply select the options you like and then save your post.

Depending on the options you selected, you can now visit those pages and that particular post will not be listed.

All users who have the direct post URL (permalink) can still see it by entering the URL.

While this method is the easiest, it lacks several powerful options.

For example, you cannot hide a page or a custom post type like a WooCommerce products. It also does not have an option to hide a post from WordPress RSS feed.

Method 2. Manually Hide WordPress Posts and Pages

This method requires you to add code to your WordPress site. If you have not done this before then see our guide on how to copy and paste code snippets in WordPress.

WordPress uses a database query to fetch and display posts based on the page a user is viewing. It also provides built-in hooks to modify the query before running it.

We will be using those hooks to modify the WordPress query and hide the WordPress posts, pages, and custom post types in different sections.

You can add custom code using the code snippets plugin which is safer and does not break your site. Alternatively, you can add the custom code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

You will also need the IDs of the post or pages that you want to hide. We have a quick tutorial on how to find a post ID in WordPress that shows how to get this information.

Basically, you can just edit a post or page to view its ID in your browser’s address bar.

That being said, let’s dive into the code part.

Hide WordPress Posts or Pages from Homepage

The following code uses is_home() conditional tag to find out if the user is viewing the homepage. If they are, then it excludes the post IDs from the query.

function wpb_exclude_from_home($query) {
          if ($query->is_home() ) {
                  $query->set('post__not_in', array(1737, 1718));
          }
}
add_action('pre_get_posts', 'wpb_exclude_from_home');

Don’t forget to replace the IDs inside the array with the actual IDs of posts or pages that you want to exclude.

Hide WordPress Posts or Pages from RSS Feed

If you want to hide a WordPress post from the homepage as well as the WordPress RSS feed, then you can simply use the is_feed conditional tag in the code.

function wpb_exclude_from_feed($query) {
          if ($query->is_feed() ) {
                  $query->set('post__not_in', array(1737, 1718));
          }
}
add_action('pre_get_posts', 'wpb_exclude_from_feed');

Now if you are logged in as an administrator and tried to visit your WordPress RSS feed, then you will still see the posts listed there. Other users will not be able to see the excluded posts when they view your RSS feed.

Hide WordPress Post or Page from Site Search

Now, what if you wanted to hide specific posts from WordPress site search? To do that, you’ll simply need to add the is_search conditional tag to the code.

function wpb_exclude_from_search($query) {
          if ( $query->is_search() ) {
                  $query->set('post__not_in', array(1737, 1718));
          }
}
add_action('pre_get_posts', 'wpb_exclude_from_search');

You can now visit your website and search for the posts you wanted to hide. Even though these posts are public, they will not appear in search results.

Hide WordPress Post or Page from Archives

How about hiding specific WordPress posts or pages from archive pages like category, tags, and date archives? To do that, we will use the is_archive() conditional tag.

function wpb_exclude_from_archives($query) {
          if ( $query->is_archive() ) {
                  $query->set('post__not_in', array(1737, 1718));
          }
}
add_action('pre_get_posts', 'wpb_exclude_from_archives');

Hiding WordPress Post or Page from Everywhere

So far we have learned how to hide a WordPress post or page from specific areas. Now, what about completely hiding a WordPress post from all these areas at once?

To do that, you can combine all the conditional tags we have used earlier in a single code snippet.

function wpb_exclude_from_everywhere($query) {
          if ( $query->is_home() || $query->is_feed() ||  $query->is_search() || $query->is_archive() ) {
                  $query->set('post__not_in', array(1737, 1718));
          }
}
add_action('pre_get_posts', 'wpb_exclude_from_everywhere');

This code will hide the given posts from homepage, RSS feed, search results, and archive pages.

Controlling Content Visibility in WordPress

You can hide WordPress posts or pages using the two methods we described above. Let’s answer some of the most frequently asked questions about content visibility control options in WordPress.

Do these methods perfectly hide content?

No, they don’t.

For example, search engines may have already crawled and indexed the post before you can hide it. If you want to prevent search engines, then see our guide on how to hide a WordPress page from Google.

This also will not work if a WordPress plugin uses a custom query that skips your checks and reveals the content you are trying to hide.

A better approach would be to password protect a post so that only users with the password can view it.

You can also create a private post which is only visible to the administrators, editors and authors on your website.

Can I use these methods to create content for specific users?

No, these methods do not allow you to efficiently share content with specific users. A better approach would be to use a WordPress membership plugin.

Membership plugins like MemberPress allow you to create and publish restricted content. You can even sell subscription plans to access premium content.

For more details, see our guide on how to create a WordPress membership website with step by step instructions.

We hope this article helped you learn how to hide a WordPress post from the homepage and other areas of your website. You may also want to see our guide on how to make a WordPress site completely private.

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

The post How to Hide a Post From Home Page in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 01, 2019 at 05:00PM