21 Best WordPress Themes for Car Dealerships

Are you looking for the best WordPress themes for car dealerships?

There are hundreds of free and paid WordPress themes for business websites.

However, if you need a theme specifically designed for car dealerships or automotive enthusiasts, then it becomes difficult to find a perfect theme that just works out of the box.

In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best WordPress themes for car dealerships.

Creating a Car Dealership Website with WordPress

WordPress is the best website builder used by thousands of businesses around the world including many big name brands. It is also a popular choice among car dealerships, automobile enthusiasts and bloggers.

Before getting started, make sure that you are choosing the right platform. A self-hosted WordPress.org site will give you access to WordPress features (see our comparison: WordPress.com vs wordPress.org).

Self-hosted WordPress sites need a domain name and web hosting.

We recommend using Bluehost. They are one of the top hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

For WPBeginner users, they are also offering a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a generous discount on web hosting.

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After purchasing the web hosting, you should check out our how to make a website guide for step by step WordPress installation instructions.

Once you’re ready, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress themes for car dealerships.

1. Divi Car Dealer

Divi Car Dealer is a stylish WordPress theme for car dealerships, car rentals, and automobile businesses. It ships with multiple landing pages for about page, contact page, and more.

It also includes a car financing and listing page template. With this theme, you can launch your car dealership website quickly.

2. Car Repair by Astra Theme

Car Repair is a beautiful WordPress theme for an auto repair, car service, or car dealership website. It is available as with the Astra Theme, and you’ll need to use their Starter Sites plugin to import the Car Repair theme.

It comes with a beautiful full-width layout with a clear call to action button. You can simply edit the homepage using the default WordPress editor. The theme is highly optimized for SEO.

3. Ultra Horizontal

Ultra Horizontal is a modern WordPress theme well-suited for car dealerships, car rentals, car accessories, and more. It comes with a unique horizontal featured content slider.

It comes with a collapsible footer area that the users can see by clicking on the arrow at the bottom of the page. It supports WooCommerce out of the box making it easier to create your online store.

4. OceanWP

OceanWP is a free multipurpose WordPress theme with dozens of ready-made website demos to create a website for your car dealership. It is fully compatible with WordPress page builders.

It comes with unlimited color schemes, multiple page layouts, custom widgets, and crisp typography. You can change your theme settings using live customizer, which makes it quite easy to use for beginners.

5. Neve Vintage

Neve Vintage is a retro-style WordPress theme available as starter site with the Neve Theme.

It gives your website a nostalgic feel which makes it unique and easy to standout. Your site can be edited using the default WordPress editor. You can simply replace the demo content and images with your own and customize theme settings to match your own needs.

6. Automotive

Automotive is a dark-colored WordPress theme built specifically for car dealerships. It has a powerful search engine for users to find cars on your websites.

It offers unlimited color schemes and crisp typography. The theme comes with a built-in module to integrate your website with PayPal for selling cars online.

7. Car Wash by Astra Theme

Car Wash is a stylish WordPress theme designed specifically car service, car rental, and car dealership websites. It features a beautiful layout with a fullscreen custom background image.

To install the Car Wash theme, you’ll need to download Astra Theme and then use their Starter Sites plugin to import this layout.

The homepage is divided into different sections to showcase your services, clients’ testimonials, and more. You can use WordPress customizer or drag and drop page builders for easy customization.

8. Altitude Pro

Altitude Pro is a flexible WordPress theme to create a website for any business niche including car dealerships, car rentals, and automotive businesses. It is a Genesis powered theme which makes it powerful and robust.

It has a widgetized homepage to set up and customize the website quickly. The theme is compatible with WooCommerce to create an online store.

StudioPress is now part of WP Engine, the most popular managed WordPress hosting company. You can get this theme and all 35+ other StudioPress themes if you sign up for WP Engine hosting to build your website.

Bonus: WPBeginner users also get an additional 20% OFF. Get started with WP Engine today!

9. Hestia Pro

Hestia Pro is a modern one-page WordPress theme built to create all kinds of websites. The theme can integrate with popular page builders like Beaver Builder, Elementor, etc for customization.

It has color choices, fonts, and multiple layout designs. Hestia Pro is translation ready and fully supports WPML to create a multilingual website.

10. Automax

AutoMax is a professional WordPress car dealership theme. It allows you to import/export external inventory with scheduled imports to run automatically.

It comes with a custom search feature that is quite fast and allows your users to find their favorite cars. AutoMax theme is easy to set up and helps you quickly get started.

11. Breakthrough Pro

Breakthrough is a powerful WordPress theme built on top of the StudioPress Genesis framework. It comes with a beautiful white color background and minimal layout.

The theme is perfect for your car dealership business. You can add attractive photos, services, and deals on the homepage to engage your users.

12. The Automobile

The Automobile is a free WordPress theme built specifically for car dealerships, small car dealers, and automobile businesses. It comes with a stylish header which uses a beautiful image slider.

The theme allows you to showcase your blog posts on the homepage. You can easily customize theme settings using the live customizer or theme options panel.

13. Technico

Technico is a premium WordPress theme designed for auto technicians, car dealerships, and automobile mechanics.

It has a customizable header to add social icons, navigation menu, address, business phone number, and a custom logo. You can also add a fullscreen image with a tagline and call to action button in the top fold of the website.

14. KarDealer

KarDealer is a free WordPress theme perfect for car dealerships, accessories, blogs, and automobile business websites.

It allows you to list/sell new and used cars using third-party plugins. It comes with custom footer widgets, color skins, and a social media menu.

15. Transport by Astra Theme

Transport is a bright-colored WordPress theme by Astra. It has a centered layout with custom logo, navigation menu, and background image.

To install the Transport theme on your WordPress website, you’ll need to download Astra Theme and then use their Starter Sites plugin to import this layout.

The theme offers animated sections on the homepage to display your sales, inventory, and more. It supports drag and drop page builders out of the box. It also works seamlessly with popular contact form plugins like WPForms.

16. CarListings

CarListings is a beautiful free WordPress theme built for car listings, dealerships, and automotive blogs. It works with useful WordPress listing plugins to add the directory functionality to your website.

The theme has a fully customizable header to add your business hours, business email address, custom logo, and more.

17. Workstation Pro

Workstation Pro is a creative WordPress multipurpose theme built on top of the Genesis framework. It has a welcoming homepage with clear call-to-actions and spacious design.

The theme is customizable with page builders, WordPress live customizer, and theme options panel. It is eCommerce ready out of the box and can also be used on multilingual websites.

18. Car Dealer Deluxe

Car Dealer Deluxe is a modern WordPress theme well-suited for car dealerships, showrooms, traders, sports cars websites.

It allows you to add multiple currencies to display prices, manage inventory, and create car listings. It comes with an easy to use theme options panel which allows you to choose theme colors, layout, and other settings.

19. Indigo

Indigo is a modern WordPress theme built to create any kind of website. It can also be used to build your car dealership site with multipurpose design and powerful features.

It has featured content section on the homepage. The theme is compatible with WooCommerce to launch your eCommerce site and sell cars online.

20. Advance Automobile

Advance Automobile is a free WordPress theme designed specifically for automobile shops, car dealers, car rentals, and auto mechanics. The theme offers a stylish and highly customizable layout.

It comes with multiple call-to-action buttons, a fullscreen image slider, social media icons, and a simple navigation menu. The theme elements are easy to customize with the live WordPress customizer.

21. Enterprise

Enterprise is a multipurpose WordPress theme perfect for high-end automobile businesses and car dealerships. It has a stylish layout with beautiful typography which helps you make a strong first impression.

With this theme, you get multiple homepage sections to display your car photos, services, and more. It is highly optimized for speed and performance.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress themes for car dealerships. You may also want to see our pick of the best WordPress plugins for 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 21 Best WordPress Themes for Car Dealerships appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 22, 2019 at 06:26PM

How to Restrict Your WordPress Forms to Logged-in Users Only

Are you looking for an easy way to restrict your WordPress form submissions to logged-in users only?

If you have a membership site, online store, or another type of website that has registered users, then you may want to restrict certain forms access to only logged in users.

In this article, we will show you how to restrict your WordPress forms access so only logged in users can fill out and submit them.

When and Why You Need to Restrict Access for WordPress Forms?

There could be a number of scenarios when you would need to restrict access to certain WordPress forms to logged-in users only.

For example:

• You may be hosting a private members event, and you only want registered users on your site to RSVP.
• You may restrict access to support for members only, and by restricting it to logged-in users only, you can dynamically populate certain information from their profile.
• You might want to run an employee survey or poll, and you want to restrict access to your internal team only.
• You are running a customer NPS survey that you only want to be submitted by logged-in users only.
• You might have a special prize claim form that you want to be accessed by only certain logged-in users.

These are just some examples, but there could be literally hundreds of other use cases where you want to restrict form access to registered users only.

With that said, let’s take a look how to restrict your WordPress form access to logged-in users only.

Method 1: Restrict Form Access with WPForms Form Locker Addon

This method is easiest and most powerful, so we recommend it for all beginner users. We will use the WPForms plugin and their Form Locker addon to completely lock down WordPress form access.

WPForms is the best WordPress form plugin used by over 2 million websites. It was created by WPBeginner’s founder, Syed Balkhi, to have all the features we needed for running our business.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see this step by step guide on how to install a plugin in WordPress.

Upon activation, you need to enter your license key and then add over to the WPForms » Addons page to install the Form Locker Addon.

Now you’re ready to create a new form that has restricted access for logged-in users.

To do this, go ahead and create a new form by going to WPForms » Add New. This will open the WPForms form builder where you will be presented with the option to either choose a form template or start with a blank one.

WPForms drag & drop form builder is extremely easy to use, so you can add or remove fields and customize the form to your liking.

Once you have added all the necessary fields, you need to go to the Settings Tab and click on Form Locker.

On this tab, you will see the option to enable password protection for your WordPress forms, set total entry limits, enable form scheduling, and enable restricting entries to logged-in users only.

Once you check the box, you will see a new Message field where you will need to draft a message that will appear to all users who are not logged in to your site.

Once done, you can tweak other form settings that you might need and then click the Save button.

Now you can embed this form on any WordPress post or page on your site by using the WPForms shortcode in the Classic Editor or by using the WPForms block in the Gutenberg editor.

Simply go to Post or Pages, and then click on the Plus icon to select a block. Next, type WPForms in the block search.

Once the WPForms block is added, select your form to embed and you’re done. Congratulations, you have successfully created a WordPress form that’s restricted to logged-in users only.

Method 2: Restrict Form Access with Password Protected or Private Pages

Another way to restrict form access in WordPress is by using the default WordPress visibility settings. You can use this method with the free version of WPForms or any other contact form plugin.

Simply create a Page or Post where you want to embed the form. After that click on the Visibility settings on the right panel.

You have the option to either make the whole page private or make the whole page password protected.

Private pages can only be seen by the Administrators and Editor level users on your website.

If you set a password for the page, then you will have to share that password with everyone who you want to give access to.

While this method works, there are several downsides to it.

First, the entire page is hidden not just the forms area. You lack the finer controls, and there’s no way for you to see which logged-in user submitted the form (if you’re using the password protected setting).

Method 3: Use Advanced Membership Plugins to Restrict Form Access

If you’re using an advanced WordPress membership plugin like MemberPress, then it comes with a lot of access control features built-in.

You can simply go to MemberPress » Rules to create a new permissions rule.

The rule edit page allows you to select different conditions and associate them to a membership plan.

For example, you can select all content that matches a particular tag or category to be available only to members with the silver subscription plan.

You can also create more specific rules. For example, a single post or page, child pages, or a specific URL.

Once you have set the rules, you can use it in combination with any WordPress contact form plugin to restrict form access to logged-in users only.

For more details, see our step by step guide on how to restrict content access in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to restrict your WordPress forms to logged-in users only. You may also want to see our list of best WordPress plugins for business websites.

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

The post How to Restrict Your WordPress Forms to Logged-in Users Only appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 21, 2019 at 08:37PM

How to Make the Most Out of WPBeginner’s Free Resources

Often new WPBeginner readers ask us how can they get maximum benefits from all the free resources available on our website.

WPBeginner is the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners. We have been publishing free WordPress guides, how-to tutorials, and videos since 2009.

In this article, we will show you how to make the most out of WPBeginner’s free resources.

If you haven’t started a website yet, then please take a look at following guides:

• How to start a website (step by step)
• How to start a WordPress blog (step by step)
• How to start an online store (step by step)
• How to start a podcast with WordPress (step by step)
• How to create a membership site with WordPress (step by step)

If you already have a website, then follow the resources below:

1. Subscribe to WPBeginner Newsletter

Signing up for the WPBeginner newsletter is the best way to stay updated with WPBeginner’s new posts and resources. When we write a new article, it will land directly in your email inbox (weekly).

You’ll also get links to our other resources that you may have missed.

2. Signup for Our FREE Video Tutorials

If you are just starting out with WordPress, then our WordPress Beginners Videos should be your first destination.

We hate to see many big companies selling such basic education for hundreds of dollars. This is why we decided to make it available for Free.

These HD quality videos are built for beginner level users. Our 23-step easy to follow video tutorials cover from the basics to advanced WordPress topics and will help you get started with WordPress in no time.

3. Join Our Facebook Group (WPBeginner Engage)

With more than 20,000+ members, our Facebook group, WPBeginner Engage is one of the fastest-growing WordPress group on Facebook.

It is the most casual and often the fastest way to get WordPress help from our WordPress experts, and other motivated website owners like yourself.

Our team members actively participate in the group to answer user questions. We also do Facebook Live sessions with our Founder and CEO, Syed Balkhi.

4. Join our YouTube Channel

With nearly 154,000+ subscribers, WPBeginner’s YouTube channel is the best WordPress channel on YouTube (over 500+ free videos).

We regularly upload new videos with useful how-to tutorials aimed at beginner level users. These videos are short, sweet, and easy to follow.

You will also get the video transcript, a text version of the tutorial, and you can even ask questions in the comments.

Joining our YouTube channel will help you stay up to date, brush up your WordPress skills, and discover new tools and plugins for your website.

5. Allow WPBeginner Push Notifications

Another way to stay in touch with important content is to get push notifications from WPBeginner.

Allowing push notifications will let you receive browser notifications on your desktop or mobile devices. We only use this notification for important pieces of content (not every content). You can check the article right away or later at your convenience.

If you have push notifications blocked on your browser, then you can enable them or selectively allow WPBeginner.

Here is how to turn on notifications in major browsers:

• Google Chrome
• For Firefox
• Microsoft Edge

6. Follow us on Your Favorite Social Media Network

We do our best to be present on all popular social media platforms, so we can help you learn WordPress on your favorite platform.

You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram.

This way you can participate in our community discussions, see what new posts we have published, get in touch with us, and leave your comments and feedback.

We like to hear from our users. In fact, many of our post ideas come from user requests made on Twitter, Facebook, and our other social channels.

7. Got a WordPress Question? Here is How to Find The Answer

At the top right corner of every page on WPBeginner, there is a search box. This search box is powered by Google Custom Search. It is fast and highly accurate.

Simply type the question you wanted to ask us. There is a very good chance that we have already written about it.

Pro tip: To save time, some readers just Google their WordPress questions with wpbeginner at the end of each search term, so Google can show them the most accurate answer.

8. Can’t Find an Answer? Drop us a Line or Tweet to us

If you have searched WPBeginner and didn’t find an answer to your question, then you can reach us using the contact form on our website.

You can also Tweet to us @WPBeginner.

Alternately, you can post your question on WPBeginner’s Facebook Group. This way you can share as much information as you like and get help not just from our experts but other users as well.

We try our best to get back to you with an answer or point you in the right direction within 1 business day.

We love hearing from our users because that’s what keeps us motivated and inspired.

9. Need Plugin and Theme Recommendations?

Many beginners are concerned about which plugins they should use on their WordPress site or how to find the perfect theme. Visit WPBeginner’s Showcase section where we hand-pick the best WordPress plugins and themes. Here are some places to look at:

• Must have WordPress plugins for all websites
• 40 useful tools to manage and grow your WordPress blog
• Best Simple WordPress themes
• Best Free WordPress Blog Themes

Want to know which WordPress plugins and tools we use on WPBeginner? Check out WPBeginner’s Blueprint where you will find all the tools and plugins we use to run WPBeginner.

10. Lookup Terms in our WordPress Glossary (aka WordPress Dictionary)

As a beginner, it’s quite intimidating to not know what a specific technical lingo means. That’s exactly why we created our WordPress glossary.

You can look up for WordPress and blogging terms in Our WordPress Glossary section. We have organized the most commonly used terms in alphabetical order with easy to understand descriptions for each term.

11. Get The Best WordPress Deals and Coupons

As the largest WordPress resource site, we have reached out to top WordPress companies for exclusive discounts and deals for our users.

In WPBeginner’s Deals section, you’ll find excellent WordPress hosting, theme, and plugin coupons.

We have also included special offers from most of the tools and services that we use ourselves to grow our business. All these deals will help you grow your business online with much less effort.

12. Want to Learn More About WPBeginner?

Are you curious about who runs WPBeginner? Why it’s free and how it works? Check out our about page.

We started out as a small blog to help our clients learn how to use WordPress. Since then WPBeginner has grown into becoming one of the largest free WordPress resource site for beginners.

You may also want to check out the personal website of our founder and CEO, Syed Balkhi. You can find him on Twitter as well as Instagram.

13. What Else We Do?

WPBeginner blog is managed by Awesome Motive Inc, the management company behind many other premium WordPress plugins and tools.

If you like our free tutorials, then please support us by using our premium plugins:

• OptinMonster – Helps you get more email subscribers.
• WPForms – Best WordPress contact form and survey plugin.
• MonsterInsights – #1 WordPress analytics plugin (trusted by 2 million websites).
• RafflePress – WordPress giveaway and contest plugin to help you grow your website traffic.
• WP Mail SMTP – Fixes the WordPress not sending email issues.
• SeedProd – Best WordPress coming soon and maintenance mode plugin.
• TrustPulse – Helps you boost conversions with honest social proof notifications.

We hope this article helped you learn how you can make the most out of WPBeginner’s free WordPress resources. You may also want to take a look at how to learn WordPress in a week or less.

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 Make the Most Out of WPBeginner’s Free Resources appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 20, 2019 at 07:00PM

How to Create Custom Permalinks in WordPress

Do you want to create custom permalinks in WordPress for posts, pages, and other post types?

Recently one of our readers asked if it was possible to create their own custom permalinks aka page URL structure in WordPress.

In this article, we will show you how to create custom permalinks in WordPress without affecting your SEO.

Since this is a comprehensive tutorial on creating custom permalinks in WordPress, we have created an easy to navigate table of content:

• What is a Custom a Permalink?
• How to Change the WordPress Permalink Structure
• How to Change the Category and Tag URL Prefix in WordPress
• How to Change Individual WordPress Post or Page URL
• How to Change WordPress Category or Tag URL
• How to Change Author Page URL in WordPress
• How to Create Completely Custom Permalinks in WordPress
• How to Setup Permalink Redirects and Avoid 404 Errors

What is a Custom Permalink in WordPress?

Permalinks are the permanent URLs of your individual blog posts, pages, and other archive pages on your WordPress site. Custom permalink is basically a URL structure applied to a specific page in WordPress without affecting the rest of your URL structure.

WordPress comes with an SEO Friendly URL structure which allows you to use an easy to understand URL structure for both humans and search engines.

For example: https://ift.tt/359PKv8

This is much better than URLs from the old days: https://ift.tt/2KCTldh

WordPress provides website owners with multiple options to choose from. You can view them by visiting Settings » Permalinks page.

Aside from changing the main permalink structure, WordPress also offers ways to customize the individual URLs of posts, pages, categories, tags, and other areas of your website.

You can also use WordPress plugins to create completely custom permalinks for specific sections of your website that overrides the default WordPress settings.

Let’s take a look at all the options one by one. We’ll start with the default built-in options that come with your WordPress website.

How to Change the WordPress Permalink Structure

If you want to change the whole URL generation scheme for your website, then go to Settings » Permalinks page.

Simply select a URL structure for your individual posts. You can also use the tags shown on the screen to create a custom structure for your WordPress URLs.

Don’t forget to click on the Save Changes button to store your changes.

We recommend using a URL structure that includes the post name in the URL. This makes your URLs more SEO friendly and meaningful.

Note: You should change to a SEO friendly permalinks for all new WordPress blogs and websites. However, if you have an existing website that’s already getting traffic from search engines, then changing permalinks can affect your SEO rankings.

How to Change the Category and Tag URL Prefix in WordPress

By default, WordPress uses /category/ as the base for your category URLs and /tag/ for the tags pages. For example:

https://ift.tt/2rSvxeP
https://ift.tt/2XtQEzS

You can change these base prefixes from the Settings » Permalinks page to anything that you like. For example,

https://ift.tt/2KF8RWa (for category pages)
https://ift.tt/37k09WX (for tag pages)

How to Change Individual WordPress Post or Page URL

Once you have the permalink structure setup, WordPress uses that as a template for all links on your site. However, you do have the option to modify the URL slug aka keywords inside the URL structure for individual posts, pages, and custom post types.

You can customize the slug part of the URL from the post edit screen inside the WordPress content editor.

Simply edit the post, page, or custom post type and click on the title field. You’ll notice the Permalink field appears on top of it.

Go ahead and click on the Edit button next to it, and then change the URL slug to a custom permalink. Once you are done, click on the Save button to store the new permalink.

You can use this method for all post types including WooCommerce products, MemberPress courses, etc.

How to Change WordPress Category or Tag URL

In the earlier step, we showed you how to modify the category and tag base prefix in WordPress. In this step, we will show you how to change the URL keywords for an individual category or tag.

Simply go to Posts » Categories page and click on the Edit link below the category you want to customize.

WordPress will now load the category details. From here, you can change the category slug to customize its permalink.

Similarly, you can edit an individual tag by visiting Posts » Tags page.

You can also edit any custom taxonomies using the same method.

How to Change Author Page URL in WordPress

WordPress automatically adds the ‘/author/’ base to URLs leading to author archive pages. For example:

https://ift.tt/340oCyA

The problem is that WordPress does not come with an option to change the author URL base or the slug.

Luckily, as the saying goes, there is a plugin that can help.

Simply install and activate the Edit Author Slug. For details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to Users » All Users page. Next, click on the ‘Edit’ link below a username.

On the next page, scroll down to the Edit Author Slug section, and you will be able to choose an author slug or add your own. Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

If you want to change the author permalink base, then simply head over to the Settings » Edit Author Slug page. Here you will see an option to change the author base and even choose different author bases for users with different user roles.

For more details, see our guide on how to change author URL slug and base in WordPress.

How to Create Completely Custom Permalinks in WordPress

All the above methods allows you to customize WordPress permalinks to a certain extent. However, they cannot help you create completely custom permalinks.

That’s because WordPress by default doesn’t offer this functionality.

Luckily, there’s a plugin that can help. If you want to override the default WordPress URL structure for specific sections on your site, then follow the steps here.

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

Upon activation, you need to edit the post where you want to create a custom permalink. Instead of editing the permalink field at the top, you’ll find the option to create a custom permalink below the editor.

Similarly, you can also create custom permalinks for categories. Go to Posts » Categories page and click on the edit link below the category that you want to change.

On the category details page, you’ll find the option to create a custom permalink for that particular category. You can even create a URL without the category base prefix.

You can manage and disable all your custom permalinks by clicking on the ‘Custom Permalinks’ menu in the admin sidebar.

Simply select the custom permalinks you want to delete and then click on the Bulk Actions menu to select ‘Delete permalinks’ option.

After that click on the ‘Apply’ button and the plugin will remove those custom permalinks. The deleted permalink will be replaced by your default WordPress permalink scheme.

How to Setup Permalink Redirects and Avoid 404 Errors

WordPress automatically handles changes made to post and page URLs. However, it may not set up redirects for your custom author permalinks or completely customized permalinks.

In that case, you’ll need to set up proper redirects to avoid 404 errors on your website.

First, you need to install and activate the Redirection plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Tools » Redirection page to set up redirects. You need to add the old link in the ‘Source URL’ field and the new URL in the ‘Target URL’ field.

After that click on the ‘Add redirect’ button to save your changes. For more details, see our beginner’s guide to setting up redirects in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create custom permalinks in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to get more search traffic to 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 How to Create Custom Permalinks in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 19, 2019 at 04:00PM

How to Clear Your DNS Cache (Mac, Windows, Chrome)

Have you even been asked to clear your DNS cache? It is a troubleshooting tip that helps you get to the latest version of a website, particularly after DNS changes.

DNS information tells your browser where to find a website. Your computer keeps this information in its cache to quickly point browsers in the right direction.

In this article, we’ll show you how to clear your DNS cache on Mac, Windows, and Chrome. This will allow you to easily refresh DNS records stored on your device and help you troubleshoot website issues.

Here is a quick overview of what we’ll cover in this guide:

• What is DNS cache
• How to clear DNS cache in Windows
• How to clear DNS cache in Mac
• How to clear DNS cache in Chrome
• How to check for DNS updates

What is DNS Cache?

DNS cache is like an address book saved on your computer with the domain name server (DNS) information of each website you visit.

DNS or Domain Name Server is a technology that tells your computer the IP address associated with a domain name. To learn more, see our guide on how domain names work.

Saving the DNS information in a local DNS cache helps your browser quickly find a website.

Once you enter a website address in your browser, it will look for DNS information in the local cache first. If it finds the directions, then it uses the DNS cache to visit the website.

On the other hand, if the information is not in the local DNS cache, then the browser will get it from other DNS servers across the internet.

This ensures that every time you visit any website, your browser takes the shortest route to get the DNS information it needs to locate the website on the internet.

However, this may sometime cause trouble. For example, when you are moving a WordPress site to a new domain name or when you are moving WordPress to a new host.

DNS information may not get updated quickly on your computer, and you may end up visiting the old website or see a not found error. It will eventually get updated, but why wait when you can clear DNS cache right away.

Let’s take a look at how to clear DNS cache across various platforms.

How to Clear DNS Cache in Windows

If you are using a windows computer, then here is how you would clear DNS cache on your device.

First, you need to click on the start button and select the CMD (command prompt) tool.

This will launch a command prompt window. Inside it you need to enter the following text:

ipconfig /flushdns

Click on the enter button to execute the command and Windows will flush the DNS cache.

That’s all, you can now resume visiting your website to fetch the updated DNS information.

How to Clear DNS Cache on macOS

If you are on a Mac computer, then follow the steps below to clear your DNS cache.

First, you need to launch the Terminal app. You can find it in the Launchpad under the ‘Other’ folder. You can also launch it by opening Finder and going to Applications » Utilities folder.

This will launch the terminal window where you need to enter the following command.

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

You’ll be asked to enter your macOS account password. It is the same password you use to log into your computer.

After that, your computer will flush the DNS cache. You can now visit the website to get the latest DNS information.

Clear DNS Cache in Chrome

Google Chrome also keeps a DNS cache of its own, and it is separate from the DNS cache stored by your operating system.

If you use Google Chrome as your main browser, then you’ll need to clear Chrome’s DNS cache as well.

First, you need to enter the following address in your browser’s address bar and press enter on your keyboard.

chrome://net-internals/#dns

This will load Chrome’s net internal settings page. From here you need to click on the ‘Clear host cache’ button, and Chrome will clear up its DNS cache.

Now keep in mind that DNS cache is separate from the browser cache.

Your browser saves a lot of website data in a temporary cache to quickly load pages on subsequent visits.

If you are having trouble viewing a page that you updated but can’t see your changes, then you would want to clear the browser cache.

We have a step by step guide on how to clear browser cache on all major browsers that you can follow.

How to Check for DNS Updates

When you are moving your WordPress website to a host or transferring your domain registration to a new domain registrar, you’ll have to change your DNS settings and point them to the new location.

Once you apply these changes under your domain settings, it takes a while for changes to propagate across the internet. This could take anywhere between a few hours to a couple of days.

During this time, your domain will sometime point to the old location and sometimes it will point to the new location. This depends on your geographic location and which DNS servers your browser asks for directions.

You can check how these DNS changes are propagated around the world using online tools like DNS Checker.

Simply enter your domain name, and it will fetch DNS from different geographic locations spread around the world.

If all locations indicate the same IP address with a green checkmark, then this means the DNS changes you made are now updated all over the internet.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily clear your DNS cache on different devices. You may also want to see our guide on how to clear your WordPress cache for beginners.

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The post How to Clear Your DNS Cache (Mac, Windows, Chrome) appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 18, 2019 at 04:54PM