How to Find the Most Important Page of Your WordPress Site

Do you want to know which page is the most important on your website?

Finding out your top landing pages and blog posts can help you understand where your traffic is coming from and what your audience is looking for, so you know where to focus your efforts.

In this article, we’ll show you how to find the most important page of your WordPress site.

Why Find the Most Important Page of Your Site?

When you’re running a WordPress blog, you end up with more and more content over time. However, there will be some pages that will be more important than others.

Besides getting a lot of traffic, these pages also tend to have high engagement. By optimizing your most important pages, you can get even more traffic and then convert those visitors into subscribers and customers.

You can also create similar pages to attract more visitors and boost user engagement and conversions.

That being said, many content managers and business owners don’t know which pages are essential to their website’s success.

Let’s take a look at how you can find the most important page of your WordPress website.

See the Most Important Pages in Your WordPress Dashboard

The easiest way to uncover your top-performing pages is by using MonsterInsights. It’s the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress and is trusted by over 3 million professionals to grow their business with confidence.

MonsterInsights makes it super easy to use Google Analytics to reveal insights about your visitors. It helps you view your most important pages inside your WordPress dashboard without the need to edit code or create reports.

For this tutorial, we’ll be using the MonsterInsights Lite version. It’s 100% free to use and will help you view your most important pages insides your WordPress dashboard.

There is also a MonsterInsights Pro version that includes premium integrations and advanced features like WooCommerce tracking, custom dimensions, PDF exports, email summaries, and more.

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

Upon activation, you’ll be taken to Insights from your WordPress admin panel. Next, go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button and follow the wizard to connect your Google Analytics account with your WordPress site.

For more details, you can follow our step-by-step tutorial on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

Once you’ve set up Google Analytics in WordPress, you can now view the most important pages on your site by going to Insights » Reports from your WordPress admin panel.

Next, head over to the Overview tab and then scroll down to the ‘Top Posts/Pages’ report. In the report, you’ll see the most important pages and posts on your website.

This gives you a quick overview of which pages perform well on your website and attract website traffic.

Now, if you upgrade to the MonsterInsights Pro version, then you can unlock more dashboard reports. These reports provide more insights into how people are interacting with your most important pages.

For example, if want a closer look at your top-performing landing page, then simply go to the ‘Publishers’ tab at the top and then see the ‘Top Landing Pages’ report.

These are the top pages that users first land on when visiting your website. You can view the total number of visits, average duration, and bounce rate for each page.

You can identify your most important page from the report and see which topics attract the most visitors. Then using this information, you can come up with similar content ideas for your website.

Similarly, you can compare your best pages with other pages that aren’t performing well and then optimize them to boost their engagement and conversions.

View Your Most Important Page in Google Analytics

While MonsterInsights makes it super easy to find the most important page on your website and view the data inside your WordPress dashboard, you can also use Google Analytics to view your top pages.

After installing Google Analytics on your site, you’ll need to log in to your Google Analytics account. After that, simply head over to Behavior » Site Content » All Pages from the menu on your left.

In the report, you can see your top pages and the total number of pageviews for each page. For example, the report above shows that the homepage gets the most traffic, which shows it’s an important page for your site.

But it also shows that the basket page and some apparel pages are also very popular and should get special attention.

What to Do After Finding Your Top Pages?

The next step after you find the most important pages on your WordPress site is to optimize them to get more traffic, and convert that traffic into subscribers and customers.

Here are a few ways to get started.

Improve SEO Rankings on Your Top Pages

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a smart way to get more visitors to your top pages, because it helps you grow your traffic over time.

You should check the keyword ranking for the top pages on your website. They are likely ranking on the first page, but you can optimize them further to improve your position to rank #1 in Google.

We recommend using AIOSEO plugin to optimize your blog posts.

To get started, see our checklist to optimize your blog posts for SEO. These tips will work for any page or post on your website.

Convert Visitors Into Email Subscribers

Did you know that, on average, over 75% of visitors to your top page will never return to your website?

That’s why building an email newsletter is so important. It allows you to communicate with visitors after they leave your website.

The best place to convert visitors into subscribers is on the top pages of your website.

You should consider using OptinMonster which is the #1 rated WordPress plugin to convert engaged and abandoning visitors into email subscribers.

If you signup from inside the OptinMonster WordPress plugin, they actually have a free account that you can use which is not available on their main website.

If you don’t have an email newsletter already, then you may also want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter the right way.

Optimize Your Sales Funnels

Are you selling a product or service on your top pages?

In that case, you can boost your sales by optimizing those pages to offer a better user experience, reduce distractions, and nudge users towards completing the purchase.

For example, you can add floating announcement bars on the top pages to get users to join your email list, check out your other popular posts, see your product, and more.

To get started, see our guide on how to make a high-converting sales funnel in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to find the most important page of your WordPress site. You may also want to take a look at our guide on how to choose the best website builder, or our comparison of the best email marketing services for small 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 Find the Most Important Page of Your WordPress Site appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 19, 2021 at 04:00PM

How to Share Your Blog Posts With Readers (4 Ways)

Are you looking for proven ways to share your blog posts with blog readers to grow your traffic?

Most people who read your blog won’t come back to see if you’ve published new posts. By sharing your new posts with readers, you can get them to come back to your website and potentially convert into customers.

In this article, we’ll show you how you can share new blog posts you’ve recently published with your readers.

Why Share Your Blog Posts with Readers?

Nearly 70% visitors leaving your website will never come back to visit again. As a website owner, you need to give them a reason to come back.

One of the best ways to do this is by sharing your new blog posts with them. If your blog posts are packed with value, then you’re helping your readers succeed by encouraging them to read your new content.

If you run an online store, then sharing your posts will deepen the relationship and turn subscribers into customers. Those running affiliate or review websites will get more views on their content, which means more clicks and commissions.

With that said, let’s take a look at a few different ways you can share your blog posts with your readers. Simply use the quick links below to go straight to the method you want to use to share your blog posts.

• Share your blog posts with push notification subscribers
• Share your blog post with your email list
• Share your blog posts with your social media followers
• Share Your blog posts with your SMS subscribers

1. Share Your Blog Posts with Push Notification Subscribers

One of the easiest and most effective ways to share new blog posts with your readers is by using push notifications.

A push notification is a popup message that goes out to your subscribers across desktop and mobile devices.

These can be very effective because they show up instantly no matter where your visitors happen to be. You don’t have to wait until they check their email or social media accounts for them to see your notification.

Here’s an example of what a blog post notification can look like:

The easiest way to add push notifications to your WordPress blog is by using PushEngage. It’s the best push notification software in the market used by over 10,000 businesses.

For more details on setting up and sending push notifications, see our guide on how to add web push notifications to your WordPress site.

After you activate and set up the plugin, push notifications for new blog posts will automatically be enabled on your site.

The moment you publish a new post, your notification will send out to all of your subscribers.

The push notification will include the title of your blog post and the featured image. Once they click the notification, they’ll be taken to the post on your website.

2. Share Your Blog Posts with Your Email List

Your email list is one of most valuable assets in your business and one of the best ways to stay in touch with your readers.

Email subscribers who have joined your list have already verified their identity and are very interested in what you have to offer, which makes them more likely to open your emails and return to your website.

Haven’t started to build your email list yet? The first thing you need to do is get a high quality email marketing service provider.

We recommend using Constant Contact since it’s one of the best email marketing services for small businesses.

Constant Contact offers tools that make it easy to manage your email list, like simple tracking and reporting, unlimited emails, segmentation, an image library, and more.

For more details on setting up your email list and sending emails, see our guide on how to create an email newsletter the right way.

Once your email list is set up, you can start sharing your blog posts with your email list.

Constant Contact has all the tools you need to start sending your blog posts to readers, including an option to embed posts directly into your email.

If you’re looking for creative ways to get more email subscribers, then consider adding a yes/no optin, using content upgrades, or getting started with coupon code popups on your website.

Looking for a Constant Contact alternative?

There are dozens of other email marketing services that you can use too including HubSpot, Sendinblue, and ConvertKit.

3. Share Your Blog Posts with Your Social Media Followers

Social media platforms are a great place to tap into a network of billions of people, build a following, and send traffic back to your site.

To build a loyal following, you need to engage with your users by interacting with them, posting updates, and sharing your content.

We regularly share our latest blog posts with our audience on Twitter and Facebook.

However, the big issue with manually sharing your blog posts on social media is that posting can be very time consuming.

Luckily, you can automate your WordPress website so that the moment you publish a new post, it’ll automatically share to social media.

The easiest way to do this is by using Uncanny Automator. It’s the best WordPress automation plugin that lets you create automated workflows without writing any code.

It connects with over 50 different plugins, tools, and applications, including popular social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

If you want to share your blog posts to Facebook, then see our guide on how to automatically post to Facebook from WordPress. For Twitter, see our guide on how to automatically tweet when you publish a new post in WordPress.

With your automations all set up, the moment you publish a new blog post, it’ll automatically share your blog posts with your social media followers.

4. Share Your Blog Posts with Your SMS Subscribers

Sending SMS messages can be a great way to share your new posts with your readers. Not only do text messages have a very high open rate, but people will check their text messages almost instantly.

The first thing you need to send SMS messages to your subscribers is an SMS marketing provider.

We recommend using Sendinblue since it’s one of the best email marketing providers that also allows you to send SMS messages.

For more details, see our guide on how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users.

Once your account is set up, you can share your blog posts with your readers via SMS. You’ll have full control over the recipients, message, sending time, and more.

We hope this article helped you learn how to share your blog posts with readers. You may also want to see our comparison of the best domain name registrars, and our expert picks of the best AI chatbots software for 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 Share Your Blog Posts With Readers (4 Ways) appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 18, 2021 at 02:05PM

How to Organize or Reorder WordPress Pages with Drag & Drop

Do you want to organize your WordPress pages by simply dragging and dropping them where you want?

WordPress will arrange your blog posts and pages based on the published date or alphabetical order by default. However, with the right WordPress plugin, you can reorder your pages to organize them more logically.

In this article, we will show you how to reorder and organize WordPress pages with drag and drop.

Why Change the Order of WordPress Pages?

By default, WordPress will organize your pages alphabetically or use the publish date to show the recent page first.

If you have a lot of pages, it can be difficult to manage them and find the pages you need in your WordPress dashboard.

Luckily, you can use a simple plugin to rearrange the pages by simply dragging and dropping them where you want.

Let’s take a look at how you can organize your WordPress pages by using drag and drop.

Note: This guide will show you how to reorder your pages in your WordPress dashboard, so you can then use this order in custom WP_Query. If you’d like to reorder pages the easy way, then we recommend using our guide on creating navigation menus in WordPress.

Organize Your WordPress Pages Using a Plugin

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

Once activated, there are no additional settings to use the plugin. Simply go to Pages » All Pages from your WordPress admin panel and start ordering your pages by dragging and dropping them.

You can now rearrange your WordPress pages and place them in any order you want.

How to Organize WordPress Pages Manually

Another way you can reorganize your WordPress pages is by changing the order in the page attributes section.

To start, simply edit any page. Once you’re in the WordPress block editor, navigate to the ‘Page Attributes’ box located in the menu on your right.

After that, you can enter the ‘Order’ value for your page. The lower the number, the higher it will appear in the list.

The problem with this method is that you’ll have to manually change the order value on all other pages that you want to rearrange on your website.

This can be time-consuming and doesn’t offer the drag and drop option to organize your pages. That’s why using the Simple Page Ordering plugin is a better option.

If you’d like to reorder your blog posts as well, then see our guide on easy ways to re-order your blog posts.

We hope this article helped you learn about the Simple Page Ordering plugin and how to organize WordPress pages with drag and drop. You may also want to look at our guide on how to create a free business email address, or see our expert comparison of the best domain registrars.

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 Organize or Reorder WordPress Pages with Drag & Drop appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 16, 2021 at 04:00PM

7 Best WordPress Image Compression Plugins Compared (2021)

Are you looking for the best WordPress image compression plugin for your website?

Image compression plugins allow you to easily optimize images in WordPress for better speed and performance automatically.

In this article, we have compared the best image compression plugins for WordPress.

When Do You Need a WordPress Image Compression Plugin?

Images are larger in size than plain text which means they take longer to load and can slow down your website.

However you’ve probably heard the saying: “a picture is worth a thousand words”. Images make your content more engaging and interactive.

To improve your WordPress website speed, you need to optimize your images for the web.

Since optimizing your images can make your site load faster, it will improve your WordPress SEO, and help you get more traffic.

The best way to do this is by using Photoshop or another image editing software before you upload the image to WordPress. This gives you a lot more control on the quality of images on your website.

However, not all users are comfortable working with an image editing program. For some people, optimizing every single image they upload sounds like a lot of work.

Luckily, there are several WordPress image compression plugins that can help you with that. These plugins optimize your images by automatically compressing them and using the smaller sized version on your website.

That being said, let’s take a look at the best WordPress image compression plugins, and how they stack up in terms of image optimization, performance, and quality.

1. EWWW Image Optimizer

EWWW Image Optimizer is the best WordPress image compression plugin. It is easy to use and can automatically optimize images you upload on the fly.

It can also compress and optimize your previously uploaded images in bulk.

Even though your images are being compressed, it’ll be very hard to tell the difference between compressed and uncompressed in terms of quality.

Plus, the entire process of compressing and optimizing is automated. This includes image scaling to fit the right size page and device, lazy loading, and even conversion into the next-gen WebP image format.

It can also optimize images generated by other WordPress plugins and stored outside your media library folders. This plugin support JPG, PNG, GIF, and even PDF optimization.

There is also a free version of the plugin available, which lets you perform image optimizations on your own server. This can be great for WordPress website owners concerned about privacy.

However, sites with a lot of images or sites that get a lot of traffic will want to opt for the paid plan, since it includes an image optimizing CDN, which will automatically compress and convert images as they are viewed.

Best of all, EWWW Image Optimizer is very affordable. Plans start at $7 per month and support unlimited images. If you have more than one site, then you’ll need a higher priced plan.

Included in your plan is a caching engine, CSS/JS optimization, and Google Font optimization to help your site load even faster.

2. Optimole

Optimole is another excellent option for a WordPress image compression plugin.

Using this plugin requires a quick account creation and API key setup. After that, it’s straightforward to use and gives you complete control over your image optimization.

Optimole is powered by an image CDN, so your images will load quickly no matter where your visitors are coming from. With a CDN, your images are optimized in real-time and delivered to your website visitors in the perfect size.

You can view all of your optimized images in a single dashboard, making it easy to customize compression settings for individual images.

It lets you adjust things like the compression quality, large image resizing, lazy loading, and more.

There’s even a unique setting that will automatically watermark your images for you. This is great for photographers who are trying to protect their work.

Pricing is based on the number of visitors you have per month. The free plugin allows for up to 5,000 visitors per month. While the paid plans start at $19.08 per month when billed yearly and support up to 25,000 visitors per month.

3. ShortPixel Image Optimizer

ShortPixel Image Optimizer is another great WordPress image compression plugin.

It’s packed with advanced features and gives you the ability to choose compression formats. It starts compressing images as soon you as activate plugin and stores your original images in a separate folder.

If you’re using the free plugin, then it requires you to get an API key by providing your email address.

The basic free account allows you to compress up to 100 images per month, and you will need to upgrade to their paid plans to increase this limit.

You can even simply convert PNG to JPEG and vice versa with the click of a button.

It’s also compatible with WooCommerce, NextGEN Gallery, and the WPML translation plugins.

If you’re using Cloudflare as your WordPress CDN, then you can integrate the service, so your images will be automatically updated with the new version.

ShortPixel is also very affordable. Plans are based on the number of images and start at $4.99 per month for up to 5,000 images per month.

4. reSmush.it

reSmush.it is another great choice for a WordPress image compression plugin. It allows you to automatically optimize images on upload as well as offer a bulk optimization option for older images.

You have full control over the image quality and compression with an easy to use slider.

It uses the reSmush API to optimize images and allows you to choose the optimization level for your uploads.

The downside is that it doesn’t have different compression levels. It also limits optimization to uploads lower than 5MB in size. You can exclude individual images from compression in case you need to add an image in full size.

5. Compress JPEG & PNG images

Compress JPEG & PNG is created by the team behind TinyPNG, and you will need to create an account to use the plugin. You can only optimize 500 images each month with the free account.

It can automatically compress images upon upload, and you can also bulk optimize older images.

The plugin settings allow you to choose which image sizes you want to optimize. You can also set a maximum size for your original uploads. Images larger than that size will be automatically resized by the plugin.

You can also choose to save image data like time and date, copyright information, and GPS location on JPEG files.

6. WP Rocket

WP Rocket is the best WordPress caching plugin in the market. It’s very beginner friendly and will help to make your site blazing fast.

There are image optimization features within WP Rocket, like lazy loading, which will only load images when they are viewed.

They also developed a plugin called Imagify. This plugin lets you optimize all of your images with a single click. It will also resize your images on the fly and lets you restore your images to their original size.

You also have full control over your image optimization and compression settings. All of your images will be optimized to your preferences.

7. Jetpack

Jetpack is a powerful WordPress plugin suite that combines essential WordPress features into a single plugin. The primary focus is security, performance, and marketing.

The image optimization features fall under the performance category. To enable image compression, all you have to do is turn on a single setting. There are no additional settings for you to set up.

What it does is automatically optimize your image and serve images to your visitors using a CDN. This reduces your server load and provides faster image loading for your visitors.

To access the image optimization, you can use the free version of the plugin as well.

If you like the idea of Jetpack, but are looking for plugins to replace all of Jetpack’s features, then see our guide on the best alternatives to the WordPress Jetpack plugin.

Comparison Test Scores for Image Compression Plugins

Now that you know about the different WordPress image compression options, let’s take a look at how they compare against each other in terms of performance.

To measure this, we ran test by uploading the same image using each of these plugins.

Testing JPEG Image Compression

We used the following JPEG image for our tests, it is 118.3 KB in file size.

We didn’t touch any of the plugin settings and tested the compression with out of the box settings. Here are our test results:

Plugin	Compressed Size	Saved (%)	Method
EWWW Image Optimizer	64 KB	54.24%	Lossless
Optimole	64 KB	54.24%	Lossless
ShortPixel Image Optimizer	72 KB	39.30%	Lossless
reSmush.it	78 KB	20.81%	Lossless
Compress JPEG & PNG images	118.1 KB	2 %	Lossy

Testing PNG Image Compression

Next we wanted to test a PNG image to see how our contenders optimize it.

We used the following PNG image for the test, and it is 99.4 KB in file size.

Here are our test results:

Plugin	Compressed Size	Saved (%)	Method
EWWW Image Optimizer	97 KB	1.9%	Lossless
Optimole	41 KB	64%	Lossless
ShortPixel Image Optimizer	36 KB	56%	Lossy
reSmush.it	36 KB	56%	Lossless
Compress JPEG & PNG images	34.3 KB	54%	Lossy

Which is The Best Image Compression Plugin for WordPress?

If you are looking for the best image compression plugin, then EWWW Image Optimizer is the best choice.

It offers high levels of compression that don’t sacrifice image quality, plus it’s equipped with an image CDN and other features that will optimize your website for speed.

Another great option for sites that get less traffic is Optimole. It operates entirely in the background and takes care of image optimization for you, plus it’s free up to 5,000 visitors per month.

If you’re looking for an affordable plugin that offers high levels of compression and image conversion, then ShortPixel is worth checking out.

We hope you found this comparison of best WordPress image compression plugins useful. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide to image SEO to optimize images for search engines, and our expert picks of the best email marketing services for businesses.

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

The post 7 Best WordPress Image Compression Plugins Compared (2021) appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 15, 2021 at 04:30PM

How to Exclude Pages from WordPress Search Results (Step by Step)

Do you want to learn how to exclude pages from the WordPress search results?

By default, the internal search on your WordPress site will include all posts and pages in the search results. To make it easier for your site visitors to find what they’re looking for, you may want to exclude certain content, so it never appears in those results.

In this article, we’ll show you how to exclude certain pages from the WordPress search results, step by step.

Why Exclude Pages from WordPress Search Results?

The default WordPress site search includes all of your posts, pages, and custom post types in the search results. This works well enough for many WordPress website owners.

However, if you’re running an online store, then you may want to hide pages like your account page, checkout page, thank you page, and more.

The same goes for those running membership websites or online courses. You may want to hide subscriber-only content from appearing in search.

With that said, let’s show you how to exclude pages from your sitewide WordPress search results.

Note: This guide covers on-site search results, when a visitor to your website uses a search box to search through your website content. If you’re looking to exclude pages from Google search results, then you should see our guide on how to hide a WordPress page from Google.

Create a New WordPress Search Algorithm with a WordPress Plugin

The easiest way to exclude pages from the WordPress search results is by using the SearchWP plugin. It’s the best search plugin for WordPress used by over 30,000 websites.

It’s very easy to use and gives you complete control of your WordPress search results.

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

Upon activation, navigate to Settings » SearchWP and then click the ‘License’ menu option.

Then, you can enter your license key into the ‘License’ box and click the ‘Activate’ button. You can find this information in your account on the SearchWP website.

After that, you need to click on the ‘Engines’ menu option.

This takes you to a page where you need to set your default search engine settings. Think of it like creating your own Google search algorithm that’s only for your website.

With SearchWP, you need to create a sitewide search engine before you can start excluding pages from the WordPress search results.

You can change the search engine settings by clicking on the ‘Posts’, ‘Pages’, ‘Media’, and other custom post type drop downs.

Each section has a weight multiplier that will change how the search engine ranks your website’s content.

For example, if you move the ‘Title’ slider down and the ‘Content’ slider up, then the content will hold more value than the title.

You can also completely remove all pages from appearing in the WordPress search here.

Simply click the ‘Remove’ button in the ‘Pages’ section.

This brings up a popup where you need to uncheck the ‘Pages’ box.

Then, click the ‘Done’ button to remove all pages from appearing in search.

After you’re done customizing the default search engine settings, you need to click the ‘Save Engines’ button to create your first engine.

Exclude Specific Pages From the WordPress Search Results

If you only want to exclude specific pages from the search results on your website, then this section is for you.

To do this, we’ll be using the Exclude UI extension from SearchWP. When you’re logged into your SearchWP account, go to the Exclude UI download page and click ‘Download Extension’.

Then, install and activate the extension as you would any other WordPress plugin.

After that, open up the page that you want to exclude from the search results.

Next, make sure the ‘Page’ option is selected in your right hand menu, and simply check the ‘Exclude from search’ checkbox.

Then click the ‘Update’ button, and that page will now be
hidden from the search results. Even if your visitors enter the exact title of the page into your search bar, it will not appear.

If you want to hide more individual pages from the search results, then simply follow the above steps again.

To exclude specific blog posts from WordPress search results, you can follow the same steps above. The only difference is that the right-hand menu will say ‘Post’ instead of ‘Page’.

We hope this article helped you learn how to exclude pages from the WordPress search results. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide on how to get a free SSL certificate for your website and our best business phone services for small businesses.

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

The post How to Exclude Pages from WordPress Search Results (Step by Step) appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 14, 2021 at 01:30PM

How to Properly Move from Ghost to WordPress (Free Tool)

Do you want to move your website from Ghost to WordPress?

Ghost is a website builder that allows you to easily create websites. Due to its limitations, many users realize that they would be better off with WordPress.

In this article, we will show you how to easily move from Ghost to WordPress.

Moving From Ghost to WordPress

There are many similarities between Ghost and WordPress, but Ghost lacks certain features that make WordPress the best website builder on the market. You can read more about these features in our side-by-side comparison of Ghost vs WordPress.

When we say WordPress, we are talking about self-hosted WordPress.org and not WordPress.com which is a hosting service. To understand the difference, see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com vs WordPress.org.

Many users who start with Ghost soon realize the limitations of the platform and want to move to WordPress. This article will help you do that.

Here is what we will cover in this article:

• Getting Started with WordPress
• Export Content from Ghost
• Converting Ghost Export File to WordPress Format
• Import Content in WordPress
• Import Images from Ghost to WordPress
• Pointing Your Domain to WordPress
• Setting Up Permalinks
• Essential WordPress Plugins and Tools

Step 1. Getting Started with WordPress

To start a WordPress website, you need a domain name and website hosting.

A domain name is the name of your website (e.g. wpbeginner.com), and it’s what users will type in their browsers to visit it. A web hosting account is where all your website files are stored.

While WordPress itself is free, both domain name and web hosting come at a cost ($14.99 / year for domain and $7.99 / month for web hosting).

Thankfully, Bluehost, an official WordPress recommended hosting provider has agreed to offer our users a free domain name and over 60% off on web hosting.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Note: You may already have a domain name for your Ghost website, which you can point to WordPress after moving your website. However, if you don’t have a domain name, then you can get one for free when signing up for Bluehost.

Once you have signed up for a hosting account, you can follow our instructions on how to install WordPress.

Tip: If your Ghost website uses a custom domain name that you would like to keep for your WordPress website as well, then you can still install WordPress on a temporary subdomain. We will show you how to add your domain to your WordPress hosting account later in this article.

After installing WordPress, you will see the WordPress admin dashboard which looks like this:

Step 2. Export Content from Ghost

Ghost allows you to easily export content from your account.

Simply log in to your account dashboard and click on the Settings icon located at the bottom of the left column.

From here you need to click on the Labs menu. This will bring you to Ghost features that are still under development. Click on the Export button next to the ‘Export your content’ section.

Your browser will now download an export file in JSON format. However, this format is not supported by WordPress importer tools, so you’ll need to convert it to WordPress XML format.

Step 3. Converting Ghost Export File to WordPress Format

The default Ghost export file does not use a format supported by WordPress, and there used to be no reliable way to safely convert it into the correct format.

We decided to fix this issue and created the Ghost to WordPress Importer tool. This tool is completely free to use and allows you to convert your Ghost JSON export file into a WordPress compatible XML file.

Simply go to the Ghost to WordPress migration tool website and fill in the form. Next, you need to select the Ghost export file you downloaded earlier.

Click on the Generate WP Import File button to continue.

The Ghost to WordPress migrator tool will then convert your Ghost export file into WordPress XML format. Once finished, you’ll be able to download the file to your computer.

Now you’re ready to start importing content to your WordPress website.

Step 4. Import Content in WordPress

From your WordPress admin area, you need to visit the Tools » Import page and click on the Install Now link below the WordPress importer.

WordPress will now install the importer plugin. Once finished, the install link will change to say ‘Run Importer’. Go ahead and click on the Run Importer link.

On the next screen, you need to click on the Upload file button to select the WordPress XML file you downloaded in the previous step.

Click on the Upload file and import button to continue.

WordPress will now upload the import file. After that, you will be asked to assign authors.

You can import an author from your Ghost website, create a new author, or assign all content to an existing WordPress user.

Don’t forget to check the box next to ‘Download and import file attachments’. It will attempt to fetch images from your Ghost website and import them into the WordPress media library, so you can use them later.

Once the importer has finished running, you will see a success message.

In rare cases, you might see an issue like some posts are missing, or the importer timed out. Don’t worry, you can run the importer as many times as you like. It will automatically avoid duplicate imports and will only import items that it missed.

Depending on how much content you have, the importer may fail to import images inside posts and pages to your WordPress media library

Let’s see how to easily fix this and import images from Ghost to WordPress.

Step 5. Import Images from Ghost to WordPress

The WordPress importer will try to import images from your Ghost website to your WordPress media library.

However, it may miss some images or not import any images at all. Your website would still show images from your Ghost website, which would become an issue if your Ghost website is deleted.

Luckily, there is an easy way to import external images into the WordPress media library using a plugin.

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

Upon activation, you simply need to edit and update your blog posts and the plugin will then import any external images in those articles to your media library.

You can also bulk update all your blog posts to quickly import images from your Ghost site. For more details, see our tutorial on how to easily import external images in WordPress.

Step 6. Pointing Your Domain to WordPress

Once you have successfully migrated content from Ghost to WordPress. It is time to start pointing your users to the new WordPress website.

If your website was using a Ghost branded sub-domain (e.g. yourwebsite.ghost.io), then you cannot point that link to your new WordPress website. Instead, we recommend editing your Ghost website and add a plain text notification informing users to check out your website on the new location.

On the other hand, if you were using a custom domain like yourdomain.com, then you can change its DNS settings and point it to your new WordPress hosting provider.

In order to change domain settings, you will need to log in to your domain registrar account and find the option to change the DNS settings.

In the DNS settings area, you need to enter your new WordPress hosting provider’s nameserver information. Usually, it looks something like this:

ns1.bluehost.com
ns2.bluehost.com

For other domain registrars, see our complete guide on how to easily change DNS nameservers.

Once you change the DNS name server, your domain will start showing your WordPress website instead of your older Ghost website. Note that it can take a couple of days for the changes to take effect.

Step 7. Setting Up Permalinks

The next step is to redirect users from each page of your Ghost website to the correct post or page in WordPress.

By default, Ghost websites use the post or page name as the default permalink structure. You can match them on your WordPress site by simply going to Settings » Permalinks and choosing Post Name as your URL structure.

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

Note: If your Ghost website used a subdomain, then you’ll not be able to set up redirects by changing permalinks.

Step 8. Essential WordPress Plugins and Tools

Now that you have transferred from Ghost to WordPress, it’s time to take advantage of WordPress plugins and tools to grow your website.

1. WPForms – WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin. It allows you to easily create any type of form on your WordPress website without writing any code.

2. All in One SEO – AIOSEO is the most comprehensive WordPress SEO plugin on the market. It is super easy to use and comes with a set up wizard, SEO audit tool, TruSEO score for posts and pages, and other features to help you get more traffic.

3. PushEngage – Want to send instant notifications to users on mobile and desktop devices? PushEngage is the best push notification service on the market and helps you bring back website visitors, increase pageviews, and boost conversions.

4. MonsterInsights – MonsterInsights helps you easily install Google Analytics in WordPress and shows you easy-to-understand website traffic reports right inside your dashboard.

Need more tools and tips to grow your new WordPress website? See our full list of essential WordPress plugins for all types of websites.

We hope this article helped you move you properly move from Ghost to WordPress. You may also want to see our checklist of things to do after installing WordPress or see our tips on how to make money online with your WordPress 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 Properly Move from Ghost to WordPress (Free Tool) appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 13, 2021 at 03:00PM

How to Make a Separate RSS Feed for Each Category in WordPress

Do you want to make a separate RSS feed for each category in WordPress?

Categories allow you to easily sort your content into major sections. Adding category RSS feeds can help your users subscribe to specific areas of your website that interest them.

In this article, we will show you how to easily make a separate RSS feed for each category in WordPress. We’ll also talk about how you can use them effectively to grow your website.

Locating RSS Feed for Categories in WordPress

Categories and tags are two of the main default taxonomies in WordPress. They allow you to easily sort and organize your content into different subjects and topics.

By default, each category on your WordPress website has its own RSS feed. You can locate this RSS feed by simply adding ‘feed’ at the end of the category page URL.

For instance, if you had a category called ‘News’ with a URL like this:

https://ift.tt/3DwEp9r

Then its RSS feed would be located at the following URL:

https://ift.tt/3FBxxtn

Tip: You can find your category URL by visiting Posts » Categories page and clicking on the View link below a category.

Display Your Category RSS Feed Links in WordPress

Now that you have located the RSS feed URLs for your categories, let’s take a look at some of the ways that you can share them with visitors on your WordPress website.

1. Add Links to Category RSS Feeds in WordPress

The easiest way to point users to a category RSS feed is by adding a link to the category feed.

You can simply edit a post or page and add a plain text link anywhere you want.

You can use this method to manually create a list of links to all your category RSS feeds.

However, what if you add, delete, or merge categories in the future, then you will have to manually update that list.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you can show a dynamic list of category RSS feeds that is automatically updated? Next we’ll show you how to do just that.

2. Manually Display a List of Category Feeds

This next method allows you to display a list of categories with links to the category-specific RSS feed. Best of all, the list will update automatically if you add or remove a category on your site.

For this method, you’ll need to add some custom code to your WordPress website. If you haven’t done this before, then take a look at our guide on how to easily add custom code snippets in WordPress.

First, you need to find an image that you want to use as the RSS feed icon. For this tutorial, we are using the RSS feed icon that is 32×32 pixels in dimensions.

After that, you need to upload that image to your website. Simply go to Media » Add New page to upload your image and then click on the ‘Copy URL to Clipboard’ button.

Now paste this image URL in a plain text editor like Notepad or TextEdit. You’ll need it in the next step.

After that, you need to paste the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

function wpbeginner_cat_feed_list() { 
$string .=  '<ul>'; 
$string .= wp_list_categories( array(
        'orderby'    => 'name',
        'show_count' => true,
        'feed_image' => '/path/to/feed-image.png'
        'echo' =>
    ) );     
$string .= '</ul>'; 
return $string; 
}
$add_shortcode('wpb-cat-feeds', 'wpbeginner_cat_feed_list' );

You will need to replace the ‘/path/to/feed-image.png’ with the URL of the feed icon image you copied earlier.

Now you can use the [wpb-cat-feeds] shortcode anywhere on your WordPress website to display the list of categories with the RSS feed icon next to each category.

3. Show RSS Feed Subscription Option on Category Pages (Advanced)

Normally, WordPress category archive pages don’t have an option to subscribe. You can easily change that by adding a link to the RSS feed subscription on each category page.

To do that, you’ll need to make changes to your WordPress template files. Simply add the following code to the category.php or archive.php template in your WordPress theme.

<?php                
if ( is_category() ) { 
$category = get_category( get_query_var('cat') );
if ( ! empty( $category ) )
echo '<div class="category-feed"><p><a href="' . get_category_feed_link( $category->cat_ID ) . '" title="Subscribe to this category" rel="nofollow">Subscribe</a></p></div>';
}
?>

After you save your changes, you can visit any category page to see the subscribe link in action.

Tip: Need help finding out which file to edit in your WordPress theme? See our complete WordPress template hierarchy cheat sheet for beginners to figure this out.

How to Take Advantage of Category RSS Feeds in WordPress

Category RSS feeds allow your users to subscribe only to areas that interest them the most.

For instance, if you have a technology news blog, then your users can choose to subscribe only to news about the devices that they use.

However, a plain RSS feed isn’t readable without a feed reader. And nowadays, most users don’t use a feed reader to subscribe to their favorite websites.

This is where it gets tricky. How do you use your category RSS feeds if your users don’t use feed readers?

Luckily, you can use your category feeds to deliver content to your users anywhere they want.

For instance, you can ask users to sign up for your email newsletter with an option to get updates only for specific categories.

With an email marketing service like Constant Contact, Sendinblue, and others, you can easily set up an automated RSS-to-email newsletter only for specific categories. See our guide on how to notify subscribers of new posts for step-by-step instructions.

Similarly, you can also allow users to get instant push notifications for each category using PushEngage. It is the best push notification service on the market and allows you to send messages directly to your users’ devices (desktop as well as mobile phones).

PushEngage allows you to set up automatic push notifications using RSS feeds. You can simply enter your category RSS feed URL, and a push notification will go out whenever a new post is published in that category.

We hope this article helped you learn how to make separate RSS feed for each category in WordPress. You may also want to see these easy tips to grow your blog traffic or take a look at our comparison of the best live chat software for small 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 Make a Separate RSS Feed for Each Category in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

October 12, 2021 at 05:00PM