Do you want to set up categories and tags for your WordPress pages, but don’t know how to get started?
Categories and tags help you sort your blog posts and make it easier for users to find what they are looking for. However, they’re only available for posts by default, not for pages.
In this article, we will show you how to add categories and tags for WordPress pages.
Why Add Categories and Tags to WordPress Pages?
Categories and tags are default WordPress taxonomies for your blog posts. Categories are a broad grouping of content, while tags help describe specific details of your content. You can read more about the difference in our guide to categories vs tags.
When you create a new page, you will notice that there is no option to add categories or tags to your WordPress page.
However, you may want to add categories and tags to your WordPress pages. It can help you to organize and sort your content if you have a lot of pages. It can also improve your site navigation and help your visitors to find related pages on your WordPress website more easily.
If you have multiple sales pages for different products in your online store, for example, then you can group them under broad categories.
You can do the same for different feature pages for your apps and software. For example, OptinMonster groups multiple feature pages under the ‘Features’ category.
Let’s see how you can add categories and tags to your WordPress pages.
Adding Categories and Tags to WordPress Pages
The easiest way of setting up categories and tags for your WordPress pages is by using the Pages with category and tag plugin. It’s a free WordPress plugin and works out of the box with no need for additional configuration.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Once activated, go to Pages » Add New and you will find post categories and tags now available for your WordPress pages.
Next, you can create categories and tags for your pages.
To add a category, head over Pages » Categories from your WordPress dashboard and then enter a ‘Name’ and ‘Slug’ for your category.
After that, you can scroll down and select a ‘Parent Category’ for your category.
Once you’ve entered these details, simply click the ‘Add New Category’ button.
You can then view your newly added category for your pages.
If you want to delete a category, then simply click the checkbox next to it and select ‘Delete’ from the Bulk Action dropdown and click the ‘Apply’ button.
Next, you can assign your WordPress pages to the categories you just created.
To start, simply edit or create a new page. From the WordPress content editor, you can now select the relevant category from the menu on your right. For instance, we created a feature page and marked it under the Features category.
Similarly, you can add tags for your WordPress page under the ‘Tags’ field. If you want to add multiple tags, then simply separate them using a comma.
For example, you can add keywords and phrases that help describe your content. In our case, we added the terms ‘exit intent’ and ‘OptinMonster’ as tags.
After selecting your category and adding tags, simply update or publish your WordPress page.
Are you wondering what is IndexNow, and whether you should add IndexNow in WordPress?
IndexNow is a new SEO initiative created by Microsoft to help your website get indexed faster in search engines. This boosts new content discoverability and speed up your SEO results.
In this article, we will share how to add IndexNow in WordPress to speed up SEO results.
What is IndexNow?
IndexNow is an automatic ping that lets search engines know when a post or page (URL) on your website has been added, updated, or deleted. This allows search engines to quickly update their search results speeding up overall SEO results. Simply put, it’s instant indexing!
This is a new initiative started by Microsoft, and it’s currently supported by both Microsoft Bing and Yandex. A Google spokeperson has also confirmed that they will be testing the IndexNow protocol due to environmental sustainability.
Currently, all search engines use XML sitemaps to discover new content and updates. The challenge is that it can sometimes take days to weeks for search engines to discover new content updates because they visit your website at random intervals.
Search engine bots are inefficient due to their legacy design, and they have a high carbon footprint.
When a search engine bot visits your sitemap, it attempts to visit every single link that it finds on the sitemap as well as every single link that’s inside of each page. This is a resource intensive process, and IndexNow protocol aims to solve that.
Instead of having search engine bots randomly scan every single page on your site to see what’s been updated, IndexNow allows your website to simply ping the search engine to let them know when you publish a new post or update an existing piece of content.
This way they can quickly update their search results while helping the environment.
IndexNow is a win for website owners, win for search engines, and a win for the world.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to add IndexNow in WordPress to speed up your SEO results.
Method 1. How to Add IndexNow in WordPress using AIOSEO
AIOSEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin used by over 3 million websites. We use AIOSEO on WPBeginner to improve our SEO rankings.
In their recent update, AIOSEO became the first WordPress SEO plugin to add IndexNow support for WordPress.
For this tutorial, we will be using the premium version of AIOSEO because it includes IndexNow and other powerful SEO features. There is also a free version of AIOSEO that you can use to try it out.
Once activated, you need to go AIOSEO » Feature Manager from your WordPress dashboard to enable the IndexNow feature.
Once enabled, IndexNow is automatically configured and ready to go – no action is needed on your part.
AIOSEO partnered with Microsoft to build this integration, and they made the process beginner friendly. They automatically generate an IndexNow API key for your website and configure it for you, so you don’t have to do anything.
You can verify this by going to AIOSEO » General Settings and click on the Webmaster Tools tab. There you will see the IndexNow icon, and if you click it you’ll see that your website’s IndexNow API key is already pre-configured.
AIOSEO comes with many other powerful features to help you improve your WordPress SEO rankings including Link Assistant, redirection manager, and more.
We have a step by step guide on how to properly setup All in One SEO which also includes instructions how you can switch from Yoast, RankMath, and others to AIOSEO.
Method 2. How to Add IndexNow in WordPress using the IndexNow plugin
While other WordPress SEO plugins have begun to add IndexNow support, most don’t have it yet. If you don’t want to switch to AIOSEO, then you can use this option instead.
» IndexNow in your WordPress dashboard. You will need to click on the Get Started now button, and it will automatically generate your API key and get everything configured.
After that, you will see a screen with IndexNow stats like successful URL submissions and more.
That’s all, you have successfully added IndexNow to WordPress.
Final Thoughts on IndexNow and Future of SEO
IndexNow is a new initiative and it has already been adapted by Microsoft Bing and Yandex. Google is said to be testing support for this, and we really hope they adapt it as well.
We believe that all popular website builder platforms will add IndexNow integrations with AIOSEO leading the way for WordPress, but other companies like Duda, Cloudflare, etc have all added IndexNow integrations in the recent months.
IndexNow is a great solution for both small and large sites, and it’s a SEO professional’s dream come true since it finally speeds up SEO results with nearly instant indexing.
It’s important to emphasize that IndexNow does NOT replace sitemaps. You still should have XML sitemaps, video sitemap, news sitemap, and other advanced sitemaps to help improve your SEO rankings. You should use IndexNow alongside sitemaps to gain a competitive advantage.
Do you need to add nofollow links in your WordPress navigation menus?
Many website owners prefer to add a nofollow tag to external links, but beginners may find this tricky when adding a custom link to a menu.
In this article, we’ll show you how to add nofollow links in WordPress navigation menus.
Why Add Nofollow Links in WordPress Navigation Menus?
If you are running a WordPress website, then you may want to add a nofollow tag when creating external links. This lets search engines know not to pass any link authority from your page to the other website that you’re linking to.
When you link to an external website, search engines consider that as a ranking signal, and they will pass a small portion of your authority to the other website. As a general SEO best practice, you should add nofollow to all external websites that you don’t trust.
You do that by adding the rel="nofollow" attribute to the link like this:
In this article, we will show you how to add nofollow links in WordPress navigation menus. We’ll cover two methods, and the second method is for those using WordPress 5.9 or higher and a theme that’s compatible with the new theme editor.
Method 1: Adding Nofollow Links Using the WordPress Menu Editor
To get started, simply visit Appearance » Menus in your WordPress admin area.
First, you need to add the external link to your WordPress navigation menu just like you would add any custom link.
To do that, you need to click on the ‘Custom Links’ tab so you can see the URL and Link Text options. Simply enter the URL and link text of the website you are linking to.
After that, you should click the ‘Add to Menu’ button and the link will be added to the ‘Menu structure’ column.
To add the nofollow attribute to the link, you need to click the downward arrow on the right of the menu entry, as pictured in the screenshot above. You can now see the details of the external link you just added, including the URL and navigation label.
If you don’t see the Link Target and Link Relationship options, then you will have to add them.
To show those options, you need to click the ‘Screen Options’ button at the top right corner of the screen. Then check the boxes next to the Link Target and Link Relationship (XFN) options.
Now you can scroll back down to your expanded menu item, and you will notice two new options. Next, simply enter nofollow in the link relationship field.
We recommend that you also click the ‘Open link in a new tab’ checkbox when adding an external link. This is a great way to improve engagement and keep your visitors from leaving your website.
Lastly, click the ‘Save Menu’ button to store your changes.
You can now preview your site to see the new nofollow menu entry.
Let’s make sure that a nofollow attribute has been added to the link.
Simply right click the new link and select ‘Inspect’. Your browser window will split into two windows. In the bottom window, you will be able to see the HTML source for your link. It will display the nofollow attribute with your link.
Method 2: Adding Nofollow Links Using the WordPress Theme Editor
This method is for those who are using WordPress 5.9 or later and have a theme that supports the new WordPress theme editor. In that case, the Appearance » Menus page will not be available to you.
Instead, you should navigate to Appearance » Editor in your WordPress dashboard. This will open the WordPress theme editor.
Adding a New Link to the Navigation Menu
If you need to add a new menu item, then you’ll have to click the blue Block Inserter icon in the top left corner. Next, you should scroll down until you locate the Custom Link block and then drag it onto your navigation menu.
You can now type or paste the URL. If you want, you can also toggle the ‘Open in new tab’ option to the on position. After that, make sure you click the Submit icon at the top right of the popup so that the menu item’s settings are stored.
The link URL will be added to the menu, but you’ll normally want something more descriptive, such as the name of the website. Simply start typing to rename the menu item.
Adding the Nofollow Attribute to a Link
To add the nofollow attribute to a menu item, simply click it and a toolbar will appear.
Next you need to click the link icon on that toolbar. In the settings pane on the right, you need to enter nofollow in the link relationship (‘Link rel’) field.
If you like, you can also add a description and title for the link, and reorder the menu items using the arrow icons on the toolbar.
When you’ve finished, click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen. The new custom link will be added and you can visit your website to see how your navigation menu looks now.
Are you looking for the best credit monitoring service for your small business?
Credit monitoring is an important topic of discussion among website owners and entrepreneurs because of all the recent data breaches that’s been happening. According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), there were 4.7 million identity and credit fraud incidents reported in 2020.
In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best credit monitoring services for your small business that you can use along with your WordPress site.
Why Do You Need a Credit Monitoring Service?
With everything going on in the digital security world, it’s absolutely critical that every small business owner and entrepreneur have a credit monitoring service, so you can quickly detect and prevent identity theft and digital fraud.
A good credit monitoring service allows you to do the following:
Track your credit reports from all 3 major credit-bureaus and get near real-time alerts for suspicious activities.
You can setup bank account monitoring from a single dashboard. Their AI-powered algorithm helps you avoid becoming a victim of bank / credit fraud.
The dark web monitoring reports alert you if any of your passwords, social security number, or bank accounts were compromised as part of any data breach, so you can act fast.
You get device & wifi security which helps you browse safely wherever you are, and some services also gives you secure password management tools.
Easily get help from trained professionals with fraud resolution in case an unfortunate event occurs where any of your financial accounts are compromised.
Most credit monitoring services will also offer up to $1 million dollar in insurance to help protect you and your business.
If you are running an online store or a small business website, then adding a credit monitoring service can help you protect your business and bring peace of mind.
Credit theft can significantly hurt a small business’ ability to open bank accounts, borrow money, get a credit card, and even accept online payments.
While it’s easy to think this would never happen to you, in 2020, WPBeginner founder Syed Balkhi, nearly lost $1.4 million dollars due to a digital fraud.
After months of stress and countless hours, he recovered vast majority of the money with the help of Department of Homeland security, but all of that could have been prevented if everyone involved was using a comprehensive online security solution.
That being said, let’s take a look at the best credit monitoring services for small business owners & entrepreneurs.
Aura is the best credit monitoring and identity theft protection service when it comes to features, ease of use, and price.
They offer an all-in-one financial security platform with an easy setup and reasonable pricing. Their user interface makes it easy for small business owners to setup credit monitoring, manage their identity protection, financial protection, and device protection from one single app (mobile or desktop).
Their credit monitoring service includes near-real time credit report monitoring for all
three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) which allows you to get instant fraud alerts sometimes up to 4x faster than competition.
The dashboard also includes the ability monitor your credit score, ability to lock your credit profile,
financial transaction monitoring, bank account monitoring, 401k & investment account monitoring, and more.
Aside from their credit monitoring service, you also get all the powerful security features like A.I. powered dark web monitoring, identity verification monitoring, personal information and social security number (SSN) monitoring, criminal and court records monitoring.
All plans include a $1 million dollar identity theft insurance policy to cover eligible losses and any fees due to credit fraud or identity theft. Their expert resolution team is U.S. based, and they work 24/7 to help you recover your identity and assets if you’re a victim of fraud.
Pricing for Aura’s credit monitoring service starts from $9 per month for the Individual plan. Their Family group plan costs $25 per month for up to 10 people, and it includes all credit monitoring features as well as VPN + antivirus. These are special pricing for WPBeginner readers and let you save up to 50% off.
Note: We use Aura on WPBeginner as our credit monitoring service. In our experience, Aura is the best credit monitoring and identity theft protection service in the market from both features and pricing point of view.
As a small business owner, we really like that Aura offers a free VPN and Antivirus software to boost our device & wifi security. This really makes them a comprehensive credit monitoring service + digital security solution.
Their VPN (virtual private network) helps secures your internet connection with military-grade encryption wherever you are. It’s very useful when you’re traveling or working from a public place like Starbucks.
Expert Review: We believe Aura is the best overall credit monitoring service and identity theft protection solution for small businesses with affordable individual and family plans.
Identity Guard is another popular credit monitoring service for entrepreneurs, individuals, and families.
Their credit monitoring and identity theft protection platform includes all the standard functionality you would need in their Value plan such as data breach notifications, dark web monitoring (powered by IBM Watson AI), risk management report, high risk transaction monitoring, safe browsing tools, and $1 million insurance with stolen fund reimbursement.
Their Total and Ultra plans include advanced credit protection features as well such as bank account monitoring, credit & debit card monitoring, 401k & investment monitoring, address change monitoring, social media monitoring reports, monthly credit score report, 3-bureau credit monitoring, and 3-bureau annual credit reports.
Identity Guard pricing starts at $7.50 per month for their Value plan and goes up to $25 per month for the Ultra plan.
As a small business owner (employer), you can also purchase credit monitoring services for your team members and make it part of your overall employee benefits package.
In our research, we found that Identity Guard is a very affordable credit monitoring service that also include premium identity theft protection on their higher plans.
However, they currently do not offer Device and Networking protection services like Aura does such as free VPN, antivirus, or a secure password manager.
Expert Review:Identity Guard is the best credit monitoring service for employers.
IdentityForce is a credit monitoring service by TransUnion which is one of the 3 major credit bureaus in the United States. They are consistently rated as a top identity theft protection service on TrustPilot.
As a major credit bureau, TransUnion have advanced credit monitoring and identity theft service solution for consumers, small business owners, as well as large enterprise and government agencies.
While they offer identity theft protection features in their UltraSecure plan, you need to get their more expensive UltraSecure + Credit plan to get the credit monitoring features which includes
credit monitoring service for all 3-bureau, credit score tracker, quarterly 3 bureau credit reports and credit scores.
With Identity Guard, you get all the powerful identity theft protection features like
smart SSN tracker, bank and credit card activity alerts, dark web monitoring, pay day loan monitoring, social media identity monitoring, medical ID fraud protection, identity threat alerts, and more.
They also have online protection tools to proactively help you fight phishing and keylogging attacks. Their mobile app gives you access to a secure VPN, so you always have a secure internet connection anywhere you go. Other digital securitytools include two-factor authentication, online identity vault, and a secure password manager.
All plans include a $1 million dollar identity theft insurance for stolen fund replacement, and white-glove customer service that can help you resolve any identity fraud case.
Expert Review:IdentityForce is the best credit monitoring service with FICO scores.
Norton is one of the most popular internet security companies in the world. In 2017, they acquired LifeLock, a well-known credit monitoring service and identity theft protection solution.
Since then they have created a bundle
Norton 360 with LifeLock to include all the standard credit monitoring features like dark web monitoring, credit monitoring (across 3 bureaus), SSN & credit alerts, ID verification monitoring, data breach notifications, fictitious identity monitoring, ability to lock your identity, suspicious bank & credit card activity alerts, 401k & investment account monitoring, and more.
Along with credit monitoring, you’ll get the Norton AntiVirus and online threat protection software that includes smart firewall, cloud backup, parental controls, privacy monitor, and a secure VPN service.
Their plans include identity theft protection insurance ranging from $25,000 to $1 million depending on the plan you choose.
Norton360 with LifeLock select plan starts at $9.99 per month, but it offers credit monitoring for only 1 bureau. To get comprehensive credit monitoring service from all 3 bureaus, you’ll need the Ultimate Plus plan which costs $29.99 per month.
You could also purchase LifeLock as a standalone credit monitoring service, but it will cost $8.99 per month for one-bureau credit monitoring and $23.99 per month for three-bureau credit monitoring. Also these plans will not include any of the advanced device security features that Norton offers.
If you’re already a Norton user, then upgrading to Norton360 with LifeLock offers the best value for the money.
Expert Review: If you’re already a Norton customer, then LifeLock is the best credit monitoring service for you because you can upgrade for a small premium.
IdentityIQ is another popular credit monitoring service for small business owners that also include anti-virus software and VPN for online privacy.
Their credit monitoring service include all the standard features you would expect such as 3-bureau credit report monitoring, dark web & internet monitoring, lost wallet assistance, synthetic ID theft protection, up to $1 million dollar identity theft insurance to cover stolen fund reimbursement and offer coverage for lawyers and experts expenses.
The SecureMax plan also offers additional features like enhanced credit report monitoring, alerts on crimes committed in your name, credit score tracker, credit score simulator, and family protection with ID fraud restoration.
One of the big reasons for credit fraud is lack of device & network security, so IdentityIQ includes Bitdefender premium VPN for up to 10 devices as well as Bitdefender total security anti-virus and anti-spyware to help protect your computers. They also offer a password manager for Windows OS, but doesn’t have it for Mac.
Expert Review:IdentityIQ the best credit monitoring service if you’re looking for Bitdefender total security software to be included. Their pricing is a bit on the higher end with SecureMax plan starting at $30.99 per month.
Experian is one of the 3 major credit bureaus in the US, and they offer a premium credit monitoring service called IdentityWorks.
Their credit monitoring platform has built-in dark web surveillance that does daily scans of over 600,000 web pages to detect if any of your information is stolen.
You will get near real-time credit fraud alerts through their system if they notice any suspicious activity around your social security number, financial accounts, payday loans, false identity validations, social network monitoring, and more.
As one of the 3-bureaus that issue a FICO credit score, Experian will send you daily FICO scores from Experian and quarterly credit score updates from the other credit bureaus. This makes it easy for you to track your actual credit score without any extra cost.
Experian credit monitoring service also makes it easy to lock and unlock your Experian credit file within few clicks. This is a huge time saver because locking credit file is the ultimate credit protection.
IdentityWorks Premium pricing starts at $19.99 per month, and it includes the $1 million dollar identity theft protection insurance which is underwritten by AIG.
You can also get a family plan for $29.99 per month that includes two adults and up to 10 children identity protection.
The downside of Experian is that it does not offer any device or network security features.
Expert Review: Experian’s IdentityWorks platform offer a reliable credit monitoring service with standard identity theft protection features. However they are lacking the modern digital security features that you get with Aura or Norton360.
Which is the Best Credit Protection Service? (Expert Pick)
After carefully research all the top credit monitoring services, we believe that Aura is the best credit monitoring service for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
They offer the most affordable pricing with the most advanced credit monitoring and identity theft features.
The best part is that aside from comprehensive financial fraud protection features, they also include robust device & WiFi security apps to better protect you against cyberthreats.
At WPBeginner, we believe that security is all about risk reduction. Using the Aura smart digital security app, you get military-grade encryption for your online data, so you can have maximum online security.
That’s why, we use Aura in our business, and rate Aura as the #1 best credit monitoring service in the market.
We hope this article helped you find the best credit monitoring service for your small business. You may also want to see our comparison of the best business phone services and best website builder 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.
Source: We got our identity theft statistics from the U.S. FTC 2020 Consumer Sentinel Network report.
However, there are times when you may want to create a private blog or make certain posts private and only available to specific users.
There are all kinds of reasons to make your WordPress blog private:
A blog that’s being built, or undergoing maintenance, so it’s not fully ready for the public.
A family blog for sharing your family events, wedding photos, baby pictures, and more.
A private blog for your private diary or personal journal.
A space for teams to work on projects and collaborate outside of public view.
A classroom website with lessons and notes that’s only available to registered students.
That being said, let’s show you how you can make your WordPress blog completely private. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
Method 1. Making Your WordPress Blog Private with SeedProd
The easiest way to make your blog completely private is by using the SeedProd plugin. It’s the best WordPress theme builder and drag and drop page builder for WordPress used by over 1 million websites.
It’s also equipped with 150+ different templates you can use to create custom pages like, 404 pages, webinar registration pages, and even entire custom WordPress themes without writing any code.
Beyond keeping your blog private, your coming soon page can also help to gauge user interest, build hype, and capture leads.
With your coming soon page live, you can keep your blog private as long as you like. You can even customize your coming soon page to act as a home screen, while your blog remains private.
Once your blog is in maintenance mode, you can freely make changes to your blog, or even build a new blog from scratch. Maintenance mode also prevents the search engines from indexing and ranking your site.
Your visitors will only see the maintenance mode screen.
Method 2. Creating a Private Members-Only Website with MemberPress
Another way you can make your blog private is by creating a membership blog that’s entirely private to members.
The best way to do this is with the MemberPress plugin. It’s one of the best WordPress membership plugins that’s helped creators earn more than $600 million in the last year alone.
Plus, it integrates with the top WordPress page builder plugins, lets you add drip content in WordPress for your premium posts, add content paywalls, and lock free content for specific users.
Method 3. Making Your WordPress Blog Completely Private with My Private Site
Another way you can make your WordPress blog private is by using the My Private Site plugin. This plugin makes it easy to hide your blog and is a great fit for family blogs and companies who never plan on making their content public.
It can also be used when your website is under construction, but the SeedProd method above does a much better job at helping you create a coming soon or under construction page.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to go to My Private Site » Site Privacy to configure the plugin settings.
Next, you need to check the ‘Enable login privacy’ box, so the plugin will make your site private.
Then, click the ‘Save Privacy Status’ button.
With this option enabled, visitors will see your site login screen when trying to visit your website.
Next, click the ‘Landing Page’ menu option.
Here, you can choose where users will be redirected after a successful login.
Simply select the radio button in the ‘Landing Page After Login’ section, or enter a specific URL into the ’Specified Destination URL’ box.
Then, click the ‘Save Landing Page’ button.
After that, click the ‘Home Page’ menu option.
Here, you can check the box in the ‘Site Home’ section to make your homepage accessible to visitors.
We’ll leave the box unchecked, but it can be helpful if you want to show a message to your visitors while keeping the rest of your website hidden.
If you make changes, then click the ‘Make Page Public’ button.
Next, click the ‘Membership’ menu option.
Here, you can choose whether or not you want users to be able to register to your blog.
To allow visitors to register and view your blog, both boxes must be checked. If you don’t want to allow user registration, then simply leave both boxes unchecked.
Then, click the ‘Update Options’ button.
After that, your WordPress blog will be completely private.
Only users with login credentials will be able to log in and view your blog.
Method 4. Making Individual Blog Posts Completely Private with WordPress Settings
If you only want to make individual blog posts completely private, then you can use the built-in WordPress settings to do this.
Simply open up the blog post you want to make private, or create a new post. Then, on the post editor screen, you’ll see a ‘Visibility’ option in the ‘Status & visibility’ meta box.
Then, you need to click the ‘Public’ link.
This brings up a drop down where you can select the ‘Private’ option or even make your post password protected.
Simply click the radio button to choose the option best for your needs.
If you choose to make your post password protected, then you’ll need to enter a password. Your users will need to enter the password you entered to view the post.
Once you’re finished making changes, make sure to click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button to make your post private.
Now, only admins and editors will be able to view the post when they are logged into the WordPress dashboard.
If you’re the only user on your blog, then you don’t need to worry about this. But, if you have other users, then you need to make sure they have the right user role to view the post.
Unfortunately, on rare occasions, updates can sometimes break your website. This can happen if there’s a bug in the code, or if the update introduces some kind of conflict with your theme or another plugin.
That’s why we always recommend that you create a complete WordPress backup before performing any updates.
However, restoring your entire site from a backup can be a hassle, and you might lose other recent changes that you want to keep. So instead of restoring a backup, if you know which plugin caused the problem, then you can easily revert the changes and report the problem to the developer so it can be fixed.
Alternatively, you can manually install the older version of the plugin. But if you can still log in to your WordPress admin area, then simply rolling back the plugin version is more efficient.
Let’s take a look at how you can easily rollback WordPress plugins using a version control designed for absolute beginners. But first, we’ll show you how to fix your website if it’s broken and you’re unable to log in.
In those cases, you will have to deactivate your plugin or theme manually.
Deactivating WordPress Plugins Manually
If updating a plugin has caused a serious problem on your WordPress website, then we recommend that you deactivate all plugins and then reactivate them one by one.
You should now be able to log in to your WordPress admin area. You can move on to the second section below and learn how to roll back the problem plugin to an earlier version. After that, you can reactivate your plugins one by one.
Deactivating WordPress Themes Manually
If an updated theme is the cause of your website problems, then we recommend that you download a copy of that theme to your computer and then delete the theme.
You can learn how to do that in our step by step guide on how to uninstall and delete a WordPress theme. You’ll have to carefully follow the sections on how to prepare before deleting a WordPress theme, and how to delete the theme via FTP or the cPanel File Manager.
After that, you should be able to log in to your WordPress admin area again. You’ll need to upload the theme folder from your computer to your website, and then scroll down to the third section below to learn how to roll back the plugin to a previous version.
Are You Still Seeing an Error Message?
If you are still seeing an error message that prevents you from logging in to WordPress, then you should make a note of the error and then see if our guide on what to do when you are locked out of WordPress admin offers a fix for that error.
Upon activation, go to the Plugins » Installed Plugins page and you will notice a new ‘Rollback’ link below each plugin that you installed from the WordPress.org plugin directory.
Note: You won’t be able to rollback third party plugins that aren’t in the official WordPress plugin directory.
When you need to revert to a previous version of the plugin, simply visit the plugins page and click the ‘Rollback’ link below that plugin.
The WP Rollback plugin will take you to a page where you can see which version you have installed and the versions you can rollback to.
Simply select an older version and then click the ‘Rollback’ button.
The plugin will now display a warning message. This message simply informs you that you should create a complete WordPress backup before proceeding.
If you already have a recent backup of your WordPress site, then you can continue by clicking on the ‘Rollback’ button.
WP Rollback will download and replace your current version with the version you selected. Don’t forget to click the ‘Activate Plugin’ link when you’re ready.
Rolling Back WordPress Themes to Previous Version
If you are using a free theme downloaded from WordPress.org theme directory, then WP Rollback can also rollback your theme.
Simply go to Appearance » Themes page and click on the theme that you want to rollback.
The ‘Theme Details’ popup will appear that displays the name and description of the plugin, a link to enable auto-updates, and a button to customize the theme.
You will also notice a ‘Rollback’ button in the bottom right corner.
If you don’t see a rollback option, then first make sure that the theme is from the WordPress.org theme directory. The plugin does not work on themes downloaded from any other sources.
If you are certain that the theme you are trying to rollback is from WordPress.org directory, then you just need to visit the Dashboard » Updates page. This will force WordPress to check for updates.
Now come back to the themes page and click on the theme you wanted to rollback. You should now be able to click the ‘Rollback’ button.
This will take you to a page where you can see the theme version which is currently installed, and a list of versions you can rollback to.
Simply select a previous version and then click the ‘Rollback’ button.
A warning message will be displayed reminding you to complete a backup before continuing.
If you recently created a backup of your site, then you can safely click the ‘Rollback’ button.
The version of the theme you selected will be downloaded and replace the current version. If you want to use the theme on your website, then you should click the ‘Activate’ link.
