How to Accept Google Pay in WordPress (The Easy Way)

Would you like to accept Google Pay on your WordPress site?

When you allow your customers to choose their preferred payment method, you’ll build trust and increase conversions on your website.

In this article, we’ll show you how to accept Google Pay in WordPress.

Why Accept Google Pay in WordPress?

If you’re selling products or services on your WordPress website or asking for donations, then it’s important to let your visitors pay using their preferred method.

Often they will want to pay by credit card or PayPal, but newer methods like Google Pay and Apple Pay are becoming more popular.

Google Pay is available in 40 countries around the world and makes online payments simple. However, your customers can only use it if they’re on an Android device running version Lollipop 5.0 or higher, so you’ll probably want to include additional payment options for people using other devices.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to accept Google Pay in your online store.

Note: We’ll cover how to add a Google Pay option in WordPress without adding a full eCommerce cart, but we will leave other helpful resources at the end of this article for those looking for full eCommerce solutions.

How to Accept Google Pay in WordPress

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

WP Simple Pay is a simple yet powerful WordPress invoicing and payments plugin. The best part is that WP Simple Pay does not charge you any additional transaction fees, and you can set it up without the complexity of a cart system.

It lets you add Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit card as well as ACH bank payments, so you can give users multiple payment options which improves conversion.

While there is a free version of the plugin, you need the Pro plugin to accept Google Pay, create on-site payment forms, and more.

Upon activation, the WP Simple Pay setup wizard will start automatically. You simply need to click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button to continue.

On the first page, you’ll be asked to enter your license key. You can find this information from your account on the WP Simple Pay website.

After that, you need to click the ‘Activate and Continue’ button to move to the next step.

On the second page, you will need to connect WP Simple Pay to Stripe. Stripe is a popular payment gateway, and it’s the easiest way to add Google Pay to your website. It also supports all top credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, ACH payments, and more.

Simply click the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button, and from there you can log in to your Stripe account or create a new one. Anyone with a legitimate business can create a Stripe account and accept payments online.

Note: Stripe requires your site to be using SSL/HTTPS encryption. If you don’t already have an SSL certificate for your website, then please see our step by step guide on how to add SSL in WordPress.

Once you’ve connected to Stripe, you’ll be asked to configure your WP Simple Pay emails.

The options for payment and invoice emails to your customers have already been enabled for you. So is the option for sending payment notification emails.

You just need to enter the email address where the notifications should be sent.

Once you’ve done that, you need to click the ‘Save and Continue’ button to complete your setup of WP Simple Pay.

Google Pay is enabled by default when using Stripe Checkout, and will be automatically offered to Android users in participating countries.

If you decide to disable Google Pay in the future, then you will need to change the payment method settings in the Stripe Dashboard.

Creating a Payment Form in WordPress

Next, you need to create a payment form.

You can do that by clicking the ‘Create a Payment Form’ button on the last page of the setup wizard.

This will automatically take you to the WP Simple Pay » Add New page.

You’ll be shown a list of payment form templates. You need to scroll down until you locate the Apple Pay / Google Pay template.

Simply hover over the template and click the ‘Use Template’ button when it appears.

This will take you to the payment form editor.

If you like, you can rename the form and give it a description.

After that, you need to select the ‘Stripe Checkout’ option under Form Type.

After you’ve done that, we’ll move on to the Payment tab.

Here you can set the payment mode to either live or testing. Testing mode will let you make payments that are not actually charged so you can make sure your form is working properly and emails are being sent.

Don’t forget to change this to ‘Live’ when you’ve finished testing and are ready to start receiving payments from your customers.

You can also add the products or services that you offer, along with their prices and whether they are a one-time payment or a subscription.

Simply click the ‘Add Price’ button until you have added as many prices as you need. After that, you will need to add a label and price for each one. You can also select other options, such as recurring payments, or the user can determine the price, as in a donation.

You can show or hide a price by clicking the small arrow on the right.

Next, we’ll move on to the ‘Form Fields’ tab. Notice that the essential fields have already been added to the form, including an ‘Apple Pay / Google Pay’ button, credit card details, and a checkout button.

Using the ‘Form Fields’ drop down, you can choose additional fields and add them by clicking the ‘Add Field’ button. Options include name, phone number, address, and much more.

Finally, the ‘Stripe Checkout’ tab allows you to select additional payment methods and tweak the checkout form that is displayed after the user clicks the ‘Pay’ button.

For this tutorial, we’ll leave those settings as they are.

When you are happy with your payment form, click on the ‘Publish’ button to store your settings and push the form live.

Now we can add the form to a post or page on your website.

Adding the Payment Form to Your Website

WP Simple Pay makes it super easy to add forms anywhere on your website.

Simply create a new post or page, or edit an existing one. Then, click on the plus (+) sign at the top and add a WP Simple Pay block in the WordPress block editor.

After that, select your order form from the dropdown menu in the WP Simple Pay block.

Once you’re finished, you can update or publish the post or page, and then click on the preview button to see your form in action.

When your users click the Pay button, the Stripe checkout form will be displayed.

If they are using an Android device running Lollipop 5.0 or higher, then the Google Pay option will be displayed at the top of the form. Otherwise, the Google Pay option will be hidden, and your customers can pay using a credit card.

If you’re looking for other ways to add Google Pay in WordPress, then you can use full eCommerce solutions like Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce. Both of them have support for Apple Pay and Google Pay options.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to accept Google Pay in WordPress. You may also want to learn the right way to create an email newsletter, or check out our expert pick of the best contact form plugins for WordPress.

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 Accept Google Pay in WordPress (The Easy Way) first appeared on WPBeginner.

May 18, 2022 at 04:00PM

How to Create a Custom WordPress Block (Easy Way)

Do you want to create a custom Gutenberg block for your WordPress website?

While WordPress comes with a lot of basic blocks for creating content, you might need something more custom for your website.

In this article, we’ll show you an easy way to create custom Gutenberg blocks for your WordPress site.

Why Create a Custom WordPress Block?

WordPress comes with an intuitive block editor that allows you to easily create your posts and pages by adding content and layout elements as blocks.

By default, WordPress ships with several commonly used blocks. WordPress plugins may also add their own blocks that you can use.

However, sometimes you may want to create your own custom block to do something specific, and can’t find a blocks plugin that works for you.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to create a completely custom block.

Note: This article is for intermediate users. You’ll need to be familiar with HTML and CSS to create custom Gutenberg blocks.

Step 1: Get Started with Your First Custom Block

First, you need to install and activate the Genesis Custom Blocks plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Created by the folks behind the popular Genesis Theme Framework and StudioPress, this plugin provides developers easy tools to quickly create custom blocks for their projects.

For the sake of this tutorial, we will build a ‘testimonials’ block.

First, head over to Custom Blocks » Add New page from the left sidebar of your admin panel.

This will bring you to the Block Editor page.

From here, you need to give a name to your block.

On the right side of the page, you’ll find the block properties.

Here you can choose an icon for your block, add a category, and add keywords.

The slug will be auto-filled based on your block’s name, so you don’t have to change it. However, you may write up to 3 keywords in the Keywords text field so that your block can be easily found.

Now let’s add some fields to our block.

You can add different types of fields like text, numbers, email address, URL, color, image, checkbox, radio buttons, and much more.

We’ll add 3 fields to our custom testimonial block: an image field for the image of the reviewer, a textbox for the reviewer name, and a text area field for the testimonial text.

Click on the [+] Add Field button to insert the first field.

This will open up some options for the field. Let’s take a look at each of them.

• Field Label: You can use any name of your choice for the field label. Let’s name our first field ‘Reviewer Image’.
• Field Name: The field name will be generated automatically based on the field label. We’ll use this field name in the next step, so make sure it’s unique for every field.
• Field Type: Here you can select the type of field. We want our first field to be an image, so we’ll select Image from the dropdown menu.
• Field Location: You can decide whether you want to add the field to the editor or the inspector.
• Help Text: You can add some text to describe the field. This is not required if you’re creating this block for your personal use, but may be helpful for multi-author blogs.

You may also get some additional options based on the field type you choose. For example, if you select a text field, then you’ll get extra options like placeholder text and character limit.

Following the above process, let’s add 2 other fields for our testimonials block by clicking the [+] Add Field button.

In case you want to reorder the fields, then you can do that by dragging them using the handle on the left side of each field label.

To edit or delete a particular field, you need to click the field label and edit the options in the right column.

Once you’re done, click on the Publish button, present on the right side of the page, to save your custom Gutenberg block.

Step 2: Create a Custom Block Template

Although you’ve created the custom WordPress block in the last step, it won’t work until you create a block template.

The block template determines exactly how the information entered into the block is displayed on your website. You get to decide how it looks by using HTML and CSS, or even PHP code if you need to run functions or do other advanced things with the data.

There are two ways to create a block template. If your block output is in HTML/CSS, then you can use the built-in template editor.

On the other hand, if your block output requires some PHP to run in the background, then you’ll need to manually create a block template file and upload it to your theme folder.

Method 1. Using Built-in Template Editor

On the custom block edit screen simply switch to the Template Editor tab and enter your HTML under the markup tab.

You can write your HTML and use double curly brackets to insert block field values.

For instance, we used the following HTML for the sample block we created above.

<div class="testimonial-item">
<img src="" class="reviewer-image">
<h4 class="reviewer-name"></h4>
<div class="testimonial-text"></div>
</div>

After that, switch to the CSS tab to style your block output markup.

Here is the sample CSS we used for our custom block.

.reviewer-name { 
    font-size:14px;
    font-weight:bold;
    text-transform:uppercase;
}

.reviewer-image {
    float: left;
    padding: 0px;
    border: 5px solid #eee;
    max-width: 100px;
    max-height: 100px;
    border-radius: 50%;
    margin: 10px;
}

.testimonial-text {
    font-size:14px;
}

.testimonial-item { 
 margin:10px;
 border-bottom:1px solid #eee;
 padding:10px;
}

Method 2. Manually Uploading Custom Block Templates

This method is recommended if you need to use PHP to interact with your custom block fields.

You’ll basically need to upload the editor template directly to your theme.

First, you need to create a folder on your computer name it with your custom block name slug. For instance, our demo block is called Testimonials so we’ll create a testimonials folder.

Next, you need to create a file called block.php using a plain text editor. This is where you’ll put the HTML / PHP part of your block template.

Here is the sample template we used for our example.

<div class="testimonial-item <?php block_field('className'); ?>">
<img class="reviewer-image" src="<?php block_field( 'reviewer-image' ); ?>" alt="<?php block_field( 'reviewer-name' ); ?>" />
<h4 class="reviewer-name"><?php block_field( 'reviewer-name' ); ?></h4>
<div class="testimonial-text"><?php block_field( 'testimonial-text' ); ?></div>
</div>

Notice how we used the block_field() function to fetch data from a block field.

We have wrapped our block fields in the HTML we want to use to display the block. We have also added CSS classes so that we can style the block properly.

Don’t forget to save the file inside the folder you created earlier.

Next, you need to create another file using the plain text editor on your computer and save it as block.css inside the folder you created.

We’ll use this file to add CSS needed to style our block display. Here is the sample CSS we used for this example.

.reviewer-name { 
    font-size:14px;
    font-weight:bold;
    text-transform:uppercase;
}

.reviewer-image {
    float: left;
    padding: 0px;
    border: 5px solid #eee;
    max-width: 100px;
    max-height: 100px;
    border-radius: 50%;
    margin: 10px;
}

.testimonial-text {
    font-size:14px;
}

.testimonial-item { 
 margin:10px;
 border-bottom:1px solid #eee;
 padding:10px;
}

Don’t forget to save your changes.

Your block template folder will now have two template files inside it.

After that, you need to upload your block folder to your website using an FTP client or the File Manager app inside your WordPress hosting account’s control panel.

Once connected, navigate to the /wp-content/themes/your-current-theme/ folder.

If your theme folder doesn’t have a folder name blocks, then go ahead and create a new directory and name it blocks.

Now enter the blocks folder and upload the folder you created on your computer to the blocks folder.

That’s all! You have successfully created manual template files for your custom block.

Step 3. Preview Your Custom Block

Now, before you can preview your HTML/CSS, you need to provide some test data that can be used to display a sample output.

Inside the WordPress admin area edit your block and switch to the Editor Preview tab. Here, you need to enter some dummy data.

Don’t forget to click on the Update button to save your changes before your can preview.

You can now switch to the Front-end Preview tab to see how your block will look on the front-end (public area of your WordPress website).

If everything looks good to you, then you can update your block to save any unsaved changes.

Step 4. Using Your Custom Block in WordPress

You can now use your custom block in WordPress like you would use any other blocks.

Simply edit any post or page where you want to use this block.

Click on the add new block button and search for your block by typing its name or keywords.

After you insert the block to the content area, you’ll see the block fields you created for this custom block.

You can fill out the block fields as needed.

As you move away from the block to another block, the editor will automatically show a live preview of your block.

You can now save your post and page and preview it to see your custom block in action on your website.

Here’s how the testimonials block looks on our test site.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily create custom Gutenberg blocks for your WordPress website.

You may also want to see our guide on how to create a custom WordPress theme from scratch, or see our expert pick of the must have WordPress plugins 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 Create a Custom WordPress Block (Easy Way) first appeared on WPBeginner.

May 17, 2022 at 05:00PM

How to Fix WordPress Search Not Working (5 Common Errors)

Are you trying to fix issues with WordPress search not working on your website?

While WordPress comes with basic search feature, it has some common errors and limitations that can keep your visitors from finding what they’re looking for.

In this post, we’ll show you how to fix problems with WordPress search not working.

Why Do WordPress Search Errors Happen?

Most websites have a search feature that helps visitors find interesting content on your WordPress blog or products that they may want to buy on your online store.

However, WordPress’ built-in search feature is very basic.

By default, it doesn’t search all types of content such as comments, reviews, or custom post types. This may stop the visitor from finding what they’re looking for.

The built-in search also focuses on matching search words with the post or page content without paying attention to things such as tags, categories, or custom fields. This is important information that can help your visitors get more accurate search results.

Lastly, there’s no easy way to customize the built-in search. For example, if you wanted to prioritize a post’s titles over its excerpt, or exclude certain pages from WordPress search, you would need to edit the code.

With that in mind, let’s look at how you can easily fix common problems with WordPress search not working. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the issue you’re having with WordPress search.

• How to fix WordPress search box not appearing
• How to fix WordPress search showing 404 error
• How to fix WordPress search showing irrelevant results
• How to fix WooCommerce product search not showing accurate results
• How to fix slow WordPress search

How to Fix WordPress Search Box Not Appearing

While WordPress has built-in search feature, not all themes may come with a search bar design. If your theme doesn’t come with a search bar, then there are a few ways that you can create one.

You can add a Search block to any widget-ready area of your WordPress website such as the header or footer. This is a quick and easy way to show a search bar across every page of your WordPress site.

To add a Search block, simply go to Appearance » Widgets. You can then find the area where you want to add a search bar, and click on its arrow icon to expand.

Then, just click on the + icon.

In the popup that appears, type in ‘search’ and then select the Search block.

Once you’ve done that, you can customize the Search block using the row of icons that appears above the block. This includes changing the size of the search button and adding some text.

When you’re happy with how your Search block looks, go ahead and click on the ‘Update’ button. You can now visit your website to see the search bar live.

Another option is adding the Search block to a specific page or post. For example, you might just want to show a search bar on your homepage or landing page.

To do this, just open the page or post where you want to show your search bar. You can then click on the + icon and add a Search block following the same process described above.

WordPress’ ready-made Search block is an easy way to add basic search to your site. However, if you want complete control over how your search bar looks and acts, then you’ll need a page builder plugin.

SeedProd is the best drag and drop page builder for WordPress and comes with over 80 professionally-designed blocks including a Search Form block. This allows you to instantly add a search bar to any area of your WordPress website.

All you need to do is open SeedProd’s editor and then drag and drop the Search Form block into place on your website’s layout.

Once you’ve done that, you can customize it using all the settings in the left-hand menu.

Once you’ve added a search bar, you can use the SeedProd theme builder to design a completely custom search results page that perfectly matches your brand. For more information, please see our guide on how to easily create a custom WordPress theme.

How to Fix WordPress Search Showing 404 Error

When a visitor performs a search, your site may show a 404 error such as ‘This page could not be found!’

You can often fix 404 errors by regenerating your permalinks. This rebuilds and repairs the WordPress permalink structure without changing anything on your site.

This may sound complex, but WordPress does all of the hard work for you.

To regenerate your permalinks, simply go to Settings » Permalinks.

Then, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

That’s it. WordPress will now regenerate your permalink structure. To make sure it worked, head over to your site and try performing a search.

For a more detailed look at rebuilding your permalink structure, see our complete guide on how to regenerate your permalinks in WordPress.

How to Fix WordPress Search Showing Irrelevant Results

Every time a visitor performs a search, you’ll want to show relevant search results. This helps visitors find interesting content, which will keep them on your site for longer and increase your sales and conversions.

However, the built-in WordPress search doesn’t always show the most accurate results. This is because it looks for the search term in your post’s title and content only.

With that in mind, we recommend installing an advanced search plugin.

SearchWP is the best custom search plugin for WordPress, used by over 30,000 websites. SearchWP can search every part of your site including custom fields, WooCommerce products, categories and tags, PDF files, and more.

You can use SearchWP to adjust your website’s search algorithm and make sure your most important content appears at the top of the visitor’s search results.

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

Upon activation, click on the new ‘SearchWP’ button in your website’s toolbar. You can then go ahead and click on ‘Activate License.’

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘License’ tab.

You can now either paste or type your license into the ‘License’ box. You’ll find this key in the email you got when you purchased SearchWP.

After that, go ahead and click on the ‘Activate’ button.

SearchWP integrates with WordPress search automatically, so right away your site will start showing more accurate results. However, to get the best results you’ll want to customize SearchWP’s search engine settings.

Here it helps to think about the way that search engines such as Google rank their content.

These search engines use algorithms to find high-quality content that closely matches the search term. It then ranks this content to make sure the best matches appear at the top of the search results page.

With SearchWP you can build your own algorithms and set your own rules, just like Google. This can improve the visitor experience, boost your conversions, and help you make money online with WordPress.

To configure SearchWP’s settings, click on the ‘Engines’ tab.

On this screen, you’ll see sections for the different types of WordPress content such as pages and posts.

For each section, SearchWP shows the attributes it looks at when performing a search. In the following image, we can see that SearchWP searches the page’s title, content, slug, and the page’s excerpt.

There is also an ‘Applicable Attribute Relevance’ scale for each attribute. This is the weight that SearchWP gives to each attribute when ranking its search results.

In the following image, we can see that a post’s title has more weight than its URL slug.

You can make an attribute more or less relevant using its slider.

There are no settings that are guaranteed to provide accurate results for every website. With that in mind, you may want to try different relevancy settings to see what gives you the most accurate search results.

You can also add different types of content to be included in your search results. For example, you can add PDF searching and indexing in WordPress if you have PDF files you want your visitors to be able to search for.

If you have any custom taxonomies or fields, then you can also tell SearchWP to look at this content when searching your site.

To add or remove attributes, click on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.

This opens a popup. To get SearchWP to ignore an attribute, simply uncheck its box.

If you want to add an attribute, then click to check its box.

Want to include a custom field or taxonomy in your searches?

Simply type in the name of that field or taxonomy, and then select it when it appears.

Once you’re happy with your attributes, click on the ‘Done’ button.

You can now change the relevancy for your new attributes following the same process described above.

To learn more, please see our step by step guide on how to improve WordPress search with the SearchWP.

Once you’ve finished customizing SearchWP’s settings, make sure to click on the ‘Save Engines’ button to save your changes.

SearchWP will now use these new settings for all of its searches.

It’s worth visiting your site and performing a few searches just to check that you’re getting accurate results.

If you don’t see any improvement, then your WordPress theme may be performing its own search. This is known as a redundant search.

The easiest way to check whether this is happening with your theme, is by opening its search.php file.

To access this file, you’ll need an FTP client, or you can use the file manager of your WordPress hosting cPanel. If this is your first time using FTP, then you can see our complete guide on how to connect to your site using FTP.

Once you’re connected to your site, you can use FTP to open the wp-content/themes/ folder.

Inside the ‘themes’ folder, find the theme you’re currently using on your WordPress website. You can then open this folder and find the search.php file.

Next simply click on the search.php file and select ‘View/Edit.’

This will open search.php in your computer’s default text editor.

Now, check this template for any queries that contain query_posts, new WP_Query, or get_posts. This usually means that your theme is performing a redundant search.

If search.php has any of these queries, then we recommend switching to an alternative WordPress theme. To help you out, we’ve created a list of the most popular and best WordPress themes.

Another option is to hire a WordPress developer who can write a new template that doesn’t perform a redundant search.

How to Fix WooCommerce Product Search Not Showing Accurate Results

If you have a WooCommerce store, then search results can help customers find products to buy. To sell more products, you’ll need to display accurate product search results.

However, by default WordPress doesn’t look at your product reviews, attributes, or the product description when performing its searches.

SearchWP can easily fix the problems with WooCommerce search.

You can set up SearchWP by following the same process described above.

Once you’ve done that, go to Settings » SearchWP. You can then click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.

In the popup, make sure you check ‘Products.’

After that, just click on the ‘Done’ button to close the popup.

You can now scroll to the new ‘Products’ section.

Here, you can customize the attributes that WordPress uses in its product searches by following the same process described above.

For more information, please see our complete guide on how to make a smart WooCommerce product search.

How to Fix Slow WordPress Search

Fast search helps visitors find what they’re looking for in less time. This will improve the user experience and can increase your pageviews and conversion rate.

Unfortunately, the built-in WordPress search isn’t particularly fast. As you add more content, you may notice that your site takes longer and longer to return the search results.

The good news is that there are ways to speed up your site’s search. If you’re using an advanced search plugin like SearchWP, then you’re already off to a great start.

SearchWP is designed to deliver search results, fast. It’s also fully customizable, so you can ignore some of your site’s content when performing a search. For example, you may tell SearchWP to ignore your media metadata. This can speed up your search by reducing the amount of content it has to look through.

You can also improve the search experience by adding live Ajax search to your WordPress site. This is a dropdown that guesses what visitors are searching for as they type, which can make your searches feel instant.

For more information, please see our guide on how to add live Ajax search to your site.

Anything you do to improve your website’s overall performance will also speed up your search. You can see our ultimate guide on how to speed up your WordPress site and boost performance.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix problems with WordPress search not working. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate for your website, or our expert comparison of the best chatbot 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 Fix WordPress Search Not Working (5 Common Errors) first appeared on WPBeginner.

May 16, 2022 at 04:00PM