How to Edit a WordPress Homepage (Easily & Effectively)

Do you want to create a custom homepage for your WordPress site?

By default, WordPress shows your blog posts on the homepage. But you might want your website homepage to show something a bit different such as a landing page that highlights your products, services, etc.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily edit and customize your WordPress homepage.

What is the WordPress Homepage?

Your WordPress homepage is the “front page” of your website. It’s the first page that shows up when user visits your domain name. For instance, if you type in www.wpbeginner.com in your browser, the page you land on is our website’s homepage:

Why Edit the WordPress Homepage?

If you’ve decided to create a blog, then it makes perfect sense to just show your blog posts on the homepage.

But what if you’re using WordPress to build a small business website or even to run an online store? Then, you’re likely to have products or promotions that you want to highlight on your homepage.

Here’s a business website homepage example, from OptinMonster. It is the best WordPress popup plugin out there. Their site has a great blog, but that isn’t the focus of their homepage. Instead, they’ve got a really clear call to action.

Would you like to create a homepage like that? Perhaps you’ve already tried to set a custom page as the homepage in WordPress, but you’re struggling to make it look right.

If that’s the case, then you’re in the right place.

We’re going to take you step by step through setting up a homepage and customizing it to match your needs. That way, you can make a great first impression and encourage your visitors to take the actions that are most important to your site’s mission.

That might mean buying a digital product from you, signing up to join your membership site, or donating to your fundraising campaign.

We’re going to cover a few different methods that you can use to create your custom WordPress homepage.

You can use these quick links to jump straight to the different parts of the tutorial:

• Setting Your Homepage in WordPress
• Using Your Theme’s Built-In Options to Edit Your Homepage
• Using the Block Editor to Edit Your WordPress Homepage
• Using Beaver Builder to Edit Your WordPress Homepage
• Using Divi to Edit Your WordPress Homepage

Setting Your Homepage in WordPress

By default, WordPress displays your blog posts on the homepage. However, most business websites and even most blogs use a custom homepage and create a separate blog page to display their blog posts.

Let’s see how to set a separate homepage and blog page in WordPress.

First, you need to create your page by going to Pages » Add New. Title it Home, or whatever you want to call it, and then publish the page.

Pro Tip: Do you already have visitors to your site? Then you might want to put your site into maintenance mode while you’re setting up your homepage. Alternatively, you could set up a staging site where you can create your homepage.

Now, let’s repeat the process to create a page where you would display your blog posts. Simply go to Pages » Add New and name your new page Blog. After that, you can go ahead and publish the blank page.

Once your pages are ready, let’s tell WordPress to start using these pages.

You can do this by going to Settings » Reading page in WordPress admin area. Next, you need to select ‘A static page’ option under ‘Your homepage displays’ section. After that, go ahead and select your home and blog pages.

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

Tip: Your homepage link is simply your domain name, unless you installed WordPress in a subdirectory.

However, your homepage page is still empty. Let’s see some of the ways to easily edit your homepage in WordPress.

Using Your Theme’s Built-In Options to Edit Your Homepage

Some of the best WordPress themes will create a homepage design for you, so you can easily edit it.

You can find these options by visiting Appearance » Customize page in your WordPress dashboard. This will launch the WordPress theme customizer with a live preview of your theme.

The Theme Customizer has different options for different themes. Your preview and the available options may look different depending on the theme you are using.

To edit any part of the homepage, simply click the blue pencil icon next to it. Here, we’re editing the image, text, and button at the top of the homepage.

Note: As soon as you make edits, they’ll be shown in the preview of your site. Those changes won’t be live on your site until you publish them.

If you want to remove a section from the homepage, you just need to click the blue eye icon in the top left corner of that section.

You can also remove sections and add them back in using the ‘Frontpage Sections’ tab of the customizer.

Once you’re happy with your homepage, click the Publish button to make it live.

Here’s how our homepage looks, live on the website:

Using your theme’s built-in options is the quickest way to set up your homepage. However, some themes may not have many options, or you may not be satisfied with how your homepage looks.

Don’t worry there are plenty of other ways to edit your homepage and give it the look you want.

Using the Block Editor to Edit Your WordPress Homepage

What if you need to create your homepage from scratch? The WordPress block editor is a simple way to do so.

To use the block editor, simply go to the Pages screen and edit the Home page that you created earlier.

Now, you can start creating the content for your page.

Pro Tip: If you’ve not used the block editor much, read through our expert tips on mastering the WordPress content editor. We explain everything clearly using lots of screenshots to show you how it works.

In this part of the tutorial, we’ll be using a few simple blocks to create a basic homepage.

First, we’ll add a welcome message to the page. You can do this by simply clicking on the page to start typing. WordPress will automatically create a paragraph block for you.

If you want to make the text larger, it’s easy to do that in the block settings on the right hand side. Just use the ‘Preset size’ dropdown under ‘Text settings’.

You can also change the color of your text below this, in the ‘Color settings’ section.

Next, we’ll add an image to the page. You can do this by clicking the (+) symbol then selecting the Image block. You’ll find it in the Common Blocks section, or you can search for it using the search bar.

You can pick an image from your media library or upload a new one.

Important: Only use images that are in the public domain or CC0-Licensed, or ones that you’ve created yourself. You should also optimize your images for the web.

Next, we’ve added another paragraph block, with the text Check out our latest posts here.

We’ve then added a ‘Latest Posts’ block, which we’ve set to show the post excerpt and featured images, as well as the post titles. You can find out more about the Latest Posts block in our tutorial on displaying recent posts in WordPress.

You can add as many blocks as you want to your homepage. You may also want to use a “full-width” or “no sidebars” template for your page, if your theme has one. You can do this in the Document settings for your page.

We’re using the Astra theme in this example:

Once you’re happy with your homepage, click the ‘Publish’ button on the top right of the screen.

Here’s how our finished homepage looks:

What if you want to go further with your homepage? One option is to try some of these best blocks plugins for WordPress to add new functionality, such as a contact form, testimonials, reviews, and more.

Another great option is to use a more powerful page builder for WordPress to create something that looks gorgeous and professional.

In the next part of this tutorial, we’ll be covering two different page builders: Beaver Builder and Divi by Elegant Themes.

Using Beaver Builder to Edit Your WordPress Homepage

Beaver Builder is a popular page builder plugin, and it’s a great way to create your homepage.

First, you’ll need to download, install, and activate the Beaver Builder plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Next, you can start editing your homepage. Just go to the Pages menu in WordPress and click to edit the homepage we created earlier.

In the block editor, it’s a good idea to switch to a blank page or no sidebars template under Document » Page Attributes » Template.

We are using OceanWP for this part of tutorial. It comes with a ‘Landing Page’ template which creates a blank canvas that you can edit with the page builder.

Once you’ve set your page template, you can click the ‘Launch Beaver Builder’ button in the center of the screen to start using Beaver Builder.

You’ll be taken into the Beaver Builder editor. The quickest way to design your homepage is by using one of Beaver Builder’s pre-built templates. Click the + icon on the top right, if it’s not already selected, then click the Templates tag.

We’re going to use this ‘Agency’ template for our site.

Note: The templates aren’t available in the lite version of Beaver Builder.

You can edit anything you like about your template. Just click on whatever you want to change. A little window will pop up where you can make edits. Here, we’re editing our homepage’s headline (the large text at the top).

We’ve now changed the headline of the page, and the text on the button below it:

If you want to add new elements to your page, you can do that by adding a new module or a whole new row. Content in Beaver Builder is arranged in rows which are split into columns.

To add a row or module, click the + icon at the top of the screen. After that drag and drop your chosen row or module into the place. Here, we’re adding a new 1 column row to our page:

Once you’ve got a row in place, you can add 1 or more modules to it. We’ve got a 1 column row, so we can only add 1 module. We’re going to use the Heading module by dragging and dropping it into place:

You can change the font and its size by clicking on the Style tab for the module:

If you want to remove a row or module from your page, then simply bring your mouse cursor over it and click the X that appears towards the left-hand side.

Here, the gray icons let you edit or delete the whole row and the blue icons let you edit or delete an individual module:

You can continue adding and changing the rows and modules of your page as much as you want. Once you’re happy with how it looks, click ‘Done’ on the top right.

You can then choose to save or publish your page.

Here’s how our page looks live on our site:

Using Divi to Edit Your WordPress Homepage

Divi is another popular WordPress page builder plugin. It comes with a WordPress theme and a page builder plugin with dozens of gorgeous templates.

You can use the Divi page builder with any theme. For this tutorial we’re going to use it with the Divi theme.

First, you’ll need to download, install, and activate the Divi theme from Elegant Themes. This includes the Divi builder, so you don’t need to install it separately.

Note: You’ll need to enter your username and API key under Divi » Theme Options » Updates in your WordPress dashboard. Otherwise, you won’t be able to access the layout packs.

If you need help installing the plugin, take a look at our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once you’ve got the Divi theme and page builder up and running, you can set up your homepage. First, go to the Pages menu in your WordPress dashboard and then edit the Homepage we created earlier.

Before you start edit your homepage, it’s a good idea to switch to the Blank Page template under Document » Page Attributes » Template. That way, your homepage won’t have a sidebar, title, menu, or any other default elements.

Next, you can click the ‘Use The Divi Builder’ button at the top of the screen.

Now, you’ll need to click the ‘Use Divi Builder’ button in the center of the screen.

You may see a prompt at the top of your screen asking if you want to leave the site. Click ‘Leave’ to enter the Divi builder.

Next, you’ll see a range of options you can use to create your page. We suggest using a premade layout as the basis for your homepage. This makes it really quick and easy to get your homepage set up.

Divi has an impressive range of different layouts to choose from. There are 163 different layout packs, and each of these has several different page layouts including homepages.

You can search through these by typing in a search term, or you can check the boxes to view only layouts that fit certain categories.

We’re going to use the ‘Travel Blog’ layout pack to create our homepage. First, click on the pack that you want to use:

Next, you’ll see a description of the layout pack, plus the different page layouts that are available. You’ll probably want to use the Home page or Landing page for your homepage. We’re going to pick the Home option.

Once you’ve chosen your layout, click the ‘Use This Layout’ button.

Divi will automatically import the layout for you. You’ll then see it live on your page, exactly as it’ll appear on your site. To edit any part of it, simply click on it.

Like Beaver Builder, Divi uses a system of rows (split into columns) and modules to create your page. With text modules, you can click on the text and type in whatever you want straight onto the screen.

Here, we’ve changed the header and the text below it:

With other modules, you can bring your mouse cursor over them and click the Module Settings icon to edit them. Here, we’re editing one of the number counters:

You can delete modules and rows in the same way using the trash can icon.

You’ll likely want to use your own images on your homepage. You can change these by editing the module settings.

Note that the image at the top is set as the Background for a Fullwidth Header Module, so you’ll need to change it under Content » Background for that module:

Once you’re happy with the changes you’ve made to your page, you can click ‘Save Draft or ‘Publish’ at the bottom of the screen.

Tip: If you can’t see those buttons, click the purple “…” button to open them up.

Here’s how our page looks live on the website:

That’s it! You’ve created a great-looking homepage in WordPress and set it up successfully.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to edit a WordPress homepage. You might also want to take a look at our guide on the must have WordPress plugins and our tips on how to improve WordPress SEO.

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 Edit a WordPress Homepage (Easily & Effectively) appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 24, 2020 at 05:00PM

Welcome Smash Balloon to the WPBeginner Family of Products

Today, I’m extremely excited to share that Smash Balloon has joined Awesome Motive, and it is now part of the WPBeginner’s family of products.

Smash Balloon offers the most popular social feed plugins for WordPress. Over 1,300,000+ people use Smash Balloon plugins to easily display their social media content in WordPress.

Smash Balloon is a combination of four plugins that makes it easy for you to create and display custom Facebook feeds, custom Instagram feeds, custom Twitter feeds, and custom YouTube feeds on your WordPress site.

Over the years what has made Smash Balloon stand out is that it’s easy to setup, and it is always reliable.

There are free versions available for all four plugins, and they offer all the essential features you’d need to create a custom social media feed.

However if you need more customization options such as displaying multiple Facebook feeds, Facebook calendar events, Facebook group timelines, custom Instagram shoppable feeds, Instagram story feeds, Instagram hashtag feeds, or just a custom grid of YouTube videos and Twitter feeds, then the Smash Balloon Pro plugins are the perfect option.

The best part about Smash Balloon is that unlike other social feed plugins, this will NOT slow down your site.

The plugin comes with a feed caching system which allows your social posts to always load super fast even when the platform API is experiencing downtime.

I’m really excited to be working with John Brackett (founder of Smash Balloon), and the entire team to add more powerful social media features that will help small businesses leverage social proof to boost engagement, sales, and conversions.

Since Smash Balloon is an established product and has been around since 2013, we’re not going to offer a lifetime deal. Instead, we’re running a special 60% off sale on all plans including the All-Access Bundle which gets you access to all Smash Balloon plugins including the future ones.

Use the coupon code: CELEBRATE

See Smash Balloon Demo and Get Started »

Background Story – Why Smash Balloon?

If you’ve been reading WPBeginner for a while, then you know that we have recommended Smash Balloon as the go-to social media feed plugin for WordPress since 2016.

That’s because it’s easy to setup and most importantly it is ALWAYS reliable.

Often when starting a blog or making a website, small business owners want to display social media feeds on their WordPress site.

This helps you get more social media followers with omni-channel marketing, and it also allows you to boost sales conversions by leveraging social proof.

As you know, our goal at Awesome Motive is to help small businesses grow and compete with the big guys.

When the opportunity presented itself to join forces with John Brackett and build the next generation of social media plugins for WordPress, I said Yes.

I’m super excited about this acquisition and am looking forward to sharing our product development & business growth playbooks with the Smash Balloon team to create more amazing features that you’ve been asking for.

What’s Coming Next?

We have already started working on our plans to build the next big feature of Smash Balloon that I know everyone will love. I’m particularly excited about it because I’ll get to use it in the next WPBeginner redesign

You can also expect to see deeper Smash Balloon integration with our existing plugins including but not limited to MonsterInsights (analytics), RafflePress (contests & giveaways), SeedProd (landing pages), and more.

Last but not least, we will continue to make the process of creating custom social media feeds easier through detailed tutorials, product education, and more.

If you have suggestions on features you’d like to see in the Smash Balloon plugins, then please let us know by sending us a message via WPBeginner contact form.

As always, I want to thank you for your continued support of WPBeginner. We look forward to bringing you more amazing solutions to help you grow your business.

Yours Truly,

Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner

The post Welcome Smash Balloon to the WPBeginner Family of Products appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 23, 2020 at 06:05PM

How to Restart a WordPress Site – Reset WordPress (The Fast Way)

Recently, one of our readers asked us, “How do I restart my WordPress site?”.

This isn’t something that most users will need to do, but knowing how to reset WordPress can be very helpful in some situations.

In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to restart or reset your WordPress site, the fast way.

Why Restart a WordPress Site?

Restarting or resetting WordPress is a process where you restore WordPress to the default settings. Think of it as a similar process to restoring your phone to the default “factory settings”.

It will delete all your apps and customizations, so you can start over fresh.

There are several situations where you might want to restart or reset a WordPress site:

1. You’re using a demo site on your own computer. If you’ve installed WordPress on localhost, then you might want to reset after you’ve built a site and moved it from localhost to a live server. If you’re a developer and constantly test themes & plugins on your local install, then it can help to reset it every quarter to start fresh.

2. You’ve been working on a new site and want to start over. Maybe you’ve been busy creating a blog or website, but you are not happy with the customizations. Instead of undoing everything, you can simply reset WordPress and quickly start over with a new design.

3. You’re going to rework a client’s website. If they want something very different from what’s already there, then you might need to reset WordPress on staging server to start from scratch.

4. You’re learning about WordPress, hands-on. Maybe you’ve had a go at developing your own plugins or themes, or you’ve been experimenting with a starter theme. You might want to start again with a fresh installation of WordPress.

How to Restart and Reset a WordPress Site

Restarting your WordPress site might sound difficult, but it’s really not.

We’re going to walk you through the entire reset process, step by step.

Before you begin, it’s important to create a full backup of your site using a WordPress backup plugin. This is important in case you want to restore your site from the backup after restarting it.

Restart Your WordPress Site with WP Reset

Now you’re ready to move on and restart your WordPress site. We’re going to use the free version of the WP Reset plugin for this.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the WP Reset plugin. For more details, see our instructions on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once the plugin is activated, you need to go to the Tools » WP Reset in your WordPress dashboard and scroll down to the Site Reset section of the page.

To reset your site, you need to type the word ‘reset’ in the confirmation field before clicking the red ‘Reset Site’ button.

WP Reset will pop up a message asking you to confirm that you want to reset the site. Click ‘Reset WordPress’ to continue.

You’ll see a ‘Resetting in progress’ message for a few seconds. Then, your site will be restarted.

Next, you’ll see the homepage of your WordPress dashboard with a success message at the top from WP Reset.

That’s it. You’ve restarted your WordPress site.

Optional WP Reset Functions When Restarting Your Site

The above method gives you everything you need in order to restart your site.

However, there are some other options in WP Reset that you might want to use too.

Taking a Snapshot of Your WordPress Site Before Restarting

You can use WP Reset to take a snapshot of your site. A snapshot is a restore point for your WordPress database. It lets you see what changes have been made since the snapshot was taken. You can use it to roll back changes if necessary.

Important: A snapshot is not a WordPress backup. You should still make backups to restore your website.

To create the snapshot, click on the Snapshots tab. Then, scroll down and click the Create Snapshot button:

You’ll be prompted to enter a name or description for the snapshot. Type in whatever you want to use, then click the ‘Create snapshot’ button.

Deleting Themes and Plugins Using WP Reset

By default, WP Reset doesn’t delete theme and plugin files. It simply deactivates them. However, you can use it to delete these files too.

First, you’ll need to go to Tools » WP Reset and click the ‘Tools’ tab. Once there, simply click on the ‘Delete Themes’ or ‘Delete Plugins’ links to jump straight to those tools.

Once you click either link, you’ll be scrolled down the page to the right tool:

You can click the ‘Delete all themes’ or ‘Delete plugins’ button to delete them.

Important: WP Reset doesn’t backup your files in any way. Deleting your themes and plugins can’t be undone.

After you click the button, you’ll be prompted to confirm. Click the Delete button on the popup to continue.

You’ll then see a message telling you how many themes or plugins have been deleted.

If you delete all themes, then you’ll need to install and activate a theme manually. Your site won’t work without one. If you go to Appearance » Themes, then you’ll see a screen like this:

Go ahead and click the ‘Add New’ button and choose or upload a theme of your choice. If you need help, check out how to install a WordPress theme.

Restoring Your Data After Restarting Your WordPress Site

After restarting your WordPress site, any posts and pages you had will be gone. Instead, you’ll see the default pages and the ‘Hello, world’ post:

To restore your old data, you will need to reinstall and activate the backup plugin that you used to create your backup.

You can then follow its instructions to restore your site from the backup.

Viewing Your Restored Content

Once you’ve restored your site from backup, your content should be back on your site.

You’ll find all your posts under Posts » All Posts. They’ll have the correct time stamps, categories, tags, and comments.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to reset a WordPress site the fast way. You might also like our ultimate guide to speeding up WordPress and our list of must have WordPress plugins for all sites.

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 Restart a WordPress Site – Reset WordPress (The Fast Way) appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 22, 2020 at 05:00PM

6 Best WooCommerce Payment Gateways for WordPress

Are you looking for the best WooCommerce payment gateways for your online store?

Choosing the right WooCommerce gateway for payments is a very important decision. It will have long term effects on the success and sustainability of your online business.

In this article, we will compare the top WooCommerce payment gateways for WordPress, so you can choose the right option for your business.

How to Choose The Best WooCommerce Payment Gateway

If you have just started your WooCommerce store, then you will be faced with the decision to select and set up a payment gateway.

Payment gateways are third-party service providers that enable you to accept online payments on your eCommerce store.

However, not all of them have the same polices, processing rates, and features. Choosing an unsuitable payment gateway will increase your costs and hurt your business long-term.

Following are a few important aspects you should consider when choosing your WooCommerce payment gateway.

1. Transacion Fees

Most WooCommerce payment gateways charge a fee for each transaction that takes place on your store. This fee can be vary based on your business location, customers’ card type, the payment gateway you choose, etc..

You can try to remedy this by passing the burden to your customers. However, this also means you will have to increase product prices, and your customers may find the same products elsewhere at lower costs.

Alternatively, you can compare transaction fees with other providers and try to find the right balance between transaction fees and other features.

2. Other Charges

Apart from the transaction fees, some WooCommerce payment service providers may also charge you additional fees. This could be set up fees, account maintenance fees, or charges for bank withdrawals.

These charges can be a nuisance particularly for businesses that are just starting out.

3. Recurring Payments

Many businesses sell subscription-based products, like membership plans, or an online course. In that case, you may also want to look for recurring payments feature.

Some payment gateways require customers to manually complete each transaction and don’t support recurring payments. Make sure you check for this option if your business requires automatic renewals.

4. Availability in Your Target Region

Next, you need to make sure that the payment service you choose is available in your country and in your customers’ country.

For instance, if most of your customers are based in Europe, then you may want to look for a payment service that is widely available and popular in that region.

You’ll find this information on each payment gateway’s website under ‘Supported Countries’. If you cannot find this information, then email them to be certain.

These are just the most important items to look for. You may also want to see other features that your business may need. For instance, easy refunds, extra security, verification, and regulatory compliance based on your region.

That being said, now let’s take a look at some of the best WooCommerce payment gateways for WordPress, and see how they stack up on these requirements.

Top WooCommerce Payment Gateways for WordPress

WooCommerce supports a ton of payment gateways through extensions. These extensions are WooCommerce plugins that integrate those payment services into your WooCommerce checkout process.

The following are the most popular WooCommerce payment gateways trusted by thousands of businesses around the world.

1. Stripe

Stripe is the most popular payment gateway to accept credit card payments on your website. WooCommerce comes with built-in support to select Stripe as your payment gateway.

It supports all top credit and debit cards. Your customers can also pay using Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Alipay.

Stripe is available in 40+ countries and supports 135+ currencies. There are no setup or annual fees for Stripe, but they do charge 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction.

It also offers a better checkout experience. Your customers stay on your website during checkout, and it works smoothly on mobile as well as desktop.

Stripe supports recurring payments and can be used with any subscription or WordPress membership plugin.

Note: If you’re just looking to create a simple payment form for donations or online orders without the headache of managing a full eCommerce system, then look at WPForms which offers Stripe forms for WordPress.

2. PayPal Standard

PayPal is one of the most popular payment services available for eCommerce stores. WooCommerce comes with built-in support for using PayPal on your online store.

As one of the pioneers in the payment industry, PayPal offers a variety of services suitable for personal, business, and eCommerce.

It is available in dozens of countries, but there are different restrictions on some countries. Make sure that it is supported in your country as well as your target customers.

The Standard PayPal extension for WooCommerce requires a PayPal business account. It does not offer an on-site checkout experience which means your customers will be redirected to PayPal website to complete the purchase.

PayPal charges are based on your account type, and the number/volume of sales you make. This makes a significant impact on your business, and you would want to review them beforehand.

Note: If all you need is a PayPal payment form for your business, then check out WPForms. It allows you to easily accept payments and donations via PayPal.

3. WooCommerce PayPal Pro

PayPal Pro for WooCommerce is a paid extension developed by the folks behind WooCommerce. It enables you to use PayPal with a better checkout experience allowing customers to complete the purchase without leaving your website.

It is available in UK, US, and Canada, but you’ll need a PayPal merchant account to use it. If your business is based in Australia, then you can use it with a PayPal Pro Payflow account.

It does not support recurring payments, which means it will not work for a membership website selling subscription-based products.

PayPal pro requires a monthly payment and transaction fees vary depending on the country. This makes it more expensive for a new business.

4. Square

Square is another excellent payment gateway for WooCommerce stores. Particularly, for stores with physical locations, delivery, and other selling options.

Square is available in the U.S., Canada, Australia, Japan, and the UK. The transaction fee varies for each country, but it offers a fixed transaction rate.

The WooCommerce Square Extension syncs product between your website and your Square account. You can also add products to your Square account, and they will be added to your WooCommerce store.

Additionally, it supports recurring payments when used alongside the WooCommerce Subscriptions extension.

5. Authorize.Net

Authorize.Net is a popular payment gateway used by thousands of businesses. It is available for merchants located in United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Europe or Australia,

Authorize.Net for WooCommerce extension provides a seamless checkout process to your customers using credit cards. Customers don’t leave your website while transaction is securely processed in the background on Authorize.Net servers.

The extension also supports recurring payments for WooCommerce Subscriptions. It is user friendly and allows users to save their payment method and reuse it.

Note: You can create an Authorize.Net payment form with WPForms. This is perfect for websites that don’t need a full-fledged eCommerce platform.

6. WooCommerce Payments

WooCommerce Payments is a payment solution provided by the folks behind WooCommerce. It offers a better checkout experience and a deeply integrated payment gateway for your store.

Currently, WooCommerce Payments is only available to US-based merchants selling products in US Dollars.

It offers a pay as you go fee structure set at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction for U.S.-issued cards. Additional 1% fee for cards issued outside the United States. This makes it slightly expensive than other solutions.

This solution is simply a white-label version of Stripe.

You’ll also need a WordPress.com account and install the JetPack plugin on your store.

Which is The Best WooCommerce Payment Gateway?

The best WooCommerce payment gateway is the one that provides you the best transaction fees, is available in your target region, and offers a better user experience for your customers.

Considering these factors, we would recommend Stripe as the best payment gateway for WooCommerce. It provides good checkout experience, competitive transaction, and is available in 40 countries.

Both PayPal Standard and Authorize.Net offer similar features. However, PayPal Standard does not provide a better checkout experience which may result in more abandoned cart sales.

Typically store owners offer multiple payment options to their users. For example, on our WooCommerce store for All in One SEO, we accept credit cards with Stripe and PayPal.

In our experience, this has proven to increase online store conversions. You can also add live chat software and an email marketing service to further boost your sales conversion.

We hope this article helped you find the best WooCcommerce payment gateway for your business. You may also want to see our comparison of the best business phone services for small businesses and online store owners.

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 6 Best WooCommerce Payment Gateways for WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 19, 2020 at 05:12PM

How to Add Facebook Open Graph Meta Data in WordPress Themes

Do you want to add Facebook Open Graph meta data to your WordPress themes?

Open Graph metadata helps Facebook and other social media websites get meta data about your posts pages. It also allows you to control how your content appears when shared on Facebook.

In this article, we will show you how to easily add Facebook open graph metadata in WordPress themes. We’ll share three different methods, so you can choose one that works best for you.

Method 1. Adding Facebook Open Graph Meta Data with All in One SEO

All in One SEO is a popular WordPress SEO plugin used by over 2 million websites. It allows you to easily optimize your website for search engines as well as social platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

First, you need to install and activate the All in One SEO plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit All in One SEO » Feature Manager page. From here you need to activate the ‘Social Meta’ feature.

Next, you need to visit All in One SEO » Social Meta page. From here, you can simply fill in the fields to enter your Facebook meta data.

You can start by providing title, image, and description for your homepage.

Below that you can set a default image to be used if an article doesn’t have an open graph image. You can also provide the width and height of the image.

Need help choosing image sizes? See our complete social media cheat sheet for ideal image sizes that you can use on all social media platforms including Facebook.

If your website is using a Facebook App or has a Facebook page, then you can provide your Facebook app ID in the next section. This allows you to get data for Facebook insights.

Optionally, you can also adjust settings for Twitter and run a scan to avoid duplicate Open Graph tags on your site.

Once you are done, don’t forget to click on the ‘Update Options’ button to store your changes.

Now that you have set site-wide open graph meta tags, the next step is to add open graph meta data for individual posts and pages.

By default, All in One SEO will use your post title and description for open graph title and description. You can also manually set the Facebook thumbnail for each page and post.

Simply edit the post or page and scroll down to the All in One SEO section below the editor. From here, switch to the Social tab and fill out open graph meta data. You can set the social media image here as well as title and description.

Method 2. Set Facebook Open Graph Meta Data using Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is another excellent WordPress SEO plugin that you can use to add Facebook open graph meta data into any WordPress site.

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

Once activated, you need to go to SEO » Social and simply check the box next to Add Open Graph meta data.

You can save your settings or continue and configure other Facebook social options on the screen.

You can provide a Facebook app ID if you use one for your Facebook page and insights. You can also change your homepage Open Graph meta title, description, and image.

Lastly, you can set a default image to be used when no image is set for a post or page.

Yoast SEO also allows you to set Open Graph metadata for individual posts and pages. Simply edit a post or page and scroll down to the SEO section below the editor.

From here, you can set Facebook thumbnail for that particular post or page. If you don’t set a post title or description, then the plugin will use your SEO meta title and description.

You can now save your post or page and the plugin will store your Facebook open graph meta data.

Method 3. Manually Add Facebook Open Graph Meta Data into Your WordPress Theme

This method requires you to edit your theme files, so make sure that you back up your theme files before making any changes.

After that simply copy and paste this code in your theme’s functions.php file, or in a site-specific plugin.

//Adding the Open Graph in the Language Attributes
function add_opengraph_doctype( $output ) {
                return $output . ' xmlns:og="http://opengraphprotocol.org/schema/" xmlns:fb="http://www.facebook.com/2008/fbml"';
        }
add_filter('language_attributes', 'add_opengraph_doctype');

//Lets add Open Graph Meta Info

function insert_fb_in_head() {
        global $post;
        if ( !is_singular()) //if it is not a post or a page
                return;
        echo '<meta property="fb:app_id" content="Your Facebook App ID" />';
        echo '<meta property="og:title" content="' . get_the_title() . '"/>';
        echo '<meta property="og:type" content="article"/>';
        echo '<meta property="og:url" content="' . get_permalink() . '"/>';
        echo '<meta property="og:site_name" content="Your Site NAME Goes HERE"/>';
        if(!has_post_thumbnail( $post->ID )) { //the post does not have featured image, use a default image
                $default_image="http://example.com/image.jpg"; //replace this with a default image on your server or an image in your media library
                echo '<meta property="og:image" content="' . $default_image . '"/>';
        }
        else{
                $thumbnail_src = wp_get_attachment_image_src( get_post_thumbnail_id( $post->ID ), 'medium' );
                echo '<meta property="og:image" content="' . esc_attr( $thumbnail_src[0] ) . '"/>';
        }
        echo "
";
}
add_action( 'wp_head', 'insert_fb_in_head', 5 );

Note: Remember to change the Site Name where it says “Your Site Name Goes Here”. After that, change the default image URL with the image of yours. You also need to add your own Facebook app ID, If you don’t have a Facebook app, then you can remove the Facebook app ID line from the code.

We would recommend putting an image with your logo there, so if your post does not have a thumbnail, then it pulls your site’s logo.

That’s all you need to do. As soon as you save your functions.php file (or site-specific plugin) it will start showing Facebook open graph metadata in the WordPress header.

We hope this article helped you add Facebook open graph meta data in WordPress. You may also want to see our pick of the best social media plugins for WordPress to grow your social following, and our troubleshooting guide on how to fix the Facebook incorrect thumbnail issue in WordPress.

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

The post How to Add Facebook Open Graph Meta Data in WordPress Themes appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 18, 2020 at 05:54PM

7 Best WordPress Download Manager Plugins Compared (2020)

Do you want to manage and control file downloads in WordPress? Perhaps you’d like to keep track of how many times a file is downloaded.

Or maybe you need to protect content so only registered users or customers can access it.

In this article, we’ll compare some of the best WordPress download manager plugins to track and manage your file downloads.

What to Look For in a WordPress Download Manager Plugin

There are several different reasons why you might want to use a WordPress download manager plugin. You may need to do some or all of the following:

• Lock a file so only registered users with a specific role can access it
• Lock a file so only paying customers can access it
• Offer a limited number of copies of a digital file
• Reorganize and tag files in WordPress
• Prevent bots or spammers from repeatedly downloading your files
• Track how many times a specific file is downloaded
• Track how many times a type or group of files is downloaded
• Provide downloadable files as part of a larger product, like an online course

It’s hard to find a single plugin that can do all the above, but depending on the use case, you may not need all these features.

In our comparison, we’ve picked the best WordPress download manager plugins to cover all the various scenarios and use-cases.

1. MemberPress

MemberPress is the best WordPress membership plugin on the market. It lets you easily sell digital downloads. You can also use it to sell subscriptions, lock content on your site so that only members can access it, and much more.

The MemberPress Downloads addon gives you advanced download management capabilities. It lets you upload multiple files, tag or categorize them, and list them using a shortcode.

You can use MemberPress to protect files as well as posts and pages. You can lock files, so that only users with the right level of access can view them.

One great feature is that you can protect files by category and tag, too. You can set up a rule to protect all files that you’ve assigned to a specific category or tag. This makes it easy to restrict files based on user’s subscription level.

You can also list your files by their category and tag, using MemberPress’ shortcodes system. If you’re offering a lot of different downloads, then this makes it really easy to organize them for your users.

MemberPress gives you plenty of flexibility, too. It lets you go way beyond just selling downloads to create a full membership site. It even integrates with email marketing services like Constant Contact, ConvertKit, and AWeber.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to easily create a WordPress membership website.

2. LearnDash

LearnDash is a very popular LMS (learning management system) plugin for WordPress. It’s easy to use and comes with many powerful features.

LearnDash lets you charge a one-time fee for your product or set up a recurring subscription. You can easily insert video and audio files into your course, making it a great way to sell these types of files.

Aside from using LearnDash to lock the content on your site, you can use it to accept payments, create online courses, make assignments and quizzes, and more. There are also dynamic forums built into LearnDash where your users can interact with one another.

LearnDash works well on its own for taking payments and offering protected content. You can also integrate it with several of the other tools on this list, including MemberPress, WordPress Download Manager, and WooCommerce.

3. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights, the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It’s the best option if you want to track which files on your site are being downloaded the most. This is crucial if you offer a lot of free downloads and need to know which ones are proving popular with your users.

You can choose which types of files to track, such as images, zip files, PDFs, and so on.

You can also label your different files so MonsterInsights can show which categories are being downloaded the most. For instance, you could track “Free Reports” separately from “Printable Worksheets” in MonsterInsights.

You can see the file downloads report in your WordPress dashboard along with MonsterInsight’s other user analytics report.

For detailed instructions, see our tutorial on how to use MonsterInsighs to track file downloads.

MonsterInsights seamlessly integrate with all the plugins mentioned in this list, and we recommend installing it alongside any file download manager plugin that you use. The free version of MonsterInsights also comes with file tracking, but you can upgrade to the Pro version to unlock other powerful features.

Alternatively, you can use MonsterInsights by itself too. Simply upload your files in the WordPress media library, embed the link to the files anywhere in your posts, pages, menus, etc. After that MonsterInsights will start tracking the download stats for you.

4. WooCommerce

WooCommerce is a popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress. You can use it to sell both physical and digital products.

If you want to sell digital downloads, you can simply designate your download as a product in WooCommerce, so the customer only receives access after paying for it.

You can also use WooCommerce plugins to add more features to your online store. For instance, you can use smart coupons features to run sales and promotions more easily.

WooCommerce offers several different download methods and types of protection for your files. You can choose which suits your situation best. Just like regular WooCommerce products, your downloads can have variations, too.

You can also use WooCommerce to create a product that has both a downloadable and a physical component. For instance, you might provide an online video course that comes with a physical workbook.

For more details, see our complete WooCommerce guide for beginners.

5. Easy Digital Downloads

As the name suggests, Easy Digital Downloads makes it easy for you sell digital products on your website. You can also use it to provide and track free downloads.

Your files will be automatically protected by Easy Digital Downloads plugin. You can track the date, time, and IP address of all purchases and free downloads.

You can restrict how many times a customer can download their files. You can also set the download link to expire after a certain period of time. These are both good ways to prevent customers from sharing their files with others.

You can integrate Easy Digital Downloads with lots of other services, including email marketing services like ConvertKit and AWeber. You can even integrate it with AffiliateWP to create a referral program.

Easy Digital Downloads has a built-in shopping cart system that lets customers buy several digital products at once. You can easily create a customer account page where logged-in customers can see a list of everything they’ve purchased.

6. File Manager

File Manager is a really useful FTP like file manager. You can use it to edit files through your WordPress dashboard, rather than using FTP to move them between locations.

We always recommend using an FTP client or your WordPress hosting file manager where possible. However, there may be times when you want to quickly manage files through your WordPress dashboard.

File Manager lets you put your files into the WordPress media library, too. It creates thumbnails for all types of image files. It also has search functionality, making it easy to find your files.

With the Pro Edition of File Manager, you can also create private folders. You can set these so specific user roles or even specific users have access.

You can also use the Pro Edition to control what types of files can be uploaded and downloaded. You can even set up email notifications so that you get an email whenever a file is downloaded.

7. WordPress Download Manager

WordPress Download Manager is a great simple option. You can use it to manage free and paid file downloads.

You can set a password per file, or you can specify user roles that can have access to your files.

If you’re looking for a WordPress download manager to stop bots or spammers, then you can set a Captcha Lock or IP Block feature. You can also control downloads by putting a download limit on each user. This can help improve WordPress speed and performance.

You’ll also get download logs, so you can see the date, time, and location of the user that’s downloading your files.

When a user downloads a free file, they won’t need to go through the whole checkout process. With PDF and image files, WordPress Download Manager will give the user the option to open the file in their browser or download it.

You can easily give files a price by using the free “Premium Package – Complete Digital Store Solution” addon.

There are also a number of paid addons for WordPress Download Manager. These include BuddyPress integration, a User Review addon, a Download Limit addon, and more.

Final Thoughts: Best Download Manager Plugin for WordPress

Choosing the right download manager plugin can be tricky. All of the plugins on this list are great options, depending on how you want to manage your downloads.

If you’re going to sell downloads and want to restrict access to members, then MemberPress is best download manager plugin for you. It’s comes with all the powerful features like protecting files by categories and tag, email marketing integrations, payment gateways, etc.

If you simply want to track downloads, then MonsterInsights is the best plugin for you. It’ll provide you with all the stats you need. Simply upload the files in your WordPress file manager, embed it in a post, and MonsterInsights will show you the download stats.

We hope this article helped you learn about the best download manager plugins for WordPress. We also recommend going through our experts’ list of must have plugins for business websites.

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

The post 7 Best WordPress Download Manager Plugins Compared (2020) appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 17, 2020 at 05:30PM

How to Organize Media Uploads by Users in WordPress

Have you ever wanted to keep media files uploaded by users separate from other users?

When running a multi-author website, you might want your authors to only have access to the media files they’ve uploaded. This can be helpful for organization and productivity purposes.

In this article, we’ll show you how to organize media uploads by users in WordPress.

Why Restrict Author Access to Media Uploads?

Managing a proper editorial workflow is one of the biggest challenges for multi-author WordPress sites.

One thing that bothers many site owners is that authors can see the media uploads of other authors and contributors.

This becomes a privacy concern for some site owners. For instance, if an administrator is working on a new product or idea, other authors can see it before it goes public.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to restrict who can see media uploads inside your WordPress admin area.

Organizing Media Uploads by Users in WordPress

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

Upon activation, the plugin automatically restricts each user’s access to their own media uploads while allowing site administrator to view all uploads.

However, you do have the option to customize settings and allow custom user roles to access all media uploads. For instance, you may want to allow Editors to view all media uploads while restricting Authors to their own uploads.

To fine-tune these settings, you need to head over to Settings » WP Users Media page to configure which attachments the user can access.

In this case, we want to select the the following option: ‘Enable so Author can only view their own attachments.’ Here’s what you’ll see:

Now, to view this in action, you can create two new user accounts and give them the ‘Author‘ role. Next, log in to WordPress with each of the two accounts and upload some images.

You’ll notice that the media library will only show you the images uploaded by that particular user. For example, we created two users named Sam and Tina.

We uploaded three images using Sam’s account, and three images using Tina’s account.

This is how Tina’s account shows the media library:

This is how Sam’s account shows the media library:

And lastly, this is how a site administrator sees the media library.

When uploading new images, your users will only be able to select their own uploaded images from the Media Library.

We hope this article helped you better organize media uploads by users on your WordPress site. If you come across any issues while uploading images, then check out our ultimate guide on fixing common image issues in WordPress.

You may also want to see our comprehensive list of must have WordPress plugins for all websites.

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

The post How to Organize Media Uploads by Users in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

June 16, 2020 at 06:00PM