How to Show Personalized Content to Different Users in WordPress

Do you want to show different content to different users in WordPress?

Sometimes you may want to show custom content to users from specific locations, on specific dates, or other conditions. Website personalization is not available in WordPress out of the box. However there are easy drag & drop tools that can make life easy.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily show different content to different users based on specific conditions with dynamic text replacement, content personalization, and more.

Why Show Different Content to Users in WordPress?

Normally, when you publish content on your WordPress website, it just becomes available to everyone. What if you wanted to show a different version of the content to specific users?

For instance, you may want to offer free shipping to customers in a specific geographic location, or show different content to users coming from a particular landing page.

One way to deal with this is by making a membership site and restricting access to content based on a user’s profile.

But not everyone wants to require user login to offer personalization.

That’s where WordPress website personalization solutions can help.

You can use smart conditions to add content personalization on your blogs, product personalization on your online store, and dynamic text replacement on your landing pages.

These conditions can include specific user interactions, their geographic location, time of day, specific pages they’re visiting, specific traffic referrer source, past behavior, and more.

That being said let’s take a look at how to show different content to different users in WordPress.

Method 1. Showing Different Content to Users Using OptinMonster (Website Personalization Made Easy)

OptinMonster is the best conversion optimization tool on the market. It comes with powerful targeting rules which allow you to show personalized campaigns to users based on a large set of display rules.

This method is recommended for all users because it gives you the ability to design your content and comes with more powerful targeting rules. It also works with your existing integrations and third-party apps.

First, you’ll need to sign up for an OptinMonster account. It is a paid tool and you’ll need at least Pro or Growth plan to access all targeting features.

Next, you need to install the OptinMonster plugin on your WordPress site. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to click on the OptinMonster menu in the WordPress admin sidebar.

Next, you need to click on the ‘Connect Your Account’ button to connect your WordPress site to your OptinMonster account.

Design The Content You Want to Show to the Users

Once connected, you need to click on the ‘Create New Campaign’ button at the top.

This will take you to the OptinMonster website where you will be asked to choose a campaign type and template.

OptinMonster offers different campaign types that you can use to show various types of content or targeted messages to your users. This includes lightbox popups, floating bar, fullscreen, inline widget, slide in, and gamified campaigns.

For instance, if you want to show dynamic content inside a WordPress post or page, then you can choose the Inline campaign type.

Each campaign type has dozens of templates to choose from. Simply click to select and use a template.

After that, you will be asked to enter a name for this campaign and select or add the website where it will run.

Next, you’ll enter the OptinMonster’s campaign builder interface. It is a drag and drop tool where you can design your campaign with a live preview.

Simply click on an element in the preview to edit it or add a new element from the left panel. OptinMonster also connects with all top email marketing services so you can show an email sign up form.

While the software was initially designed to help you get more email subscribers, it has now evolved into a full-featured conversion optimization suite.

You can use the campaign builder to create modals and campaigns to add any type of content such as a coupon code, free shipping offer, smart product recommendations, or anything you want.

Once you are done with the design of your campaign, you can click on the Save button at the top to store your changes.

You can always edit your design and change it to match your display rules. We will show you a few design examples tailored for different display scenarios in the next step.

Setting up Display Rules for Campaign

This is the part where you set up the display rules to decide when to show your campaign.

Inside the OptinMonster builder interface, switch to the ‘Display Rules’ tab.

It allows you to create smart rule sets, and choose from a ton of targeting options.

First, you need to choose the conditions to match. There are plenty of options here. Let’s take a brief look a each one of them.

1. Time based Triggers

These triggers allow you to set display rules based on time or date. You can show your campaign content at the specific date, time, or day of the week.

These triggers allow you to show custom messages designed for specific dates and times. For instance, you can show a flash sale coupon on holidays or display a message on special events.

2. Targetting Users Matching Specific Criteria

The targeting section allows you to set display rules based on smart recognition technology. For instance, you can show campaign to users coming from a specific website, referral, landing page, or Geographic location. You can also target based on cookies, ad blocker, and JavaScript variables.

As an independent publisher, you may want to ask visitors to support you by disabling the adblock software. You can show a message only to the users with AdBlock software installed.

Another great usage is to give special offers to visitors coming from a specific URL. For instance, you may want to offer an exclusive discount to users coming from an affiliate partner website.

3. Personalization Targeting

OptinMonster allows you to set personalized display rules based on user behavior. You can show custom campaigns to new user, returning visitor, device targeting, users who have already converted, not converted, have seen another campaign, visited a page, and more.

You can also use OptinMonster’s smart tags feature to display a user’s name, location, and more to show them even more personalized content. This allows you to tailor the content to specific users.

Here’s another example of how smart tags work:

4. Ecommerce Display Rules

These triggers are made specifically to boost conversions on eCommerce websites. You can show content to users based on their shopping behavior. OptinMonster supports WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and Shopify eCommerce platforms.

Ecommerce targeting allows you to show content based on what products users are viewing, number of products in cart, total cart amount, and more.

Bonus: Need more help to reduce cart abandonment on your online store? See our tips on how to recover abandoned cart sales in WooCommerce for some more ideas.

Once you select a condition, you will then be asked to select what to look for. For instance, if you choose a geographic location, then you will be asked to select locations that need to be matched.

After setting up your condition, you can validate it to make sure it is set up correctly and then click on the ‘Next Step’ button.

Next, you will be asked to select the campaign view. Depending on your campaign you can choose from the optin view (the main campaign), success view, or Yes/No view.

Click on the next step button to continue.

You’ll now see a summary of your display rule set. If you want you can add more rules or simply click on the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your changes.

Publish Your Content and Add it to Your Website

OptinMonster also makes it super easy to display campaigns on your website. Simply switch to the publish tab inside the builder and toggle the Status button to ‘Live’.

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

You can now go back to your WordPress site and visit OptinMonster » Campaigns page. You’ll see your new campaign listed there (if not, then click on the Refresh campaign button to reload).

Simply click on the ‘Go Live’ link to start displaying your campaign.

You can now test it by visiting your website while matching the conditions you set in the display rules.

For instance, if you set the condition that a user must be visiting from a specific website, then you’ll need to visit your site by clicking on a link on that referral website.

Tip: Clear your WordPress cache and browser cache to make sure you don’t load a cached page. You may also want to use the Incognito mode in your browser to mimic the behavior of a new user.

OptinMonster’s display rules give you a lot of powerful options to show different content to users in WordPress without modifying your templates and code.

Essentially, it lets you leverage additional digital real estate on your site to increase your sales and conversions.

With their A/B testing technology, you can easily test and improve your campaigns to drive better results.

A lot of customers use OptinMonster alongside powerful A/B testing tools like Optimizely, Google Optimize, and more.

Method 2. Showing Different Content to Users using a Plugin

This method is recommended if you want to change the entire content of a post or page in WordPress or show different variations of the same content to your users.

First, you need to install and activate the If-So Dynamic Content plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit If-So » All Triggers page and click on the ‘Add New’ button.

This will bring you to the page where you can create a trigger and add the content. First, you have a box where you can select a condition.

The plugin offers a number of conditions based on time, date, URL, geographic location, IP address, and more.

After choosing the trigger, you can add the content that you want to show to the users when that condition is matched.

Below that, you can add another version and use another set of rules to display different content.

Lastly, you’ll see the default content area. This is the content that you want to show the users who don’t qualify the conditions you set above.

Once you are finished, don’t forget to publish your trigger and copy the shortcode shown on the screen.

You can now edit the post or page and add the shortcode in your content where you want to display the trigger.

You can now save and publish your post or page.

After that, go ahead and visit your website to see the trigger in action. If you match the required conditions, then you’ll see the message you set for those conditions. Otherwise, you’ll see the default message you added for the trigger.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily show different content to different users in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to track conversions on your WordPress site like a pro, and our list of the best marketing automation tools for small businesses.

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

The post How to Show Personalized Content to Different Users in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

September 22, 2020 at 04:00PM

How to Copy and Paste in WordPress without Formatting Issues

Recently, a reader asked us how to copy and paste items into WordPress without causing formatting issues?

Often when you are copying and pasting content from a desktop app or a web page, you end up pasting unwanted formatting too. This does not match your WordPress theme’s fonts and colors which simply looks odd.

In this article, we’ll sahre how to easily copy and paste into WordPress without any unwanted formatting and styles.

Understanding Copying and Pasting in WordPress

Copying and pasting means copying text from one place to another without needing to type it all out again.

To copy text from a document or webpage, you need to highlight it using your mouse. Then, simply right-click and select ‘Copy’ from the menu. Or, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+C (Command+C on a Mac) to copy the highlighted text.

To paste text into WordPress, you can right-click and select ‘Paste’ from the menu. Or, use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V (Command+V on a Mac) to paste the copied text:

When you copy text, the formatting of the text is copied with it. The problem is that sometimes you will end up with formatting that you don’t want.

This unwanted formatting can affect how your text displays on other devices.

Some WordPress users choose to avoid copying and pasting altogether. Instead, they draft their posts straight into their WordPress site.

However, you may prefer to draft using a separate tool, such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. This lets you work offline and can make it easier to share your work for comments and revisions before publication.

It’s also important to avoid adding unnecessary formatting because it impacts your page size which means slower site speed.

That’s why we have created this ultimate guide on how to properly copy & paste text in WordPress. You can use the links to jump straight to the sections you need:

• Coping and pasting from Word to WordPress using the block editor
• Copying and pasting from Google Docs to WordPress using the block editor
• Coping and pasting using the classic editor
• How to check and fix copy and paste formatting errors

How to Copy and Paste from Word to WordPress (Block Editor)

Copying text from Microsoft WordPress is quite straight forward.

For years, WordPress has allowed you to copy rich (formatted) text from Word documents straight into the editor. This is a big advantage if you like to write and format your posts in Microsoft Word.

Copying your post from Word into WordPress lets you keep elements like headings, bold and italic text, links, and lists. It will discard any styling options like colors, spacing, etc.

Here is a document that we’re going to copy from Word into WordPress:

This document is formatted with two Heading 2 subheadings for subsections of the post. There is bold and italic text, a bulleted list, and a link.

We will simply copy all the content from Word document and paste it inside the WordPress block editor.

Note that some formatting has not been copied over. The image has been left out, but WordPress has created an image block in the correct place.

Tip: Always use the ‘Heading styles’ in Word to create your subheadings. Don’t highlight the text and increase the font size manually.

Want to confirm that your text has copied over correctly? Just follow our instructions later in this article on checking for and fixing formatting errors.

How to Copy and Paste from Google Docs to WordPress (Block Editor)

Google Docs is a very popular word processing tool. Just like with Word, it’s easy to copy and paste from Google Docs into the WordPress block editor.

Here is our piece of text in Google Docs. It’s identical to the piece we used in Word, above.

When we copy and paste the text from Google Docs to WordPress, again, WordPress has formatted the text correctly.

This time, the image has also been uploaded to WordPress too.

Copying and Pasting Using the Classic Editor

Are you having trouble with formatting errors after copying and pasting text into WordPress? Then you are likely using the old classic editor.

The classic editor handles Word documents well and shouldn’t add any unnecessary code. However, it doesn’t do such a good job with the text copied from Google Docs.

Here’s how our text from Google Docs looks when pasting it into the classic editor:

The headings, link, bold, and italic text all look correct.

However, some unnecessary extra formatting has been added that isn’t visible.

How to Check and Fix Copy and Paste Formatting Errors

Let’s take a look at how to check for and fix formatting errors now.

All the text in your WordPress posts is formatted using HTML (hypertext markup language). HTML tags go around the words that are formatted in a particular way.

For instance, bold text in WordPress posts looks like this in HTML code:

There is <strong>bold text</strong> in this sentence.

The words ‘bold text’ will appear in bold.

To check for and fix formatting errors after copying and pasting, you need to check the HTML code for your post.

Checking the HTML Code in the Block Editor

In the block editor, it’s easy to view the HTML code of any block. First, click on the block. Then, click the three vertical dots to the right of the block’s menu.

You will see a dropdown menu. Here, you just need to click the ‘Edit as HTML’ option:

You will now see the HTML code for the block. With the block editor, you should normally find that no unwanted formatting has been added.

Here, the paragraph correctly begins with the opening <p> tag and ends with the closing </p> tag.

The sentence in bold is also correct. It begins at the <strong> tag and ends with the closing </strong> tag.

To switch back to the normal view of your block, simply click the three vertical dots again. Then, go ahead and select the ‘Edit visually’ option.

Checking the HTML Code in the Classic Editor

In the classic editor, it’s easy to view the HTML code of a post by clicking on the ‘Text’ tab at the top of the box containing the text of the post. This is the HTML code for our post copied from Google Docs:

The span tags here are extra, unnecessary code.

Also, the bold text and italic text are formatted using the <b> tag instead of <strong> and the <i> tag instead of <em>. It is generally considered best to use the <strong> and <em> tags as these give your words semantic meaning, not just visual styling.

By comparison, here is the code produced when copying from Word instead of Google Docs in the classic editor. There are no unnecessary formatting tags and the bold and italics have been correctly rendered.

If you’ve copied your post from Google docs, you will need to go through the HTML code and manually correct the formatting. In this case, that means:

• Removing all the <span style="font-weight: 400;"> and </span> tags.
• Changing all the <li style="font-weight: 400;"> to just <li>.
• Changing <b> and </b> to <strong> and </strong>.
• Changing <i> and </i> to <em> and </em>.

To speed up the process, you first need to copy and paste the HTML code into a text editor.

Then, simply use Find and Replace to change incorrect formatting. Here’s an example using notepad. We are finding all instances of <li style="font-weight: 400;"> and replacing them with <li>:

Once you’ve replaced all the incorrect formatting, simply copy and paste the text back into the Text view of the classic editor.

Copying and Pasting Plain Text

Plain text is text without any formatting. To avoid any possibility of incorrect formatting, you may prefer to copy and paste plain text.

This is also a very useful option if you’re copying a section of text from another website. For instance, you might include a quote from someone else in your content.

Copying and Pasting Plain Text in the Block Editor

The WordPress block editor doesn’t have a button or option to paste plain text. However, it’s easy to do this yourself.

The quickest method is to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+V (PC) or Command+Shift+V (Mac) to paste your text. This will automatically paste in plain text format.

Alternatively, some browsers offer the option to paste as plain text. If you’re using Google Chrome, simply right click and select the ‘Paste as plain text’ option:

Both of these methods will work to paste plain text in a single paragraph block.

Copying and Pasting Plain Text in the Classic Editor

To paste plain text into the classic editor, first click the Toolbar Toggle button:

Now, you just need to click the ‘Paste as text’ icon. It looks like a clipboard with the letter T on it:

Any text that you paste will now be pasted in plain text mode, with the formatting removed. Here’s how that looks when we paste the text from our Google doc. The headings, bold, italics, bullet points, and link have all been removed:

Pro Tip: Copy, Paste, and Clone Entire WordPress Sites

While the above beginner’s guide show you the basic of copy and pasting, WordPress also offers many advanced copy, paste, and cloning features.

For example, you can easily clone an entire WordPress site in 7 easy steps.

There’s also a way to create a duplicate WordPress page or post with a single click.

If you’re using the block editor, then you can also create re-usable blocks that you can use across multiple posts.

We hope this article helped you learn how to copy and paste into WordPress. You might also like our tips on mastering the WordPress content editor, and our expert pick of the 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 Copy and Paste in WordPress without Formatting Issues appeared first on WPBeginner.

September 21, 2020 at 05:00PM

7 Best Twitter Plugins for WordPress in 2020 (Compared)

Are you looking for the best Twitter plugins for WordPress?

Perhaps you want to include your recent tweets on your site or encourage visitors to share your content.

In this article, we’ll share the best Twitter plugins for WordPress that will help you grow your Twitter followers and engagement.

1. Smash Balloon Custom Twitter Feeds Pro

Smash Balloon Custom Twitter Feeds Pro is the best Twitter plugin for WordPress. It allows you to easily embed your recent tweets in WordPress.

It comes with various layout choices and customization options which gives you different ways to display tweets onn your site.

You can add Tweets from not just your account, but any public account, hashtag, and keyword. You can even combine multiple accounts and keywords to create smart Twitter feeds.

It supports the default WordPress editor and you can add your feed using a simple block. There is also an easy to use sidebar widget, this allows you to showcase Twitter feeds in non-content areas of your website.

There’s a free version of Custom Twitter Feeds available as well with limited features that you can get started with.

2. RafflePress

RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market. It lets you set up contests with prizes and you can use these to get more Twitter followers and engagement.

RafflePress comes with a built-in campaign template for Twitter. This allows you to instantly launch contest aimed at boosting Twitter engagement.

It is incredibly easy to use and comes with a drag and drop contest builder. Simply add the actions you want to include in your contest and then add it to any WordPress post or page.

RafflePress is not just limited to Twitter. You can use it to grow your email list, increase Facebook likes, drive traffic and sales to your WooCommerce store, and more.

Note: You can use RafflePress Lite (free version) as well to get started with giveaways and contests.

3. Shared Counts

Shared Counts is one of the best social sharing plugin for WordPress. Unlike other social sharing buttons, it is designed for speed and performance without compromising features.

As the name suggests, it also allows you to display the share count for each social media platform. You can also display the total share count for each article.

There are multiple button styles to choose from and you can also select where you want them displayed. It is super easy to use and helps you instantly add social features to your website without compromising website speed.

Just check out our step by step guide using on Shared Counts to get started.

4. Social Warfare

Social Warfare is another popular plugin to easily social sharing buttons to your website. It gives you control over what people share on Twitter (and other social networks) and how they share it. You can give your posts custom images and titles for Twitter, too.

Social Warfare offers multiple button styles and they are all designed to work well on mobile devices. You can style and position them in different ways, too. You can even put the sharing buttons in the middle of an article.

There’s a free version of Social Warfare available, which is a good place to start. Upgrading to the Pro version gives you access to more features.

5. Revive Old Posts

Revive Old Posts lets you easily share old articles at a pre-defined schedule to your social media profiles. This helps you keep your Twitter timeline active throughout the day without manually scheduling tweets.

Once you are done with the setup, it automatically works in the background to share your old posts. You can select a date range, exclude specific categories and tags, and pause it at any time.

You can customize what goes out in the tweets, too. For instance, you might want to include a hashtag based on the post’s category or tag.

The free version of the plugin works with Twitter and Facebook pages, so you may want to use that to begin with.

However, the pro version has some powerful extra features. These include the ability to set custom schedules, use multiple Twitter accounts, and add conversion tracking tags to URLs.

6. Simple Social Icons

Simple Social Icons makes it easy to add social media icons to a sidebar widget. These icons have links to your Twitter profile and your other social media profiles. Visitors to your site can then easily find and follow you on their favorite social network.

It is quite simple and easy to set up. You have the option to choose the button colors, alignment, and order. It comes with an easy to use widget that you can simply add to your WordPress blog.

7. Better Click to Tweet

Better Click to Tweet is a free plugin that lets you add ‘click to tweet’ boxes in your posts. It’s fully compatible with the WordPress block editor.

You can use this plugin to highlight specific quotes in your content. Your visitors can then simply click a button to tweet that quote. For more details, see our guide on adding click to tweet boxes in your content.

The Better Click to Tweet plugin is free, but it doesn’t have any options to customize the styling of your quotes. You can add custom CSS to change how the quotes look or you can pay for the premium addon, which offers a range of different styles to choose from.

We hope this article helped you learn about the best Twitter plugins for WordPress. You might also want to see our list of the best Instagram plugins for WordPress, and our comprehensive guide on increasing your website traffic.

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.

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September 18, 2020 at 05:00PM