How to Add Nofollow Links in WordPress (Simple Guide for Beginners)

Are you wondering how to add nofollow links in WordPress?

Perhaps you have heard of nofollow links, but you’re not sure what they are or why you should use them.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add nofollow links in WordPress. We will also cover what nofollow links are and why they matter.

Here’s a quick overview of what we’ll cover in this article. Simply click on these quick links to jump straight to different sections.

• What is a Nofollow Link?
• How to Check if a Link is NoFollow?
• When Should You Add Nofollow Links?
• How to Add Nofollow Links in WordPress Using All in One SEO (Recommended)
• How to Add Nofollow Links in the WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg)
• How to Add Nofollow Links in the WordPress Classic Editor
• How to Manually Add Nofollow Links in WordPress
• How to Nofollow Links in WordPress Menus?
• How to Automatically Make All External Links Nofollow?

What is a Nofollow Link?

A nofollow link is a type of link that tells search engines to not pass any link authority from your page to the other website that you’re linking to. You can turn any link into a nofollow link by adding the link attribute rel=”nofollow”.

Links or backlinks are an important search engine ranking factor.

When you link to an external website, search engines consider that as a ranking signal, and they will pass a small portion of your authority (link juice) to the other website.

Some SEO experts believe that making external links nofollow can help your own website rank higher. However this is not proven to be the case.

Note: Earlier this year, Google announced that their search algorithm now uses nofollow as a hint rather than a directive for crawling and indexing purposes.

How to Check if a Link is Nofollow?

All nofollow links contain the rel="nofollow" HTML attribute.

Here is the HTML code for an example of a nofollow link:

<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">Google</a>

To check if the nofollow attribute is added to a link on a website, you need to take your mouse to that link, right click on it, and then select Inspect on your browser.

Your browser window will now split into two parts.

In the Inspect pane, you will be able to see the HTML source code of the link along with the nofollow attribute.

Alternatively, you can use a Chrome extension like Strike Out Nofollow Links. This lets you instantly see which links have the nofollow attribute.

When Should You Add Nofollow Links?

As a general SEO best practice, you should add nofollow to all external websites that you don’t trust.

It’s completely acceptable and actually recommended to link to authority websites like Wikipedia, WPBeginner, New York Times, etc without the nofollow attribute. Linking to authority sites helps add credibility to your own website.

However, we recommend you nofollow links to less credible websites.

Here are some cases when you should always add nofollow attributes to the links:

1. Affiliate and Sponsored Links

Many bloggers make money online using affiliate marketing.

Affiliate links are tracking links for products and services that you recommend. You get a referral commission if someone purchases after going through your link.

You should always add the nofollow attribute to affiliate links. This applies whether you’re using a direct affiliate link or cloaking it using Pretty Links.

Another popular way bloggers make money is by adding sponsored links. You should always nofollow sponsored links. Otherwise, search engines may consider your site to be selling links or spamming. This can get you penalized in the search engine results.

Tip: In 2019, Google introduced some additional link attributes. You can use sponsored instead of nofollow for affiliate and sponsored links, if you want. For our purposes, it has the same effect.

2. External Links

Sometimes, you may link to external sources as references. Since you don’t control the content on those websites, you should consider adding nofollow to them.

In simple words, you are telling the search engines that you are linking to a source, but it is not something you can vouch for.

Note: You don’t need to nofollow links to authority websites.

3. Sidebar Links

Some bloggers add a list of external or affiliate links to the sidebar of their WordPress blog. These external links may be from authority sites or websites that they trust.

The problem is every time a new page is created on your site, you also create a new backlink for those websites from your sidebar on that page.

It is important to make these links nofollow. That way, you are not passing the SEO juice from every page to certain links.

How to Add Nofollow Links in WordPress using All in One SEO (Easy)

The easiest way to add nofollow links to your site is to use the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin for WordPress. This lets you add the nofollow attribute without needing to edit any HTML code.

You can use the free or premium version of AIOSEO plugin.

First, 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.

Note: Here’s the link to the AIOSEO free version.

Upon activation, create a new page or post and add the anchor text for your link. Next, select the anchor text and click on the link icon.

This will open a box for your link, with several options that you can toggle on or off. We recommend switching on the ‘Open in a new tab’ option as well as the ‘Add “nofollow” to link’ option.

Tip: Many bloggers select the “Open link in a new tab” checkbox when adding an external link. This is a great way to improve engagement and keep your visitors from leaving your website.

Once done, just click the ↵ arrow button or press Enter on your keyboard. This instantly adds the nofollowed link to your page or post.

Using All in One SEO to Add a Nofollow Link in the Classic Editor

Although we recommend using the block editor, some users still prefer to use the Classic Editor for writing posts and creating pages.

AIOSEO lets you easily add nofollow links in the classic editor, too. Simply open up the post or page you want to edit.

Next, add some anchor text for your link, then highlight it and click the link button. Then, enter your link.

Now, click the cog icon to open up the settings for the link. After that, check the box for Add rel=”nofollow” to link. You may also want to set your link to open in a new tab. Once you’re done, click the Add Link button.

Your nofollowed link will then be added to your WordPress post.

How to Manually Add Nofollow Links in the WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg)

If you don’t want to use the AIOSEO plugin, then you will have to manually add nofollow links in the WordPress block editor.

Let’s take a look at the step by step process on how to add nofollow links in WordPress posts or pages with the block editor.

First, go to Posts » Add New to create a new page.

As before, select the anchor text for your link and click on the link icon. Go ahead and enter your link. If you want the link to open in a new tab, simply toggle that option on.

Once done, just click the ↵ arrow button or press Enter on your keyboard to add the link.

To add the nofollow attribute to your link, you need to select the block containing your link and then click on the 3 vertical dots icon present at the top bar.

This will open a dropdown menu where you need to click on the Edit as HTML option.

You will now see the HTML code of your link. Go ahead and add the rel="nofollow" attribute to the link element.

If you see the rel="noopener noreferrer" attribute in the HTML code, then add simply add nofollow within the quotation marks.

Once done, just click on the 3 dots icon again then select ‘Edit visually’ to go back to the standard visual format.

This will convert your normal link to a nofollow link. You can follow the same process for adding nofollow attribute to all other external links.

How to Manually Add Nofollow Links in the WordPress Classic Editor

Even though AIOSEO is the easiest way to add nofollow links, you can also add links manually if you are using the classic editor.

First, go to Pages » Add New to create a new page. Add some anchor text for your link, then highlight it and click the link button. Then, enter your link.

If you want to set your link to open in a new tab, just click the cog icon and click the ‘Open link in a new tab’ checkbox. Then, click the Add Link button.

Now, click on the Text tab of the classic editor. You just need to add rel="nofollow" to the link here. If rel="noopener" is already present, simply add nofollow too.

How to Manually Add Lots of Nofollow Links in WordPress

You have already learned how to add individual nofollow links in the Gutenberg editor manually. However, that method is best when you only plan to add a few nofollow links.

If you have a lot of external and affiliate links in your post, then you should switch to the Code Editor. This lets you add the nofollow attribute faster.

On the post or page editing screen, click on the 3 vertical dots icon in the top-right corner. This will open a dropdown menu. Simply select the Code Editor option.

You will now see the HTML code of your page. Go ahead and find all your external links, and add the nofollow attribute to each of them.

Once done, you need to click the Visual Editor option to switch back.

How to Add Nofollow Links in WordPress Menus?

Adding a nofollow attribute to your WordPress menu links is extremely simple, but the option isn’t very visible. This is why many WordPress users don’t even realize it’s there.

Let’s take a look at how to add nofollow links in WordPress navigation menus.

First, you need to go to the Appearance » Menus page in your WordPress admin.

Next, choose the menu where you want to add the external link. Go ahead and click on the ‘Select’ button to open it.

After that, you need to click the ‘Custom Links’ tab to add the link text and external link URL. Once done, click on the ‘Add to Menu’ button to create a new menu item.

The external link will now appear in the Menu Structure column along with the other menu items.

Next, click the ‘Screen Options’ button at the top-right corner of the page. You just need to select the Link Relationship (XFN) and Link Target options.

Now, scroll back down and click on the downward arrow icon of the new menu item to expand it.

To add the nofollow attribute, just type nofollow in the Link Relationship (XFN) textbox. You can also check the ‘Open link in a new tab’ option if you want.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Menu’ button to save your changes.

How to Automatically Make All External Links Nofollow?

Some WordPress users want to automatically add the nofollow attribute to all external links on their site.

Most solutions that offer this are done with the help of JavaScript. This is not helpful for Google or for your site’s SEO. Instead, you should manually nofollow the links using the above methods.

Some bloggers worry about comment links. The good news is that WordPress adds the nofollow attribute to all comment links by default.

If you’re still looking for a solution to automatically nofollow all external links, then you can use the WP External Links plugin.

It adds the nofollow attribute to all external links in your posts, pages, navigation menus, and the sidebar.

First, you need to install and activate the WP External Links plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, go to the new External Links page in your WordPress dashboard.

Here, you need to change the ‘Set follow or nofollow’ dropdown to ‘nofollow’.

Above this, you have the option to set links to open in a new tab using the ‘Open external links’ dropdown.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you’ve finished. This plugin will now automatically turn all the external links on your site into nofollow links.

We hope this guide helped you to learn how to add nofollow links in WordPress. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide to image SEO, and our comparison of the best WordPress LMS plugins to build courses.

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 Add Nofollow Links in WordPress (Simple Guide for Beginners) appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 17, 2020 at 06:12PM

How to Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress

Recently, a reader asked us how to install Microsoft Clarity analytics on their WordPress website?

Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool that helps you analyze how users engage with your website with click tracking, scroll tracking, and heatmaps.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily install Microsoft Clarity in WordPress, step by step.

What is Microsoft Clarity and Why Use It?

Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool for websites. It helps you see the most popular pages on your website and how users click, scroll, and interact with those pages.

The most important feature of Microsoft Clarity is their data visualization. This includes click tracking, heatmap reports, session recordings, and more.

Heatmaps show a visual report of how users move their mouse, where they click, select or scroll.

Similarly, session recordings help you see how users view your content, where they spend more time, and what takes them away from your WordPress website.

This information helps you create a better user experience for your users, improve performance, and boost sales conversion.

Microsoft Clarity vs Google Analytics – What’s the Difference?

Google Analytics is the best analytics solution on the market because it offers a lot of in-depth tracking features. Microsoft Clarity, on the other hand, focuses on the visualization of user interactions with heatmaps and session recordings.

Google Analytics helps you track almost anything on your website. It also has enhanced eCommerce tracking, conversion tracking, detailed reports, etc.

Microsoft Clarity is a new platform, and it’s currently not an alternative to Google Analytics’ far superior features. However, you can use Microsoft Clarity alongside Google Analytics to unlock features like heatmaps and visitor session recordings because Google doesn’t offer those features yet.

Before Microsoft’s analytics feature, many website owners would use paid heatmap solutions like Hotjar or CrazyEgg alongside Google Analytics, but now you have a free alternative to those tools.

We recommend installing Google Analytics on all your websites. After that, you can follow our guide below to install Microsoft Clarity in WordPress.

They both work along quite well without affecting your website’s functionality.

How to Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress

It’s easy to add Microsoft Clarity to any website including your WordPress site. You’ll need to sign up for Microsoft Clarity, and then add a tracking code to your website.

We’ll take you through the process step by step.

Signing Up for Microsoft Clarity

First, head to the Microsoft Clarity website and click on the ‘Get Started’ button.

You need a Microsoft, Facebook, or Google account to sign up.

As soon as you sign up, you will see the Clarity dashboard with a popup to add a new project.

Go ahead and enter a name for your project. You can use the name of your website to make it easily recognizable. Next, enter your website URL and choose a site category.

Note: Clarity should not be used by finance, medical, or government-related websites.

Once you’ve created your new project, it will then be listed in your dashboard.

You need to click on it to see the tracking code that you have to add on your site:

We recommend leaving this tab open or copy the code to a safe place. You will need it later in this tutorial.

Adding the Microsoft Clarity Code to Your WordPress Site

Micorosoft Clarity tracking code needs to be present on all pages of your WordPress website. Luckily, there is an easy and safe way to make it happen without editing any WordPress files.

First, you need to install and activate Insert Headers and Footers plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

This plugin lets you add any script in your website’s header or footer right from your WordPress dashboard (no FTP or cPanel needed).

Once the plugin is activated, go to the Settings » Insert Headers and Footers page in your WordPress admin area.

Now, you need to copy and paste the Microsoft Clarity code into the ‘Scripts in Header’ box.

Don’t forget to click on the Save button at the bottom to save your settings.

The plugin will now automatically add the Microsoft Clarity analytics code to all pages of your WordPress site, so you can track website visitor activity on your website.

Pro Tip: If you’re using a WordPress caching plugin, then you need to clear your WordPress cache. This is important otherwise Microsoft will not be able verify your site for few hours.

Using Microsoft Clarity

Once you have installed the tracking code and cleared your WordPress cache, Microsoft will then start recording visitor session data.

However it will likely take up to 2 hours before you can see any results in your Clarity account.

Simply login to your Clarity account after a few hours, and you should be able to see activity summary in your dashboard.

Similar to Google analytics, Microsoft makes it easy to see which pages on your site are the most popular.

You can also see other useful insights like the percentage of sessions that have ‘dead clicks’. These are clicks that don’t go anywhere. For instance, users might be clicking on an image thinking that it’s a button or a link.

The dashboard also shows you the number of ‘quick backs’, which occur when a user moves off a page then very quickly comes back to it.

It also tracks excessive scrolling, when users scroll through a page more than expected.

Another useful statistic is rage clicks, when users rapidly click or tap in the same area. Paying close attention to these metrics can help you make your site more user-friendly.

The Recordings tab shows you recordings of different user sessions. You get the details of the user’s device, operating system, and country.

Clarity also tells you the number of pages they visited, the duration and time of their session, and the number of clicks they made.

The recordings let you see where people are clicking on your site. In this example, the user has clicked multiple times on an image, perhaps expecting it to link to a page.

The Heatmaps tab shows you the heatmap of your website. These help you see which sections are popular on your site based on number of people clicking. For instance, in this heatmap on our demo site, we can see that people have tried to click on the email address on the contact page.

In the future, Microsoft Clarity also plans to show scrolling on the heatmaps.

Final Thoughts on Microsoft Clarity Analytics Tool

Microsoft Clarity is a new analytics tool with some neat features. While it’s no alternative to the powerful Google Analytics platform, it definitely offers some interesting features like free heatmap and session recording.

Often new website owners want to see heatmaps and session recording, but they don’t have the budget to purchase premium solutions like HotJar or CrazyEgg. Well, now you can use Microsoft Clarity.

Using the heatmaps and session recording, you should be able optimize your website or online store experience to improve user experience and boost sales.

We hope this article helped you learn how to install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison of the best WordPress page builders to create custom layouts without any code, and our pick of the best email marketing services to grow your 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 Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 16, 2020 at 05:09PM

7 Best WordPress LMS Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons)

Are you looking for the best LMS plugin for your WordPress site? Learning Management System (LMS) plugins allow you to create and run online courses like Udemy with WordPress.

A perfect WordPress LMS plugin includes features for managing your online course content, handling subscriptions, running and grading quizzes, accepting payments, and more.

In this article, we will compare the best WordPress LMS plugins to help you choose the perfect solution for your online learning website.

Starting a Learning Website (Training Site, Sell Courses, and More)

To build a learning or training website with WordPress, you first need to sign up for a WordPress hosting account. This will be your website’s home on the internet where all files are stored.

You will also need a domain name. This will be your website’s address on the internet, such as wpbeginner.com.

If you’re on a budget, then we recommend starting with Bluehost. They’re one of the largest hosting companies in the world, and they’re offering our readers a 60% off discount + free domain + free SSL for their websites.

If budget is not an issue, and you want to best performance, then we recommend using a premium / managed WordPress hosting provider like SiteGround or WP Engine.

We recommend using Bluehost or SiteGround for your web hosting. They are among the largest hosting companies in the world, and they are both officially recommended by WordPress.

Bonus Tip: Need a name for your new website? Try our free business name generator tool to generate clever company name ideas.

Next, you will need to install WordPress on your website. You can follow the instructions in our step by step guide on how to install WordPress. Your site will be up and running in minutes.

All three hosting providers have a guided one-click install flow for WordPress, so it should be fairly straight forward.

Once you have installed WordPress, you will be ready to choose a WordPress LMS plugin for your website. These plugins will allow you to create, manage, and sell online classes from your website.

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress LMS plugins side-by-side, so you can choose the one that works best for your needs.

1. MemberPress Courses

MemberPress is the most powerful WordPress membership plugin that has built-in features to easily create, manage, and even sell courses.

It comes with a special Classroom Mode, so you don’t need to spend ages designing your online classroom. MemberPress takes care of the design for you, so that your course always looks great and have the highest completion rate.

You can use their easy drag and drop interface to build your course curriculum. It allows you to add lessons, topics, categories, embed videos, images, and more.

Their course builder is built on top of the WordPress block editor which makes it super easy to use for beginners.

As the site admin and instructor, you can quickly see the progress of each student to determine how far they are from completion.

You can use MemberPress to create free courses or accept payments for paid courses. You can also create multiple courses, with different subscription options, and manage them all from one central dashboard.

MemberPress has powerful access control rules that let you configure exactly who should have access to which content. You can create individual membership levels for specific courses, but you can also create more advanced rules to sell bundles / packages.

For instance, you could create a membership package that gives users access to all your beginner-level courses. You could even offer an all-access pass.

This can be a great way to boost your revenue.

MemberPress also comes with a powerful content dripping feature that allows you to show restricted content to members after a certain time, so for example you can release one lesson a week.

MemberPress integrates seamlessly with many popular payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and more.

You can also connect MemberPress with all popular email marketing services such as Drip, ConvertKit, MailChimp, and 1000+ others.

Price: Starts from $149 for a single site license with 1 year of support and updates. The courses addon is included at no extra charge. You could upgrade to higher plans to unlock features like affiliate management, bulk corporate memberships, etc.

Grade: A+

Review: MemberPress is the best membership site plugin available. Their Courses addon makes it easy for creating an LMS in WordPress. You can set up courses in just a few moments, and your courses will always look great with no coding required.

MemberPress’s powerful membership rules give you lots of flexibility. The ability to see how far students have progressed means you can pinpoint areas where students are getting stuck and may need some extra help.

For help getting MemberPress set up, check out our ultimate guide on creating a membership site.

2. LearnDash

LearnDash is a popular and easy to use WordPress LMS plugin with many powerful features.

It comes with a simple drag and drop course builder, which allows you to easily create multi-layer courses with lessons, topics, quizzes, and categories. You can deliver all your lessons at once or schedule them for the entire course duration with its Drip-Feed content feature.

Using LearnDash, you can give your users assignments and then approve or comment on them. It also comes with quiz and test management tools with multiple question types. You can easily set prerequisites for students, such as finishing a lesson first before going to the next lesson.

It offers plenty of monetization options including subscriptions, one-time purchase, memberships, and a shopping cart for your online training course. You can accept payments using multiple payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout.

LearnDash also integrates beautifully with bbPress, WordPress eCommerce plugins, and WordPress membership plugins like MemberPress.

A great LearnDash feature is dynamic forums. This lets you create course-specific forums where your students can interact with and help each other.

Price: Starting from $159 for a single site license with 1 year of support and updates.

Grade: A+

Review: LearnDash is a user-friendly and flexible LMS plugin for WordPress users. It comes with a comprehensive set of features to manage your online courses.

LearnDash has integration with many third-party plugins and tools, which means you have even more options for how you run your courses. It is a perfect LMS tool suitable for schools, training organizations, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to create and sell online courses with ease.

For a detailed LearnDash review and set up instructions, see our tutorial on how to easily create an online course with WordPress using LearnDash.

Bonus Tip: To unlock even more powerful features in LearnDash, try the Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash.

3. LifterLMS

LifterLMS is another powerful WordPress LMS plugin with a lot of neat features. It allows you to create engaging online courses and offer wonderful learning experiences to your students. It is easy to set up, even on existing WordPress sites.

LifterLMS supports multi-tier courses with training modules, lessons, categories, and more. It gives you the flexibility to create smaller courses or full-fledged degree programs. You can add multimedia lessons including video, audio, text, images, and more to make your courses more appealing.

It has content dripping, course pre-requisites, and group memberships to offer even greater control over how your courses work.

To boost user engagement, it comes with powerful features like automated emails, gamification with badges, and even certificates upon completion of a course. It has built-in content restriction allowing you to restrict any WordPress page on your site to members only.

LifterLMS has a useful collection of addons, which you can use to manage affiliates, integrate with eCommerce plugins, connect to your email marketing service, etc.

There are multiple options to accept credit card payments, one-time or recurring payments, sell course bundles, offer coupons, etc. Among payment options, you can integrate it with PayPal, Stripe, or recieve payments manually via check.

Pricing: Individual addons for $99 each (single site), or Universal Plan for $299 for a single site.

Grade: A

Review: LifterLMS is a powerful and flexible choice for a WordPress LMS plugin. It is easy to use, and the setup wizard even installs a demo course for you. It is useful for fitness experts, musicians, leadership trainers, education entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to earn money by selling online lessons.

It is a little more expensive than some other options, and the pricing will add up if you choose to buy individual add-ons.

4. Teachable

Teachable is a powerful online course builder. It is not a WordPress plugin, but you can use it on a sub-domain, a custom domain name, or by simply adding a link to your school’s page.

Teachable hosts your course and provides you with all the tools you need to build highly interactive online courses. It also comes with built-in email marketing integration, analytics, and other marketing tools.

For payments, Teachable will handle your course fees and you will be paid out using PayPal or Stripe. Payment periods may vary depending on your pricing plan.

Pricing Starting from $29 per month

Grade: B+

Review: Teachable offers a complete set of tools needed to create, manage, and sell online courses. It can handle any number of students and courses. Since it is a standalone platform, you wouldn’t be responsible for updates and backups.

The downside is that it is expensive than other WordPress LMS plugins. If you are on their Basic plan, then you will be charged a 5% fee on each transaction.

5. LearnPress

LearnPress is a free WordPress LMS plugin with powerful features. Unlike other LMS plugins in this list, which come with a setup wizard, LearnPress lets you do the setup on your own.

Course creation is easy with the help of lessons, quizzes, and questions. You can use lessons and quizzes from one course within another course. LearnPress also lets you export content, so that you can use it on other WordPress sites using LearnPress.

It has both free and paid add-ons available, which allow you to extend the features. It supports scheduled content (content drip), quizzes, assignments, grading, etc. It also supports integration with bbPress, WooCommerce, and WordPress membership plugins.

LearnPress works with any WordPress theme, but you can also choose from one of their own LMS WordPress themes. This helps you avoid any compatibility issue and offer a better experience for users.

Pricing: Free + Paid Addons and support

Grade: B+

Review: We found LearnPress to be feature-rich and flexible. The initial setup may be a bit difficult for beginners. It supports PayPal by default, and other payment gateways are available as paid add-ons.

Support is available from official forums for paid subscribers, and limited support is offered to free users. The free version is limited and you will have to buy add-ons to make the most out of it.

6. WP Courseware

WP Courseware is another great WordPress LMS plugin that comes with a drag and drop course builder.

Course creation in WP Courseware is powerful and includes tons of features to create large or small online courses. Each course can have multiple modules, units, and quizzes. It supports course pre-requisites and content drip features. See our guide on how to add a LMS in WordPress with WP Courseware.

WP Courseware offers instructor profiles, student grade books, custom emails, and many other features that help create an engaging experience for users. It also comes with a question bank so that you can quickly create quizzes for different courses and modules.

The plugin also includes powerful monetization features to sell online classes on your website. It has a built-in shopping cart option where you can directly connect PayPal or Stripe and start selling your courses.

You can also create free courses and provide users a way to try out your classes. This could encourage them to buy a full course. You can sell paid courses as a one-time purchase or recurring subscriptions.

Pricing: Starting from $129 for 2 sites with 1 year of support and updates.

Grade: B

Review: WP Courseware is a good choice to build your online courses. It is easy to use and comes with flexible options which give you the freedom to create an engaging learning environment. Best of all, it works with any WordPress theme without any compatibility issues.

7. Sensei

Sensei is a powerful WordPress LMS Plugin created by the folks behind WooCommerce. It is flexible and easy to use and follows the same best practices as WordPress and WooCommerce.

Course creation with Sensei is easy, but not as powerful as with other solutions on this list. You can run quizzes, assignments, grade them automatically or manually, and even offer badges and certificates to students.

To sell your courses and accept payments you will need to use WooCommerce. For each course you want to sell, you will have to create a product and then link it to your course.

There are not many third-party integrations available. You can integrate Sensei with a membership plugin, but there is no addon for that.

Pricing: Starting from $129 for a single site license with 1 year of support and updates.

Grade: B

Review: Sensei is a good solution to offer online courses. If you already run an online store using WooCommerce, then this will perfectly integrate with your store. However, we feel that WooCommerce integration is hard for beginner users. There are also fewer features and addons for Sensei than other LMS plugins in this list.

Which is the Best WordPress LMS Plugin? (Expert Pick)

We believe that MemberPress is the best WordPress LMS plugin. It’s very beginner-friendly and lets you create online courses with beautiful designs (no code needed).

Their powerful membership rules make it easy to configure access control, sell course subscription packages, and more. You also get other useful features like content dripping, group memberships, protected file management, reminder emails, and more.

It integrates seamlessly with all major payment providers, and over a thousand different email marketing automation services.

If you’re looking for a MemberPress alternative, then you can look at LearnDash. It also comes with great features and lots of useful integrations.

We hope this article helped you compare the best WordPress LMS plugins with their pros and cons. You may also want to see our guide on the must have WordPress plugins to grow your business, and our comparison of the best chatbot software to improve site engagement.

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 LMS Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons) appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 13, 2020 at 04:00PM

How to Create Mobile Popups That Convert (Without Hurting SEO)

Do you want to use mobile popups on your website?

Mobile popups can be very effective for lead generation, increasing sales, and getting more app downloads, but you need to design them the right way. Otherwise, you could end up harming your website’s search engine ranking.

In this guide, we will share how to create mobile popups that have high conversion without hurting your SEO rankings.

How Could Mobile Popups Hurt Your SEO?

Mobile popups could harm your SEO (search engine optimization) efforts if they go against Google’s guidelines. Google states that sites may be ranked lower in mobile search for using intrusive interstitials or intrusive popups.

Google doesn’t want your popup to cover all or most of the page before the user gets to see the content. These are some examples from Google of what they want you to avoid.

If your page has a popup that appears right away, then Google can penalize that page. This means your page will not rank as high in Google’s search results as it otherwise would have.

So you might be wondering, then why risk creating popups on mobile?

Well, the short answer is, it helps you increase conversion rates which leads to more leads and sales.

This is why many smart business owners and marketers continue to use popups on both mobile and desktop.

The important part is that you must create your mobile popups, the RIGHT way, so it doesn’t impact your SEO rankings.

How to Create Mobile Friendly Popups That Won’t Hurt Your SEO Rankings

There are several different ways to create mobile popups that won’t hurt your SEO rankings. You could:

• Create a full-screen popup that only appears after a delay.
• Create a banner or slide-in that only covers a smaller part of the screen.
• Only use immediate full-screen popups for legal notices. Examples of these include cookie permissions and age verification popups. These aren’t penalized by Google.

In our example, we’ll cover how to create a full-screen popup that only appears after the user has been on your site for a certain length of time. However, we’ll also share best practices and tactics that you can use to add smart display rules for further optimization.

Creating a Mobile-Only Popup With OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the easiest way to create a mobile-only popup. It’s the most popular lead generation tool on the market and has a powerful WordPress popup builder.

First, you need to visit the OptinMonster website and register for an account. While all their templates are mobile responsive, you need the Pro account to unlock mobile-specific display targeting rules.

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

Upon installation, you should see the ‘Welcome to OptinMonster’ screen. Simply click the ‘Connect Your Account’ button and follow the on-screen instructions.

Once your OptinMonster account is connected, you should see the Campaigns page. You can also get to this by going to OptinMonster » Campaigns in your WordPress admin. Go ahead and click the ‘Create New Campaign’ button on the top right.

You will be taken to the OptinMonster campaign builder. Simply leave the Campaign Type set to Popup.

For your Campaign Template, select the Mobile Optimized device filter and choose a template. We’re going to use the Offer template.

OptinMonster will prompt you to name your new campaign and choose what website(s) you want it to display on. Go ahead and enter these details, then click the ‘Start Building’ button.

The template will automatically load the popup’s optin view in the OptinMonster builder. It’s easy to customize the content or add new items with the drag & drop interface.

For instance, to change the default text, you just need to click on it and type the text you want to use.

To edit the image, you need to click the settings button for the column that it’s in. The settings button is the cog in the gray box.

You can then upload your choice of image by clicking on the ‘Background Image’ option on the left hand side.

Go ahead and make as many changes as you need to make in your popup.

You also need to edit the Success view. This is what users see after they enter their email address. To edit the Success view, simply click on the Success button above your popup.

Once you’re happy with both the optin view and the success view, don’t forget to click the Save button at the top of the screen.

Setting the Display Rules for Your Mobile Popup

Now, it’s time to set the display rules for your popup.

First, you need to click the ‘Display Rules’ tab at the top of your screen.

The default rule is for your popup to show after users have been on your site for 5 seconds. You may want to increase this time period. We’re going to use 10 seconds.

Your popup uses a Mobile Optimized template. This means it will automatically only display on mobile devices.

You can also add other mobile-safe targeting rules to unlock further optimizations such as:

• Exit Intent for Mobile – this will only show the popup if the user hits the back button or they scroll up.
• Inactivity Sensor – this will only show the popup after user has stopped being active on the site for certain number of seconds.
• Scroll Trigger Popups – this will only show the popup after user scrolls down a certain % of the page.
• Button Click by MonsterLinks – this will only show the popup if the user clicks on a specific button.

All these above display rules are based on user’s interactions, and they will not hurt your SEO rankings.

Once you’ve set your display rules, click the Save button and then move to the Integration type. Simply click the Add New Integration button to get started.

OptinMonster will then show you a dropdown list of email providers. Click on the dropdown and select your email marketing service.

Then, simply follow the instructions to connect your email list. The process varies depending on your email marketing service, but OptinMonster provides full instructions.

Once you’ve connected your email marketing service, click the Save button and then move on to the Publish screen. Here, you can check that you are happy with your settings.

When you’re ready, go ahead and click the Publish button.

Don’t forget to click the Save button at the top of the screen, too.

Putting Your OptinMonster Campaign Live on Your Website

Your OptinMonster campaign won’t automatically go live on your WordPress website. Instead, you need to login to your WordPress admin and go to OptinMonster » Campaigns.

You should now see your new mobile popup campaign listed here. If not, simply click the Refresh Campaigns button. Then, just click the ‘Go Live’ link below your campaign’s name.

Your campaign will now be live on your WordPress website. Go ahead and view it by going to your site on a mobile device.

Simply wait for the length of time you specified in the display rules, and your popup should appear. Here’s our popup live on our demo site.

Other Types of Mobile Popup That Won’t Harm Your Mobile SEO Rankings

Aside from time-delayed and user interaction popups in OptinMonster, you could also create a floating bar, slide-in, or inline optin.

• A floating bar optin appears at the top or bottom of user’s screen, without covering up the content.
• A slide-in appears from the bottom or side of the website, usually after a time delay.
• An inline optin appears within the content itself, part way through a page or post.

Simply select one of these types when you begin building your campaign. You will then see the templates you can use.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create mobile popups that won’t hurt your SEO. You might also like our article on the best WordPress plugins for business websites, and our proven tips on how to increase blog traffic.

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The post How to Create Mobile Popups That Convert (Without Hurting SEO) appeared first on WPBeginner.

November 12, 2020 at 05:40PM