How to Embed a YouTube Playlist in WordPress (Best Method)

Are you looking to embed YouTube playlists on your WordPress website?

Adding YouTube playlists to your blog posts and landing pages can increase user engagement and improve your search engine optimization (SEO). It also helps get more subscribers and grow your channel.

In this article, we’ll show you how to embed a YouTube playlist in WordPress.

Why Embed YouTube Playlists in WordPress?

If you want to make your content more engaging, then adding YouTube videos is a great way to grab your visitor’s attention.

There are a lot of benefits to embedding YouTube content:

• You can keep people engaged and get them to spend more time on your website.
• Video content helps boost your WordPress SEO, because the high engagement and low bounce rate send a positive signal to search engines.
• It helps you to promote your YouTube channel and get more subscribers.

There are a few different ways to add YouTube content to your site. You could embed a single YouTube video, show the latest videos from your YouTube channel, or even create a video gallery.

So, why choose a playlist?

Embedding a playlist lets you keep the videos focused on a single topic.

A playlist also helps you to guide your visitors from one video to the next one in order, helping them to stay even more engaged on your website.

That said, let’s look at how you can embed YouTube playlists on your WordPress site.

Embedding YouTube Playlists in WordPress

WordPress by default does not allow you to embed a playlist. The easiest way to embed a YouTube playlist in WordPress is by using the YouTube Feed Pro by SmashBalloon plugin.

It’s the best WordPress plugin for YouTube and helps you create custom YouTube feeds for your website. It lets you add your YouTube playlists and offers lots of customization features.

The plugin automatically updates the playlist when you add more videos to it on YouTube. You can even embed live YouTube streams in WordPress.

For this tutorial, we’ll be using the premium version of YouTube Feed Pro because it offers more features. There is also a free version that you can use to try it out.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the YouTube Feed Pro by SmashBalloon plugin. Please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for more details.

Upon activation, you can head over to Feeds for YouTube from your WordPress dashboard and then go to the ‘License’ tab.

Simply enter your license key and then click the ‘Activate License’ button. You can find the key in your account.

Next, you’ll need to go to the ‘Configure’ tab and connect your YouTube account.

To do that, go ahead and click the ‘Connect to YouTube to Create a Feed’ button.

A popup will now appear informing you that the plugin will require read-only access to your YouTube account to retrieve the API key.

Simply click the ‘Continue’ button to move on to the next step.

Next, you’ll need to select your Google account.

On the next screen, the plugin will require access to your Google account.

Simply click the ‘Continue’ button.

You’ll now be redirected back to your WordPress website, and a popup will appear showing that you’ve successfully connected your account.

Go ahead and click the ‘Dismiss’ button to continue.

Next to the ‘YouTube Accounts’ section, you can see that you’ve successfully connected your Google account.

Now, you’ll need to create an API key so that the plugin automatically fetches your playlists and displays them in WordPress.

Let’s see how you can get an API Key.

Creating a YouTube API Key

You’ll first need to visit the Google Cloud Platform website and then login to your Google account.

After that, click on the ‘My First Project’ option at the top.

Now, you’ll see a popup window appear where you can select your projects.

Simply click the ‘New Project’ button to get started. You can also select an existing project if you want.

After that, you’ll need to enter a name for your project under the ‘Project Name’ field. We’ve called ours ‘YouTube Playlist’.

Then click the ‘Create’ button.

Once your project is created, you can click the menu option in the top left corner (3 horizontal lines) next to Google Cloud Platform and go to ‘API & Services’ from the menu.

Then click the ‘+ Enable APIs and Services’ option at the top.

This will open the API library page. Go ahead and enter YouTube in the search box to find the YouTube API.

Next, you’ll need to select the ‘YouTube Data API v3’ option.

After that, simply click the ‘Enable’ button to activate the YouTube API key.

Now, you’ll need to go to the Credentials menu in the left menu, and then click the ‘+ Create Credentials’ at the top.

From the options that appear in the dropdown, go ahead and select ‘API key.’

A popup window will now appear with the YouTube API key.

Simply copy the API key or store it on a notepad file.

Next, you can head back to your WordPress website and then navigate back to Feeds for YouTube from your dashboard.

Now, go to the ‘Configure’ tab and enter your API key.

When you enter the API key, you’ll notice more options will be unlocked in Feeds for YouTube, including the ‘Select a Feed Type’ options.

You can now choose ‘Playlist’ as the feed type and enter the YouTube playlist ID. There is also an option to change the frequency that your site will check for new posts in your YouTube playlist.

You can find the playlist ID by visiting your YouTube channel and then going to the playlist you’d like to display on your website.

The string of letters and numbers after the ‘=’ symbol in the URL is your playlist ID. Simply copy the ID and enter it in the Feeds for YouTube plugin.

Now that you’ve created an API key and added the YouTube playlist ID, let’s see how you can customize the feed and embed it on your website.

Customize and Embed Your YouTube Playlist

To customize your YouTube playlist feed, simply head over to the ‘Customize’ tab in the Feeds for YouTube plugin.

Here you can edit the width, height, and background color of your YouTube feed.

Next, you can scroll down and change the layout of the feed. The plugin offers multiple layout options, including a grid, gallery, list, or carousel type.

Besides that, there are also options for selecting the number of columns (for mobile and desktop), the number of videos, and spacing between the videos.

The plugin also offers more optional options to customize your YouTube feed. For instance, you can choose what info to display, like the play icon, title, views, date, and more.

There are also options for entering translations for info text, edit header options, changing the Load More and Subscribe button settings, adding moderation, and other advanced settings.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you’re done.

Next, you can now display your YouTube playlist on any WordPress page or post.

To start, simply create a new page or edit an existing one. Once you’re in the WordPress content editor, simply click the ‘+’ button and add the ‘Feeds for YouTube’ block.

Your YouTube playlist will now appear on your page.

Go ahead and publish your article to see the YouTube playlist feed in action.

We hope this article helped you learn how to embed a YouTube playlist in WordPress. You may also want to check out our guide on how to start an online store and the best live chat software.

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 Embed a YouTube Playlist in WordPress (Best Method) first appeared on WPBeginner.

February 23, 2022 at 04:00PM

How to Fix ‘Another Update is Currently in Progress’ Error in WordPress

Do you want to fix the ‘another update is currently in progress’ error?

This error stops you from updating WordPress. Normally, it should automatically go away. But if it doesn’t, then you’ll need to fix it manually. 

In this article, we’ll show you how to fix the ‘another update is currently in progress’ error in WordPress, step by step.

Why Does the ‘Another Update is Currently in Progress’ Error Occur?

This message usually appears when a core WordPress update is running in the background, and a user tries to start another update process.

During the core update process, WordPress automatically sets an update lock on your WordPress database. This database lock prevents you from running simultaneous updates on your website, which could cause WordPress errors or destroy important data.

This message is set to automatically disappear in 15 minutes or when the update process has finished. However, if you are stuck on this message, then you’ll need to remove it manually. 

With that said, let’s take a look at how you can fix the ‘another update is currently in progress’ error in WordPress.

Fixing the ‘Another Update in Progress’ Error in WordPress

When you’re experiencing the another update in process error, you need to delete the ‘core_updater.lock’ file from your WordPress database. The easiest way to do this is by using phpMyAdmin.

Note: Before you make changes to your database or WordPress theme files, it’s a good idea to create a full website backup. To learn more, see our guide on how to backup your WordPress site.

First, you need to log in to the cPanel dashboard of your WordPress hosting account. We’re using Bluehost, so your screen may look a bit different if you’re using another hosting company.

From your Bluehost dashboard, you’ll need to click on the Advanced tab on the left. Next, navigate to the ‘Databases’ section and click on the ‘phpMyAdmin’ icon. If you don’t see a phpMyAdmin option in your hosting dashboard, you should contact your hosting company’s support for help.

This will launch the phpMyAdmin app, where you need to select your WordPress database. Once you click your database, it will display all of the tables inside the database.

Then, you need to click the ‘Browse’ button next to the WordPress options tables (wp_options).

This brings up all of the rows inside the options table. 

You need to find the row with the option name ‘core_updater.lock’ and click on the delete button next to it.

Now, phpMyAdmin will automatically delete the row from your database. 

When you go back to your WordPress website, the another update in process error will be gone, and you can continue updating your site. 

If you’re still seeing other errors, then you can see our beginner’s guide on troubleshooting WordPress errors to get more help.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix the ‘another update is currently in progress’ error in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best web design software and our expert picks of the best live chat software 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 Fix ‘Another Update is Currently in Progress’ Error in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

February 22, 2022 at 04:53PM

When Is the Best Time to Publish a Blog (+ How to Test It)

Are you looking for the best time to publish your articles to get the most engagement?

Finding the right publishing time could help you attract more visitors, get more comments, social shares, and backlinks. It can also help you see when your audience is most active, and increase your chances of going viral.

In this article, we’ll share what is the best time to publish a blog post, and how you can test it for your website.

The Best Time to Publish Blog Posts

If you’ve just started a new blog, then you are probably looking for ways to attract more people to read your content.

While there are many ways to increase your blog traffic, you might be wondering, can publishing content at a specific time and date can help you get more visitors?

Over the years, many studies have been done to find the perfect time to publish a blog post. For instance, one study found that 70% of people read blogs in the morning, and that the average best time to publish blog posts for maximum traffic is Monday around 11 am EST.

However, another study that analyzed millions of blog posts found that there’s no difference in the number of shares or traffic on different days of the week.

After analyzing all the different studies, we found the key takeaway is that the best time to publish blog posts is different for every website.

One blog might get the most traffic by publishing on Mondays at 11 am, while another might get more views by publishing on Saturday nights.

It all depends on your audience.

You cannot pick a single day of the week to publish all your content and hope to get more engagement based on a study. That’s because most of the studies provide a generalized view across multiple industries.

It’s better to do your own testing and find out what time and day works the best for your website. You can test different days and times to see when you get the most traffic, social shares, and comments.

The good news is that it’s quite easy to test publishing times in WordPress.

Let’s take a look how you can find the best publishing time for your blog posts in WordPress.

How to Test Best Publishing Time in WordPress

The easiest way to uncover the best time to publish blog posts in WordPress is by using MonsterInsights.

It’s the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress, and over 3 million businesses use it, including Microsoft, Bloomberg, PlayStation, and Subway.

Using MonsterInsights, you can test the best publication time through their custom dimensions feature which tracks realtime visitors data.

Let’s look at both ways you can test the best time to publish blog posts.

1. Setting Up Publication Time Analytics

By default, Google Analytics does not track your blog post publication times. However, you can use MonsterInsights to add this tracking by using a custom dimension.

Custom dimensions help track additional data like popular authors, popular post type, and best publication time in Google Analytics.

The best part about using MonsterInsights is that you don’t have to touch a single line of code to add custom dimension tracking on your website.

Note: You’ll need the MonsterInsights Pro version because it includes the Custom Dimensions addon. Plus, you also get other advanced tracking features and dashboard reports including realtime reports.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll be taken to Insights from your WordPress dashboard, and you’ll see the welcome screen for MonsterInsights. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button to add Google Analytics to your site.

For more details, please see our guide on how to install Google Analytics to a WordPress website.

Next, you can head over to Insights » Addons from your WordPress dashboard and then scroll down to the ‘Dimensions’ addon. After that, click the ‘Install’ button, and the addon will automatically activate.

You’ll see the Status change from ‘Not Installed’ to ‘Active.’

Once the addon is active, you can go to Insights » Settings.

Then, navigate to the ‘Conversions’ tab.

Next, scroll down to the ‘Custom Dimensions’ section.

Here you’ll need to click the ‘Add New Custom Dimension’ button to get started adding the publication time tracking.

After that, simply select the ‘Published at’ dimension from the dropdown menu.

Don’t forget to save your changes when you’re done.

You’ll now need to add to custom dimensions in Google Analytics.

We’ll show you how to create dimensions in the older versions of Google Analytics (called Universal Analytics) and the new Google Analytics 4 version.

Add Custom Dimensions in Universal Analytics

First, you’ll need to visit the Google Analytics website and login to your account. Simply choose your website property from the menu at the top.

After that, navigate to the Admin page.

Then click the ‘Create Definitions’ and ‘Custom Dimensions’ options under the Property column.

Next, you can click the ‘+ New Custom Dimension’ button.

Enter a name for your custom dimension on the next screen.

Then click the ‘Create’ button.

You’ll now see codes for your custom dimensions.

Simply click the ‘Done’ button at the bottom.

Your custom dimension will now be created in Google Analytics.

Just make sure that the Index number in Google Analytics matches the custom dimensions ID in MonsterInsights. If this is the first custom dimension you’re setting up, they will both automatically be ‘1’, so there’s no need to adjust it.

Add Custom Dimensions in Google Analytics 4

To set up custom dimensions in Google Analytics 4 version, go ahead and login to your account.

After that, you’ll need to go to Configure from the menu on your left.

Next, head over to the ‘Custom definitions’ option from the left menu and then click the ‘Create custom definition’ button.

Now, you’ll need to enter details about your new custom dimension. Simply enter a name for the dimension and add a description for your own reference. We’ll call the new custom dimension ‘Best Publication Time’.

When selecting the Scope, go ahead and choose ‘Event’ from the dropdown menu. Lastly, enter an event parameter that you want the dimension to use and show in the reports, like ‘publication_time’.

After entering these details, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button when you’re done.

You’ve successfully created a custom dimension in Google Analytics to record the best publication time on your website.

Now you can go ahead and view the best publication times on your site and see when you get the most traffic.

With MonsterInsights, you can view the Dimensions report inside your WordPress dashboard. Simply head over to Insights » Reports from your WordPress dashboard and then go to the ‘Dimensions’ report.

Using the data from the stats dashboard, you can see the pageviews at different dates and times. Go ahead and schedule your blog posts at the best publication time and boost your blog traffic.

2. Monitor Realtime Visitors for Best Publishing Time

You can also view the Realtime report in MonsterInsights to see how many visitors you get immediately after publishing and promoting a blog post.

Simply go to Insights » Reports and then navigate to the ‘Realtime’ report to view the report.

Next, you can monitor the report after you publish a post and share it with your readers. This will help you uncover the best time to publish a blog post.

Publishing your blog posts at the right time isn’t the only way to boost your traffic. If your blog posts are properly optimized for search engines, then they’ll continue to get more traffic over time, long after they’re published. Over time, this will get you more traffic than publishing on a certain day or time.

To get started optimizing your website to get more search traffic over time, see our ultimate guide on WordPress SEO.

Another proven way to get more traffic to your new blog posts is by using push notifications. It’s a top 10 traffic source on WPBeginner. Here’s how to add push notifications in WordPress.

We hope that this article helped you learn about what is the best time to publish a blog and how to test it. Next, you can see our guide on how to choose the best WordPress hosting, or see our expert pick of the best email marketing services.

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 When Is the Best Time to Publish a Blog (+ How to Test It) first appeared on WPBeginner.

February 21, 2022 at 04:22PM

10 Best Facebook Tips and Tutorials for WordPress Users

Are you looking for some of the best Facebook tips and tutorials for your WordPress site?

Facebook is one of the largest social media websites in the world. No website owner can afford to ignore the potential of Facebook for the success of their business.

In this article, we highlight some of the best Facebook tips and tutorials that you can use to improve your WordPress site and grow your following.

1. Create a Custom Facebook Feed in WordPress

Creating a custom Facebook feed on your website lets you display posts from your Facebook page and Facebook groups to improve engagement.

By adding a custom Facebook feed to WordPress, you can show your Facebook page updates to your website visitors and get more followers. 

It can also act as a form of social proof and improve the time your visitors spend on your website. Plus, it’s a great time saver since it automatically adds fresh content to your website directly from Facebook.

The best way to add a custom Facebook feed is by using the Smash Balloon plugin. It’s one of best WordPress Facebook plugins in the market used by over 1.6 million websites.

The plugin is very easy to use, lets you completely customize how your Facebook feed displays, and you can even add a social wall with multiple social networks.

To learn more, see our guide on how to create a custom Facebook feed in WordPress.

2. Add Facebook Open Graph Meta Data to WordPress

Open Graph metadata helps Facebook and other social media websites get metadata about the content you share.

Facebook will automatically display your article title, description, and image when shared on social media. But you can edit this information so that Facebook will display exactly what you want.

By optimizing this information, it’s more likely visitors will click through from social media to your website. It can also help you fix the Facebook incorrect thumbnail issue in WordPress.

The easiest way to add Facebook open graph metadata is by using the AIOSEO plugin. It’s the best WordPress SEO plugin in the market used by over 3 million websites.

With this plugin, you can easily improve your WordPress SEO to get more traffic and control how your content displays across Facebook and other networks.

Beneath your post editor you’ll have an option to choose a post thumbnail and create a new title and description.

For more details, see our guide on how to add Facebook open graph meta data in WordPress themes.

3. Add Facebook Social Sharing Buttons to WordPress

If you want to reach more customers online, then you need to have an active social media marketing strategy.

One part of this is sharing your content on your own social media profiles. However, this will only reach your current followers.

The best way to expand your reach is to add Facebook social sharing buttons to your WordPress website.

That way, when readers are enjoying your content, they can simply click a button and automatically share your content to Facebook.

To do this, we recommend using the Shared Counts plugin since it’s one of the best social media plugins for WordPress.

It uses a unique caching method that doesn’t impact your website speed and performance.

For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to add social share buttons in WordPress.

4. Add Your WooCommerce Store to Facebook

By adding your WooCommerce store to Facebook, you can send more traffic to your online store and make more sales.

This lets you reach your followers in new ways without any additional promotion. For example, your Facebook followers might not know about your online store, so it lets you expose them to your products.

To do this, we recommend using the Facebook for WooCommerce plugin. It lets you easily connect your existing WooCommerce store to your Facebook business page, so your followers can start buying products. 

When someone purchases a product from your Facebook store, you can easily manage the order from WooCommerce.

For more details, see our guide on how to add your WooCommerce store to Facebook.

5. Automatically Post to Facebook from WordPress

With more than 2 billion active users, Facebook can be a great source of traffic and good way to remind readers to come back to your site.

But building an active following requires responding to comments, posting updates, and regularly sharing quality content. 

By automatically sharing blog posts with your Facebook followers, you can save time while driving more traffic back to your website. 

Here’s an example of a recent post shared to our WPBeginner Facebook group:

The best way to do this is with the Uncanny Automator plugin. It’s one of the best WordPress automation plugins that helps you create automated workflows without writing any code.

It’s like Zapier for WordPress and helps you connect your WordPress website with thousands of different apps like Facebook.

There’s a free version available that gives you 1,000 free credits to use with Facebook. After you’ve used those credits, then you’ll need to upgrade your account to continue posting automatically. 

For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to automatically post to Facebook from WordPress.

6. Setup Facebook Conversion Tracking in WordPress

Conversion tracking allows you to track the impact of your marketing efforts and see how users interact with your website. 

Depending on the type of small business you run, this could be a purchase, a new email newsletter subscriber, a user submitting a contact form, and more.

If you’re running Facebook ads, then you can set up Facebook conversion tracking to help measure the success of your ad campaigns. 

For more details, see our step by step guide on WordPress conversion tracking made simple.

7. Embed Facebook Status Posts in WordPress

Visitors on your website won’t see your status updates unless they leave your site and go to your Facebook page.

By embedding your Facebook status posts into your WordPress blog, you can help to bridge this gap between website visitors and Facebook followers.

This not only improves your website engagement but can help grow your followers and get more likes and comments.

For more details, see our guide on how to embed Facebook status posts in WordPress.

8. Display Your Facebook Timeline in WordPress 

By adding your Facebook timeline to WordPress, you can show your users real time updates and help grow your social media following.

If you have an active community on Facebook, then you can bring this to life on your website. You can display your whole Facebook timeline with likes, comments, and more.

Once again, the best way to do this is using the Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed Pro plugin. 

It gives you complete control over how you want your Facebook timeline to display.

For more details, see our guide on how to display your Facebook timeline in WordPress.

9. Run a Facebook Giveaway in WordPress 

Running a giveaway is one of the fastest ways to get more subscribers, users, and customers to your website.

Giveaways are great because they give you instant results and encourage engagement on social media to help get the word out. 

The simplest way to create your very own viral giveaway is with RafflePress. It’s the best WordPress giveaway and contest plugin in the market.

You can easily create your giveaways and contests with the drag and drop builder or start with the library of pre-built viral templates.  

It comes with social media integrations, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Plus, there’s built in 1-click fraud protection to ensure all of the actions your followers take are genuine. 

For more details, see our guide on how to run a giveaway / contest in WordPress with RafflePress.

10. Embed a Facebook Video in WordPress

Facebook videos are an incredible way to engage with your audience and build your brand. Users are likely to spend more time on your website when you add video content, so this gives you more time to build a connection.

However, with recent changes made by Facebook, you can no longer simply copy and paste a code snippet to embed the video in your website. 

Luckily, the Custom Facebook Feed Pro plugin from Smash Balloon makes this easy. 

It lets you quickly add Facebook videos, customize how they look, and even display your entire video feed. 

To learn more, see our guide on how to embed a Facebook video in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you find some new Facebook tips and tutorials you can use to improve your WordPress website. You may also want to see our picks of the best live chat software for small businesses and our guide on the difference between a domain name and web hosting.

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 10 Best Facebook Tips and Tutorials for WordPress Users first appeared on WPBeginner.

February 18, 2022 at 06:00PM