60+ Internet Usage Statistics and Latest Trends for 2022

Are you curious about internet usage statistics?

When you learn how people around the world use the internet, it can help you understand what your business’s online presence should look like and how users will interact with your website.

In this article, we’ll share the latest internet usage statistics and trends that all business owners and marketers should know.

Key Internet Statistics and Trends (2022)

We’ve split up these internet statistics into several different categories. You can use the table of contents below to jump to the internet stats you’re most interested in.

• General Internet Usage Statistics
• Web Search Statistics
• Mobile Internet Usage Statistics
• Website and Domain Statistics
• Online Shopping Statistics
• Social Media and Email Usage Statistics
• Internet of Things (IoT) Statistics

General Internet Usage Statistics

• As of April 2022, there were five billion internet users worldwide, which is 63% of the global population. 
• China, India, and the United States rank ahead of all other countries in terms of internet users. As of February 2022, China had more than a billion internet users, and India had approximately 658 million online users.
• The global internet penetration rate is 62.5%. 
• Northern Europe ranks first with a 98% internet penetration rate among the population. 
• The countries with the highest internet penetration rate worldwide were the UAE, Denmark, and Ireland. 
• From the year 2000 to 2022, the usage of the internet increased by 1,355%.
• The Middle East has seen a 6,141% growth in internet usage since 2000. 
• There are still over 2.7 billion people in the world with no internet access.
• The most popular language on the internet is English. 25.9% of the internet is in English, 19.4% is in Chinese, and 8% is in Spanish.
• 32% of internet users worldwide are 25 to 34 years old.

Internet usage increased by a whopping 1,355% from the year 2000 to 2022. Now, there are 5 billion internet users worldwide, which is 63% of the global population.

With so many internet users on the planet today, it’s important that every business has a website. Otherwise, you’re missing out on a ton of people who could discover you online.

If you haven’t created a website yet, simply follow our tutorial on how to make a WordPress website for step by step instructions. Or, you can read this guide on how to start an online store.

Web Search Statistics

• The Chrome web browser is used by 65.52% of internet users worldwide. Chrome is followed by Safari, which is used by 18.78% of internet users in the world. Microsoft Edge is the 3rd most popular browser at 4.3%, and Firefox is 4th with 3.16%. 
• The three most popular websites on the internet are Google.com, YouTube.com, and Tmall.com, which is a Chinese online retail platform. 
• The most popular web search engine is Google, with 92.7% of the market share. Google is followed by Bing, which has only 2.8% of the market share. 
• The most searched words on Google USA in 2022 were weather, Facebook, and YouTube. Other search words in the top 10 were Amazon, NBA, Gmail, NFL, and Google Translate. 
• The Google Search Index contains hundreds of billions of pages that add up to over 100,000,000 gigabytes in size. 
• Almost 30% of global web traffic is generated via online search usage. 
• There are approximately 106,083 Google searches made every 1 second. 
• According to a Moz survey, 84% of respondents use Google 3 times a day or more. 

Search engines like Google play an important role in how users find and navigate to different websites. This is proven by the fact that 30% of global web traffic is generated via an online search.

In order for your website to be discovered by users in search engine results, it needs to be properly optimized for SEO.

Search engine optimization might seem complicated, especially for beginners, but it doesn’t have to be. See this guide on WordPress SEO to get actionable tips for improving your SEO and increasing organic traffic.

You can also follow this tutorial on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress.

All in One SEO, the best WordPress SEO plugin, will help you set up the proper SEO foundations for your site in minutes. Plus, the SEO audit feature will analyze your entire website to detect any critical errors that could be harming your rankings. Then, provide you with easy recommendations for improvement.

Mobile Internet Usage Statistics

• Over 90% of the global internet population uses a mobile device to go online. 
• In 2021, internet users worldwide spent over 54.7% of their time browsing the internet via mobile phones. This is an increase of 5% compared to 2020, when global internet users spent almost 51% of their online time accessing the internet via mobile devices. 
• Mobile internet traffic accounts for almost 55% of total web traffic. In mobile-first markets such as Asia and Africa, mobile connections account for an even larger share of webpage views. 
• Mobile ownership and internet usage are forecast to keep growing in the future. This is largely due to mobile technologies becoming more affordable and readily available.
• Samsung has 28.76% of the mobile vendor market share worldwide. Apple is in a close second with 27.83% of the worldwide market. 
• In 2021, the number of cities with access to 5G reached 1.662 worldwide, which is an increase of more than 20% over the course of the year. 
• The top three countries with the most extensive 5G in 2022 were China, South Korea, and the United States. 
• TikTok was the most downloaded app globally in 2021, with 656 million downloads. 

In the not-so-distant past, you could only access the internet from a desktop computer. But now, it’s clear to see from these statistics that people are loving being able to access the internet on the go.

Over 90% of the global internet population uses a mobile device to go online, and mobile internet traffic accounts for almost 55% of total web traffic.

Because of this, it’s important that your website looks great and is equally functional on mobile phones and tablets as it is on desktops.

See our recommendations for the best responsive WordPress themes. These themes will automatically adjust to the users’ screen size so you can provide the best experience for mobile users.

Website and Domain Statistics 

• There are over 1.5 billion websites on the internet today. But, less than 200 million are active. 
• There are currently 370.7 million registered domain names in the world. 
• China has the highest number of registered domains, with over 8.8 million domain names accounting for 33.80% of the global share. 
• The US has only 3.6 million domains registered, which amounts to 14.04% of the global share.
• The most common domain name extensions are .com, .net, .org, .co, .us. 
• More than 43% of all websites are using WordPress as their content management system. 
• WordPress holds nearly 65% of the CMS market share. 
• 38% of the top 10,000 websites are powered by WordPress.
• Every day, more than 1000 new WordPress sites join the top 10 million websites tracked by W3Techs.com.

It’s easier than ever to create a website on the world wide web today. That might be why there are over 1.5 billion websites on the internet. But, less than 200 million of those are active.

If you have an inactive website, to get it up and running, all you need is web hosting and a domain name.

To find the right options for your needs, you can check out our recommendations for the best web hosting services and the best domain name registrars on the market.

At WPBeginner, we always recommend choosing Bluehost. It’s one of the most reliable hosting companies in the world, and they’re officially by WordPress, the best website builder software. Plus, WPBeginner users can get a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a discount on web hosting!

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

Online Shopping Statistics 

• In the United States alone, we’re expecting to have 300 million online shoppers in 2023. That’s 91% of the country’s current population. 
• The countries with the leading average eCommerce revenue per shoppers are: USA ($1,804), UK ($1,629), and Sweden ($1,446). 
• 72% of online shoppers are women, while 68% are men.
• Millennials aged 25-34 are the largest group of online shoppers in the US. 
• 59% of shoppers say they do research online before they buy in order to make the best possible choice.
• 74% of in-store shoppers searched online before going to the physical location. They said they searched for information like the closest store near them, in-stock items, hours, directions, and contact information. 
• 67% of users admit to window shopping for fun on their smartphones.
• 77% of these digital window shoppers make impulse purchases. If they don’t purchase right away, 70% of them will come back and make a purchase from their device within the first hour of seeing the product.

In 2023, there’s expected to be 300 million online shoppers in the United States alone. That’s 91% of the country’s current population!

But, even with so many online shoppers, it can be hard to generate traffic and sales for your online store because there’s so much competition.

Since 59% of shoppers say they do research online before buying something, it’s vital that your eCommerce website shows up in search engine results if you want to compete with the big guys. You can read our ultimate WooCommerce SEO guide for easy tips.

You can also check out our list of the best WooCommerce plugins for your store. These plugins can help you reduce cart abandonment, create custom checkout pages, boost affiliate sales, and much more.

Social Media and Email Usage Statistics

• Of the five billion internet users worldwide, 4.65 billion, or over 93%, are social media users. 
• Over 230 billion tweets were tweeted on Twitter so far this year. 
• Nearly 27 billion photos have been uploaded on Instagram this year. 
• Over 2 trillion videos have been viewed on YouTube so far in 2022. 
• There are over 4.1 billion email accounts registered by internet users worldwide, that’s 107 million more than in 2019. This number is expected to grow by over 4.3 billion by the end of 2023.
• Nearly 75 trillion emails have been sent so far in 2022. 
• 61% of consumers prefer to be contacted by brands through email. 
• 99% of email users check their email every day, with some checking as much as 20 times a day. 
• 58% of users check their email before they check out social media or the news.
• 40% of people 18 years old and under will always open an email on their mobile device first.

Social media and email are some of the most popular activities online, according to these internet statistics: There are 4.65 billion social media users worldwide and 4.1 billion registered email accounts globally.

Instead of waiting for your target audience to visit your website, you should be reaching out to them on social media platforms and via email. This will make it easier to drive traffic to your site and increase sales.

You can check out our social media cheat sheet for tips on how to set up your social media profiles correctly.

Then, follow this step by step tutorial on how to create an email newsletter.

Internet of Things (IoT) Statistics 

• The estimated number of IoT devices will jump to 125 billion by 2030.
• By 2022, the smart home (IoT) market is projected to grow to $53.45 billion.
• In 2021, about 41.9% of US households owned a smart home device. This is predicted to increase to 48.4% by 2025.
• Globally, an estimated 127 new devices connect to the Internet every second.
• The wearable devices market will be worth $1.1 billion by 2022.
• Approximately 70% of new vehicles worldwide will be internet-connected by 2023.
• There will be more than 3 internet-connected devices for every human on the planet by 2023.

The Internet of Things, or IoT, refers to the many physical objects that have been embedded with sensors and software and are now connected to the internet.

According to these internet statistics, there will be more than 3 internet-connected devices for every human on the planet by 2023 and the estimated number of IoT devices will jump to 125 billion by 2030.

So, expect to see more smart refrigerators, locks, doorbells, watches, vehicles, and many other devices, in the near future.

List of Sources

Statista, OptinMonster, BroadbandSearch, Nameboy, InternetWorldStats, Internet Live Stats, StatCounter, Radicati, Amazon, SimilarWeb, Google, Mobile Magazine, Business of Apps, IHS Markit, McKinsey, Moz, WPBeginner, eMarketer, Cisco

That’s a wrap. We hope these internet usage statistics will provide you with valuable insights for growing your online business. You might also want to check out our ultimate list of blogging statistics, or see our roundup of web design industry stats and trends.

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 60+ Internet Usage Statistics and Latest Trends for 2022 first appeared on WPBeginner.

October 21, 2022 at 03:33PM

How to Enable Author Tracking in WordPress

Do you want to enable author tracking on your WordPress website?

If you run a multi-author WordPress site, then you’re probably wondering which of your authors write the most popular posts. This information can help you increase traffic and grow your website.

In this article, we’ll share how to enable author tracking in WordPress.

Why Enable Author Tracking in WordPress?

If you run a multi-author blog, then you need to enable author tracking in WordPress. It allows you to gather data about how each author’s posts perform on your WordPress website.

You can then promote high-performing authors and offer some extra help to those who are struggling.

It is also a great way to find out whose posts bring in the most traffic and which articles are engaging readers.

For instance, you might have an author who’s great at writing posts that get lots of visitors. However, those visitors may not stick around on your site. This may result in a high bounce rate, fewer page views, and less time spent on the website.

After gathering this data, you can make informed decisions by improving your editorial workflow and offering more tips and help to struggling writers. You might find a way to funnel users from the first author’s posts to the writers you want to get more attention.

That said, let’s see how you can enable author tracking on your website.

Setting up Author Tracking in WordPress

The easiest way to track the most popular authors in WordPress is using MonsterInsights. It is the best Analytics plugin for WordPress and helps you set up Google Analytics without editing code.

MonsterInsights offers a Dimensions addon that allows you to set up custom dimensions in Google Analytics.

It helps you track additional information in Google Analytics that’s not available by default. This includes author tracking, most popular post types, categories, tags, and more.

Do note that you’ll need at least the MonsterInsights Pro plan because it includes the custom dimensions feature. There is also a MonsterInsights Lite version you can use for free.

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

Upon activation, you will see the welcome screen. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button.

Next, you can follow the instructions in the setup wizard to connect Google Analytics with your website. For more details, please see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

Once connected, Google Analytics will start tracking all your website traffic.

With MonsterInsights, you can easily set up dual tracking and start collecting data in a Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property. GA4 is the latest analytics version, and it will replace Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023.

After this date, you won’t be able to track website traffic in your Universal Analytics property. That’s why this is the best time to switch to Google Analytics 4.

Setting up Author Custom Dimensions for Accurate Tracking

Now that everything is up and running, let’s tell Google Analytics to start tracking authors by adding a custom dimension.

You need to start by visiting the Insights » Addons page. From here, you need to go to the ‘Dimensions’ addon and click on the ‘Install’ button.

The addon will now automatically install and activate.

Next, you can go to the Insights » Settings page and switch to the ‘Conversions’ tab.

From here, simply scroll down a little, and you’ll see the ‘Custom Dimensions’ box.

This is where you can add a new custom dimension. Go ahead and click on the ‘Add New Custom Dimension’ button.

Next, you’ll need to select the ‘Author’ dimension from the drop-down menu.

Besides that, you will also need to add the ID that will be filled in for you.

Don’t forget to click the to store your settings.

Now that you have set up custom dimensions in MonsterInsights, the next step is to do the same in Google Analytics.

We’ll go through the steps for Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4.

Add Custom Dimensions in Universal Analytics

First, you can visit the Google Analytics website and open your website property. Do be sure that the ID for this property begins with ‘UA.’

From here, you need to click on the ‘Admin’ button at the bottom left corner of the screen.

Then you can select Custom Definitions » Custom Dimensions under the Property column.

Next, you’ll need to add a new dimension.

Simply click the ‘+ New Custom Dimension’ button.

On the next screen, type in ‘Author’ for the name and leave the other details unchanged.

After that, click the ‘Create’ button, and Google Analytics will save it.

Next, you’ll see some code on the next screen.

You don’t need to do anything, as MonsterInsights handles everything for you. Just click ‘Done’ to continue.

Next, you will see your ‘Author’ custom dimension listed in a table with an ‘Index’ column.

Make sure that the value in the ‘Index’ column is the same as the ID given to that author’s custom dimension in MonsterInsights.

If not, then don’t worry because you can edit the custom dimension in MonsterInsights.

Now, let’s see how you can set up custom dimensions in GA4.

Add Custom Dimension in Google Analytics 4

First, you will need to go to your Google Analytics 4 property.

Once logged in, head to the ‘Configure’ tab on the left.

Next, you can click the ‘Custom definitions’ option from the menu that appears.

After that, go ahead and click the ‘Create custom dimensions’ button.

A window will slide in from the right, where you will need to enter the details of your custom dimensions.

To start, enter a name for your dimension. There is also an option to add a description.

From here, you can keep the Scope set to ‘Event’ and then enter an event parameter like ‘author_tracking.’ The Event parameter is what Google Analytics 4 will use to show your dimension in the reports.

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

You have successfully set up author tracking on your WordPress website. Now, let’s get to the fun part of viewing the reports and finding out how your authors are doing.

Viewing Your Author Tracking Reports

After your website has collected traffic data, you can view your top authors on the WordPress dashboard.

Simply go to the Insights » Reports page and switch to the Dimensions tab.

From here, you can see the top authors that generate the most traffic on your website.

You can now use this data to improve your editorial workflow and promote content from high-performing authors. For instance, you can display their content as popular posts and get more pageviews.

Additionally, the information will help you see which writers are struggling, so you can work with them and increase traffic to their blog posts.

We hope this article helped you learn how to enable author tracking in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to start an online store and the must-have WordPress plugins.

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 Enable Author Tracking in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

October 20, 2022 at 11:10PM

How Much Traffic Can WordPress Handle? (+ Expert Scaling Tips)

Are you wondering how much traffic WordPress can handle?

When equipped with the right set of tools, WordPress can handle virtually unlimited traffic. We have seen it handle billions of impressions every month.

In this article, we’ll talk about how much traffic can a WordPress website handle, and how to prepare for heavy traffic on your WordPress site.

Here is a quick list of topics we’ll cover in this article.

• How WordPress Manages Website Traffic?
• How Much Actual Traffic Can WordPress Handle?
• How Much Traffic Can WordPress Manage on Shared Hosting?
• How Much Traffic Can Managed WordPress Hosting Handle?
• How Much Traffic Can WordPress Handle on Cloud Hosting?
• Handling Billions of Monthly Requests in WordPress
• Tips on Managing Heavy Traffic on a WordPress Website

How WordPress Manages Website Traffic?

A WordPress website stores content in a database. When a user visits a page on your site, WordPress fetches that content and generates the page which then appears on the user’s screen.

As you get more traffic, WordPress has to repeat this process for every user.

As software, WordPress is just code, and it needs some hardware to run on. This hardware is provided by your WordPress hosting company.

It includes a type of computer called a server with software to handle website traffic (Apache and Nginx tend to be the most popular server software). This machine is connected to the internet 24/7 to make sure that your website is always online.

A faster web hosting server allows WordPress to process more requests faster.

A slower web hosting server limits WordPress’ ability to generate those pages quickly.

For more information, take a look at our tutorial on how WordPress really works (behind-the-scenes infographic).

How Much Actual Traffic Can WordPress Handle?

WordPress can handle virtually unlimited website traffic, depending on your hosting platform and caching setup.

The only limit on how much traffic your WordPress website can handle is your hosting platform.

And that’s not just WordPress. All websites, regardless of what website builder they are using, need to rely on the hosting provider to handle more traffic.

Depending on how much traffic you are getting, you can then add more resources to your hosting plan to manage more traffic.

That being said, let’s take a look at some real numbers.

We’ll break it down into different types of hosting plans and how much traffic your WordPress website can manage on those platforms.

How Much Traffic Can WordPress Manage on Shared Hosting?

Shared hosting is the most common type of hosting plan used by the majority of WordPress websites.

It is suitable for small business websites, new blogs, and low-traffic websites.

Shared hosting plans are budget-friendly because they split sever resources among several customers.

To make sure that all customers get good service, shared hosting companies place different limits on how much traffic a customer can get on their websites.

These limits vary from one hosting provider to another, and they are not made public to prevent abuse.

Some shared hosting providers have incredibly fast servers, and access to larger data centers with high bandwidth. This allows them to provide generous resources to their shared hosting customers.

Other providers may cut costs by choosing low-cost data centers with restrictive bandwidth caps. They may not be able to offer much flexibility and will start blocking requests more frequently during peak hours.

Our top pick for shared hosting providers include Bluehost, SiteGround, and Hostinger.

All three of these companies provide generous resources for small businesses, and they each have hosting plans to grow with you as your business grows while keeping the costs affordable.

They have ultra-fast servers operated by state-of-the-art data centers, higher bandwidth, and superior technical expertise to provide a much better user experience to their customers.

They deploy in-house solutions to handle traffic, with built-in caching and behind the scene server tweaks.

We ran our own tests on Bluehost servers to see how much peak traffic they can handle. Here are the results:

We gradually increased traffic to 100 users at a time within a 5-minute period. As you can see that it didn’t crash and remained quite stable throughout the test.

The folks at Bluehost are offering WPBeginner users a generous discount on hosting with a free domain name. You can start with just $2.75 / month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

How Much Traffic Can Shared WordPress Hosting Handle?

A good shared hosting company can comfortably handle traffic between 10,000 pageviews to 100,000 pageviews per month.

However, you’ll need to optimize WordPress performance to get better results. Some hosts automatically add WordPress acceleration and optimization to help you handle more traffic.

For example, Hostinger on their shared Pro plan can handle up to 200,000 visitors monthly.

Whereas, SiteGround on their GoGeek plan can handle upwards of 400,000 visitors monthly.

Your experience may still differ from the estimates above based on how complex your website is and what resources it requires, but the above estimates are true for vast majority of small business websites.

Don’t worry, we’ll talk later about saving those server resources to efficiently use your hosting plan.

How Much Traffic Can Managed WordPress Hosting Handle?

Once you have utilized your shared hosting plan to the maximum, you will need to upgrade your hosting plan.

Managed WordPress hosting is like the concierge service for WordPress websites. Your hosting provider will take care of updates, security, backups, and more.

Since they are focused on WordPress websites, they deploy additional tweaks to their server technologies to make WordPress run faster and perform reliably under stress.

On top of that, managed WordPress hosting plans make it super easy to scale up your server resources when you get sudden huge traffic spikes.

WP Engine is our top recommendation for a managed WordPress hosting platform.

They are pioneers in the managed WordPress hosting industry and leading the way with state-of-the-art infrastructure and top-notch customer support.

We ran our own tests on WP Engine by sending up to 100 virtual visitors within a short period of time. Here are the results:

As you can see, our test site remained stable throughout the period with a very low response time.

If you want to look for an alternative, then we recommend SiteGround. They are also a WordPress-recommended hosting provider.

How Much Actual Traffic Can a Managed WordPress Hosting Plan Handle?

A managed WordPress hosting plan can easily handle traffic of 400,000 visitors into millions of page views per month.

For example, SiteGround on their GoGeek plan can handle upwards of 400,000 visitors monthly.

WP Engine on their Managed Scale plan can also handle upwards of 400,000 visitors monthly.

And both of them offer custom plans for sites that are larger than this.

For example, our WPBeginner website along with other sites are hosted on SiteGround’s custom managed platform, and we receive hundreds of millions of requests each month.

We also know several super large websites that receive tens of millions of visitors that use WP Engine.

When you’re on a managed WordPress hosting platform, they can handle any amount of traffic needed. You just have to pay the additional hardware costs.

How Much Traffic Can WordPress Handle on Cloud Hosting?

For shared and managed WordPress hosting, you share server resources with other customers.

On a cloud hosting platform, you get guaranteed resources on a cloud platform made up of several servers. If one server fails, your website will remain available on other servers.

Due to this redundancy, guaranteed resources, and enterprise-grade availability, cloud hosting is suitable for large businesses, busier eCommerce stores, and other enterprise clients.

We recommend using SiteGround Cloud Hosting. They use the Google Cloud Platform and offer free CDN, unique IP address, enhanced security, and priority support 24/7.

WP Engine, Kinsta, Rocket.net, and others can also create custom cloud platforms based on your hosting needs.

How Much Actual Traffic Can WordPress Handle on Cloud Hosting?

A proper cloud hosting platform can allow WordPress to handle millions of pageviews per month without any hiccups.

For example, Rocket.net public pricing shows that they can handle upwards of 5,000,000 visitors on their Enterprise plan because they use 20+ server locations along with a smart Cloudflare cache.

You can see our performance test results in our detailed Rocket.net hosting review.

Handling Billions of Monthly Requests in WordPress

Now when most people think about WordPress, they think of it as a blogging platform, but the reality is that WordPress is the most popular website building platform on the planet with over 43% market share.

There are even full-blown SaaS apps that are built using WordPress.

For example, we built a popular conversion optimization software OptinMonster which underneath is powered by WordPress.

We process billions of requests each month, and that’s all WordPress.

So when someone says WordPress doesn’t scale, they are clearly misinformed, or simply lack the expertise themselves to do it.

You should challenge their perspective and find another WordPress consultant that has the expertise to scale WordPress.

What do you need to handle really large traffic in WordPress?

This is where you need Enterprise Custom Cloud Hosting on platforms like Amazon Web Services or Google Cloud.

These companies provide cloud servers that you can sign up for and create your own custom hosting environment.

You can add as many CPU resources, memory, storage, or geographical locations as you need.

You will be billed on a pay-as-you-go basis for the resources you have utilized. That’s why you’ll need your own team of server admins to efficiently use these resources.

Luckily, you don’t have to become a DevOps team either. Companies like WP Engine, SiteGround, and others can build and manage these custom clouds for you.

How Much Traffic Can Enterprise Cloud Hosting on AWS or Google Cloud Handle?

Enterprise custom-built cloud hosting on AWS or Google Cloud can handle extremely large volumes of traffic.

They can be configured to handle millions of hits per day or even billions of pageviews per month.

Our app OptinMonster runs on AWS and powers billions of requests without any hiccups.

You can combine it with a CDN and web-application firewall like Cloudflare for further scalability.

For example, our WPForms website is hosted on Google Cloud managed by SiteGround. We use Easy Digital Downloads to handle our eCommerce and software licensing which means for a plugin with over 5 million active installs, we’re receiving billions of requests each month across our portfolio.

Aside from Google Cloud, we’re using Cloudflare to efficiently scale our WordPress eCommerce site.

Tips on Managing Heavy Traffic on a WordPress Website

WordPress does a very good job of reducing the server load and processing requests so your users can get to your website as quickly as possible.

However, there are so many things that you can do to further optimize that performance. Below, we outline some of the most important practices that you can implement on your website for the best performance.

1. Always Get The Best WordPress Hosting for Your Budget

The web hosting industry is highly competitive, and there are tons of companies offering unlimited bandwidth, unlimited this, and unlimited that.

Don’t fall for false advertisements. Do your own research and sign up for the most trusted hosting providers in the industry. Unlimited rarely actually means unlimited.

For instance, if you were looking for a shared hosting provider, you can compare these top WordPress hosting companies as a starting point.

Choosing an unreliable WordPress hosting company will make your website slower, and it will not be able to handle much traffic.

2. Turn on a Caching Plugin

What if instead of generating pages repeatedly, you save them temporarily on your WordPress server and reuse them?

This technique is called caching. When you update something on your website, the cached version is deleted, and the newly updated content is served to your users.

Most WordPress hosting companies like Bluehost, Hostinger, and SiteGround come with their own built-in caching solutions that are turned on by default. However, if you are unsure, just ask their support staff to turn it on for your website.

Alternatively, you can use WP Rocket, which is the best WordPress caching plugin on the market.

It is beginner friendly, and once you turn it on, you don’t need to worry about the technical stuff as it automatically configures the best settings for most websites.

3. Use CDN for Static Content in WordPress

Using a CDN or content delivery network allows you to serve static files like images, javascript, and CSS, using separate servers.

This reduces the load on your WordPress server and frees up resources to process more traffic requests at faster speeds.

We recommend using Bunny.net they are one of the best CDN services on the market. Adding it to your WordPress website is super-easy even for absolute beginners.

Alternatively, you can use the Cloudflare Free CDN, which some hosting providers such as SiteGround include as a base option within their platform.

4. Filter Bad Traffic with Firewall

Bad traffic is the traffic generated by malicious spam bots, hackers, and DDoS attacks. These are not genuine website visitors, and they could waste a lot of your server resources and make WordPress slower.

A DNS-based website firewall service blocks such traffic even before it reaches your website. This saves you a ton of server resources and your WordPress website can cater to your genuine visitors.

We use Sucuri on the WPBeginner websites and Cloudflare on others. See our list of the best WordPress firewall services on the market.

We hope this article helped you learn how much traffic WordPress can handle. You may also want to follow our WordPress performance optimization handbook or take a look at these tips on making high converting sales funnel.

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 Much Traffic Can WordPress Handle? (+ Expert Scaling Tips) first appeared on WPBeginner.

October 20, 2022 at 03:15PM

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 rankings.

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 WordPress SEO 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.

If your page has a popup that appears immediately, 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.

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.

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

The short answer is that it helps you increase conversion rates, which results in 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 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. Simply click the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button to continue.

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 screen and the setup wizard. Go ahead and click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button and follow the on-screen instructions.

Next, a new window will now open asking you to connect your WordPress website to OptinMonster.

You can click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button to continue.

Once your OptinMonster account is connected, you are ready to create a mobile popup.

You can head to OptinMonster » Campaigns in your WordPress admin and click the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ button.

You will be taken to the OptinMonster campaign builder, where you can choose a campaign type and template.

Simply leave the Campaign Type set to ‘Popup.’

Next, OptinMonster will show you multiple templates for your popup campaign.

First, click the ‘Device/Mobile’ tab and select the ‘Mobile Specific (Optimized)’ device filter. From here, you can select any template for your campaign.

When you choose a template, a window will open.

Simply enter a name for your campaign and click the ‘Start Building’ button.

The template will automatically load the popup’s optin view in the OptinMonster builder. Customizing the content or adding new items with the drag & drop interface is easy.

You can drag any block from the menu on your left and drop it on the template. For example, you can add an image, button, countdown timer, and more.

Besides that, the plug lets you customize existing elements on the template.

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

You also need to edit the ‘Success’ view. This will be what users see after they enter their email addresses.

To edit the Success view, simply click on the Success tab at the bottom of the screen.

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 can increase this time period if you want.

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 is about to close the tab.
• Inactivity Sensor – this will only show the popup after the user has stopped being active on the site for a certain number of seconds.
• Scroll Trigger Popups – this will only show the popup after the user scrolls down a certain percentage of the page.
• Button Click by MonsterLinks – this will only show the popup if the user clicks on a specific button.

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

Next, you can select the pages on which the popup will appear.

By default, the rule will be set to ‘current URL path is any page.’ This means that your popup will appear on all posts and pages of your site.

You can then click the ‘Next Step’ button.

OptinMonster will then allow you to add an animation and sound effect when your mobile popup appears.

After that, you can click the ‘Next Step’ button.

You will now see a summary of your display rules. At this stage, you can edit your settings and make changes to your campaign.

Next, you can go to the ‘Integrations’ tab and add an email marketing service such as Constant Contact. OptinMonster integrates with most major platforms, so you will just need to select the one you use.

If you don’t have one, WPBeginner readers can get 20% off their first 3 months with Constant Contact.

Simply click the ‘+ Add New Integration’ button from the panel on your left and choose your email marketing tool.

Next, you can go to the ‘Published’ tab at the top.

After that, make sure the ‘Publish Status’ is changed from ‘Draft’ to ‘Publish.’

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen and close the campaign builder.

Putting Your OptinMonster Campaign Live on Your Website

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

You should now see your new mobile popup campaign listed here. Then, click the ‘Change Status’ link below your campaign’s name and select the ‘Publish’ option under the Status column.

Now, your campaign will 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 Popups That Won’t Harm Your Mobile SEO Rankings

Aside from time-delayed and user interaction popups in OptinMonster, you could create a floating bar, slide-in, or inline option. Google won’t consider these intrusive, so you don’t have to worry about your SEO taking a hit.

• A floating bar optin can appear at the top or bottom of the user’s screen, without covering up the content.
• A popup can slide in from the bottom or side of the website, usually after a time delay.
• An inline optin can sit 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 how to choose the best WordPress hosting.

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

October 19, 2022 at 11:22PM