How to Change Sender Name in Outgoing WordPress Email

Do you want to change the default sender name and email address for outgoing WordPress emails?

By default, WordPress uses ‘WordPress’ as the sender name for all outgoing WordPress notification emails. This doesn’t look very professional, and you may want to change that to your business name.

In this article, we will show you how to easily change the default sender name and email address in outgoing WordPress emails.

Why You Should Change the Default Sender Information in WordPress?

WordPress sends several email notifications to the site administrator as well as other users on your website.

This includes very important email notifications such as forgot password emails, website error and recovery emails, new user registration, and more.

By default, it uses ‘WordPress’ as the sender’s name and a non-existent email address (wordpress@yourdomain.com) as the sender email.

Many spam filters block your WordPress emails believing it to be spam. Sometimes it does not even make it to the spam folder.

For more on this topic, take a look at our guide on how to fix WordPress not sending email issue.

The outgoing email notifications are important, and you should use your own brand and email address. This increases the authenticity of your brand and increases name recognition among your users.

For instance, if you run an online store, then you would want customers to get email notifications with your store name as the sender.

See our guide on how to get a free business email address for your website in 5 minutes.

Having said that, let’s see how to change the default sender name and email address in outgoing WordPress email notifications.

Method 1. Changing Default Sender Name and Email using WP Mail SMTP

This method is easier and recommended for all WordPress users.

For this method, we’ll be using the WP Mail SMTP Pro plugin. It is the best WordPress SMTP plugin on the market, used by over 1 million website owners.

This plugin allows you to easily change the default sender name and email address for outgoing WordPress emails. It also helps you fix the WordPress email deliverability problem.

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

Upon activation, you need to visit WP Mail SMTP » Settings to configure plugin settings. Under the Mail section, you can simply enter the email address and the name you want to use to send WordPress emails.

Below that you can find the options to set up an SMTP server to send WordPress emails. By default, the plugin will use PHP method provided by your WordPress hosting company which is less reliable.

We recommend using any of the listed SMTP services to properly send WordPress emails for higher guaranteed deliverability.

If you choose an SMTP service, then follow the on-screen instructions to connect the plugin with your SMTP service provider.

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

Test Your WordPress Emails

WP Mail SMTP Pro also allows you to test your WordPress email settings. Simply go to the WP Mail SMTP » Settings page and switch to the ‘Email Test’ tab.

From here, you just need to provide an email address that you can access and then click on the ‘Send Email’ button.

The plugin will now send a test email to the address you provided. You can check your inbox to make sure that you can receive WordPress emails, and it has the correct sender name and sender email address.

WP Mail SMTP works with all popular WordPress plugins like WooCommerce, WPForms, and more.

For more detailed instructions, you may want to see our article on how to use SMTP to send WordPress emails.

Method 2: Changing Default Sender Name and Email using a CB Change Mail Sender

This method is only recommended if you don’t use an SMTP service, or the first method is not working for you.

Using this method does not improve your WordPress email deliverability or make it easier to troubleshoot email issues. However, if your WordPress emails are working, then it will allow you to change sender name and email address.

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

Upon activation, you will notice a new menu item labeled CB Mail Sender in your WordPress admin bar. Clicking on it will take you to plugin’s settings page.

You will need to enter the name and email address you want to be used for outgoing WordPress emails.

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

That’s all, your WordPress notification emails will now show the name and email address you entered in plugin settings.

There is no method provided by the plugin to test your email settings. You can do that by performing actions that generate WordPress notification emails like creating a new user, requesting a password reset, and more.

Method 3: Manually Change Sender Name and Email Address

This method is not recommended for beginners. This method requires you to paste code into your WordPress files. It also does not fix any email deliverability issues and is harder to troubleshoot.

If you are new to adding code in WordPress, then take a look at our beginners guide on pasting snippets from web into WordPress.

You will need to add the following code in your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

// Function to change email address
function wpb_sender_email( $original_email_address ) {
    return 'tim.smith@example.com';
}

// Function to change sender name
function wpb_sender_name( $original_email_from ) {
        return 'Tim Smith';
}

// Hooking up our functions to WordPress filters 
add_filter( 'wp_mail_from', 'wpb_sender_email' );
add_filter( 'wp_mail_from_name', 'wpb_sender_name' );

This code simply replaces the default WordPress sender name and email address with your custom sender name and email address.

You can test this by adding a new user, changing passwords, or any other action that sends a WordPress notification email.

We hope this article helped you learn how to change the sender’s name and email address in outgoing WordPress emails. You may also want to see our guide on the best bulk email marketing services to bulk send email to all your users, and our comparison of the best WordPress page builder plugins to customize your site without any code.

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 Change Sender Name in Outgoing WordPress Email appeared first on WPBeginner.

September 08, 2020 at 05:00PM

How to Remove the Date from WordPress URLs

Do you want to remove the date from your WordPress URLs?

WordPress comes with an SEO friendly URL structure. This includes several link formats including one that adds dates to your WordPress post URLs.

In this article, we will show you how to easily remove the date from your WordPress URLs.

Why Dates Appear in WordPress URLs?

By default, WordPress uses a non human-readable link structure for post and page URLs which looks like this:

https://ift.tt/1uHJSlG

It uses post ID in the URL which does not look very good or meaningful.

However, WordPress also allows you to easily change this to more meaningful and SEO friendly URLs. It gives you a bunch of options to choose from under Settings » Permalinks page.

Choosing the ‘Month and name’ or ‘Day and name’ options will add the date parameters to your WordPress URLs. They will then look like this:

Day and name: https://ift.tt/2ZfqCCv
Month and name: https://ift.tt/3bzjVQF

These URLs are better than the default ugly URLs. They are still SEO friendly as well. However, they are unnecessarily lengthy and the dates make your articles look old.

That’s why a lot of users want to switch to just ‘Post name’ URL structure which will remove the date and just use the post slug keyword in the URL.

Name: https://ift.tt/32aI1OV

It is shorter, meaningful, SEO friendly, and doesn’t look dated as time passes.

Things You Should Consider before Removing Date from WordPress URLs

If you are starting a new WordPress blog and haven’t launched it yet, then it is safe to remove the date from WordPress URLs.

However, if your website has been around for some time, then you will need to keep the following things in mind.

Changing the URL structure may result in 404 errors for your users and search engines. This means you may see warnings and errors in your Google Search Console reports.

Your search engine rankings may also get affected as the link backs to your old articles will now lead to 404 errors.

Both of these issues can be fixed by setting up redirects, and we will show you how to do that later in this article.

Changing the URL structure will also reset your social share counts. Unfortunately, most social share count services do not track the redirected URLs and will reset share count for them.

Removing Date from WordPress URLs

First, you need to create a complete WordPress backup of your website. This will allow you to restore your website to an earlier stage in case things don’t work out as you expected.

After that, you need to visit the Settings » Permalinks page and choose ‘Name’ as your permalink option.

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

WordPress will now remove the date from your WordPress URLs and start using the name-based URL structure.

Setting up Redirects to Preserve SEO Rankings

Now that you have removed the date from your WordPress URLs. You need to set up proper redirects.

Redirects will send users to the updated URLs without showing a 404 error. This will also help search engines understand that the old URLs are now moved to these new URLs.

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

Upon activation, you need to visit Tools » Redirection page and click on the ‘Start setup’ button.

The plugin will then show you a couple of options. It can automatically detect and alert you if a posts URL is changed and keep a log of redirects. You can also leave both these options unchecked and simply click on the ‘Continue setup’ button.

The plugin will then run some tests and if everything looks good then you can click on the Finish setup button. After that, it will store plugin settings into the WordPress database.

Once finished, you will see the plugin’s settings page. From here, you need to click on the ‘Add New’ button at the top or scroll down to the ‘Add new redirection’ section.

You will see a form with Source and Target fields. ‘Source’ is the field where you’ll describe your old URL structure and ‘Target’ is the location of the new URL.

If you were using the ‘Day and name’ URLs, then you will enter the following values in the source and target fields:

Source: /(\d*)/(\d*)/(\d*)/([A-Za-z0-9-*])
Target: /$4

If you were using ‘Month and name’ URLs, then you’ll enter the following values:

Source: /(\d*)/(\d*)/([A-Za-z0-9-*])
Target: /$3

Don’t forget to select Regex and click on the ‘Add Redirect’ button to save your changes.

The plugin will now redirect users to your new name-based URLs.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily remove the date from WordPress URLs. You may also want to see our guide on the most common WordPress errors and how to fix them as well as our collection of the best WordPress SEO 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 Remove the Date from WordPress URLs appeared first on WPBeginner.

September 07, 2020 at 05:00PM

9 Best Lead Generation WordPress Plugins (Powerful)

Are you looking for the best lead generation plugins for WordPress?

Using the right lead generation tools can help you get more customers and sales faster, so you can grow your business.

In this article, we will share some of the best lead generation WordPress plugins to help you improve your marketing.

What is Lead Generation and Why Does It Matter?

Lead generation means getting the interest of prospective customers. It can be done in a number of different ways.

On your website, lead generation might mean getting visitors to:

• Join your email newsletter.
• Submit a contact or inquiry form on your website
• Contact someone at your company through live chat.
• Talk to a chatbot (automated chat).
• Call your sales team, or book a call with them.

Lead generation is an essential for all online businesses. Of course, it’s also important to have a strong process for converting the leads into customers. However, most businesses struggle to get enough leads in the first place.

Even if you run a nonprofit, lead generation matters. It can help you get more donations and more support.

Our goal with this list is to share the absolute best WordPress lead generation plugins that you can use to grow your business, faster.

Unlike other best lead generation tools list, we are not just sharing a list of plugins that do the same thing. Instead we’re focusing on lead generation from a holistic point of view.

For each lead generation solution category, we share an expert pick along with one alternative option for that category. This will help us keep this list comprehensive without causing choice paralysis.

With that said, here are the best lead generation plugins for WordPress.

1. WPForms

WPForms is the best contact form plugin on the market. Over 3 million website owners use their drag & drop form builder to easily create any type of online form for their WordPress site.

It comes with over 100 pre-built form templates that you can use as a starting point. From there, you can easily customize the form to match your needs using the drag & drop form builder interface.

Some of the lead generation templates include:

• Newsletter signup form
• Content download form
• Online event registration form
• Request a quote form
• Contest entry form
• Neighborhood events questionnaire form
• Personal trainer signup form

WPForms also integrates with your favorite email marketing service and CRM providers. This lets you automatically add leads to your email list.

Each time someone submits the form, you will automatically get an email notification. You can easily turn this off if you prefer not to receive email alerts. WPForms will store each completed form in your WordPress database too.

It’s also possible to send notifications to multiple recipients using WPForms. For example, you might want to send the customer inquiry notification to a specific person in the sales team and their supervisor.

Price:

WPForms costs from $39.50/year.

There’s also a free version of the plugin, which has limited features.

Alternative:

Formidable Forms (from $59/year) is a good alternative to WPForms. It has powerful tools that let you create all sorts of different forms, including lead calculators, however it’s not as beginner friendly as WPForms.

2. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is a powerful lead generation software that you can use on your WordPress site. It lets you create high converting popups and email signup forms that helps you turn abandoning website visitors into subscribers & customers.

It has lots of useful features, including Exit Intent ® technology. This lets you show your popup at the exact moment when someone is about to leave your site. You can combine it with their page targeting feature to show customized popup messages for each page which is proven to increase conversions.

With OptinMonster, you even get special popups like spin the wheel popups and Yes/No popups. These can boost your conversion rate even further.

There are lots of different professionally designed templates included in the app. This makes it quick and easy to create your lead forms using the drag and drop builder.

You can also use OptinMonster to generate leads in other ways. For instance, you might use the Content Locking feature to ask visitors to join your email list before they can read your full content.

You don’t necessarily need to use it to generate email leads, either. You could add a Click to Call button to your popup instead, use it to show special discount codes, and more.

Price:

OptinMonster costs from $9/month (billed annually). To get advanced features like Exit Intent technology and Yes/No forms, you need the Pro plan from $29/month.

Alternative:

ThriveLeads (from $67) is a good alternative to OptinMonster. It offers a range of different types of lead generation forms. It also has a drag and drop builder.

3. LiveChat

LiveChat is the best live chat software for WordPress websites. It’s very easy to set up, and you can integrate it with dozens of other marketing services.

This plugin places a chat button in the bottom right-hand corner of your website. Visitors can click on this to chat with your team in real-time.

Your support team members don’t need to be logged into WordPress in order to use LiveChat. Instead, they can use the Live Chat app on their laptop or mobile device.

If a visitor contacts your team outside support hours, LiveChat will create a support ticket instead.

LiveChat is fast and easy to use, for your visitors and for your support team. It lets you quickly turn leads into customers by answering pre-sales questions straight away.

Price:

LiveChat costs from $16/month (billed annually) with a 14 day free trial. Our LiveChat coupon gives you an extended 30 day free trial plus a 30% discount.

Alternative:

Sendinblue offers a simple, free live chat feature that you can use on your website. It also offers email, SMS, and a CRM tool that integrate with the live chat.

4. ChatBot

ChatBot lets you use automated live chat to connect with your potential customers. Through the power of AI (Artificial Intelligence), it can respond to customer questions 24/7.

To help you get started quickly, ChatBot has lots of pre-designed templates. For instance, you could use the lead generation bot to book calls. The sales bot template allows you to sell products directly from the chat window.

ChatBot can be used in Facebook messenger as well as on your website. That makes it a great option for companies and organizations that get a lot of inquiries through Facebook.

It’s easy to integrate it with other apps such as LiveChat. This means that a live agent can step into the conversation seamlessly if needed.

Price:

ChatBot costs from $50/month. There’s a 14-day free trial available.

Alternative:

Drift (from $500/month with the chatbot feature) combines a chatbot with live chat. It’s a powerful tool if you have a larger business and can afford it.

5. OneSignal

OneSignal lets you add push notifications to your WordPress site.

Push notifications are shown on the user’s desktop or in the notification area on their mobile device. They are a highly effective way to convert website visitors into loyal followers and customers.

Visitors simply give their permission to receive push notifications by clicking a button:

OneSignal makes it easy to create push notifications. You simply need to create an account and install the WordPress plugin.

With OneSignal, you can fine-tune exactly how your push notifications are displayed. For instance, you could display a prompt after a certain number of page views or after a visitor has been on your site for a certain length of time.

Price:

OneSignal has a free plan that covers you for up to 30,000 desktop subscribers and unlimited on mobile.

For more subscribers and advanced features like delayed notifications, it costs from $99/month.

Alternative:

PushEngage (from $29/month for up to 5,000 subscribers) is a good alternative to OneSignal. It also offers a free plan for up to 2,500 subscribers.

6. Subscribe to Comments Reloaded

Subscribe to Comments Reloaded is a WordPress plugin that lets people sign up for comment notifications.

This can be a good option if you have a website that involves a lot of interaction in the comments. The plugin lets you customize the notification messages, too. You could use these to increase brand awareness or even promote your products.

Subscribe to Comments Reloaded makes it easy for users to manage their subscriptions. That means they can easily unsubscribe from comments on particular posts, or even from all comments.

You can also require double opt-in, so users need to click a link to confirm they want to receive email notifications of comments.

Price:

Subscribe to Comments Reloaded is free.

Alternative:

Lightweight Subscribe to Comments (also free) is a fast, lightweight plugin. It works straight out of the box and offers some customization options.

7. WP Call Button

WP Call Button allows you to easily add a ‘click to call’ button on your WordPress website or WooCommerce store. Visitors can simply click or tap the button to call you straight away.

If your customers need to call you before purchasing a service or booking an appointment, then adding a click to call button on your website will definitely increase your leads / sales.

WP Call Button makes it easy to add your button to any post or page. You can include it in your WordPress sidebar, too. It’s also easy to create a sticky floating call button that stays visible all the time.

It works with all top business phone services such as Nextiva and RingCentral.

Price:

WP Call Button is free.

Alternative:

You can also create a click to call link using the manual method covered in adding a click-to-call button in WordPress.

8. All in One SEO

All in One SEO is a powerful search engine optimization (SEO) plugin for WordPress. It lets you optimize your website as effectively and efficiently as possible so that your content can rank highly in search engines.

SEO is an important part of lead generation. You need to bring people to your website before they can join your email list, call you, subscribe to push notifications, or anything else on this list.

WordPress beginners often feel that SEO is something too technical or complicated for them to do. All in One SEO makes it easy, with powerful on-page optimization tools. These let you easily add things like meta titles and descriptions to your pages.

All in One SEO can also automatically create sitemaps, add social media data to your site, and much more. It makes it easy to connect your website to tools like Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

There are also lots of video tutorials that walk you through all the different aspects of SEO. The friendly support team is always happy to answer questions, too.

Price:

All in One SEO costs from $57/year.

There’s a fairly robust free version available as well, but it doesn’t include some of their powerful features.

Alternative:

Yoast SEO ($89/year) offers similar features to All in One SEO.

9. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights is a powerful way to add Google Analytics to your WordPress website. It lets you quickly and easily see crucial statistics about your site.

This means you can easily find out what’s working and what’s not, so you can focus on the areas that really matter. For instance, you might use MonsterInsights to enable author tracking and see which writers for your site are producing the best-performing posts.

Or you could use MonsterInsights to track link clicks and button clicks. This can let you figure out which links and buttons are getting clicked and which ones aren’t, letting you pinpoint areas for improvement.

MonsterInsights is quick and easy to set up and gives you real-time stats. It can even track things like your eCommerce data, form completions, and file downloads. This gives you more insights about your lead generation efforts.

Price:

MonsterInsights costs from $99.50/year.

There’s also a free version available with limited features.

Alternative:

ExactMetrics (from $99.50/year) offers similar features to MonsterInsights.

Our Pick: Best Lead Generation Plugin for WordPress

We believe that you need multiple plugins to have a robust lead generation strategy on your site. With that said, WPForms is the best lead generation plugin for WordPress. You can use their drag & drop form builder to create any type of online forms.

If you’re looking for live chat solution to improve leads, then Live Chat and ChatBot are both great options.

If you want to improve your overall conversion rate on your website, then nothing in the market beats the powerful features that OptinMonster has to offer.

With any lead generation strategy, attracting leads is only the first part. You have to ensure that there’s a proper sales process to close the deal.

If you rely on phone calls, then we recommend using Nextiva. It comes with auto-attendant, call-routing, CRM and many powerful sales features that you can use to increase your sales.

To summarize, our top 5 lead generation tools are:

1. WPForms
2. OptinMonster
3. LiveChat.com
4. ChatBot.com
5. Nextiva

We hope this article helped you learn about the best lead generation plugins and tools for WordPress. You might also like our comprehensive list of the best WordPress plugins for business websites, and our ultimate guide on how to improve WordPress speed and performance.

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 9 Best Lead Generation WordPress Plugins (Powerful) appeared first on WPBeginner.

September 04, 2020 at 04:22PM