Certified WordPress Developer and SEO Specialist with 10+ years of experience on Fiverr. I provide expert solutions for WordPress error fixing, debugging, speed optimization, and security hardening. Services include hacked site recovery, malware removal, on-page SEO optimization, and full customization to ensure your website runs fast, secure, and ranks higher on Google.
Are you looking for a way to stop users from using specific usernames in WordPress?
If you allow people to register for your website, then there’s always a risk that people might register usernames that contain foul language, trademark words, official sounding names, or have other issues.
In this article, we will show you how to restrict usernames in WordPress.
That means that users can pick a username similar to the admins, moderators, and support staff. They could even pretend to be a member of your team, leading to a WordPress security risk.
Not to mention, users could also use offensive words or trademark words when registering an account on your WordPress website.
That’s why it’s best to restrict subscribers from using certain words in usernames and email addresses. It prevents the use of foul language and helps maintain high standards on your forums and communities.
Let’s see how you can limit usernames in WordPress.
It’s a free WordPress plugin that allows you to restrict certain usernames, email addresses, symbols, domain names, and more. The plugin even offers an option to allow the use of a certain language, like Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic, or any language.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the Restrict Usernames Emails Characters plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you can head over to Settings » Restrict Usernames Emails Characters from your WordPress dashboard. Under the ‘General Settings’ tab, ensure that the plugin is enabled.
After that, you can scroll down to the ‘Not allow these names’ section in the plugin and enter words or phrases to restrict their use in usernames.
There’s also an option to ‘make lowercase equal uppercase’ in the plugin. By default, it will be enabled, but you can disable it from the dropdown menu.
Similarly, you can also prevent the use of specific email addresses.
Under the ‘Not allow these emails’ section, simply enter the email addresses that users can’t use when registering. This will help filter out spam emails, and users will have to use their actual email addresses.
Besides that, the plugin has more optional settings to customize the restrictions on usernames and email addresses.
For instance, you can prevent the use of certain email domains, restrict usernames containing certain words, avoid the use of characters and symbols that WordPress permits, and allow special characters.
There are even options to limit the use of spaces in usernames, don’t allow users only to use numbers in the username, stop uppercase usernames, and more.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Changes’ button when you’re done.
Next, you can go to the ‘Error Message’ tab in the plugin.
The plugin will already have pre-written error messages for different situations by default. However, you can customize any error message under this section.
Now, if someone tries to enter a restricted username and email address when registering for your website, they’ll see an error message and will have to pick another username and email.
Here’s what it looked like on our demo website when we tried to register using a restricted username and email address.
WordPress themes are designed for generic website niches. For instance, there are themes for different types of small business websites, photographers, bloggers, and more.
After picking a theme, you’ll need to customize it to your own requirements.
For instance, you may want to use your own custom logo, brand colors, tweak the layout a little bit, change font sizes, use your own images, and more.
Some of these customizations are necessary to make a website that truly represents your business and brand, and doesn’t just look like everyone else’s.
Depending on which WordPress theme you choose, these options may vary a lot from one theme to another.
For instance, some themes may give you an option to move the sidebar from right to left while others may not even have a sidebar in their layout.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily customize your WordPress theme without writing any code, and take it to the next level without breaking your website.
Using the Default Theme Customizer
WordPress came out with a full-site editing experience in WordPress 5.9.
There are currently not very many themes on the market with full support for the new full-site editing feature.
However, we’ll show you how to use it to customize your WordPress theme. We’ll also show you how to use the legacy theme customizer as well as the complete WordPress site builder tool that we recommend for beginners.
Using the Full Site Editor in WordPress to Customize a Theme
If your WordPress theme supports full site editor, then you’ll see the Editor menu under the Appearance option in the WordPress admin sidebar.
Clicking on it will launch the full site editor.
This editor is just like the block editor you use to write WordPress posts and pages.
You can add new elements to your templates by adding blocks. Apart from regular blocks, you can also use site-wide blocks like navigation, logo, post query loops, and more.
Each block comes with its own settings, where you can style it differently and change colors, typography, and other options.
Your WordPress theme may also provide additional patterns that you can use to quickly create different sections.
You can find these under the Patterns tab.
You can edit different areas of your website by clicking on the template name at the top and choosing a different template to edit.
To view more templates, you can click on ‘Browse all templates’ at the bottom.
This will show you a list of templates available in your theme that you can edit.
Simply click on a template name to open it in the editor.
The template will open in the same block editor.
From here, you can edit it any way you want.
Once you are satisfied with the changes you made to your theme, simply click on the Save button at the top to apply your changes.
The full site editor is a powerful and flexible way to customize your WordPress theme.
However, it is a brand new feature and many WordPress themes don’t support it at the moment.
Using Legacy Theme Customizer in WordPress
If your WordPress theme doesn’t support the full site editor yet, then it will use the legacy theme customizer feature in WordPress.
In that case, you can customize your theme by going to the Appearance » Customize page.
Clicking on it will launch the Theme Customizer.
You’ll see customization settings on the left side of your screen, and the live preview of your website to the right.
The editable areas of your website will be highlighted with a pencil icon on the live preview.
You can also expand each option on the left panel to change its settings.
The number of options in the left panel will vary from one theme to another.
However, most themes will support the basics like your site’s tagline, widgets, homepage settings, menus, and Additional CSS settings.
The default WordPress theme customization options depend on which WordPress theme you are using.
If your theme supports a feature, you may be able to customize it using customizer or full site editor. This limits your ability to customize a WordPress theme.
What if you want to further customize or even create a custom WordPress theme for your website?
It is the best WordPress website builder on the market. You can use it to create beautiful website layouts and even create a custom theme without writing any code.
Upon activation, you need to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website.
After that, you need to choose whether you want to create a custom WordPress theme or create individual pages for your website.
SeedProd can do both and we’ll show you both approaches.
Customize Individual WordPress Pages with SeedProd
This approach is quite flexible and allows you to easily create on-demand page layouts.
For instance, you can design a custom landing page for a product or marketing campaign, or create a thank you page to send visitors after they sign up for your email list.
Simply head over to SeedProd » Landing Pages page and then click on the Add New Landing Page button.
Next, you need to choose template for your page.
This template is used as an starting point, so you can change everything inside it later on. Alternatively, you can start with a blank canvas.
Simply click on a template to continue.
SeedProd will then ask you to provide a title for your page and choose a URL.
After entering the required information,. click on the Save and Start Editing the Page button.
This will launch the SeedProd page builder interface. This is a drag and drop design tool.
To your left, you’ll see blocks and sections that you can add to your page layout with a live editable preview of the page to the right.
You can simply point and click on any element of your page to edit it.
You can also add new blocks and even complete sections to your layout from the left column.
SeedProd comes with all the popular web design elements that you’ll need to make your website. It includes contact forms, optin forms, login forms, testimonials, progress bars, accordions, navigation menus, icon box, and a ton more.
It also includes complete support for WooCommerce. You can use WooCommerce blocks to display products anywhere on your website, create a custom check out page, or design a cart page for your online store.
Once you are satisfied with your page design and layout, you can click on the Save button at the top right.
From here, you can also choose to publish the page or save it as a template.
That’s it! You can repeat this process to create more custom pages on your website.
Creating a Custom Theme in WordPress with SeedProd
This approach is highly recommended if you want to create a truly unique design for your blog, business website, or eCommerce store.
With this method, you’ll be designing your own custom WordPress theme from scratch using the same drag and drop page builder.
The best part is that your SeedProd custom theme will work no matter what theme you have installed on your site. That means you don’t need to worry about customizing a standard WordPress theme, but will have total freedom in creating your design.
To get started, simply head over to SeedProd » Theme Bulder page and click on the Themes button.
SeedProd will now now show you a bunch of starter themes to choose from.
You can completely modify every aspect of these themes.
Once you have chosen a theme, SeedProd will generate all the theme templates.
Simply click on the Edit Design link below a template file to edit it.
You’ll see a live preview of the template in the right column with an editing panel in the left column.
Simply point and click to edit any item or drop elements from the left column.
SeedProd also comes with blocks specific to site-wide editing.
These are dynamic blocks that you can use to display content loop (for blog posts), post title, featured image, and more.
Once you are done making changes to a theme, don’t forget to Save your changes.
Repeat the process to edit other templates to your own liking.
Once you are finished, go to the SeedProd » Theme Builder page and toggle the switch next to the ‘Enable SeedProd Theme’ option to ‘Yes’.
SeedProd will now replace your WordPress theme with the custom theme you just created.
To learn more about SeedProd WordPress theme builder, see our tutorial on how to create a custom WordPress theme without writing code.
We hope this article helped you learn how to customize your WordPress theme to your own liking.
Are you looking to add a PayPal payment form to your WordPress site?
PayPal makes it super-easy to accept payments on your website. It is convenient, cost-effective, secure, and already used by millions of users around the world.
In this article, we’ll show you how to easily add a PayPal payment form in WordPress.
Why Accept PayPal Payments in WordPress?
You don’t need a full-fledged eCommerce store to accept payments on your WordPress website. If you’re only selling a single product or accepting payments for consulting or services, then adding a payment form is much simpler.
PayPal is arguably the most popular and trusted online payment gateway in the world. And since PayPal handles the entire transaction, you don’t have to worry about security issues, getting a separate merchant processor for credit cards, or PCI compliance.
With that being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add a PayPal payment form in WordPress.
How to Add a PayPal Payment Form in WordPress
There are many WordPress PayPal plugins available in the market that lets you add a payment button or order form on your site.
But when it comes to the flexibility of building the order form and add customizations without code, we believe WPForms is the best option.
WPForms is the best drag and drop form builder plugin for WordPress used by over 5 million websites. It lets you create a simple billing or order form without the need for a full-fledged eCommerce platform or shopping cart plugin.
We recommend using WPForms because it lets you accept both PayPal and credit cards in the same form through their integration with credit card services like Stripe, Square, and Authorize.net.
While they have a Lite version that’s free, you will need their Pro plan to access the PayPal addon and order form template.
Upon activation, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information in your WPForms account area. Make sure you click the ‘Verify Key’ button to activate your license.
Next, go to the WPForms » Addons page. Here, you need to install the PayPal Standard addon. Simply find it in the list, and then click the ‘Install Addon’ button below it.
The addon will be automatically installed and activated for you.
Now, it’s time to create your payment form.
Creating a PayPal Payment Form in WordPress
Simply go to the WPForms » Add New page in your WordPress admin area to launch the form builder.
First, you need to provide a title for your form and then scroll down to the ‘Billing / Order Form’ template and click the ‘Use Template’ button.
WPForms will now automatically load your form template in the drag and drop builder. It’s easy to add, remove, or change the fields on your form.
For example, a Multiple Items list has been added to the form so your visitors can select the product or service they wish to pay for. Once you click on this field you will be able to customize the field’s label and the name and price of each item.
If you are only offering a single item, then you should delete the Multiple Items field by clicking the trash icon in the top right corner of the field.
Next, you can scroll down to the Single Item field and drag it onto your form.
You can click on this field to customize it.
For instance, you can change the field’s label, description, and price. The preview of your form on the right will be updated automatically.
If you are only offering a single item, then the Total field is unnecessary. Feel free to delete it.
Next, you need to go to Payments » PayPal Standard to set up PayPal. Simply check the ‘Enable PayPal Standard payments’ box.
If you don’t already have one, you will need to create a PayPal account. Then you can enter your PayPal email address into the WPForms settings.
After that, you need to fill in the other PayPal settings. If you wish to test your payment form, then you should select the ‘Test / Sandbox’ mode. This allows you to make dummy PayPal payments to make sure that the form is working correctly.
Don’t forget to change the Mode option back to ‘Production’ when you have finished testing.
Most websites will need the ‘Products and Services’ payment type. The other option is ‘Donations’, and you can learn more in our guide on how to add a PayPal donate button.
You can also add a URL to redirect users who don’t complete the payment, and decide whether a shipping address and note are required.
Once you’re done, click the Save button to store your settings.
Your online PayPal payment form is now ready, and you can add it to any WordPress post or page on your website.
Adding Your PayPal Payment Form to Your Website
WPForm makes it super easy to add forms anywhere on your website.
Simply create a new post or page, or edit an existing one. Then, click on the plus (+) sign at the top and add a WPForms block in the WordPress editor.
After that, select your order form from the dropdown menu in the WPForms block.
Once you’re finished, you can save or publish your page and click on the preview button to see your form in action.
When your users fill in the form and click the ‘Submit’ button, the ‘Pay with PayPal’ screen will appear automatically so they can finalize the payment.
Congratulations, you’ve now created a PayPal payment form in WordPress.
You can connect your payment forms with email marketing services, Google sheet, and other apps to further streamline your workflow using WPForms native integrations.
