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Would you like to add a slide panel menu to your WordPress site?
Adding a responsive menu will make it easier for users to navigate your website when using mobile devices. When they tap your menu icon, a panel menu will slide onto the screen using a beautiful animation.
In this article, we’ll show you how to add a slide panel menu in WordPress themes without writing any code.
Why Add a Slide Panel Menu in WordPress Themes?
Well-designed menus help your visitors find their way around your WordPress website. Many of your visitors will be using mobile devices, so it’s important to preview the mobile version of your WordPress site to see how your navigation menu looks on smaller screens.
Luckily, many WordPress themes come with built-in styles that will automatically show mobile-friendly menus when viewed on a small screen.
However, you may want to customize your mobile navigation even more and add a fullscreen responsive menu or animated slide panel menu.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at how to add a slide panel menu in WordPress themes.
There is a premium version of Responsive Menu with extra themes and additional features such as conditional logic, but for this tutorial, we’ll use the free plugin.
Upon activation, navigate to the Responsive Menu » Menus page. Once there, you should click the ‘Create New Menu’ button at the top of the screen.
You will then see four themes that you can use for your new responsive menu. Additional themes are available for purchase.
For this tutorial, we’ll use the automatically selected theme. You can then click the ‘Next’ button.
This will take you to the Menu Settings page. Here you can enter a name for your responsive menu, and then select which WordPress menu you’d like to be displayed in the panel.
For the sake of this tutorial, we chose the ‘Navigation’ menu. If you need to create a new menu, then you can learn how by following our guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.
You can also hide the normal menu that comes with your WordPress theme so that your users will only see the new slide panel menu. You do this by entering CSS code into the ‘Hide Theme Menu’ field.
The code you need to enter here varies from theme to theme, and you can learn more details by clicking the ‘Know More’ link.
Users with the Pro version have a few additional settings. For example, Pro users can select the devices and pages where the menu should be shown.
Once you’re happy with the settings, you should click the ‘Create Menu’ button at the bottom of the page. This will take you to a page where you can finish customizing your menu.
You will see a preview of your website on the right of the screen, and there are buttons at the bottom to switch between phone, tablet, and desktop view. You’ll also find customization options on the left.
Notice that there is some text displayed above the menu. This is the menu’s title text and a line of text that the plugin calls ‘additional content’.
You can edit or hide the text by clicking on ‘Mobile Menu’ and then ‘Container’ in the menu on the left of the page.
You can type anything you like into the ‘Title Text’ field, such as ‘Main Menu’ or ‘Navigation.’ If you don’t want to display a title, then simply slide the ‘Title’ switch to the off position.
After that, you need to scroll down to the ‘Additional Content’ setting. You can toggle this setting off or type alternate content. In the screenshot below, you’ll notice that the switch has been toggled off so the words ‘Add more content here…’ are now hidden.
Once you’re happy with the menu settings, make sure you click the ‘Update’ button at the bottom of the page to store your settings.
The Responsive Menu plugin comes with many other options that allow you to change the behavior and appearance of your slide panel menu. You can explore these options on the plugin’s settings page and adjust them as needed.
Now you can visit your website to see the menu in action. Here’s how it looks on our demo website. Note that if the current page is in the menu, then it is highlighted with a color band.
Do you want to add a spin-to-win optin to your WordPress site or online store?
A spin-to-win optin adds gamification to your signup forms. You can use it to share discounts, special offers, and perks as a reward. This kind of optin is proven to increase engagement and sales.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to easily add a spin-to-win optin to your WordPress site or WooCommerce store.
What is a Spin-to-Win Optin?
A spin-to-win optin is a signup form or a discount coupon wheel which adds gamification to your WordPress website.
Your users play a game to win discounts, unlock special offers, or access downloads after playing the game.
Case studies have shown that gamified optins get conversion rates as high as 30% or more. The reason for that is quite simple. These gamified optins are fun, interactive, and instantly get users’ attention.
With rewards and coupons, you also encourage users to complete the game they started by using the reward they have earned, like making a purchase using a discount code.
Similarly, you can use spin-to-win options to offer incentives like free shipping and bundle offers for your online store and boost conversions.
That said, let’s see how you can easily add spin-to-win optins in WordPress and WooCommerce.
Adding a Spin-to-Win Optin in WordPress and WooCommerce
With OptinMonster, you can grow your email list, get more leads, and convert website visitors into paying customers. Its drag-and-drop campaign builder makes it super easy to create a spin-to-win optin and set up powerful display rules.
First, you will need to visit the OptinMonster website and click the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button to sign up for an account.
To create a spin-to-win wheel, you’ll need their ‘Growth’ plan to access the Coupon Wheel Campaigns feature.
The plugin connects your WordPress website to the OptinMonster app.
Upon activation, you’ll see the OptinMonster welcome screen. Simply click the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.
Next, a popup window will open where you can connect your WordPress site with the OptinMonster account.
Go ahead and click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button.
Once you’ve connected OptinMonster with your site, you can also connect it with your WooCommerce account.
For this, you can go to OptinMonster » Settings from your WordPress dashboard.
Under the ‘General’ tab, scroll down to the WooCommerce section and click the ‘Auto Generate Keys + Connect WooCommerce’ button.
WooCommerce will now automatically generate keys and connect to your OptinMonster account. After connecting WordPress and WooCommerce to your OptinMonster account, you’ll need to create a new campaign.
First, head to OptinMonster » Campaigns from your WordPress dashboard and then click the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ button.
Next, you’ll need to select a campaign type and a template for your spin-to-win optin.
For the campaign type, go ahead and select the ‘Gamification’ option.
After that, you can select a campaign template.
OptinMonster offers multiple templates to choose from. Simply hover over one and click the ‘Use Template’ button.
Once you select a campaign, you’ll be asked to provide a name for your template.
Simply enter a name and click the ‘Start Building’ button.
After that, you will see the OptinMonster campaign builder interface.
You can drag and drop different blocks from the menu on your left onto the templates, like buttons, videos, countdown timers, and more.
OptinMonster also lets you change your campaign design, text colors, fonts, spacing, and more. You can simply point and click on any item in the template to edit its appearance.
Next, go ahead and click on the wheel element in the template to see more options. For instance, you can edit the section and wheel colors.
From here, you can click on the ‘Customize Wheel Sections’ button to edit the values for each of the coupon wheel sections.
A popup window will now open with all the sections in your gamification wheel.
This popup allows you to add coupon codes and special offers to the wheel. You can select whether or not each option has a chance of winning.
When you turn an option off or on, the win percentages will be automatically recalculated.
After customizing each section, you can simply close the popup window.
Choose When to Show the Spin to Win Optin
Next, you must select when you want your spin-to-win campaign to be displayed on your website or online store.
OptinMonster gives you powerful targeting and display options that allow you to trigger the spinner anywhere and at any time on your website.
Simply switch to the ‘Display Rules’ tab in the OptinMonster dashboard. From here, you can select different display rulesets for your campaign.
For example, you can use the ‘Exit Intent’ ruleset to launch the spinner campaign when a user is about to leave your website.
You can also configure the sensitivity of the exit intent and change it to low, medium, or high.
Next, scroll down to combine different rulesets. For example, you can set another rule to launch the campaign only on specific pages.
For this tutorial, we’ll select the ‘current URL path’ from the dropdown menu and then choose the ‘is any page’ option. This way, your spin-to-win optin will appear on all the pages and posts throughout your website.
After adding display rules, click on the ‘Next Step’ button.
From here, you’ll be asked to select a view. Simply select the ‘Optin’ view and also choose a sound effect for your campaign.
If you don’t want to add a sound effect, then you can keep the default setting to ‘None.’
Go ahead and click on the ‘Next step’ button.
Once you’re done, you’ll see a summary of your display rules. You can now click on the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your changes.
Adding the Spin to Win Wheel to WordPress and WooCommerce
Now that your spin wheel campaign is almost ready, let’s add it to your website.
First, you will need to publish your campaign. From the OptinMonster dashboard, switch to the ‘Published’ tab and change the Publish Status to the ‘Publish’ option.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your changes and close the campaign builder.
You can now visit OptinMonster » Campaigns from your WordPress dashboard.
You’ll see your recently created spin-to-win wheel campaign along with the ‘Published’ status highlighted in green.
If you don’t, then click on the ‘Change Status’ option under your campaign name and then change the status to ‘Published.’
You can visit your website or WooCommerce store in a new incognito browser window to see a live preview of your campaign.
Based on your display rules, you’ll see the spin-to-win wheel popup on the screen.
Do you want to use Google Analytics 4 (GA4) but are unsure how to start?
Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Google’s analytics platform. It has many changes, like a new reporting system and metrics. The way GA4 collects and processes data is also different from the previous version known as Universal Analytics (UA).
In this article, we’ll cover everything about GA4 in WordPress and help you get started.
What is Google Analytics 4?
Google Analytics 4, also called GA4, is the new version of Google’s stats dashboard, and it lets you track your website and apps in the same account. It is designed to protect users’ privacy and provide more accurate reports than previous versions.
With Google Analytics 4, you’ll first notice that it has a new interface. It also categorizes some of the old reports differently, as well as adds all-new reports and metrics.
Behind the scenes, GA4 works in a new way for collecting and processing your website data. It records data as event-based instead of using page hits.
For example, when your visitors click a link, view a page, play a video, or download a file, all these website interactions will count as events.
This way, your website performance is measured more accurately, as the event-based model can better track user behavior.
It also makes it easier to enable enhanced measurement features like tracking outbound clicks and scroll depth. You can enable these options with a click of a button instead of performing a complicated setup process.
That said, let’s see why you should use Google Analytics 4 instead of the previous Universal Analytics.
Why Switch from Universal Analytics to Google Analytics 4?
If you haven’t created a GA4 property yet, then you should know that Google will sunset the old Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023.
This means that Universal Analytics will no longer record data from your WordPress site after the sunset date. You’ll still be able to view your old data for at least 6 months after the sunset date, but Universal Analytics won’t track your site’s traffic.
That’s why it is important to switch to a Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible. You won’t have to start from scratch when Universal Analytics stops working and have historical data in GA4 for comparison. Plus, you’ll get all the new features and improvements with Google Analytics 4.
The best way of setting up GA4 is using MonsterInsights and its dual tracking feature. Dual tracking allows you to use Universal Analytics while simultaneously sending data to the GA4 property.
Now, let’s look at some of the changes you’ll notice in GA4.
What Has Changed in Google Analytics 4?
The new Google Analytics 4 brings a lot of changes to the analytics platform. While the most noticeable difference is how it works using events, here are a few more changes you’ll see in GA4:
1. A Completely New Reporting Interface
As we mentioned earlier, the first difference you’ll see is the new Google Analytics 4 interface. Many reports from Universal Analytics have been removed or renamed in GA4.
For example, you will see reports like Engagement, Monetization, and Retention in Google Analytics 4.
2. New Metrics in Google Analytics 4
In Google Analytics 4, you’ll find new metrics. Some metrics names in Universal Analytics have also changed in GA4.
For instance, the new engagement report helps measure your visitors’ interaction with your site, and it offers metrics for average engagement time. In Universal Analytics, this was called average session duration.
Another noticeable change is that there is no bounce rate metric in GA4.
Instead of seeing a percentage of how many people left your site without interacting, you’ll see metrics like Engaged sessions per user to see how people used your site and interacted with your content.
3. There are No Goals in GA4
If you had set up different goals in Universal Analytics, then you won’t find them in GA4. However, you get various GA4 events to help you track user interactions on your website.
For example the number of users who began the checkout process in your online store is an interaction event. You can also see events for anyone who reached different points in the checkout process.
That way, you can see which specific steps in the process people give up at.
4. Absence of Form Conversion Tracking
Tracking your WordPress forms is important in understanding how people use your website. Forms help gather leads, get user feedback, resolve queries, and more.
However, you won’t know which form performs best without tracking them in Google Analytics. With MonsterInsights, you can easily track forms out of the box and see a report inside your WordPress dashboard.
For even more control over the forms on your site, we recommend installing WPForms, the best form builder plugin for WordPress. It integrates with MonsterInsights, too, so you can get even more useful information out of Google Analytics.
5. Perform Advanced Analysis to Uncover Insights
One of the most powerful changes GA4 brings is the ability to perform advanced analysis and create multiple data visualizations.
You can head to the Explore tab and create custom reports. There are prebuilt templates you can use or use a blank template.
For example, you can perform a funnel analysis and see the steps customers take before purchasing. Similarly, the path exploration template helps you see which events users trigger as they visit your website.
However, this feature is for advanced or power users who are experienced with Google Analytics 4 and know their way around. It can be tricky for beginners since there is a steep learning curve.
As an alternate, you can use MonsterInsights to add a stats dashboard inside your WordPress site and see data that matters for your business.
How to Use Google Analytics 4 Reports
Now that you know what Google Analytics 4 is, how it works, and what’s the difference between GA4 and Universal Analytics, let’s see how to use different reports.
Realtime Report
The first report you can view is the real-time report in Google Analytics 4. It helps you monitor your website activity as it happens.
You can use the report to see if your analytics tracking code is working, track the performance of a campaign like a flash sale in real-time, see traffic from social media campaigns as it happens, and more.
If you’re using MonsterInsights, then you can quickly see the real-time reports inside your WordPress dashboard. You just need to go to Insights » Reports in your admin panel, and then just click on the ‘Realtime’ tab.
The plugin brings important data from Google Analytics and displays them in easy-to-understand reports. This way, you can quickly see data that matters for your business and check how your site performs.
The acquisition report is part of GA4’s ‘Life cycle’ reports, and you’ll see where your visitors are coming from. It shows the channels that are driving traffic to your website.
For example, you can see whether people use search engines like Google and Bing, directly typing in your website URL in the browser, clicking on paid search ads, and more.
Using this report, you can figure out which channels to invest your resources in and get the maximum result. It also helps optimize your WordPress SEO and increase organic traffic to your website.
Engagement Report
The engagement report is a new report you’ll see in Google Analytics 4. It helps you track how many people are engaged with your website.
Under this report, you’ll find more sub-reports to track different events and conversions, as well as see your most important pages and app screens.
These reports are important in understanding how people use your website. For example, you can see which page is getting the most views. Using the data, you can create similar content to get more website traffic.
Monetization Report
If you run an eCommerce store, then you can view its performance in the Monetization report.
For instance, this report shows the total revenue, purchases, average purchase revenue per user, and other metrics.
You can also see the eCommerce purchases report to find out which products get the most sales in your store.
With MonsterInsights, you can easily see your top products inside your WordPress admin panel. Its eCommerce report shows an overview of your store’s performance along with the best-selling products.
Using this information, you can display your popular products throughout the website, upsell other products, and offer bundles and discounts to boost sales.
A retention report helps track how many new users visit your site compared to returning users.
You can use this data to bring back users to your site by getting them to sign up for your newsletter or follow you on social media. On the other hand, you can offer exclusive discounts or free resources like ebooks for returning visitors to get more conversions.
In the retention report, you can also see graphs for user engagement and user retention over time, lifetime value, and more.
Demographics Report
Under the User section of GA4, you will find your demographics data, where you can see which country your visitors are coming from.
This helps create geolocation marketing campaigns and personalized messages for users from different locations. For example, you can offer exclusive discounts for people coming from Singapore or come up with blog topics for users from India.
It even breaks down the language your users speak, so you can translate your website into the most popular languages.
With MonsterInsights, you can also view this data inside your WordPress dashboard. Plus, it also shows a device breakdown, top referrals, top countries, and new vs. returning visitors reports.
Tech Report
The last report you’ll see in Google Analytics 4 is the Tech report. It shows the device your visitors use to view your website, such as whether they are on desktop, mobile, or tablet.
Besides that, you can also see the operating system, browser, screen resolution, and app version people are using when visiting your site.
This report is especially useful when optimizing your site for multiple devices. You can provide a better user experience and ensure that people can easily read your content on any device.
