Tag: tutorials

  • Put Your Forms On The Map with New Forminator Geolocation Add-On

    Our formtastic team’s done it again! Forminator’s new Geolocation Add-on with Google Maps API integration lets you effortlessly gather geolocation data from your form submissions and provide address auto-completion for a smoother user experience.

    Forminator map with geolocation feature.
    See where form users are located with Forminator’s new geolocation feature.

    After releasing the highly anticipated PDF Generator Add-on, we’re proud to announce another powerful addition to our form-building plugin…Geolocation add-on!

    If your business needs to collect location information from users, Forminator Pro with Geolocation Add-on is the only form-building plugin you’ll need.

    In this post, we’ll look at:

    Key Benefits of Using Forminator’s Geolocation Add-on

    With Forminator’s Geolocation Add-on enabled, you can enhance forms on your site in the following ways:

    Accurate Location Detection

    Forminator can precisely pinpoint the user’s location by harnessing the device’s GPS or IP address.

    This information is seamlessly integrated into your forms, giving you real-time access to where your users are located.

    Moreover, the Geolocation feature includes a convenient address lookup function, allowing users to search for and select their location using postal addresses, city names, or zip codes.

    Forminator form submission
    See the user’s location in your form submissions.

    Interactive Map View

    One of the standout aspects of the Geolocation feature is its map view. Not only can users see their location on a map but also interact with it.

    Users have the option to manually input their location or select it directly from a map marker. This dynamic map view enhances user engagement and makes it easy for users to provide accurate location details.

    Customization Options

    Forminator’s Geolocation offers a range of customization options to suit your needs. You can configure the display of Google Maps next to your address field, choose whether to position the map above or below the address field, and even adjust the map’s size, ensuring a responsive or custom fit for various devices.

    Additionally, you have the flexibility to set a default map location based on specific latitude and longitude coordinates.

    Geolocation Map Customization
    You can easily customize your map’s geolocation options.

    Seamless Integration

    To utilize the Geolocation feature, simply enter your Google Maps API key in the Geolocation settings, ensuring a seamless and reliable experience for your users.

    Global Settings

    For ease of use across all your forms, you can enable Geolocation as a default setting on all address fields throughout your site. This simplifies the process of collecting location information from your users.

    Forminator Geolocation Settings
    Enable Geolocation as a default setting on all new forms.

    User-Friendly Configuration

    If you require users to provide location access before submitting a form, the “Require access to users’ location” option can be enabled. Additionally, you can customize the error message displayed if users choose not to provide location access.

    How To Use Forminator’s Geolocation Add-on

    To install and use the Geolocation Add-on, you’ll need to have Forminator Pro installed and activated on your site.

    Forminator Pro is included in all paid memberships, so if you’re not a WPMU DEV member yet, consider becoming one by choosing one of our risk-free membership plans.

    With Forminator Pro installed, go to the Add-Ons section of the plugin’s menu and click Install.

    Forminator Add-Ons screen: Geolocation Addon highlighted.
    Install Geolocation in the plugin’s Add-Ons screen.

    Once the plugin has been installed, click Configure.

    Formoinator Add-Ons - Geolocation - Configure button highlighted.
    You’ll need to configure the Add-On before you can use it.

    You’ll need to add a valid Google Maps API key to enable and set up geolocation on your forms. Refer to our Forminator Docs for instructions on obtaining this key if you need help with this step.

    Enter your key into the Google Maps API field, switch the toggle on to enable geolocation as the default option for all your new forms (optional), and click the Save button to continue.

    Configure Geolocation
    Enter your Google Maps API key.

    Once the API key has been validated and the configuration has been successfully saved, a confirmation message will display briefly on your screen letting you know that you’re all good to go.

    Note: You can access additional Geolocation configuration settings for individual forms (e.g. disabling geolocation or making it mandatory for users to provide their location details in order to submit a form) in the Forms > Edit Form > Settings section.

    Forminator Form Settings screen
    Configure additional Geolocation settings in the Form Settings section.

    With the addon configured, let’s go through an example of adding Geolocation field to a form.

    Adding Geolocation Fields To Forms

    In the Forms section, select a form or create a new form and select Edit > Fields.

    Forminator: Edit Form - Insert fields button.
    Click on the Insert fields button to add Geolocation to a form.

    Select the Address field and click the Insert Fields button.

    Forminator form fields selector
    Add an address field to your form.

    The Address field is highly customizable and includes a Geolocation tab with advanced options for configuring maps, such as:

    • Autocomplete: Provides real-time suggestions as users enter an address into the field.
    • Display address in Map: Displays a map next to the address fields
    • Map Position: Choose whether to display the map above or below (default) the address field.
    • Map Size: Set a responsive or custom size for your map.
    • Default Map Location: Set a default of custom location for your map.
    Forminator Address field settings - Geolocation options.
    Forminator Address field settings include advanced Geolocation options.

    Configure the above settings to suit your needs and to facilitate user interaction with your form maps and a great user experience.

    For example, enable autocomplete to display matching locations as users start typing and to fill in the address fields automatically when an address is selected from the options displayed.

    Forminator geolocation - autocomplete fields
    Enable autocomplete for a smoother and more interactive user experience with form maps.

    Once the browser loads the form page, it will prompt users to give access to their location. Allowing this access will then show the user’s current location on the map and auto complete the address fields.

    Forminator form with map
    Enabling autocomplete also prefills all address details on the form.

    By simply clicking on different points on the map, users can also change their location and update address fields.

    Clicking on different points on the map changes the address on the form fields.

    All form information including the user’s geolocation details and a map will also display on Forminator’s submission page.

    Forminator submission page with example of form submission.
    An example of a Forminator form submission showing a map with the user’s location and coordinates.

    It’s All About Geolocation, Geolocation, Geolocation

    Forminator’s new Geolocation feature empowers you to collect and leverage location information from your form users, gain valuable insights into your audience, whether they are customers, employees, or suppliers, and make more informed business decisions.

    Check out this feature in Forminator Pro and if you need any help, see our documentation or contact our expert 24/7 support team.

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  • How to Properly Configure Your WordPress Email Settings

    Are you wondering how to configure your WordPress email settings?

    The default WordPress email settings are not always reliable and can lead to many sending errors and email delivery problems. This means that you and your customers may not receive emails sent from your WordPress website.

    In this article, we will show you how to properly configure your WordPress email settings.

    Properly configure your WordPress email settings

    Why Do WordPress Email Settings Not Work Properly?

    The default email settings on your WordPress website use the PHP mail () function to send emails about form submissions, account activation, and more.

    However, your website may experience email delivery problems if your hosting provider’s mail server is not properly configured. Plus, many popular email services like Gmail can flag these messages as spam.

    This means that when an email is sent from your website to your user, it may end up in the spam folder of their email account, or it may never reach their inbox at all.

    Luckily, you can get past this problem by properly configuring your WordPress email settings. To do this, you will need to use an SMTP service or plugin.

    What Is SMTP, And How Can It Fix Email Settings in WordPress?

    SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is a standard protocol for mail transmission. Unlike the PHP mail () function, SMTP uses proper authentication to send and receive email messages.

    By using an SMTP service on your website, you can get high deliverability rates, avoid the spam folder, and make sure that your emails reach the user’s inbox immediately.

    To properly configure your WordPress email settings, you will need to use a popular SMTP service provider like SendLayer, Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), or SMTP.com. These service providers are easy to use and allow you to safely send emails from your WordPress site.

    Once you have chosen a service provider, you will have to connect your WordPress website to your mail server.

    This is where the WP Mail SMTP plugin comes in.

    It is the best WordPress SMTP plugin on the market that allows you to send emails via SMTP. It comes with powerful features like email logs, email controls, priority support, and more.

    The premium version of the plugin can even integrate with popular SMTP service providers like SendLayer and Brevo and any WordPress hosting company that offers email accounts.

    Having said that, let’s see how to properly configure your WordPress email settings.

    How to Properly Configure Your WordPress Email Settings

    It is super easy to configure your WordPress email settings using the WP Mail SMTP plugin and an SMTP service provider.

    For this tutorial, we will be using SendLayer, which is the best SMTP service provider on the market.

    Step 1: Create an Account with SendLayer

    First, you need to visit the SendLayer website and click the ‘Get Started With SendLayer’ button.

    Click Get Started with SendLayer button

    This will take you to the Pricing page, where you can select a plan that suits your needs.

    However, if you don’t want to buy SendLayer yet, then you can click on the ‘Try our SendLayer free trial (send up to 200 emails)’ link at the bottom.

    Click on the link to start free SendLayer trial

    This will take you to the ‘Checkout’ page, where you will have to provide your email account, password, and payment details.

    Once your account sign-up has been created, just click the ‘Continue to Dashboard’ button.

    Click Continue to dashboard button

    Step 2: Add Your Domain For Authorization

    Next, you will need to authorize your domain name to allow email servers to recognize you as a verified sender.

    This means that the email sent from your account after authorization won’t end up in the spam folder of your users.

    To do this, click the ‘Add Domain’ button in the top right corner of the screen.

    Click Add Domain button

    This will open up a new page on your screen where you need to type your website domain name into the field.

    Once you’ve done that, just click the ‘Add Domain’ button.

    Add your domain name to connect it with SendLayer

    SendLayer will now automatically generate five types of DNS records for your domain.

    Now, you have to copy and paste these records into your website’s DNS settings one by one.

    To find these DNS settings, you must go to the WordPress hosting account dashboard for your website. The exact location of the DNS settings will depend on your hosting provider, but SendLayer provides some documentation to help you out.

    Add DNS records

    Upon adding all of the DNS records in your hosting dashboard, simply check the ‘I have added these DNS records and am ready to proceed’ box at the bottom of the SendLayer page.

    After that, click the ‘Verify DNS Records’ button to continue.

    Click the Verify DNS Records button

    Keep in mind that it can take up to 48 hours for the DNS record changes to take effect.

    To check your domain authorization status, head over to your SendLayer dashboard and click the ‘Settings’ tab in the left column.

    Once you are on the Settings page, switch to the ‘DNS Records & Settings’ tab from the top.

    If your DNS settings have been verified, you will now see a green symbol in the Status column for each type of DNS record.

    Check DNS records status

    Step 3: Copy the SendLayer API Key

    Now that you have authorized your domain name, it’s time for you to copy the API key for your SendLayer account. This API key will allow you to connect the SMTP service with your WordPress website.

    To do this, click on the ‘Settings’ tab in the left column of your SendLayer dashboard. Next, switch to the ‘API Keys’ tab from the top of the page.

    Once you are there, click the ‘Show API Key’ link and then copy the key into your clipboard.

    Copy the SendLayer API key

    Step 4: Set Up the WP Mail SMTP Plugin on Your WordPress Website

    Once you have created a SendLayer account and copied the API key, head over to your WordPress website’s dashboard.

    Next, you need to install and activate the WP Mail SMTP plugin. For detailed instructions, you may want to see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Note: Keep in mind that you will need the pro version of the WP Mail SMTP plugin to connect it with your SendLayer account.

    Upon activation, you need to head over to the WP Mail SMTP » Settings page from the WordPress admin sidebar.

    Once you are there, add the license key for your plugin next to the ‘License Key’ option. You can find this information on your account page on the WP Mail SMTP website.

    Type your WP Mail SMTP license key into the field

    After that, scroll down to the ‘From Email’ section and add the admin email that you want to use to send emails to your users.

    If you want the From Email to be the same across your entire site, then simply check the ‘Force From Email’ box.

    After that, type the name that you want to use to send emails next to the ‘From Name’ field.

    For example, if you have an online store, then you can use your store’s name in this field. This way, users will immediately know who is sending them a message.

    For detailed instructions, you may want to see our tutorial on how to set up WP Mail SMTP with any host.

    Add from email and from name into the fields

    After that, scroll down to the ‘Mailer’ section and choose the SMTP service that you want to connect with your WordPress site.

    For this tutorial, we will be choosing the ‘SendLayer’ option.

    Choose SendLayer as the mailer

    Once you do that, a new ‘SendLayer’ tab will open up on the screen.

    Here, you have to paste the API key that you copied earlier from the SendLayer dashboard. If you were unable to copy the key before, then you can just click the ‘Get API Key’ link to be directed back to your SendLayer account.

    Add the SendLayer API key

    Once you are done, simply click the ‘Save Settings’ button to store your changes.

    You have now successfully connected WP Mail SMTP with SendLayer.

    Step 5: Send a Test Email

    To check if your SMTP service provider and the plugin are working properly, you can easily send a test email.

    To do this, switch to the ‘Email Test’ tab from the top of the WP Mail SMTP settings page.

    Once you are there, simply add an email account that you have access to in the ‘Send To’ field. After that, go ahead and click the ‘Send Email’ button.

    Send test email

    Once the email has been sent, you will see a success message on your screen.

    Next, check the inbox for that email address where you will see the test email that you just sent.

    Test email preview

    WP Mail SMTP and SendLayer will now eliminate your email deliverability problems by making sure that your emails are sent to your users’ inboxes and don’t end up in the spam folder.

    Next Steps: How to Grow Your Email List

    Now that you have properly configured your WordPress email settings, it’s time for you to start growing your email list.

    Building an email list is extremely important as email marketing is a cost-effective way to bring back your customers and increase conversions.

    To do this, you can create popups using OptinMonster that will be displayed on your website as targeted email signup forms.

    Similarly, you can also build a lead magnet page, create an email newsletter, or offer content upgrades. For more detailed tips, you may want to see our beginner’s guide on tested and easy ways to build your email list.

    You can also host giveaway contests using RafflePress which is the best giveaway plugin on the market.

    This way, users that are interested will have to sign up on your website to enter the giveaway which will help build your email list. For details, you may want to see our tutorial on how to run a successful giveaway/contest in WordPress.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to properly configure your WordPress email settings. You may also want to see our tutorial on how to use a free SMTP server to send WordPress emails and our expert picks for the best email marketing services for small businesses.

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post How to Properly Configure Your WordPress Email Settings first appeared on WPBeginner.

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  • How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death (Step by Step)

    The WordPress white screen of death is one of the most common WordPress errors. It is also a frustrating error because there is no message, and you are locked out of WordPress.

    Another problem with the white screen of death error is that sometimes, it only affects a certain part of your website. For example, you may only see the white screen of death inside the WordPress admin area, while everything else works fine. In other cases, you might only see it on a specific post.

    In this article, we will show you how to fix the WordPress white screen of death by looking at different solutions.

    How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death (Step by Step)

    Note: Before you make any changes to your site, make sure you have a backup of your WordPress site. If you don’t have access to the admin area, then see our guide on how to manually create a WordPress database backup.

    Why Do You See the White Screen of Death in WordPress?

    The majority of the time, when you see a white screen of death when trying to visit your WordPress website, it means that a script on your website exhausted the memory limit.

    The unresponsive script either gets killed by your WordPress hosting server or simply times out. This is why no actual error message is generated, and you just see a plain white screen.

    WordPress showing white screen instead of website

    However, sometimes, you may see an error message.

    For example, you might see a critical error message instead of a plain white screen.

    Critical error in WordPress

    Whether you are seeing a blank screen or the message ‘There has been a critical error on your website’, it’s the same error.

    This error can also happen due to a poorly coded theme or plugin installed on your site. Sometimes, it can happen if there is an issue with your web hosting server.

    Since the white screen error can be caused by any number of things, it requires methodical troubleshooting to fix it. Here are the steps you should try:

    Video Tutorial

    If you’d prefer written instructions, then just keep reading.

    1. Check Whether the Problem Happens on Your Other Sites

    If you have other WordPress sites installed on the same hosting account, then you want to start by checking if the problem is happening on other sites as well.

    If it is, then that’s a strong indicator that something is wrong with your WordPress hosting service. This could be a temporary issue affecting their service, and you need to reach out to their support for more help.

    On the other hand, if the issue is only happening with one website or a specific part of that site, then you know that the problem is with that particular website.

    2. Fix the White Screen Error With WordPress Recovery Mode

    If the white screen of death error is caused by a WordPress plugin or theme, then WordPress may be able to catch it.

    The new fatal error protection feature introduced in WordPress 5.2 can sometimes catch the error, so you may not even see a white screen. Instead, you will see a message that the site is having technical difficulties.

    This Site Is Experiencing Technical Difficulties Error Message

    WordPress will also send an email about the problem to your admin email address.

    The email will have the subject ‘Your Site is Experiencing a Technical Issue’.

    Technical Difficulties Email With Link to Recovery Mode

    This email message will point out the plugin or theme causing the error, and it will also contain a special link.

    This link will allow you to log in to the WordPress recovery mode and deactivate the faulty plugin.

    WordPress recovery mode dashboard

    However, if you are seeing the plain white screen of death with no email or recovery mode option, then you need to manually fix the error.

    3. Increase the Memory Limit

    Usually, this error happens because a script has exhausted your web server’s memory and quit in the middle.

    To fix this, you need to increase the PHP memory available to WordPress. This will allow the script to use more memory to finish the job it was supposed to do.

    You will need to edit the wp-config.php file on your WordPress site or use a code snippet plugin like WPCode

    You can follow the instructions in our tutorial on how to increase PHP memory in WordPress.

    4. Fix the White Screen Error by Disabling All Plugins

    If increasing the memory limit did not help, or if you have a high memory limit, like 256M or 512M, then you need to start troubleshooting.

    In our experience of troubleshooting this issue, we have always found that the issue is either with a specific plugin or a theme. Let’s go ahead and disable all the plugins.

    If you can still access the WordPress admin area, then you can simply go to the Plugins » Installed Plugins page. Select all the installed plugins and then select ‘Deactivate’ under the ‘Bulk actions’ dropdown.

    Deactivate all WordPress plugins

    However, if you don’t have access to the WordPress admin area, then you will need to deactivate all plugins via FTP.

    First, connect to your WordPress site using an FTP client. Once connected, go to the wp-content folder, where you will see the plugins folder.

    Now, you need to right-click on the plugins folder and then select ‘Rename’. You can rename the plugins folder to ‘plugins-deactivated’.

    Using FTP to Rename the Plugins Folder

    WordPress looks for a folder named plugins to load all plugins. When it cannot find the folder, it simply deactivates all plugins.

    If this fixes the issue, then enable one plugin at a time to get to the bottom of the issue. Once you find the plugin causing the issue, you can replace it with an alternative or report the issue to plugin authors.

    5. Activate the Default Theme

    If the plugin troubleshooting doesn’t fix the issue, then you should try replacing your current theme with a default theme.

    First, connect to your website using an FTP client and go to the /wp-content/themes/ folder. It contains all installed themes on your website.

    Right-click to select your current WordPress theme and download it to your computer as a backup.

    Using FTP to Download the Current Theme as a Backup

    Next, you need to delete your current theme from your website.

    Simply right-click on your theme folder and select ‘Delete’. Your FTP client will now delete the theme from your website.

    Using FTP to Delete the Current Theme

    Now, if you have a default WordPress theme like (Twenty Twenty-Two or Twenty Twenty-Three) installed on your website, then WordPress will automatically start using it as the default theme.

    However, if you don’t have a default theme installed, then you need to manually install it using FTP.

    If this fixes the issue, then you should look at your theme’s functions.php file. If there are extra spaces at the bottom of the file, then you need to remove those, and sometimes that fixes the issue.

    If you are using a poorly coded function in your theme’s functions.php file, then it can cause the white screen of death error as well.

    Consider downloading a fresh copy of your theme from its source and then installing it manually using FTP.

    6. Enable Debug Mode to Catch Errors in WordPress

    If nothing has helped so far, then the next step is to turn on debugging in WordPress. This will allow you to see what type of errors are being outputted.

    Simply add the following code to your wp-config.php file:

    define( 'WP_DEBUG', true);
    define( 'WP_DEBUG_LOG', true );
    

    Once you add this, the blank screen will now have errors, warnings, and notices. These may be able to help you determine the root cause.

    If you don’t see any errors, then you may still want to check the debug log.

    Simply visit the wp-content folder on your website using an FTP client. There, you will find a new debug.log file containing a log of all errors, notices, and warnings.

    Debug log

    7. Clear the WordPress Cache

    Sometimes, you may have access to the backend, but the front end of the site has the white screen of death.

    This can happen because of a caching plugin. In that case, you simply need to empty your WordPress cache.

    You can see our guide on how to clear the cache in WordPress for detailed instructions.

    8. Fix the White Screen Error for Longer Articles

    If you have a white screen of death only on a very long post or page, then this method might work.

    This trick basically increases PHP’s text processing capability by increasing the recursion and backtrack limit. You can paste the following code into your wp-config.php file:

    /** Trick for long posts */
    ini_set('pcre.recursion_limit',20000000);
    ini_set('pcre.backtrack_limit',10000000);
    

    We understand that this is a very frustrating error, and we hope that one of the tricks above has fixed the issue for you.

    You may also want to see our WordPress troubleshooting guide, which teaches the steps you should take to catch and fix WordPress problems by yourself, or our expert pick of the best WordPress managed hosting providers.

    If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

    The post How to Fix the WordPress White Screen of Death (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

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  • How to Add a Shipping Calculator to Your WordPress Site

    Do you want your visitors to easily calculate the cost of shipping on your website?

    Using a shipping calculator, customers can accurately estimate the total cost of a product they’ll have to pay with delivery. It helps keep your business transparent and builds trust with potential customers.

    In this article, we will show you how to add a shipping calculator to your WordPress site.

    How to add a shipping calculator to your WordPress site

    What is a Shipping Calculator & Why Use It?

    A shipping calculator helps estimate the total cost of shipping automatically. It shows delivery charges and other relevant fees to customers, so they don’t have to manually figure out shipping rates and expenses.

    There are different factors that come into play when calculating shipping costs. Some of these include the price of the product, destination, origin of a shipment, weight, dimensions, type of shipping service, and other variables during the calculation.

    Manually calculating shipping costs can be time-consuming if there are multiple orders on your online store. Plus, the manual calculation would also lead to mistakes, which can impact customer satisfaction.

    You’ll save a lot of time and simply automate the process by using a shipping calculator plugin for your WordPress site or WooCommerce site.

    Customers can simply select their location and see what the product will actually cost after delivery. This helps strengthen your relationship with your customers and builds trust.

    That said, let’s see how you can easily add a shipping calculator to your WordPress site. We’ll also show a way of adding it to your WooCommerce store.

    You can click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:

    Adding a Shipping Calculator to WooCommerce

    The best way to add a shipping calculator in WooCommerce is by using the Product page shipping calculator for WooCommerce plugin. It is a free plugin that allows customers to calculate the cost of shipping before adding a product to the cart.

    First, you’ll need to download and install the Product page shipping calculator for the WooCommerce plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Upon activation, you can go to WooCommerce » Shipping Calculator to configure the plugin.

    Configure shipping calculator settings

    The plugin works out of the box, and you can use default settings to get started. However, there are options to edit them and customize your shipping calculator.

    It’s important to note that the plugin will use the information from the shipping zone settings in WooCommerce when calculating shipping fees.

    Setting Up Shipping Zones in WooCommerce

    If you haven’t set up shipping zones, then you will need to go to WooCommerce » Settings from your WordPress dashboard and switch to the ‘Shipping’ tab.

    Add a shipping zone

    Under the Shipping zones section, simply click the ‘Add shipping zone’ button.

    Next, you’ll need to enter a zone name and select regions from the dropdown menu. You can add multiple countries or cities under a single zone.

    Enter shipping zone details

    After that, you can click the ‘Add shipping method’ button.

    A popup window will now open.

    WooCommerce offers 3 shipping methods to choose from. You can select a ‘Flat rate’ and then enter an amount that will be charged for shipping. Or you can choose ‘Free shipping’ and ‘Local pickup’ options.

    Select a shipping method

    When you’re done, simply click the ‘Add shipping method’ button.

    You can add multiple shipping methods for the zone and set up conditions when they’ll apply.

    Next, you’ll need to click the ‘Edit’ option under your shipping methods.

    Edit shipping method

    After that, a small window will open where you can change the title of the method, select whether you’d like the shipping method to be taxable or not, and enter a cost.

    For costs, you can enter a flat rate that will be charged when a customer adds a product to a cart. There is also an option to multiply the shipping cost by the quantity.

    Enter details of shipping method

    Once you’re done, click the ‘Save changes’ button.

    You can now head back to the shipping zone section to view your zones, regions, and shipping methods.

    View shipping zone details

    Edit Shipping Calculator Settings

    After setting up shipping zones, you can head back to WooCommerce » Shipping Calculator to change the settings of the Product page shipping calculator for the WooCommerce plugin.

    In the Basic setting tab, you can edit the position of the calculator on the product page and the position of the calculator results.

    If you scroll down, you’ll see more settings. For instance, the plugin lets you edit the messages used in the plugin, auto-load the shipping method, and more.

    Save changes to shipping calculator

    When you’re done, simply click the ‘Save Changes’ button on the side or at the bottom of the page.

    Next, you can switch to the ‘Remove fields’ tab. Here, you’ll see options to remove any field from the shipping calculator.

    For instance, the plugin will show country, state, town/city, and postcode/zip fields by default. You can disable any of the fields that don’t match your shipping zones.

    Remove fields from shipping calculator

    After that, head to the ‘Design’ tab. The plugin gives you multiple options to edit the appearance of the shipping calculator.

    For example, you can change the background color and text color to show shipping methods. Or you can choose colors for the buttons that appear in the calculator.

    Edit design of shipping calculator

    Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Change’ button to store your settings.

    Next, you can visit your WooCommerce store to see the shipping calculator in action.

    In the screenshot below, customers will first need to select a delivery location and click the ‘Update Address’ button.

    Select your delivery location

    Once that’s done, the plugin will automatically calculate the shipping cost that you set up in the shipping zone section and will add it to the total cost.

    This way, customers will know the shipping charges they’ll have to pay in addition to the cost of the product.

    View shipping charges

    Adding a Shipping Calculator to WordPress Site

    If you don’t have a WooCommerce store and want to add a generic shipping calculator to your WordPress site, then you can use Formidable Forms.

    It is a popular contact form plugin for WordPress that lets you create advanced and complex forms. For instance, you can add a contact form, calculators, surveys, directories, and web applications using the plugin.

    For this tutorial, we will use the Formidable Forms Pro plan because it includes pricing fields and more customization options.

    First, you’ll need to install and activate the Formidable Forms Lite and Formidable Forms Pro plugins. The Lite plugin is free to use, and the premium plugin adds more advanced features to it.

    If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

    Upon activation, you’ll need to go to Formidable » Global Settings from the WordPress dashboard. From here, you can click the ‘Click to enter a license key manually’ link.

    The Formidable Forms license page

    Next, you’ll need to enter the license key and click the ‘Save License’ button.

    You can find the license key in your Formidable Forms account area.

    Enter Formidable Forms license key

    After that, you must go to Formidable » Forms to add a new form.

    Simply click the ‘+ Add New’ button at the top.

    Create a new form

    Next, Formidable Forms will show different templates to choose from. You can choose from multiple categories, like business operations, calculator, conversational forms, and more.

    Formidable Forms doesn’t offer a pre-built template for a shipping calculator. However, you can create one using a blank form template.

    Go ahead and select the ‘Blank Form’ template.

    Select formidable forms template

    On the next screen, you’ll need to enter a name for your form.

    There is also an option to insert the template into an application. However, you can leave this to the default setting for this tutorial.

    After entering the form name, click the ‘Create’ button.

    Enter a name for new form template

    Next, you’ll see the drag-and-drop form builder.

    You can simply drag any form field from the menu on the left and drop it on the template.

    Add form fields to blank form

    For instance, you can add form fields like name, email, phone number, and more to the template.

    To create a shipping calculator, you can scroll down to the Pricing Fields section on the left and add a ‘Product’ form field.

    Add a product form field

    Next, you can select the product form field and further customize it.

    For instance, we changed the label of the field and product type. Formidable Forms also lets you show products as checkboxes, dropdowns, radio buttons, single products, or user-defined.

    Edit product form field

    Besides that, you can add your products and their prices under the Product Options on the menu on the left.

    Now that you’ve added your products, the next step is to add your shipping regions and charges. To do that, you can again add a Product form field under the Pricing Fields section in the menu on the left.

    After that, you’ll need to edit its label and product type, and then enter each region individually and its shipping cost.

    Add shipping regions to form

    In the screenshot above, we changed the label to Shipping Regions and changed the Product Types to Checkboxes. From here, we added different shipping zones and their cost under the Product Options section.

    Once this is done, you’ll need to show a total for your shipping calculator. To do that, simply add the Total form field under the Pricing Fields section to the template.

    Add a total form field

    Next, you can select the Total form field and edit its label, add a description, and more.

    Formidable Forms also lets you add conditional logic to the form fields and show them based on user responses.

    Edit total form field

    After that, you can switch to the ‘Style’ tab from the top.

    Formidable Forms offers pre-built styles for your form. Simply select one or create a new style. For this tutorial, we will use the default Formidable Style.

    Select form style

    Next, you can also change form settings in Formidable Forms.

    Simply switch to the ‘Settings’ tab at the top. Here, you’ll find general settings for changing the form title, adding a description, and more.

    Change form settings in formidable

    There are also options for actions and notifications, form permissions, and scheduling your shipping calculator form.

    After you’ve configured the settings, save your changes. You’re now ready to embed your calculator anywhere on your site.

    To start, you can click the ‘Embed’ button in the form builder at the top. This will give you multiple options, like add the form to an existing page, create a new page, or insert manually.

    Embed your shipping calculator form

    For the sake of this tutorial, we will choose the ‘Create new page’ option.

    Next, you can enter a name for your new page and click the ‘Create page’ button.

    Enter a name for new page

    From here, you’ll see a preview of the shipping calculator form in the WordPress content editor.

    Go ahead and publish your page and visit your site to see the shipping calculator in action.

    Shipping calculator preview

    We hope this article helped you learn how to add a shipping calculator to your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to set up form tracking in Google Analytics and the best WooCommerce 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 Add a Shipping Calculator to Your WordPress Site first appeared on WPBeginner.

    Go to source

  • Meet Academic Standards With These Essential WordPress Plugins For Scholarly Content

    Do you manage a WordPress site for researchers, scholars, or educators? Use these plugins to easily add footnotes, citations, a table of contents, or a glossary to academic or research content.

    WordPress offers many plugins that make it easier for sites publishing academic content, scientific research, technology papers, or even instructional courses online to adhere to scholarly standards.

    In this guide, we’ll cover useful plugins that will help you establish authority, enhance credibility, provide additional context and information, improve user experience, and aid in knowledge dissemination.

    We’ll look at plugins for:

    Note: scholarly or technical content also often requires presenting data visually. See our WordPress data visualization plugins article for help with this.

    Let’s get right into it…

    Adding Footnotes in WordPress

    In addition to being an academic writing requirement, footnotes can be used for:

    • Clarification: Provide additional explanations, definitions, or background information on specific terms, concepts, or data mentioned on your website.
    • Source Attribution: Cite sources and give credit to external references, studies, or research to support the content you are presenting online.
    • Legal Compliance: Certain industries or topics may require you to provide proper attribution and references to comply with legal and ethical guidelines.

    For example, if you work in or run a technology company, you may want include footnotes in articles about your products to reference scientific studies or industry reports that support your product’s claims and features. Or, you may want to publish an excerpt of a book, ebook, or research that includes footnotes and reproduce these footnotes on your excerpt.

    WordPress Footnotes Plugins

    One of the most time-consuming aspects of academic writing is manually creating footnotes. Fortunately, WordPress offers plugins that automate this process, allowing you to focus more on your research and writing.

    The plugins below provide simple and intuitive interfaces for adding footnotes, and they will automatically format and number them correctly on your site:

    CM Footnotes

    CM Footnotes
    CM Footnotes

    With the CM Footnotes plugin installed, you can effortlessly add footnotes to any page or post on your WordPress site.

    CMFootnotes plugin - footnotes example.
    An example of a page with footnotes generated by the CM Footnotes plugin.

    The plugin has a user-friendly interface that allows you to add footnotes with just a few clicks. You can also customize the styles and designs of the footnotes and use a shortcode to place footnotes anywhere in your content, with unique link symbols for each definition.

    CM Footnotes
    CM Footnotes – General Settings tab.

    Additionally, you can enable autoscrolling from the footnote link to the definition at the bottom of the page.

    Modern Footnotes

    Modern Footnotes
    Modern Footnotes

    Modern Footnotes is another plugin that lets you easily insert footnotes into your posts. The plugin offers two methods of displaying footnotes: tooltips and expandable footnotes.

    On desktop, footnotes will appear as a tooltip when the user clicks on the number, while on mobile, footnotes will expand as a section below the current text.

    Modern Footnotes plugin - example of footnotes
    With Modern Footnotes, you can display footnotes differently for desktop and mobile users.

    You can also customize the styles of your footnotes by overriding the default footnotes styles in the custom CSS of your site.

    Modern Footnotes
    Modern Footnotes Settings screen.

    This plugin makes adding footnotes to your content straightforward and is compatible with Gutenberg/block editor as well. You can easily insert footnotes using a simple shortcode or the Gutenberg block. Sequential numbers are automatically associated with each footnote.

    Easy Footnotes

    Easy Footnotes
    Easy Footnotes

    The Easy Footnotes plugin lets you add footnotes into your website’s content without requiring any coding skills.

    Clicking on the footnote label will take the user down the page to the corresponding footnote at the bottom of the WordPress post. Each footnote at the bottom of the post has a icon that can be clicked to return to that particular footnote within the post copy.

    Easy Footnotes example
    Add footnotes with tooltips.

    The plugin has very minimal settings and is quite easy for any beginner to use.

    Easy Footnotes
    Easy Footnotes settings panel.

    You can set a custom footnote label and can even display footnotes on the front/home page of your site. Footnotes are inserted using a shortcode.

    Blank Footnotes

    Blank Footnotes
    Blank Footnotes

    Blank Footnotes lets you create footnotes using markdown notation.

    It’s important to note that only footnotes are recognized with this plugin, and no other markdown tags will be taken into account.

    To add footnotes, simply add a shortcode to your content and customize the styles and designs to fit your preferences.

    The footnotes will appear in the exact location where you’ve inserted them, and users can easily navigate back to the text mode by clicking on the footnote number.

    Blank Footnotes
    Enter reference numbers in the popup to create footnotes.

    This plugin is compatible with the Gutenberg editor as well as the Classic Editor and doesn’t require any additional configuration, but it’s recommended to use a caching plugin (e.g. Hummingbird) to improve the overall site speed and performance.

    Footnotes Made Easy

    Footnotes Made Easy
    Footnotes Made Easy

    With Footnotes Made Easy, you can add footnotes to posts and pages and restrict displaying footnotes on specific page types.

    The plugin is very user-friendly and a footnote can be added just by inserting double parentheses within a sentence. The inserted footnotes are displayed at the bottom of the page or post.

    Footnotes Made Easy - footnotes example.
    Add footnotes and tooltips easily to content with Footnotes Made Easy.

    Footnotes can also be displayed in the form of tooltips using jQuery. The plugin has many configurations that make it easy to customize the footnotes according to your needs from the WordPress admin panel.

    Footnotes Made Easy
    Footnotes Made Easy settings panel.

    Generally, inserting footnotes in paginated posts is quite hard. But this plugin makes it easy. But this plugin makes it easy. You can start the footnotes numbering at any number using a tag. And referencing an already-added footnote is quite simple as well.

    You can also combine several identical footnotes into one single note.

    Adding Citations in WordPress

    Citations are used by content publishers to give credit to the original sources of information, ideas, or content included in their work. Whether you’re quoting directly, paraphrasing, or summarizing, giving proper credit through citations is a fundamental aspect of responsible content creation.

    Citations can serve multiple purposes. For example:

    • Academic and Professional Standards: In academic and many professional settings, proper citation is required. It showcases the writer’s ability to engage with and contribute to the existing body of knowledge.
    • Credibility: Citations add credibility by showing that the writer has conducted research to present content based on reliable and reputable sources of information.
    • Ethical Use: Properly citing sources is an ethical practice that shows respect for the intellectual property of others. It shows readers that your site values and honors the work of other researchers, writers, and creators.
    • Transparency: Citations allow your readers to verify the accuracy and authenticity of your information and delve deeper into subjects they are interested in.
    • Avoiding Plagiarism: Plagiarism, which is using someone else’s work without proper attribution, can have serious consequences. Citations help to avoid accidentally using someone else’s work without permission.

    Citations can also be used in a variety of business applications. For example, a financial consulting firm may write a blog post on their website about investment strategies and include citations from well-known economists, financial institutions, or academic research to support their recommendations.

    Citations typically include information such as the author’s name, the title of the work, the publication date, and relevant publication details like the name of the book, journal, or website.

    Also, the format of the citation can vary depending on the style being used (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago), so it’s important to be consistent and follow the guidelines of the chosen style.

    WordPress Citations Plugins

    Maintaining accurate and consistent citations is essential for academic writing. However, manually managing citations can be a tedious and error-prone task.

    The WordPress plugins listed below offer solutions that simplify the process of adding and managing citations, allowing you to import bibliographic information from various sources, automatically format citations according to different citation styles (such as APA or MLA), and even generate bibliographies or reference lists with just a few clicks:

    Zotpress

    Zotpress
    Zotpress

    Zotpress lets you add in-text citations and display bibliographies and searchable libraries from Zotero, a free cross-platform reference manager that lets you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research with others online.

    Zotpress example
    Zotpress lets you display items from Zotero libraries on your WordPress site.

    Zotpress offers different styling options and you can select the style of your choosing. The plugin also provides a widget you can insert in any page or post type. Thumbnail images from the media library and open library are also supported.

    Citations can be easily inserted into content by simply pasting the shortcode generated. The plugin lets you search for items using the autocomplete search bar. Visitors can browse your citation library by collection or tag and download citations from your pages/posts.

    You can also customize citations and other items using custom CSS in the plugin’s Options screen.

    Zotpress
    Zotpress Options screen

    WP-BibTeX

    WP-BibTeX
    WP-BibTeX

    With WP-BibTeX, you can easily generate a bibliography-style text for your publications by inputting all the relevant details through a shortcode.

    WP-BibTeX example
    WP-BibTeX output preview.

    Additionally, you also have the option to customize the links displayed on the page for every citation, including the ability to add a new link for downloading code.

    Using the new “highlighted” format, the plugin lets you create an item with a featured image on the left. And by adding the overlay attribute to the shortcode you can create overlaid media like a GIF or video that appears when the mouse hovers over the item.

    Bibtex
    Bibtex Opyions screen

    The plugin supports BibTeX entry types such as articles, books, inproceedings, mastersthesis, phdthesis, and unpublished.

    Adding A Glossary in WordPress

    A glossary can be valuable for sites publishing content with technical or industry-specific terminology. A glossary can help to define, clarify, and explain specialized terms or jargon used within the business’s industry and improve user experience by providing definitions within the site’s content itself, so users won’t need to leave the page or site to conduct separate searches.

    An example of a site that could benefit from using a glossary would be a healthcare website focused on medical conditions. Including a glossary section to explain medical terms, symptoms, and treatment options would help site users to better understand complex medical information.

    WordPress Glossary Plugins

    Here are some useful plugins for adding and managing a glossary in WordPress:

    Glossary

    Glossary for WordPress
    Glossary

    Glossary for WordPress automatically generates word lists and styled tooltips using the content provided. The generated terms and definitions are grouped in a glossary or dictionary section and are linked automatically to corresponding words within posts and pages.

    Glossary
    Glossary automatically links every instance of a term (or set of terms) to a predefined list of definitions.

    The plugin is compatible with both the classic WordPress editor and the Gutenberg editor. The free version of the plugin offers a range of features, including automatic linking of every instance of a term to a predefined list of definitions.

    You can group terms by category and create vertical archives of terms through shortcodes.

    The plugin also allows you to activate its features in specific pages, archives, taxonomies, and custom post types, among other options.

    You can apply a highlight or a tooltip on hover to linked terms, style tooltips by choosing from three templates, and link terms to internal or external locations.

    Other features include the ability to add a dedicated icon to highlight external links and integration with Gutenberg blocks and ChatGPT.

    CM Tooltip Glossary

    CM Tooltip Glossary
    CM Tooltip Glossary

    CM Tooltip Glossary automatically identifies glossary terms in your posts or pages and then adds links to a dedicated glossary page, which contains the respective term’s definition.

    Hovering over the linked glossary term will display a tooltip containing the definition of the term.

    CM Tooltip Glossary
    Hover over linked terms to view glossary definitions as a tooltip.

    You can filter and limit the length of words displayed on the tooltip. Instead of displaying the glossary definition, excerpts can also be displayed on the tooltip.

    The plugin also generates a glossary index that contains a list of all of the terms used across your website along with their definitions for easy access. You can even control the location and area where the tooltip appears, as well as limit its length and appearance.

    In the free version, the glossary index is limited to a maximum of 500 terms.

    Encyclopedia Lite

    Encyclopedia Lite
    Encyclopedia Lite

    Encyclopedia Lite allows you to create and manage a knowledge base, dictionary, glossary, or wiki. It offers a range of features, including automatic indexing, unique URLs for every content, SEO-friendly URL structure, and the ability to classify items by tags and categories.

    You can also filter items by letter and cross-link them throughout your site.

    Encyclopedia Lite
    Encyclopedia Lite is more than glossary. It’s also a Wiki, Knowledgebase, and more!

    The plugin is compatible with various languages and content types, supports user rights and capabilities, has a clean and intuitive user interface and supports multimedia elements and shortcodes, and integrates with WordPress menus and RSS feeds.

    Additionally, it offers a search function, auto-complete and item suggestions, and widgets for displaying items, tags, and categories in your sidebar.

    WordPress Tooltips

    WordPress Tooltips
    WordPress Tooltips

    WordPress Tooltips is a powerful and easy-to-use jQuery tooltip solution that allows you to add text, images, videos, audio, and social links to tooltip boxes.

    You can add tooltips to post titles, content, excerpts, tags, archive, menu items, and gallery images.

    WordPress Tooltips
    WordPress Tooltips detects and adds tooltip effects on tooltip terms automatically.

    The plugin supports a glossary too. A glossary can be inserted with a simple shortcode and it has a dedicated glossary settings panel where you can configure various styles for your glossary.

    You can manage all the tooltip keywords and content from the WordPress admin panel.

    You do not need a tooltip shortcode as the plugin will detect and add tooltip effects on tooltip terms automatically. The plugin is also compatible with most of the gallery and slideshow plugins as well.

    Adding a Table of Contents in WordPress

    Long academic articles can sometimes overwhelm readers, making it difficult for them to find the information they need.

    A table of contents (ToC) provides a concise overview of your content’s structure and allows readers to jump to the sections that most interest them. By incorporating a table of contents in lengthy articles, guides, comprehensive user manuals, or technical documentation, you enable readers to navigate through your content more easily and improve readability, comprehension, understanding, and engagement.

    WordPress Table of Contents (ToC) Plugins

    The WordPress plugins below will automatically scan your content and generate an organized table of contents based on your headings and add anchor links that allow readers to jump directly to specific sections, eliminating the need for manual updates and enabling your readers to navigate through your content more easily:

    Joli Table Of Contents

    Joli Table Of Contents
    Joli Table Of Contents

    Joli ToC is a performance-friendly, user-friendly plugin that runs incredibly fast without relying on jQuery or bloated code.  The ToC can be inserted using a block in the Gutenberg editor.

    It has plenty of customization options. You can hide or edit specific headings from the ToC. The plugin by default picks up headings generated by third-party shortcodes and blocks, this includes the headings that don’t appear in the editor but are available in the front end.

    Joli Table Of Contents
    Joli Table Of Contents

    The plugin offers two variants of toggle: a classic Text toggle and a modern Icon toggle to give your website a modern look.

    It also includes pre-defined CSS variables that can be used to override the plugin’s default styles to create unique styles.

    Easy Table of Contents

    Easy Table of Contents
    Easy Table of Contents

    Easy ToC automatically creates a table of contents for your posts, pages, and custom post types by scanning the page/post content for headings.

    It works with the Classic Editor and Gutenberg editor and is compatible with other popular page builders like Divi, Elementor, WPBakery Page Builder, and Visual Composer.

    Easy Table of Contents
    Easy Table of Contents

    You need to select the post types in which the table of contents should appear and the plugin will automatically insert the table of contents into the page.

    The plugin offers a variety of customization and multiple built-in ToC themes that you can choose. You can customize the appearance of the ToC either using the built-in themes and can create your own from scratch.

    You can also choose between several bullet formats, and hierarchies, and can even selectively enable or disable ToC on a post-by-post basis.

    If you prefer not to insert the table of contents in the post content, you can use the widget and place the table of contents in the sidebar of a page. The widget highlights the sections currently visible on the page.

    Table of Contents Plus

    Table of Contents Plus
    Table of Contents Plus

    Table of Contents Plus automatically creates a table of contents for long pages, posts, and custom post types.

    It not only inserts a ToC but also generates a sitemap that lists pages and/or categories across your entire website. By default, the table of contents block appears before the first heading on a page, enabling you to add a page summary or introduction.

    Table of Contents Plus
    Table of Contents Plus lets you add a page summary or introduction before inserting a ToC.

    You can customize settings such as display position, the minimum number of headings before an index is displayed, and other appearance options from the WordPress admin panel.

    It offers other advanced options to further tweak behavior, such as excluding undesired heading levels like h5 and h6 from being included, disabling the output of the included CSS file, adjusting the top offset, and more.

    Customizations can also be added to the shortcodes to override the default behavior, such as special exclusions on a specific page or to hide the table of contents block.

    This plugin is suitable for both beginners as well as advanced users.

    Simple ToC

    Simple ToC
    Simple ToC

    Simple ToC lets you easily insert a Table of Contents for your posts and pages by adding the SimpleToC block. The block provides a nested list of links to all the headings found in your post or page.

    You can also configure the maximum depth of the table of content in the blocks’ sidebar and customize it to your liking, and even add your own heading by using a normal heading block and hiding the default “Table of Contents” headline.

    Simple TOC
    Simple TOC

    This plugin works with the Gutenberg editor and requires zero configuration. It produces minimal HTML output and does not add any JavaScript or CSS unless you activate the accordion menu.

    You can style SimpleToC with Gutenberg’s native group styling options and it will inherit the style of your theme. You can also customize it with background and text color, choose between an ordered or bullet HTML list, and control the maximum depth of the headings.

    The plugin is also compatible with many popular plugins and themes, including AMP plugins.

    Publish Smarter, Not Harder

    If you publish scholarly research or educational content, incorporating footnotes, citations, indexes, table of contents, or glossaries will enhance credibility, improve user experience, provide access to valuable information faster, and help to establish your site as a reliable source of knowledge in your industry or field.

    Every website has its own unique design and branding, so it’s important that the footnotes, citations, glossaries, and tables of contents match the overall style of your website to ensure a cohesive and visually appealing presentation.

    The plugins listed above will allow you to transform your content into professionally structured and SEO-optimized articles and present information in your WordPress site in an organized and reader-friendly manner by automating the generation of footnotes, glossaries and tables of contents, simplifying citation management, and offering customizable styles to align with your website’s design.

    If you’re looking for a solid, fully managed, and expertly-supported platform to host sites and/or content for an educational institution, check out CampusPress. It’s the WordPress platform many of the world’s largest and well-known academic institutions choose to host their WordPress sites and blogs.

    CampusPress will not only manage all the technical aspects of hosting your site securely and reliably, they also include many pre-installed and useful plugins for higher education and schools.

    Go to source

  • Meet Academic Standards With These Essential WordPress Plugins For Scholarly Content

    Do you manage a WordPress site for researchers, scholars, or educators? Use these plugins to easily add footnotes, citations, a table of contents, or a glossary to academic or research content.

    WordPress offers many plugins that make it easier for sites publishing academic content, scientific research, technology papers, or even instructional courses online to adhere to scholarly standards.

    In this guide, we’ll cover useful plugins that will help you establish authority, enhance credibility, provide additional context and information, improve user experience, and aid in knowledge dissemination.

    We’ll look at plugins for:

    Note: scholarly or technical content also often requires presenting data visually. See our WordPress data visualization plugins article for help with this.

    Let’s get right into it…

    Adding Footnotes in WordPress

    In addition to being an academic writing requirement, footnotes can be used for:

    • Clarification: Provide additional explanations, definitions, or background information on specific terms, concepts, or data mentioned on your website.
    • Source Attribution: Cite sources and give credit to external references, studies, or research to support the content you are presenting online.
    • Legal Compliance: Certain industries or topics may require you to provide proper attribution and references to comply with legal and ethical guidelines.

    For example, if you work in or run a technology company, you may want include footnotes in articles about your products to reference scientific studies or industry reports that support your product’s claims and features. Or, you may want to publish an excerpt of a book, ebook, or research that includes footnotes and reproduce these footnotes on your excerpt.

    WordPress Footnotes Plugins

    One of the most time-consuming aspects of academic writing is manually creating footnotes. Fortunately, WordPress offers plugins that automate this process, allowing you to focus more on your research and writing.

    The plugins below provide simple and intuitive interfaces for adding footnotes, and they will automatically format and number them correctly on your site:

    CM Footnotes

    CM Footnotes
    CM Footnotes

    With the CM Footnotes plugin installed, you can effortlessly add footnotes to any page or post on your WordPress site.

    CMFootnotes plugin - footnotes example.
    An example of a page with footnotes generated by the CM Footnotes plugin.

    The plugin has a user-friendly interface that allows you to add footnotes with just a few clicks. You can also customize the styles and designs of the footnotes and use a shortcode to place footnotes anywhere in your content, with unique link symbols for each definition.

    CM Footnotes
    CM Footnotes – General Settings tab.

    Additionally, you can enable autoscrolling from the footnote link to the definition at the bottom of the page.

    Modern Footnotes

    Modern Footnotes
    Modern Footnotes

    Modern Footnotes is another plugin that lets you easily insert footnotes into your posts. The plugin offers two methods of displaying footnotes: tooltips and expandable footnotes.

    On desktop, footnotes will appear as a tooltip when the user clicks on the number, while on mobile, footnotes will expand as a section below the current text.

    Modern Footnotes plugin - example of footnotes
    With Modern Footnotes, you can display footnotes differently for desktop and mobile users.

    You can also customize the styles of your footnotes by overriding the default footnotes styles in the custom CSS of your site.

    Modern Footnotes
    Modern Footnotes Settings screen.

    This plugin makes adding footnotes to your content straightforward and is compatible with Gutenberg/block editor as well. You can easily insert footnotes using a simple shortcode or the Gutenberg block. Sequential numbers are automatically associated with each footnote.

    Easy Footnotes

    Easy Footnotes
    Easy Footnotes

    The Easy Footnotes plugin lets you add footnotes into your website’s content without requiring any coding skills.

    Clicking on the footnote label will take the user down the page to the corresponding footnote at the bottom of the WordPress post. Each footnote at the bottom of the post has a icon that can be clicked to return to that particular footnote within the post copy.

    Easy Footnotes example
    Add footnotes with tooltips.

    The plugin has very minimal settings and is quite easy for any beginner to use.

    Easy Footnotes
    Easy Footnotes settings panel.

    You can set a custom footnote label and can even display footnotes on the front/home page of your site. Footnotes are inserted using a shortcode.

    Blank Footnotes

    Blank Footnotes
    Blank Footnotes

    Blank Footnotes lets you create footnotes using markdown notation.

    It’s important to note that only footnotes are recognized with this plugin, and no other markdown tags will be taken into account.

    To add footnotes, simply add a shortcode to your content and customize the styles and designs to fit your preferences.

    The footnotes will appear in the exact location where you’ve inserted them, and users can easily navigate back to the text mode by clicking on the footnote number.

    Blank Footnotes
    Enter reference numbers in the popup to create footnotes.

    This plugin is compatible with the Gutenberg editor as well as the Classic Editor and doesn’t require any additional configuration, but it’s recommended to use a caching plugin (e.g. Hummingbird) to improve the overall site speed and performance.

    Footnotes Made Easy

    Footnotes Made Easy
    Footnotes Made Easy

    With Footnotes Made Easy, you can add footnotes to posts and pages and restrict displaying footnotes on specific page types.

    The plugin is very user-friendly and a footnote can be added just by inserting double parentheses within a sentence. The inserted footnotes are displayed at the bottom of the page or post.

    Footnotes Made Easy - footnotes example.
    Add footnotes and tooltips easily to content with Footnotes Made Easy.

    Footnotes can also be displayed in the form of tooltips using jQuery. The plugin has many configurations that make it easy to customize the footnotes according to your needs from the WordPress admin panel.

    Footnotes Made Easy
    Footnotes Made Easy settings panel.

    Generally, inserting footnotes in paginated posts is quite hard. But this plugin makes it easy. But this plugin makes it easy. You can start the footnotes numbering at any number using a tag. And referencing an already-added footnote is quite simple as well.

    You can also combine several identical footnotes into one single note.

    Adding Citations in WordPress

    Citations are used by content publishers to give credit to the original sources of information, ideas, or content included in their work. Whether you’re quoting directly, paraphrasing, or summarizing, giving proper credit through citations is a fundamental aspect of responsible content creation.

    Citations can serve multiple purposes. For example:

    • Academic and Professional Standards: In academic and many professional settings, proper citation is required. It showcases the writer’s ability to engage with and contribute to the existing body of knowledge.
    • Credibility: Citations add credibility by showing that the writer has conducted research to present content based on reliable and reputable sources of information.
    • Ethical Use: Properly citing sources is an ethical practice that shows respect for the intellectual property of others. It shows readers that your site values and honors the work of other researchers, writers, and creators.
    • Transparency: Citations allow your readers to verify the accuracy and authenticity of your information and delve deeper into subjects they are interested in.
    • Avoiding Plagiarism: Plagiarism, which is using someone else’s work without proper attribution, can have serious consequences. Citations help to avoid accidentally using someone else’s work without permission.

    Citations can also be used in a variety of business applications. For example, a financial consulting firm may write a blog post on their website about investment strategies and include citations from well-known economists, financial institutions, or academic research to support their recommendations.

    Citations typically include information such as the author’s name, the title of the work, the publication date, and relevant publication details like the name of the book, journal, or website.

    Also, the format of the citation can vary depending on the style being used (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago), so it’s important to be consistent and follow the guidelines of the chosen style.

    WordPress Citations Plugins

    Maintaining accurate and consistent citations is essential for academic writing. However, manually managing citations can be a tedious and error-prone task.

    The WordPress plugins listed below offer solutions that simplify the process of adding and managing citations, allowing you to import bibliographic information from various sources, automatically format citations according to different citation styles (such as APA or MLA), and even generate bibliographies or reference lists with just a few clicks:

    Zotpress

    Zotpress
    Zotpress

    Zotpress lets you add in-text citations and display bibliographies and searchable libraries from Zotero, a free cross-platform reference manager that lets you collect, organize, annotate, cite, and share research with others online.

    Zotpress example
    Zotpress lets you display items from Zotero libraries on your WordPress site.

    Zotpress offers different styling options and you can select the style of your choosing. The plugin also provides a widget you can insert in any page or post type. Thumbnail images from the media library and open library are also supported.

    Citations can be easily inserted into content by simply pasting the shortcode generated. The plugin lets you search for items using the autocomplete search bar. Visitors can browse your citation library by collection or tag and download citations from your pages/posts.

    You can also customize citations and other items using custom CSS in the plugin’s Options screen.

    Zotpress
    Zotpress Options screen

    WP-BibTeX

    WP-BibTeX
    WP-BibTeX

    With WP-BibTeX, you can easily generate a bibliography-style text for your publications by inputting all the relevant details through a shortcode.

    WP-BibTeX example
    WP-BibTeX output preview.

    Additionally, you also have the option to customize the links displayed on the page for every citation, including the ability to add a new link for downloading code.

    Using the new “highlighted” format, the plugin lets you create an item with a featured image on the left. And by adding the overlay attribute to the shortcode you can create overlaid media like a GIF or video that appears when the mouse hovers over the item.

    Bibtex
    Bibtex Opyions screen

    The plugin supports BibTeX entry types such as articles, books, inproceedings, mastersthesis, phdthesis, and unpublished.

    Adding A Glossary in WordPress

    A glossary can be valuable for sites publishing content with technical or industry-specific terminology. A glossary can help to define, clarify, and explain specialized terms or jargon used within the business’s industry and improve user experience by providing definitions within the site’s content itself, so users won’t need to leave the page or site to conduct separate searches.

    An example of a site that could benefit from using a glossary would be a healthcare website focused on medical conditions. Including a glossary section to explain medical terms, symptoms, and treatment options would help site users to better understand complex medical information.

    WordPress Glossary Plugins

    Here are some useful plugins for adding and managing a glossary in WordPress:

    Glossary

    Glossary for WordPress
    Glossary

    Glossary for WordPress automatically generates word lists and styled tooltips using the content provided. The generated terms and definitions are grouped in a glossary or dictionary section and are linked automatically to corresponding words within posts and pages.

    Glossary
    Glossary automatically links every instance of a term (or set of terms) to a predefined list of definitions.

    The plugin is compatible with both the classic WordPress editor and the Gutenberg editor. The free version of the plugin offers a range of features, including automatic linking of every instance of a term to a predefined list of definitions.

    You can group terms by category and create vertical archives of terms through shortcodes.

    The plugin also allows you to activate its features in specific pages, archives, taxonomies, and custom post types, among other options.

    You can apply a highlight or a tooltip on hover to linked terms, style tooltips by choosing from three templates, and link terms to internal or external locations.

    Other features include the ability to add a dedicated icon to highlight external links and integration with Gutenberg blocks and ChatGPT.

    CM Tooltip Glossary

    CM Tooltip Glossary
    CM Tooltip Glossary

    CM Tooltip Glossary automatically identifies glossary terms in your posts or pages and then adds links to a dedicated glossary page, which contains the respective term’s definition.

    Hovering over the linked glossary term will display a tooltip containing the definition of the term.

    CM Tooltip Glossary
    Hover over linked terms to view glossary definitions as a tooltip.

    You can filter and limit the length of words displayed on the tooltip. Instead of displaying the glossary definition, excerpts can also be displayed on the tooltip.

    The plugin also generates a glossary index that contains a list of all of the terms used across your website along with their definitions for easy access. You can even control the location and area where the tooltip appears, as well as limit its length and appearance.

    In the free version, the glossary index is limited to a maximum of 500 terms.

    Encyclopedia Lite

    Encyclopedia Lite
    Encyclopedia Lite

    Encyclopedia Lite allows you to create and manage a knowledge base, dictionary, glossary, or wiki. It offers a range of features, including automatic indexing, unique URLs for every content, SEO-friendly URL structure, and the ability to classify items by tags and categories.

    You can also filter items by letter and cross-link them throughout your site.

    Encyclopedia Lite
    Encyclopedia Lite is more than glossary. It’s also a Wiki, Knowledgebase, and more!

    The plugin is compatible with various languages and content types, supports user rights and capabilities, has a clean and intuitive user interface and supports multimedia elements and shortcodes, and integrates with WordPress menus and RSS feeds.

    Additionally, it offers a search function, auto-complete and item suggestions, and widgets for displaying items, tags, and categories in your sidebar.

    WordPress Tooltips

    WordPress Tooltips
    WordPress Tooltips

    WordPress Tooltips is a powerful and easy-to-use jQuery tooltip solution that allows you to add text, images, videos, audio, and social links to tooltip boxes.

    You can add tooltips to post titles, content, excerpts, tags, archive, menu items, and gallery images.

    WordPress Tooltips
    WordPress Tooltips detects and adds tooltip effects on tooltip terms automatically.

    The plugin supports a glossary too. A glossary can be inserted with a simple shortcode and it has a dedicated glossary settings panel where you can configure various styles for your glossary.

    You can manage all the tooltip keywords and content from the WordPress admin panel.

    You do not need a tooltip shortcode as the plugin will detect and add tooltip effects on tooltip terms automatically. The plugin is also compatible with most of the gallery and slideshow plugins as well.

    Adding a Table of Contents in WordPress

    Long academic articles can sometimes overwhelm readers, making it difficult for them to find the information they need.

    A table of contents (ToC) provides a concise overview of your content’s structure and allows readers to jump to the sections that most interest them. By incorporating a table of contents in lengthy articles, guides, comprehensive user manuals, or technical documentation, you enable readers to navigate through your content more easily and improve readability, comprehension, understanding, and engagement.

    WordPress Table of Contents (ToC) Plugins

    The WordPress plugins below will automatically scan your content and generate an organized table of contents based on your headings and add anchor links that allow readers to jump directly to specific sections, eliminating the need for manual updates and enabling your readers to navigate through your content more easily:

    Joli Table Of Contents

    Joli Table Of Contents
    Joli Table Of Contents

    Joli ToC is a performance-friendly, user-friendly plugin that runs incredibly fast without relying on jQuery or bloated code.  The ToC can be inserted using a block in the Gutenberg editor.

    It has plenty of customization options. You can hide or edit specific headings from the ToC. The plugin by default picks up headings generated by third-party shortcodes and blocks, this includes the headings that don’t appear in the editor but are available in the front end.

    Joli Table Of Contents
    Joli Table Of Contents

    The plugin offers two variants of toggle: a classic Text toggle and a modern Icon toggle to give your website a modern look.

    It also includes pre-defined CSS variables that can be used to override the plugin’s default styles to create unique styles.

    Easy Table of Contents

    Easy Table of Contents
    Easy Table of Contents

    Easy ToC automatically creates a table of contents for your posts, pages, and custom post types by scanning the page/post content for headings.

    It works with the Classic Editor and Gutenberg editor and is compatible with other popular page builders like Divi, Elementor, WPBakery Page Builder, and Visual Composer.

    Easy Table of Contents
    Easy Table of Contents

    You need to select the post types in which the table of contents should appear and the plugin will automatically insert the table of contents into the page.

    The plugin offers a variety of customization and multiple built-in ToC themes that you can choose. You can customize the appearance of the ToC either using the built-in themes and can create your own from scratch.

    You can also choose between several bullet formats, and hierarchies, and can even selectively enable or disable ToC on a post-by-post basis.

    If you prefer not to insert the table of contents in the post content, you can use the widget and place the table of contents in the sidebar of a page. The widget highlights the sections currently visible on the page.

    Table of Contents Plus

    Table of Contents Plus
    Table of Contents Plus

    Table of Contents Plus automatically creates a table of contents for long pages, posts, and custom post types.

    It not only inserts a ToC but also generates a sitemap that lists pages and/or categories across your entire website. By default, the table of contents block appears before the first heading on a page, enabling you to add a page summary or introduction.

    Table of Contents Plus
    Table of Contents Plus lets you add a page summary or introduction before inserting a ToC.

    You can customize settings such as display position, the minimum number of headings before an index is displayed, and other appearance options from the WordPress admin panel.

    It offers other advanced options to further tweak behavior, such as excluding undesired heading levels like h5 and h6 from being included, disabling the output of the included CSS file, adjusting the top offset, and more.

    Customizations can also be added to the shortcodes to override the default behavior, such as special exclusions on a specific page or to hide the table of contents block.

    This plugin is suitable for both beginners as well as advanced users.

    Simple ToC

    Simple ToC
    Simple ToC

    Simple ToC lets you easily insert a Table of Contents for your posts and pages by adding the SimpleToC block. The block provides a nested list of links to all the headings found in your post or page.

    You can also configure the maximum depth of the table of content in the blocks’ sidebar and customize it to your liking, and even add your own heading by using a normal heading block and hiding the default “Table of Contents” headline.

    Simple TOC
    Simple TOC

    This plugin works with the Gutenberg editor and requires zero configuration. It produces minimal HTML output and does not add any JavaScript or CSS unless you activate the accordion menu.

    You can style SimpleToC with Gutenberg’s native group styling options and it will inherit the style of your theme. You can also customize it with background and text color, choose between an ordered or bullet HTML list, and control the maximum depth of the headings.

    The plugin is also compatible with many popular plugins and themes, including AMP plugins.

    Publish Smarter, Not Harder

    If you publish scholarly research or educational content, incorporating footnotes, citations, indexes, table of contents, or glossaries will enhance credibility, improve user experience, provide access to valuable information faster, and help to establish your site as a reliable source of knowledge in your industry or field.

    Every website has its own unique design and branding, so it’s important that the footnotes, citations, glossaries, and tables of contents match the overall style of your website to ensure a cohesive and visually appealing presentation.

    The plugins listed above will allow you to transform your content into professionally structured and SEO-optimized articles and present information in your WordPress site in an organized and reader-friendly manner by automating the generation of footnotes, glossaries and tables of contents, simplifying citation management, and offering customizable styles to align with your website’s design.

    If you’re looking for a solid, fully managed, and expertly-supported platform to host sites and/or content for an educational institution, check out CampusPress. It’s the WordPress platform many of the world’s largest and well-known academic institutions choose to host their WordPress sites and blogs.

    CampusPress will not only manage all the technical aspects of hosting your site securely and reliably, they also include many pre-installed and useful plugins for higher education and schools.

    Go to source

  • How to Create a Custom Instagram Photo Feed in WordPress

    Do you want to create a custom Instagram feed in WordPress?

    An Instagram feed can keep your site fresh and engaging while also getting you more likes, shares, and Instagram followers.

    In this article, we will show you how to create a custom Instagram photo feed for your WordPress website.

    How to create a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress

    Why Include an Instagram Feed on Your WordPress Site?

    Adding an Instagram feed on your WordPress site lets you show fresh content to your visitors without lots of extra work. It also encourages readers to follow you on Instagram.

    Instead of manually adding images in the WordPress block editor, you can simply create a feed that updates automatically every time you post new photos to Instagram. You can even show other people’s photos on your site by creating a hashtag feed.

    In the following image, you can see an example of a brand that uses a custom Instagram feed to show user-generated content.

    An example of user-generated Instagram content

    In this way, you can use a custom Instagram feed to provide valuable social proof and make more money online.

    That being said, let’s see how you can create a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress.

    How to Create a Custom Instagram Photo Feed in WordPress

    The easiest way to add an Instagram photo feed to your site is by using the Smash Balloon Instagram Feed plugin. It is the best Instagram plugin for WordPress that allows you to display content from your Instagram account in an instant.

    It’s also the easiest way to fix the Facebook and Instagram oEmbed issue in WordPress.

    We will cover several steps in our tutorial, and you can use the quick links below to jump to the different sections:

    How to Connect an Instagram Account to WordPress

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

    Note: In the guide, we are using the premium version of Smash Balloon, as it allows you to create a completely custom Instagram feed. with hashtag feeds and shoppable images. If you are just getting started or have a small budget, then there’s also a free Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed plugin.

    After you’ve installed the plugin, head over to Instagram Feed » Settings.

    You can now enter your Smash Balloon license key into the ‘License Key’ field.

    Adding a license to Smash Balloon's Instagram plugin

    You can find this information in the confirmation email you got when you purchased Smash Balloon and also in your Smash Balloon account.

    After adding your license key, go ahead and click on the ‘Activate’ button.

    Once you’ve done that, you are ready to create a custom Instagram feed. To get started, select Instagram Feed » All Feeds and then click on the ‘Add New’ button.

    Creating an Instagram feed for WordPress

    Smash Balloon will now show all the different types of Instagram feeds that you can create.

    Simply select the type of feed you want to add to WordPress, and click on ‘Next’.

    How to add an Instagram timeline feed to WordPress

    If you just want to display your Instagram photos, then you can use a Personal Instagram account. However, you will need a Business Instagram account if you want to create a hashtag feed or show the posts that your account is tagged in.

    Tip: Don’t have a Business Account? To convert your Personal Instagram account into a Business Account, simply follow Smash Balloon’s step-by-step instructions.

    If you select ‘Publish Hashtag’, then you will need to type in the hashtags you want to use. To show multiple hashtags in the same feed, simply separate each hashtag with a comma.

    Adding Instagram hashtags to your WordPress website

    Once you have done that, just click on ‘Next’.

    Do you want to show posts that your account is tagged in? You will need to select ‘Tagged Posts’ instead and then click on ‘Next’.

    How to show tagged posts in a custom Instagram feed

    No matter what kind of feed you are creating, you will need to connect WordPress to your Instagram account.

    To get started, click on the ‘Add Source’ button.

    Creating a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress

    After that, choose whether you want to show images from a personal or business account.

    If you select the button next to ‘Personal’, then Smash Balloon won’t include the Instagram avatar and bio in your header by default. However, you can always add the Instagram avatar and bio manually in the plugin’s settings.

    Choose between a personal and business Instagram account

    After choosing ‘Personal’ or ‘Business’, just click on ‘Login with Facebook’.

    You can now select the Instagram account that you want to feature on your WordPress website and click on ‘Next’.

    Connecting to an Instagram account

    After that, check the box next to the Facebook page that’s linked to the Instagram account you want to use.

    With that done, you need to click on the ‘Next’ button.

    Connecting a Facebook page to WordPress

    You will now see a popup with all the information Instagram Feed Pro will have access to and the actions it can perform.

    To restrict the plugin’s access to your Instagram account, simply click any of the switches to turn it from ‘Yes’ to ‘No’. Just be aware that this may affect the photos that appear on your WordPress blog or website.

    With that in mind, we recommend leaving all the switches enabled. When you are happy with how the feed is set up, go ahead and click on ‘Done’.

    Giving Smash Balloon access to your Instagram account

    You will now see a popup with the Instagram account you just added to your website.

    Simply check the box next to that account and then click on ‘Add’.

    How to connect Instagram to WordPress using Smash Balloon

    Instagram Feed Pro will now take you back to the Instagram Feeds » All Feeds screen.

    To create a custom Instagram feed, just check the box next to the Instagram account that you want to use. Then, click on ‘Next’.

    Creating a new Instagram feed in WordPress

    The plugin will now create an Instagram photo feed that you can add to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

    How to Customize Your Instagram Photo Feed

    By default, Smash Balloon will open your feed in its editor, ready for you to customize.

    On the right, you will see a preview of your Instagram photo feed. On the left-hand side are all the settings you can use to customize the social media feed.

    How to create a custom Instagram feed with Smash Balloon

    Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we will quickly cover some key areas.

    To change the layout, simply click on ‘Feed Layout’ in the left-hand menu. You can now choose from a Grid, Masonry, or Carousel layout.

    Switching to a different Instagram layout

    There is also a Highlighted layout that highlights every third photo by default.

    As you click on the different options, the live preview will automatically update to show the new layout. This makes it easy to try different designs and find the one you prefer.

    By default, Smash Balloon shows the same number of photos on desktop computers and mobile devices. You can preview how the Instagram feed will look on desktop computers, tablets, and smartphones using the row of buttons in the upper-right corner.

    Previewing an Instagram feed on desktop, mobile, and tablet

    Smartphones and tablets typically have smaller screens and less processing power, so you may want to show fewer Instagram photos and videos on mobile devices.

    To do this, just type a different number into the ‘Mobile’ field under ‘Number of Posts’.

    How to show a different number of Instagram posts on mobile

    By default, Smash Ballon will split your photos into 4 columns on desktop, 2 columns on tablet devices, and a single column on mobile.

    Do you want to use a different number of columns? Then just scroll to the ‘Columns’ section in the left-hand menu.

    You can now type a new number into the Desktop, Tablet, or Mobile fields.

    Showing a different number of columns in a custom Instagram feed

    To make sure your Instagram feed looks good on mobile devices, it’s smart to view the mobile version of your WordPress website.

    After making your changes, click on the ‘Customize’ link. This will take you back to the main Smash Balloon editor, ready for you to explore the next settings screen, which is ‘Color Scheme’.

    Changing the Instagram feed color scheme

    By default, Smash Balloon uses a color scheme inherited from your WordPress theme, but it also has ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’ themes that you may want to use for your Instagram feed.

    You can even create your own color scheme by selecting ‘Custom’ and then using the settings to change the link color, background color, text color in WordPress, and more.

    Changing the Instagram color scheme

    By default, Smash Balloon adds a header to the Instagram feed, which is your profile picture and the name of your page. This can provide some useful extra context so that visitors understand where these images are coming from.

    To change how this section looks, return to the main settings screen and then select ‘Header’.

    Adding a header to a custom Instagram photo feed

    On this screen, you can change the background color, show your Instagram bio, change the header size, and more.

    By default, the header includes your Instagram profile picture. However, you may want to show a different image, such as your site’s custom logo.

    To change the profile picture, click on ‘Add Image’ under ‘Show custom avatar’. You can then either choose an image from the WordPress media library or upload a new photo.

    Adding a custom Instagram avatar to your WordPress website

    You can also add a different bio. For example, you might add a call to action that encourages people to visit your Instagram page.

    To create a unique Instagram bio, simply type into the ‘Add custom bio’ box.

    Adding a custom Instagram bio to your WordPress website

    When you are happy with how the header looks, click on the ‘Customize’ link to go back to the main settings screen.

    Now, you need to click on ‘Posts’.

    Creating a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress

    To start, you can switch between boxed and regular layouts for the individual posts inside the Instagram feed.

    To do this, select ‘Post Style’.

    Customizing an embedded Instagram photo feed

    You can now click to select the layout you want to use.

    If you select ‘Boxed’, then you can change the background color, add a box shadow, and increase the border radius to create curved corners.

    Adding a box style to an embedded social media feed

    When you are happy with your changes, just click on the ‘Posts’ link to return to the previous Smash Balloon screen.

    This time, select ‘Images and Videos’.

    Changing the resolution of an embedded Instagram feed

    Smash Balloon automatically analyzes your Instagram photos and shows them at the best resolution. We recommend using these default settings, as they are designed to boost your WordPress speed and performance. However, you can make the Instagram images bigger or smaller if you need to.

    To change the image size, simply open the ‘Resolution’ dropdown and choose one of the default WordPress image sizes from the list.

    Changing the resolution for an embedded Instagram feed

    Once again, click on the ‘Posts’ link to return to the previous screen.

    This time, select ‘Caption’. On the next screen, you can show the Instagram caption next to each image by clicking on the ‘Enable’ slider.

    Showing Instagram captions on your WordPress website

    If you add Instagram captions to your feed, then you can change the text size and color and set a maximum text length.

    With that done, just click on the ‘Posts’ link to return to the previous screen.

    Showing social media captions on a website or blog

    The next setting is ‘Like and Comment Summary’.

    Here, you can add or hide the total number of likes and comments on each image. If your Instagram posts get a good amount of engagement, then these numbers can encourage people to visit your Instagram page or start following you on social media.

    Showing social media comments and likes on a website or blog

    As always, you need to click on ‘Posts’ to return to the earlier screen.

    The final option is ‘Hover State’, which is the overlay that Smash Balloon adds to a post when you hover your mouse over it.

    Customizing the hover state for an embedded social media photo feed

    Here, you can choose the information that Smash Balloon shows when someone hovers over a post using the settings under ‘Information to display’.

    You can also change the color of the hover overlay.

    Adding a custom Instagram feed to WordPress

    When you are happy with the changes you have made, click on the ‘Customize’ link.

    This takes you back to the main Smash Balloon settings page, where you can click on ‘Load More Button’.

    Adding a load more button to a custom Instagram photo feed in WordPress

    Here, you can help the ‘Load More’ button stand out by changing its background color, text color, and hover state.

    You can also try adding your own messaging to the button by typing into the ‘Text’ field.

    Customizing the load more button on a custom Instagram photo feed

    While we recommend leaving this button enabled, you can remove it. For example, you might encourage people to visit your Instagram by limiting the number of photos they can see on your site.

    To remove the button, simply toggle off the ‘Enable’ slider so that it turns grey.

    Removing the 'Load More' button on a custom Instagram photo feed

    If visitors like what they see, they may decide to subscribe using the ‘Follow on Instagram’ button that appears below the embedded feed.

    Since it’s such an important button, you might want to add some custom styling to help it stand out. To do this, select ‘Customize’ to return to the main settings screen. Then, select ‘Follow Button’ in the left-hand menu.

    Here, you can change the button’s background color, hover state, and text color.

    Customizing the Instagram follow button

    By default, the button shows a ‘Follow on Instagram’ label.

    You can replace this with your own messaging by typing into the ‘Text’ field.

    Adding your own messaging to an Instagram CTA button

    Smash Balloon comes with a built-in lightbox that allows visitors to open your Instagram photos and videos without leaving your website.

    To configure this feature, go back to the main Smash Balloon settings screen and then click on ‘Lightbox’.

    The Smash Balloon lightbox feature

    Here, you can change how many comments Smash Balloon will show in the lightbox.

    If you don’t want to use the lightbox feature, then you can disable it using the ‘Enable’ slider.

    Enabling the WordPress lightbox feature

    When you are happy with how the Instagram feed looks, don’t forget to click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.

    You are now ready to add the Instagram feed to your WordPress website.

    Showing a Feed of Your Instagram Photos in WordPress

    You can add the custom Instagram feed to your website using a block, a widget, or a shortcode.

    If you have created more than one feed using Smash Balloon, then you will need to know the feed’s code to use a widget or block.

    To get this code, you must go to Instagram Feed » All Feeds and then copy the text under ‘Shortcode.’

    In the following image, we will need to use instagram-feed feed=4.

    Getting a shortcode for your custom Instagram feed

    If you want to embed the Instagram feed in a page or post, then you can use the Instagram Feed block.

    Just open the page or post where you want to embed your custom Instagram feed. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon to add a new block and start typing ‘Instagram Feed’.

    When the right block appears, click to add it to the page or post.

    Adding the Feeds for Instagram block to your WordPress website

    The block will show one of your Instagram feeds by default. If you want to show a different Smash Balloon feed, then find ‘Shortcode Settings’ in the right-hand menu.

    Here, simply add the shortcode and then click on ‘Apply Changes.’

    Adding a social media feed to WordPress using shortcode

    If you are happy with how the custom Instagram feed looks, then you can go ahead and publish or update the page.

    Another option is to add the Instagram Feed widget to your website. This is a great way to show an Instagram feed on every page of your site. For example, you might add the Instagram widget to the WordPress theme’s sidebar or footer.

    To add the Instagram Feed widget to your site, head over to Appearance » Widgets. You can then click on the blue ‘+’ icon towards the top of the screen.

    Adding an Instagram feed to a widget-ready area

    In the panel that appears, type in ‘Instagram Feed’ to find the right widget.

    As you can see in the following image, there are two Instagram Feed widgets, so make sure you use the right one.

    Adding the Instagram feed widget to a WordPress sidebar

    Next, simply drag the widget onto the area where you want to show the Instagram feed, such as the sidebar or similar section.

    The widget will automatically show one of the feeds you created using Smash Balloon. If this isn’t the custom Instagram feed you just created, then type the feed’s code into the ‘Shortcode Settings’ box.

    After that, click on ‘Apply Changes.’

    You can now make the widget live by clicking on the ‘Update’ button. For more information, please see our step-by-step guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

    An example of an embedded Instagram feed

    Another option is embedding the Instagram feed on any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode.

    Simply go to Instagram Feed » All Feeds and copy the code in the ‘Shortcode’ column. You can now add this code to any Shortcode block. For help placing the shortcode, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode.

    Are you using a block-enabled theme? Then you can use the full site editor to add the Instagram Feed block anywhere on your WordPress website.

    In the dashboard, go to Appearance » Editor.

    How to add an Instagram feed to WordPress using the full-site editor

    By default, the full-site editor will show the theme’s home template.

    If you want to add the Instagram feed to a different area, then click on either ‘Template’ or ‘Template Parts’.

    Adding an Instagram feed to a WordPress template

    The editor will now show a list of all the template parts that make up your WordPress theme.

    Simply click on the template where you want to show the Instagram feed.

    A list of templates, in the WordPress full-site editor (FSE)

    WordPress will now show a preview of the design.

    To edit this template, go ahead and click on the small pencil icon.

    Editing the WordPress homepage template using the full-site editor

    After choosing a template, just hover your mouse over the area where you want to add the Instagram photo feed.

    Then, click on the blue ‘+’ button.

    How to add a block to a template using full-site editor (FSE)

    Once you have done that, you need to type in ‘Instagram Feed’.

    When the right block appears, click to add it to the template.

    Adding a Instagram feeds block using the full-site editor (FSE)

    As always, Smash Balloon will show a feed by default. You can change this feed by adding a shortcode following the same process described above.

    Bonus: Let Customers Buy Your Products Through Instagram

    If you have an online store, then you can also use your custom Instagram feed to easily sell your products.

    Smash Balloon Instagram Feed Pro allows you to tag your Instagram images with product links so that users are able to click on them and buy them directly instead of navigating through your product pages. This can increase sales and boost profits in your store.

    How to add a shoppable link to an Instagram post

    For more details, you can see our complete guide on how to add Instagram shoppable images in WordPress.

    We hope this article helped you learn how to create a custom Instagram feed in WordPress. You might also want to see our comparison of the best WordPress giveaway plugins to grow your social following and learn how to create an email newsletter.

    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 Create a Custom Instagram Photo Feed in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

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  • What Is Google’s INP Score and How to Improve It in WordPress

    Are you wondering what Google’s INP score is and how to improve it on your WordPress website?

    Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a Core Web Vitals metric from Google. Improving this score will make your website feel more responsive to your users.

    In this article, we will show you how to improve your Google INP score in WordPress and explain what Google’s INP score is.

    What is Google INP score and how to improve it in WordPress

    Here is a quick overview of the topics we will cover in this guide:

    What Are Google Core Web Vitals?

    Google Core Web Vitals are website performance metrics that Google considers important for overall user experience. These web vital scores are part of Google’s overall page experience score, which will impact your SEO rankings.

    These metrics are useful because, even if your WordPress website loads fast, it may not be fully functional for users. Even if a page has loaded, a visitor might not be able to do what they want or access the information they need.

    Core Web Vitals are designed to help with this. They let you measure how quickly your website loads, becomes visible, and is ready for your visitors to use.

    To do that, Google uses three quality tests:

    • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
    • First Input Delay (FID)
    • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

    You can learn more about these tests in our ultimate guide on how to optimize Core Web Vitals for WordPress.

    However, Google is replacing FID with a new test called INP (Interaction to Next Paint).

    This change currently has the status of ‘Pending’ and will be finalized in March 2024. This gives you time to prepare so that your SEO rankings are not impacted, and we will show you how later in this article.

    What Is Google INP?

    INP stands for ‘Interaction to Next Paint’. It is a new Google Core Web Vital metric that measures the user interactions that cause delays on your website.

    The INP test measures how long it takes between a user interacting with your website, like clicking on something, and your content visually updating in response. This visual update is called the ‘next paint’.

    For example, a user might submit a contact form on your site, click on a button, or select an image that opens in a lightbox. The INP test will measure the time taken between the user performing these interactions and actually seeing the updated content on your website.

    The Google test then comes up with a single INP score based on the duration of most user interactions on your website. The score will either be ‘Good’, ‘Needs Improvement’, or ‘Poor’, depending on how long your website takes to update visually.

    Why Is Google Changing the FID Metric to INP?

    The current FID test measures how quickly your website responds to the first user input after the page loads, such as a mouse click or keyboard press. It does this by measuring the time between the first input from the user and when your website starts to act on that input.

    In other words, it measures how responsive your website is when it first loads and the first impression that it gives to real users.

    However, this metric isn’t as helpful as it could be. There are two limitations to the FID test:

    1. It only measures the first user interaction, not all of them.
    2. It only measures until the website starts to process the interaction, not when the user can actually see the visual feedback on the screen.

    So Google is changing the test to give a more complete picture of the overall responsiveness of a web page. INP will measure the entire time the user spends there until they leave the page.

    How to Measure Google INP Score in WordPress

    The easiest way to test your Google Core Web Vitals score is by using the PageSpeed Insights tool. Simply enter the URL you want to test and click the ‘Analyze’ button.

    Analyzing a Web Page for Page Speed Insights

    The tool will analyze the web page for a few seconds and then show you the test results.

    Note: You can also view Core Web Vitals using DebugBear’s Free Website Speed Test or Site Speed Chrome Extension, which are preferred by some developers.

    Now, along with other Google Core Web Vitals, you will also see the page’s Interaction to Next Paint (INP) score.

    There will be different scores for mobile and desktop users.

    Page Insights Results

    In the screenshot above, you can see the INP score for desktop users viewing this web page on WPBeginner is 47 ms. The green dot means that this is a good score.

    Once you can see the score for your own site, you will probably be wondering how it compares with other websites and whether it needs to be improved.

    Google has provided some guidelines for interpreting your INP score:

    • Faster than 200 milliseconds – good responsiveness
    • 200-500 milliseconds – needs improvement
    • Slower than 500 milliseconds – poor responsiveness
    Interpreting Your INP Score

    Make sure you check your score for both mobile and desktop users and aim for good responsiveness.

    You can then improve your INP score by following the guidelines in the sections below.

    Case Study: Finding Slow Interactions on Awesome Motive’s Websites

    But first, it may be helpful to look at a case study. We have started measuring the INP scores on our brand sites, including All in One SEO, MonsterInsights, and WPForms.

    When our team checked our website’s INP scores, the initial results showed that our most popular pages needed improvement.

    Using the Chrome User Experience (CrUX) dashboard, we could see that:

    • 80% of our sessions were rated ‘good’
    • 12% of our sessions were rated ‘needs improvement’
    • 8% of our sessions were rated ‘poor’

    Now, we don’t yet know which specific interactions on our pages are slow and need to be optimized. This information isn’t provided by Google while testing.

    That means that next, we will need to run our own tests to find slow interactions on pages with lower INP scores. This is a detailed and advanced task that is best performed by a developer.

    It is done by going to each page that needs improvement and then testing each interaction with actual clicks, taps, and key presses. These need to be timed and evaluated using tools.

    The Chrome Developers Blog lists a number of tools that can be used for testing, such as the Chrome Web Vitals extension and the new timespan mode in the Lighthouse Panel in DevTools. You can also see Google’s article on how to debug using the Web Vitals extension.

    It’s important to note that the sessions with lower ratings most likely took place on slower devices or connections. That means that while testing, it is recommended to throttle your browser’s speed, or you may not spot the slow interactions.

    You can do that using Chrome’s Inspect Element feature by going to View » Developer » Inspect Elements. You can switch to the ‘Network’ tab and select a throttling option from the dropdown menu.

    Using Chrome Inspect Elements to Throttle Your Browser

    Once you have found the INP scores for your pages, you can use the tips in the next section of this tutorial to improve them.

    How to Improve Google INP Score in WordPress

    Most of the INP score optimization work will need to be done by developers. That includes the authors of the theme and plugins you use on your website, plus the developers of any custom JavaScript you are running.

    That’s because the INP score is mostly related to the time required to perform JavaScript interactions on your website.

    For example, when a user clicks a button, some JavaScript code is run to perform the function expected by clicking the button. This code is downloaded to the user’s computer and runs in their web browser.

    To optimize your INP score, the delays that happen during JavaScript user interactions must be reduced. There are three components to this delay:

    1. Input delay, which happens when your website is waiting for background tasks on that page that prevent the event handler from running.
    2. Processing time, which is the time required to run event handlers in JavaScript.
    3. Presentation delay, which is the time required to recalculate the page and paint the page content on the screen.

    As a website owner, there are steps you can take to improve the first and third delays. We will show you how in the next section.

    However, to make real improvements to your INP score, you will need to improve the second delay, which is the processing time of the code itself. That’s not something that you can do yourself.

    The developers of your WordPress theme, plugins, and custom JavaScript may need to optimize their code to give feedback to your users immediately. The good news is they are probably already working on this to meet the March 2024 deadline.

    We offer some specific tips for developers with examples later in this article.

    How Website Owners Can Optimize Their Sites for INP

    While the most significant impact on your website’s INP score will come from developers optimizing their code, there are a few things that website owners can do.

    In particular, you can make sure that your users’ mouse clicks and keystrokes are recognized as soon as possible by optimizing background processes on your site. Also, you can make sure the response to their input is displayed on the screen as quickly as possible.

    Here are some steps you can take to achieve that.

    1. Make Sure You Are Running the Latest Version of WordPress

    The first thing you should do is make sure you are running the latest version of WordPress.

    That’s because WordPress versions 6.2 and 6.3 introduced significant performance improvements. These will improve your website’s performance on the server side and client side, which will improve your INP score.

    For detailed instructions, you can see our guide on how to safely update WordPress.

    2. Optimize Background Processes in WordPress

    Background processes are scheduled tasks in WordPress that run in the background. They might include checking for WordPress updates, publishing scheduled posts, and backing up your website.

    If your website gets too busy running these background tasks, then it may not realize right away that the user has clicked the mouse or pressed a key, resulting in a poor INP score.

    You may be able to configure your background scripts and plugins to reduce the amount of work they are doing, placing less strain on your website. Otherwise, you might be able to run them only when they are needed instead of leaving them running in the background.

    For detailed instructions, you can see the Optimize Background Processes section of our ultimate guide on how to boost WordPress speed and performance.

    3. Check the PageSpeed Insights Performance Recommendations

    After you run the PageSpeed Insights test on your website, you can scroll down to the Performance section of the test results.

    Here, you will find some opportunities to improve your site’s performance along with the estimated time savings if you follow the advice.

    PageSpeed Insights Performance Opportunities and Diagnostics

    For example, you may see recommendations to eliminate render-blocking resources. You can do this by following our guide on how to fix render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in WordPress.

    You may also see a recommendation to reduce unused JavaScript. You will find a setting to do this in many of the best WordPress caching plugins, such as WP Rocket.

    4. Minify JavaScript in WordPress

    JavaScript needs to be downloaded to the user’s computer before it can be run. By making your JavaScript files as small as possible, you can make some small gains in performance.

    Minifying your JavaScript makes the files smaller by removing white spaces, lines, and unnecessary characters from the source code.

    This won’t have a dramatic effect on your performance, but if you are looking to shave a few extra milliseconds off your INP score, then you may find it worthwhile.

    WP Rocket minify JavaScript files

    To learn how, you can see our guide on how to minify CSS and JavaScript files in WordPress.

    How Developers Can Optimize Their Code for INP

    If you are a developer, then the biggest INP score gains will come from optimizing your code. Here are a few things you can do.

    1. Visually Acknowledge User Input Immediately

    Here’s the one thing that will make the most difference when optimizing your code’s INP score: You need to give visual feedback to all user input immediately.

    The user should see right away that their input has been recognized and that you are acting on it. This will make your code feel more responsive to the user and result in a great INP score.

    Here are a few examples:

    • If a user clicks on an element, then you should display something that shows that the element was clicked.
    • If a user submits a form, then you need to immediately display something to acknowledge that, such as a message or spinner.
    • If a user clicks on an image to open it in a lightbox, then don’t just wait for the image to load. Instead, you should show a demo image or spinner immediately. Then, when the image is loaded, you can display it in the lightbox.

    More than anything else, this will improve your INP score, especially if you need to do heavy JavaScript processing in response to user input.

    Just make sure you update the UI before starting the task. After that, you can do the CPU-heavy work in a setTimeout callback or on a separate thread using a web worker, and then finally present the results to the user.

    Once you get that right, there are a few more things you can do to optimize your code.

    2. Optimize Where the Browser Spends Most of Its Time

    The next thing you should do is investigate where the browser is spending most of its time and then optimize those parts.

    In Google Chrome, when you navigate to View » Developer » Developer Tools » Performance, it is possible to inspect the JavaScript functions and event handlers that are blocking the next paint.

    With that knowledge, you can see what can be optimized in order to reduce the time until the next paint after user interaction.

    3. Reduce Your Layouts

    Sometimes, a lot of CPU activity consists of layout work.

    When that happens, you should check to see if you can reduce the number of relayout functions in your code.

    4. Show Above-the-Fold Content First

    If rendering the page contents is slow, then your INP score may be affected.

    You can consider showing only important ‘above-the-fold’ content first to deliver the next frame more quickly.

    Examples of Good JavaScript Coding Practices for Developers

    It may be helpful to show you some examples of how bad code can result in a poor INP score.

    We put together an example project on CodePen that you can experiment with. You can examine our sample code, read our short explanations, and see the difference it makes by clicking the buttons.

    Here’s an animation from that CodePen project. You can see that the unoptimized sample code results in a poor INP score of 965 milliseconds. The button press will feel laggy to users.

    By contrast, the optimized code updates the button text immediately, resulting in the best possible INP score.

    Animation of CodePen Example Project for Optimizing INP Score

    Read on to see four examples of how you can improve your code to optimize the INP score.

    Example 1: Update the Screen Before Running a Heavy CPU Task

    CPU-heavy tasks take time, and this can lead to poor INP scores unless you write good code. In this case, it’s best to update the screen before running that task.

    Here is a bad example where the user interface is updated after a heavy CPU task. This results in a high INP:

    // Bad example
    button.addEventListener('click', () => {
      // Heavy CPU task
      for (let i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) {
        console.log(i);
      }
      // UI update
      button.textContent = 'Clicked!';});
    

    In this improved example, the user interface is updated immediately when the button is clicked.

    After that, the heavy CPU task is moved to a setTimeout callback:

    // Better example
    button.addEventListener('click', () => {
      // UI update
      button.textContent = 'Processing...';
    
      // Heavy CPU task
      setTimeout(() => {
        for (let i = 0; i < 10000000; i++)
     {
          console.log(i);
        }
        // Final UI update
        button.textContent = 'Done!';
      }, 0);
    });
    

    This allows the browser to update the screen before starting the slow task, resulting in a good INP score.

    Example 2: Schedule Non-Urgent Processing

    You should also make sure that you don’t run non-urgent or non-essential work in a script immediately when it may delay the response the user is expecting.

    You should start by updating the page immediately to acknowledge the user’s input. After that, you can use requestIdleCallback to schedule the rest of the script when there is free time at the end of a frame or when the user is inactive.

    Here is an example:

    button.addEventListener('click', () => {
      // Immediate UI update
      button.textContent = 'Processing...';
    
      // Non-essential processing  window.requestIdleCallback(() => {
        // Perform non-essential processing here...    button.textContent = 'Done!';
      });
    });
    

    This will make the web page feel more responsive to the user and get you a better INP score.

    Example 3: Schedule a Function to Run Before the Next Paint

    You can also userequestAnimationFrame to schedule a function to be run before the next repaint:

    button.addEventListener('click', () => {
      // Immediate UI update
      button.textContent = 'Processing...';
    
      // Visual update
      window.requestAnimationFrame(() => {
        // Perform visual update here...    button.style.backgroundColor = 'green';    button.textContent = 'Done!';
      });
    });
    

    This can be useful for animations or visual updates in response to user interactions.

    Again, you should give the user feedback by acknowledging their input immediately.

    Example 4: Avoid Layout Thrashing

    Layout thrashing occurs when you repeatedly read and write to the DOM (Document Object Model), causing the browser to recalculate the layout multiple times.

    Here is an example of layout thrashing:

    // Bad example
    elements.forEach(element => {
      const height = element.offsetHeight; // read  element.style.height = height + 'px'; // write});
    

    This can be avoided by batching your reads and writes.

    This is a better example:

    // Good example
    const heights = elements.map(element => element.offsetHeight); // batched read
    elements.forEach((element, index) => {
      element.style.height = heights[index] + 'px'; // batched write
    });
    

    We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to improve your Google INP score in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate guide to WordPress SEO or our expert picks for the best WordPress SEO plugins and tools.

    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 What Is Google’s INP Score and How to Improve It in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

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  • Troubleshooting WordPress: 502 Bad Gateway Error

    As a web developer working with WordPress, troubleshooting errors is part and parcel of your journey. One common error you might come across is the dreaded “502 Bad Gateway” error.

    In this tutorial, we’ll dive into the meaning of a 502 Bad Gateway error, provide examples to help you identify it, and offer step-by-step instructions on how to troubleshoot and resolve this issue efficiently.

    We’ll cover the following areas:

    Understanding the Error

    The 502 Bad Gateway error is an HTTP status code that indicates communication failure between two servers, often a web server (like Nginx or Apache) and an upstream server (like PHP-FPM or a database server).

    In the context of WordPress, this error typically arises when your web server cannot receive a valid response from an upstream server. Basically, a 502 bad gateway message indicates that something went wrong while connecting with a device that should fetch all the elements your web page needs to load.

    502 Error message - nginx
    The dreaded 502 Bad Gateway error message.

    Common Causes of 502 Errors

    Server Overload

    When a server is overloaded with too many requests, it can struggle to process them all, leading to delayed or failed responses. This overload could be due to sudden spikes in website traffic, misconfiguration, or inadequate server resources.

    DNS Issues

    Domain Name System (DNS) issues can lead to a “Bad Gateway 502” error. If the DNS server fails to resolve the domain name, the communication between servers breaks down, triggering the error.

    Network Connectivity Problems

    Disruptions in network connectivity, such as broken connections or high latency, can also contribute to the occurrence of the “Bad Gateway 502” error.

    PHP-FPM or Backend Server Issues

    PHP-FPM (PHP FastCGI Process Manager) is a highly efficient and configurable alternative to the traditional way of running PHP scripts on a web server. Instead of having the web server handle PHP scripts directly, PHP-FPM manages a pool of worker processes to handle PHP requests and works as an intermediary between the web server (e.g., Nginx, Apache) and the PHP interpreter.

    Handling PHP requests and processing these separately from the web server improves resource management and contributes to better performance and stability in serving dynamic content, such as what’s commonly found in WordPress websites.

    If your web server relies on PHP-FPM or any other backend service, issues with these servers can lead to 502 errors.

    Database Server Problems

    If your WordPress site is connected to a database server (like MySQL), database connection problems can result in a 502 error.

    Proxy or CDN Configuration

    Incorrect settings or misconfigurations within your content delivery network (CDN) or proxy server can also trigger this error.

    Plugins or Themes

    Faulty plugins or themes that overload or improperly interact with your server can lead to 502 errors.

    Recognizing a Bad Gateway Error

    When a 502 Bad Gateway error occurs, users visiting your website might see a message like:

    • “502 Bad Gateway”
    • “502 Bad Gateway – nginx”
    • “502 Proxy Error”
    • “Bad Gateway: The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server.”

    Troubleshooting and Resolving Errors

    It goes without saying that the best way to prevent most server-related issues is to host your sites with a reliable hosting company.

    WPMU DEV not only offers award-winning managed WordPress hosting as voted by users, but all of our hosting plans are also built on a self-healing architecture that proactively attempts to restart hosting services during high server loads to prevent issues and minimize disruptions.

    If you are a WPMU DEV member, we also recommend activating Uptime from The Hub. Uptime will alert you if your site goes down for any reason, including issues that can lead to a 502 error.

    Uptime email alert - website down - 502 error
    Uptime alerts you when issues like a 502 error cause your site to go down.

    Here’s a list of all the downtime issues Uptime monitors and their error status codes.

    Now, let’s delve into the steps you can take to diagnose and resolve the 502 Bad Gateway error on your WordPress site.

    Step 1: Refresh the Page

    Sometimes, the 502 error might be transient and can be resolved by simply refreshing the page. This could indicate a temporary server glitch.

    Step 2: Check Other Sites

    Visit other websites to determine if the issue is isolated to your site or affecting multiple websites. This can help you differentiate between a problem on your end or a more widespread issue.

    Step 3: Clear Browser Cache and Cookies

    Cached data in your browser might be causing the error. Consider clearing server-side caches (e.g. object cache, static cache etc.), then try accessing your website again.

    Step 4: Flush DNS Cache

    Flushing your computer’s DNS cache can help resolve DNS-related issues that might contribute to the error. See this guide if you need help.

    Step 5: Monitor Server Status

    Check the status of your web server, backend servers, and database servers. Look for server load issues or errors in server logs.

    Step 6: Review PHP and Backend Configuration

    Inspect your PHP-FPM or backend server configuration files. Make sure they are properly configured and functioning as expected.

    Step 7: Examine CDN and Proxy Settings

    If you’re using a CDN or proxy server, review their settings for any misconfigurations. Ensure that requests are being properly forwarded to your web server. Clearing the CDN cache may also be helpful.

    Step 8: Disable Problematic Plugins/Themes

    Temporarily deactivate all plugins and switch to a default WordPress theme. Gradually reactivate plugins one by one to identify if any are causing the 502 error.

    Step 9: Increase Server Resources

    If your server is running out of resources, consider upgrading your hosting plan or optimizing your server settings.

    Step 10: Consult Hosting Support

    If the error persists and you’re unable to identify the cause, reach out to your hosting provider’s support team. They can provide valuable insights and assistance in resolving the issue.

    Preventing and Minimizing 502 Errors

    Additional measures to help prevent or minimize potential 502 errors include the following:

    1. Optimize Server Performance

    Invest in robust server infrastructure and optimize server performance to significantly reduce the likelihood of encountering “Bad Gateway 502” errors.

    2. Implement Redundancy

    Having backup servers ready to take over in case of failure will help to maintain uninterrupted service and prevent errors.

    3. Load Balancers

    Implement load balancers to distribute incoming traffic across multiple servers. This reduces the risk of overloading a single server and triggering the error.

    4. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

    CDNs store cached copies of websites on servers located globally. This can enhance website performance and reduce the chances of a “Bad Gateway 502” error. If you’re not using a CDN, consider implementing one in your setup.

    5. Regular Server Maintenance

    Perform routine server maintenance, including software updates and security checks to prevent unforeseen errors.

    6. Monitoring and Alert Systems

    Implement monitoring tools and alert systems (e.g. Uptime) to notify administrators of server issues in real-time, allowing for swift intervention and error resolution.

    7. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Protection

    DDoS protection services can safeguard servers from malicious traffic surges, preventing server overload and potential 502 errors.

    8. Implement Graceful Error Handling

    Graceful error handling refers to the practice of designing a website or application to handle errors and unexpected situations in a smooth and user-friendly manner.

    Custom error pages and graceful error handling can enhance user experience by providing informative messages, clear, human-readable explanations of what went wrong and offering actionable steps to resolve the issue instead of presenting users with the standard error codes, confusing error messages, or technical jargon.

    Know What To Do When You Get a 502

    Facing a 502 Bad Gateway error in WordPress can be frustrating.

    If you experience a 502 error, refer to the above information to help you quickly identify possible causes and solutions. Make sure you’re familiar with WordPress troubleshooting tools and our WordPress troubleshooting guide and follow the steps outlined above to identify and address the root cause of the error to ensure your website remains up and running smoothly for your visitors.

    And of course, if you are a WPMU DEV member and need additional help troubleshooting errors, you can always access our 24/7 expert support team anytime for assistance with anything WordPress or hosting-related.

    Want more? Learn how to troubleshoot a 504.

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  • How to Track User Engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics

    Are you properly tracking user engagement on your WordPress site?

    User engagement is one of the most important metrics to track because it helps you better understand your audience and what they want. With Google Analytics, you can easily see how people interact with your website.

    In this article, we will show you how to track user engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics.

    How to Track user management with Analytics

    Why Track User Engagement With Google Analytics?

    Generally, WordPress website owners consider traffic and pageviews to be the most important indicators of their website’s performance. They assume that higher traffic will result in more conversions and sales.

    While that is generally true, you can get even better results by tracking and optimizing user engagement.

    User engagement shows you what users do when they arrive on your website. It helps you identify patterns of highly engaged user behavior that lead to more conversions and sales.

    For example, you may realize that users visiting a specific page are 10X more likely to make a purchase than any other visitor on your website. You can use this insight to redirect the user’s attention to that page.

    Similarly, tracking engagement can help you see which affiliate links or banner ads your visitors are clicking. Using this data, you will be able to optimize your content to get more clicks and boost conversions.

    That said, let’s see how you can set up user engagement tracking in WordPress using Google Analytics.

    Tracking User Engagement in WordPress Using Google Analytics

    The best way to set up user engagement tracking in WordPress is by using MonsterInsights. It’s the best analytics plugin for WordPress that helps you configure Google Analytics without writing code.

    MonsterInsights automatically sets up outbound link tracking, form conversion tracking, scroll depth, affiliate link clicks, and other advanced tracking features in Google Analytics out of the box.

    It automates the process of pasting different analytics codes and event tracking in WordPress, so you don’t have to deal with the hassle of code and configuration.

    The MonsterInsights Google Analytics plugin

    For this tutorial, we will use the MonsterInsights Pro version because it includes advanced tracking features and more dashboard reports. However, there is also a MonsterInsights Lite version that you can use for free and get started with user engagement tracking.

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

    Upon activation, you will see the MonsterInsights welcome screen. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button. You can then follow the setup wizard to get everything ready in minutes.

    Launch setup wizard

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

    Now that you have Google Analytics with MonsterInsights ready to go, let’s take a look at what user engagement metrics are best to track and how you can track them.

    These aren’t all of the metrics you can track with MonsterInsights and Google Analytics, but they are the most important ones to start with. You can click the links below to jump ahead to any section:

    The first thing you want to figure out is which posts and pages on your WordPress blog are popular amongst your users. These important pages and posts on your website get the most traffic.

    Figuring out what your users like on your site can help you plan a content strategy that expands on what’s already working.

    MonsterInsights makes it really simple. You just need to visit the Insights » Reports page in your WordPress admin area and go to the ‘Overview’ report.

    Overview report in MonsterInsights

    After that, you can scroll down to see other reports with different data.

    You will find your most popular content in the ‘Top Posts/Pages’ section.

    Top posts and page report

    On most websites, 90% of the traffic goes to 10% of the top pages and posts.

    Once you find these top pages, you can optimize them for maximum conversions by adding content upgrades or targeted lead magnets on these posts.

    2. Tracking How Users Engage With Forms on Your Website

    Most websites rely on contact forms to collect user leads and feedback. Sadly, most WordPress contact form plugins don’t give you accurate tracking and conversion data.

    MonsterInsights lets you leverage the events tracking feature in Google Analytics to see how many times your forms are viewed and submitted.

    To enable form tracking, you need to visit the Insights » Addons page. On this page, you will need to install and activate the Forms addon.

    Install forms addon

    Once you have activated the addon, MonsterInsights will automatically start tracking all forms on your website.

    It works with popular contact forms plugins like WPForms, Formidable Forms, and others. MonsterInsights also tracks your website comment forms, user registration forms, and more.

    You can check these settings by going to Insights » Settings in your WordPress dashboard and then clicking on the ‘Conversions’ tab.

    MonsterInsights settings - conversions tab

    Next, MonsterInsights shows the performance of your WordPress forms inside your dashboard.

    Simply go to Insights » Reports from the admin panel and click on the ‘Forms’ tab. The report shows the number of impressions and conversions, as well as the conversion rate for your different WordPress forms.

    Forms report in MonsterInsights

    For more details, please see our guide on how to track form conversions in WordPress.

    3. Tracking eCommerce Store Performance in Google Analytics

    Google Analytics offers many features specifically for eCommerce websites. However, these features are not turned on by default in Google Analytics, and most users don’t even know that they exist.

    eCommerce tracking lets you see shopping behavior, checkout behavior, product performance, sales performance, and so much more. The best part is that you can combine this data with your overall website traffic to gather better insights.

    With MonsterInsights, you can easily set up Enhanced eCommerce on your website without editing code. It seamlessly works with popular plugins like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, GiveWP, MemberPress, and more.

    You can see our guide on how to set up eCommerce tracking in WordPress for more information.

    Once you have configured tracking, you can head to Insights » Reports from your WordPress admin menu and click on the ‘eCommerce’ report and select ‘Overview’.

    View eCommerce report in MonsterInsights

    Using the report, you can quickly see how your online store is performing.

    It shows stats like conversion rate, number of transactions, revenue, and average order value. It also helps identify products that users engage with the most and where they are coming from.

    Ecommerce overview report in MonsterInsights

    MonsterInsights also lets you track coupons in your online store.

    You can go to eCommerce » Coupons in MonsterInsights reports to view the report.

    Coupons report in MonsterInsights

    You can also view the eCommerce report in your Google Analytics property.

    Simply visit your Google Analytics account and go to Reports » Monetization » Ecommerce purchases.

    Ecommerce report GA4

    You may also want to see our guide on how to set up WooCommerce conversion tracking.

    4. Tracking Who’s Clicking on Your AdSense Ads

    Many websites rely on ads to make money online while creating useful content. With Google Analytics, you can actually see how users interact with ads on your site.

    For instance, you will be able to track how many clicks each ad is receiving, discover which ads your audience is ignoring, identify the most effective ad placements, and more.

    First, you need to sign up for a Google AdSense account and integrate it with your website. You can follow our guide on how to add Google AdSense to your WordPress site.

    Next, you can link your Google Analytics account with Google AdSense. To do this, log in to your AdSense account and head to Account » Account and Authorization » Google Analytics Integration from the menu on your left.

    Google AdSense ga4 integration

    From here, you can click the ‘+ New link’ button and select your Google Analytics property.

    Once your accounts are connected, you can visit Google Analytics to view the reports.

    To view your AdSense reports, go to your Google Analytics 4 account and visit Monetization » Publisher Ads.

    AdSense report in ga4

    If you have a Universal Analytics property, then you can view the data by going to the Behavior » Publisher page.

    Note: Universal Analytics is no longer collecting your website data. However, you can still access its reports and view old data.

    View AdSense report

    5. Tracking How Far People Scroll Your Website

    When tracking user engagement in WordPress, it’s also important to see how far visitors scroll your website.

    It gives you insights into how people use your site and helps improve your page length. Plus, you can use the data to place your AdSense ads, call-to-action buttons, and affiliate links where they will get the most visibility and conversions.

    MonsterInsights automatically enables scroll-depth tracking. You can view the report by going to Insights » Reports from the WordPress admin panel and clicking the Publishers » Overview tabs.

    Publisher overview report in MonsterInsights

    Next, scroll down and view the ‘Scroll’ report.

    It will show the average scroll depth percentage. MonsterInsights will trigger events in Google Analytics 4 as users scroll 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of a page and compute the percentage from those results.

    View scroll depth report

    Most marketers use affiliate plugins to manage and cloak affiliate links. This makes your affiliate links look more user-friendly.

    Here is an example of a cloaked affiliate link:

    https://example.com/recommends/product-name/

    MonsterInsights allows you to track affiliate links in Google Analytics. This data helps you figure out which affiliate products are doing well, which pages are generating more affiliate revenue, and more.

    To enable affiliate link tracking, you need to visit the Insights » Settings page. Next, you can switch to the ‘Publisher’ tab and head to the Affiliate Links section.

    Change affiliate link settings

    First, you need to enter the prefix for your link under the Path field, like ‘/refer/’ or ‘/recommend/.’ After that, you must provide a Label that you would like to use for those links in your Google Analytics reports.

    When you are done, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

    Next, you can view your top affiliate link clicks in MonsterInsights reports. Simply head to the Publishers tab and scroll down to the ‘Top Affiliate Links’ section.

    Outbound and affiliate links report

    Here, you will see which affiliate links are getting the most clicks so that you can promote them more on your site and boost sales.

    Additionally, MonsterInsights will also show your Top Outbound Links. These are external links that people click and exit your site. You can use insights from this report to get more backlinks, form partnerships, sign up for affiliate programs, and exchange guest posts.

    For more detailed instructions, see our guide on how to track outbound links in WordPress.

    7. Tracking Video Engagement in Google Analytics

    Do have you videos embedded on your WordPress website? If so, then you can track how people engage with them.

    With the MonsterInsights Media addon, you can automatically track YouTube, Vimeo, and other HTML 5 video embeds on your website. The best part is that you don’t have to edit code to set up tracking. The plugin takes care of everything.

    You can view the data inside your WordPress dashboard. Simply head to Insights » Reports and then click the ‘Media’ tab.

    View media report

    Next, you will see stats about your top videos.

    For instance, you can see how many people played the video, the average watch time, the completion rate, and more.

    Media report

    To learn more, please follow our guide on how to track video analytics in WordPress.

    8. Tracking Marketing Campaigns in Google Analytics

    If you are running different campaigns on your website, then you can track their performance in Google Analytics. This data helps you see which campaigns get the most engagement so that you can replicate them.

    To start, you can add UTM parameters to your campaign links. These are special tags that pass additional information to Google Analytics and help differentiate campaign URLs from regular links.

    If you are using MonsterInsights, then you can use the URL Builder tool to create links with UTM parameters. Simply head to Insights » Tools from your WordPress dashboard and select the ‘URL Builder’ tab.

    Go to tools in MonsterInsights

    Next, you can fill in the details of your URL.

    For instance, you can add your website link, a campaign source like a newsletter, a campaign medium such as email, a campaign name, and other details.

    Enter campaign source and medium

    After entering these details, MonsterInsights will create a custom URL with UTM parameters. It will look something like this:

    https://example.com?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring_sale

    You can simply copy the link and use it in your campaigns.

    Copy custom link with UTM parameter

    Once you have added custom links with UTM parameters, MonsterInsights will start to track them in Google Analytics.

    You can then view a report inside your WordPress dashboard and see which campaign is generating the most engagement.

    Simply head to your MonsterInsights reports and then go to Traffic » Campaigns.

    View campaigns report in MonsterInsights

    Next, you can scroll down to see campaign details.

    The report will show the number of sessions, engaged sessions, purchases, conversion rate, and revenue for each campaign.

    Campaign details in MonsterInsights

    9. Tracking Bounce Rate in Google Analytics

    The bounce rate is the percentage of users who land on your website and decide to leave without going to a second page.

    In the latest version of Google Analytics, you won’t find bounce rate as a default metric that’s visible on your reports. This is one of the key differences you will notice between Google Analytics 4 (GA4) and Universal Analytics.

    You will need to manually add the bounce rate to pages and screens reports in GA4. This can be tricky for beginners, especially for anyone who isn’t familiar with the Google Analytics interface.

    However, an easier way to view the bounce rate is by using MonsterInsights. Simply go to Insights » Reports from your WordPress admin menu and click on the Publishers » Overview tabs. The plugin shows the bounce rate for your important pages.

    Top landing pages report

    A higher bounce rate indicates that you were unable to convince the user to visit other pages. Users can leave your website by clicking on the back button in their browser, clicking on an outgoing link, or closing the window.

    Every site has a bounce rate. However, higher bounce rates can indicate problems with your website that are affecting user experience and causing low engagement.

    To lower the bounce rate, you can speed up your website, improve internal links, ensure that your content meets the search intent, improve the readability of your articles, show popular posts, and more.

    For more tips, you can see our guide on how to increase pageviews and reduce the bounce rate in WordPress.

    10. Tracking Time Spent on Your Website

    Another indicator that shows user engagement is session duration or the amount of time users spend on your site.

    If users are abandoning your site without spending enough time to look at it, then something is wrong, and you need to fix it.

    In the MonsterInsights Overview report, you can see the average session duration for your website in the past 30 days.

    Session duration report

    If you are using Google Analytics 4, then you will see a new metric called average engagement time. It tells you the average time your webpage was being focused on by a user.

    You can view the report by logging in to your GA4 account and then heading to Reports » Engagement » Overview.

    See average engagement time report

    Using the data, you can better understand your user journey. If the engagement time is low, then you can look into issues like fixing slow site speed, debugging any errors, and making your site’s interface user-friendly.

    11. Tracking Pageviews Per Visit With Google Analytics

    Pageviews per visit is another excellent indicator of how engaged your users are. A higher number of pageviews per session means that people are visiting multiple landing pages and articles on your site. This helps increase the time users spend on your site and decreases the bounce rate.

    In Google Analytics 4, you can view the sessions per user metric based on different traffic sources and see how many pages users view in a single session.

    Just head to Reports » Acquisition » User acquisition from your GA4 property.

    Engaged sessions per user metric

    This helps you see which traffic channels are converting the best for your website. You can then focus your content marketing efforts on areas that are actually driving results.

    Universal Analytics will also show you the total page views for a given period on the Audience » Overview page. However, to track engagement, you want to see pageviews per session.

    See pages per session metric

    You can also break down page views per session by source and channel.

    Simply go to the Acquisition » All Traffic » Channels page.

    View pages per session based on channel

    As a bonus, you can also use the UserFeedback plugin to find out what your visitors really think about your website.

    This is something that analytics can’t track.

    UserFeedback popup poll example

    UserFeedback, built by the MonsterInsights team, lets you easily create popup widgets to collect real-time feedback about your website.

    You can ask questions like what information is missing from your site, why users didn’t buy a product, what type of content they are interested in, and more. This will help you better understand intent and improve engagement. There’s also a free version of UserFeedback that you can try out.

    For more details, you can see our guide on how to get quick feedback on your articles in WordPress.

    We hope this article helped you track user engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics. You may also want to see how to create an email newsletter the right way and our expert pick of the best SEO plugins and tools to optimize your website for search engines.

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    The post How to Track User Engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics first appeared on WPBeginner.

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