Tag Archives: Plugins

Auto Import External Post Images & Update Their URLs In WordPress Site

You can automatically import external post images and update their URLs in your post content.

Previously we have discussed saving any image from any website to the WordPress media library. By default, WordPress offers you the functionality to insert external images (i.e. images located on other websites) in your post content.

But this lesson is about automatically importing external images to your website and auto-changing their URLs inside your post content to their new URL on your website.

How To Save External Post Images In WordPress?

There is a plugin for that, navigate to Plugins -> Add New page to search and install Auto Upload Images plugin on your website.

Upon activation, visit its settings page to select your options such as if you want to exclude the plugin’s functionality for any post type or you want to block certain websites for uploading images, etc.

The plugin automatically works when you save your post, it searches for the image URLs present inside your post content and when it finds any external image URL, it imports it to your website and replaces its URL inside your post content.

How To Save Contact Form Messages In WordPress?

Whenever someone sends you a message using the contact form on your website, it is directly sent to your email address and not stored online on your website. In this process sometimes WordPress Website owners miss the email and so messages too. In this lesson, you will learn how you can store and access messages also from your admin area dashboard.

The most popular plugin for creating contact forms is Contact Form 7. There’s one more plugin called Flamingo, developed as an addon plugin for Contact Form 7, which doesn’t store submitted messages. But when you use the Flamingo plugin you would be able to store messages on your website too.

Storing Contact Messages In WordPress

To use the plugin, make sure that Contact Form 7 plugin is active on your website. Next, navigate to Plugins -> Add New page on your admin area dashboard to find and install the Flamingo plugin.

After activation, you will see the Flamingo in your admin area menu. There you will see that all new contact messages are listed in a searchable format. By using this plugin you no longer be losing contact messages due to server issues, missed emails, misconfigurations in your mail setup, etc.

Jetpack Plugin Also Has The Feature

Apart from this, you should also know that the Jetpack plugin also provides you with contact form functionality, and its messages are automatically stored on your admin area dashboard, you can access such messages from the admin section’s ‘Feedback’ menu.

How To Create Chat Rooms On WordPress Website?

Without connecting to any third-party service you can start fully hosted chatrooms on your WordPress Website for enabling chat for the users and guests.

This lesson will show you a really simple process of doing that in minutes. Simply log in to your WordPress site and navigate to Plugins -> Add New page to search and install Simple Ajax Chat – Add a Fast, Secure Chat Box plugin on your website.

Creating A Chat Room

Upon activation, navigate to your admin area dashboard Settings -> Simple Ajax Chat page and change the default name of the chat to anything you want.

Then choose your options such as whether you require login or want to enable chat for the guests too, enter banned phrases, etc. Now save your changes and scroll down to copy the shortcode.

Displaying A Chat Room

For displaying the chat room navigate to Pages -> Add New page and paste the shortcode you have just copied. Publish the page and your chat room is live. You may also add the chatroom page link to your website’s navigation menu from the admin area dashboard Appearance -> Menus page.

Alternatively, another awesome plugin called Chat Room is also there, but it has not been tested with the recent WordPress versions, although it still works. If you want, you may try that one also.

Automatically Calculate Taxes & Print Shipping Labels In WordPress Ecommerce

WordPress Ecommerce is your all-in-one solution to start an eCommerce shop within minutes simply by registering your domain name and subscribing to WordPress Ecommerce. It is loaded with WooCommerce, hosting, backup, security, and everything you need to set up your store and manage it without any technical skills.

This lesson guides you on how quickly you can manage sales by automatically calculating taxes and printing shipping labels. You will just need to create products and your store will automatically take care of tax calculation, payment processing setup, and printing the shipping label, etc.

How To Implement Auto Tax Calculation & Shipping Label Print?

Simply log in to your WordPress Ecommerce website and navigate to Plugins -> Add New page to find and install WooCommerce Shipping & Tax plugin on your website.

The plugin needs to have the Jetpack plugin installed and activated on your website. If it is not installed, a prompt will appear to install and connect Jetpack. As you do that, a setup complete banner will display.

Once done, you would be able to set up shipping from your admin area dashboard WooCommerce -> Settings -> Shipping -> WooCommerce Shipping & Tax -> Shipping Labels page.

And taxes can be managed from your admin area dashboard WooCommerce -> Settings -> Tax page by selecting the “Enable automated taxes” option. The plugin provides you with all important options to manage shipping and taxes on your website.

How To Display The ‘Read More’ Button On All WordPress Posts?

In the previous lesson, you learned about displaying the ‘Read more’ button on any blog post on your WordPress Website. Now if you have so many posts and you want to automatically show excerpts i.e. ‘Read More’ option then that also can be done.

Navigate to Plugins -> Add New page on your admin area and search for the Easy Custom Auto Excerpt‘ plugin and install and activate it.

Upon activation visit your admin area Dashboard -> Excerpts page and select your options such as after how many words or paragraphs you would like to display a ‘Read More’ button, the color of the button, whether you like to display it only on the home page or other tags and category pages too, etc.

After selecting your options, save the settings and your website would start showing excerpts with a ‘Read More’ link instead of whole posts.

How To Click & Save Any Online Image To WordPress Media Library?

Any online image can be saved to the media library of your WordPress Website either with a click on the image’s page or by pasting the image URL in the admin panel of your website.

To add these features to your WordPress site, simply navigate to Plugins -> Add New section and search for LH Add Media From Url plugin.

Saving Image By Pasting The URL

After activation, you can save any media file from your admin area dashboard Media -> Add from URL page.

Simply paste the URL of the media file and proceed by clicking the ‘Submit’ button. In a few seconds, the image would get saved in your media library and you would be able to give it a title, alt text, and other optional information.

The saved images can be used on any post or page of your website simply by using the ‘Add Media’ button and then selecting the image from the media library.

Saving Image In One Click

The plugin also offers you a bookmarklet that can be dragged to your browser’s bookmarks bar from Media -> Add from the URL page.

Now, whenever you want to upload an online file to your website, you can upload it by clicking the bookmarklet. It skips the process of copying and pasting of URL for saving the image and the image automatically gets saved to your WordPress site’s media library.

How To Export And Import WordPress Menus?

The WordPress navigation menus can also be exported and imported just like posts and pages.

WordPress export page on the admin area ‘Tools’ menu doesn’t allow you to export navigation menus although menus are exported when you download the complete XML file by selecting the ‘All Content’ option.

In case you only want to export navigation menus then this lesson guides you on how to do that easily on any WordPress Website.

How To Export WordPress Menus?

Simply navigate to Plugins -> Add New page on your admin area dashboard to find and install a WordPress plugin called ‘WPS Menu Exporter‘.

Upon activation, visit the Tools -> Export page and you will notice that a new radio button option ‘Navigation Menus’ has been added to the export items list. Tick that option and click the ‘Download Export File’ button and you would be able to export navigation menus just as you export Pages, Posts, and Media from your WordPress site in the form of an XML file.

How To Import WordPress Menus?

For importing navigation menus to other WordPress websites, visit the Tools -> Import page on the website you want to import menus.

The page might ask you to install WordPress importer. For that, you just need to click the ‘Run Importer’ button below WordPress and it will be installed. Now you can select and upload the XML file to import menus o your website.

How To Merge Similar Tags & Categories In WordPress Website?

Merging similar tags, categories, and other taxonomies is possible. You may either merge or convert one taxonomy into another from the admin panel of your website.

To do so, simply visit Plugins -> Add New page to find and install a plugin called ‘TaxoPress‘. It offers you options for adding, removing, merging, bulk editing, and deleting unused tags, categories, and custom taxonomies on any WordPress site.

Once activated the plugin enables you to merge and manage all taxonomy terms on your website from your Dashboard -> TaxoPress -> Manage Terms page as shown in the given screenshot.

The key features of the plugin include:

  • Organize: In TaxoPress, you can manage taxonomies, and also terms. There are tools for you to add, rename, remove, delete, and even merge terms. You can add any term or taxonomy to any post type.
  • Optimize: TaxoPress can improve your SEO with automatic term management. TaxoPress can automatically suggest relevant terms for your content and link those terms to the correct archive pages.
  • Showcase: TaxoPress allows you to use your terms for advanced features such as Related Posts and Tag Clouds.

The plugin is fully functional with Managed WordPress, WordPress Ecommerce, as well as popular WordPress plugin features such as WooCommerce Product Categories, and bbPress.

How To Make A Private WordPress Website Or Hide It On The Internet?

Managed WordPress allows anyone to make a website and enables its access to limited members. If you simply want to make certain posts or pages private then that option is already there on WordPress and if you want to hide it completely, that can also be done.

Making Certains Posts & Pages Private

WordPress already allows you to keep certain posts, pages, or post types private or password protected, the option is present in the ‘Summary’ section on the right below the ‘Publish’ button on post editing screens.

Making Your Complete WordPress Website Password Protected

To hide your website on the internet and allow only selective users to access the website you may use the ‘Hide My Site‘ plugin. Install it from Plugins -> Add New page. Once activated, navigate to Settings > Hide My Site > Set Your Password. If you want to disable password protection uncheck the box at Settings > Hide My Site > Enable Password Protection. The plugin allows you to set a single password to view the website.

Discouraging Search Engines To Archive Content

You may also discourage search engines from taking content from your website to show it on search engine results pages by navigating to Settings -> Reading and ticking the option to discourage search engines from archiving the website.

Displaying PDFs As 3D Flipbooks On Your WordPress Website

Embedding PDFs as 3D flipbooks keep your content monetized where as flat PDF links open in the web browsers and you get no chance of earning through ads on your website.

Apart from this, embeds of PDFs as flipbooks look far more impressive than flat PDF links and the best thing is the visitor remains on your website while he reads the PDF.

This lesson guides you on how to embed PDFs as 3D flipbooks easily on your WordPress website. But first of all, you should know that now anyone can quickly start his own WordPress site simply by registering his domain name and then subscribing to a Managed WordPress plan.

To embed any PDF as a flipbook, visit Plugins -> Add New page and search for the ‘PDF Flipbook, 3D Flipbook WordPress – DearFlip‘ plugin.

Find it, install it, and activate it, upon activation visit Flipbooks -> Add New Flipbook page on your admin area dashboard. Enter a title, upload your PDF, publish it, and then copy the shortcode that appears on the top right section of the page.

Next, create a new post or page or open any old content for editing, (wherever you like to embed your flipbook) and simply paste the copied shortcode and the PDF flipbook will appear.

How To Enable Product Comparison On Your WordPress Ecommerce Website?

You can allow your customers to compare multiple products, and help them analyze what exactly they want. First of all, you should know that anyone can build his own online store simply by registering his domain name and then subscribing to WordPress Ecommerce.

Next, to enable product comparison, you will need to visit Plugins -> Add New page and search for ‘Productive Wishlist, Compare and Quick View for WooCommerce‘ plugin, install and activate it. Upon actiavtion you would be able to control the plugin options from its admin settings page.

The plugin offers three essential features of eCommerce:

  1. Product Comparison
  2. Product Quick View
  3. Product Wishlists

Allowing customers to analyze the product with a side-to-side comparison will encourage more sales because in many cases they get confused with the list of related products that are offering low and high prices of same or similar options. This makes them to procrastinate the purchase and look up for more products. By comparing products side to side is going to let them know what extras are there in the other product added in comparision and which one is right for them.

Removing Deleted Pages Of Your Website From Search Engine Results

When you delete any web page of your WordPress Website, it stays there on the search engines archive index for a very long time and the users following that link notice error pages.

This lesson will guide you in two things,

  1. How to redirect those broken page links to something relevant?
  2. How to ask search engines for removing deleted pages?

Fixing Links For Deleted Pages

Link Fixer, previously known as Permalink Finder is a very useful WordPress plugin that fixes all not found errors on your website.

Simply install it from Plugins -> Add New page of your WordPress site. Upon activation, the plugin automatically redirects all broken links internally and externally i.e. your website links present on search engines and other websites to something most relevant instead of showing a 404 not found error to your visitors.

Updating Search Engines

To update search engines like Google for removing deleted posts and pages of your website from their search index, you simply need to install and activate the Remove Deleted Pages from Search Index plugin on your WordPress site.

Upon activation, the plugin implements the 410 HTTP status code for all deleted web pages of your website, as that tells search engines that the web page is no longer available and must be removed from the index.

Replacing A Word Or Sentence Across Your Managed WordPress Website

Suppose you change your site name or you write about something whose name has been changed or maybe you have found a better word or you have updated your promotional slogan and now you want to update it all over your website. This can be easily done by following a few easy steps given in this lesson.

Login to your WordPress site and navigate to Plugins -> Add New page. Use the search box to find the ‘Text Replacer‘ plugin. Once you find it simply install and activate it.

Upon activation, from this plugin’s page on your dashboard, you would be able to replace one word, a set of words, or any sentence from your posts and pages of your website without having to edit the content one by one. The plugin has been programmed keeping non-technical users in mind so anyone can make use of it.

Managing Attendees For Your Event From Your Managed WordPress Website

The event managers using their Managed WordPress website can manage the attendees for their events.

Managed WordPress is the complete solution for easily starting and managing any kind of website on your own. All you need to do is register your domain name and subscribe to a Managed WordPress plan. Event Managers may extend their website by having a free plugin called RSVP and Event Management Plugin.

Simply navigate to Plugins -> Add New page, and search for ‘RSVP and Event Management Plugin’ to install and activate it. Upon activation, the plugin lets you manage attendees for your events. It can be used for:

  • Weddings
  • Business conferences
  • Any kind of gatherings
  • Community events
  • Birthdays, etc

It offers you the following group of features:

  • Open registration or private attendee list
  • Custom questions
  • Import and export attendees
  • The ability for attendees to add additional guests
  • Easy to customize the text
  • Passcode or no passcode to RSVP
  • Easy attendee management
  • Associate attendees to make it easier for groups/families to RSVP all at the same time
  • Email notifications

These options can be managed from the RSVP Plugin page accessible in your admin area dashboard. Once you are there, simply set the “RSVP Open Date” and “RSVP Deadline” which state the starting date and the deadline to apply for the event.

Once you set the dates, create a new page from Pages -> Add New and paste the shortcode [rsvp]. This page will allow people to enter their names to complete their RSVP which means reply if the event pleases you and you want to attend it.

Apart from the page that is created for visitors, you can manually add the guests too from the admin panel of the plugin and the list of attendees will be created that will help you to know how many people are attending the event.

Six Spectacular Blog Designs You Can Use On Your Managed WordPress Site

Managed WordPress allows anyone to have a responsive blog with the website. All you need to do is register your domain name and then subscribe to a Managed WordPress plan.

Once you do that you can extend your website with free plugins that can be installed from the admin panel of your website. This lesson is on one such WordPress plugin that offers you six beautiful blog layouts to make your website look nice and impressive.

  • It lets you create six blog designs with shortcodes
  • You can add it to unlimited posts
  • Offers you to implement a timeline layout
  • You can auto-generate shortcodes to easily embed a blog

To use the plugin navigate to Plugins -> Add New page on the admin area of your website and then type Blog Manager WP on the search box. Now install and activate the plugin. Upon activation, the plugin adds a new menu ‘Blog Manager’ that enables you to select and implement new blog designs over the pages of your website.

You can select and display these designs simply by pasting this shortcode [wp_pbsm] on any page of your website. All layouts have a fully responsive design and you can also modify them easily from the admin side.

How Restaurants Can Offer Online Table Booking From Their Website?

Anyone can start his website simply by registering his domain name and then subscribing to a Managed WordPress plan. Once your website is live you can add more features to it by installing plugins.

To enable your customers to book tables online from your website, simply login to the admin area dashboard of your WordPress site and navigate to Plugins -> Add New page. Now use the search box to find Five Star Restaurant Reservations – WordPress Booking Plugin and then install-activate it.

Upon activation you would be able to:

  • Create a customized responsive restaurant reservation form on all devices
  • You can add this reservation form to any page via the included Gutenberg restaurant booking block or shortcode, or simply choose your reservation page in the settings
  • You can set up a specific restaurant schedule by defining the times and dates available for reservation
  • You would be able to quickly confirm or reject a booking
  • Notify a customer by email when their request is confirmed or rejected
  • Receive email notification when a booking is requested

This all and more can be done from the new menu ‘Bookings’ added to the admin panel of your website.

Now Food Bloggers Can Easily Implement Impressive Recipe Layouts

Creating beautiful block patterns on food blogs has become easier than ever. Anyone can create a food blog by registering his domain name and subscribing to a Managed WordPress plan to get support in every step of creating, managing, and promoting his website.

Earlier bloggers used to find specific food themes from Themes -> Add New page on the WordPress admin dashboard but now you can create complex recipe layouts inside your post in a few clicks.

What Do You Get With Block Patterns For Food Bloggers?

Food bloggers commonly focus on creating heading-based posts offering step-by-step recipe processes under multiple sections and images. The new WordPress plugin called Block Patterns for Food Bloggers simplifies this task by offering you pre-designed recipe patterns in to form of WordPress blocks that are fully customizable.

How To Use It?

Simply navigate to Plugins -> Add New section on your WordPress admin area dashboard and find the plugin ‘Block Patterns For Food Bloggers’ using the search box. Next, install and activate the plugin.

Upon activation, you will find an icon on Add New/ Edit post screen, at the top of the editor. Clicking or tapping this icon launches the patterns in a modal box you can select and insert inside your post.

These patterns are fully customizable but most patterns can be used as it is simply by replacing the content with your own.

For pages, there are patterns that let you display a grid of categories and tags by inserting the patterns and then replacing their images and links with your own. Edits to patterns can be made from the ‘Block’ section visible on the right side of WordPress edit screens, right to ‘Post’, and below the ‘Publish’ button.

How To Make A Website With All Features You Need?

Managed WordPress has made it easier for everyone to make websites with the features they need. You can make a good website yourself in less than thirty minutes simply by registering your domain name and then subscribing to a Managed WordPress plan.

Next thing is how you can easily add up features you need on your website to make it easier for people to deal with your business online.

To get most of the features you simply need to find and install right plugins on your website. This is simply done by logging in to your WordPress site and then navigating to Plugins -> Add New page. Now search the the plugin via search box by typing the feature you have in your mind.

These features may include online ordering or eCommerce, if you want to run an online store, portfolios & photo galleries, call-to-action feature, pricing tables, and forms, etc based on your business needs.

Consider your audience and your goals for the website when coming up with the list of necessary plugins you need to have on your website.

Improve Search Engines Crawl On Your Managed WordPress Website

Crawling is a process used by search engines to find content and present it to the people searching for it on the internet. In this process, search engines like Google send robots known as crawlers and spiders to find content on blogs and websites.

They not only take new content but also look up the updates made to content on websites. This content could be a blog post, image, video, or file such as PDF but anyhow of the format, the content is generally discovered by links.

Generally, websites contain a lot of information in headers which is not useful for many of us and instead makes the website insecure. For example, WordPress headers contain information about plugins and themes used on the website. This lesson will guide you on how you can remove such things on your website to better the crawl rate, make your website load faster and be more secure.

How To Remove Unnecessary Information From Your Header?

To make your website load faster, have a better crawl rate, and perform more securely on the internet you will need to remove unnecessary information from the header. This can be easily done by a plugin you can install on your website.

Simply navigate to Plugins -> Add New page on the admin area dashboard of your WordPress site and search the term ‘Crawl Optimization’.

Install and activate this plugin and it will deactivate elements such as short links, REST API links, RSD/WLW links, oEmbed links, generator tags, and X-Pingback headers to streamline website navigation and reduce the amount of data transferred.

Have A Faster, Secure & Easy Crawlable Website

As a result, your website will become faster as unnecessary data transfer and streamlining navigation are now minimized. SEO is enhanced as your website is not easily navigable by search engines. The crawl rate improves as the plugin removes all unnecessary links and information from the HTTP headers of your website.