Nothing is worse than adding HTML to a WordPress editor only to find out that your code has then been auto-formatted for you. There is a way to turn off HTML formatting in WordPress, but you are going to need a little help from the plugin we are going to use today.

What Happens to the HTML Code I Add?

The main issue people have is that when they add HTML code to the WordPress text editor and then switch back to the visual editor, all of the code is stripped out and WordPress formats automatically. The system is technically doing this to help you, as it is stripping code that it thinks is not correct and necessary.

For a long time, there was nothing you could do about it. However, over time, certain code emerged that you could add and that might help you out. You could also do all of your formatting ahead of time in an outside editor, then paste that content into the text editor in WordPress and publish it.

However, even if you do that, if you mistakenly click on the visual editor, then WordPress auto formats the HTML all over again. So around and around you go, with no progress being made in the event that you do this.

Today, I am going to show you how you can stop HTML formatting in WordPress by using a plugin that will give you code to take care of all these problems.

Let’s take a look at the plugin in question and see all that it has to offer.

Raw HTML

Raw HTML is a lightweight, easy-to-use plugin, that allows you to stop WordPress from automatically formatting HTML content. You do need to stay in the text editor, but the pro version takes care of this issue as well.

The Raw HTML plugin works very simply. Once added, you wrap any part of a post or page in the code generated by the plugin. Essentially, wrapping content in this shortcode will prevent WordPress from converting newlines to HTML paragraphs.

The plugin becomes even more useful if you need to (or want to) add a CSS block or JavaScript to your post or page. Aside from the shortcode provided in the plugin, it also adds new checkboxes to the “Edit Post” screen. You can use these checkboxes to disable certain WordPress filters on a post-by-post basis. Despite being lightweight, Raw HTML will also allow:

• Ability to disable wptexturize
• Disable auto paragraph creation
• Ability to disable image smilies
• Disable convert_chars

All in all, you will be very hard-pressed to find a better plugin for this issue. Let’s get it installed and set up together so you can fix all the HTML on your site.

Note: The free version of this plugin only supports editing posts in the HTML editor (text editor) in WordPress. If you want to switch between the text and visual editor without messing up content, then you need to get the pro version of the plugin.

It should also be noted that this plugin does not fully support the Gutenberg editor. The tutorial below is geared toward individuals that are still using the classic editor in WordPress to build and write.

Stop WordPress From Trying to Auto-Format HTML

Step 1. Install and Activate the Plugin

In order to stop the auto-format of HTML in WordPress, you first need to install and activate the plugin. You can do this by jumping over to the Plugins page in the WordPress admin dashboard.

There you will find a search field. Use that field to search the plugin by name. Once you see it pop up, install and activate it right from there.

Step 2: Create a New Post to Auto-Format HTML

Now that the plugin is installed and activated, it is time to create a new post. To do this, click on Posts > Add New, located on the left side menu area of the dashboard.

This will open a new post where you can use the code seen below, and also have access to the checkboxes the plugin provides.

Note: There is no settings page for the plugin.

Step 3: Create HTML Content

When the editor opens (classic editor), click on the “Text” tab and start creating your HTML content. You want to wrap the content in the following code:

[raw]content here[/raw] or content here tags.

This prevents part of your post or page from being formatted by WordPress. Remember, you must be on the Text/HTML editor and wrap it in the code above. The visual editor only works with the pro version of the plugin.

The two versions of the code above work exactly the same. The one difference is that the latter (tags) won’t be visible to your visitors even if you deactivate the Raw HTML plugin.

Step 4: Scroll Down to Use Raw HTML Checkboxes

You can also scroll down the page and use any of the available checkboxes provided by the plugin. These will disable certain features based on what you need.

That’s it! Go ahead and publish the content. You can see that all your HTML formatting will remain and you are good to go.

Remember, stay on the Text editor or the editor will still auto-format HTML. Again, you need the pro version of the plugin to use the visual side of the editor.

Other Plugins to Use to Stop Auto-Format of HTML?

Plugins for this type of feature are few and far between. There is always code that you can add to your theme, but this involves getting into the PHP file, and not everyone is comfortable with that.

That being said, there is another plugin that helps with typography and other issues you may face when using the WordPress editor. Feel free to take a look at it and see if it can be useful to you in any way.

wp-Typography

wp-Typography will help you improve web typography and also give you more control over a lot of functionality found in the WordPress editor. You will be able to access spacing control, character replacement, and CSS hooks. 

The plugin does not slow down page load times and it has a smooth and easy-to-understand settings page that you can tailor to your liking. Give it a look.

Final Thoughts

Auto format of HTML in WordPress has been an ongoing issue for quite some time. That being said, as the years have passed, different tools and functions have emerged that can help you stop WordPress from automatically formatting HTML content.

The plugin above will give you pretty good control over this type of content. Remember, you will need to stay on the Text editor tab, and you also need to be using the classic editor. If you aren’t, then this tutorial is not for you and the Gutenberg editor has its own way of dealing with this.

I hope this tutorial was able to show you how easy it is to get WordPress to stop auto-formatting your HTML content.

Have you used this plugin before? Do you prefer to add code to the PHP file?

The post How to Stop WordPress from Auto Formatting HTML in Posts and Pages appeared first on GreenGeeks.

Producing your own WordPress content has become so easy that even a beginner can get a post up within a few hours. However, it takes a lot of practice to create content without spelling errors.

Thus, you are going to want tools to help you minimize those, which only increases the quality of your content.

In this article, I will show you how to allow WordPress user spelling notifications. In other words, let’s look at an easy way to get WordPress push notifications sent to you from your users when they see an error in your content.

Are Small Errors Really Important?

The short answer… yes!

Have you ever gone to a blog or any other website and read something you thought was good, but there were spelling and grammar errors within the article? Even the smallest ones hurt.

Be honest, you don’t look at the content the same way when you see these errors. Maybe English isn’t your first language? Maybe the article attempts to spell or show something in a different language.

Obviously, as the author, you don’t always catch all of your mistakes. When you are the only one looking at the content you have written things can get muddled.

It is easy to miss something, even something as small as a misspelled word or a little grammar mistake like missing a comma, etc. Other things like typos, broken links, incorrect stats, or facts because they have changed over time, can really hinder a WordPress post.

What was supposed to be a dynamic piece of content is getting viewed in a different way. There are many common WordPress errors that can live inside content for years because once it is published you aren’t paying much more attention to it.

Whatever the case may be, allowing WordPress to post spelling notifications from your website users is a great way to fix any content that may be wrong. There are other ways to check your spelling and grammar, but this puts the power in the hands of the user.

How to Add A User Notification For WordPress Spelling Errors

The Webmaster Spelling Notifications plugin is a great plugin for this task. This plugin isn’t a traditional spell checker, instead, it allows visitors to report spelling mistakes to the author.

This is a great option because even if you do have an editor or use a more traditional spelling & grammar checker like Grammarly, the truth is mistakes will slip through. And some users take great pride in pointing these mistakes out.

When a visitor does this, a user notification will be sent in WordPress to inform the proper parties of the spelling errors.

Note: The plugin has not been updated in some time, however, the plugin still works as of October 2022.

Step 1: Install Webmaster Spelling Notifications

As with all plugins, the first step is to install the Webmaster Spelling Notifications plugin. Go to the plugin area of WordPress, search for the plugin and click on the “Install Now” button.

Activate the plugin for use and you’ll be ready to set it up.

Step 2: Customize the Notifications

The plugin is quite easy to set up and just requires that you go through a settings page for customizing. In reality, it should really only take a few minutes to set up, so let’s begin.

On the left-hand admin panel, click on Settings and select the Spelling Notifications option.

First, make sure the email address in the Email To box is correct. This is where the notifications will be sent to. By default, it will take the email address associated with your WordPress admin account.

Because there is a chance for users to misuse this feature and create spam, I strongly suggest making a separate email address for this purpose.

Next, you will see the banner. You don’t actually have to modify this, but you do have that as an option if you wish to adjust the size or something else about it.

In reality, all you need to do is copy the banner code and paste it into the footer.php file.

Below this, you’ll find a series of text boxes that you can customize. This is what users will see when they interact with the tool and submit mistakes.

The default options work fine, so feel free to leave it alone if everything looks good.

When you are happy with all of the changes, simply click on the “Save Settings” button at the bottom.

Step 3: Wait For A User Notification in WordPress About Spelling Errors

With everything set up and the banner code in your footer.php file, you are good to go. At this point, you need to wait for users to actually find and submit spelling errors, assuming they actually do.

Remember to check the email address you entered regularly to get notifications as soon as possible. Otherwise, it defeats the purpose of adding this plugin in the first place.

Note: One thing I did not mention is that you have several language options to choose from. You’ll find a Language option on the Setting page from Step 2. By default, it is for English.

Congratulations on setting up the Webmaster Spelling Notifications plugin.

Is This Enough?

Now just to be crystal clear, the above solution is just one of several steps you should take to minimize spelling errors on your website.

Truthfully, not only should the author and editor proofread the content you release, but you should also take advantage of other tools. For example, I mention Grammarly before and it is a great tool to use.

Grammarly has a Chrome extension for your web browser that will find spelling and grammar mistakes as you type. And it’s free to use.

You may wish to use the premium version for even better results, but the free version is more than enough to catch spelling mistakes.

Of course, that’s just one tool. There are multiple online resources that allow you to copy and paste your text and have a program search for mistakes. And yes, most of these are completely free.

Though, the best advice is to improve your own grammar to better spot these mistakes.

Add A User Notification For WordPress Spelling Errors Today

The Webmaster Spelling Notifications is a great plugin that can help you utilize your visitor’s impressive ability to spot spelling mistakes. Of course, it does rely on visitors to interact with it, so you need to let them know.

For instance, write a small blog post informing them about how they can use the tool to locate these errors. Just be sure to thank them and potentially offer some kind of reward for their trouble.

After all, you will get much better results if visitors have some form of incentive to make it worth their time.

What steps do you take to minimize the number of spelling mistakes in WordPress? Do users submit mistakes they find?

The post How to Let Users Send Notifications for Spelling and Errors in WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

Now, you may think that is an easy thing to do, and it is. But most beginners ignore or are completely unaware of some of the more important steps in this process. Trust me, most sites put a lot of thought into what posts they make and why.

Today, I am going to cover every detail you need to consider when you create a new post in WordPress.

How to Create A New Post In WordPress

Creating a new post in WordPress is easy, but creating a good post is difficult. There is a lot of research and work that goes into producing high-quality content that ranks well on Google while also capturing the reader’s attention.

Luckily, there are a lot of tips that can help you with the writing process and I have assembled them into this list.

1. Keyword Research

The first thing you need to consider when creating a new post in WordPress is what keywords you want to rank for. Thus, you need to do keyword research before you do anything in WordPress itself.

There are several tools you can use, so if you already have one, feel free to use that.

The Google Keyword Planner is a great choice. It is part of the “Google Ads” platform, but you don’t need to create an advertisement to use it.

As the name suggests, it is made by Google, which has the most data to back up its listing. You’ll simply type in the keyword you are interested in ranking for and the tool will provide a list of similar phrases and how they all perform in search.

This includes the average monthly searches, how much the search volume has changed over the last three months, the level of competition, and much more. A keyword that does not get a lot of volume is not a great choice.

You want something that gets a lot of searches and does not have a lot of competition. It’s easier said than done, but this is the starting point when creating any new piece of content.

The Internet is full of keyword tools. Find one that works best for your needs and explore what kind of content people are looking for that fits your niche or topic.

2. Understand Search Intent

Now that you have a keyword picked out, take a moment and consider what users searching for it will actually be looking for?

An easy example would be if someone searched for “Apple Pie Recipes” they are going to be looking for recipes and instructions to bake an apple pie. While that is a simple one, others are not so clear.

For example, if someone was searching for a general term like “The Avengers,” that is very difficult to figure out the user’s intent. Are they talking about the movies, comics, animated films, or perhaps the video game?

As you can see that can get very complicated. So how do you figure this out? That’s when you rely more on long-tail keywords.

For instance, let’s take our “The Avengers” example. Let’s say we want to focus more on people who want a list of the names of characters who were part of the Avengers. In this case, our long-tail keyphrase my be something like “avengers characters,” “who were the avengers,” or “list of avengers characters.”

While those phrases will undoubtedly have a lower volume in search, the criteria is more focused. That means people who are interested in that specific information are more likely to click and spend time reading the post.

3. Research the Competition

To rank highly on Google, or other search engines, you have to create a better piece of content than everyone else, and this isn’t easy.

Naturally, before you start writing anything, you should look at what other sites that are ranking for your keyword are doing. How do you know what sites are ranking for your keyword? Type the keyword into Google.

When browsing the content, identify how long it is (the word count), figure out what kind of user intent they are aiming for, and look for ways you can improve it. Your goal is to make something better and longer than what the competitor is doing.

Something else to keep an eye out for is the title. You want to make sure that whatever you create does have a unique title that stands out from the rest. In some cases, a generic title will work well enough, but keep it in your mind.

This isn’t always the easiest thing to do depending on the popularity of your topic. But it’s more beneficial to your site if you try to come up with something snazzy or unique that isn’t clickbait.

Tools like CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer can help you create something that is eye-catching in search.

4. Create A New WordPress Post

With some research out of the way, you should know what keywords you are trying to rank and have an idea of what users are looking for. Now, we can finally go to WordPress and create a new post.

From the WordPress dashboard, click on Posts and select the Add New Post option. Alternatively, you can use the “Add New Post” button in the posts section to achieve the same result.

This will open up a blank post where you can begin the writing process, which we will now cover. WordPress uses the Gutenberg editor, which is block-based. This means that every element you may add to a post like an image will have a dedicated block.

This makes the editor extremely easy to use, and you may want to spend some time just experimenting with it so you have a general idea of where things are and what they do. For a full breakdown of Gutenberg, check out this tutorial.

5. Create A Title For Your New WordPress Post

The first thing you’ll want to do is come up with a title for your new post. The title is one of the first things a user will see before they click on your post. On a search engine like Google, it is what appears in the search results.

You can find the title section of your post at the very top of the Gutenberg editor. It will say “Add Title”.

Now, you may be wondering, what should my title include? First off, your title should include the keyword you are trying to rank for. So, if your keyword was “Apple Pie Recipes” a title could be “7 Recipes to Make the Best Apple Pie”.

You may notice that the keyword is out of order, but that doesn’t matter. As long as every word in the keyphrase you want to use appears in the title, you are good to go. You want to also ensure you are using adjectives to describe your post.

Virtually every post online uses terms like Best, Amazing, Incredible, and so on. That’s because they work and increase clicks. As I said earlier, CoSchedule can vastly improve how you create titles that are catchy.

6. Create And Add A Featured Image

A featured image is usually the first thing besides the title that users will see. Another term for it would be the “Thumbnail.”

This image appears directly below the title of the post and will be on display on the front of your site (or wherever you have posts listed) or when it is shared on social media platforms. As such, the image needs to be great.

Many beginners will opt to use royalty-free images, and that is a fine way to start. However, you should still add your logo to the image. You can do this with any photo editing software, but by far the most popular option is to use Photoshop or Canva.

This can be adding your website’s name and logo to a corner of the image. It helps make the image you choose stand out.

That said, taking the time to create a great thumbnail will do wonders for your post. In fact, many users often look at the image first because it takes up more space and is usually more eye-catching than reading a title.

To add the featured image, simply click on the Featured Image option on the right-hand side.

Click on the Set Feature Image option and it will open up the media library where you can either choose an existing image or upload a new one.

A good thumbnail can help you get views, so take your time to create a great one.

7. Create A Header Structure

Alright, at this point, you are ready to start writing. These next couple of tips will relate to using Gutenberg to create a post.

One of the most important aspects of your site is creating a header structure that pleases search engines while also helping users navigate the post. To add a header, simply add a Heading block.

There are six types of headers, but realistically, most sites just stick to H2, H3, and H4. There is a Hierarchy here and it needs to be respected, otherwise, search engines won’t like it.

For example, let’s say you had an H3, followed by an H2, followed by an H4. Going from an H2 to an H4 is not acceptable. An H2 should be the main heading, and if you have a subheading, it should use H3. And H4 would be there in case you need a sub-sub heading.

It might sound tricky, but it is very simple.

Think of it like this; the H2 is a primary point, an H3 supports the H2, and the H4 supports the H3…and so on. It’s a way to drill deeper into the information you’re providing while keeping the points separated.

8. Add Images

We talked about the featured image earlier, but your content should also include regular images as well. Images help spice up your content, or in some cases, they can help explain your topic better.

Like in the case of tutorials, showing an example of how something works accentuates the text.

Adding images is quite easy in WordPress. Simply add an Image block to the editor.

Once the block is in place, click on the “Media Library” to choose an image from your media library. Alternatively, click on the “Upload” button to upload a new image to use.

Once you have the image in place, you are not done. There is another aspect to images called “Alternative Text” that you must fill in. This tells search engines what the image is about and it should also incorporate the keyword when appropriate.

You can find the Alternative text option by looking at the image block setting on the right-hand side of the screen.

So, you are probably wondering, what should I make my alternative text say? Imagine if you were adding an image of an Apple Pie to the blog. You would want the alternative text to say “Apple Pie” as it refers to the image.

Some people also enable text-to-speech when browsing a website because they have poor eyesight. Browsers and apps will use the Alternate Text to describe that image.

You also want to try any relevant keywords you are ranking for. Thus, if your keyword was “Apple Pie Recipes” that would also work as the alternative text. It’s not hard, just be descriptive about the image and try to include your keyword when applicable.

Just make sure you keep it short and sweet. You shouldn’t have an entire sentence about your image as an Alternate Text. Somewhere around three to six words should be more than enough.

9. Add Taxonomies (Categories & Tags)

Taxonomies help developers organize their content by introducing categories and tags. This helps your users find content topics they are interested in and avoid the rest. It also helps with your SEO efforts by telling the same to search engines.

In most cases, both tags and categories will consist of a single word like “Finance” or “Webhosting”, thus they take very little time to add.

To add a category or tag in WordPress simply click on Categories or Tags on the right-hand side of the screen under the Post settings.

Let’s start with tags. Here, you can simply enter the tags you want to assign and separate them with a comma. For example, if you wanted to use “Avengers”, “Ironman”, and “Hulk”, you would enter each one into the text box.

Pressing “Enter” after each tag also works.

Now for Categories, you would simply select the category that you wish to use by checking the box.

If you do not see any categories, that is because you have not created any. To create one, click on the Add New Category link. This will bring you to the Categories section of WordPress. Simply enter the Name and Description for the category.

Then click on the “Add New Category” button to save it.

That category will now be available to select on the post.

You can also create a new category directly from the post you’re working on by clicking “Add New Category” under the list of categories in the Post section of the editor.

10. Write An Excerpt

An excerpt is a small piece of your post that is displayed to highlight the article. Many themes, such as ColorNews, will use the excerpt in areas like the front page, but some do not, so be sure to consult your theme’s documentation.

It’s like a teaser for your content that can be displayed without showing the entire piece.

Remember that an excerpt should be short and to the point while also explaining what the article is about. Most importantly, it should make the visitor want to read the rest of the article.

To add one, click on the Excerpt option on the right-hand side of the screen.

If you do not take the time to create an excerpt. Some themes will just take the first sentence or two from the post. In some cases, this is fine, but you should make sure your theme does this and consider it when writing introductions.

11. Enable/Disable Comments

You can actually choose to turn off comments on specific posts, which may be necessary from time to time. To do this, open the settings wheel and expand the Discussion option. You will find a checkbox to turn comments on or off.

This is particularly useful when making serious announcements, or when delivering bad news that will have a strong negative response. It is also a great tactic to limit the amount of spam your site will receive.

That said, comments are an excellent source of feedback for any website, so don’t be too hasty to turn them off. In fact, they can help with user engagement if you regularly reply to visitors. And can even benefit your SEO efforts.

12. Trackbacks & Pingbacks

When trackbacks are set up, WordPress sends a website owner a message when you link to his or her content. This has the potential to be helpful when establishing a relationship with other owners.

However, there is a much darker side when you enable this system. It can create a ton of spam for the websites you are linking to. And ultimately, it could even slow down your website.

Generally speaking, newer websites leave them on, while more established websites turn them off.

By default, this option is on. To find it, simply click on Discussion on the right-hand side of the screen and uncheck the box to “Allow pingbacks & trackbacks” to disable it.

13. Choose An Author For Your New Post

WordPress will automatically set the author of the article as the account you use to log in. However, there may be times when you’re making a new post from someone else.

The “Author” field allows you to change who gets credit on the site for that content.

This can be very useful if you collect visitor submissions and want to give them credit without giving them access to your website’s backend. Or for guest blogs with other content creators.

You can find the Author option on the right-hand side. Simply use the drop-down to select an author.

If you do not have any additional authors, you will need to take a minute and create a user with the correct credentials to be an author.

14. Publishing Your New WordPress Post

The final part of creating a new post is actually publishing it in WordPress. WordPress provides you with a few options to do this. First, make sure everything looks good by checking out the Preview option.

This will open a new tab by default to show you what the post would look like on the live site.

If it looks good, click on the “Publish” button to make it go live immediately. You can find these options on the top-right of the editor.

However, you may want to schedule your post to be released at a later time or a different day completely. This can help you establish a regular release schedule. Or, perhaps you wrote something that is time-sensitive and want it to go live on a precise date.

To do this, locate the Publish options on the right-hand side.

Click on the “Immediately” link and a calendar will open up. Select the date and time you wish to publish the post.

You should notice that the “Immediately” will be changed to the time and date you chose. Be sure to save your work before exiting.

New Post FAQ

You may still have some lingering questions, so here are some of the most frequently asked questions related to new posts.

Create A New Post in WordPress Today

As you can see, a lot more goes into creating a new post in WordPress than just writing. If you do not do these things, then your post will suffer for it in the search engine results. If you fail to rank highly, your web traffic will suffer.

Luckily, nothing we covered today is difficult. While it may sound like a lot, it will become second nature as you gain more experience as a WordPress developer. And with the right plugins, some of this may even be automated for you.

I hope you found this tutorial helpful in learning how to create a new post in WordPress.

How long does it take you to create a new post in WordPress? Do you find the Gutenberg editor easy to use?

The post How to Create a New Post in WordPress – Making Stellar Content appeared first on GreenGeeks.

There may be a time when you’ll need to post something urgent to your website while you’re away from a computer. Using email functionality on your smartphone, you can create a new post and have it updated on your site without opening the WordPress dashboard. This could be a convenient feature, especially if you are a professional who is always on the go or you want to report on something you see at a convention. Regardless of your need, the convenience is there for the taking.

Getting WordPress to Post Content Via Email

Originally, WordPress was set up to allow the system to automatically pull post information directly from an email address of your choosing. However, this feature has been deprecated. According to WordPress.org, the feature will be removed in the future. However, plugins are still available for this convenience.

Plugins

The easiest way to accept posts via email is through the use of plugins. By configuring the address and the plugin, you can create a WordPress post via email quickly from any device that can send those messages. However, you do need to make a few external modifications if you want this to work. Follow these instructions in order to set your WordPress installation to post content from messages you send the system:

1.  Set Up An Email Account

The first thing you need to do is set up an email account that will be used specifically for your content uploads. It’s vital that you make this something that is completely unique and unknown by the general populace. Using strings such as “0djtJ44tu@your-email-address.com” can make it difficult for spam to start posting on your behalf. This email address can be POP3 or IMAP protocols.

2.  Install the Plugin

Go to “Plugins” from your WordPress dashboard. On the top left, click the “Add New” button. On the next screen, you’ll see the search bar on the right. Type in “post by email” and hit enter. You’ll find several plugins that will allow you to create a WordPress post via email. Click the “Install Now” button to add the plugin that fits your needs best.

3.  Roles of Posting Individuals

Some plugins have the capacity to allow anyone to post content to your blog. This could cause a great deal of problems should it be left on, but it’s up to you to decide this. Luckily, some plugins will compare the sender address to those who are in the WordPress system. You can then delegate who gets to post content through email.

4.  Configure Your Default Category

Most plugins will automatically post content from email into your default category. Most installations will have the “Uncategorized” category set up as that default. It may be a good idea to have this content sent to a category that isn’t accessible by the general public easily. It will give you time to make revisions should you need to do so before going live.

5.  Learn Your Shortcodes

Most plugins designed for posting content from email will offer a series of shortcodes to fine-tune the post itself. By entering these snippets of codes into the body of the email, you can do things such as change the category. Each plugin will have a list available of the shortcodes you can use when sending the message to WordPress.

6.  Handling Attachments

Different plugins handle attachments in a similar fashion. For example, images that you send in an email as an attachment will be uploaded to the media folder in WordPress. Most will also post that image as the default for the post itself. This can be useful when you want a certain image to head your content. Some plugins also provide customization of certain kinds of attachments. For example, the “Postie” plugin has templates catered for those who upload video content through email messages.

Post by Email Through Jetpack

Besides many additional add-ons in Jetpack for WordPress, this plugin has a module specifically tailored for posting content through email. However, you need to set this up by having a WordPress.com account. This is a free service and could be helpful when setting up your website’s functionality.

Creating a WordPress post via email can be greatly beneficial when you need something up fast while on the move. From conventions to outdoor functions, a quick blurb from your smartphone can keep your readers apprised of new materials. Just make sure you have the right people uploading content to your site. The last thing you want is spam to saturate your pages. It could take days or even weeks to clear all of that bad material out.

Would posting content through email save you time when you’re on location? What situations have you found yourself in where posting via email would have been beneficial?

The post How to Post to Your WordPress Site Via Email appeared first on GreenGeeks.

What Does the Automatic Post Scheduler Plugin Do?

The Automatic Post Scheduler plugin allows you to modify the intervals in which posts are available on the site. This can be done using different times giving the site a sense of continuity. This small piece of programming can allow you to provide a constant stream of content depending on how many posts you have scheduled in the queue.

3 Ways This Plugin Can Help You Manage Content

1. Keeping the Blog Active

For many blogs, keeping the site active is important for maintaining a certain level of viewership everyday. Sites that don’t have a lot of content or demonstrate a lack of effort are often overlooked by those looking for specific content. Not everyone will follow a blog that owners don’t deliver content on. Uploading a mass amount of content all at once and then allowing the system to publish posts according to timed intervals gives the site the appearance that it’s regularly maintained.

Example: Let’s say that you pay a third-party to write 150 posts that you want to spread out for a couple of months. Instead of logging into WordPress every day or publishing all of the articles in one day, Automatic Post Scheduler can be used to spread the posts over the course of time without further action from yourself. Users will see one or two blog posts per day instead of all 150 at once.

2. Timely Distribution for Blog Followers

Part of a strategy for posting content is understanding what your audience wants to read at certain times of the day. Visitors may be more active at 11 am than they are at 9 am. If you use a system that advises people of new posts, you may want WordPress to publish new content during the times those people are online. When used in combination with an automatic updater for social media posts, your blog can engage your target audience through the most ideal times on both the blog and sites like Twitter or Facebook.

Example: Perhaps you discover that most people respond to your blog post at eight in the morning. What if you’re busy at that time and are unable to make sure the post is published? If you create content the night before, you can make sure that it is published on time even if you’re standing in line at the coffee shop.

3. Contributes to the Editorial Plan

There are many parts to developing the proper editorial plan for any given blog. Some of the best practices involve a lot of data concerning how people use the website. Once you have determined the best content, ideal times and optimum frequency, this WordPress post scheduler can implement the strategy.

Example: After spending a lot of time examining the data from tools such as Google Analytics, you can determine the best course of action for your content. This data could include things such as the best topics and the best time when visitors are active. In many editorial strategies, scheduling the posts would be considered the final stage for releasing content. After which, you would analyze the data accumulated from the next series of blog posts to fine-tune the next release. Using a WordPress post scheduler plugin gives you power over when the content is published to meet the goals of your strategy.

Do you deliver content during a certain time of the day, or do you simply publish the post when you’re done writing it? Have you found the most ideal times people visit your website? Leave a comment below and help others create their own strategies for delivering content.

The post 3 Advantages of Using Automatic Post Scheduler Plugin in WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

Let’s talk about bounce rates and look at some ways to reduce those numbers on your WordPress website.

What is Bounce Rate?

The bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave your website from the same page they came in on. If someone comes in on your homepage and leaves without clicking through any other pages, they’ve bounced.

The bounce rate formula is displayed as a percentage of single-page sessions on your website. It’s a good indicator of your site’s ability to engage visitors and the relevance of its content.

The bounce rate formula is simple. It’s the total number of single-page visits to a website, divided by the total number of visits.

So let’s say the homepage of your website receives 5,000 visitors over the course of a month. But 2,500 of those visitors leave your site after viewing the homepage – they don’t click through to another page.

That would make the bounce rate for your homepage 50%.

High bounce rates are not necessarily a bad thing for a single-page site where single-page sessions are expected. But if you have news, other important content, or an eCommerce blog, you want to keep bounce rates as low as possible.

What is a Good Bounce Rate?

The answer to a good bounce rate depends on who you ask and what type of sites are being researched. You also need a baseline for evaluating these bounce rates.

So with that in mind, general baselines for what is considered an acceptable bounce rate are:

• eCommerce and retail websites: 20% – 45%
• Business to business (B2B) websites: 25% – 55%
• Lead generation websites: 30% – 55%
• Websites with no eCommerce content: 35% – 60%
• Landing pages: 60% – 90%
• Dictionaries, blogs, and other portals: 65% – 90%

For most WordPress blogs, you want to aim between 65% and 90%. However, this really depends on the type of content you’re creating. Something rich in tutorials might find it difficult to hit under 90%, especially if you don’t use internal linking properly.

Of course, a poor navigation system could also be to blame. If your menus don’t do a good job getting visitors where they want to go, well, they just won’t go.

Make sure your menus help visitors explore the website.

15 Ways to Reduce Bounce Rates in WordPress

Since every website is trying to improve the bounce rate, there is a plethora of information on the topic. And the good news is that most of these will also help improve the overall user experience on your website, thus increasing natural growth.

Let’s take a look at some easy things you can do to help reduce the bounce rate on your WordPress website.

1. Optimize Your Loading Times

Many visitors will not stay on a website that takes more than a few seconds to load. Too many things going on – images, widgets, data pulled from other sites, advertising – can slow down the page load times.

And slow loading can result in a lot of visitors going elsewhere to find what they’re looking for.

A solid WordPress website hosting provider will give your site the ability to load fast and run smoothly. Using tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights can show areas that need improvements, such as image use and minifying JavaScript.

If you want to know how to reduce your bounce rate in WordPress, page speed is the first thing you should look at.

Not only does this improve the user experience, but speed is also a factor that search engines use to rank your website. Thus, you are killing two birds with one stone, or maybe three in this case.

2. Compress Images and Utilize Lazy Load

Image compression and optimization on a WordPress website can cut page load times dramatically. Any kind of image optimization should help reduce bounce rates. Reducing image file sizes before uploading them will reduce the strain you place on your server.

This can also help your pages load faster.

There’s no shortage of excellent WordPress image and compression tools available. Find one you like, install and activate it, and get those images properly optimized.

You should also implement lazy loading if it’s not already available. In the newest versions of WordPress, this is enabled by default.

This technique will make it so that images are only loaded when they are visible.

For instance, let’s say you have a very long blog. The images towards the bottom are not going to be seen when the blog is loaded. Thus, they are wasting time.

Lazy loading corrects this by only loading them when the visitor scrolls down the page and enter the active view of the device he or she is using.

3. Tease Visitors with Excerpts to Reduce Bounce Rates

Try to avoid showing full blog posts on your main WordPress blog page. Instead, use excerpts (to do that, check out the “more” tag in the WordPress editor).

That will accomplish a few things: first, it will make the homepage of your blog look more neat and concise. It will also cause visitors to click to read more about the topic, which helps lower bounce rates.

Finally, it will speed up the load time of your blog homepage.

You can also keep people on the website by providing links or even a popup to spotlight related content. That increases the likelihood of visitors reading additional content rather than exiting the site immediately.

This, in turn, helps reduce your bounce rates.

4. Write Content with “What’s Next” in Mind

Every time someone searches for something, hopefully, they’re finding one of your articles. They may click through to read it, and then they are usually done.

When they’ve finished what they came for, it’s up to you to give them a reason to stick around. Craft your content so that it gives people something else to do on your website when they finish an article.

As I mentioned, that can be done by linking to other related articles you have posted.

You can also encourage commenting or suggest that they sign up for your newsletter if they enjoy the content. It’s up to you to make the additional content—that they weren’t necessarily looking for—compelling.

If you don’t do that, you risk losing their attention, which usually means losing them to another website.

5. Reduce Bounce Rates by Using Meta Descriptions

For some reason, WordPress doesn’t give you the ability to add meta descriptions to posts and pages. So if you aren’t using meta descriptions yet, it’s understandable.

There are those who consider meta tags a waste of time since Google generally ignores them. Maybe that’s why WordPress doesn’t provide a meta descriptions tool.

Regardless of whether meta tags have any effect on ranking (evidence suggests some do), a meta description is still important.

Why? If you provide one, Google uses the meta description in search results. And of course, any time you can control something in search results, you should.

But what does that have to do with bounce rates?

A well-written meta description will let searchers know whether the link to your site will be of interest to them. Good meta descriptions prevent a lot of visits from people who may not be interested and who would otherwise bounce.

You can force WordPress to expose meta description editing, but it requires adding code to your theme files. It’s much easier to use an SEO plugin like SEOPress or Yoast.

You’ll also benefit from the many other things those plugins can do.

6. Create High-Quality Content to Reduce Bounce Rates

Obviously, content is available everywhere online, so it’s important to create high-quality content. Substantial, well-written articles will receive traffic from Google, engage your audience, and demonstrate your authority on a subject.

High-quality content is the foundation, so build on that foundation with the following things in mind:

• Use appropriate keywords.
• Be relatable to your audience.
• Have a clear “call to action.”
• Pay attention to SEO.

Of course, SEO is not the only factor that determines the quality of content. Let’s just say if you read the first paragraph of a blog and encounter multiple typos, the visitors are probably not going to trust your information.

Not to mention that it makes it difficult to read the content. An extension like Grammarly can alleviate this problem.

The best content keeps readers on your site and compels them to click through to your other articles. And when they continue reading on your site, your bounce rate falls.

7. Test Your Layout on a Mobile Device

One sure way of improving your bounce rate is to accommodate mobile users. These days, traffic coming from mobile phones, notebooks, or tablets can easily be half of your traffic.

It is critical that you have a mobile-friendly website.

Most WordPress themes claim that they’re mobile-friendly. But it’s still best to test your blog on multiple devices to make sure it adapts to many screen sizes.

Remember, there are a lot of internet-browsing devices out there.

A great way to check is with Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test page. The test will even give you suggestions for improving elements that may not render well (or quickly) on mobile devices.

8. Avoid Pop-ups When A Page is Loaded

One surefire way to make people leave your website is to immediately bombard them with a pop-up. Trust me, when someone clicks on an article to read, they do not want to subscribe to your email subscription before actually reading the content.

In most cases, the visitor will leave immediately instead of closing the pop-up.

Keep in mind, though, some websites will choose to put certain popups when a page is loaded for good reason.

For instance, a lot of visitors choose to use some type of ad-blocking extension on their browsers. This can cripple the money a website earnings through advertisements.

Thus, it’s normal to ask someone to turn off the ad blocker.

However, these types of tactics are not going to help reduce bounce rates. But it is a fair argument to not want visitors to view your content for free.

9. Don’t Use Click Bait or Misleading Titles

This should go without saying, but if you try to mislead visitors to click on an article, the majority of them will leave your page the moment they realize it. And this can do some serious damage to your website’s bounce rate.

Of course, there are some advantages to increasing your traffic by using such methods.

For instance, one of the main advantages of using clickbait is its sharing potential. On social media platforms, there are a lot of users that simply read the title as fact. That’s right, they won’t even bother reading the article or fact-checking it.

That can help them grow at an exponential rate, at least until they get called out on it, which can really hurt their reputation.

Just make sure you understand that clickbait does not reduce your bounce rates.

10. Add Multiple Ways For Visitors to Interact

Now, improving the user experience is a great way to fix the bounce rate, but another way is to make it easy for visitors to interact with your content.

For example, think about the simple ways someone can interact with a web page. They can leave a like or dislike, leave a comment, click on a carousel to see an image, add a rating using stars, interact with social media buttons, and more.

And here’s the thing, they just need to interact once for the visit to count.

Implementing any of these is simple and highly encouraged because it really helps. And the best part is that the interactions don’t even have to be positive (more on that in a sec), all interactions are equal for search engines.

Note: If your website asks users to accept the use of cookies (required by the GDPR in the EU) and a visitor says no, the search engine will not count it as a visit or a bounce.

11. Fix Spelling Mistakes

This ties into creating quality content, but it’s important enough to get its own point. Let me ask you if you were reading a post and noticed numerous spelling errors, would you keep reading?

If you are being honest, then no and that will hurt your bounce rate. You would close the page and find a better article.

Poor spelling within articles immediately makes many people stop reading and double-check what they just read. And if it happens frequently enough, it really just ruins the entire article.

The good news is that there are plenty of tools you can use to help.

For instance, you could add Grammarly as an extension on your web browser. It can catch a variety of spelling and grammar mistakes as you are writing content and works really well with WordPress Gutenberg.

12. Break Up Text With Images

Have you ever clicked on an article and been presented with a wall of text? The odds are yes, and the odds also say you left that website. Most websites avoid large text sections by adding images.

Images are a great way to attract visitors. In fact, any users will start off by skimming through the article and looking at the images.

Thus, if you want to keep users on your pages longer, you need to make sure the images are high quality. We talked about image compression earlier, but we didn’t talk about the actual images you should add.

For instance, I think we can all agree that memes are a great way to get users to stop for a second and get a laugh. They might even want to share the meme with their friends. So, don’t be afraid to add lots of images into your content to break up the text.

13. Make Sure You Reach Your Target Audience

Potentially, the most important aspect of improving your bounce rate is to make sure you are reaching your target audience.

Think about it; if your content is targetting teens but instead reaches people in their 70s, well, they are less likely to have interest in your content.

This is going to cripple your bounce rate even if the content you create is “perfect.”

For this reason, you need to carefully use analytical tools like Google Analytics. These tools can help you pinpoint the audience your content is reaching and that information can be used to better improve the site for them.

Alternatively, if you are unhappy with who your content is reaching, it means you need to make serious changes to the way you are marketing your website.

If you reach someone uninterested in your content, they won’t bother to stay on the site.

14. Take Advantage of White Space

Have you heard of the term “minimalist” in WordPress? It’s a design philosophy where the web designer adds as little as they can to a page.

The benefit is that the items that do appear on the page stand out.

Most minimalist themes are white, which has created the term “White Space” in web design. Of course, this isn’t a new practice.

For example, visit Google.com. Notice how it’s all white except for the logo and the search box? That immediately draws the user’s eyes to what is important.

And that ultimately helps keep visitors on the page when they can find what they need to find. Take some time and consider decluttering your website to really make your important elements stand out.

Otherwise, visitors may get tired and leave.

15. Display Related Posts

One of the most common ways to keep visitors on your website for longer is with related posts. And the good news is that it is really easy to display related posts in WordPress.

And even better news, there are multiple plugins that you can use to do it.

So what is a related post? Well, put simply, it’s a post that is somehow related to the one you are reading.

For example, let’s say you read an article about the Avengers. Do you think the reader would be more interested in an article about Spider-Man or knitting?

Well, I think we both, know they are going to be more interested in an article about Spider-Man.

One way to make this easy is to show posts from the same category at the bottom of the post. It’s simple but highly effective.

Not All Interactions Need to Be Good For SEO

The thing about a lower bounce rate is that it doesn’t actually matter how a user interacts with your content.

For example, imagine that a website has thumbs-up or thumbs-down buttons. It doesn’t matter if the next one thousand visitors decide to all give the content a thumbs-down. As far as Google is concerned, they interacted with your content.

Therefore, it is not a bounce.

Search engines are unable to differentiate between good and bad content like humans can. They look at a series of statistics and bad content can have a great bounce rate if users interact with it. Or in other words, let the site owner know it’s bad.

It’s very similar to how the dislike button on YouTube actually helps the content creator. At least to a certain extent.

Is A “Good Bounce Rate” the Same For Every Website?

In your quest to learn how to reduce the bounce rate, you might be trying to desperately fit in the rates I previously stated. However, the truth is that there are many exceptions to this.

If you remember, blogs want to be in a range of 65-90%, but this is terrible for most other types of websites. This is because there are not that many ways to interact with the content other than reading it, leaving a comment, or interacting with social icons.

And frankly, this type of content is going to exist on most websites.

For example, it’s becoming more common for eCommerce sites to have blog content. This can actually raise the bounce rate of the entire website. Yet, this doesn’t really mean your website is doing badly.

What it does mean is certain content is raising the average and you just need to make sure that is in line with that type of content.

Is Longer Content Good to Reduce Bounce Rates?

There are a lot of benefits to writing longer content, especially for SEO, but the impact on bounce rate is tricky.

Let’s say you are writing a long blog on how the stock market behaves. That is going to require a lot of writing to make sense and that’s most likely what visitors are looking for.

Yet on the flip side, let’s say you wrote a 5,000-word tutorial on how to open a new document in Microsoft Word. People are going to look at it and leave. It’s far too long for something so simple.

Now, you might be wondering, how exactly would someone know how long a tutorial should be if they don’t know how to do it?

It’s a fair question. In a general sense, people typically have a rough idea about how long something will take. And when they see a really long piece of content, they might be inclined to check elsewhere to see if every guide is this long.

This can have a pretty negative impact. It’s very similar to seeing two guides on YouTube. Most people will click on the shorter one.

Work to Reduce Your Bounce Rates

I hope you’ve found some options in this article that will be useful in reducing your website’s bounce rate.

No single “fix” is going to show results overnight. You may have to tweak, adjust, and measure results using website analytical tools. But the tips I’ve presented here to reduce your bounce rate should help get the process started.

Now that you know a little more about this key metric, you can start implementing some of the practices. Each issue you address will go toward reducing the bounce rate on your site.

Show that you care for your website, provide excellent content, and have built your WordPress site to ensure success.

How long did it take to reduce your bounce rates?

The post How to Reduce Bounce Rates in WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

You can access them at any time in case you need to revert a change someone made or view what changed after an author updates it. While it is a handy feature, it’s worth pointing out that these revisions take up site resources.

As such, many developers choose to either limit how many revisions can be stored or disable the feature entirely.

Today, I will demonstrate how to use post revisions in WordPress and how to manage them.

What Are Post Revisions in WordPress?

Post revisions are previous versions of your posts in WordPress. For example, let’s say you have a post that you spotted a typo in after publishing. Naturally, you go into the editor and correct the mistake.

The previous version of that post is now saved as a revision that you can access. Not only can you access it, but you can also use it to restore that version of the post if necessary. As such, it can be a very powerful tool if changes are made haphazardly.

You may be wondering how far back the revisions system will work. By default, there are no limits, thus every single version of a post is saved as a revision. As you can imagine, this can be a serious problem for sites with a lot of content.

How to Use Post Revisions in WordPress

First, let’s cover how to actually access post revisions in WordPress. These are very easy to access and really only take a minute or two to manage. This makes it easy to hit the proverbial undo button in WordPress.

Step 1: Open The Post You Wish to View the Revision In

This probably doesn’t need to be said, but a revision only exists for posts that are published. Thus, if a post is currently in a draft, it will not have the revisions option visible. It is also worth noting that you actually need to make a change to the published post at least once.

Again, if no changes were made to the published post, WordPress has never stored a revision of it.

The first step is to open a published post that you have changed in the past.

Step 2: Access Revisions

Once you are inside a post, all you have to do is click on the revisions option. This is located in the post settings on the right-hand side just below the Summary.

Note: The number in front is the number of revisions stored for that post.

Step 3: Using Post Revisions in WordPress

There is nothing complicated about using revisions, and the only options you have are to switch between revisions and to restore.

The revisions section itself is divided between two versions of the post, and you can see the changes made. The latest version is on the right side, while the previous version is on the left side.

The changes are highlighted on both sides to help you see the before and after like so:

To switch between the revisions, there is a slider at the top. Simply drag it to see older revisions. Alternatively, you can use the “Previous” and “Next” buttons to switch between revisions.

And finally, you can revert changes made by using the “Restore This Revision” button. This button is not available if you are on the current version of the post as it is already in use.

And that really covers what you can do with revisions in WordPress. At least with the default tools.

Now, let’s cover how to better manage them by limiting the number of revisions created.

Limiting Post Revisions with Code

As mentioned earlier, WordPress stores an unlimited number of revisions for your post content. On paper, this sounds extremely useful, but the reality is quite different. Every website requires a web host, and your plan often includes a set amount of server space.

Naturally, these revisions take up that server space within your database. As your website grows, and you continue to update your content, you are bound to have hundreds if not thousands of revisions stored on your server that eat up valuable resources.

Thus, you can either pay for more space or limit the number of revisions WordPress creates. Most opt for the latter, but there is a problem with this, WordPress currently has no settings to manage revisions by default.

Instead, you need to modify some code in the wp-config file. Don’t worry this is very easy.

Step 1: Locate wp-config File

The first thing you need to do is actually find the wp-config file. First, log into your web hosting account and access the cPanel.

Once there, locate the Files section and click on the File Manager option.

Enter the public_html directory and locate the wp-config.php file. Once you locate it, right-click it and select the Edit option.

A small pop-up will appear advising you to create a backup before making any changes. This is always recommended to do before editing code. This way, if you do make a mistake, you can quickly revert it.

Luckily, we are just adding a single line, so there is not much room for mistakes, but it’s better safe than sorry.

Step 2: Add Code

By default, WordPress allows for an unlimited number of revisions. The following code will limit that to a specific value that you can decide on. In most cases, you probably only need 2 or 3 revisions, but the choice is yours.

The code to limit post revisions in WordPress is as follows:

define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', X);

You simply need to change “X” to the number of revisions you want to store for each post. You can add this code at the bottom of the wp-config.php file like so:

In this case, I changed “X” to “2” which means that each post will only store up to two revisions.

Disabling Post Revisions Completely

While limiting post revisions can be a great solution for many sites, some may just want to disable the post revision system altogether, and you can do this quite easily with a plugin like Disable Post Revision.

As the name suggests, it allows you to disable post revisions in WordPress.

Of course, you could also do it with a line of code that is quite similar to what we just covered, so I will go over both methods as they are quite short.

Method 1: Disable Post Revision Plugin

First, go ahead and install the Disable Post Revision plugin.

After this, you would just need to click on Settings and select the Writing option.

This plugin adds the Disable Post Revisions option to the settings here. All you need to do is select what post types you want to disable them on. You can select multiple, but you will need to hold down the Shift key to do so.

Once you make your choice, be sure to click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom and that’s it. This plugin does not delete the existing revisions in your database.

To do that, check out our next section using the WP-Optimize plugin.

Method 2: Code Approach

In the previous section, we covered how to limit the number of post revisions in WordPress with the following code:

define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', X);

In that one, we made X the number of post revisions we wanted to keep, but in this case, we just need to replace “X” with “false” and you are done, thus the code will look like this:

define('WP_POST_REVISIONS', false);

And that’s all it takes with code. Paste it into your wpconfig file and save the changes. WordPress will no longer store post revisions.

Just keep in mind that it only stops new revisions from being created and does not delete the old ones. To do that, you’ll need a plugin like WP-Optimize.

Using WP-Optimize to Clean Post Revisions

Another way to manage your revisions would be to clear them out with the help of a plugin. While there are plenty of plugins that can do this, WP-Optimize is my favorite. It is a database optimization plugin that will clear out unnecessary files from the database.

This ensures the database is as small as possible for the best performance. Naturally, the revisions that WordPress creates are stored here and this plugin can help you delete them along with other unnecessary files.

It’s quite easy to use so let’s get right into it.

Once you have the plugin installed, click on WP-Optimize and select the Database option.

The plugin will auto-select some of the common files it will remove when you begin the optimization process. I’d recommend leaving these options set as the “Clean all Post Revisions” option is already selected.

That said, you are welcome to make any changes you would like but ensure this stays selected.

Click on the “Run all selected optimizations” button.

The process will begin and take a few moments but could take longer if your website is on the larger side. Once it is done, you can see exactly how many post revisions were deleted underneath that option.

That covers how to use WP-Optimize to remove post revisions in WordPress. Just keep in mind you will no longer be able to use them to revert changes in WordPress posts, and unlike other methods, this deletes all of them no matter how recent they are.

Setting Up Automatic Optimization

Now, if you have already limited or disabled post revisions in WordPress, you’re good to go. But if you decide to leave the system intact but just want to clear them out occasionally, you could use this tool.

It also has an automatic function where you can have it clean your website on a regular basis. This can be daily, weekly, or monthly. However, if you are clearing revisions on a daily or weekly basis, you are probably just better off disabling the feature altogether.

This is easy to set up and only takes a few extra clicks to implement.

Click on the Settings tab.

Under the Scheduled clean-up settings section, check the box to enable clean-up and optimization.

This will unlock all of the settings in this section. First, use the drop-down menu to select how often it will optimize your website. I recommend a monthly scan, but you can pick whatever option you feel is best.

Note: Monthly is not technically every month, but instead every 30 days. It’s not a big deal, but it is worth noting.

Underneath this, you can select what content will be optimized just like before, and similarly, you want to make sure the Clean all post revisions check box is checked. You can select any other options you see fit as well.

After that, all you need to do is click on the “Save Settings” button and the plugin will handle the rest. You can disable this at any time or change what types of content are optimized by the plugin.

Allow Any Author to Make Post Revisions

Alright, this section is a little different, but it is related. By default, all users can utilize the post revision system in WordPress, but for some sites, the feature is a bit lacking because the content must be published for it to store a revision.

What if you wanted authors to submit a revision before the work goes live? Well, you can do that with the Revision Manager TMC plugin.

This plugin allows authors to create revisions of existing pieces of content that they can submit for review by editors. This is superior to the post revision system in WordPress because you can create revisions without making changes to a live page to store them.

Unlike the original system, the revisions are created manually and can be deleted from the revision section. Thus, extra space is not consumed when you correct a typo or make a small change on a live post.

Step 1: Install and Activate the Plugin

The first thing you need to do to accomplish this is to install and activate the Revision Manager TMC plugin. You can do this fairly easily by jumping over to the Plugins page in the WordPress admin dashboard.

Simply use the search field that is available to search the plugin by name. When it pops up, go ahead and install and activate it directly from there.

Step 2: Access the Revision Manager TMC Settings Page

Once the plugin has been installed and activated click on Settings > Revision Manager TMC, and you will be taken to the plugin page in your WordPress admin area.

You will notice that the setting dropdown boxes have quite a few choices. Don’t worry, below I am going to show you the exact setup you want to allow any author to make WordPress post revisions.

Step 3: Use Proper Revision Manager Settings

At the top of this section is the Post Types section. The free version of this plugin only allows posts to be selected, thus if you want the other options you will need to upgrade. You can ignore this section since there is nothing you can change.

Below this is the Capabilities section. Here you need to select edit_posts in the “Copy creation capability” dropdown menu.

Then select published_posts in the “Acceptation capability” dropdown menu.

What this does is allow users with the contributor user role to create a duplicate copy of a published post.

The “Role for notification” dropdown menu should be assigned to an Administrator or Editor who will review the changes and publish the post. In most cases, this is you or the person in charge of site content.

Step 4: Select a Template

Scroll down and you will pass various settings for how the post revisions will appear. Make changes to these settings as you see fit.

Even further down you will encounter the template section.

You can select a template and customize it to your liking and standards.

When you have everything set to your liking, click on the “Update Changes” button to save all your changes and settings.

Step 5: Log In as a Contributor

Now that you have completed the setup and plugged in the correct settings, let’s take a look at how Revision Manager works.

However, since you are on an admin account, you can’t actually experience the plugin as intended, so you need to log out and in on a contributor account.

Step 6: Create & Accept Revision

Once you are logged in again, click on Posts > All Posts and drag your mouse to any published post. You will now see an option to “Create a revision draft” below each post.

Once a contributor clicks on the “Create revision draft” link, the plugin will create a duplicate version of the published post and open it for editing. Begin revising the post as you see fit.

Now depending on how your user roles are set, you may be able to publish the revision and replace the live version of the post. However, assuming you only let admins or editors do this, the most you can do is save the changes.

Now, go back to your admin account and check the post section. You should now see a revision appear in the post list.

If you click on it, you will be brought to the editor, where you can review the post and make any changes as needed. From there, you can publish the post like normal and it will replace your original.

Alternatively, you can click on the “Accept Revision” button on the post list to do the same.

And that’s it. This can help streamline your editing process for older content. After all, it is only natural that you’ll need to update posts over time to account for changes in your website design, or that the content itself is just outdated.

In any case, the Revision Manager TMC plugin is a great choice.

Manage Post Revisions in WordPress Today

The post revision system in WordPress allows you to monitor and even undo changes that are made to your content by any author. While it can be quite a useful feature to take advantage of, there is no denying that it is also problematic.

The revisions of your content have to be stored somewhere, and that location is your database. As such, when you add hundreds or possibly thousands of revisions to your database, it can take up a lot of space and ultimately slow down your site.

As such, many web developers take the time to limit the feature or disable it completely. Regardless of how you go about it, I hope this guide has shown you everything you’ll need to manage post revisions in WordPress.

Did you disable or limit the post revision system in WordPress? Have you ever used a revision to undo changes?

The post How to Use Post Revisions to Undo Changes in WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

Whether you choose to post daily, weekly, or just once a month, there is no reason to spend hours upon hours writing, editing, and formatting each post. The key to minimizing the lag time between coming up with an idea and hitting “publish” on a new post is to create content efficiently.

One easy way to maximize efficiency while creating content is to take advantage of WordPress shortcuts. WordPress offers more than 45 shortcuts designed to make your life easier as a content producer. Below are twenty of the most under-utilized WordPress shortcuts currently available to users like you.

Shortcuts in Visual Post Editor

The majority of WordPress users create content in the Visual Post Editor window, which provides an experience similar to Microsoft Word, complete with text styling buttons located across the top of the page. Most of us use shortcuts to speed up the writing process in Word, so why not give these ten shortcuts a try next time you open up WordPress?

Note: All of the following work in the Gutenberg editor introduced in WordPress 5.0.

1. Control + b = Bold
2. Control + I = Italic
3. Alt + Shift + n = Spell check
4. Alt + Shift + l = Align text left
5. Alt + Shift + r = Align text right
6. Alt + Shift + j = Justify text
7. Alt + Shift + c = Align text center
8. Alt + Shift + d = Strikethrough
9. Alt + Shift + a = Insert link
10. Alt + Shift + s = Remove link

Shortcuts in Plain Text Editor

Plain Text Editor is where users who want to see all of the HTML code alongside their text type up new posts. Like the Visual Post Editor, the Plain Text Editor offers some basic formatting buttons across the top of the page, but they can all be accessed via shortcuts. Save yourself some time with the five shortcuts below.

11. Control + x = Cut
12. Control + c = Copy
13. Control + v = Paste
14. Control + z = Undo
15. Alt + Shift + p = Publish

There is even an arsenal of shortcuts specifically designed to help you navigate incoming comments on your site. An active community of readers wanting to share their opinions is something every site owner strives to achieve. The shortcuts below will help you sort, approve, and respond to your readers’ comments efficiently.

16. J = Move to the next comment
17. K = Return to the previous comment
18. A = Approve the comment
19. D = Delete the comment
20. R = Reply to the comment

You can find more helpful shortcode in the WordPress.org Codex.

Of course, it’s not necessary to implement every single one of these shortcuts in order to reap the time-saving benefits. To start, try using just two or three from the list above next time you sit down to create, review or publish a post. Your readers may not notice a difference, but you will.

The post 20 Time Saving WordPress Shortcuts Every User Needs To Know appeared first on GreenGeeks.