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.

Understanding the features available to you can contribute to boosting visitor retention. This means people will be more likely to stay on your site and explore.

That is as long as you create a post that visitors want to read.

Things to Know When Starting A New Post

Beginners often go headfirst into creating content for their websites. And while content is the cornerstone of any successful site, there are things you should know.

Not knowing some of these tips could make the process much harder than it has to be.

In other cases, not knowing some of these will severely limit your ability to produce high-quality content. It could mean the difference between a post that falls flat or a masterpiece of an article.

1. The Editing Screen

Gutenberg is a block-based editor that allows you to construct posts and pages in any manner. Each block offers users a unique feature that they can add to the post.

For instance, the image block adds images, the paragraph block adds text, and the shortcode block allows you to add shortcodes.

You can even add more block options by installing plugins. Many of these will add their own custom block with a specific feature. The result is a highly customizable editor that can create any type of content.

Exploring what the Gutenberg editor has available could vastly improve your efforts when writing a post.

2. Adding Media

Studies show a website article that incorporates images performs better for visitor retention. In WordPress, you simply need to select the appropriate block to add the specific media type.

For instance, use an image block to add an image, or a video block to add a video.

These images can be uploaded from either your computer or the media library. You can then choose the size of the image and add alt text.

You will need photo editing software like Photoshop to create the images as WordPress lacks an image editor.

Using various media in WordPress can make a huge impact on audience retention of the post topic you’re covering.

3. Publishing Content On A New WordPress Post

When creating a new post, you can publish the post by clicking on the “Publish” button. This makes the post go live on your website and anyone can view it. Although it is possible to make it viewable by a select few in the options.

If the post is not complete, click on the “Save Draft” option. This will allow you to come back and finish it at a later time. You can also choose to preview it in a new tab, with options to choose a device (desktop or mobile).

4. Using Categories and Tags

Using categories and tags, or taxonomies, in your material will help you organize content. As a result, your visitors will be able to find the information easier. It will also help you deliver a sense of professionalism and expertise.

You can find these by expanding the settings wheel and clicking on categories or tags in the Posts section. For instance, if a user wants to find content related to “cats,” they would look for content under the “cats” category or tag.

5. Uploading a Featured Image to Your New Post

A featured image is different than others using the image block we mentioned earlier. This image will be used to highlight your post on the front page.

Or to put it another way, the featured image is very similar to a thumbnail, but it serves additional purposes.

It will also be displayed as the header of the post when someone visits. Various plugins and themes will use this graphic automatically when designing your website.

Be sure to put a little more effort into a featured image as it will be seen more than any other.

6. Additional WordPress Options for a New Post

Gutenberg has some hidden options that are hard to find. They can be accessed by clicking on the three vertical dots next to the settings wheel. There’s nothing major here, but they could be helpful one day.

For example, one of the most common options you may use is the fullscreen mode. This will enlarge the Gutenberg editor to hide everything else.

That way, you won’t get distracted by anything else on your web browser.

7. New Post Excerpts in WordPress

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.

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 reader want to read the rest of the article.

So, be sure to leave some kind of cliffhanger.

8. 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 older websites turn them off.

9. Add Custom Fields to a New Post in WordPress

A custom field can be useful when you need to add a bit more information to a WordPress post. They are often helpful when adding more metadata to a piece for SEO purposes. This is often the case in certain kinds of themes that may be missing a particular feature.

Many plugins will enable this feature automatically so they may add their own custom fields in WordPress. Unless you have done your homework on what custom fields are, you may not want to mess with this feature as it can have serious effects on your SEO.

10. Enable/Disable Comments

You can actually choose to turn off comments on specific posts, which will 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.

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.

This helps them get to know you better and get connected to the brand.

11. Understand the New Post Slug in WordPress

The slug is essentially a cleaner version of your title which becomes part of the URL. Normally, WordPress will do all of this automatically, but some will use plugins to further alter the slug and URL.

This is often the case for those who want to remove stopwords from URLs and slugs.

Slugs will have a huge impact on SEO. Make sure to look up the best SEO practices to maximize the benefit they offer. Otherwise, you may actually harm your website.

It’s a fine line between being SEO-friendly and creating an SEO disaster.

12. 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.

That said, you will need to take a minute and create a user with the correct credentials to be an author.

13. Block Settings

When you add a block in Gutenberg it has a good amount of options available, but what if I told you that these were only half of the options? The truth is that WordPress blocks also have another settings area you can use to configure them.

These are located by having the settings wheel expanded and clicking on the block. In many cases, to get the most out of your block, configuring these is a must.

That said, sometimes it isn’t necessary. The options available depend on the block you select.

For example, you could add a highlighted background in a WordPress block to accentuate the information you’re posting. This paragraph is an example of changing the background color of the block.

14. You Can Freely Change the Block Type

By default, when you go to a new line, WordPress will generate a Paragraph block. While that is great when you want it, it can be annoying if you don’t.

To fix this, there is an easy way you can swap between blocks.

If you find yourself with the wrong block, you can simply hover your mouse over the block and click on the left of the settings bar to select a replacement.

Each block has an icon that you will become familiar with over time.

15. Plugin-Specific Options

Various plugins will also add a field in the post screen that may have other options. For example, the plugin All In One Schema.org Rich Snippets will add control for changing what kind of a snippet to use for SEO purposes.

In other cases, something like Yoast will add an SEO and Readability section at the bottom. This will allow you to easily see where you can improve your content.

There are about a thousand more things that a plugin could add. Typically, the sections are named after the plugin, so, they aren’t hard to find.

Create A New Post in WordPress Today

When you learn the tools available in WordPress, creating content in a new post can be productive as well as fun. The kinds of things you can do seem to continuously increase year after year.

The next time you create a WordPress post, see what kind of life you can breathe into your content. You may find the site to perform better over time.

What kind of features do you use the most in WordPress? How often do you explore other features in the system you’ve never used before?

The post 13+ Useful Things to Know When Adding a New Post to WordPress 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.

1. It is a mini-backup system within WordPress. Not sure what all changes were made since the last time you edited a post? You can easily check the revision history to see what has changed.
2. The revisions in WordPress also can save you from a messy editor. What if somebody comes in and edits a post and makes it horrible? With the post revisions system, you can easily jump in and roll back that update.
3. It can also be a great tool to use to review your writing style. Proof reading is not something we all have the time to do. The revisions in WordPress make it easy to do a side by side comparison to make sure all the edits you wanted to put in place are actually put in place.

How do you Compare Revisions?

So, how do you enable this feature in WordPress? The best part about this feature is that it is already enabled. If you want to compare post revisions, simply select a date in the Revisions section under the post you are editing. Next, select another date in the revisions list. The last thing you will need to do is click “Compare Revisions”. Now you can check the two versions of the same post. All the changes from one post to the other are clearly highlighted.

How to Undo Changes in WordPress

As an example, let us say you wrote a post. It was a fantastic post, but you decided to cut a large section of the post out because it was not needed. A few days later you revisit this edited version and you are not happy with it. How can you undo changes in WordPress? To restore to a previous version of a post, simply click “Restore” for the date in question and the post will be restored back to the original.

Post revisions in WordPress are a nice feature, however many people forget this option is there. With this WordPress feature up and running, you can quickly compare two drafts of the same post and see the changes you have made in real time. It also is a great backup solution if you find that you do not like the most recent changes you made to an article, tutorial or any other type of post you have made in WordPress.

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.