Are you looking for the best team communication tools for your small business?

As businesses move to remote work, they need tools to communicate with team members. Choosing the right tools can boost productivity, enhance morale, build community, and enhance efficiency among your team.

In this article, we have hand-picked some of the best team communication tools for small businesses.

These tools are based on our hands-on experience because we have been a remote company since we started in 2009, and now we have over 200+ team members across 45 different countries. As a remote company, our teams use several of these tools to collaborate.

How to Choose The Best Team Communication Tool for Your Business?

There is a growing need for better team communication tools as more and more businesses adapt remote and hybrid work culture.

For a small business website, these tools improve employee communication and enable them to work more efficiently.

However, there are just so many different communication tools available that it becomes hard to decide which one to choose without spending too much money.

First, you need to decide what kind of tools your team needs to work better.

For instance, if your sales team needs to make calls and follow up on leads, then you need a virtual business phone system like Nextiva and RingCentral.

Similarly, if you need to make sure that teams can collaborate on different projects, track progress, and get work done, then Slack + Asana may be the right tools for your business

You can save money by not opting for separate tools for the same tasks.

For instance, if you are using Google Workspace, then Google Meet is the perfect alternative to Zoom. Similarly, Office 365 with Microsoft Teams will save money on Slack + Zoom.

Tip: See our comparison of Google Workspace vs Office 365 to see how they stack up against each other.

1. Nextiva

Nextiva is the best omnichannel communication toolkit for businesses. It combines phone, chat, audio/video meetings, contact management, and more in one communication suite.

Employees can collaborate via chat, SMS, and video calls. Their business phone service offers toll-free numbers and teams can share the same phone numbers to easily manage contacts and leads.

Nextiva offers easy-to-use automated reminders for teams and customers around forgotten tasks, follow-ups, or check-ins to increase workplace productivity.

Plus, it integrates with popular calendars, email, Google Workspace, Microsoft teams, and many more.

We use Nextiva in our own business because it helps us get a virtual business phone number that can be shared across our team members, so we can help our customers. The auto-attendant feature helps guide the call to the right person.

Pricing: $18.95 per user per month

2. Slack

Slack is the most popular small business team communication tool on the market right now.

It is used by many Fortune 500 companies like IBM, T-Mobile, NASA, Target, and more.

Slack offers a digital HQ for businesses and teams. You can organize your virtual workspace in channels. These are chatrooms where your teams can collaborate and post updates. Team members can also do 1:1 chats.

Slack also comes with audio calls, video updates, and integration with almost all top productivity tools, CRM software, virtual phone services, and more.

We use Slack in our management company, Awesome Motive, because it allows for asynchronous communication across teams. Slack has notification features that respect timezones considering we have team members in 45 different countries.

Pricing: Paid plans start from $7.25 per user per month.

3. Google Workspace

Google Workspace is Google’s business productivity suite of applications. It includes Google Drive, Gmail, Calendar, Google Meet, Chat, Forms, Sites, and more.

You can use your own domain name for your Google Workspace account and create a professional business email address for yourself, your teams, and your employees.

Your team space will be hosted on Google’s cloud infrastructure which makes it very fast, reliable, and an extremely secure internal communication tool.

We have been using Google Workspace for over a decade for our business email address. It gives you the familiar Gmail and Google calendar interface which your team will love. We use the Shared Drive feature for cloud storage which is really good for access control on documents & files.

This year the quality of Google Meet calls have improved drastically, so we have cancelled our Zoom subscription and are using Google Meet for our group meetings.

Pricing: Starting at $6 per user per month

4. HubSpot

HubSpot is a business communication suite that offers a Sales platform, marketing tools, CRM software, and more.

It allows your teams to easily manage leads and customers using a robust dashboard. Improving communications between team members and customers to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.

Unlike other communication tools on the list, HubSpot doesn’t offer team chat, audio, or video calls. However, as sales software it allows sales and marketing teams to communicate and work together more efficiently.

We use HubSpot to organize our partnership contacts, and it acts as a single source for our various teams.

Pricing: Limited free account, paid plans for marketing, sales, and customer services software with different pricing for each.

5. Asana

Asana is the best project management software for remote teams on the market.

For remote teams, keeping up with their projects and goals is where most communication takes place. Asana makes it super easy for teams of all shapes, sizes, and industries to collaborate and communicate.

Asana doesn’t have chat, SMS, or video conferencing features. All team communication takes place in comments, tasks, projects, and forms. Each task can have its own thread and nothing slips through the cracks.

You can organize work among teams and projects, set long-term goals, add tasks, and then view them in lists, timeline, or card views.

It comes with brilliant tools like templates, rules, forms, and approvals to automate the workflow.

Plus, it integrates beautifully with other popular productivity tools your organization may already be using.

In our business, Asana is an absolute must have. We have tried many other project management solutions like Basecamp, Trello, etc and nothing comes close to Asana. It has provided us with a great way to streamline our internal workflows while giving greater visibility on the progress of each project.

Pricing: Free and paid plans start at $10.99 per user per month.

6. RingCentral

RingCentral is one of the top business team communication toolkits available that offers virtual phone numbers, phone calls, and SMS for teams.

Their business communication suite includes phone, SMS, Fax, Messaging for internal team communications, and video meetings.

For sales and marketing teams they offer rich insights, quality of service reports, comprehensive alerts, and customizable dashboards.

Integrations are also available for Google Workspace, Office 365, popular CRM software, and marketing platformss.

Pricing: Starts at $19.99 per user per month.

7. Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is the Slack alternative created by Microsoft. It supportss multiple teams, channels, one on one chats, private channels, audio/video calls, and video conferencing features.

It works well with Office 365 and you can get it with Office 365 subscription as well. Team members can open, edit, and view files within teams and projects.

Microsoft Teams have superior video conferencing features baked in. Each team member can view that a video conference is happening with an icon on the top and can join in if they are invited.

Teams also have shift management feature which allows managers to create shift, manage time-offs, assign members to shifts, and more.

Pricing: Free and paid plans start $4 per user per month or $6 per user per month with Office 365.

8. Zoom

Zoom is one of the most popular video conferencing software on the market. It allows you to run video meetings with chat feature.

It is widely used in business, education, government, and finance sector. Zoom also offers business phone services, mail, and calendar to connect your teams under one platform.

We were big users of Zoom, but as the quality of Google Meet has improved, we have switched away from Zoom to reduce costs in our business.

The cost of Zoom really adds up once you go above 10 users in your organization, and then again when your organization grows to 100+ users.

What Zoom is really good for is large 100+ people meeting especially if you want to do random breakout rooms. It’s also really good for customer webinars because Zoom calls are very reliable and quality is top-notch.

Pricing: Limited Free plan, paid plans start at $149 per user per year but the per user pricing increases after 10 users.

9. Chanty

Chanty is another excellent employee communication platform with video conferencing, chat, and project management features.

You can create chatrooms or channels for your teams and view all things happening across your organization under the teambook.

For task management you can create tasks on the fly, view them in lists or kanban view, assign them to team members, and more.

Pricing: Limited free forever plan, paid plans start at $3 per user per month.

10. Ryver

Ryver is another business communication platform that combines various functionalities into one app.

It comes with messaging, task management, and audio/video calls under one roof. It comes with SSO Single Sign-on which allows team members to sign in with the single account used by your organization.

Integrations are also available for many popular productivity and CRM software.

Pricing: Starting at $69 per month for up to 12 users.

11. Flock

Flock is another good alternative to Slack. It offers voice / video conferencing, chat, to-dos, file-sharing, and more.

Teams can be organized into groups with their own to-dos, video conference, and in-line file sharing.

It has integrations available for all top producivity suites so you can collaborate in real-time in channels.

Pricing: Limited free plan, and paid plans start at $4.50 per user per month.

12. Zoho Cliq

Zoho Cliq is the Slack interactive created by the folks behind Zoho software suite. The company offers Zoho CRM, Notes, Calendar, Email, and several other tools for businesses.

Zoho Cliq offers team chat for real-time collaboration. It includes chats, group chats, project management, video conferencing, voice calls, and more.

It integrates well with other Zoho applications as well as many other third-party software.

Pricing: Limited free plan, paid plans start from $2.7 per user per month.

13. Dialpad

Dialpad offers a collaboration platform for teams and customer support. It includes VoIP service for calls, messaging, group chat, and video conferencing.

It offers omni-channel customer engagement platform as well. Which comes in handy for sales teams to follow up with leads.

It supports Google Workspace and Office 365 integrations. If you operate in multiple countries then Dialpad offerss local number for upto 70 countries.

Pricing: Starting from $15 per user per month.

14. GoTo Meeting

GoTo Meeting is a popular webinar software and video conferencing platform. It makes it super easy to conduct video meetings with teams, clients, and customers.

Their GoTo Connect suite provides phone, text, and meetings. It allows teams to follow up with leads, offer customer support, and stay in touch with chat and text.

The company offers several addon solutions for businesses particularly those providing remote IT support to customers.

Pricing: Free trial for some products, for paid plans you’ll have to contact sales.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Unlike most other businesses in the world, we have been remote since we started in 2009. This means we have 13+ years of experience running a distributed team and managing team communication. Over this period, we have helped thousands of users choose the best team communication tools.

Below are the answer to some of the most frequently asked questions.

What communication tools are most effective in working closely with the team?

Whether you’re working closely with a remote-team or an in-house team, here are the best team communication tools.

Google Workspace – Email is essential for working closely with a team. Google gives you gmail, calendar, and Google Drive for file sharing.Nextiva – Essential for phone calls and SMS.Slack – Best for group chat. Although for smaller groups, you can get away with just a simple WhatsApp group.Asana – Great for project management.

What is the most effective communication method for remote teams?

For remote teams, the most effective communication method is a combination of written communication along with verbal face-to-face communication over video calls.

For remote team check-ins, the most effective method is virtual check-in software like Standuply that integrates seamlessly with Slack, and it’s completely asynchronous.

What is the best team communication tool for online collaboration?

For online collaboration, the best team communication tools are Google Workspace and Zoom. With Google Suite, you get Google Doc, Spreadsheet, and Slides all of which allow for collaborative work, and their built-in comment feature is really good.

You can also use Zoom whiteboard which is an excellent virtual communication tool for collaboration.

What is the best team communication tool for asynchronous communication?

The best asynchronous communication tool are:

Slack – great for instant messages and group messages. It gives users full control over their time zones and notification preferences. You can also schedule messages to send at certain time in different team member’s timezone.Email – great for asynchronous communication.Loom – allows you to easily record videos and screencasts that can be watched by your team members.Droplr – allows you to create screenshots or quick screen recording to communicate with team members.

Which is the best team communication tool for small business?

In our opinion, the best team communication tool for small business are Nextiva, Google Workspace, Asana, and Slack.

We hope this article helped you find the best team communication tools for your business. You may also want to see our guide on must have tools to manage and grow your business and follow our guide on how to grow a small business on a shoe-string budget.

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

The post 14 Best Team Communication Tools for Small Business (2022) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Do you want to add a services section to your WordPress website?

When potential customers arrive at your site, they want to know what services you offer. A services section can communicate this information in a quick and easy way, so visitors can decide whether they want to learn more about your business.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create a services section in WordPress. We’ll also share how to get more leads by adding a quote request form to your services section.

Why Create a Services Section in WordPress?

To get more sales, it’s important to give visitors all the information they need to understand what services you offer.

This can include everything from prices and benefits to detailed technical specifications, depending on the services you sell.

That’s a lot of information, so we recommend creating a custom page in WordPress for each service you offer.

You can then add a services section to your homepage or landing page, which will provide a brief overview of all your services, in a compact area.

That way, visitors can quickly decide whether they want to learn more about your services.

You can then include links to the different service pages, so visitors can explore each service in more detail.

Another option is to include a strong call to action, such as requesting a callback or filling out a form to get a personalized quote.

The following image shows an example of a call to action, which appears directly beneath a services section.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily create a services section in WordPress and then add it to any page on your website. Simply use the quick links below to jump to the method you want to use.

Method 1. How to create a services section with SeedProd (Recommended)Method 2. Creating a services section in WordPress using the block editor

Method 1. How to Create a Services Section with SeedProd (Recommended)

The best way to create a services section is by using a page builder.

A good page builder plugin will allow you to add as many services as you want, and arrange those services in a nice layout. You can also encourage visitors to learn more about your services by adding CTAs, links, buttons, and more.

SeedProd is the best drag-and-drop page builder for WordPress. It comes with more than 180 professionally-designed templates and ready-made sections that are perfect for promoting your services.

SeedProd also works with many popular third-party tools that you may already be using to get and manage conversions. This includes top email marketing services, WooCommerce, Google Analytics, and more.

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

Note: There’s also a free version of SeedProd but we’ll be using SeedProd Pro since it has more templates and blocks. It also works with all the best email marketing services.

After activating the plugin, SeedProd will ask for your license key.

You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website. After entering the license key, go ahead and click on ‘Verify Key.’

The next step is creating a new page where you will add the services section. To do this, go to SeedProd » Landing Pages in your WordPress dashboard.

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button.

You can now choose any of SeedProd’s ready-made templates.

To help you find the perfect template, SeedProd’s designs are organized into different campaign types, such as ‘squeeze,’ ‘ead,’ and ‘coming soon.’

You can click the tabs at the top of the screen to filter the templates based on campaign type.

If you prefer to start from scratch, then SeedProd also has a Blank Template, which doesn’t have any default content or design elements.

To take a closer look at a design, simply hover your mouse over the template and then click on the little magnifying glass icon.

When you find a layout that you want to use, click on ‘Choose This Template.’ We’re using the ‘Masterclass Sales Page’ template in all our images, but you can use any template you want.

After choosing a template, type in a name for your custom page. SeedProd will create a URL automatically using the title, but you can change this if you want.

A descriptive URL helps search engines understand what a page is about, so they can deliver that page to people who are searching for content just like yours.

To give your page the best chance of appearing in relevant search results, you may want to add some relevant keywords to the URL. When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button.

This loads the SeedProd drag-and-drop page builder. It shows a live preview of your page to the right, and some settings on the left.

Most SeedProd templates already contain some blocks, which are a core part of any SeedProd layout.

To customize any block, simply click to select it. The left-hand menu will then show all the settings you can use to edit the block, such as changing the font size or replacing a stock image.

If you want to remove a block from the design, then simply click on that block.

Next, go ahead and click on the small trash icon in the menu bar that appears.

To add new blocks to your design, just click on the block in the left-hand menu and drag it onto the editor.

You can then click to select the block and make any changes in the left-hand menu.

You can repeat these steps to create any kind of page, such as a homepage or Google Ad landing page. The possibilities are endless.

SeedProd also comes with ‘Sections.’ These are rows and block templates for common web design elements. For example, SeedProd has sections for frequently asked questions, footers, and customer testimonials.

It also has various sections that are perfect for creating a services section in WordPress. To take a look at the different sections, go ahead and click on the ‘Sections’ tab.

These mini templates are organized into different categories, but since we want to create a services section, we recommend taking a look at the ‘Features’ category.

Here, you’ll find sections that use paragraphs, subheadings, and images in a nice layout.

In the following image, you can see the ‘Features 3’ section. To turn this into a services section, you simply need to add your own text and images.

You may also want to look at the ‘Call To Action’ category. This category has lots of different sections, including a few that you can use to advertise your services.

In the following image, you can see the ‘Call To Action 6’ section, which already has space for three services.

To preview a section, just hover your mouse over it and then click on the magnifying glass icon that appears.

When you find a section that you want to use, simply move your mouse over that section and click on the little ‘+’ icon.

This adds the section to the bottom of your page, but you can move sections and blocks around your design using the drag-and-drop feature.

After adding a section, simply can click on any block inside that section to customize it. To start, you’ll typically want to type in some information about your services.

To do this, just click on any ‘Text,’ ‘Headline,’ or similar section. Then type into the text field that appears to the left of the builder.

You can format the text, similar to how you style text in the standard WordPress post editor.

It’s also a good idea to add links to pages where visitors can learn more about each service.

Another option is to use a ‘Call to Action’ button. Even if the section doesn’t come with buttons, it’s easy to add them.

In the left-hand menu, just click on the ‘Blocks’ icon, which looks like a square of small dots.

You can then drag and drop a ‘Button’ block into your section.

If you do ‘Button’ blocks, then you can customize them in exactly the same way you edit any block. Just click on it, and then make your changes in the left-hand menu.

You can add more blocks by following the same process described above.

For example, you might add photos showing each service in action using an ‘Image’ block.

When you’re happy with how the page looks, it’s time to publish it by clicking on the dropdown arrow next to the ‘Save’ button.

Then, select the ‘Publish’ option.

Your page will now go live on your WordPress website and visitors can see all your services at a glance.

Method 2. Creating a Services Section in WordPress using Block Editor

You can also build a services section using the free Service Box Showcase plugin, and then add it to any page or post using shortcode.

You will need to use one of the plugin’s pre-made service section layouts, so this isn’t the most customizable method.

However, the plugin does let you create a service section using the familiar WordPress content editor tools, so it’s quick and easy.

First, you need to install and activate the free Service Box Showcase plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, head over to Service Box » Add New Service Box in your WordPress admin panel.

To start, you’ll need to type in a title for your services section. This will only appear in the dashboard and not on your website, so this title is for your reference only.

After that, find the layout that you want to use and click on its ‘Select’ button.

Next, scroll to ‘Add Service Box,’ which has two services by default.

To add more services to the section, go ahead and click on ‘Add New Service Box.’

Once you’ve done that, you can type in a title for each service and add a description.

This is the text that will appear on the front end of your site, so make sure you give visitors all the information they need.

By default, the plugin adds the same icon to each service. It’s a good idea to change these icons to something that’s unique to each service.

To see the different icons that you can use, click on the ‘Service Icon’ field. This opens a popup where you can scroll through the different pictures and click the one you want to use.

It’s also a good idea to add a link to a page where visitors can learn more about each service, or even a page that has a contact form.

To do this, simply type the link into the ‘Add Your Service Or Read More Link Here’ field.

After adding all this information, you can change how your service section looks using the ‘Service Box Settings.’

Most of these settings are fairly straightforward. For example, you can change the font size and style. You can also change the link color, plus the color of the title, description, and more.

If you don’t want to use any icons in the services section, then you can remove them by clicking on the ‘Display Icon’ switch.

There are lots of different settings and what looks good may vary depending on your WordPress theme. With that being said, you can always come back to the ‘Service Box Settings’ and make some changes if you’re unhappy with how the services section looks on your website.

When you’re happy with how the services box is set up, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button at the top of the page to save your changes.

You can now add the services section to your WordPress blog using a shortcode. Simply scroll to ‘ServiceBox Shortcode’ and copy the code.

You’re now ready to add the services box to any post or page. For more details on how to place the shortcode, you can see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Once you’ve pasted the shortcode, just click ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ to push changes live. Then, if you visit your site you’ll see the services section in action.

At this point, you may realize that you want to make some changes such as using a different background color or adding more columns.

To make these changes, simply go to Service Box » All Service Box. You can then hover your mouse over the service box and click on the ‘Edit’ link when it appears.

Now, make your changes using the ‘Service Box Settings’ and other sections.

When you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, don’t forget to click on ‘Update.’

Now, if you visit the page or post where you added the services box, you’ll see your changes on the site.

BONUS: Creating Request a Quote Form For your Services

A services section gives visitors an overview of your company and what you offer, so they can decide whether they want to learn more.

Once you’ve caught the visitor’s attention, the next step is turning them into leads and customers. You can do this by adding a ‘Quote Request Form’ to your site.

This is similar to a contact form, but it has an extra area where visitors can type in some information about themselves or what they’re looking for.

This can help you sell more services. For example, you might recommend a particular service, create a unique package for that customer, or send them a personalized email based on the information they’ve entered.

The easiest way to create a quote request form is by using WPForms. It is the best WordPress forms plugin and allows you to add any type of form to your website using a simple drag-and-drop editor.

WPForms even has a ready-made ‘Request a Quote Form’ that has everything you need to turn visitors into leads.

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

Note: There is a free version of the WPForms plugin, but we will be using the Pro version because it comes with the ‘Request a Quote’ form template.

Upon activation, head over to WPForms » Settings and enter your license key.

You can find the license key under your account on the WPForms website. It’s also in the email you got when you purchased WPForms.

After entering the license key, click on the ‘Verify Key’ button. After a few moments, you will see a message confirming that you’ve entered the right license key.

Once you’ve done that, go to WPForms » Add New.

Here, type in a name for your form. This is just for your reference so you can go ahead and use any title you want.

Next, type ‘request a quote’ into the search field. This will bring up the ‘Request a Quote Form’ in the results.

You can now go ahead and click on the ‘Use Template’ button.

This will load the WPForms editor, with the form on the right and all of the different settings on the left.

The ‘Request a Quote Form’ template has fields where the visitor can enter their information, such as their name, email address, and phone number.

There’s also a section where they can type in their specific request.

The default form should work well for most websites, but it’s easy to customize the form if you need to.

To edit a field, simply click to select it. The left-hand menu will then show all the settings you can use to customize this field.

For example, you can change the text that appears above any field by changing the text in the ‘Label’ field.

You can also add more fields by selecting the ‘Add Fields’ tab.

Then, simply drag and drop any field block onto the form.

You can also change the order that the fields appear in your form using drag and drop.

When you’re happy with how the form looks, go ahead and click on the ‘Save’ button.

You can now add this form to any WordPress post or page using the WordPress content editor.

Simply open the page where you want to add the form and then click on the ‘+’ button.

Next, type ‘WPForms’ and click on the block to add it to your page.

Finally, open the dropdown menu and select the quote request form.

WPForms will show a preview of the form on the screen. If you’re happy with how the form looks, then you can go ahead and save or publish the page.

The quote request form will now be live for your visitors to use.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a services section in WordPress. You might also like to check out our article on the best live chat software and how to create an email newsletter.

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

The post How to Create a Services Section in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking for a way to hide certain WordPress blocks from a user role?

The WordPress content editor offers a lot of flexibility in creating content using blocks. However, you may want to disable some blocks for different user roles. This is helpful if you run a multi-author website or don’t want others to access specific blocks.

In this article, we’ll show you how to hide blocks from specific users in the WordPress content editor.

Why Hide Blocks from Specific Users in the Content Editor?

WordPress blocks are content elements you add to your blog post or page. You can add blocks for images, videos, paragraphs, galleries, and more. Many WordPress plugins also add blocks to the content editor.

Since each block lets you edit your article or landing page, it is a good idea to hide or disable some of the blocks based on WordPress user roles. This way, your website content will remain consistent and won’t have unwanted blocks and layouts.

Let’s say you have a multi-author website. You can hide the tables block in the WordPress content editor for author and contributor user roles. This helps streamline your editorial workflow.

Similarly, you can also prevent different user roles from using blocks added by different plugins.

For instance, WPForms lets you embed forms in the content editor using the WPForms block. Stopping other users from accessing the block can help you stay in control and only display forms where you think is necessary.

That said, let’s see how to hide or disable blocks for specific users in WordPress.

Hiding Blocks for Specific Users in WordPress Editor

The best way to hide blocks based on user roles is by using the PublishPress Blocks plugin. It gives you more control over the WordPress block editor and adds more blocks like an image slider, search bar, pricing table, and more.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the PublishPress Blocks plugin. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can head to the Blocks item in your WordPress dashboard and click on the ‘License’ tab.

Next, you can enter your license key and click the ‘Activate License’ button. You can find the license key in your PublishPress account area.

After that, head to the ‘Block Access’ tab in the plugin. Here, you can choose a user profile from the dropdown menu at the top.

To hide any WordPress block from the selected user role, simply click the toggle to disable it.

For example, in the image below, we’ll disable the ‘table’ and ‘quote’ blocks for any user iwth the Author role.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save Block Access’ button when you’re done.

That’s it! You’ve successfully disabled the WordPress block for a user role on your website. Now, you can repeat this to hide blocks for other user roles.

We hope this article helped you learn how to hide blocks from specific users in WordPress editor. You may also want to see our guide on how to increase your blog traffic, and our comparison of the best-managed WordPress hosting.

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

The post How to Hide Blocks from Specific Users in WordPress Editor first appeared on WPBeginner.

Do you want to create a custom homepage for your WordPress site?

By default, the WordPress homepage displays your blog posts, but you can edit it to show something different. For example, your homepage could be a landing page that highlights your products and services.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily edit and customize your WordPress homepage.

What Is the WordPress Homepage?

Your homepage is the ‘front page’ of your WordPress website. It’s the first page that shows up when a user visits your domain name.

For instance, if you type in www.wpbeginner.com into your browser, the page you land on is our website’s homepage, where you can see our latest blog posts:

Why Edit the WordPress Homepage?

If you’ve decided to create a blog, then it makes perfect sense to just show your blog posts on the homepage.

But what if you’re using WordPress to build a small business website or even to run an online store? In those cases, you may prefer to highlight your products or promotions on your homepage.

Here’s a business website homepage example from OptinMonster, the best WordPress popup plugin out there. Their site has a great blog, but that isn’t the focus of their homepage. Instead, they’ve got a really clear call to action.

Perhaps you’ve already tried to set a custom page as the homepage in WordPress, but you’re struggling to make it look right.

If that’s the case, then you’re in the right place.

We’re going to take you step by step through setting up a homepage and customizing it to match your needs. That way, you can make a great first impression and encourage your visitors to take the actions that are most important to your site’s mission.

That might mean buying a digital product from you, signing up to join your membership site, or donating to your fundraising campaign.

We’re going to cover a few different methods that you can use to create your custom WordPress homepage.

You can use these quick links to jump straight to the different parts of the tutorial:

Editing Your Homepage With the Theme CustomizerEditing Your Homepage With the Block EditorEditing Your Homepage With a Theme Builder PluginEditing Your Homepage With a Page Builder PluginSetting Your Homepage in WordPress

Editing Your Homepage With the Theme Customizer

Some of the best WordPress themes will create a homepage design for you, and provide options so you can easily edit it.

You can find these options by visiting Appearance » Customize on the admin sidebar. This will launch the WordPress theme customizer with a live preview of your theme.

The Theme Customizer will have different options for different themes. Your preview and the available options may look different depending on the theme you are using. We’re using the free Hestia theme in this example.

To edit any part of the homepage, simply click the blue pencil icon next to it. Here, we’re editing the image, text, and button at the top of the homepage.

If you want to remove a section from the homepage, then you just need to click the blue eye icon in the top left corner of that section.

You can also remove sections and add them back in using the ‘Frontpage Sections’ tab.

Once you’re happy with your homepage, you need to click the ‘Publish’ button to make it live.

Here’s how our homepage looks, live on the website:

Using your theme’s built-in options is the quickest way to set up your homepage. However, some themes may not have many options, or you may not be satisfied with how your homepage looks.

Don’t worry, there are plenty of other ways for you to edit your homepage and give it the look you want.

Editing Your Homepage With the Block Editor

The WordPress block editor is a simple way to create a custom homepage, although it’s limited by your theme’s design.

To use the block editor, simply go to the Pages » All Pages screen and edit the ‘Home’ page that you created earlier.

Now you can start creating the content for your page.

In this part of the tutorial, we’ll be using a few simple blocks to create a basic homepage.

First, we’ll add a welcome message to the page. You can do this by simply clicking on the page to start typing. WordPress will automatically create a paragraph block for you.

If you want to make the text larger, then it’s easy to do that in the block settings on the right hand side. Just click on one of the preset sizes, or you can click on the ‘Set custom size’ icon and type any size you like.

You can also change the color of your text, using the ‘Color’ options for the text or background.

Next, we’ll add an image to the page. You can do this by clicking the (+) symbol and then selecting the Image block.

You’ll find it in the Media section, or you can search for it using the search bar.

You can pick an image from your media library or upload a new one.

Next, we’ve added another paragraph block, with the text ‘Check out our latest posts here’.

We’ve then added a ‘Latest Posts’ block, which we’ve set to show the post excerpt and featured images, as well as the post titles. You can find out more about the Latest Posts block in our tutorial on displaying recent posts in WordPress.

You can add as many blocks as you want to your homepage. You may also want to use a ‘full width’ or ‘no sidebars’ template for your page if your theme has one.

For example, when using the Astra theme, you can customize the layout of the page from the Astra Settings pane. Other themes may provide a section in the Document settings pane.

Once you’re happy with your homepage, you should click the ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ button on the top right of the screen to push your changes live.

Here’s how our finished homepage looks:

What if you want to go further with your homepage? One option is to try some of these best block plugins for WordPress to add new functionality, such as a contact form, testimonials, reviews, and more.

Another great option is to use a more powerful theme builder or page builder for WordPress to create something that looks gorgeous and professional.

In the next parts of this tutorial, we’ll cover SeedProd, a theme builder, and Divi by Elegant Themes, a page builder.

Editing Your Homepage With a Theme Builder Plugin

The easiest way to edit your homepage is by using SeedProd. It’s the best WordPress theme builder plugin and can create beautiful website layouts and custom templates without writing any code.

You can use SeedProd to create a fully custom WordPress theme, including a custom homepage template.

First, you need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the SeedProd website.

After that, you can use SeedProd to easily create a WordPress theme, including a completely custom homepage from scratch.

Creating a Custom WordPress Theme

You can create a new theme in SeedProd by navigating to the SeedProd » Theme Builder page. Here, you’ll use one of SeedProd’s ready-made themes as a starting point. This will replace your existing WordPress theme with a new, custom design.

You can do that by clicking the ‘Themes’ button.

You will be shown a list of professionally designed themes that are designed for different types of websites. For example, there are templates called ‘Modern Business’, ‘Marketing Agency’, and ‘Mortgage Broker Theme’.

Take a look through the options and select one that best matches your needs by clicking the checkmark icon. For this tutorial, we’ll choose the ‘Digital Strategy’ theme.

Once you have chosen a theme, SeedProd will generate all the theme templates you need. It will include a template for your static homepage, as well as one for your blog’s index page.

Editing the Homepage Template

SeedProd makes it easy to edit any of these templates using a drag and drop page builder.

Simply click the ‘Edit Design’ link found under the ‘Homepage’ template. This will open the template in SeedProd’s visual editor.

This simple drag and drop builder will show a live preview of your page to the right and a toolbar on the left. You can add new blocks by dragging them onto the page, rearrange them by dragging them up and down with your mouse, and customize any block by clicking on it.

Notice that the template has already provided an attractive layout and added plenty of relevant content on the page. Now you just have to edit it to suit the purpose of your website.

When you hover your mouse over a block, a toolbar will appear.

If you click on the block, then you can adjust its settings in the left pane.

For example, when you click on the headline, you can edit the text, change the alignment, alter the font size, and more.

When you change a setting, you can immediately see it in the preview on the right.

For example, we’ll change the text to ‘All About WordPress’.

Once you’ve done this, you can click the ‘Blocks’ icon near the top of the settings page. This will return you to the Blocks view.

Next, we’ll edit the button text. You can click on the button labeled ‘What we do’ and edit the text to say ‘See the courses’.

Now we’ll scroll down our homepage until we come to the list of bullet points about the products and services you offer.

You can edit these in the same way, by clicking on a block and editing the text.

Your homepage should now look something like the screenshot below.

If you need to add more detail, then you can add another row of bullet points by clicking the blue ‘+’ icon at the bottom.

The SeedProd template may have included more sections than you can use. You can easily delete any blocks or sections you don’t need by simply clicking the trash icon.

For example, you can hover your mouse over the ‘Trusted By’ section of the homepage. Once the toolbar appears, you can click on the Trash icon to delete that section.

Near the bottom of the homepage there is a FAQ section. This was created using an Accordion block, which makes it simple to customize the questions and answers you want to include on your homepage.

When you click on the block, you are able to edit the text for each question and answer.

Once you have finished customizing your homepage, make sure you click the ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen. Then you can return to the list of templates by clicking the ‘X’ icon.

As you can see, SeedProd’s templates, drag and drop interface, and useful blocks make it ideal for editing your website’s homepage. For even more ideas, take a look at our guide on how to create a landing page with WordPress.

Editing the Blog Index Template

You can edit your blog index template in a similar way. You can learn how to do this by visiting our guide on how to create a separate page for blog posts in WordPress.

Using Method 2, you should scroll down to the section on customizing your blog page. Here you’ll learn how to add new blocks using drag and drop, and how to change the settings for each block on the page.

We’ll show you how to edit the Posts block to list your posts in multiple columns and display or hide the featured image for your posts.

There are settings for how many posts to display, and whether to show a post excerpt. You can also filter the index by post type, category, tag, or author, and change the sort order.

Enabling the SeedProd Theme

Once you have finished customizing the theme templates, you will need to publish the new custom theme. Simply toggle the ‘Enable SeedProd Theme’ setting to the ‘YES’ position.

If you haven’t already changed your WordPress Home and Blog page settings, then you’ll see a notification message. When you click the ‘OK’ button these settings will be changed for you.

You can now visit your website to view your new home page.

Editing Your Homepage With a Page Builder Plugin

Divi is a popular WordPress page builder plugin. It comes with a WordPress theme and a page builder plugin with dozens of gorgeous templates.

You can use the Divi page builder with any theme. For this tutorial, we’re going to use it with the Divi theme.

First, you’ll need to download, install, and activate the Divi theme from Elegant Themes. This includes the Divi builder, so you don’t need to install it separately. You will need to enter your username and API key under Divi » Theme Options » Updates in order to access the layout packs.

If you need help installing the theme, then take a look at our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress theme.

Once you’ve got the Divi theme and page builder up and running, you can set up your homepage. First, go to the Pages menu in your WordPress dashboard and then edit the homepage we created earlier.

Before you start editing your homepage, it’s a good idea to switch to the ‘Blank Page’ template under the ‘Template’ panel on the right. That way, your homepage won’t have a sidebar, title, menu, or any other default elements.

Next, you can click the ‘Use The Divi Builder’ button at the top of the screen.

Now, you’ll need to click the ‘Edit With The Divi Builder’ button in the center of the screen.

You should now see the Divi Welcome Screen. It includes a video tutorial on how to use Divi, a brief description of how to get started, and buttons to either start building your page or take a tour of Divi’s features.

We’ll click the ‘Start Building’ button at the bottom of the page.

Next, you’ll see a range of options you can use to create your page. We suggest using a premade layout as the basis for your homepage. This makes it really quick and easy to get your homepage set up.

Divi has an impressive range of different layouts to choose from. There are hundreds of different layout packs, and each of these has several different page layouts including homepages.

You can search through these by typing in a search term, or you can check the boxes to view only layouts that fit certain categories.

We’re going to use the ‘Travel Blog’ layout pack to create our homepage.

First, click on the pack that you want to use:

Next, you’ll see a description of the layout pack, plus the different page layouts that are available. You’ll probably want to use the ‘Home’ page or ‘Landing’ page for your homepage. We’re going to pick the ‘Home’ option.

Once you’ve chosen your layout, click the ‘Use This Layout’ button at the bottom of the page.

Divi will automatically import the layout for you. You’ll then see it live on your page, exactly as it’ll appear on your site. To edit any part of it, simply click on it.

Divi uses a system of rows (split into columns) and modules to create your page. With text modules, you can click on the text and type in whatever you want straight onto the screen.

Here, we’ve changed the header and the text below it:

With other modules, you can bring your mouse cursor over them and click the ‘Module Settings’ icon to edit them.

Here, we’re editing one of the number counters:

You can delete modules and rows in the same way, using the trash can icon.

You’ll likely want to use your own images on your homepage. You can change these by editing the module settings.

Note that the image at the top is set as the Background for a Fullwidth Header Module, so you’ll need to change it under Content » Background for that module:

Once you’re happy with the changes you’ve made to your page, you can click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the screen.

Sometimes the bottom row of buttons will be hidden.

If you can’t see them, then you’ll need to click the purple “…” button to open them up.

Here’s how our page looks live on the website:

Setting Your Homepage in WordPress

By default, WordPress displays your blog posts on the homepage.

That means that after creating and customizing your homepage, you’ll need to tell your WordPress site to display that page when someone visits your domain.

Let’s take a look at how to set a separate homepage and blog page in WordPress.

First, simply go to Pages » Add New and name your new page Blog. After that, you can go ahead and publish the blank page.

Once your homepage and blog page are ready, you need to tell WordPress to start using these pages.

You can do this by going to Settings » Reading page in your WordPress admin area. You need to select ‘A static page’ option under the ‘Your homepage displays’ section. After that, go ahead and select your home and blog pages.

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

WordPress will automatically display your latest posts on the blog page. For more details, you can see our guide on how to create a separate blog page in WordPress.

That’s it! You’ve created a great looking homepage in WordPress and set it up successfully.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to edit a WordPress homepage. You might also want to take a look at our guide on the must have WordPress plugins and our tips on how to improve WordPress SEO.

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

The post How to Edit a WordPress Homepage (Easily & Effectively) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Do you want to sell your Microsoft Excel or Google spreadsheets online?

By selling your spreadsheets as downloadable files, you can easily make money without having to pay for shipping or printing. Through WordPress, you can quickly and securely deliver your products to your customers.

In this article, we will show you how to easily sell your Excel or Google spreadsheets online using WordPress.

Which Platform Should You Use to Sell Excel or Google Spreadsheets

First, you’ll need to choose an eCommerce platform that you’ll use to sell your Excel or Google spreadsheets.

Because these spreadsheets are digital files that users can download to their computers after making a purchase, you should pick an eCommerce platform specifically designed for selling digital downloads.

Such a platform would have the proper features, licensing, and subscriptions built in which will make it easier for you to set up your store.

That’s why we recommend using WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads for selling your Excel and Google spreadsheets.

WordPress is the best website builder on the market that is used by over 43% of all the websites on the internet. It is an ideal choice as WordPress gives you full control over your website and allows you to create a user-friendly eCommerce store.

Easy Digital Downloads is the best WordPress plugin to sell digital products. We use EDD ourselves to sell many of our premium WordPress plugins.

With WordPress and Easy Digital Downloads, you can sell as many Microsoft Excel or Google spreadsheets as you want without having to pay high transaction fees.

With that being said, let’s dig in to see how easy it is to create a WordPress site with Easy Digital Downloads, so you can start selling your spreadsheets online.

Step 1. Setting Up Your WordPress Site

Before you start building your site, it’s important to know that there are two types of WordPress software: WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

We will be using WordPress.org as it gives you complete control over your website.

First of all, you’ll need a domain name and WordPress hosting to start selling your spreadsheets.

For detailed information on both, you can check out our guides on how to choose the best domain name and how to pick the best WordPress host.

We recommend using SiteGround for your website. It is a popular hosting provider that offers managed WordPress hosting for Easy Digital Downloads. It comes with a free SSL certificate, pre-installed and optimized EDD, and a huge 73% off.

Basically, you can create a website for less than $5 per month.

For more details on how to set up your WordPress site, you can check out our guide on how to make a WordPress website.

If you don’t want to use SiteGround for. some reason, then we recommend checking out Bluehost, Hostinger, and WPEngine to see if they meet your needs.

Step 2. Setting Up Easy Digital Downloads

The free version of Easy Digital Downloads allows you to create an amazing online store. However, if you want to use add-ons such as Content Restriction, Recommended Products, or Recurring Payments, you will need the Pro version.

For this tutorial, we will use the free version. To begin, just you just need to install and activate the plugin. If you need any help, you can check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once it is installed and activated, go to Downloads » Settings page in your WordPress admin area. First, you need to set your store’s location so the plugin can calculate sales tax and auto-fill some fields.

To do this, scroll until you see the ‘Store Location’ section. In the ‘Bunsiness Country’ dropdown menu, choose the location where your business is based.

After that, you need to fill in the ‘Business Region’ field.

Here you can open the dropdown and choose the state or region your store operates from.

Once you’ve entered the information, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Step 3. Setting Up Your Payment Gateway

When selling Excel or Google spreadsheets online, you’ll need a way to accept credit payments from your customers.

Easy Digital Downloads supports popular payment gateways including Stripe, PayPal, and Amazon Payments. If you want to add more payment gateways, then you may want to take a look at Easy Digital Downloads extensions.

To choose your payment gateway, simply click on the ‘Payments’ tab. Then make sure the ‘General’ tab is selected.

In the ‘Payment Gateways’ section, check the box for all the payment gateways that you want to add to your online store.

If you select more than one payment method, then you’ll also need to choose a default gateway.

You can choose any one you want, but we recommend selecting Stripe as your default gateway because Stripe accepts credit cards as well as Google Pay and Apple pay.

After selecting a default gateway, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on ‘Save Changes.’

Once the page reloads, you will now see some new tabs where you can configure each of your separate payment gateways.

The process of configuring the payment gateway will be slightly different depending which you use. We will be using Stripe as an example.

To start, simply click on the ‘Stripe’ tab. Then, click on the ‘Connect With Stripe’ button.

This launches a setup wizard which will walk you through a step-by-step process of configuring Stripe as your payment gateway. If you use multiple gateways, you’ll just need to repeat these steps for each one.

Also, by default, Easy Digital Downloads shows all your prices in U.S dollars. If you want to show your prices in any other currency, simply click on the ‘Currency’ tab and choose the one you want to use from the dropdown.

Just be aware that some payment gateways may not accept every currency. If you’re unsure, then it is always a good idea to check your chosen payment gateway’s website.

Once you’re done with the currency settings, simply click on the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom of the page.

Step 4. Turn Your Spreadsheets Into a Downloadable Product

Now that your WordPress site is set up with Easy Digital Downloads, you’re ready to start selling spreadsheets online.

How to Sell a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet

To upload your first Excel spreadsheet for sale, simply go to Downloads » Add New in your admin panel.

Once you’re in the content editor, add a name for your Excel spreadsheet in the ‘Enter Download Name Here’ field.

This name will be shown on the product’s page, so be sure to use one that describes exactly what your spreadsheet does.

Next, type in the description that will appear on the product’s page.

Many online stores use product categories and tags, too. These can help shoppers find the products they’re looking for.

You can create tags and categories for your spreadsheets using the ‘Add New Download Tag’ and ‘Add New Download Category’ options.

After that, scroll to the ‘Download Prices’ section.

Then simply enter the price they’ll pay to download the spreadsheet.

Next, you have to attach a ‘Download Image’ to the spreadsheet. This will appear as a featured image on the product page. You can easily create a product image using free design tools such as Canva.

Scroll down to the ‘Download Image’ section in the sidebar and just click on ‘Download Image.’ Then, simply upload any image you want.

After that, you can upload your spreadsheet. Simply scroll down to the ‘Download files’ section and add a suitable name in the ‘File Name’ field.

Then click on the link button in the ‘File URL’ field.

This will launch the WordPress media library.

From here, you can simply upload the Excel spreadsheet from the computer.

Once you’ve uploaded the Excel spreadsheet, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button. Now your product is on sale on your site.

Setting Up Google Sheets For Sale By Placing Link in File URL

Selling Google Sheets on WordPress is a slightly different process. Since Google Sheets only run in a web browser, you cannot sell a downloadable Google Sheets file. All you get is a link.

To sell Google Sheets, you need to create a ‘copy link’ for the spreadsheet that you plan on selling. This copy link allows you to share a copy of your spreadsheet with the customers upon purchase.

To create this link, simply go to the Google spreadsheet that you plan on selling and click the ‘Share’ button.

Once you’ve clicked on the ‘Share’ button, a popup will appear.

Now simply click on ‘Anyone with the link’ option in the ‘General Access’ section.

Next, select the ‘Editor’ option from the dropdown menu on the right in the ‘General Access’ section.

After that, simply click on the ‘Copy Link’ button.

After you’ve copied the link, go to the ‘Download Files’ section in Easy Digital Downloads.

Then just paste the link in the ‘File URL’ field.

After pasting the link, remove the edit?usp=sharing section from your link.

You will need to add copy in its place.

Now that you’ve added your Google Sheet’s copy URL, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button.

That’s it! Your spreadsheet will immediately be for sale to customers.

Setting Up Google Sheets For Sale Using Certificate of Download

Another easy way to sell Google Sheets is by creating a certificate of download.

All you have to do is create a Word document and paste the Google Sheet ‘copy link’ into the document.

After pasting the link, remove the edit?usp=sharing section from your link and simply add copy it in its place. Be sure to enable the URL as a hyperlink so that it is clickable.

Now, as you can see in the image above, the copy link looks a bit ugly. To make your certificate of download look more professional, you can use a link-cloaker like Pretty Links.

With this plugin, you can make your links look professional and can also track the number of clicks the links in your certificates get.

Next, simply save the document. We recommend saving it as a PDF.

After that, just head back to the ‘Download Files’ section in EDD and upload the certificate file. Then, simply click on the ‘Publish’ button.

With this method, customers will download the certificate after the purchase. They can then click the link provided in the purchase certificate to access the Google spreadsheet they just bought.

Step 5. Customizing Your Digital Download Emails

Every time someone buys a spreadsheet from your website, Easy Digital Downloads will send an email to that person.

This email will have a link that the customer can use to download the Excel or Google spreadsheet they just purchased.

You may want to customize this email by adding your own text and branding.

To do this, go to Downloads » Settings and click on the ‘Email’ tab. Then, make sure that the ‘General’ tab is selected.

You might want to start by adding a logo to your purchase receipt emails.

This logo will appear right at the top of the email and will help customers identify who the email is from.

Simply click on the ‘Upload File’ button and upload an image or choose one from the WordPress media library.

Additionally, you create more personalized emails, you can use dynamic text in your emails as well.

You can find the list of these variables at the bottom of the tab, and you can paste them into your emails to customize them to your individual customers.

When you’re happy with your purchase email receipts, simply scroll down and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Bonus Tools to Sell More Excel and Google Spreadsheets

Now that you’ve successfully added Google and Excel spreadsheets to your website, your next step is to convince the visitors to buy your downloads.

Here are some of our top picks for plugins that can help you sell more Excel and Google spreadsheets.

All in One SEO is the best SEO plugin for WordPress that can help you optimize your site to get more traffic from search engines.

MonsterInsights is the best analytics solution for WordPress. It helps you see where your visitors are coming from and what they do on your website. You can optimize your business strategy based on real data.

OptinMonster is the conversion optimization software on the market. You can use it to create optin forms to grow your email list and convert visitors into paying customers. It can also reduce shopping cart abandonment.

PushEngage is the best push notification software for WordPress. It allows you to send personalized web push notifications to let your customers. 

We hope this article helped you learn how to sell excel and Google spreadsheets online. You may also want out check out our guide on best email marketing services, and see these easy ways to drive traffic to your website.

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

The post How to Sell Excel or Google Spreadsheets in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.