Do you want to show your Facebook timeline posts in WordPress?

By adding your Facebook updates to WordPress, you can keep your site fresh and interesting while also encouraging visitors to follow you on Facebook.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily display your Facebook timeline in WordPress.

Displaying Your Facebook Timeline in WordPress

The easiest way to embed your Facebook timeline in WordPress is by using the Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin.

This plugin lets you embed Facebook albums, comments, reviews, community posts, and more on your site.

For this guide, we’ll use Smash Balloon premium as it allows you to show photos and videos from your Facebook timeline.

Visitors can also scroll through your content in a lightbox popup, without ever leaving your website. However, there’s also a free version that allows you to show text and links from your timeline, no matter what your budget.

Upon activation, you’ll need to go to Facebook Feed » Settings and enter your license key into the ‘License Key’ field.

You’ll find this information under your account on the Smash Balloon website.

After entering the key, click on the ‘Activate’ button.

Connecting a Facebook Page or Group to WordPress

Next, you need to decide whether to display the timeline from a Facebook page or group timeline. We’re going to use a Facebook page but the steps will be largely the same for Facebook groups.

For a more detailed look at groups, please see our complete guide on how to embed a Facebook group feed in WordPress.

To connect your Facebook page or group to WordPress, go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then click on ‘Add New.’

Smash Balloon lets you create different feeds to show your Facebook photo albums, events, timeline, and more.

Since we want to display our Facebook timeline in WordPress, you’ll need to click on ‘Timeline’ and then click on ‘Next.’

After that, you can choose the Facebook page or group that you want to add to your site.

Simply click on ‘Add New’ to get started.

On the next screen, choose whether you want to embed the timeline from a page or group.

After making this decision, go ahead and click on ‘Connect to Facebook.’

This opens a popup where you can log into your Facebook account and choose the pages or groups that you want to use.

After that, click on ‘Next.’

Once you’ve done that, Facebook will show all the information that Smash Balloon will have access to, and the actions it can perform on your Facebook page or group.

To restrict Smash Balloon’s access to your Facebook account, just click any of the switches to turn it from ‘Yes’ to ‘No.’ Just be aware that this may limit the Facebook content that appears on your WordPress blog or website.

With that in mind, you should leave all the switches enabled whenever possible.

Next, click on the ‘Done’ button.

After a few moments, you should see a message confirming that you’ve linked your WordPress website to Facebook. Now you’ve done that, it’s time to click on ‘OK.’

Smash Balloon will now take you back to the WordPress dashboard automatically.

How to Embed Your Facebook Timeline in WordPress

At this point, you’ll see a popup with the group or page you just connected to WordPress.

Simply select the radio button next to this source and then click on the ‘Add’ button.

If you accidentally closed the popup, don’t worry. Simply refresh the tab to reopen the popup.

After that, WordPress will take you back to the Facebook Feed » All Feeds page automatically. Just like before, click on the ‘Add New’ button, select ‘Timeline’ and then click on the ‘Next’ button.

Now, select your Facebook page or group, and click on ‘Next.’

You can choose a template to use as the starting point for your embedded timeline. All of these templates are fully customizable so you can fine-tune the design depending on how you want to display the timeline on your WordPress website.

We’re using the ‘Default’ template, but you can choose any template you want. You can also change the template at a later date if you’re not happy with it.

When you’re ready, click on the ‘Next’ button.

Smash Balloon will now go ahead and create a timeline feed based on your template and your Facebook page or group. This is a good start, but you may want to fine-tune how the timeline looks on your WordPress site.

How to Customize Your Embedded Facebook Feed

The Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin gives you lots of ways to customize how the timeline appears on your site. With that in mind, let’s see the different changes you can make to your Facebook timeline.

On the Facebook Feed » All Feeds page, find your timeline feed and then click on its ‘Edit’ button, which looks like a small pencil.

This opens the Smash Balloon feed editor, which shows a preview of the Facebook group or page timeline to the right.

On the left-hand side, you’ll see all the settings you can use to change how the timeline looks. Most of these settings are self-explanatory, but we’ll quickly cover each area.

If you’re not happy with how the feed looks, then you can try a different template by clicking on the ‘Template’ menu option.

Then, select the ‘Change’ button.

After that, you can change how your posts are displayed by clicking on ‘Feed Layout.’

On this screen, you can switch between list and masonry layouts. As you make changes, the preview will update automatically so you can try different layouts to see what looks the best for your Facebook timeline.

You can also change the feed height, and the number of posts that Smash Balloon shows on desktop computers, smartphones, and tablets.

If you do change the number of posts, then you can preview how your feed will look on desktop computers and mobile devices using the row of buttons in the upper-right corner.

When testing the mobile version of your WordPress website, you may also want to change the number of columns that Smash Balloon shows on desktops, tablets, and smartphones.

For example, in the following image, we’re splitting the content into 4 columns on desktop, 3 columns on tablets, and 2 column on mobile devices. This can help your timeline fit comfortably on the screen, no matter what kind of device the visitor is using.

When you’re happy with the layout, click on the ‘Customize’ link.

This will take you back to the main Smash Balloon editor, so you can move on to the next menu option, which is ‘Color Scheme.’

By default, your timeline will use the same colors as your WordPress theme, but this screen also allows you to switch between ‘Light’ and ‘Dark’ layouts.

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

By default, Smash Balloon adds a header to your feed, which is your cover photo, profile picture, and the name of your Facebook page.

To change how this section looks, click on ‘Header’ in the left-hand menu.

On this screen, you can change the size of the header and color, hide or show your Facebook profile picture, and more.

You can also switch between the default ‘Visual’ header and a ‘Text’ header.

Want to remove the header completely? Then simply click on the ‘Enable’ toggle to turn it off.

After that, you can change how the individual posts look inside your group feed by selecting ‘Post Style’ from the left-hand menu.

On the next screen, you’ll have two different options.

To start, go ahead and click on ‘Post Style.’

On this screen, you can choose between a regular and boxed layout.

If you select ‘Boxed’ then you can create a colored background for each post. This can help your Facebook posts stand out from the rest of your website and may also make the text easier to read.

You can also make the border-radius larger to create curved corners, or you can add a shadow.

If you choose ‘Regular,’ then you can change the thickness and color of the line that separates your different social media posts.

You can also customize the individual parts within each post by going back to the main settings screen.

Once again, select ‘Post Style’ but this time choose ‘Edit Individual Elements’ instead.

On this screen, you’ll see all the different content that Smash Balloon includes in each timeline post, such as the post author, event title, shared link box, and more.

To remove a piece of content from your posts, simply click to uncheck its box.

You can also change the size and color of these individual elements. Simply click on the element’s name such as ‘Post Author’ or ‘Post Text.’

You can then use the settings to customize this content. For example, you might make the text bigger so that it stands out, or add a new color.

By default, Smash Balloon doesn’t include the Facebook ‘like’ button in your timeline. To grow your Facebook followers, you may want to add this button by selecting ‘Like Box’ from the editor’s left-hand menu.

After that, simply click on the ‘Enable’ button so that it turns blue.

By default, Smash Balloon adds this button below the timeline, but you can change this by opening the ‘Position’ dropdown and choosing ‘Top’ instead.

On this screen, you can also change how the ‘like’ section looks including adding a custom call to action, showing how many people follow you on Facebook, adding your page’s cover photo, and more.

When you’re happy with how the ‘like’ button looks, you can move on to the ‘Load More Button’ settings.

The ‘Load More’ button gives visitors an easy way to scroll through more of your Facebook timeline, so Smash Balloon adds it to the feed by default.

This is a good start, but since it’s such an important button you may want to help it stand out by changing its background color, hover state, and label.

You can also change the text that appears on the button, by typing into the ‘Text’ field.

If you prefer to remove the Load More button, then go ahead and click the ‘Enable’ toggle.

By default, Smash Balloon allows visitors to look through the photos and videos in your timeline without leaving your website.

The visitor can simply click on any photo or video to open a lightbox popup, as you can see in the following image.

The visitor can then use the arrows to scroll through all the photos and videos in your Facebook timeline.

If they want to like a photo, leave a comment, or share the image with their Facebook friends, then they can click on the ‘Comment on Facebook’ link.

This opens a new tab and takes the visitor directly to the post on your Facebook page.

There are a few different ways to customize Smash Balloon’s lightbox feature. To see your options, click on ‘Lightbox’ in the left-hand menu.

Here, you can change the color of the lightbox text, links, and background.

By default, the lightbox shows any comments that people have left on your photos and videos. If you prefer to hide these comments, then you can click the ‘Show Comments’ switch to turn it from blue (enabled) to grey (disabled).

The lightbox feature allows people to scroll through your photos and videos directly on your WordPress website.

However, you may prefer to encourage people to visit your Facebook page instead. In this case, you can disable the lightbox feature by clicking on the ‘Enable’ toggle.

Now, the visitor will need to click on the ‘View on Facebook’ link in order to take a closer look at any photo or video.

When you’re happy with how the Facebook timeline looks, don’t forget to click on ‘Save’ to store your changes.

How to Add Your Facebook Timeline to WordPress

You’re now ready to add the timeline to your website using a block, widget, or shortcode.

If you’ve created more than one feed using Smash Balloon, then you’ll need to know the feed’s code to add it to a block or widget.

Just go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and then look at the feed=”” part of the shortcode. You’ll need to add this code to the block or widget, so make a note of it.

In the following image, we’ll need to use feed=”2″.

If you want to embed your Facebook timeline in a page or post, then we recommend using the ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ block.

Just open the page or post where you want to show your Facebook timeline. Then, click on the ‘+’ icon and start typing ‘Custom Facebook Feed.’

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

The block will show one of your Smash Balloon feeds by default. If this isn’t the feed you want to show, then simply find ‘Shortcode Settings’ in the right-hand menu.

You can now add the feed=”” code to this box. After that, click on ‘Apply Changes.’

The block will now show the timeline from your Facebook page or group. Simply publish or update the page to make the timeline live on your website.

Alternatively, you can add the feed to any widget-ready area, such as the sidebar or similar section. This is an easy way to promote your Facebook page across your entire website.

Just go to Appearance » Widgets and then click on the ‘+’ button.

After that, find the Custom Facebook Feed widget.

Then, drag it onto the area where you want to show the Facebook timeline.

Just like the block, the Custom Facebook Feed widget will show one of the feeds you created using Smash Balloon.

To show a different feed, simply type that feed’s code into the ‘Shortcode Settings’ box and then click on ‘Apply Changes.’

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

Finally, you can embed the timeline on any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode.

Simply go to Facebook Feed » All Feeds and copy the code in the ‘Shortcode’ column. You can now add this code to your WordPress blog or website.

For a detailed walkthrough, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Additionally, if you’re using a block theme, you can use the full-site editor to add the ‘Custom Facebook Feed’ anywhere on your site.

We hope this article helped you learn how to display your Facebook timeline in WordPress. You might also want to check out our guide on how to create a contact form in WordPress, or see our expert pick of the best Instagram WordPress plugins.

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

The post How to Display Your Facebook Timeline in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Do you want to know how much revenue you’re generating from Google Ads on your website?

Setting up Google Ads conversion tracking will help you uncover insights about your ad campaign’s performance. You can find out which campaign is performing the best, how users interact with your ads, and how you can improve conversions.

In this article, we’ll show you how to properly set up eCommerce Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress. This is the exact same method that we use on our own websites.

Why Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress?

If you’re running Google Ads for your WordPress blog, eCommerce store, or membership site, then it is important to know how they’re performing. You can’t improve, what you can’t measure.

Tracking Google Ads conversions helps you see how much revenue you earned from users who clicked on your ad campaigns. It also helps you see which paid keywords and ad groups drive the most conversions. This way, you can optimize your campaigns and budget for more profitable search terms.

Besides that, Google Ads conversion tracking also uncovers how users behave on your WordPress site after clicking an ad. For instance, you might see a lot of users arrive on a landing page, but abandon it after adding products to the cart.

You can use this information to improve the checkout process, offer discounts and incentives as users are about to leave your site, and provide a better user experience.

That said, let’s see how you can add Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress.

Adding Google Ads to WordPress Website

The easiest way of connecting Google Ads with WordPress is by using MonsterInsights. It is the best Analytics plugin for WordPress that helps set up Google Analytics without editing.

MonsterInsights offers an Ads addon that lets you setup comprehensive conversion tracking without touching a single line of code or hiring a developer.

We will use the MonsterInsights Pro license for this tutorial because it includes the Ads addon. There is also a MonsterInsights Lite version you can use for free.

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

Upon activation, you will be redirected to the welcome screen in your WordPress dashboard. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button.

Next, you can follow the onscreen instructions to connect Google Analytics to your site. For more details, you can see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

With MonsterInsights, you can also use dual tracking to set up a Google Analytics 4 property. It is the latest analytics version and will soon replace Universal Analytics. You can learn more by following our guide on how to switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress.

Once you’ve connected Google Analytics with WordPress, the next step is to install the Ads addon. Simply go to Insights » Addons from your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the ‘Ads’ addon.

Go ahead and click the ‘Install’ button. The addon will now automatically install and activate on your site.

Creating a Conversion Action in Google Ads

Next, you’ll need to create a conversion action in Google Ads.

First, you can visit the Google Ads website and log in to your account.

After that, go ahead and click the ‘Tools and settings’ option at the top. Under the ‘Measurement’ column, simply select the Conversions option.

On the next screen, you’ll need to create a conversion action.

You can click the ‘New conversion action’ button to get started.

Next, Google Ads will ask you to select the type of conversions you want to track. It will show you 4 options, including a website, app, phone call, or import.

For this tutorial, we’ll choose the ‘Website’ option for tracking ad conversions.

After that, you’ll need to enter the website URL where you’d like to measure conversions.

Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Scan’ button.

Google Ads will now show 2 options to create conversion actions, including an automatic and manual method. In the automatic method, you’ll need to select the conversion goal, choose a match type, and enter the URL. This way is suitable if you know which events to count as conversions.

However, we recommend selecting the manual method. Simply scroll down and click the ‘+ Add a conversion action manually’ option.

Next, you’ll need to enter the Conversion action details.

First, you can select the ‘Goal and action optimization’ for your conversion. This is the action you’d like to track. For example, when a user subscribes to your newsletter, makes a purchase, adds a product to a cart, submits a contact form, and more.

For the sake of this tutorial, we will select ‘Subscribe’ as the goal. After that, you can enter the Conversion name.

You can now scroll down and select a Value for your conversion. Google Ads lets you choose the same value for each conversion, assign different values for conversions, or don’t use a value for conversion action.

We will select the ‘Use the same for each conversion’ option, select the currency, and enter a value for this tutorial.

Besides that, you can also choose how many conversions to count per click.

If you’re tracking email newsletter signups, then we recommend selecting the ‘One’ option. This way, each subscriber is counted once. However, you can use the ‘Every’ option in an eCommerce store and count each purchase as a conversion.

After selecting these options, simply click the ‘Done’ button at the bottom.

You can now see your conversion action under the ‘Create conversion actions manually using code’ section.

Go ahead and click the ‘Save and continue’ button to get instructions for adding the tracking tags for conversion action to your site.

On the next screen, you’ll see 3 options to add the conversion action to your site.

Simply select the ‘Use Google Tag Manager’ option. You should see the Conversion ID and Conversion Label. Copy these to a notepad file or keep the browser window/tab open.

To finish the setup process, you’ll need to head to your WordPress website dashboard and view the MonsterInsights settings.

From here, go to Insights » Settings and click on the ‘Publisher’ tab.

After that, you can scroll down to the ‘Ads Tracking’ section.

Go ahead and enter the Conversion ID. Make sure you follow the format, which will look like this: AW-123456789.

If you are tracking Google Ads on Easy Digital Downloads, WooCommerce, and MemberPress, then enter the Conversion Label in the respective field.

That’s it. You’ve successfully set up Google Ads conversion tracking on your WordPress website.

View Google Ads Conversion Tracking Data in Google Analytics

You can take it a step further and connect Google Ads with Google Analytics to get more insights about how people use your website after clicking on an ad.

For instance, you can see the number of visitors from paid search and find out which pages they view after landing on your site. You can also use different filters and create custom reports in Google Analytics.

Let’s see how you can link your Google Ads account with Google Analytics 4 and Universal Analytics.

Connect Google Ads with Google Analytics 4

First, you’ll need to log in to your GA4 account and then go to the ‘Admin’ settings.

After that, you can click the ‘Google Ads Links’ option.

It is located under the Property column.

A new window will now slide in from the right.

Go ahead and click the ‘Link’ button in the top right corner.

Next, you will see different options for Link setup.

First, you can click the ‘Choose Google Ads accounts’ option.

On the next screen, you’ll need to select the Google Ads account you wish to connect.

Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Confirm’ button at the top.

You will now see the Google Ads account that you want to link.

Go ahead and click the ‘Next’ button.

In the next step, Google Analytics will give you options to enable personalized advertising and enable auto-tagging.

You can use the default settings and click the ‘Next’ button.

After that, you’ll see a summary of your Link setup settings.

If everything checks out, then go ahead and click the ‘Submit’ button.

You should now see a ‘Link Created’ notification in front of your Google Ads account. This means that you’ve successfully connected Google Ads with Google Analytics.

Do note that it can take up to 24 hours for your Google Ads data to appear in Analytics reports.

Next, you can view the Google Ads conversion tracking report in Google Analytics 4.

First, you can head to Acquisition » Traffic acquisition from the menu on your left and scroll down to see how many visitors came from the Paid Search channel.

After that, you can go to Acquisition » Acquisition overview and view the Session Google Ads campaign report. This will show which campaign got the most traffic.

You can also click the ‘View Google Ads campaigns’ option at the bottom to view more details.

For each campaign, you can see the total number of users, sessions, number of Google Ads clicks, cost per click (CPC), conversions, and more.

Using the information from this report, you can see which campaigns perform the best.

Connect Google Ads with Universal Analytics

If you’re using Universal Analytics, then you can first log in to your account.

After that, head to the ‘Admin’ settings.

Next, you’ll need to go to the Google Ads Links option.

You can find the option under the Property column.

On the next screen, you’ll need to select the Google Ads account you want to connect.

After selecting your account, simply click the ‘Continue’ button.

Next, you will need to enter a Link group title.

You can then select the Views to link with your Google Ads account. Simply click the toggle to ON for the correct Views.

Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Link accounts’ button.

Google Analytics will now show a summary of your settings. Simply scroll down and click the ‘Done’ button.

That’s it. Your Google Ads account will now be linked to the Universal Analytics property.

To view data from your ad campaigns, head to Acquisition » Google Ads » Campaigns from the menu on your left. You can see the number of clicks, cost, CPC, and more for each campaign.

Final Thoughts on Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress

When it comes to setting up any conversion tracking, the most important thing you want to make sure is that the setup is done properly. This is why we use and recommend MonsterInsights because it just does everything for you behind the scenes without touching any code.

However if you prefer to add code directly on your WordPress site, then you can do that as well by using a plugin like WPCode. This will help future-proof your customizations. There’s a free version of WPCode that you can use by following our tutorial on adding custom code in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to set up Google Ads conversion tracking in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide and the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your store.

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 Set Up Google Ads Conversion Tracking in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Do you want to create your own customized short URL for your blog?

Customized short URLs are often branded short URLs that are easy to remember and share. We use wpbeg.in for our own branded custom short URLs.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily create your own customized short URLs for your blog.

Why Use a Branded Customized Short URL in WordPress?

You may have noticed how popular websites like The New York Times, Twitter, Facebook, and TechCrunch use branded short URLs on social media.

The New York times uses nyti.ms, TechCrunch uses tcrn.ch, and WPBeginner uses wpbeg.in domain name for shorter customized URLs.

These branded domain names are called domain hacks.

They are created by combining the brand name and a domain TLD to cleverly spell a brand name.

Since most websites use .com as their primary domain, this is a good way to create a short url for your WordPress site. See our tips on picking the best domain for your blog.

Using your own customized short URL improves brand recognition among your users. It also allows you to create shorter URLs for easy sharing on social platforms.

Most importantly, you can easily track these URLs to see how many clicks you got when you shared a URL.

Having said that, let’s see how to create your own branded customized short URLs in WordPress.

Step 1: Buy a Short URL or Short Domain Name

Most of us do not have a short URL as our primary domain name. This means you will need to register a new domain name that is much shorter than your current domain.

For example, when choosing a branded shorter domain for WPBeginner.com we registered WPBeg.in. This made our short URL 6 characters shorter than our primary domain.

There are many free domain name generators that allow you to automatically generate domain name suggestions. See our list of 14 best free domain name generators.

Domainr is the one that specializes in helping you find short domains using domain hacks.

Try different combinations and explore creative ways to spell your brand name.

Once you have found a domain name that meets your needs and is available, you can register it on any of the top domain registrars.

We recommend using Domain.com. They are the best domain registrar on the market and you can get a 25% discount using our Domain.com coupon code.

Other domain registrars that we recommend include Network Solutions and GoDaddy.

The cost of domain name registration depends on which TLD you select. Country-specific TLDs cost a little more than some other new TLDs.

Once you have registered your domain name, you will be able to manage it from your domain registrar’s control panel.

Step 2: Setup Your Custom Domain in Bitly

Bitly is a popular URL shortner service that allows you to manage and track links. We use it to shorten our WordPress URLs and manage them.

First, you will need to create a Bitly account. You’ll need at least Basic plan to use your own custom domain name for link shortening.

After completing the sign up, you’ll reach your Bitly account dashboard.

From here, you need to click on Account settings » Custom domains menu and then click on the Add a domain button.

On the next screen, you’ll see options to buy a new domain name or use your own domain name.

Go ahead, and click on the ‘I want to use my own domain name’ option to continue.

Next, enter the domain name you recently purchased.

Below that, select ‘No, this is an unused domain name’ option and click Next.

Now you will see the option to choose a group.

Bitly allows you to organize your links, domains, and users into groups. This allows you to limit certain domains to specific users.

Choose All groups to make your custom domain available for all groups.

Next, you will be asked to add DNS records to your branded domain name before continuing.

You can leave this window open and proceed to the next step.

Step 3: Set DNS A Record to Point to Bit.ly

In order to create your own branded custom short URLs, you need to point your domain to Bitly servers.

To do that, you will need to add DNS records to your custom domain name. DNS records are kind of instructions that point domain name to proper servers.

You can find the DNS records that you need to add on Bitly website.

There are two types of DNS records that you can add.

For root domain names (e.g. wpbeg.in), you’ll need to enter A records.

However, If your custom domain is a subdomain (e.g. on.wsj.com), then you’ll need to enter the CNAME records.

To add the records, simply visit the domain management area on your domain registrar’s website and look for DNS records.

If you took our advice and registered your domain with Domain.com, then you will find the DNS & Nameservers settings under the left column.

Switch to the DNS Records tab and then click on the Add DNS Record button.

This will bring up a popup where you need to enter the following information

Hostname under the Name field Choose A as the Type Copy and paste the Bitly IP addressChoose 1 hour under the TTL

Click on the Add DNS button to save your settings.

If you are using a subdomain for example on.wsj.com, then you need to set a CNAME record and point it to cname.bitly.com

After adding DNS records you can switch back to Bitly website and click on the Add Domain button.

Now, you will see a notification that your domain settings are being verified.

Bitly will check your domain for DNS records and if everything looks ok you’ll recieve an email notification.

Step 4: Set up Short URL on Your WordPress Site

The best part about using Bitly is that you can easily manage, share, and track your short URLs directly from your WordPress site.

First, thing you need to do is install and activate the Bitly’s WordPress Plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » Writing page and scroll down to the ‘WP Bitly Shortlinks’ section.

Simply click on the Authorize button and then Allow Bitly to connect your WordPress site.

Once connected, you can choose which post types you want to generate shortlinks for. Below that, you can choose the default domain that you added earlier.

Don’t forget to click on the Save changes button to store your settings,

The plugin will now start generating your custom branded short URLs. You can see them by visiting your Bitly dashboard.

WP-Bitly plugin will also show you BitLy stats for each post. You can see those stats by editing a post and look for WP Bitly metabox.

This will allow you to track how many times your short URL for this post has been clicked and from which websites.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create your own customized short URLs in WordPress. You may also want to see our complete WordPress conversion tracking guide or see our pick of the best social media plugins for WordPress.

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 Your Own Customized Short URL for Your Blog first appeared on WPBeginner.

Have you been wondering what rel=”noopener” means in WordPress?

When you add a link that opens in a new tab, WordPress will automatically add the rel=”noopener” attribute to the link.

In this article, we will explain what rel=”noopener” means in WordPress and how it affects your website.

What Is rel=”noopener” in WordPress?

When you add links to your WordPress website, you can use HTML attributes to control what happens when you click the link.

For example, when you create a link, there is a toggle switch that allows you to open it in a new tab.

The HTML code generated by WordPress for this link looks like this:

Notice that some HTML attributes have been added to the link, rel=”noopener” and rel=”noreferrer”. These attributes are added to address a security vulnerability.

The problem is that JavaScript code can be used to allow a new tab to get control of its referring window. If you link to an external website affected by the malicious code, then that website can use the window.opener property in JavaScript to change the original page (your website) to steal information and spread malicious code.

WordPress adds rel=”noopener” to prevent the new tab from taking advantage of this JavaScript feature. Similarly, the rel=”noreferrer” attribute prevents passing the referrer information onto the new tab.

How Does rel=”noopener” Affect Your WordPress SEO?

It doesn’t.

Even though the rel=”noopener” attribute improves WordPress security, some users avoid using it because they think it will impact their WordPress SEO.

But that’s just a myth.

It has no impact on your site’s SEO rankings or your overall WordPress performance.

What’s the Difference Between “noopener” and “nofollow”?

It’s easy to confuse rel=”noopener” with rel=”nofollow”. However, they are completely separate attributes.

The noopener attribute prevents your website from cross-site hacking and improves WordPress security.

On the other hand, the nofollow attribute prevents your website from passing on SEO link-juice to the linked website.

Search engines look for and consider the nofollow attribute when following a link on your website. However, they do not give any consideration to the noopener tag.

By default, WordPress does not allow you to add nofollow to your external links. If you want to add nofollow in WordPress, then you will need to use a plugin.

To learn more, see our article on how to add title and nofollow to links in WordPress.

Does rel=”noreferrer” Affect Affiliate Links in WordPress?

The rel=”noreferrer” does not affect affiliate links in WordPress. Some users believe that it does because rel=”noreferrer” prevents the referrer information passing to the new tab.

However, most affiliate programs provide you with a unique URL that has your affiliate ID. This means your affiliate ID is passed along as a URL parameter for the other website to track.

Secondly, most affiliate marketers use a link cloaking plugin for their affiliate links.

With link cloaking, the affiliate link that your users click on is actually your website’s own URL, which then redirects users to the destination URL.

How Do You Disable rel=”noopener” in WordPress?

There is no need to remove rel=”noopener” from links on your website. It is good for your website’s security and has no performance or SEO impact on your website.

However, if you must remove it, then you will have to disable the Gutenberg block editor in WordPress and use the old classic editor.

That’s because if you remove rel=”noopener” from the link manually, the block editor will automatically add it back in to keep your website safe.

Once the block editor is disabled, you will need to add a code snippet to your theme’s functions.php file or to the WPCode plugin (recommended). You can learn how to use the WPCode Free Plugin in our guide on how to easily add custom code in WordPress.

Simply copy the following code into a new PHP snippet:

Make sure you change the ‘Active’ toggle on and then click the ‘Save Snippet’ button.

This will stop WordPress from adding rel=”noopener” to new links. You will also need to manually edit any old links to remove the attribute.

Want even more control over which rel attributes get added to your links in WordPress? We recommend using the AIOSEO plugin because it lets you add title, nofollow, and other link attributes right inside the WordPress editor.

We hope this article helped you learn about rel=”noopener” in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to get a free email domain, or see our list of tips to speed up WordPress performance.

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

The post What is rel=”noopener” in WordPress? (Explained) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Recently, one of our readers asked how do we measure the impact of our email newsletter?

You can use Google Analytics combined with special tracking links in your email newsletter to see how effective each email is for your business.

In this article, we will share how to set up email newsletter tracking in Google Analytics, step by step.

Why Track Your Email Newsletter Traffic in Google Analytics?

When you send out an email newsletter, it likely contains at least one link to your site. Your email marketing service should be able to tell you how many people click on a link (also called your click-through rate). However, most providers can’t show you what happens afterward.

That’s where Google Analytics comes in. You can use it to track what people do after clicking a link from your newsletter.

Let’s say you run a restaurant that offers home delivery. You want to see which of your weekly newsletters led to the most people filling out your online food ordering form.

Or perhaps you’re about to start an online store. It would be great to know which of your email campaigns drove the most sales.

Maybe you’re aiming to make money blogging. You want to know which campaigns got people to sign up for your online course.

With Google Analytics, it’s pretty easy to set up email newsletter tracking and see how many sales each email generates for your business.

With that said, let’s get started.

Creating Trackable URLs for Your Email Newsletter

If you want detailed insights in Google Analytics, then you need to add special tracking parameters to each link in your newsletter.

In other words, you can’t use a standard link like this:
https://www.site.com

Instead, you need to use a URL with special parameters that look like this:
https://www.site.com?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jan_sale

The ending part of this URL, everything after the question mark, is called a UTM code.

It might look complicated, but don’t worry. It’s actually quite easy to create.

Let’s take a look at two easy ways to create these trackable URLs for your email campaigns.

Method 1: Create Trackable URLs using MonsterInsights (Recommended)

MonsterInsights is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress. It allows you to easily install Google Analytics in WordPress and shows beautiful traffic reports inside the WordPress dashboard.

It also helps you set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) property. GA4 is the latest Analytics version by Google and it will replace Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023. With MonsterInsights, you can easily switch to GA4 in WordPress and start tracking your data.

To track email newsletters, you can use the free version of MonsterInsights to access the URL builder tool. However, we recommend upgrading to the pro plan in order to unlock more advanced features like eCommerce tracking (we will talk more about eCommerce tracking later in this article).

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

Upon activation, you can go to the Insights » Tools page in your WordPress dashboard and select the ‘URL Builder’ tab.

In the URL Builder tool, the first piece of information you’ll need to enter is the URL you want to add to your newsletter. This might be your main website URL if you’re linking to your home page.

In this example, we’re running a sale and linking to the website’s online store:

Google Analytics will track your email newsletter visitors as a ‘campaign’. This is simply the term Google Analytics uses for email or advertising promotions.

You’ll need to enter the source, medium, and name for your campaign, so Google Analytics can easily track them.

Source: Set this to ‘newsletter’ or something else meaningful
Medium: This should be set to ’email’
Name: You can use whatever makes sense, e.g. ‘jan_sale’ or ‘april_tshirts_sale’

If you’re using more than one word for the source, medium, or name, make sure you use underscores between words. Don’t use spaces or hyphens.

Besides that, you’ll see more options in the URL Builder.

The Campaign Term field is used if you’re running ads, so you can leave that blank. The Campaign Content can be used if you’re split-testing your emails or ads. Again, you can leave it blank for this example.

Next, you can scroll down.

At the bottom of the page, you should now see your special URL, with the tracking details included:

You can now use this URL in your email newsletter and later track clicks in your Google Analytics account.

Method 2: Manually Create Trackable URLs in Google Analytics

MonsterInsight’s URL builder is a handy tool for saving time, as it creates the UTM codes for you. If you prefer to create your trackable URLs manually, here’s how to do it.

First, get the URL you want to use. We’re going to use https://www.site.com/shop for this example.

Next, you’ll need to create the UTM code yourself. We’ll take it to step by step.

Add a question mark to the end of your URL, like this:

https://www.site.com/shop?

Then, add the utm_source:

https://www.site.com/shop?utm_source=newsletter

Next, add the ampersand (&) symbol and the utm_medium:

https://www.site.com/shop?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email

Finally, add another ampersand (&) and the utm_campaign:

https://www.site.com/shop?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=jan_sale

You can use any word or phrase you want for the campaign’s name. If you’re using multiple words for the source, medium, or campaign name, you can separate the words with an underscore.

That’s it. Your tracking URL is ready to be used in your newsletter.

Using Trackable URLs in Your Newsletter Campaigns

Once you’ve created your URL, either using the MonsterInsights URL builder or manually, you can use it in emails.

You can copy and paste the URL into your email wherever you would have used the standard URL before.

Here’s how that looks when inserting a URL in Constant Contact:

Tip: You can even use trackable URLs in your regular emails. This would make sense if you do a lot of email outreach. You can also create trackable URLs to use on social media, in ads, and more.

Once you are done with your email, send out your newsletter and wait for some clicks. After that, you can go to Google Analytics to view your report.

Viewing Your Email Newsletter Report in Google Analytics

Now that you’ve set up custom URLs for tracking in email newsletter, the next step is to view the reports in Google Analytics.

View Email Newsletter Report in Universal Analytics

First, you’ll need to log in to your Google Analytics account.

After that, simply click the Acquisition » Campaigns » All Campaigns link.

You should then see data for the campaign(s) you’ve created.

Tip: If you’ve only just sent out the newsletter, change the date for the report to the current day. Google Analytics defaults to showing you data for the previous 7 days.

View Email Newsletter Report in Google Analytics 4

First, you’ll need to log in to your Google Analytics 4 account.

From here, head to Reports » Acquisition » Traffic Acquisition from the dashboard on the left.

Here, you’ll see all the traffic sources for your website, including direct, organic search, paid search, and email.

To see traffic from your newsletter, simply enter ’email’ in the search bar and hit enter.

This will filter the report and only show traffic from emails.

Next, you can click the blue ‘+’ button under the search bar.

You’ll now see more options to short your website traffic.

Go ahead and select Traffic source » Session source from the dropdown list.

After that, you should see traffic from different email campaigns.

This way, you can which campaign was most effective and helped generate revenue.

Tracking Email Newsletter Conversions

The most important part of your newsletter tracking is what users do after they arrive on your website.

For instance, if you run an online store you might want to see which emails led to a sale. If you wanted users to fill out an order form, then you might want to track that.

The easiest way to do this is by using MonsterInsights to do almost all the setup for you.

Switching on eCommerce Tracking in Google Analytics

First, you’ll need to switch on eCommerce tracking in Google Analytics. This is a quick and easy process.

Simply log in to Google Analytics and make sure you have the correct website. After that, click the Admin link on the bottom left.

You will now see different settings.

In the View column, go ahead and click the ‘Ecommerce Settings’ option.

You can now toggle ‘Enable Ecommerce’ on. We recommend also enabling the ‘ Enable Enhanced Ecommerce Reporting’ option at this point.

This will track additional data and also lets you see eCommerce reports in MonsterInsights.

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

Switching on eCommerce Tracking in MonsterInsights

You’ll need the Pro version of MonsterInsights in order to use its eCommerce features. These work with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, MemberPress, and LifterLMS.

Next, you can go to Insights » Addons, find the eCommerce addon, and then click the Install button below it.

After that, you need to go to Insights » Settings and click the eCommerce tab. You should see that your eCommerce plugin (e.g. WooCommerce) has been automatically detected.

Tip: We recommend switching on ‘Use Enhanced eCommerce’ as this means you can view the MonsterInsights eCommerce report too.

That’s all you need to do because MonsterInsights handles everything else after that. Google Analytics will now be able to track eCommerce transactions on your site.

Now, when you visit Google Analytics, you’ll be able to see details of your eCommerce transactions.

In Universal Analytics, simply go to Acquisition » Campaigns and then click the ‘All Campaigns’ link. Next, select ‘E-commerce’ from the Conversions dropdown menu.

For detailed instructions, see our article on how to setup WooCommerce conversion tracking.

Tracking Links, Clicks, Buttons, and Forms

Not all websites use an eCommerce platform with a shopping cart.

For instance, if you have a simple order form, then you can track which email campaigns led users to submit that form. If you have a click to call button on your website, then you can track that as well.

We have a separate detailed guide on tracking links and button clicks in Google Analytics with step-by-step instructions.

We hope this article helped you learn how to set up email newsletter tracking in Google Analytics. You might also want to see these tested and easy ways to grow your email list faster and must-have WordPress plugins for business websites.

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 Set Up Email Newsletter Tracking in Google Analytics first appeared on WPBeginner.