How to Add One-Click Login With Google in WordPress

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Do you want to add one-click login with Google to your WordPress site?

When your users can sign in with their Google account, they won’t have to create, remember, or track another username and password just to access your website. This helps save them time and increase your conversion rates.

In this article, we will share how to easily add one-click Google login in WordPress.

Why Add One-Click Google Login in WordPress?

Many internet users stay logged in to their Google accounts. This lets them quickly access Google apps like Gmail, Drive, and Docs without signing in separately for each app.

Having one-click Google login activated on your WordPress login page allows your users to do the same on your website. They can save time by quickly signing in with their Google account. This saves them from having to enter their login credentials each time.

If you run a simple WordPress blog, then you might not find this feature useful.

But if your organization uses Google Workspace for professional business email addresses, then your team members can use your organization’s Google apps accounts for login.

Also, a single sign-on feature like one-click Google login is very helpful for any websites that require users to log in such as multi-author websites, membership websites, and websites selling online courses.

With that being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add one-click login with Google to your WordPress website.

Tip: To add one-click Google Login, your site needs to have secure SSL encryption. To learn how to set up a secure connection, see our beginner’s guide on how to switch from HTTP to HTTPS in WordPress.

How to Add One-Click Google Login in WordPress

First, you’ll need to install and activate the Nextend Social Login and Register plugin. For more details, please see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the free plugin that supports Google, Twitter, and Facebook login. There is also a paid version of Nextend Social Login that adds social login for lots of different sites including PayPal, Slack, and TikTok.

Upon activation, you need to go to Settings » Nextend Social Login in the WordPress admin area. On this screen, you see the different social login options that are available.

To add a Google login to your WordPress website, you need to click the ‘Getting Started’ button under the Google logo.

Here you will see that your first step will be to create a Google app.

Creating a Google app sounds technical, but don’t worry.

You don’t need to know any code, and we’ll walk you through all the steps.

Creating a Google App

To create this app, you’ll need to switch between your WordPress dashboard and the Google Developers Console. It’s a good idea to leave your WordPress dashboard open in the current tab and open a new browser tab.

Now you can visit the Google Developers Console website. If you are not already logged in, then you will be asked to log in with your Google account.

Next, you need to click on ‘Select a project’ from the top menu. It will open a popup where you would click the ‘New Project’ button to continue.

This will open the New Project page. You will need to add a project name and select the location. The project name can be anything you like, such as ‘Google Login.’

If you logged in using a Google Workspace account, then the location will be filled in with the name of your organization automatically. If not, then you should leave it as ‘No organization.’

Next, click the ‘Create’ button to continue.

You’ll now be redirected to the ‘APIs & Services’ dashboard. On this page, you need to click on ‘OAuth consent screen’ in the left menu.

Here you choose the type of user you’re allowing to log in.

Select ‘Internal’ if only users with your organization’s Google account will be logging in. Alternatively, you should choose ‘External’ if your users have email addresses outside of your organization. For example, anyone with an @gmail.com account versus an @yourcompanyemail.com address.

When you’re ready to continue, click the ‘Create’ button. Now you can start to add information about your app.

First, you should enter your business name in the app name field. This will be shown to the user when logging in, such as, ‘Smith Training Services wants access to your Google account.’

You also need to add the email address you logged into Google with. This will allow your users to ask questions about the Google login screen.

Tip: We recommend that you do not upload a logo for your app. If you do, then your app will need to go through a verification process with the Google Trust and Safety Team. This process is lengthy and can take 4-6 weeks.

Once you’ve done that, scroll down to the ‘App domain’ section. Here you need to add links to your website’s home page, privacy policy page, and terms of service page.

Then you need to click the ‘Add Domain’ button to add your website’s domain name, such as ‘example.com.’

If you want to add one-click Google login to more than one website, then you can click the ‘+ Add Domain’ button to add another domain.

Finally, you need to add one or more email addresses so that Google can notify you about any changes to your project.

When you’re finished, make sure you click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.

Next, you will come to the Scopes and Test Users pages. For both of these pages, simply scroll to the bottom and click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.

The final page for this step will show you a summary of your OAuth consent screen settings.

The next job is to create the keys your plugin will need to connect with Google Cloud.

You should click ‘Credentials’ from the left menu and then click the ‘+ Create Credientials’ button at the top of the screen. You need to select the ‘OAuth client ID’ option.

This will take you to the ‘Create OAuth client ID’ page.

You should select ‘Web application’ from the ‘Application type’ dropdown.

Some settings will be added to the page. You need to scroll down to the ‘Authorized redirect URIs’ section and click the ‘+ Add URI’ button.

Now you should enter this URL:

http://example.com/wp-login.php?loginSocial=google

Make sure you replace example.com with your own website’s address.

Once you’ve done that, you should click the ‘Create’ button to store the setting. It may take five minutes to a few hours for the setting to take effect.

Your OAuth client has now been created!

You will see a popup containing ‘Your Client ID’ and Your Client Secret.’ You will need to paste these keys into the plugin’s settings page back in your WordPress admin area.

You can just click the ‘copy’ icon to the right to copy the keys one at a time.

Adding Your Google Keys to Your Plugin

Now, simply switch back to your website’s browser tab and click on the ‘Settings’ tab under Settings » Nextend Social Login. Here you will see fields for the Client ID and Client Secret.

You need to copy your keys from the Google Cloud Console and paste them into these fields.

Once you’ve done that, make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Now you’ll need to test that the settings are working correctly. This is important because you don’t want real users to encounter errors when trying to log in to your website.

Simply click the ‘Verify Settings’ button and the plugin will make sure that the Google app you created is working correctly.

If you followed the steps above correctly, then you should see a notification saying ‘Works Fine – Disabled.’

You can now safely click the ‘Enable’ button to allow users to log in using their Google ID.

You will see a message confirming that Google login is now enabled.

Selecting Your Button Style and Labels

Nextend’s default button style and label are pretty standard and will work for most websites. However, you can customize them by clicking on the ‘Buttons’ tab at the top of the screen.

You will now see all the different styles that you can use for the social login button. To use a different style, simply click to select its radio button.

Once you’ve done that, you can also change the button text by editing the text in the ‘Login label’ field.

If you like, you can apply some basic formatting to the login label using HTML. For example, you can make text bold using <b> and </b> tags.

You can also edit the ‘Link label’ and ‘Unlink label’ fields that allow users to link and unlink your website with their Google accounts. Technical users can use HTML code for buttons to create their own Google login button.

Make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Taking Your Google App Out of Testing Mode

Now there is one last thing you need to do back on the Google Cloud browser tab. You should still see the popup with your client ID and client secret. You can dismiss the popup by clicking ‘OK’ at the bottom of the popup.

Now you need to click ‘OAuth consent screen’ from the left menu.

You can see that your Google app is in ‘Testing’ mode. This allows you to test your app with a limited number of users. Now that you have received a ‘Works Fine’ notification when verifying the settings with the plugin, you can move it to In ‘Production’ mode.

You do this by clicking the ‘Publish App’ button. Next, you will see a popup with the title ‘Push to production?’

Simply click ‘Confirm’ to allow everyone to use a one-step Google login on your site.

If you followed this tutorial carefully, then the Verification Status should now be ‘Verification not required.’

Your app will now work with all Google users.

Now when users are logging in to your website, they will have the option to log in with Google.

However, if they prefer, they can still log in using their standard WordPress username and password.

Keep in mind that users can only log in with the Google account address that they have used on your website. Also, if you have allowed user registration on your WordPress site, then users can quickly register on your site using one-click Google login.

If you wish to add the Google login button anywhere else on your website, then you can do so using a shortcode. You can learn more by clicking on Nextend’s ‘Usage’ tab.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add one-click login with Google in WordPress. You may also want to learn how to create a WordPress membership site, and see our list of the best WordPress business directory 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.

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How to Create a HubSpot Form in WordPress

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Are you looking to add a Hubspot form and add it to your WordPress site?

HubSpot is a popular all-in-one marketing platform designed to help grow your business used by over 113,925 people across the globe. Hubspot also enables you to create engaging forms for your website.

In this article, we will show you how to create a HubSpot in WordPress.

Why Use HubSpot to Create Forms

Hubspot is a marketing and sales platform that helps companies grow. It comes with numerous tools including a customer relationship manager (CRM), a content management system (CMS), built-in email marketing, and lead generation.

They also have a robust WordPress form builder, which seamlessly integrates with WordPress, allowing you to create hassle-free forms.

This form builder is an easy drag-and-drop builder that enables you to create interactive forms without a single line of code, making it one of the best contact form plugins.

Also keep in mind that HubSpot can also easily integrate with other form tools like WPForms, Formidable Forms, and more. With that being said, let’s see how you can create a HubSpot form in WordPress.

Method 1. Creating a HubSpot Form Using The HubSpot PluginMethod 2. Creating a HubSpot Form Using WPForms

Method 1. Creating a HubSpot Form Using The HubSpot Plugin

You can easily create a HubSpot form for your WordPress website using the HubSpot plugin.

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

Upon activation, the plugin will add a new menu item WordPress admin sidebar. Just click on HubSpot to be taken to the setup wizard where you can create a HubSpot account if you don’t already have one.

If you have an account, you need to click on the ‘Sign in here’ link at the top.

This will open up a ‘HubSpot Login’ popup.

Simply type your username and password and then click the ‘Login’ button.

After you’ve logged in, HubSpot will ask if you want to continue with the account you’ve just logged in with.

Simply click the ‘Continue With This Account’ button.

Then you’ll be asked to connect your HubSpot account with your WordPress website.

Just click on the ‘Connect Website’ button.

Once you’ve connected the WordPress website with your HubSpot account, head over to HubSpot » Forms from the WordPress admin dashboard.

This will take you to the ‘Forms’ page. Now, simply click on the ‘Create a Free Form’ button at the top right corner.

Next, you’ll have to select your form type and then click the ‘Next’ button on the top.

For this tutorial, we will be creating an ‘Embedded form.’

After that, you’ll be taken to the HubSpot template library.

Simply choose your preferred template, such as ‘Registration’ or Contact us.’ Then, just click the ‘Start’ button at the top.

Now that you’re on the Form Editor, you can edit the pre-made form template by dragging and dropping fields from the left into the preview at the right.

When you’re done customizing, click the ‘Submit’ button at the top.

This will open up a ‘Review And Publish’ popup.

Simply scroll down and click the ‘Publish’ button.

After you click the ‘Publish’ button, a popup will appear on your screen. As this is an Embedded form, a shortcode will be provided.

Now, just click the ‘Copy’ button beside the shortcode.

You can embed this code on any page where you want to add your HubSpot form. For more information, check out our guide on how to add shortcodes in WordPress.

Method 2. Creating a HubSpot Form Using WPForms

You can also create a HubSpot form using WPForms as this plugin comes with a HubSpot integration addon. WPForms is the most popular drag & drop WordPress form builder with over 5 million active installs.

Note that you need at least a WPForms Elite license to access the HubSpot addon.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. Check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for details.

Upon activation, go to WPForms » Addons from the admin dashboard. This will take you to the ‘WPForms Addons’ page.

Simply locate the HubSpot addon and click the ‘Upgrade Now’ button.

This will take you to your ‘WPForms Account’ page. Here, simply scroll down to the ‘HubSpot Addon’ and click the download button.

After that, you can install and activate the HubSpot addon the same way that you installed and activated the plugin.

Next, go to WPForms » Settings from the WordPress dashboard. Then, head over to the ‘Integrations’ tab.

Here you will find HubSpot in the list of integrations. Just click the arrow icon to expand the section, and then you can click the ‘Add New Account’ button.

A prompt will open up, asking you to connect with your HubSpot account. Simply type your HubSpot account login credentials.

If you don’t already have an account, then you can create one here.

Next, you’ll be asked if you want to continue with this account.

Simply click the ‘Continue With This Account’ button.

After that, you’ll be shown a popup asking you to connect WPForms with Hubspot.

Click on the ‘Connect App’ button at the bottom of the page.

On your WordPress dashboard, return to the ‘Integrations’ screen.

You should now see ‘Connected’ beside the section for HubSpot.

Now go to WPForms » Add New from the dashboard to create your HubSpot form.

First, select a form template from the WPForms template library.

After selecting the template, you’ll be taken to the WPForms interface where you can edit the form template.

Now, click on the ‘Marketing’ option on the menu bar to the left. Simply select ‘HubSpot’ from the list of integrations.

A HubSpot popup will then appear on the screen. Simply click the ‘Add New Connection’ button at the top.

WPForms will now prompt you to enter a connection nickname.

You’re free to choose any name you like, as no one will see this but you. Just click the ‘OK’ button when you’re done.

WPForms will then ask you to select your HubSpot account and choose an action to perform. Simply choose your account from the ‘Select Account’ Field.

Then choose the ‘Create/Update Contact’ option from the ‘Action to Perform’ field.

After selecting this option, various new settings will appear within the form.

Fill in those fields accordingly.

Next, you’re ready to customize your form in the form builder.

Simply create drag and drop fields from the left-hand side into the live preview on the right.

You can add any information that you want to collect and organize in your HubSpot account.

Once satisfied, click the ‘Embed’ button present at the top of the form builder.

This will open the ‘Embed in a Page’ prompt.

If you want to embed your HubSpot form on a new page, click the ‘Create New Page’ option.

To embed a form on an existing page, click the ‘Select Existing Page’ option.

After that, simply choose the right page from the dropdown that appears.

Now click the ‘Let’s Go’ button.

You will automatically be directed to the page that you selected from the dropdown menu. The HubSpot form will already be embedded there.

Simply click the ‘Publish’ button at the top of the content editor to push your new form live.

That’s it! We hope you learned how to create a HubSpot form in WordPress. You may also want to check out our ultimate guide on SEO for beginners and our expert picks of the best multipurpose themes to create an engaging site.

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.

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How to Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress

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Are you looking to use Microsoft Clarity analytics on your WordPress website?

Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool that helps you analyze how users engage with your website with click tracking, scroll tracking, and heatmaps.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily install Microsoft Clarity in WordPress, step by step.

This is what we’ll cover in this tutorial:

What Is Microsoft Clarity and Why Use It?Microsoft Clarity vs Google Analytics: What’s the Difference?Signing Up for Microsoft ClarityAdding Microsoft Clarity Code to WordPressUsing Microsoft ClarityFinal Thoughts on Microsoft Clarity Analytics Tool

What Is Microsoft Clarity and Why Use It?

Microsoft Clarity is a free analytics tool for websites. It helps you see the most popular pages on your website and how users click, scroll, and interact with those pages.

The most important feature of Microsoft Clarity is its data visualization. This includes click tracking, heatmap reports, session recordings, and more.

Heatmaps show a visual report of how users move their mouse, as well as where they click, select, and scroll.

Similarly, session recordings help you see how users view your content, where they spend more time, and what takes them away from your WordPress website.

This information helps you create a better user experience for your users, improve performance, and boost sales conversion.

Note: Microsoft warns that Clarity should not be used on sites that contain sensitive data including user health care, financial services, or government-related information.

Microsoft Clarity vs Google Analytics: What’s the Difference?

Google Analytics is the best analytics solution on the market because it offers a lot of in-depth tracking features. Microsoft Clarity, on the other hand, focuses on the visualization of user interactions with heatmaps and session recordings.

Google Analytics helps you track almost anything on your website. It also has enhanced eCommerce tracking, conversion tracking, and detailed reports.

Microsoft Clarity is a newer platform, and it’s currently not an alternative to Google Analytics’ far superior features. However, you can use Microsoft Clarity alongside Google Analytics to unlock features like heatmaps and visitor session recordings because Google doesn’t offer those features yet.

Before Microsoft’s analytics feature, many website owners would use paid heatmap solutions like Hotjar or CrazyEgg alongside Google Analytics, but now you have a free alternative to those tools.

We recommend installing Google Analytics on all your websites. After that, you can follow our guide below to install Microsoft Clarity in WordPress.

They both work along quite well without affecting your website’s functionality.

It’s easy to add Microsoft Clarity to any website. You need to sign up for Microsoft Clarity and then add a tracking code to your website. We’ll take you through the process step by step.

Signing Up for Microsoft Clarity

First, head to the Microsoft Clarity website and click on the ‘Get Started’ button. You need a Microsoft, Facebook, or Google account to sign up.

After signing up, you will see the Clarity dashboard with a popup to add a new project.

Go ahead and enter a name for your project. You can use the name of your website to make it easily recognizable. Next, enter your website URL.

Once you’ve created your new project, you will be asked how you want to install Clarity. You should click the ‘Get tracking code’ option.

You will now see the tracking code that you need to add to your WordPress website. Simply click the ‘Copy to clipboard’ button.

Depending on the method you use to add this code to your WordPress site, you may need the complete tracking code, or just your project ID. You’ll find the project ID at the end of the tracking code, just before </script>. In the screenshot above, it is ‘ejbjp9k5ge’.

We recommend leaving this tab open or copying the code to a safe place. You will need it in the next step of this tutorial.

Adding Microsoft Clarity Code to WordPress

Now you need to add the Microsoft Clarity tracking code to your WordPress website in a way that makes it present on all pages. Luckily, there are a number of easy ways to make this happen without manually editing any WordPress files.

You can choose your preferred method from the following three.

Method 1: Adding Microsoft Clarity Code Using the Microsoft Clarity Plugin

The first thing you need to do is install the Microsoft Clarity plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » Clarity page in WordPress admin. Here you need to paste the project ID. That’s the last item in your Clarity tracking code and will look something like ‘ejbjp9k5ge’.

Make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the bottom to store your settings. Your WordPress site is now connected to Microsoft Clarity.

Method 2: Adding Microsoft Clarity Code Using WPCode

The safest and easiest way to add code to your website is WPCode, the best WordPress code snippets plugin. This plugin lets you add any script in your website’s header or footer right from your WordPress dashboard (no FTP or cPanel needed).

Once you have installed and activated the WPCode Free Plugin, you need to visit the Code Snippets » Header & Footer page. Once there, you should paste the entire Microsoft Clarity tracking code into the ‘Header’ field.

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

The plugin will now automatically add the Microsoft Clarity analytics code to all pages of your WordPress site, so you can track website visitor activity on your website.

Method 3: Adding Microsoft Clarity Code Using All in One SEO

All in One SEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin that allows you to easily optimize your WordPress website for search engines and social media platforms. We show you how to get the most out of it in our guide on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress correctly.

If you have All in One SEO installed on your website, then you can use it to add the Microsoft Clarity tracking code.

Simply head over to All in One SEO » General Settings » Webmaster Tools and click on the ‘Microsoft Clarity’ icon. A field will appear where you can paste your Clarity project ID. That’s the last item in your Clarity tracking code and will look something like ‘ejbjp9k5ge’.

Make sure you click the ‘Save Changes’ button afterward, and your WordPress site will be connected to Microsoft Clarity.

Pro Tip: If you’re using a WordPress caching plugin, then you need to clear your WordPress cache after you add the project ID or tracking code. This is important otherwise Microsoft will not be able to verify your site for a few hours.

Using Microsoft Clarity

Once you have installed the tracking code and cleared your WordPress cache, Microsoft will then start recording visitor session data.

However, it will likely take up to 2 hours before you can see any results in your Clarity account.

Using the Microsoft Clarity Dashboard

Simply log in to your Clarity account after a few hours, and you should be able to see the activity summary in your dashboard.

You can see useful insights like the percentage of sessions that have ‘dead clicks’. These are clicks that don’t go anywhere. For instance, users might be clicking on an image thinking that it’s a button or a link.

Another useful statistic is rage clicks when users rapidly click or tap in the same area. Paying close attention to these metrics can help you make your site more user-friendly.

The dashboard also shows you the number of ‘quick backs’. These occur when a user moves off a page and then very quickly comes back to it.

It also tracks excessive scrolling, when users scroll through a page more than expected. And like Google Analytics, Microsoft makes it easy to see the most popular pages on your site.

Using Microsoft Clarity Recordings

The ‘Recordings’ tab shows you recordings of different user sessions. You get the details of the user’s device, operating system, and country.

Clarity also tells you the number of pages they visited, the duration and time of their session, and the number of clicks they made.

The recordings let you watch an animation of mouse movements and clicks. In the screenshot above, you can see a user moved their mouse to the November archives link and clicked it.

Using Microsoft Clarity Heatmaps

The ‘Heatmaps’ tab shows you a heatmap of your website. These help you see which sections are popular on your site based on the number of people clicking.

The heatmap will also show you how far users scrolled down the page, and which areas on the page received the most clicks.

Final Thoughts on Microsoft Clarity Analytics Tool

Microsoft Clarity is a new analytics tool with some neat features. While it’s no alternative to the powerful Google Analytics platform, it definitely offers some interesting features like free heatmap and session recording.

Often new website owners want to see heatmaps and session recordings, but they don’t have the budget to purchase premium solutions like HotJar or CrazyEgg. Well, now you can use Microsoft Clarity.

Using the heatmaps and session recordings, you should be able to optimize your website or online store experience to improve user experience and boost sales.

We hope this article helped you learn how to install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress. You may also want to see our comparison of the best WordPress page builders to create custom layouts without any code, and our pick of the best email marketing services to grow your business.

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 Install Microsoft Clarity Analytics in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Properly Change, Move and Delete WordPress Categories

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Do you want to change, move, or delete WordPress categories?

Categories help organize your content and make it easy for visitors to find interesting posts. However, as your website grows and you learn more about your audience, you may need to change your categories.

In this article, we will show you how you can easily change, move, and delete the categories on your WordPress website.

Why Change, Move or Delete WordPress Categories?

Categories help sort your blog posts and make it easier for users to find what they are looking for. This will keep them on your website for longer and encourage them to convert.

However, it can be difficult to plan all your categories in advance. This is especially true if you’re just getting started with WordPress, or aren’t sure which direction to take your new blog, online store, or small business website.

You may also want to try out different categories and content, and then analyze what works the best by installing Google Analytics in WordPress. You can then use this insight to fine-tune your categories.

With that being said, at some point, you may need to change your WordPress categories. This might involve renaming a category to include the keywords that got the most clicks during A/B split testing, or fixing a spelling mistake.

You might even organize your categories and subcategories into new parent-child relationships to help visitors discover new content.

If you don’t make these changes carefully, then it could hurt the visitor experience, damage your SEO, and make it more difficult for visitors to navigate your website.

With that being said, let’s see how you can properly change, move, and delete WordPress categories. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the change you want to make.

How to Rename or Edit a WordPress CategoryHow to Properly Move a WordPress Category (Without Causing Broken Links)How to Properly Delete a WordPress CategoryHow to Change the Default Uncategorized CategoryHow to Add a Subcategory in WordPressHow to Easily Convert Categories into Tags

How to Rename or Edit a WordPress Category

To start, you can change a category’s name, assign it to a different parent category, or display a category description to help other authors understand how to use that category.

To make any of these changes, head over to Posts » Categories.

Here, find the category that you want to change and hover the mouse over it.

When the ‘Edit’ link appears, give it a click.

This will take you to a screen where you can rename the category, add a parent or subcategory, or write a category description. For example, if you’ve used a keyword research tool to find some new keywords or phrases, then you may want to change the category’s name to include these words.

To rename a category, simply type the new title into the ‘Name’ field.

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

After that, WordPress will automatically update all the posts within this category.

How to Properly Move a WordPress Category (Without Causing Broken Links)

Every category has an archive page in WordPress, as you can see in the following image. These pages help visitors find related content, which can increase your pageviews and reduce the bounce rate in WordPress.

Sometimes you may want to change where this archive page is located. For example, if you’ve renamed a category, then you might also change its archive URL to avoid confusing visitors.

However, changing the slug means that anyone who tries to visit the original URL will get a 404 error.

This is a bad user experience and can impact your WordPress SEO. Thankfully, you can easily fix this problem by creating a redirect.

With that in mind, go ahead and change the slug by going to Posts » Categories. Then, find the category that you want to edit and hover the mouse over it.

When the ‘Edit’ button appears, give it a click.

In the ‘URL’ field, you’ll see the current slug for this category’s archive page.

Simply type in the new URL that you want to use. Just be aware that you can only use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens in the URL.

When you’re happy with how the slug looks, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Update’ to store your changes.

Now, you’ll see the archive page if you visit the new URL, but you’ll get an error if you type in the original link.

The easiest way to redirect from the old URL to the new link is by using AIOSEO.

AIOSEO is the best SEO plugin for WordPress and can help you get more visitors from search engines like Google. It even has a setup wizard that will help you choose the best SEO settings for your website and improve your rankings, even if you’re completely new to search engine optimization.

For this guide, we’ll be using the AIOSEO Pro version because it has the Redirection Manager that you’ll need to set up a redirect. However, there is also a free version of AIOSEO that you can use to optimize your website no matter what your budget.

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

Upon activation, AIOSEO will automatically launch the setup wizard. You can simply click on ‘Let’s Get Started’ and then follow the onscreen instructions to improve your site’s search engine rankings.

To learn more, please see our step-by-step guide on how to set up All in One SEO for WordPress correctly.

Since we want to use the plugin’s premium features, you’ll need to enter a license key when asked. You can find this information under your account on the AIOSEO website.

After entering the license key, click on the ‘Finish Setup’ button to save your settings and close the setup wizard.

With that out of the way, head over to All in One SEO » Redirects in the WordPress dashboard. You can then go ahead and click on Activate Redirects.

Now you’ve activated the Redirection Manager, you can start by typing in the source URL. This is the category archive’s original web address, and will usually start with /category/ followed by the original category name.

Here, we’re redirecting anyone who tries to visit /category/search-engine-optimization.

After typing in the source URL, make sure you click on the small cog icon to see some extra settings that you can configure.

You’ll need to check the box next to ‘Regex.’

Now, it’s time to move to the target URL, which is our new category archive page.

In the following image, visitors will be redirected to /category/seo.

Your next task is choosing the type of redirect that AIOSEO should use. There are various types of redirects that are identified with numbers such as 301, 302, and 307.

If you’re permanently moving the archive to a new location, then you’ll want to use a 301 redirect as this tells search engines that the page will always be at this new location. This way, all the old archive’s traffic and backlinks are transferred to the new page.

Simply open the ‘Redirect Type’ dropdown and choose ‘301 Moved Permanently.’

If you’re only temporarily moving the category archive page to a new URL, then you should choose ‘307 Temporary Redirect’ instead.

When you’ve done that, go ahead and click on the ‘Add Redirect’ button.

Now, if you try to visit the original category archive page, AIOSEO will automatically redirect you to the new target URL.

How to Properly Delete a WordPress Category

Sometimes you may no longer need a particular category. For example, you may have accidentally created two very similar categories or changed the direction of your WordPress blog so you no longer cover the same content.

Before deleting a category, it’s important to think about how this will affect your WordPress website. Firstly, WordPress will remove the deleted category from all your posts. Any posts that no longer have a category, will be marked as ‘uncategorized.’

Lots of uncategorized content will make it more difficult for visitors to explore your website. With that being said, you may want to look through all the posts within the category you plan to delete, to make sure they have at least one alternate category.

You can also set up a redirect for that category’s archive page by following the same process described above. This can help you fix any broken links before they hurt your search engine rankings or the visitor experience.

When you’re ready to delete the category, simply go to Posts » Categories. You can then hover the mouse over the category and click on the ‘Delete’ link when it appears.

How to Change the Default Uncategorized Category

If you don’t assign a category to a post, then WordPress will assign one automatically. By default, this is ‘uncategorized’ but you may want to change this to an alternative category.

Another option is to continue using the ‘uncategorized’ category, but give it a more descriptive and useful name.

This change is particularly important if you run a WordPress multi-author blog or accept guest contributions, as these people may forget to add a category to their posts.

Changing the default category can also improve your WordPress SEO by making sure that every post has a descriptive category.

Let’s start by renaming the uncategorized category by going to Posts » Categories.

Here, find ‘Uncategorized’ and hover your mouse over it. When the ‘Edit’ link appears, give it a click.

You can now type a new title into the ‘Name’ field.

After that, scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on ‘Save.’

Another option is to change the default category. This can be useful if you’ve already created a general category, and now want to use it as your default.

To make this change, head over to Settings » Writing in the WordPress dashboard. You can then open the ‘Default Post Category’ dropdown and choose any category from the list.

After that, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.

How to Add a Subcategory in WordPress

WordPress allows you to add category hierarchy, so you can add sub categories as needed.

You can do this easily by using the Parent category dropdown on the Add New Category screen.

For more details, see our step by step guide on how to add subcategories in WordPress.

How to Easily Convert Categories into Tags

Categories and tags are both important ways to organize and group your posts. However, to help visitors find their way around your site, you should use them in slightly different ways.

Categories are great for broadly grouping your posts, while tags are meant to describe the specific details of each post.

Visitors can use categories to quickly find the type of content they’re interested in, or their favorite subject. They can then use tags to pinpoint the exact post within that category.

At WPBeginner we have a Beginner’s Guide category, which is aimed at new WordPress users. Each post in the Beginner’s Guide has different tags, such as custom taxonomy, SEO, and sorting your content.

It’s easy to get categories and tags mixed up, especially if you’re just getting started with WordPress. Your website may also change over time, to the point where one of your tags would now work better as a category.

You can easily turn categories into tags, using the Categories to Tags Converter plugin. For example, you can turn a ‘Beginner’s Guide’ category into a ‘Beginner’s Guide’ tag with the click of a button. Even better, all posts that were categorized as ‘Beginner’s Guide’ will be assigned the new ‘Beginner’s Guide’ tag automatically.

This can save you a ton of time and let you test different ways of organizing your content.

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

Upon activation, go to Tools » Import. Here, find ‘Categories and Tags Converter’ and click on its ‘Run importer’ link.

You’ll now see all the different categories and tags you’ve created for your website, organizied into tabs.

To convert a category into a tag, simply check the box next to it. You can then click on the ‘Convert Categories’ button.

After a few moments, you’ll see a ‘Converted successfully’ message. To turn more categories into tags, simply repeat the process described above.

To turn a tag into a category, select the ‘Tags’ tab. You can now check the box next to the tag that you want to change, and click on the ‘Convert Tags’ button.

We hope this article helped you learn how to properly change, move, and delete WordPress categories. You can also go through our guide on the best email marketing services and proven ways to make money online blogging with 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 Properly Change, Move and Delete WordPress Categories first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Display Your Facebook Timeline in WordPress

~ Web Administrator ~ Leave a comment

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.