Do you want to add a YouTube subscribe button in WordPress?

Having a YouTube subscribe button on your blog makes it easy for visitors to find your videos and subscribe to your YouTube channel.

In this article, we will show you how you can add a YouTube subscribe button to your WordPress website.

Why Add YouTube Subscribe Button in WordPress?

A YouTube channel is a great way to reach a new audience, boost your website engagement, and increase your blog traffic.

In fact, many websites also have a YouTube channel including WPBeginner.

If you’ve launched a YouTube channel to support your WordPress blog, then you should make it easy for visitors to subscribe to your YouTube channel.

That’s where a YouTube subscribe button comes in.

This button lets visitors subscribe to your channel within seconds. A subscribe button can also promote your YouTube channel to visitors who may not have heard of it yet.

In this post we have two different ways to add a YouTube subscribe button in WordPress. If you prefer to jump straight to a particular method, then you can use the links below.

Method 1. Manually adding YouTube subscribe button codeMethod 2. Using plugin to add a YouTube subscribe bar

Method 1: Manually Adding YouTube Subscribe Button Code

One method is to create a YouTube subscribe button on the Google Developer website. You can then add this button to any widget, post or page using shortcode.

The first thing you need to do is visit the YouTube subscribe button page.

Here, you’ll need to type in your YouTube channel name or ID into the ‘Channel Name or ID’ field. To get this information, open a new tab in your browser and then head over to the YouTube homepage.

You can then click on your profile picture in the top right corner, and select ‘Settings.’

In the left-hand menu, go ahead and click on Advanced Settings.

Once you’ve done that, simply find the ‘Channel ID’ field and click on its ‘Copy’ button.

Now, switch back to the YouTube subscribe button page and paste the Channel ID into the ‘Channel Name or ID’ field.

The preview will now update to show the total number of YouTube subscribers you have.

There are two different layouts that you can use for your YouTube subscribe button. The ‘default’ layout shows the subscribe button and your total number of YouTube subscribers.

The other option is ‘full layout.’ This shows the YouTube subscribe button, your subscriber count, plus your channel’s profile picture and the title of your YouTube channel.

To see how your YouTube subscribe button will look with the full layout, simply open the ‘Layout’ dropdown and then click on ‘full.’

The preview will now update to show how your YouTube subscribe button will look with the full layout applied.

After choosing between the default and full layouts, you can choose a theme for your YouTube subscribe button.

The default theme is a white background, but you can switch to a dark theme if you prefer. This adds a darker background to your YouTube subscribe button.

To see how your subscribe button will look with the different themes, open the ‘Theme’ dropdown. You can now switch between ‘default’ and ‘dark,’ to see which theme you like the best for your website.

In the following image, you can see a YouTube subscribe button with the dark theme.

By default, the YouTube subscribe button shows your total number of YouTube followers. Showing how many people follow you on YouTube is a powerful form of social proof.

If visitors see that lots of people are following your YouTube channel, they’re more likely to see your website as an authority in your blogging niche. This can also convince more people to subscribe to your channel.

However, sometimes you may want to hide your total number of YouTube subscribers. For example, if you’re a new channel, then you may want to build your following before showing the total subscriber count on your WordPress website.

To hide how many people are subscribed to your YouTube channel, simply open the ‘Subscriber count’ dropdown and then click on ‘hidden.’

As you customize the subscribe button, Google will update the button’s embed code.

When you’re happy with how your button looks, you can go ahead and copy all of the code in the ‘Code’ section.

Now, you can simply paste the code into any widget, post or page on your WordPress site. For more details on how to place the code, you can see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Once you’re done, don’t forget to save your changes. You can now visit your WordPress website to see the YouTube subscribe button live.

Method 2: Using Plugin to Add a YouTube Subscribe Bar

Another way to add a YouTube subscribe button on your website is by using the YouTube Subscribe Bar plugin. Once set up, this free plugin automatically adds a ‘Subscribe to YouTube channel’ bar to every YouTube video that you embed on your website.

This subscribe bar will appear on your own YouTube videos, but also videos that you embed from other channels. This is perfect for sharing useful third-party YouTube videos on your site, while still encouraging people to subscribe to your channel.

Just be aware that this plugin only works for YouTube videos that you embed using the oEmbed format. The easiest way to embed a YouTube video using oEmbed is to head over to the YouTube video, and then click on its ‘Share’ button.

This opens a popup with various different ways that you can embed the video. To learn more about the different options, please see our guide on how to easily embed videos in WordPress blog posts.

Since we want to use oEmbed, make sure you select the ‘Embed’ option. Then, go ahead and click on ‘Copy.’

Once you’ve done that, simply open the page or post where you want to embed the video. Then, click on the + icon and search for ‘Embed.’

When you see the ‘Embed’ block, give it a click to add this block to your page or post.

You can then paste the YouTube embed link into the block.

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Embed’ button to embed the video. You can then save or publish the page as normal.

You will need to follow this process for every YouTube video where you want to show the subscribe bar.

Once you’ve embedded at least one video, you can go ahead and install and activate the YouTube Subscribe Bar plugin. To learn more, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activating the YouTube Subscribe Bar plugin, head over to Settings » YouTube Subscribe Bar.

In the ‘YouTube Channel ID’ field, type in or paste your channel ID. You can get this ID by following the same process described above.

In the ‘Subscribe to channel text’ field, simply type in the text that you want to show in your subscribe bar.

By default, this plugin uses ‘Subscribe to my YouTube Channel’ but you can use anything that you want.

After that, you can change the color of the bar’s background and text using the color settings towards the bottom of the page. You can also change the bar’s layout, and choose between light and dark themes.

The settings that work best will vary depending on your WordPress theme. With that in mind, you may want to try different settings to see what looks the best on your WordPress website.

When you’re happy with your changes, you can publish your subscribe bar by clicking on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

You can now visit any page or post where you’ve embedded a YouTube video, to see the subscribe bar in action.

How to Turn Website Visitors Into YouTube Subscribers

Adding a YouTube subscribe button to your WordPress site is a great way to get more subscribers. However, there are lots more ways to encourage your website’s visitors to become YouTube subscribers.

If you blog and create videos about similar topics, then you can easily embed YouTube videos in your WordPress blog posts.

If the visitor is interested in the blog post, then they may also be interested in the related YouTube video. This means there’s a good chance they’ll watch the video, and then subscribe to your YouTube channel.

Even better, if you have lots of related videos then you can organize these videos into YouTube playlists. You can then embed the YouTube playlist on your WordPress website.

An effective playlist will guide your visitors from one video to the next one in order, keeping them engaged in your content. If a visitor watches and enjoys an entire YouTube playlist, then it’s likely they’ll subscribe to your channel.

If you regularly post YouTube videos to your channel, then you may want to show the latest videos from your YouTube channel in WordPress.

This is an easy way to show visitors that you run an active YouTube channel. If the visitor likes what they see on your website, they may decide to subscribe to your channel so they never miss another video.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add a YouTube subscribe button in WordPress. You may also want to check out our guide on how to embed a Facebook video in WordPress and the best YouTube video gallery 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 Add YouTube Subscribe Button in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Do you want to create a custom password-protected page on your website?

You can hide content and restrict access to certain pages using WordPress password protection. However, the default login and password-entry layout is plain and not appealing.

In this article, we’ll show you how to customize password-protected pages in WordPress.

Why Customize Password Protected Pages in WordPress?

If you want to create a page or a post on your WordPress blog that should only be visible to selected clients or members, then you can use the password protection feature to lock the content.

Similarly, if you’re creating a new WordPress website and don’t want everyone to view it, then using a password-protected page makes sense.

However, the default password-protected page design is very basic and not attractive. Here’s a preview of what it looks like:

Customizing the password-protected page allows you to change its design and layout the way you want. It helps make your page more engaging, and you can match it to your brand for a more professional look and better user experience.

That said, we’ll show you how to enable password protection in WordPress and different ways to customize a specific page, your entire site, and different sections.

You can click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:

How to Password Protect a Page in WordPress

Before we show you how to customize a WordPress page, you should know that WordPress comes with built-in settings to password-protect your pages and posts.

All you have to do is edit a page or add a new one. Once you’re in the WordPress content editor, go ahead and click the ‘Public’ option under ‘Status & visibility’ in the settings panel on your right.

Next, you’ll see different Post Visibility options.

Simply select the ‘Password Protected’ option and enter a password for your page.

Now, go ahead and click ‘Update’ or ‘Publish,’ and the live page will be protected by a password.

You can now visit your website and see the page in action.

Now, let’s see how you can customize your default password-protected page.

Customize Default Password Protected Design Using CSS Hero

When you enable password protection from your WordPress content editor, the page uses your site’s theme for styling.

To customize the page, you can simply use a tool like CSS Hero. It lets you edit the design and layout of your page without editing code.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the CSS Hero plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, the CSS hero option will be added to the WordPress admin bar at the top. Go ahead and click the ‘Customize with CSS Hero’ option.

This will launch the CSS Hero visual builder, where you can edit and customize your page.

To start, simply click on any element on the page.

Next, you can change the background colors, add a background image, use a different font, edit spacing, and more from the panel on your left.

For example, let’s add a background color with a gradient effect by going to the ‘Background’ tab. We’ll also change the color of the box where users need to type in the password, as well as the color of the ‘Enter’ button.

Besides that, you can add a border around the main heading on the page by going to the Borders tab.

Simply choose a border width, color, style, and any other changes you like.

When you’ve made the change, don’t forget to click the ‘Save & Publish’ button at the bottom.

You can now visit your website to see the customized default password-protected page.

The drawback of using CSS Hero is that you don’t get the flexibility and advanced customization options that a landing page builder offers.

For instance, you can’t add elements like contact forms, social media buttons, optin forms, countdown timers, and more using CSS Hero.

That said, let’s see how you can use a landing page builder to customize specific pages in WordPress.

Customize a Specific Password Protected Page Using SeedProd

The easiest way of customizing a specific password-protected page is by using SeedProd. It’s the best WordPress website and page builder.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the SeedProd Pro version because it includes premium templates and more customization features. You can also use the SeedProd Lite version for free and create a coming soon page.

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

Upon activation, you’ll be taken to SeedProd’s welcome screen in your WordPress dashboard. Next, you’ll need to enter the license key and click the ‘Verify Key’ button. You can find the license key in your SeedProd account area.

After that, head to SeedProd » Landing Pages from your WordPress dashboard and add a new custom password-protected landing page.

Later in this article, we’ll show you how to choose which pages are password-protected. You can password-protect your entire site or only specific pages.

For this tutorial, we’ll create a coming soon page for a website launch with password protection. However, you can customize your design easily if you only use it to password-protect specific pages.

To start, simply click the ‘Set up a Coming Soon Page’ button.

On the next screen, SeedProd will show you different page templates, so you can quickly customize them.

Go ahead and hover over any template you want to use and click the orange checkmark button.

After selecting a template, SeedProd will open a popup window titled ‘Enter your new page details.’

You just need to select a page name and URL slug, and then simply click the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button.

This will launch the SeedProd drag-and-drop page builder.

Here you can customize your password-protected landing page and add different elements like text, images, buttons, and more. SeedProd offers advanced blocks like optin form, contact form, countdown timer, progress bar, social sharing options, and more.

To add an element, you can simply drag any block from the menu on your left and drop it onto the template to the right. Then you can customize the element simply by clicking on it and adjusting the options that appear.

This is also how SeedProd lets you add a password form on the front end of your page to protect your content.

First, you can add a ‘Custom HTML’ block in the SeedProd builder. Simply drag and drop the Custom HTML block onto the template.

Next, you can click on the Custom HTML block.

From here, enter the [seed_bypass_form] shortcode in the ‘Custom Code’ field. That’s it! Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button when you’re done.

SeedProd also integrates with different email marketing services. You can add a contact form to your landing page and connect an email marketing tool to build your email list and stay in touch with users.

Simply go to the ‘Connect’ tab in the landing page builder and select your email marketing service.

Setting Up Password Protection For Specific Pages in SeedProd

After creating a custom coming soon page that uses [seed_bypass_form] shortcode, the next step is to set up password protection on specific pages using SeedProd.

To start, you’ll need to go to the ‘Page Settings’ tab in the SeedProd builder and then click on ‘Access Control’ settings.

After that, you can enter a password in the ‘Bypass URL’ field that people can use to access your restricted content.

Do note that the text you write in the ‘Bypass URL’ field will act as the password and also a link that clients and team members can use to detour the password protection and access the page.

SeedProd lets you exclude specific URLs from your sites like admin, login, dashboard, and account. This ensures that site owners don’t get locked out of their sites.

Now, you’ll need to choose which URLs will be password-protected.

Simply scroll down to the ‘Include/Exclude URLs’ section under the ‘Access Control’ settings. After that, select the ‘Include URLs’ option and then enter the specific pages you’d like to restrict.

When you’re done, simply click the ‘Save’ button at the top.

Next, you can go to the ‘General’ settings under the ‘Page Settings’ tab and change the Page Status from ‘Draft’ to ‘Publish’.

After that, you can close the landing page builder and head to SeedProd » Landing Pages from your WordPress admin panel.

From here, click the toggle under ‘Coming Soon Mode’ to activate your custom password-protected page.

That’s all! You’ve successfully created a custom password-protected landing page that will only appear on specific pages in WordPress.

Simply visit those pages on your website to see the customized password-protected page in action.

Create Custom Password Protected Page for Entire Website

Using SeedProd, you can also display your password-protected page on every page of your website. This way, users will need to enter a password to gain access to any of your content.

First, you can go to SeedProd » Landing Pages from your WordPress dashboard. Then, click the ‘Edit Page’ button in the ‘Coming Soon Mode’ panel.

Next, you can head to the ‘Page Settings’ tab at the top and go to ‘Access Control’ settings.

After that, scroll down to the ‘Include/Exclude URLs’ section and select the ‘Show on the Entire Website’ option.

Once you’ve made the changes, go ahead and click the ‘Save’ button at the top.

SeedProd will show the custom password-protected page on your entire website.

Create Custom Password Protected Sections in WordPress

You can also password-protect different website sections in WordPress from different sets of users. This is useful if you’re running a membership website and want to control access to your content, plugins, apps, and other downloadable files.

The best way to restrict different parts of your website is by using MemberPress. It’s the best WordPress membership plugin that lets you create multiple membership levels to password-protect your content.

You can use MemberPress to set up different rules, so users can only access content based on their membership level. For more details, please see our guide on creating a WordPress membership site.

To start, you’ll first need to add memberships to your website. Simply go to MemberPress » Memberships from your WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Add New’ button.

After that, you can enter a name for your membership level, add a description, and set a price.

You can also change the billing type from one-time to recurring, as well as edit the membership to be lifetime or expire after a certain time period.

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

Next, you can go to MemberPress » Rules from your WordPress dashboard and click the ‘Add New’ button.

From here, you can click the dropdown menu under the ‘Protected Content’ option. MemberPress offers lots of options to protect your content, whether that is a single page or all of your WordPress pages.

For this tutorial, we’ll password-protect a single page. Simply choose the ‘A Single Page’ option from the dropdown menu and enter the title of the page.

Next, you’ll need to set up the Access Conditions and configure who can view the restricted page. MemberPress lets you protect content based on membership level, WordPress user role, capability, and individual members.

Let’s set ‘Membership’ is ‘Premium’ from the dropdown menus for this tutorial. This way, only premium members will be able to access the page. You can add more conditions and allow more than 1 membership level to view the page.

When you’re done, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Rule’ button.

You can then visit your website to see the password-protected page in action. Members will have to sign in to their account to view the contents of the page.

You can set up passwords for your videos, or you can offer group memberships for corporate teams. Additionally, you can create a password to give subscribers access to a paid newsletter and more.

We also have a guide on how to password-protect your forms in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to customize a password-protected page in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to create a completely custom WordPress theme without writing any code, or our comparison of the best WordPress SEO 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 Customize a Password Protected Page in WordPress first appeared on WPBeginner.

Sometimes a misinformed tech consultant, or a paid YouTube influencer for a competing brand might say things like WordPress is BAD!

This can be confusing for beginners to see conflicting opinions about whether WordPress is a bad content management system. The question any rational person should ask is: if WordPress is really that bad, then why is it so popular, and why do nearly half of all websites on the internet use it?

In this article, we will discuss whether WordPress is bad and what things you should know before using it.

Is WordPress Really Bad?

The short answer is ‘No.’ It’s not.

WordPress is the world’s most popular website builder. At the time of writing this article, over 43% of all websites on the internet use WordPress according to the marketshare report.

This also include big-name brands like Sony, CNN, Time Magazine, Disney, and many others.

If WordPress was that bad, then it wouldn’t be so immensely popular among users and some of the largest companies in the world.

People who consider WordPress a bad option usually give the same reasons to make their argument.

Many of their argument are often developer-centric and often beyond the purpose and scope of WordPress.

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the reasons they give when claiming that WordPress is not good.

1. WordPress is Not Secure

One of the most common arguments some developers present is that WordPress is not a secure platform for building mission-critical websites.

This is a myth.

Contrary to these claims, WordPress is actually a very secure and transparent platform.

As open-source software, WordPress code is always available for anyone to study and find security issues.

Because it is monitored by security experts from all over the world for vulnerabilities, this code is one of the most thoroughly scrutinized in the world.

Thousands of developers from hundreds of countries contribute to the WordPress code, and the software is deeply tested for security issues.

As an open-source platform, WordPress is open to any customization. This allows individual website owners, agencies, and developers to make their websites even more secure.

This can be done by installing a security plugin or by using a WordPress firewall. These block the most common threats and make your website more secure.

Third-party developers maintain WordPress themes and plugins. Many premium WordPress plugins and theme companies pay security experts to audit their code.

If a security vulnerability is found in a popular WordPress plugin or theme, it is often patched very quickly, and depending on the severity, WordPress team even pushes automatic security update where applicable.

For more details, see our WordPress security guide which shows how to properly make your WordPress website even more secure.

2. WordPress is Only Good for Blogging

WordPress is by far the best blogging platform on the market. It started out primarily as a blogging tool and still makes it super easy to start a blog.

However, over the years, WordPress has grown into a CMS (content management system) and a powerful platform for building almost any type of website.

WordPress is the go-to software for small business websites.

WooCommerce a WordPress plugin is the #1 eCommerce platform to build an online store, even over popular competitors like Shopify or BigCommerce.

Plus, you can make membership websites, sell online courses, run an online marketplace, and much more.

These days developers are using WordPress as the operating system for the web and even building SaaS applications like OptinMonster, mortgage calculator apps, auction websites like eBay, multivendor marketplace sites like Etsy, and more.

3. WordPress Code is Sub-standard and Outdated

Another argument commonly used is that WordPress coding standards are not that good and that they are outdated.

This reason is commonly given by those developers who usually don’t work with WordPress websites that often.

WordPress software code is simple by design to allow for wide adaption. That isn’t an issue but rather a very intentional feature. This simplicity provides more users with an easy point of entry.

Over the years, WordPress has gotten so easy that even non-techy users can build websites without knowing any code. This has put some developers out of business, so it’s in their interest to bad mouth WordPress, so they can sell you more complicated services that you don’t need.

We believe that WordPress code is standardized, robust, and provides a solid foundation without getting overly complicated.

It offers robust APIs allowing developers to build their own applications and solutions on top of WordPress.

4. WordPress is Used by Amateurs

Again, this reason is given by people who don’t know the scope of the platform and are unfamiliar with the history of WordPress.

The WordPress mission is to democratize publishing and allow more people to easily make websites.

This is again by design and a conscious decision to make WordPress easy for as many people as possible.

The WordPress community is massive and consists of all levels of users, from first-time site owners to large corporations, government agencies, non-profits, developers, and business users.

The project prides itself to be the software of choice for millions of small businesses, hobbyists, independent publishers, bloggers, and more. It should not be seen as a concern that amateurs use WordPress. The platform is built for that.

But it’s also used by large brands and even big governments. For example, Whitehouse.gov (United States government website) is built with WordPress.

5. WordPress is Not Scalable

Scaling is the term used for managing a large volume of traffic as a website grows.

Some developers believe that a WordPress website is harder to scale. We have found this argument to be untrue.

Here is our case study of how we made WordPress faster than static site generators.

A WordPress website needs web hosting just like any other website.

As your website grows, you need more server resources to handle the traffic. This is the case for all website builders and not just WordPress.

We have seen WordPress websites on low-cost shared hosting servers handling very hefty traffic volume effortlessly.

With WordPress, you get the ability to utilize your server resources much more efficiently than any other website builder and even custom-coded websites.

WordPress can utilize your hosting server’s built-in caching mechanisms. Even a beginner-level WordPress user can install a caching plugin to immediately reduce server load.

Plus, you can easily offload your static files and media to a CDN network. You can even go further and offload services like email to SMTP services.

There are thousands of WordPress websites with very high traffic volumes, and they perform exceptionally well.

The best part is that even beginner-level users can do these enhancements to scale their websites as their traffic grows. See our complete WordPress performance & speed handbook for practical, step-by-step instructions for beginners.

Anyone that claims WordPress is not scalable simply doesn’t have the technical experience. We scale billions of impressions each month across our WordPress platform.

6. WordPress is not Beginner Friendly

Some people claim that WordPress is bad because it is not beginner friendly.

This argument can be used against any software or tool.

WordPress comes with a slight learning curve just like any other software you would use. You’ll need to spend some time to find your way around.

If the popularity of WordPress is to be taken as an indicator, we don’t think WordPress would have been the most used website builder if it wasn’t beginner friendly.

Many major updates to the WordPress core files are aimed at making the platform more user-friendly as time moves on.

For example, introducing the block-based content and site editor that works similarly to many popular site builders like Wix or Squarespace.

At WPBeginner, we write about WordPress for beginner-level users and have been doing that for more than a decade now.

In our experience, WordPress beginners quickly get over that initial learning curve and become quite good in just a few weeks.

There are also numerous WordPress page builder plugins available like SeedProd that makes it easy for you to build any type of website without writing any code.

WordPress also has over 60,000+ free plugins that allows you to add all types of functionality to your website such as contact form, analytics, eCommerce, and more without any code.

There are even no-code workflow automation plugins like Uncanny Automator that helps you save time when managing your WordPress site.

You may want to see our expert pick of the must have WordPress plugins for all websites.

7. There is Limited Support Available for WordPress

Another argument that we come across is that WordPress is bad because there is limited support available.

This argument comes when users don’t know how to get WordPress support.

As free software, WordPress is available and maintained by a community. The support is also community driven.

There are the official WordPress.org support forums where you can get support from other users.

Then there are WordPress resource sites like WPBeginner that publish a ton of WordPress resources to help beginners.

There are also free Facebook groups like WPBeginner Engage, where you can post your questions and get free help from moderators and other users. The group has over 80,000+ users.

Because WordPress is so big, there are dedicated WordPress sections and groups on all popular online communities like StackExchange, Reddit, LinkedIn, and more.

Not looking for community options?

There are thousands of WordPress developers that you can hire on platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, Codeable, Toptal, and more. There, you’ll find expert WordPress support on hourly rates or fixed-price gigs.

8. WordPress is not Suitable for Ecommerce

By default, it’s true that WordPress does not come with a built-in shopping cart or eCommerce features. You’ll need a plugin to make an eCommerce website with WordPress.

However, saying that WordPress is not suitable for eCommerce is unfair. Especially when WooCommerce (a WordPress plugin) is the most used eCommerce platform in the world.

It is used by more online stores than Shopify, Magento, OpenCart, and PrestaShop combined.

It is open-source like WordPress. However, unlike the WordPress core, it is run by a company that uses different ways to monetize the platform.

You can also extend your online store with thousands of available WooCommerce addons.

Aside from WooCommerce, there are several other eCommerce plugins for WordPress including:

Easy Digital Downloads which makes it easy for you to sell digital files like eBooks, music, art, software, and others using WordPress.MemberPress makes it easy for you to sell premium content and courses in WordPress.WP Simple Pay makes it easy for you to accept payments on your WordPress site for any product or service without adding a full-blown cart.WP Charitable is a donation and crowdfunding platform that makes it easy for you to accept donations in WordPress.

9. The Future of WordPress is Unclear Because it is Free

Some believe that WordPress is bad because it is available for free. Those folks say that makes its future path unclear.

This argument is untrue and often given by people who don’t know why WordPress is free.

The trademark ‘WordPress’ is owned by the WordPress Foundation which is a non-profit organization. The foundation’s mission is to promote WordPress beyond contributors so that it remains available for everyone to use.

Apart from the non-profit foundation, there is also a multi-billion industry behind WordPress.

This includes many top WordPress companies, web development agencies, independent businesses, website owners, developers, designers, technicians, marketers, and more.

Even if development stops on WordPress, as open-source software it can be easily forked into another project and continue with a different name.

We do not believe that this is going to happen, however.

But it can, which is why the future of WordPress is very promising, mainly because of the freedoms it offers.

Getting Started with WordPress

The easiest way to learn more about WordPress is by using it yourself.

While you can install WordPress on your computer (Windows, Mac), the best way to experience it is by making a live website.

To get started, you’ll need a website hosting account and a domain name.

Now if you are worried about the costs, then you can take advantage of the special deal offered by Bluehost.

They are one of the biggest hosting companies in the world and an officially recommended WordPress hosting provider.

They are offering a generous discount to WPBeginner users with a free domain name and a free SSL certificate. Basically, you can get everything you need to get started with WordPress for just $2.75 per month.

Aside from Bluehost, you can also use other hosting providers like Hostinger or SiteGround which also makes getting started easy.

For more details, see our complete guide on how to make a WordPress website which has step-by-step instructions for beginners.

We hope this article helped you make your own assessment of how good or bad WordPress really is. You may also want to see our complete WordPress review, or see our article discussing why you should use 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 Is WordPress Really That Bad? (9 Things You Should Know) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you properly tracking user engagement on your WordPress site?

User engagement is one of the most important metrics to track because it helps you better understand your audience and what they want. With Google Analytics, you can easily see how people interact with your website.

In this article, we will show you how to track user engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics.

Why Track User Engagement with Google Analytics

Generally, WordPress website owners consider traffic and pageviews to be the most important indicators of their website’s performance. They assume that higher traffic will result in more conversions and sales.

While that is true, you can get even better results by tracking and optimizing user engagement.

User engagement shows you what users do when they arrive on your website. It helps you identify patterns of highly engaged user behavior which leads to more conversions and sales.

For example, you may realize that users visiting a specific page are 10X more likely to make a purchase than any other visitor on your website. You can use this insight to redirect the user’s attention to that page.

Similarly, tracking user engagement can help you see which affiliate links or banner ads your visitors are clicking. Using this data, you’ll be able to optimize your content to get more clicks and boost conversions.

That said, let’s see how you can set up user engagement tracking in WordPress using Google Analytics.

Tracking User Engagement in WordPress using Google Analytics

The best way to set up user engagement tracking in WordPress is by using MonsterInsights. It’s the best Analytics plugin for WordPress and helps you configure Google Analytics without writing code.

MonsterInsights automatically sets up outbound link tracking, form conversion tracking, scroll depth, affiliate link clicks, and other advanced tracking features in Google Analytics out of the box.

It automates the process of pasting different analytics codes and event tracking in WordPress, so you don’t have to deal with the hassle of code and configuration.

For this tutorial, we’ll use the MonsterInsights Pro version because it includes advanced tracking features and more dashboard reports. However, there is also a MonsterInsights Lite version that you can use for free and get started with user engagement tracking.

First, you will 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’ll see the MonsterInsights welcome screen. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button.

For more details, please see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress.

MonsterInsights also helps set up Google Analytics 4 (GA4) in WordPress with its dual tracking feature. This allows you to use Universal Analytics and GA4 together.

Google Analytics 4 is the latest version of Analytics, and it will replace Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023. After this date, you won’t be able to track data in Universal Data. To protect your tracking data, we highly recommend creating a GA4 property.

If you need help, then refer to our tutorial on how to switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress.

Now that you have Google Analytics with MonsterInsights ready to go, let’s take a look at what user engagement metrics are best to track and how you can track them.

These aren’t all of the metrics you can track with MonsterInsights and Google Analytics, but they are the most important ones to start with. You can click the links below to jump ahead to any section:

Tracking Your Most Popular ContentTracking How Users Engage with Forms on Your WebsiteTracking Ecommerce Stores Performance in Google AnalyticsTracking Who’s Clicking on Your AdSense AdsTracking How Far People Scroll Your WebsiteTracking Your Affiliate Links in Google AnalyticsTracking Bounce Rate in Google AnalyticsTracking Time Spent on Your WebsiteTracking Pageviews Per Visit with Google Analytics

1. Tracking Your Most Popular Content

The first thing you want to figure out is which posts and pages on your WordPress blog are popular amongst your users. These important pages and posts on your website get the most traffic.

Figuring out what your users like on your site can help you plan a content strategy that expands on what’s already working.

MonsterInsights makes it really simple. You just need to visit the Insights » Reports page in your WordPress admin area and go to the ‘Overview’ report.

After that, you can scroll down to see other reports with different data.

You will find your most popular content under the ‘Top Posts/Pages’ section.

On most websites, 90% of their traffic goes to 10% of the top pages.

Once you find these top pages, you can optimize them for maximum conversions by adding content upgrades or targeted lead magnets on these posts.

2. Tracking How Users Engage with Forms on Your Website

Most websites rely on contact forms to collect user leads and feedback. Sadly, most WordPress contact form plugins don’t give you accurate tracking and conversion data.

MonsterInsights lets you leverage the events tracking feature in Google Analytics to see how many times your forms are viewed and submitted.

To enable form tracking, you need to visit the Insights » Addons page. On this page, you will need to install and activate the Forms addon.

Once you have activated the addon, MonsterInsights will automatically start tracking all forms on your website.

It works with popular contact form plugins like WPForms, Formidable Forms, and others. MonsterInsights also track your website comment form, user registration forms, and more.

You can check the settings by going to Insights » Settings from your WordPress dashboard and then clicking on the ‘Conversions’ tab.

Next, MonsterInsights shows the performance of your WordPress forms inside your dashboard.

Simply go to Insights » Reports from the admin panel and click on the ‘Forms’ tab. The report shows the number of impressions and conversions, as well as the conversion rate for your different WordPress forms.

For more details, please see our guide on how to track form conversions in WordPress.

3. Tracking Ecommerce Stores Performance in Google Analytics

Google Analytics offers many features specifically for eCommerce websites. However, these features are not turned on by default in Google Analytics, and most users don’t even know that they exist.

Ecommerce tracking lets you see shopping behavior, checkout behavior, product performance, sales performance, and so much more. The best part is that you can combine this data with your overall website traffic to gather better insights.

With MonsterInsights, you can easily set up Enhanced eCommerce on your website without editing code. It seamlessly works with popular plugins like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, MemberPress, GiveWP, and more.

You can see our guide on how to set up eCommerce tracking in WordPress for more information.

Once you’ve configured tracking, you can head to Insights » Reports from your WordPress admin menu and click on the ‘eCommerce’ report.

Using the report, you can quickly see how your online store is performing. It shows stats like conversion rate, number of transactions, revenue, and average order value.

It also helps identify products that users engage with the most and where they’re coming from.

You can also view the eCommerce report in your Universal Analytics property. Simply visit your Google Analytics account and go to Conversions » Ecommerce page.

Here are a few powerful reports you get by enabling Enhanced eCommerce tracking on your store:

Shopping BehaviorCheckout BehaviorProduct Lists PerformanceSales Performance

On the other hand, you can view the eCommerce reports directly inside in your Google Analytics 4 dashboard by going to Reports » Monetization » Ecommerce purchases.

4. Tracking Who’s Clicking on Your AdSense Ads

Many websites rely on ads to make money online while creating useful content. However, with Google Analytics you can actually see how users interact with ads on your site.

For instance, you’ll be able to track how many clicks each ad is receiving, discover which ads your audience is ignoring, identify the most effective ad placements, and more.

First, you need to integrate Google Analytics into your Google Adsense account.

Head over to your Google Analytics dashboard and click on the ‘Admin’ button located at the bottom left corner of the screen. On the admin page, click on ‘AdSense Links’ under the property column.

Next, you’ll need to select the AdSense property that you want to link with your Analytics property.

To view the right AdSense property, just make sure that you’re signed in with the same Google account you used on both AdSense and Google Analytics.

After that, click on the ‘Link configuration’ option.

Here, you can select the Analytics view in which you want your AdSense data to be available.

After you have configured everything in Google Analytics, you can now see how your AdSense ads are performing.

To view your AdSense reports, go to your Google Analytics account and visit the Behavior » Publisher page.

5. Tracking How Far People Scroll Your Website

When tracking user engagement in WordPress, it’s also important to see how far visitors scroll your website.

It gives you insights into how people use your site and helps improve your page length. Plus, you can use the data to place your AdSense ads, call-to-action buttons, and affiliate links where they’d get the most visibility and conversions.

MonsterInsights automatically enables scroll-depth tracking. You can view the report by going to Insights » Reports from the WordPress admin panel and clicking the ‘Publishers’ tab.

Next, scroll down and view the ‘Scroll’ report.

It will show the average scroll depth percentage. MonsterInsights will trigger events in Google Analytics 4 as users scroll 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of a page and compute the percentage from those results.

6. Tracking Your Affiliate Links in Google Analytics

Most marketers use affiliate plugins to manage and cloak affiliate links. This makes your affiliate links look more user-friendly. Here is an example of a cloaked affiliate link:

https://example.com/recommends/product-name/

MonsterInsights allows you to track affiliate links in Google Analytics. This helps you figure out which affiliate products are doing well, which pages are generating more affiliate revenue, and more.

To enable affiliate link tracking, you need to visit the Insights » Settings page. Next, you can switch to the ‘Publisher’ tab and head to the Affiliate Links section.

First, you need to enter the prefix for your link under the Path field, like ‘/refer/’ or ‘/recommend/.’ After that, you need to provide a Label that you would like to use for those links in your Google Analytics reports.

When you’re done, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings.

Next, you can view your top affiliate link clicks in MonsterInsights reports. Simply head to the Publishers tab and scroll down to the ‘Top Affiliate Links’ section.

Here, you will see which affiliates are getting the most clicks, so you can promote them more on your site and boost sales.

Additionally, MonsterInsights will also show your Top Outbound Links. These are external links that people click and exit your site. You can use insights from this report to get more backlinks, form partnerships, signup for affiliate programs, and exchange guest posts.

For more detailed instructions, see our guide on how to track outbound links in WordPress.

7. Tracking Bounce Rate in Google Analytics

Bounce rate is the percentage of users who land on your website and decide to leave without going to a second page.

With MonsterInsights, you get to see the overall bounce rate of your website inside the WordPress dashboard. Simply go to Insights » Reports from your WordPress admin menu and click on the ‘Overview’ tab.

Besides that, the plugin also shows the bounce rate for your important pages.

You can go to the Publishers report and view the ‘Top Landing Pages’ section. In the report, you’ll see the bounce rate for different content.

A higher bounce rate indicates that you were unable to convince the user to visit other pages. Users can leave your website by clicking on the back button in their browser, clicking on an outgoing link, or by closing the window.

Every site has a bounce rate. However, higher bounce rates can indicate problems with your website affecting user experience and causing low engagement.

To lower the bounce rate, you can speed up your website, improve internal links, ensure that your content meets the search intent, improve the readability of your articles, show popular posts, and more.

For more tips, you can see our guide on how to increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.

8. Tracking Time Spent on Your Website

Another indicator that shows user engagement is session duration, or the amount of time users spend on your site.

If users are abandoning your site without spending enough time to look at it, then something is wrong and you need to fix it.

In the MonsterInsights Overview report, you can see the average session duration for your website in the past 30 days.

If you’re using Google Analytics 4, then you’ll see a new metric called average engagement time. It tells the average time your webpage was in the focus of a user.

You can view the report by logging into your GA4 account and then head to Reports » Engagement » Overview.

Using the data, you can better understand your user journey. If the engagement time is low, then you can look into issues like fixing slow site speed, debugging any errors, and making your site’s interface user-friendly.

9. Tracking Pageviews Per Visit with Google Analytics

Pageviews Per Visit is another excellent indicator of how engaged your users are. Higher pageviews per session means people are visiting multiple landing pages and articles on your site. This in return helps increase the time users spend on your site and decreases bounce rates.

Universal Analytics will show you the total page views for a given period on the Audience » Overview page. However, to track user engagement you want to see Pageviews per session.

You can also break down page views per session by source and channel.

Simply go to the Acquisition » All Traffic » Channels page.

In Google Analytics 4, you can view the sessions per user metric based on different traffic sources and see how many pages users view in a single session.

Just head to Reports » Acquisition » User acquisition from your GA4 property.

This helps you see which traffic channels are converting the best for your website. You can then focus your content marketing efforts on areas that are actually driving results.

We hope this article helped you track user engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics. You may also want to see our ultimate step-by-step WordPress SEO guide and how to create an email newsletter the right way.

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 Track User Engagement in WordPress with Google Analytics first appeared on WPBeginner.