Do you want to learn how to optimize your blog posts for SEO?

By optimizing your posts for SEO, you can improve your search engine rankings and get more traffic to your WordPress site. 

In this article, we will share our best SEO tips to help you optimize your blog posts for SEO like a pro. These are the tips we use on our own blogs, which get millions of visitors from search engines.

Why Optimize Your WordPress Blog Posts for SEO?

Optimizing your blog posts for SEO helps you consistently get more traffic to your WordPress website from the search engines.

Since search engines are often the largest source of website traffic, this can be very valuable to your blog, online store, or small business website.

If you’re simply publishing your blog posts and not optimizing for WordPress SEO, then you’re limiting the amount of traffic you can get and money you can make. 

With that said, here is our blog post optimization checklist to optimize your blog for SEO like a pro.

1. Plan Your Content with Proper Keyword Research

Many beginners just use their best guesses to write about topics they feel their users would be interested in.

You don’t need to rely on blind guesses, especially when you can do keyword research to find out exactly what your users are looking for.

Keyword research is a technique used by content creators and SEO experts. It helps you discover topics your users are interested in based on the search engine data.

Then, you can use these keywords to plan your content strategy. This will ensure that you write about topics that people are actually looking for, and it’s a great way to build an engaged audience.

We recommend using keyword research tools like Semrush. They offer in-depth keyword data, competition analysis, keyword position tracking, and tons of other useful features.

If you are using Semrush, then you would want to check out their SEO Writing Assistant tool. It helps you discover LSI and related keywords, readability, language tone, and average article length.

For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to do keyword research for your blog posts.

2. Find Semantic Keywords for Your Focus Keyword

After you have done your keyword research and discovered keyword ideas, it is time to pick one that has the highest search volume and low competition.

This will be your focus keyword. It’s the search phrase that your users are most likely to use to search for your article.

If you are using All in One SEO, one of the best WordPress SEO plugins, then you can set the focus keyword in your article’s SEO settings. This allows you to see how effectively you have used it in your article.

Next, you need to find the Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords. These are the searches related to your focus keyword.

The easiest way to find them is to simply enter your focus keyword in Google Search and scroll down to the bottom of the results where they’ll be listed.

You need to incorporate as many of these keywords in your content, so you can have the most complete content for your readers.

It’s very important that you don’t try to stuff them in your content. This would look odd to your users, and search engines are pretty good at detecting keyword stuffing.

For more details, you can see our complete guide on how to properly use a focus keyphrase.

3. Write an Effective Blog Post Title

The title of your blog post is extremely important for search rankings.

A good blog post title makes your article more relevant to the search query. More importantly, it motivates users to click on your article when they see it in the search results.

You can make your blog post title more SEO-friendly by using your focus keyword in the title.

Aside from adding your focus keyword, we also recommend making your headline catchy and click-worthy. That’s because your organic click-through rate (CTR) plays an important role in SEO.

The best way to do this is to use a headline analyzer tool. This will evaluate your headline and offers tips to improve your headlines to make them more engaging and click-worthy.

AIOSEO has a built-in headline analyzer tool that will give your headline a score and offer tips to make your headline even better.

For more details, see our guide on how to use a headline analyzer in WordPress to improve SEO titles.

4. Make Internal Linking a Habit

Once you have blogged for a while, you will have enough content that you want users to read. With internal linking, you can send new readers to check out your older relevant posts.

Internal linking is a great way to develop a contextual relationship between your new and old posts. It also allows you to pass relevant link juice to your older articles.

WordPress makes it easy to search for your old posts right inside the post editor. Simply select the text you want to link and click on the link button.

A text pop-up will appear below your highlighted words. Then, you can start typing to search for the older articles you want to link to.

To learn more, see our beginner’s guide on how to add a link in WordPress.

Making internal linking a habit will make sure that your on-page SEO is good and that your older articles continue to get new links.

If you want an even easier way to manage your internal links over time and easily add new links to old posts, then we recommend using AIOSEO.

It includes a unique link management feature that lets you add links to your old and new content without having to open up the post. Plus, it provides link recommendations, detailed link reports, and much more.

To set up the plugin, see our guide on how to setup All in One SEO for WordPress correctly.

After that, navigate to All in One SEO » Link Assistant in your WordPress dashboard.

This brings up the link assistant dashboard. It offers suggestions for relevant posts you can link to and the anchor text to use. Simply click the ‘Add Link’ button, and the link will automatically be added to your post. 

Essentially, you can do the same thing manually, but if you’re looking to save time and get a big picture perspective on your internal and external links, then using AIOSEO is a great choice. 

5. Add Images and Videos to Your Blog Posts

Adding images and videos to your blog posts makes them more engaging and interesting for your readers. Content that readers love also tends to rank higher in the search results. 

You can add fun images, image galleries, tutorial images, and more.

For example, SeedProd adds all kinds of engaging screenshots and images to break up longer blog posts.

When adding images, you want to be careful about image copyrights. Often beginners copy images from other sites to use, which can get you in legal trouble if you do so without proper permissions.

Don’t worry, there are plenty of places to find royalty free images to use in your blog posts. 

You can also use your original photographs or use other web design software like Adobe Photoshop or Canva to create your own.

Once you’re finished creating your images, you need to make sure to optimize your images for SEO. For more details, see our guide on how to optimize images for search engines.

Videos are even more engaging than images. You can convert your blog posts into videos by creating slideshows, vlogs, and more.

MonsterInsights embeds tutorial videos directly into their posts, for users who prefer to watch, instead of read.

If you want to create professional videos, then see our picks of the best video editing software.

However, you should never directly upload videos to your blog posts. WordPress is not optimized to serve videos, and your WordPress hosting service can’t handle them.

Instead, we recommend uploading your videos to a video hosting site like YouTube or Vimeo. These sites are built to host your videos and can even be an additional traffic source. 

To learn more, see our guide on how to easily embed videos in WordPress blog posts.

6. Add a Meta Description to Your Blog Post

The meta description is an HTML meta tag that you can add to any page. Its purpose is to provide a short description of your article for search engines and other crawlers.

Some SEO experts believe that the meta description tag has become irrelevant. However, many others would disagree. At WPBeginner, we recommend using the meta description for all of your posts.

A good meta description can explain a lot more about an article. Social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn also display it when your articles are shared on those platforms.

You can even add Facebook Open Graph Meta Data to control your description when your post is shared on Facebook.

Since now you know that people will be reading your meta descriptions, you want to make sure that it’s helpful.

You also want to mention your focus keyword at least once in the meta description for search purposes. The character limit for meta description is 155 characters.

Try to stay within that limit, or your meta description will be cut short after 155 characters. You also want to make sure to use your focus keyword earlier in the meta description rather than later.

Luckily, AIOSEO makes it super easy to add your meta description. Directly below the post editor, you’ll see a box where your description can be added.

To learn more, see our guide on how to add keywords and meta descriptions in WordPress.

7. Make Your Articles Easier to Read

Readability is an important factor considered by search engines. Articles that are easier to read often rank higher than articles that don’t offer a good user experience.

Computer and mobile screens are still not an optimal platform for reading.

This is why most users just scan through articles. In fact, studies found that users spend less than a second to decide whether they want to stay on a page or leave.

That’s a very short time for you to convince the user to stay and scroll through. By improving readability, you can make it possible for your users to scan an article quickly.

You can improve readability by using shorter sentences, smaller paragraphs, punctuation, headings, and bulleted lists. We recommend adding white space around text and using images to make your text read easier on the eyes.

If you are using the All in One SEO plugin, then it will automatically analyze readability issues and make suggestions for you in the analysis section.

You can also use online grammar checker tools like Grammarly to check for grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes on the fly.

To learn more, see our guide on how to add and improve the readability score in WordPress posts.

8. Use Categories and Tags to Organize Content

Categories and tags help you sort your content not only for yourself, but for the readers and search engines.

The problem is that many WordPress beginners often end up using them incorrectly.

If you think about your website as a book, then categories would be the table of contents and tags will be the index part of the book.

Categories are used to divide your content into major topics discussed on your WordPress blog. Tags, on the other hand, are the topics discussed in an individual blog post.

To learn more, see our beginner’s guide on using categories and tags for maximum SEO benefit.

9. Aim to Be The Featured Snippet in The Search Result

Google tries to helps people searching answer their questions as quick as possible. As part of this effort, they have introduced the featured result or answer box.

This is the highlighted search result that appears on the top. Google generates a custom snippet from the article’s content highlighting the part that their algorithms believe to be the answer of user’s query.

According to research conducted by Advanced Web Ranking, Answer boxes secure almost 32.3% CTR. This makes them immensely important for your SEO strategy.

There is no specific set of instructions provided by Google on how to get the featured snippet. Their recommendation is to improve your content and make sure that it offers the information users are seeking.

To learn more, see our guide on how to appear in Google answer boxes with your WordPress site.

10. Make Your Blog Posts Comprehensive

Search engines love articles that cover a topic with great detail. This is why we asked you to gather the semantically related keywords (LSI Keywords) as part of your content planning step.

These related keywords give you an idea of different variations of user searches regarding that particular topic. By covering those keywords in your article, you would be able to make it more comprehensive, informative, and useful.

You should use headings and subheadings to include those keywords and try to cover as much ground as you could.

Aside from LSI keywords, another tip to create complete content is to type your desired keyword into Google and then switch to the ‘Image’. You will see topic bubbles with a variety of keywords.

We recommend including these when creating your content, so you can have the most comprehensive content possible.

11. Optimize Older Blog Posts

Many beginners tend to forget about a blog post after they have published it. In fact, you are not done optimizing your blog post for SEO once it is published. 

Here are some things that you need to do after publishing your blog post:

• Share it with readers – Share your new and old content with readers and subscribers. To learn more, see our guide on how to share your blog posts with readers.
• Add internal links – Once you have published a post, you can go back to relevant old articles and add a link to your new blog post. This gives your new articles link juice while also allowing users to discover it more easily.
• Track search rankings – You have optimized a post for SEO, but how do you keep track of its search rankings? See our recommendations of the best SEO rank tracker tools for keyword tracking.

We recommend optimizing old posts on a regular basis, so you can continue to improve your rankings.

We hope this article helped you learn how to optimize your blog posts for SEO like a pro. You may also want to see our guide on how to register a domain name and our expert picks of the best live chat software for small businesses.

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.

Are you looking for website ideas to launch a side business in the new year?

There are tons of opportunities online with profitable website ideas that you can easily transform into a sustainable side income.

In this article, we’ll share the best website ideas to launch this year. We’ll also show you how to easily get started without a big investment.

What You Need to Put Website Ideas into Action

It is a common myth that you need to be tech-savvy or a programmer to start a website. This was probably true in the 90s, but these days you don’t need any special skills to build a website.

Here is what you actually need to make a website:

• A domain name. This will be your website’s address on the internet, e.g. wpbeginner.com).
• Web hosting account. This will be your website’s home and where you’ll store all your website files
• A website builder. We recommend using WordPress.org which is the best website builder powering more than 43% of all websites on the internet.

We recommend using Bluehost to make your website. They are one of the biggest hosting companies in the world and are officially recommended by WordPress.

They are offering WPBeginner users a generous 60% off discount on hosting with a free domain name and free SSL certificate. Basically, you can launch a website for $2.75 per month.

→ Click Here to Claim This Exclusive Bluehost Offer ←

They automatically install WordPress for you, and you can quickly start working on your website idea with in minutes. If you need more help, then follow the steps in our WordPress installation guide to set up your website.

That being said, let’s take a look at some of the most profitable website ideas to launch this year and turn them into a viable business.

Here is a quick list of website ideas that we’ll talk about. You can jump to the one that you find interesting or read as you scroll along.

• Start a Personal Blog Website
• Build an Online Store
• Make a Membership Website
• Sell Online Courses
• Create a Dropshipping Website
• Make an Affiliate Website
• Launch a Fashion Blog
• Start a Travel Website
• Make a Food / Recipes Website
• Start a Podcast Website
• Start a Job Hunt Website
• Make a Coupons Website
• Create an Online Marketplace
• Start a Restaurant Website
• Build a Reviews Website
• Make a Photography Website
• Launch a Portfolio Website
• Start an Online Food Delivery Website
• Sell Handicrafts Online
• Start a Pet Owners Community
• Start a News Website

1. Start a Personal Website / Blog

Blogs are a popular website idea that has been around for some time and still going strong. Entrepreneurs like Darren Rowse, John Lee Dumas, and Pat Flynn all started as bloggers and are now making six-figure incomes.

Our company’s CEO, Syed Balkhi, started this blog that led him to build an eight-figure business (see: WPBeginner income).

Launching a blog is pretty easy, and it can be on any topic that you are passionate about. The benefit of starting a blog is that you can later use it as a platform to launch many other website ideas.

There are also a ton of monetization options that make blogging a profitable website idea. You can use programs like Google AdSense to display ads, promote affiliate products, sell direct advertisements, or you can even sell your own products to your readers such as online courses, eBooks, etc.

Need help? See our step by step how to start a blog tutorial where we walk you through every step of the way.

If you need expert help, then we also offer a free WordPress website setup service where one of our WordPress experts will set up your blog for you.

2. Build an Online Store

Another booming website idea is to build an eCommerce store. A lot of folks think that it is probably too technical to get started, which is not exactly true.

You can easily start an eCommerce website with WooCommerce. It is the world’s most popular eCommerce platform that runs on top of WordPress.

It is super easy to use and allows you to sell any type of digital, virtual, or physical products that need shipping. You can easily accept online payments using PayPal, Stripe, or many other payment services.

For step by step instructions, you can follow our beginner’s guide on how to start an online store.

Need ideas on what to sell on your store? See our tutorial on how to source products to sell online.

3. Make a Membership Website

Another popular website idea that is getting a lot of momentum is to create a membership-based website.

Basically, you restrict access to some content on your website that is only available for paid members. This could be an online course, members-only forums, audio or video content, or anything else.

The easiest way to do this is by using MemberPress. It is a WordPress membership plugin that helps you create subscriptions, restrict access, and sell membership plans on your website.

For details, follow our tutorial on how to make a membership website with step by step instructions.

4. Sell Online Courses

Creating and selling online courses is another popular website idea that is growing really fast.

This growing website niche is fueled by the modern gig economy where people need to learn new skills to find new jobs, improve existing skillsets, or just learn something new as a hobby.

MemberPress is the best WordPress LMS plugin that allows you to easily create and sell online courses on your website.

5. Create a Dropshipping Website

Dropshipping is another growing website idea that you can launch without much investment. A dropshipping store is an online store where you sell products, but they are shipped directly by the vendor.

This saves you from the hassle of managing and storing stuff, keeping up inventory, and shipping things. It also allows you to sell a wide-variety of products.

For more details, see our step by step guide on how to create a dropshipping business for beginners.

6. Make an Affiliate Website

One of the most popular website ideas is to start an affiliate website.

Affiliate marketing is a referral arrangement in which an online retailer (advertiser) pays you a commission when users purchase their product from your referral link.

This is a massive industry which means you can make a niche affiliate website and start building upon it. You can find affiliate programs in nearly every industry, especially if you sign up for an affiliate program like Amazon Associates or ShareASale.

For example: you can create a website that’s focused entirely on reviewing all the newest women’s handbags, new internet routers, new smartphones, etc.

When users make a purchase based on your recommendation, you get a referral fee.

For a more in-depth discussion, see our beginner’s guide to affiliate marketing which has step by step instructions for new affiliate marketers.

7. Launch a Fashion Blog

Fashion and lifestyle is another profitable website idea that has a ton of potential. There are a lot of fashion bloggers and influencers making six-figure incomes.

It’s better to have your own website instead of just being on social media, because there are more opportunities for monetization.

You can make money through display ads, affiliate marketing, Instagram partnerships with brands, and more.

With WordPress, you can add all the tools you need to grow your brand. You can connect your Instagram feed and other social media, Youtube videos, find fashion website themes, use advertising plugins, and more.

For details, see our tutorial on how to start a fashion blog and promote it the right way.

8. Start a Travel Website

Making a travel blog is another great website idea that is easy to implement and build upon.

You can be an experienced traveler, vlogger, or marketer promoting different tourist destinations. You can monetize using display ads, travel partnerships, earning perks, and more.

Influential travel bloggers are using their travel blogs to launch different products and making significant passive income.

For more on this, don’t forget to check out our article on how to make a travel website using WordPress.

9. Make a Food / Recipes Website

Food and recipe websites are already a popular website idea with plenty of room for new websites.

You can easily start a blog or website, share recipes, discuss food, weight loss, health, or other related topics. Most recipe websites make money through ads, affiliate marketing, and by selling membership subscriptions.

WordPress comes with plugins that allow you to easily write recipes in SEO friendly format. For details, you can follow our tutorial on how to create a food website and make money online.

10. Start a Podcast Website

Podcasting is another popular website idea that you can launch. It is a fast-growing niche with tons of monetization options.

A podcast is an episodic series of audio files that users can subscribe to download and listen to.

Successful podcasters are making significant money online through sponsorships, advertisements, selling products, and more. It does require a little bit of hardware and some practice with recording and uploading files.

We have a comprehensive guide on starting a podcast website with step by step instructions.

We also have a list of the best podcast hosting platforms to help you succeed.

11. Start a Job Hunt Website

Another popular website idea is to create a job hunt website. It is easy to monetize, and you make money based on user-generated content.

Basically, a job board website allows companies to post job listings and facilitate job seekers by browsing and searching for jobs.

There are WordPress plugins that help you quickly create a job search engine. You can even accept online payments from employers to post listings.

For details, see our guide on how to create a job board in WordPress.

12. Make a Coupons Website

A coupons website helps customers find coupons and deals for their favorite products.

It connects businesses to the customers and provides them tools to locate deals and discounts. It is monetized by affiliate links, partnerships, and display ads.

You can totally automate your website and allow businesses to submit deals directly. This allows you to make money online with user-generated content.

For more details, see our guide on how to create a coupon site in WordPress.

13. Create an Online Marketplace

Many successful marketers use ideas that involve user-generated content to make money. Creating an online marketplace website is one such website idea that you can easily replicate.

A marketplace website is where you provide an eCommerce platform for others to sell their products. You get a cut on each transaction made on your website while the sellers manage the shipping and fulfillment.

For more details, see our article on creating an online marketplace website with detailed instructions.

14. Start a Restaurant Website

Making a restaurant website is an idea specific to people in the restaurant and food industry. Making a restaurant website allows you to accept table reservations and even accept online orders for food delivery.

With WordPress, you can use tools like WPForms to accept bookings and food delivery orders. It also gives you access to many professionally designed restaurant templates that you can customize to your own needs.

Making a restaurant website also helps you easily promote your business, reach new customers, and strengthen your brand image.

15. Build a Reviews Website

Most users look at online reviews before making a buying decision. This makes a reviews website a really lucrative website idea.

Your review website can be on any specific niche or topic you’re interested in, from digital cameras to video games or other products.

A reviews website could rely on both user-generated and original content. You can make money using display ads, affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and more.

We have an article on how to create a niche reviews website with step by step instructions.

16. Make a Photography Website

Another exciting website idea is to launch a photography website. This could be a blog about photography itself, or it could be a place to showcase and sell your own photos.

You can also create a marketplace like Shutterstock where users can sell or buy photographs, illustrations, and other graphic design items.

For more information, take a look at our article on how to make a photography website in WordPress.

17. Launch a Portfolio Website

A great website idea is to make a portfolio website. If you are an artist, photographer, musician, or videographer, then a portfolio website helps you showcase your work and find new opportunities.

However, you don’t need to be an artist to make a portfolio website. The same idea can be used by any kind of professional like writers, web designers, developers, fashion models, and more.

You can use portfolio plugins to showcase your work or choose from these beautiful portfolio themes to get started.

18. Start an Online Food Delivery Website

The online food delivery business is booming and it could be a profitable website idea with a little bit of investment.

You can find local restaurants and create a website that showcases these restaurants and allows customers to order food online. You can then pass the order to the restaurant and they deliver the food.

You can use WPForms to collect food delivery orders. Upon form submission, you can show users a page with estimated delivery time and a phone number to the restaurant.

19. Sell Handicrafts Online

Want to sell your homemade items on the internet? It is really easy to do and could be the beginning of a successful business idea.

You can start an online store using WooCommerce, which is super-easy to set up. Unlike other platforms, WooCommerce doesn’t take a cut out of each transaction you make which is really important for home-based business.

For details, see our guide on how to make an Etsy like store in WordPress.

20. Start a Pets Store / Community

Making an online pets store is another easy to start website idea. It is such a massive industry that you can find many untapped niche ideas catering to specific customers.

You can sell anything on your pet store using WooCommerce. You can also use MemberPress to build a members-only community that generates even more revenue for your business.

21. Start a News Website

If you are into current affairs and politics, then creating a news website could be the money making idea you are looking for.

You can start a news website and monetize it using display ads and by selling membership subscriptions. Many traditional newspapers are already putting their content behind paywalls and monetizing.

You can start small with few articles per week and then build upon that. You can even invite guest authors, start a podcast, and sell merchandise to make a sustainable business.

With local newspapers struggling, there’s a high demand for hyper-local niche news website, and we believe this will be a huge trend going into 2021 and beyond.

We hope this article helped you find the best website idea to launch in the new year. Once you have launched your website, you can see our tips on how to increase your website traffic, and our guide on the best WordPress plugins to grow your online 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.

We are often asked by beginners: what is VoIP and how does VoIP work? If you are a non-techy user, then you may have heard that you could use VoIP to add a business phone number for your website.

VoIP is a more cost-effective way to get a business phone number for your website when compared to a traditional phone line. However before making any decision, you need to fully understand what the technology is all about.

In this beginner’s guide, we will answer what is VoIP, and how does VoIP work behind the scenes. The goal is to help you understand how VoIP can save you money and help you grow your business.

Here is an overview of what we’re going to cover in this guide. You can click on these links to jump straight to different sections.

• What is VoIP?
• How does VoIP work? (Behind the scenes)
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of VoIP?
• Which is the best VoIP phone service?
• How to make a call using VoIP?
• Frequently asked questions about VoIP (FAQs)

Unlike landline phone systems that are limited to a single desk phone in your office, VoIP lets you make and receive business phone calls from your laptop, tablet, regular smart phone (using an App), and even VoIP compatible office phone sets.

Since all calls are made over the internet, it’s extremely cost-efficient for both domestic and long distance (international) calls. Most business VoIP providers offer unlimited minutes without any extra cost.

Aside from the cost savings, you also get all the advanced phone features like call waiting, call routing, caller tones, auto-attendant, multiple phone numbers, and more.

This is why most small businesses and even enterprise companies are all switching away from traditional phone providers to a business VoIP provider.

At WPBeginner, we use Nextiva, a leading VoIP based business phone system.

How VoIP Actually Works? (Behind the Scenes Look)

To understand how VoIP actually works, we will take a look at what happens when you make or receive a phone call on VoIP phone.

When you make a phone call using VoIP, their business phone number app or VoIP adapter takes the analog audio signal and turn it into digital signal.

This digital voice data is then sent to the business phone service provider using your internet, and then finally the message is routed to your customer’s phone.

This process happens nearly instantly which is why sometimes VoIP sound quality is even better than regular phone calls.

How is VoIP different than Traditional Phone System?

VoIP works differently behind the scenes from a regular landline phone system.

Traditional telephony systems use the circuit switching method for connecting calls. When you make a call through the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), you’re connected to the person on the other end, and they’re connected to you in a circuit.

The ‘Circuit switching’ technology is used for more than a 100 years now. It is reliable and still works, but is not the most efficient or cost-effective.

VoIP uses the ‘packet switching’ method instead. This means that data is only sent when needed. A brief, instant connection is created each time you speak. The connection doesn’t need to go both ways all the time. You and the person you’re talking to will not normally be both speaking at the same time.

Plus, packets of data are sent efficiently. They can use many different paths through the internet. The packages are then put back together when they reach their destination.

The data packets can also be compressed to save space. This lets them travel even more quickly through the internet.

All of this happens very fast. Unless there’s a problem with your internet connection, you will not notice any delay during the call.

While VoIP may sound quite technical and complicated, the main thing to understand is that VoIP is a more efficient method of transferring data during phone calls.

You probably have already used VoIP before without knowing it, through an app like Skype or Google Voice.

VoIP Pros and Cons Compared

Since we’ve been using a VoIP business phone service in our company for years, it’s fair to say that we know a thing or two about the pros and cons.

Here’s our detailed analysis of the pros and cons of VoIP.

VoIP Advantages – Benefits of Using VoIP

Switching from a traditional telephone company’s service to a cloud based VoIP phone system has many benefits.

Lower Monthly Cost

One of the biggest advantage of VoIP is that you have lower monthly cost on both domestic and international calls.

Most VoIP phone providers will often include unlimited domestic calls for free. International calls are normally very cheap, too.

Aside from that, you’ll also save money on repair and maintenance service expenses that you currently pay your landline phone provider.

Take calls from anywhere – Completely Portable

With VoIP, you don’t need to be in an office, on-premise, sitting by your desk phone to take phone calls. You can take incoming calls from wherever you are using an app on your phone, tablet, or laptop computer.

This is a big advantage for teams that are working remotely or out on the field. It is also great if you’re traveling.

Advanced business phone features

VoIP solutions normally include lots of extra business phone features. For instance, you can set up conference calls easily with VoIP.

Plus, most VoIP service providers offer a virtual receptionist, hold music, call waiting, auto dialer, voicemail to email or text, and much more. You can even get advanced telecommunications functionality like video conferencing.

This may also get you additional cost savings because often traditional telephone service providers charge recurring fees for these add-ons.

Improved Scalability and Flexibility

Another advantage of VoIP is higher scalability. Whether you’re hiring more staff or opening a new branch office in a new city, VoIP makes it easy to grow.

Unlike a traditional phone service that would require to spend money on expensive hardware on dedicated line, VoIP lets you add your team members with just a few clicks inside your account dashboard.

Since VoIP works on all smart phones, you can even cut additional equipment cost and free up desk space by having your team members install the app on their personal phone.

VoIP Disadvantages – Drawbacks of Using VoIP

While VoIP is an amazing technology, it may not be perfect for everyone. There are a couple of VoIP disadvantages that you should be aware of.

You need a good internet connection to make telephone calls

As we explained in the how VoIP works section, you need to have an internet connection to make phone calls.

If your internet is slow, then your call quality may be impacted.

The good thing is that VoIP technology doesn’t use as much bandwidth as you might think. A good connection with less than 70ms ping and at least 500 kbps of upload speed is good enough for VoIP calls.

However if you have a lot of team members in your office, then you may need to look at your bandwidth needs for the number of concurrent calls your business will be making at the same time.

You need to account for power outages

Regular phone service works during power outages. But you cannot make VoIP calls if you don’t have power or access to the internet.

Typically, most offices have wireless internet powered by WiFi routers. These routers need electricity, so if your building experiences power outage, then your internet can also go down which will impact your VoIP service.

The way we mitigate this in our office is by using a battery backup system for our internet router. Since our internet is provided by a different company than our electricity, we never have both outages at the same time.

Furthermore, since our team members use the VoIP app on their phone, they can always use their mobile data to make business phone calls.

You will need to retrain your staff on the new system

Switching to a new telephone system means you need to train your staff on how to use it.

Luckily, most VoIP services are designed to be as straightforward and intuitive as possible. This means it should be easy to train team members on how to use the cloud phone systems, even if your employees are working remotely.

Which is the Best VoIP Phone Service?

Here at WPBeginner, we use and recommend Nextiva as the best VoIP phone service. They offer a free local or toll-free number with all of their plans.

Nextiva comes with all the essential features you need including call routing, unlimited domestic voice calls, unlimited business SMS messaging, voicemail to email/text, number porting, caller ID, caller forwarding, custom greetings, auto attendant, hold music, online VoIP fax, phone extension for team members, and more.

They have an easy to use smart phone app for Android / iPhone (iOS), and a softphone app for your computer.

For Enterprise customers, then even let you convert your existing PBX (private branch exchange) system into a cloud phone system using SIP (session initiation protocol) trunking. This means you can easily transfer calls to different department and employees using your existing system and local area network.

Nextiva also has several useful advanced features. For instance, you can connect your VoIP phone system with real-time live chat and with your CRM system to help you create a unified communications system.

Plus, their support team is extremely helpful, making it really easy for you to get started. This is why we use Nextiva for our business.

Other great VoIP alternatives to Nextiva include:

• RingCentral – a big, well-known VoIP company that costs a little more than Nextiva. They have all the features you need, and they offer screen sharing and conferencing tools too.
• Ooma – an easy-to-setup option that offers toll-free numbers plus all the features you’d expect. You get 500 minutes included for free, but need to pay extra for more.
• Grasshopper – another great business phone service for solpreneurs and small businesses that offers all the essential features.
• Phone.com – a good IP telephone for businesses working with Canada and many EU countries, as these locations are covered as local calls.

How to Make a Call Using VoIP

To make a call using VoIP, you first need a VoIP business phone service like Nextiva. You also need an internet connection with good bandwidth. This normally means using a broadband internet connection.

Then, you can make a call using VoIP with any of the following devices:

• Your existing phone handset. This can be connected to the VoIP system using an ATA (analog telephone adapter) which gives it an IP address. Essentially, you just plug your phone into the ATA instead of straight into your wall socket.
• A special IP phone. This looks and works like a normal phone. It has a handset with buttons that slots into a charging cradle. However, instead of the a RJ-11 phone connector, the IP phone has an RJ-45 connector. This means it plugs into an ethernet port on your router, not into a phone connector. Depending on the season, some VoIP companies may give you a free phone handset.
• Your computer. You will need an app that lets you make calls over VoIP. This is sometimes called a ‘softphone’. Of course, you will also need a sound card plus a headset, or a microphone and speakers. You will also need internet connectivity, either by ethernet or wifi. Most well-known VoIP companies have apps for both Windows and Mac.
• Your mobile phone. Again, you will need the right app and a wifi connection. You can also use a mobile data plan with 4G or higher speeds. Most VoIP apps will work on all smart phone such as Android mobile devices and Apple iPhone (iOS).

Frequently Asked Questions about VoIP Phone (VoIP FAQs)

There are lots of different business VoIP providers, and it can be hard to know which one is the best for your needs.

Over the years we have helped thousands of beginners choose the best VoIP phone platform. We have heard almost every possible question about VoIP that you can think of.

Following are the answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about VoIP (Voice over IP).

How much do domestic vs international calls cost on VoIP?

Most VoIP services will include unlimited domestic calls for no extra charge. However, some cheaper VoIP services charge based on the number of minutes you use.

The international rates will vary depending on the VoIP provider you use, but these rates will almost always be more affordable than traditional landline rates for international calls.

Can you keep your existing phone number on VoIP?

Yes, when switching from traditional landline phone to business VoIP phone, you can ask for number porting which lets you keep your existing business phone number.

Most good VoIP services let you do this, but please check with them before signing up.

Is there a VoIP backup if your internet connection goes down?

Some VoIP services have a backup in case your broadband connection is down or your power goes out. For instance, Nextiva can automatically forward calls to a cell phone.

Does VoIP offer call routing or extensions for team members?

Yes, most good VoIP phone service providers include call routing, phone extensions, call queue, and auto attendant at no additional cost.

We hope this article helped answer the questions of what is VoIP and how does it work behind the scenes. You might also like our comparison of the best website builder platforms, and 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.

Looking for an easy way to build and customize your WordPress site? That’s where drag and drop page builder plugins come in handy.

WordPress page builders allow you to create, edit, and customize your website layout without writing any code.

In this article, we will compare some of the best drag and drop page builders for WordPress.

Why Use a Drag and Drop Page Builder for WordPress?

When starting a blog, many beginners find it difficult to customize their WordPress page layouts.

While a lot of premium WordPress themes come with different page layouts, most of them are extremely hard to customize for anyone who does not know code (HTML / CSS).

This is why users often ask us questions like: “how can we make WordPress drag and drop?” or “is there an easy drag and drop page builder for WordPress?”

When we talk with people who switch from Weebly to WordPress or from Wix to WordPress, their most common response is: “I wish WordPress had a drag and drop website builder”.

Well, there are several great drag and drop page builder plugins available for WordPress. They allow you to create completely custom website designs in WordPress without writing a single line of code.

Since there are so many different WordPress page builder plugins in the market, we decided to compare and rank the top WordPress page builders, so you can choose the right solution for your need.

Our criteria for comparing these WordPress page builders are ease of use, flexibility, and design output.

Having said that, let’s take a look at the best page builders for WordPress in the market.

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1. SeedProd

SeedProd is a premium WordPress theme and page builder plugin. Unlike other page builders, it lets you create custom WordPress themes from scratch without writing any code.

You can choose from hundreds of beautiful pre-made layouts, or create a completely custom website template with an easy-to-use drag and drop visual builder.

There are ready-made templates for landing pages, sales pages, thank you pages, webinar registration pages, coming soon pages, maintenance mode pages, 404 pages, and more.

SeedProd is built with website speed in mind. It ensures that your pages are the fastest, so you can rank higher in SEO.

It comes with a smart design system, so you can save time by re-using elements instead of doing repetitive work. You can define color schemes, save font combinations, page templates, custom blocks, sections, and more.

SeedProd has all the blocks and features that you’d expect from a powerful page builder such as optin forms, social profiles, countdown timers, contact forms, buttons, various content blocks, and more.

The best part is that some of these blocks even have pre-made templates, so you can speed up the design process by adapting your favorite block templates (1-click).

You can use their custom domain mapping feature to create micro-sites within WordPress. Agencies use this feature to manage multiple clients’ landing pages from a single WordPress installation.

SeedProd works with all popular WordPress themes and plugins. It also has built-in subscriber management, and you can easily connect it with popular email marketing services such as MailChimp, ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, and more.

Over 1 million users are using SeedProd to make better website layouts.

Pricing: Starting from $39.50 for a single site license.

Our Grade: A+

Review: SeedProd is the fastest theme and page builder plugin in the market. It is also the most affordable. Their large library of pre-built templates and pro blocks is a huge time saver. The ability to customize every little detail makes it the perfect solution for all WordPress users.

2. Beaver Builder

Beaver Builder is the most popular drag and drop page builder plugin for WordPress.

You can quickly familiarize yourself with their interface and get started with their built-in onboarding tour.

Beaver Builder comes with a live drag and drop interface. You get to see all your changes as you add them by dragging elements from the right sidebar and dropping them on your page. You can click on any element on a page to edit its properties.

There are modules that let you add almost everything you may want including sliders, carousel, backgrounds, content blocks, buttons, and more.

It also comes with over 30 finely designed templates for landing pages that make it super-easy and super-fast to create stunning website layouts.

We find Beaver Builder to be very beginner-friendly. Check out our tutorial on how to create custom WordPress layouts with Beaver Builder.

Wondering if it is compatible with the new WordPress version? Yes, it is.

Beaver Builder has been updated to work alongside the new WordPress Gutenberg editor.

Pricing: Starting from $99 for Unlimited Sites.

Our Grade: A+

Review: Beaver Builder is a popular page builder option in the market. It comes with pre-made templates to help you get started. A lot of web professionals use Beaver Builder to create their client sites and custom themes.

3. Divi

Divi is a professional drag and drop theme and WordPress page builder plugin. It is extremely easy to use and comes with hundreds of layout packs for different kinds of websites.

Similar to SeedProd and Beaver Builder, the Divi Builder comes with a visual drag and drop functionality, a true WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) visual editor.

You can directly click on your page and start editing in real-time with a live preview of all changes. So you don’t need to save and click preview to see your new design.

Divi comes with dozens of content modules that you can drag and drop anywhere in your layout. It lets you arrange these modules in multiple section types and row types. And you can customize each element using its advanced design settings.

With Divi, you can create any type of custom page layout within a few minutes. You can then save these Divi layouts for future use on your site. You can also export a layout from one Divi installation into another.

The Divi Builder plugin is the backbone of the Divi theme, yet it works well with any other popular WordPress theme.

Best of all, Divi has very attractive pricing options. For a single price, you’ll get the Divi theme, the Divi page builder plugin, and all other Elegant Themes products (Extra, Bloom, etc).

This means you can use the Divi theme or install the Divi Builder plugin on any other theme.

Pricing: Starting from $89 per year (a lifetime access plan is also available)

Our Grade: A

Review: Divi is a great SeedProd builder alternative. It has a powerful page builder with limitless design possibilities. Their large number of content modules allow you to create literally any type of website that you really want. Their lifetime plan also makes it one of the best deals in the market.

4. Elementor Pro

Elementor Pro is a powerful drag and drop WordPress page builder plugin.

It is a live page builder plugin which means you get to see your changes live as you edit them with Elementor.

Start by creating sections and select the number of columns for each section. You can then drag and drop widgets from the left panel to your section.

Elementor comes with tons of widgets including the most commonly used website elements. From basic image and text widgets to advanced accordions, sliders, testimonials, icons, social media, tabs, etc.

Each widget is independent and comes with its own settings. Elementor will also let you add widgets created by other WordPress plugins.

Don’t want to build your own layout?

Elementor comes with many ready-to-use templates that you can easily insert into your pages. You can simply point and click to edit any item on the page, replace the content, and you’re done.

Pricing: Starting from $49 for a single site license.

Our Grade: A

Review: Elementor is a popular page builder plugin for WordPress. It is easy to use, has a large extensions ecosystem, and comes with tons of modules/templates that you can use to build a custom website. The code output is not as efficient, and users often report slower page speed.

5. Visual Composer Website Builder

Visual Composer Website Builder is a user-friendly WordPress website editor that helps you create custom website layouts, fast.

It comes with a simple drag and drop builder, out of box content elements, professional templates, and a host of powerful features to make a website.

Similar to SeedProd and Beaver Builder, it also provides real frontend editing experience for designing a website. But there’s a lot more you can do with this plugin. With the exception of SeedProd, Visual Composer is the only other plugin that allows you to edit all aspects of your landing page such as logo, menus, headers, footers, sidebars, etc.

That’s why the team decides to call it a website builder, instead of just a page builder.

The plugin features powerful design options to customize the appearance of any element on your page. You have easy options to add stylish backgrounds including parallax, gradient, slideshow, carousel, zoom in/out, video, etc. It also comes with flexible rows and columns for creating grid layouts on your site.

Visual Composer works well with all WordPress themes. This allows you to switch your themes without losing custom layouts that you created with Visual Composer.

It also includes support for the new Gutenberg editor, Google Fonts, and Yoast SEO.

Visual Composer is designed for professionals, and it is evident by their attention to detail such as remembering your color choices, which allows you to easily use the same color palette for consistency throughout your design.

Pricing: $59 For One Site License

Our Grade: A-

Review: Visual Composer is a great plugin for beginners to start a website. It provides powerful features for website making in a simple manner. Website editing is made super simple with the real frontend drag and drop editor. The interface is a bit different than typical WordPress plugins, so it can feel alienating to new users.

6. Themify Builder

Themify is a popular WordPress theme shop that offers a built-in Themify Builder with all of their WordPress themes. For other non-Themify WordPress themes, you can get the Themify Page Builder plugin.

This simple and highly intuitive page builder comes with several ready-to-use modules that you can add to your pages or posts. Many of these modules usually require you to install separate WordPress plugins.

The plugin includes 40+ pre-designed layouts for different industries like gym, restaurant, portfolio, music, photography as well as online shops.

You can import a layout with one click, change its content, and build an awesome landing page within minutes.

Themify Builder allows you to edit your pages from the admin area as well as from your live site. With live editing, you get to see exactly how your changes will appear on the site.

Apart from that, Themify Builder comes with ready-to-use layouts that you can quickly apply to your page.

Pricing: $39 For the Builder Addon Bundle (The core plugin is free)

Our Grade: B

Review: Themify Builder is a reliable page builder plugin for WordPress. While the builder comes with promising features, there is a learning curve that can leave a new user frustrated.

Final Thoughts: Best WordPress Page Builder Plugin

As we compared different drag and drop WordPress page builders, one thing became very clear. SeedProd, Beaver Builder, and Divi are clearly the top 3 choices.

Visual Composer and Elementor Pro are other great alternatives that offer a complete drag & drop WordPress page builder.

If you don’t mind spending a little bit of money to get the best solution in the market along with guaranteed support, then go for any of these options, and you won’t regret it.

Do I still need a Page Builder if I am using the new WordPress Block Editor?

Recently we’re getting a lot of users asking us this question.

The WordPress block editor is also known as Gutenberg was officially launched as the new default WordPress editor. The new editor uses blocks which are content elements for creating pages and posts.

Superficially, the block editor looks similar to some of the WordPress page builders above.

Hence there’re hot discussions going on in WordPress about Gutenberg and page builders.

Is Gutenberg a page builder? Does the Gutenberg block editor replace the WordPress page builders? And, do I still need a page builder if I am using the new WordPress block editor?

Well, the answer to the first two questions is ‘No, not quite yet.’

And, Yes, you will need a page builder if you want an easy way to create completely custom WordPress designs.

Gutenberg in its current form is no match to the powerful features these “true” WordPress page builder plugins offer.

Having that said, you can use a plugin like CSS Hero with Gutenberg and probably get away without using a true page builder, but it entirely depends on your needs.

A lot of our readers love using CSS Hero for quick and easy website customization. Read our full CSS Hero review to see if it is a suitable solution for your needs.

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress drag and drop page builder plugins for your site.

You may also want to see our following guides:

• Best WordPress Contact Form Plugins
• Best WordPress Membership Plugins
• Best Social Media Plugins for WordPress

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

Do you want to learn about WordPress files and directory structure?

All core WordPress files, themes, plugins, and user uploads are stored on your website hosting server.

In this beginner’s guide, we’ll explain the WordPress file and directory structure.

Why You Should Learn About WordPress File and Directory Structure?

Most users can run their WordPress website without ever learning about WordPress files or directories. However, understanding how WordPress stores files and directories can help you solve many common WordPress problems on your own.

This guide will help you:

• Learn which WordPress files and folders are core files.
• Understand how WordPress stores your images and media uploads.
• Where WordPress stores your themes and plugins.
• Where configuration files are stored on your WordPress install.

This information also helps you learn how WordPress works behind the scenes and which WordPress files should you backup.

Having said that, let’s take a look at the WordPress file and directory structure.

Accessing WordPress Files and Directories

Your WordPress files and directories are stored on your web hosting server. You can access these files by using an FTP client. See our guide on how to use FTP to upload WordPress files for detailed instructions.

An easier alternative to FTP is the File Manager app that comes built into most WordPress hosting control panel.

Once you have connected to your WordPress site either using FTP or File Manager, you will see a file and directory structure that looks like this:

Inside the root folder, you’ll see the core WordPress files and folders. These are the files and folders that run your WordPress site.

Apart from .htaccess and wp-config.php files, you are not supposed to edit other files on your own.

Here is a list of core WordPress files and folders that you would see in your WordPress site’s root directory.

• wp-admin [dir]
• wp-content [dir]
• wp-includes [dir]
• index.php
• license.txt
• readme.html
• wp-activate.php
• wp-blog-header.php
• wp-comments-post.php
• wp-config-sample.php
• wp-cron.php
• wp-links-opml.php
• wp-load.php
• wp-login.php
• wp-mail.php
• wp-settings.php
• wp-signup.php
• wp-trackback.php
• xmlrpc.php

The above list is missing .htaccess and wp-config.php files. That’s because those two files are created after WordPress installation.

WordPress Configuration Files

Your WordPress root directory contains some special configuration files. These files contain important settings specific to your WordPress site.

• .htaccess – A server configuration file, WordPress uses it to manage permalinks and redirects.
• wp-config.php – This file tells WordPress how to connect to your database. It also sets some global settings for your WordPress site.
• index.php – The index file basically loads and initializes all your WordPress files when a page is requested by a user.

You may need to edit wp-config.php or .htaccess file sometimes. Be extra careful when editing these two files. A slight mistake can make your site inaccessible. When editing these two files, always create backup copies on your computer before making any changes.

If you don’t see .htaccess file in your root directory, then checkout our guide on why you can’t find .htaccess file in your WordPress root directory.

Depending on how your WordPress site is setup, you may or may not have the following files in your root directory.

• robots.txt – contains instructions for search engines crawlers
• Favicon.ico – A favicon file is sometimes generated by WordPress hosts.

Inside The wp-content Folder

WordPress stores all uploads, plugins, and themes in the wp-content folder.

It is generally assumed that you can edit files and folders inside wp-content folder. However, this is not entirely true.

Let’s take a look inside the wp-content folder to understand how it works and what you can do here.

Contents of the wp-content folder may differ from one WordPress site to another. But all WordPress sites usually have these:

• [dir] themes
• [dir] plugins
• [dir] uploads
• index.php

WordPress stores your theme files in /wp-content/themes/ folder. You can edit a theme file, but it is generally not recommended. As soon as you update your theme to a newer version, your changes will be overwritten during the update.

This is why it is recommended to create a child theme for WordPress theme customization.

All WordPress plugins you download and install on your site are stored in /wp-content/plugins/ folder. You are not supposed to edit plugin files directly, unless you wrote site-specific WordPress plugin for your own use.

In many WordPress tutorials, you will see code snippets that you can add to your WordPress site.

The best way to add custom code to your WordPress site is by adding it to functions.php file of your child theme or by creating a site-specific plugin. Alternately, you can also use custom code snippets plugin to add custom code.

WordPress stores all your image and media uploads in the /wp-content/uploads/ folder. By default, uploads are organized in /year/month/ folders. Whenever you are creating a WordPress backup, you should include the uploads folder.

You can download fresh copies of WordPress core, your theme, and installed plugins from their sources. But if you lose your uploads folder, then it would be very hard to restore it without a backup.

Some other default folders you may see in your wp-content directory.

• languages – WordPress stores language files for non-english WordPress sites in this folder.
• upgrade – This is a temporary folder created by WordPress during upgrade to a newer version.

Many WordPress plugins may also create their own folders inside your wp-content folder to store files.

Some WordPress plugins may create folders inside the /wp-content/uploads/ folder to save user uploads. For instance, this demo website has folders created by Smash Balloon, WooCommerce, SeedProd, and WPForms plugins.

Some of these folders may contain important files. This is why we recommend backing up all such folders as a precaution.

Other folders may contain files that you can safely delete. For example your caching plugins like WP Rocket may create folders to save caching data.

That’s all, we hope this article helped you understand the WordPress file and directory structure. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide to WordPress database management with phpMyAdmin, and our tutorial on how to create a custom WordPress theme without any coding knowledge.

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.