11 Ways to Get More Comments on Your WordPress Blog Posts

Do you want to get more comments on your WordPress blog posts?

Comments are an easy way to build user engagement, get more pageviews, and build a community around your website.

In this article, we’ll share proven and tested tips to easily get more comments on your WordPress blog posts.

Ways to Get More Comments on Your WordPress Blog Posts

1. Allow Users to Subscribe to Comments

By default when a user leaves a comment on your website, they will have to bookmark the link to come back and see if there is a new comment on the article.

If they forget to bookmark or can’t remember the name of your blog, then they will probably never come back again.

You can provide users a chance to subscribe to comments on your WordPress posts. This way they can get immediate notifications when there is a new comment.

This will significantly increase your pageviews and the number of comments on your website. Your users will find discussions on your site to be more engaging.

Subscribe to comments

Take a look at our guide on how to allow users to subscribe to comments in WordPress.

2. Notify Users on Replies to Their Own Comments

When a user leaves a comment on your site, there is no way for them to find out if anyone has replied to their comment. They will have to bookmark the page and visit it later. Most users will not do that.

You can easily allow users to subscribe to their own comments. This way they will ONLY receive a notification email when someone replies to their comment.

Subscribe to replies

If you make it a habit to reply to most user comments on your site, then this could develop a highly engaging community around your blog.

For detailed instructions check out our tutorial on how to notify users on replies to their own comments in WordPress.

3. Keep Discussing Quality High with Comment Moderation

The best way to ensure there’s high quality conversations happening in comment is to enable comment moderation in WordPress.

You can turn this on by going to Settings » Discussion in your admin area.

Require all comments to be manually approved

Comment moderation will not only allow you to block spam, but it will also provide you a chance to interact with your users more often.

When you reply and engage with your readers, they’re more likely to comment more often.

See our beginner’s guide on how to moderate comments in WordPress for detailed instructions.

Note: Some website owners use CAPTCHA to block comment spam, but this is not user friendly and it often discourages regular users from commenting.

This is why we recommend enabling comment moderation on your site and manually approve each and every comment (if you have to).

4. Show Newest Comments First

By default WordPress shows the newest comment at the bottom of the comments list. Now if you have lots of comments on a post, then users will be seeing the oldest comments on top.

This can be easily changed in WordPress.

Simply go to Settings » Discussion and scroll down to other comments settings section. You need to select newer from the drop down menu.

Newer comments first

For more details, take a look at our tutorial on how to rearrange comments in WordPress – Display the most recent one on top.

5. Turn on Comments for Old Posts

Most bloggers turn off comments on older posts to reduce comment spam. However, there will be lots of users who might want to comment on these posts.

Since you are already using comment moderation, you can safely turn on comments on old posts.

Simply go to Settings » Discussion and scroll down to other comments settings section. Uncheck the box next to ‘Automatically close comments on articles older than X days’.

Open comments for older post

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

6. Showcase Your Top Commenters

A good way to encourage and appreciate your most loyal users is by highlighting your top commenters. This shows users that they are part of your blog’s community, and you appreciate their effort to bring life into your comments.

Top commenters widget

Simply install and activate the Top Commenters Widget plugin. Upon activation, go to Appearance » Widgets page and add Top Commenters Widget to a sidebar.

For more detailed instructions, please see our guide on how to display your top commenters in WordPress sidebar.

7. Display Recent Comments

When users are looking at your homepage, they have no idea what’s happening in your blog’s comments section. For example, there may be a heated debate going on a new post where a user may want to chime in.

You can provide users a chance to look at current discussions by showing recent comments on your site.

Simply go to Appearance » Widgets and add Recent Comments widget to a sidebar.

Recent comments

8. Allow Users to Rate and Share Comments

The default WordPress commenting system is plain and simple. It does not have the social, gamification, and user engagement elements of a modern discussion platform. However, you can easily add these features in WordPress using plugins.

Simply install and activate the wpDiscuz plugin. Upon activation the plugin will beautifully transform your WordPress commenting system into a highly engaging discussion platform.

Rate and share comments

wpDiscuz comes with features like voting, social sharing, comment bubble, and many more. For details, see our article on how to improve WordPress comments with wpDiscuz.

9. Notify Users When Their Comment is Approved

When a user submits a comment on your blog, WordPress shows them that their comment is awaiting moderation. The users have no idea when you approve their comment or delete it.

You can increase your pageviews as well as user engagement by simply notifying users when their comment is approved.

Simply install and activate the Comment Approved plugin. Upon activation, go to Settings » Comment Approved page to configure the plugin.

Comment Approved Settings

For detailed instructions see our tutorial on how to notify users when their comment is approved in WordPress.

10. Allow Users to Edit Comments in WordPress

By default, users cannot edit their comments once they have submitted them. This can be frustrating for users as they may want to correct a typo or grammar mistake.

Simply install and activate Simple Comment Editing plugin, which allows users to easily edit their own comments on your site. You can set a time limit to editing permission.

Simple comment editing

For details, see our article on how to allow users to edit comments in WordPress.

11. Get Better WordPress Hosting

Comments consume resources on your web hosting server which may affect overall WordPress speed and performance.

Each time a user submits a comment on your WordPress site, your server runs a PHP script. If multiple users are submitting comments at the same time, this could slow down your site or even crash your site.

So to get more comments on your site, you first need to make sure your website can handle more comments.

The easy way to deal with this is by using a WordPress caching plugin. This should work for most websites on shared WordPress hosting provider.

However, for busier websites, this may not be enough. If you have a larger site, then try a managed WordPress hosting provider like WP Engine or SiteGround for better speed.

We hope this article helped you learn some new ways to get more comments on your WordPress blog posts. You may also want to see our guide on how to style WordPress comments and improve WordPress SEO on your website.

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

10 Important Metrics to Measure on Your WordPress Site

Are you wondering how is your WordPress website performing?

Measuring important website metrics can help you find out what’s working and not working in your business. You can then tweak your content strategy, try new ways to increase website traffic, and optimize your site for higher conversions.

In this article, we’ll show you important metrics to measure on your WordPress site.

Important Metrics to Measure on Your WordPress Site

How to Measure Important Metrics in WordPress

When running a successful business, it’s essential to know your WordPress website’s performance. However, many business owners use their ‘best guesses’ to make decisions instead of working with data.

This is where tracking important web metrics can help you make informed decisions and grow your website with confidence.

You can see which strategies are working, which content your visitors like, where they are from, and how you can improve your traffic and WordPress conversions.

The easiest way to measure important metrics in WordPress is using MonsterInsights. It’s the best WordPress analytics plugin and is used by over 3 million websites.

MonsterInsights makes it super easy to properly setup Google Analytics in WordPress, bring important stats inside your WordPress dashboard, display popular posts, and offers advanced tracking features.

MonsterInsights

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

Editor’s Note: if you want to unlock advanced tracking features like eCommerce tracking and more dashboard reports, then you’ll need the MonsterInsights Pro version. There is also a free version of MonsterInsights that you can use to get started.

Upon activation, you’ll be taken to MonsterInsights welcome screen in WordPress. Go ahead and click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button.

You can now follow the steps to configure the plugin and connect Google Analytics to your WordPress site.

Set up MonsterInsights

After that, simply head over to Insights » Reports from your WordPress admin panel to view metrics and get insights to grow your business.

MonsterInsights dashboard reports

That being said, let’s look at some of the most important website metrics to measure on your website.

1. Sessions

The first thing you should measure is your website traffic. To do that, you can look at the number of sessions. A session represents a single visit to your site, and it can include many pageviews.

In MonsterInsights, you can easily view the number of sessions by navigating to Insights » Reports and see the ‘Overview’ report.

See the number of sessions

The graph shows a trend from the last 30 days. Simply hover over the graph to see the Unique Sessions on a particular day. You can use this website metric to see how many people visit your site and if your traffic is increasing or decreasing.

For example, if you have a WordPress blog, then looking at sessions can show whether the number of readers is rising. If it’s not, then you need to find more ways to increase your blog traffic.

Besides that, you can also look at the average session duration and bounce rate to get more insights into user engagement.

Having a high session duration means people enjoy reading your content and spend more time on your website. Whereas a high bounce rate means users didn’t find what they were looking for and left your site.

2. Top Referrals

The next metric you should be measuring is Referrals. These are websites that link to your content and send traffic to your site, also known as referral traffic.

Top referrals

Since these websites are linking to your articles, it means they’re providing a backlink. Backlinks are an important Google ranking factor, and they give a vote of confidence for your content.

Having backlinks from high authority sites means your content is excellent, and you can see a positive impact on your keyword rankings.

Using the top referrals metric, you get to see which websites are sending visitors to your website. This helps in finding similar sites to get more backlinks and boost your WordPress SEO.

Similarly, you can also uncover which guest post is driving a lot of referral traffic. It helps in choosing the type of content and topic to cover for future guest posts.

3. Top Countries

Ever wonder which country your visitors are from? In MonsterInsights, you get to see which region drives the most traffic to your site by looking at the Top Countries metric.

Top countries

Using the data from the top countries report, you can uncover new content ideas.

Let’s say one region that’s sending the most traffic is India. You can write about the best web hosting services in India if you have tech website or 5 places to visit in India if you have a travel blog.

Besides that, you can also create personalized marketing campaigns and provide a custom user experience for people from different regions. For instance, you can offer free shipping or discount offers to people for a particular location.

You can also check out our ultimate guide to geolocation targeting in WordPress.

4. Top Posts and Pages

Do you know which landing pages and blog posts drive a lot of traffic, engagement, and conversions on your site? A simple way to find out is by measuring the top posts and pages metric.

In MonsterInsights, you can uncover your most viewed pages and posts in the Overview report.

Most viewed pages and posts

If you’re using the MonsterInsights Pro version, then you can unlock the Publishers report and get more insights about how people interact with your most important pages.

Simply head over to Insights » Reports and click on the ‘Publishers’ tab. Next, you can see the Top Landing Pages report and how many visits your pages get along with visit duration and bounce rate.

Top landing pages

Once you know which articles are performing the best, you can create more content on similar topics and grow your traffic. You should also check keyword rankings for these top pages and see if you can improve their rankings to reach the #1 spot in Google.

On these top pages, you can also place your newsletter subscription form and convert visitors into email subscribers to build an email list. If you’re selling products or services, then you can optimize your high-traffic pages to boost sales and conversions.

5. Outbound Links

The next site metrics you should measure is the outbound link clicks. These are links in your content that are from other websites. When a user clicks on an outbound or external link, they’re taken to another site.

In MonsterInsights Publisher’s report, you can see the Top Outbound Links. Do note that Google Analytics doesn’t track external link clicks by default. However, with MonsterInsights, you get link tracking out of the box.

Outbound links report

Measuring which outbound link is getting the most clicks can help you create new partnership opportunities.

For instance, you can reach out to the sites that you’re sending traffic to and ask for a backlink for your blog as well. You can also build partnerships and join their affiliate marketing program to earn more money.

Aside from that, tracking outbound links can also help you better understand your user’s behavior and come up with new content ideas. Since people are clicking a link to view content on another site, you can create a better version of that article on your own website.

6. Demographics

Another important web metric to measure is user demographics. It helps you better understand your audience. You could then offer products that they’d prefer or write content based on their interests.

With MonsterInsights, it’s straightforward to track and measure demographic information. You get to see the age, gender, and interests of your visitors in WordPress.

Demographic reports

Demographics help you find hidden WordPress user data that you can use to make business decisions.

For example, let’s say you have an eCommerce store that sells shoes. If your audience is primarily females, then you can add more women’s shoes to your store compared to men.

Similarly, if you’re writing blogs about the latest tech and one of the top audience interests is smartphones, then you can create more content on smartphones compared to other categories.

7. Top Google Search Terms

Do you want to know which keywords your users use to find your website? You can quickly uncover this insight by measuring the top Google search terms for your website.

MonsterInsights brings your Search Console report inside your WordPress admin area and allows you to see the top 50 keywords people use to look up your site on Google.

You can see our guide on how to add your WordPress site to Google Search Console.

Search console report

By measuring the Google Search Terms metric, you can see which keywords drive traffic to your site. The report shows clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position for each search term.

From the report, you can select keywords that are close to reaching the #1 position in Google and optimize them.

The report also helps identify low-hanging fruits, which are keywords that can easily reach the first page on Google with a little tweak in meta title, internal linking, and keyword optimization.

Besides that, you can also find new keyword ideas to target on your website. For instance, look for similar search terms that are already performing well and optimize them in your content. As a result, you’ll grab keyword rankings for different search terms and grow your organic traffic.

8. Form Conversions

Forms play an important role in running a successful business, whether you’re running a WooCommerce store, a blog, a membership website, or a company website.

Forms help you keep in touch with your visitors. You can easily get feedback from your customers and resolve their queries through contact forms.

However, simply adding a form to your WordPress site isn’t enough. You should track their performance and see how well they’re converting. This is where measuring the form conversion metrics comes in handy.

With MonsterInsights Forms addon, you can easily track form conversions in Google Analytics. It works smoothly with WPForms, Formidable Forms, and any WordPress form plugin.

The best part is that you get to see the report inside your WordPress dashboard. Simply head over to Insights » Reports » Forms to view the report.

Forms report

The report will show the total number of impressions, conversions, and conversion rate for each form.

Using the information from the report, you get to see which forms get the most conversions and which don’t. You can change the low-performing forms’ design, layout, questions, and other elements to improve their conversions.

On the other hand, placing your highly converting forms on the most important pages or in the sidebar can further boost their conversions.

9. Site Speed

Site Speed is another metric you should be tracking in your WordPress website. That’s because Google now considers your site’s loading speed as a ranking factor.

If your website is slow to load and doesn’t provide a great user experience, then Google will not rank your content higher and instead prefer other sites that are faster.

A simple way to measure load time is by using the MonsterInsights Site Speed report.

Site speed report

The report shows an overall site speed score for desktop and mobile along with other web metrics to measure page speed. You also get recommendations on how to improve your site’s load time.

You can go through our detailed guide to boost WordPress speed and performance.

10. Custom Dimensions

Custom dimensions are additional pieces of information that you can use to understand how people use your website. They help uncover things like content types, SEO performance, user engagement, and more.

Using MonsterInsights Dimensions addon, it’s very easy to set up custom dimensions in WordPress. You can track popular authors, post type, top categories and tags, and more.

Popular authors dimension

For example, if you’re running a multi-author website, then you can track your most popular authors using custom dimensions. You can also uncover which post category gets the most traffic, so you can optimize it for conversions and find new content ideas to cover.

There are more custom dimensions you can set up with MonsterInsights. The plugin lets you track logged-in users and see which post type your audience likes. For instance, if your readers prefer guides and tutorials, then you can create similar content to get more traffic.

Logged in user and post type

If you’re using the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin, then you can track the TruSEO score of your posts and pages using custom dimensions. Similarly, it also lets you track Focus Keyphrases that you’ve set for each post and find out which keyword gets the most traffic.

Focus keyphrase and TruSEO score

We hope this article helped you find important metrics to measure on your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate for your WordPress site and the best email marketing services 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.

How to Create a Coupon Popup in WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to create a coupon popup on your WordPress website?

Coupon popups are a great way to convert your website visitors into paying customers. There are several different ways to create and display coupon popups. However, showing the coupon at the right time makes a huge difference in converting abandoning visitors into customers.

In this article, we’ll take a look at how to add a coupon popup to your WordPress or WooCommerce site.

Why Should You Offer Visitors a Coupon?

Often new business owners are concerned that coupons will eat into their profits. However, established business owners know that offering discounts is a powerful way to get visitors to make up their minds instead of sitting on the fence.

Offering coupon codes helps you recover abandoned cart sales, convert visitors into customers, and make more sales.

Most eCommerce platforms like WooCommerce allow you to easily create coupon codes. However, sharing these coupon codes with your customers makes all the difference.

That’s why in this article, we will share two different ways to share coupons with your visitors. These include a coupon exit popup and a coupon spin-a-wheel optin.

Let’s take a look at how to create a coupon popup in WordPress or WooCommerce.

How to Create Your Coupon Popup in WordPress

The best way to create a coupon popup is by using OptinMonster. It is the best WordPress popup plugin and lead generation software in the market.

First, you need to visit the OptinMonster website to create an account. Simply click the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button to get started.

You will need at least the Growth plan because it includes Coupon Wheel Campaigns and advanced targeting rules for your popups.

After that, you need to install and activate the OptinMonster plugin on your WordPress site. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

The plugin acts as a connector between your OptinMonster account and your WordPress website.

Upon activating the plugin, you’ll see the OptinMonster setup wizard. Go ahead and click on the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.

A new window will now open where you’ll need to connect your WordPress site with OptinMonster.

Simply click the ‘Connect to WordPress’ button to continue.

You can also connect your WooCommerce store with OptinMonster. Just make sure that you’ve set up an eCommerce store in WordPress.

First, you will need to go to OptinMonster » Settings from your WordPress admin panel.

Afterward, head to the ‘General’ tab and click on the ‘Auto-Generate Keys + Connect WooCommerce’ button.

WooCommerce will now generate keys automatically and connect to your OptinMonster account.

Now, you are all set to create your first coupon popup campaign.

Creating Your Coupon Popup Campaign

To create a campaign, you can go to OptinMonster » Campaigns from your WordPress dashboard and then click the ‘Create Your First Campaign’ button.

On the next screen, OptinMonster will show different campaign types and templates.

First, you’ll need to choose a campaign type. We’re going to use ‘Popup,’ which should be the default selection.

After that, you will be asked to select a template.

OptinMonster has a vast range of templates you can choose from, with lots of different layouts and color schemes. The ‘Coupon’ template is perfect for creating this popup. Although, you can select a different template if you prefer.

You can use the search box to find the Coupon template or scroll down the page.

Next, hover over the template and click the ‘Use Template’ button.

The final step before building your coupon popup is to name the campaign. After entering a name, click the ‘Start Building’ button.

Designing your Coupon Popup

Once you’ve clicked ‘Start Building,’ you’ll see the drag-and-drop campaign builder.

You can use it to add different blocks to your template and change the text, colors, and design of the coupon in whatever way you like.

You can also click on any element of the design to change it further. Here, we’ve edited the text and made it a different color.

As soon as you make your changes, you’ll see real-time updates in the coupon popup template.

You might want to experiment with different fonts and colors to make your text stands out in the popup or matches your brand.

Outside of the text and elements within the popup, you can also change the background color, add an image to your coupon, set the border color, change the border style, and more.

Once you’re done with the changes, please ensure you store your campaign by clicking the green ‘Save’ button at the top of the screen.

Decide How to Deliver Your Coupon Code

Now that you’ve set up your coupon popup, you need to decide how you’ll actually deliver the coupon code to your visitor.

There are several ways to do this in OptinMonster, but the best way is to deliver the coupon code straight away through OptinMonster’s Success view and send it by email newsletter.

That way, if the visitor isn’t ready to buy immediately, they’ve got the coupon code in their email inbox for easy reference later.

By default, your coupon popup is already designed to use ‘the Success view’ as soon as the button is clicked. To check, you can click on the button and then see the ‘Go to View’ option on the left-hand side of your screen.

If you want a different button action, you can change that here. For your first coupon, though, we recommend sticking with the default.

Integrating OptinMonster With Your Email List

To send your coupon code out by email automatically and for the visitor to be added to your email list, you’ll need to integrate OptinMonster with an email marketing service.

Constant Contact is a great service to use with OptinMonster, and WPBeginner readers can get 20% off their first 3 months by using this coupon.

However, if you use a different email service, OptinMonster integrates with pretty much every major provider.

Simply go to the ‘Integration’ tab and click the ‘+ Add New Integration’ button to add your email marketing service.

Once you’ve done that, you can set up an automated email to go out whenever someone signs up for the email list through your coupon popup.

Bonus Tip: Edit the Success View Template

You can view and change the ‘Success View’ template by going back to the Design tab of your campaign and clicking the ‘Sucess’ option at the bottom of the screen.

The default looks like this, but you can edit it in any way you want, just like you edited your coupon popup.

Change Your Coupon Popup’s Display Rules

By default, your coupon popup will appear to visitors after they’ve been on any page of your site for 5 seconds.

If you want to change this, go to the ‘Display Rules’ tab.

You can set whatever display rules you like, but a great one to try out is Exit-Intent®.

This special OptinMonster technology can tell when a visitor is about to leave your site and show them your coupon popup at just the right moment.

You can add exit intent by selecting the ‘exit detected’ from the dropdown menu and choosing which devices to show the campaign on. By default, it will be set to display on all devices.

There is also an option to control the sensitivity of exit intent.

After that, scroll down and choose the pages where you’d like to show your campaign.

For example, you can use the default setting of ‘current URL path’ and select the ‘is any page’ option. This way, your campaign will appear on your entire website.

After adding the display rules, you can click the ‘Next Step’ button.

OptinMonster also offers options to play a sound effect and show animation when the coupon popup appears.

Now, you can click the ‘Next Step’ button.

On the next screen, you will see a summary of your display rules. Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.

Once you’re happy with your coupon popup, you can go to the ‘Publish’ tab at the top.

After that, simply make sure that ‘Publish’ is checked under the ‘Publish Status’ section.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button at the top and close the campaign builder.

You can now visit your website to see the coupon popup in action.

Creating a Spin-to-Win Coupon Wheel

A spin-to-win coupon wheel is a great way to make your coupons more interesting and fun for your site’s visitors. It’s like a mini-game that visitors can play to win a discount or another bonus.

Your spin-to-win options could include things like 10% off, 20% off, free shipping, a free trial, or whatever you want to offer.

OptinMonster offers a ‘Gamified’ campaign type that lets you create spin-the-wheel popups.

After that, scroll down and select one of the Wheel templates.

The plugin has different spin-to-win templates. Simply hover over a template and click the ‘Use Template’ button.

Next, go ahead and edit any aspect of your coupon wheel.

To edit the options on the coupon wheel itself, you’ll need to click on the ‘Customize Wheel Sections’ button on the left-hand side.

You can then type in any text as the Label for each option and add in the coupon code for each winning option.

Note that the ‘Win Chance’ is automatically determined. If you change the toggle on one or more of the ‘Can Win’ options, OpinMonster will recalculate the winning chances

If you need more help creating your coupon wheel and adding it to your site, check out our post on how to add spin-to-win optins in WordPress and WooCommerce, which goes through the process in more detail.

You can then visit your website to see the spin-to-win coupon popup in action.

We hope this article helped you learn how to create a coupon popup in WordPress. You might also want to look at our pick of the best WooCommerce plugins or our guide on how to add push notifications to your WordPress site.

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

The post How to Create a Coupon Popup in WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

What’s Coming in WordPress 6.1 (Features and Screenshots)

WordPress 6.1 Beta arrived a few days ago, and it is expected to be released on November 1st, 2022. It will be the last major release of 2022 and will come with many new features and improvements.

We have been closely monitoring the development and trying out new features on our test sites.

In this article, we’ll give you a sneak peek into what’s coming in WordPress 6.1 with features and screenshots.

Note: You can try out the beta version on your computer or on a staging environment by using the WordPress Beta Tester plugin. Please keep in mind that some of the features in beta may not make it into the final release.

New Default Theme:  Twenty Twenty-Three

As per the WordPress tradition, the last release of the year will ship with a new default theme called Twenty Twenty-Three.

Featuring a minimalist style, Twenty Twenty-Three is a block theme with full site editing capabilities.

It will come with ten style variations that users can choose inside the Site Editor.

It will also ship with four fonts that are used in different styles. You can also select these fonts when writing posts and pages.

Overall, Twenty Twenty-Three provides a beautiful canvas to create a website using the design tools available in the site editor.

Block Editor Improvements

WordPress users spend most of their time creating posts and pages for their websites using the block editor.

Each WordPress release comes with a ton of improvements to the editor. WordPress 6.1 will include changes introduced in the Gutenberg (code name for the block editor project) releases from 13.1 to 14.1.

The major focus during these Gutenberg releases was to bring consistency to the availability of design tools for different blocks.

Following are some of the more noticeable changes in the block editor

Dimensions in More Blocks

WordPresss 6.1 will bring dimensions to more blocks like Paragraph, List, Columns, Table, and more.

This will allow users to set padding and margin for more blocks and have a much finer control over the design and layout.

It will also help users visualize the changes when adjusting padding and margins for a block.

Improved Border Options

With WordPress 6.1, users can add borders to more blocks. They will also be able to adjust the top, right, bottom, and left borders separately.

The image block, which previously only allowed you to select border radius, will now also allow you to add actual borders.

Featured Image in Cover Block

Our users often ask about the difference between featured image and cover block in WordPress. Many users wanted to use the cover block as featured image for their site.

WordPress 6.1 will allow users to select their featured image for a cover block. Users can then just set the featured image and it will start appearing inside the cover.

Using cover will allow users to display featured images anywhere they want.

Note: Depending on your theme, if this option is not used correctly, then your featured image may appear twice on the screen.

Quote and List Blocks with Inner Blocks

Ever wanted to move an item up or down in a bulleted list without actually editing it?

WordPress 6.1 will introduce inner blocks for List and Quote blocks.

For instance, items in a list block will be their own blocks. This would allow you to simply move them up and down without editing.

Similarly, when using the Quote block, users can style quote and cite blocks differently.

Improved Navigation Block

WordPress 6.1 comes with an improved navigation block that allows you to easily create and select a menu from the block settings.

Users will also be able to use design tools for submenus and style them differently than the parent menu item.

Editor Design Enhancements

WordPress 6.1 will also come with several changes to the Editor screen design. These changes will improve the user experience on the block editor screen.

Following are some of those enhancements:

Preview Button is Now Labeled View

The Preview button is now called View.

In Site Editor, the View button now also includes a link to simply view your website in a new tab.

Status & Visibility Panel is now Called Summary

The status and visibility panel under the Post settings will be renamed Summary.

Permalink and Template Options Under Summary Panel

Permalink and Template options has their own panels under Post settings. With WordPress 6.1 these panels are merged under the Summary panel.

Just click to expand the Summary panel, and you’ll find the option to change ‘URL’ (permalink) and choose template.

Improved Information Panel

In WordPress 6.1, the information popover will also display the time to read information.

Site Icon will Replace the WordPress Logo

If you have set the site icon for your website, then it will be used as the View Posts button in the top left corner of the screen.

New Preferences Options

The preferences panel now includes two new options.

First, there is ‘Always open list view’ which allows you to display list view when editing posts.

The second new option is to ‘Show button text labels’, which shows text instead of icons on buttons.

Create More Templates in Site Editor

In the classic WordPress themes, users could create templates using template hierarchy and extend their WordPress theme by writing code.

With WordPress 6.1, users will be able to do the same using the block editor and without writing code.

The upcoming release will unlock the following templates regardless of which block theme you are using.

Single pageSingle post Indivdual term in a taxonomyIndividual category Custom template (can be used for any post or page)

Simply go to Appearance » Editor and then select templates from the left sidebar. After that click on the Add New button to see the available options.

If you choose a template that can be applied to an individual item, then you will see a popup.

From here, you can choose the item where you want the new template to be used.

For instance, if you choose the Category template, then you’ll see a popup.

Now you can select if you want to apply your new template for all categories or a specific category.

Quickly Search and Use Template Parts

WordPress 6.1 will also make it easier to quickly search and use template parts.

For instance, if your theme has multiple header template parts, then you can quickly find and apply one of them.

Simply select click on the template part options and select Replace.

This will bring up a modal popup where you can look for available template parts that you can use.

Under The Hood Improvements

Classic themes can now use template parts (Details)Fluid typography allows theme developers to dynamically adjust font sizes. (Details)Post types can now have their own starter patterns (Details). Filters to hook into theme.json data (Details)

Overall, WordPress 6.1 beta contains more than 350 enhancements and 350 bug fixes for the block editor, this also includes 250+ tickets for the core.

We hope this article provided you a glimpse of what’s coming in WordPress 6.1.

Comment below to let us know what features you find interesting and what you’d look to see in a future WordPress release!

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

The post What’s Coming in WordPress 6.1 (Features and Screenshots) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Introducing WPCode – Easy WordPress Code Manager to Future-Proof Your Website Customizations

Have you ever wanted to reduce the number of WordPress plugins you’re using on your website?

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an easy way that allowed you to add future-proof WordPress customizations through code snippets WITHOUT breaking your website?

If you’re like me and most other smart website owners, then you have at least wished for this solution a couple times in your WordPress journey.

Today, I’m excited to share the launch of my free WPCode plugin which will transform the way you think about WordPress customization.

We built this tool to help you save time and hassle when managing your website customizations. This is like the ultimate Swiss-Army knife tool that will help you replace dozens of existing WordPress plugins while making your website faster.

Background Story

In 2012, I created a free plugin called Insert Headers and Footers.

The goal of this plugin was to make it easy for me and other WPBeginner readers to add code to our WordPress site’s header and footer area without editing theme files!

This would include things like Google Analytics script, custom CSS code, Facebook Pixel, AdSense code, and more.

Over the last decade, this simple plugin grew to over 1 million active installs.

In the same time period, WordPress grew a lot too with tons of new features and plugins.

Every month, I would get requests from our users to add more functionality such as the ability to conditionally load scripts on certain pages, ability to add code snippets in other areas of the website, and so on.

After a lot of thought and consideration, we have decided to expand this free plugin and make it a full-featured code snippet management solution for WordPress with conditional logic, auto-insertion, and much more.

Using the new plugin you can:

Add tracking scripts / various webmaster tool verification meta details in your site with just a few clicks.Add banner ads or other dynamic content elements after first paragraph of every blog post, at the end of each blog post, etc.Remove WordPress features that you don’t want such as REST API, XML-RPC, Comments, etc.Easily copy & paste code snippets from tutorials in your WordPress site without errors.And really this is just scratching the surface.

All of these features are available to you for free!

If you’re a marketer, think of WPCode like a Google Tag Manager but inside WordPress.

If you’re a regular business owner, think of this as a swiss-army knife for your website. It will help you do what you want to do – nothing more, nothing less.

WPCode is by far the MOST POWERFUL plugin you’ll install on your WordPress site, and I’m not exaggerating.

Just give me 5 minutes of your attention, and I’ll show you — keep on reading.

Video Version

What is WPCode?

WPCode is a powerful WordPress code snippet plugin that makes it easy for you to add custom WordPress features using code snippets without editing your theme’s functions.php file.

It comes with a built-in code snippets library where you can find some of my most popular WordPress code snippets that will help you eliminate the need of separate plugins.

For example, there are ready-made snippets that will help you:

Disable XML-RPC – this is good for WordPress securityAllow SVG File Upload – eliminates the need for separate pluginDisable Gutenberg – eliminates the need for separate pluginDisable Comments – eliminates the need for separate pluginAdd Tracking Scripts for Google Analytics, Facebook, AdSense, and other platforms

And there are currently over two dozen other code snippets that you can use to add custom functionality while reducing the number of plugins on your site.

For an average website owner, this plugin will help you reduce at least 6 – 8 other plugins that you might be using right now with just the ready-made snippets that are there.

My plan is to continue to add more custom code snippets there to cover popular use-cases. If you have suggestions, please let us know by filling out the form here.

If you’re a WordPress developer / freelancer that wants to contribute code snippets, please send us your snippet using the form above.

Future-Proof Site Customization & Code Management

Most WordPress customization tutorials will ask you to add code snippets to your theme’s functions.php file. This old way simply makes managing code snippets messy, and it also prevents you from updating your theme.

If you ever update your theme or switch to another theme, then you will lose all custom code functions that you added in your functions.php file.

WPCode solves this by providing you an easy way to insert header and footer scripts along with other code snippets directly from your WordPress dashboard. These code snippets actually run as if they were in your theme’s functions.php file, but we make your customizations future-proof.

You can safely update themes or switch to another theme without ever losing your important website customizations.

Another problem with adding custom code snippets on your theme’s functions.php file was that even the smallest mistake can break your website and make it inaccessible.

So we created our smart code snippet validation. This helps you prevent common code errors to ensures you never break your website when adding code snippets or header and footer scripts.

You can manage all your header and footer scripts as well as other custom code snippets from a single screen. We even make it easy for you to organize code snippets using Tags and add reminder notes with each code snippet.

Built-in WordPress Code Generators

Aside from our growing code snippets library, we also have WordPress code generators to help you quickly get ready-to-use custom code using the latest WordPress coding standards and API’s.

Examples of Custom Code Generators with Admin UI include:

Custom Post Type Generator – Create custom code snippet for Post Types.Custom Taxonomy Generator – Get custom code snippet for Taxonomies.WP Query Generator – Get custom code snippet for WP_Query to load posts.Custom Sidebar Generator – Create custom code snippet to register custom sidebars or widget-ready areas.Custom Widget Generator – Custom code snippet to register custom widgets.Navigation Menu Generator – Custom code snippet for registering new navigation menu locations in your theme.

Aside from the above, we also have code snippet generator for scheduling a cron job, registering scripts & stylesheets, adding custom post status, and more.

In the past, beginners and intermediate users would use WordPress plugins to create custom post types, taxonomies, etc with an admin UI. The problem is that those are one-time use plugins that in the background are just generating custom code snippets.

Now with WPCode free generators, you can cut out those plugins while still adding the custom functionality that you want with an admin UI.

This will be a huge time-saver for new WordPress developers and web professionals who’re building websites for clients.

Conditional Logic for Code Snippets + Auto Insertion Priority

My goal with WPCode was to create a WordPress code snippets plugin that’s both EASY and POWERFUL.

That’s why aside from our global header and footer scripts, we added advanced features like conditional logic for code snippets and made it easy.

Instead of learning WordPress conditional logic queries, you can use visual conditional logic to decide when a certain snippet would load.

Examples use-cases of WPCode conditional logic:

Load code snippets for logged in users onlyLoad PHP code snippets for specific user rolesLoad PHP code snippets only on specific page URLsInsert header and footer pixel scripts on specific pagesShow code snippets based on type of pageRun code snippet only on certain post typesLoad header and footer code snippet based on referrer sourceand more…

We also added both automatic code insertion and manual output using shortcodes. This way you can add features using a custom shortcode, or simply automatically add certain features on area that you want.

Our Auto Insert feature allows you to run the code snippet everywhere or choose from custom options like:

Run code snippet only on frontendRun code snippet only in WordPress admin areaAdd header and footer scripts sitewideInsert PHP code snippet before or after post contentInsert code snippet before or after specific paragraphInsert code snippet on specific archive pages

Aside from that, we also added a visual code snippet priority system, so you can choose the order for your custom functions to avoid code conflict.

What are Some Example Use Cases + Plugins You Can Replace?

WPCode is the one plugin that helps you get rid of dozens of other plugins without losing functionality.

Here are some of the top use-cases :

Insert Headers and Footers scriptsInsert Google Analytics Tracking Code in Header and FooterInsert PHP Code Snippets or JavaScript code snippet without modifying theme’s functions.php fileInsert Facebook Pixels code, Google Conversion Pixels code, and other Advertising Conversion Pixel Scripts in WordPress header and footer with conditional logicInsert Google AdSense Ads code, Amazon Native Contextual Ads code, and other Media Ads codeInsert Custom JavaScript, CSS, and HTML codeInsert Site Verification Meta tags for Social Media, Google Search Console, and other Domain verification in the header and footer of your siteInsert re-usable custom content blocksInsert Ads code in content after specific paragraphsShow or hide custom code snippets based on conditional logicDisable XML-RPC, Disable Rest API, disable comments, allow SVG file uploads, disable Gutenberg and enable Classic Editor without adding extra plugins

Just with our current features and ready-made code snippets library, you can replace several popular plugins including:

WPCode comes with a ready-made code snippets library that allows you to replace several popular plugins including:

Disable Comment pluginsDisable XML-RPC pluginsDisable Rest API pluginsDisable Gutenberg pluginsClassic Editor pluginAllow SVG File Upload pluginsDisable RSS feed pluginsDisable Search pluginsDisable Automatic Updates pluginsDisable Admin Bar pluginsDisable Widget Blocks pluginClassic Widgets pluginRemove WordPress Version Number pluginsFacebook Pixel pluginsGoogle AdSense pluginsCustom Post Types UI pluginsOther WordPress Generator plugins

On average, I believe you can easily replace 6 – 8 existing plugins on your website because a typical website often installs these one-off feature plugins.

Now you can remove those plugins, clean up your admin area, and simplify your website management.

What’s Coming Next in WPCode?

Since the Insert Headers and Footers plugin had over 1 million users, getting all these new features for free was a surprise for everyone.

I’m extremely pleased with the community response so far, as everyone is loving the new features.

We have an exciting roadmap ahead of us to make this plugin even more powerful. Some of the things that we’re working on:

A larger list of Code Snippet library that is vetted by our WordPress expertsSave custom snippets to cloud – this will be great for those creating & managing multiple websites as you can build your personalized snippet library inside the pluginand much more

We’re truly building something special here. If you have ideas on how we can make the plugin more helpful to you, please send us your suggestions.

As always, I want to thank you for your continued support of WPBeginner, and we look forward to continue serving you for years to come.

Yours Truly,

Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner

P.S. Want us to acquire or invest in your WordPress business? Learn more about the WPBeginner Growth Fund.

The post Introducing WPCode – Easy WordPress Code Manager to Future-Proof Your Website Customizations first appeared on WPBeginner.