Do you want to add a stats dashboard on your WordPress site?

Analytics helps you discover how people find and use your website, so you can keep them coming back.

In this article, we will show you how to easily add a stats dashboard on your WordPress site.

Why You Need a Stats Dashboard in WordPress

Usually, you can install Google Analytics and view your reports by logging into your Google account. This sounds great, but many people forget to check their blog stats on a regular basis.

The two biggest reasons for that are:

You have to log in to a separate website like Google Analytics to check the stats.You have to dig around in the Google Analytics dashboard to find what you’re looking for.

While GA is a powerful tool, it often takes a lot of time and clicking around to get to the data you want to view. Most beginners never make it this far.

Adding a stats dashboard to your WordPress website solves this problem. You will be able to quickly view the stats that matter without leaving your WordPress admin area.

That said, let’s take a look at how to easily add a stats dashboard on your WordPress site.

Adding a Stats Dashboard in WordPress

The best way to add a stats dashboard in WordPress is by using MonsterInsights. It’s the best Analytics solution for WordPress, and it helps you set up Google Analytics in WordPress without editing code.

For this tutorial, we will use the MonsterInsights Pro version because it includes powerful addons and advanced tracking features such as affiliate link tracking, eCommerce tracking, and dashboard reports.

There is also a MonsterInsights Lite version you use for free. It helps you configure Google Analytics in WordPress and shows a quick overview report in the dashboard.

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

Upon activation, you’ll be taken to the MonsterInsights welcome screen. Simply click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button and follow the onscreen instructions to set up Google Analytics.

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

Now, let’s look at the stats dashboard MonsterInsights adds on your site.

How to Add Stats to WordPress Dashboard

On your main WordPress dashboard screen, MonsterInsights adds a widget that shows stats about your site’s performance. You can quickly view your website traffic and identify top posts and pages.

Simply log in to your WordPress admin panel. On the home screen, you’ll see the MonsterInsights dashboard widget.

You can also click the expand icon at the top and view the dashboard widget report in full-width mode to get more details.

The expanded widget displays the number of sessions, pageviews, average session duration, and bounce rate in the last 30 days.

Additionally, it also shows your top-performing posts and pages, new vs. returning visitors, and a device breakdown.

Next, let’s see how MonsterInsights helps you view statistics for each blog post and landing page in the WordPress dashboard.

See Page and Post Stats in WordPress Dashboard

To see how individual articles and pages perform, you can use the MonsterInsights Page Insights addon.

First, you can head to Insights » Addons from the WordPress admin panel and navigate to the ‘Page Insights’ box. Go ahead and click the ‘Install’ button.

The addon will now automatically install and activate on your site.

Next, you can go to Posts » All Posts from your admin panel to see the stats of individual posts.

You’ll see an ‘Insights’ column added to your WordPress posts and pages screen.

A small window will open if you click the ‘Insights’ icon for any blog post.

You can then view stats for a specific post or page. For instance, the plugin shows stats for only that post, including bounce rate, entrances, page views, time on page, page load time, and exits.

Using these stats, you can find out how your content is performing without having to leave your WordPress dashboard.

On top of that, MonsterInsights also lets you see stats for any post or page from the front end of your site. When viewing any post or page, you can simply click the ‘Insights’ button in the admin bar to see 30 days of performance stats for that post.

Viewing More WordPress Stats with MonsterInsights

With MonsterInsights, you get easy-to-understand dashboard reports. It neatly organizes data from Google Analytics and helps you make data-driven decisions.

Here’s a quick rundown of the reports you can see in MonsterInsights and how you can use them.

Overview Report

To view your WordPress stats dashboard, simply go to the Insights » Reports page.

First, you’ll see the ‘Overview Report.’ At the top, you will see two tabs, each giving you a graph of your WordPress visitor sessions or pageviews. This gives you a quick overview of incoming traffic to your website.

Below that, you will see a comparison of your website stats against the previous 30 days. These boxes will show the number of sessions, page views counter, session duration, and bounce rate.

Below that, you will see a chart showing new vs. returning visitors. You can use these stats to see how many people return to your site. Similarly, there is a device breakdown chart, which helps you optimize your site for different devices.

This is followed by a list of the top countries people visit your website from, as well as the top websites that send the most traffic your way. You can use the top countries report to set up geolocation targeting, create personalized messages, and boost conversions.

MonsterInsights also acts as a pageview counter and shows your most popular WordPress posts and pages. This helps you find your top-performing content so that you can plan your content strategy accordingly.

Publishers Report

In the Publishers report, you get more details about the performance of your content. It’s great for content-rich websites like blogs, news, or magazine sites.

The report shows your top landing pages and the number of visits, average duration, and bounce rate they got in the last 30 days.

You can also view the top exit pages and see from where people leave your website. It helps optimize any WordPress blog a high exit rate. For example, you can show a popup and offer a free ebook to leaving visitors in exchange for their email addresses.

If you scroll down, then you’ll see reports on top outbound links and top affiliate links. With the help of these 2 reports, you get to track link clicks on your site.

For example, you can see which affiliate is performing the best, so you can promote it more on your site. Similarly, outbound link tracking helps create new partnership opportunities where you can get more backlinks, sign up for an affiliate program, and more.

MonsterInsights also helps track file downloads on your site. It shows which download links are getting the most clicks. This way, you can uncover the type of downloadable content your audience prefers.

Lastly, you get to see your visitor’s demographics and interests in the Publishers report. MonsterInsights will show the age and gender of your audience and their interests.

The plugin also enables scroll tracking on your site. It shows how far people scroll your content before exiting. You can use this information to improve conversions and placement of call-to-action (CTA) buttons and ads.

Search Console

If you’ve connected Google Search Console with Google Analytics, then MonsterInsights will show the top 50 search terms in your WordPress dashboard.

Simply visit the search console report and find out which keywords people use to find your website on the internet. You also get to see the number of clicks, impressions, CTR, and average position for each search term.

Using the report, you can optimize keywords close to reaching the top 10 positions in Google search and increase your organic traffic. Plus, the report helps perform keyword research and uncover new search term ideas for your site.

eCommerce Report

If you run an online store or a membership website, then you’ll love MonsterInsights eCommerce tracking features.

MonsterInsights offers an eCommerce addon that helps track your online store’s performance in Google Analytics. The best part is that MonsterInsights works with popular eCommerce plugins like WooCommerce, MemberPress, Easy Digital Downloads, GiveWP, and more.

For more details, please see our guide on how to set up eCommerce tracking in WordPress.

To view stats about your online store, you can head to the eCommerce tab.

In the reports, you will see a breakdown of conversion rate, transactions, revenue, and average order value. This gives you a quick overview of your store’s performance.

Besides that, MonsterInsights also shows top products on your website. For instance, if you have a WooCommere store, then you can see which product your customers like to buy the most. This way, you could find similar products or bundle different items together to boost sales.

MonsterInsights also shows your top conversion sources. These are sites that send the most sales to your store. You can partner with these sources and offer exclusive discounts to visitors from these websites.

Dimensions Report

With MonsterInsights, you can easily track additional information in Google Analytics that’s not possible by default and view them in the dimensions report.

For example, you can set up author tracking and see which writer’s posts attract the most visitors. Similarly, you can also track categories and tags using custom dimensions.

It also helps test the best publication time for your blog posts. This way, you can publish articles to get more engagement, comments, and shares.

Forms Report

Do you want to see stats on how your online forms are performing?

MonsterInsights helps you track form conversions in Google Analytics and shows a report in your WordPress dashboard.

Simply view the Forms report and see which form gets the most impressions and conversions. This way, you can optimize low-performing forms and increase the visibility of forms that are converting well.

Real-Time Report

A real-time report is great for getting up-to-the-minute stats about your website.

For example, a real-time report comes in handy if you’re running a flash sale and want to know how your campaign is performing. You get to monitor your website activities as they happen.

For more details, please see our guide on how to show real-time online users in WordPress.

Site Speed Report

The last report you’ll see in MonsterInsights is the Site Speed report. Although the report doesn’t relate to the website traffic, but it is crucial for your WordPress SEO and user experience.

Using the report, you can see an overall score of your site’s load time on mobile and desktop.

There are other metrics as well that you can use to improve your site’s user experience. MonsterInsights also provides recommendations for enhancing the score for these metrics and reducing the page load time.

You can see our guide on how to boost WordPress speed and performance for more tips and tricks.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily add a stats dashboard in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to start your own podcast or our expert pick of the best business phone services.

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

The post How to Add a Stats Dashboard On Your WordPress Site first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking for an easy way to customize your WooCommerce store emails?

A WooCommerce email customizer allows you to easily adjust and personalize the emails your website send to your customers. This includes receipt emails, subscription renewal emails, and more.

In this article, we’ll show you the best WooCommerce email customizer plugins to help you improve your website emails.

Why Use a WooCommerce Email Customizer Plugin?

WooCommerce is the #1 most popular eCommerce platform for WordPress, and it comes with built-in settings to edit the emails that you send to your customers. However, these customization options are very limited and basic.

For instance, you can only change the font and background colors, edit the email content, and add a logo. These minimal customization options make your emails look generic and unattractive.

Here’s what default WooCommerce emails will look like:

A WooCommerce email customizer gives you more options and flexibility to customize your email notifications.

You can upsell products, offer coupons, or even direct users to relevant posts on your WordPress blog. A plugin can also help you to customize the email notifications that are sent when a customer creates a new account, resets a password, and more.

Some tools even let you create automation workflows for your online store. For instance, you can automatically send pre-written emails when a customer buys a new product, subscribes to your newsletter, books an appointment, or abandons a cart.

That said, let’s look at some of the best WooCommerce email customizer plugins in the market.

1. Autonami

Autonami is the best WooCommerce email customizer plugin that’s very easy to use.

It comes with a drag-and-drop email builder with lots of customization options. You can add different elements by dragging them from the menu on your left and dropping it onto the template to customize your WooCommerce emails.

Plus, you get to further customize each element, like changing its color, font, alignment, and more. This gives you complete control over the appearance of your WooCommerce emails.

Autonami also offers a pre-built WooCommerce email library. You can create an email sequence for your eCommerce store with a single click.

Besides that, it also offers a visual email automation builder, where you get to customize your workflows. This makes it effortless to set up automated emails, as you can choose which emails to show based on the user’s action and when to show them.

Autonami is a sister product to WooFunnels, which is a powerful sale funnel builder for WooCommerce. You can set up a complete sales funnel and use pre-built templates for custom checkout pages, upsells, discount offers, and more.

Pricing: To use Autonami, you’ll need to purchase the Funnel Builder + Autonami plan, which will cost you $249 per year. That said, there is also a free version of Autonami with limited features that you can get started with.

2. Email Customizer for WooCommerce

Email Customizer for WooCommerce by ThemeHigh is a WordPress plugin that offers a beginner-friendly email builder.

You can drag and drop different elements into your transactional emails. For instance, you can add text, images, social icons, buttons, GIFs, billing information, shipping details, and more.

When customizing the emails, the builder shows a live preview of your changes. This way, you can see what your emails will look like on the customer’s screen.

The plugin also offers 11 pre-built custom email templates, so you can quickly select any email type and customize it according to your needs.

It also offers WPML compatibility, allowing you to create emails in multiple languages. You can also integrate it with other plugins like WooCommerce Order Status Manager and YITH WooCommerce Gift Cards.

On the downside, you don’t get any automation features like Autonami offers. The plugin doesn’t offer a workflow builder or an option to set up automated email series.

Pricing: Email Customizer for WooCommerce pricing starts from $39 per year. There is also a free version of Email Customizer for WooCommerce available.

3. YayMail

YayMail is another popular WooCommerce email customizer plugin. You can easily design and edit your emails in its drag-and-drop builder. Its interface is easy to use and is similar to Elementor or the WordPress block editor.

The plugin comes with different widgets and dynamic blocks that you can use to add elements to the WooCommerce transactional email template. The visual builder also gives a real-time preview of your changes.

Besides that, the premium version of YayMail offers features like shipment tracking, custom order status, checkout field editor, and more. You also get powerful add-ons and WooCommerce extension support with YayMail Pro.

Pricing: YayMail is a premium email customizer plugin for WooCommerce, with prices starting from $59 per year for a single WordPress site.

4. Flycart Email Customizer Plus for WooCommerce

Flycart Email Customizer Plus for WooCommerce is a premium WooCommerce plugin that you can use to create custom transactional emails.

Its drag-and-drop builder allows you to change the layout and customize your emails the way you want. You can add a logo, edit email content, add social icons, and more.

There’s no need to manually edit HTML, CSS, or PHP code to change the look and feel of your emails. The plugin offers basic elements and WooCommerce elements that you can add to the template.

The plugin comes with pre-built templates, so you don’t have to start from scratch. There is also an option to send test emails and make sure they are delivered to your customers.

Pricing: Flycart Email Customizer Plus for WooCommerce prices start from $49 per year for a single site. You also get a 14-day money-back guarantee with each plan.

5. Decorator

Decorator is a WooCommerce plugin that lets you customize your emails using the WordPress theme customizer.

The plugin offers different options to edit the look and style of your emails. For instance, you can edit the email content, heading, color, email header and footer, add a logo, enter social media links to your Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn pages, and more.

The Decorator plugin also lets you add shortcodes and placeholders to show additional information in the emails, like customer name, order details, company name, order date, and more.

While the theme customizer offers a real-time preview of your changes, it doesn’t provide the flexibility of a drag-and-drop builder like you’d get in Autonami and other plugins on our list. There are also no pre-built WooCommerce email templates you can use to get started quickly.

Pricing: Decorator is a free plugin that you can use on your WooCommerce store.

6. Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer

Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer is a free plugin that also uses the WordPress customizer to create custom emails for your online store.

The plugin shows a live preview of your WooCommerce emails in the theme customizer and offers different options for customization. For example, you can easily customize headings, subtitles, and body text using the plugin.

However, Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer lets you import pre-built email templates, which isn’t possible in the Decorator plugin. On the downside, you don’t get the flexibility or customization options that other drag-and-drop email builders provide, like Autonami.

Pricing: You can use Kadence WooCommerce Email Designer for free.

Bonus: WP Mail SMTP

WP Mail SMTP is the best WordPress SMTP plugin in the market. It ensures that your WordPress emails are delivered to your customer’s email inbox and don’t end up in spam.

Many WordPress hosting companies don’t support the default method WordPress uses for sending emails from your site. As a result, you’ll notice that many emails simply vanish and never reach your customers. WP Mail SMTP solves the issue of WooCommerce not sending emails and improves deliverability.

The best part is that WP Mail SMTP easily integrates with WooFunnels and offers multiple mailers, including Gmail, Outlook, Sendinblue, Amazon SES, and more.

For more details, you can see our detailed guide on how to set up WP Mail SMTP with any host.

Pricing: WP Mail SMTP prices start from $49 per year. There is also WP Mail SMTP free version you can use for your site.

Which is the Best WooCommerce Email Customizer?

If you’re looking for a complete tool that offers WooCommerce email customization and automation, then we highly recommend using Autonami.

The plugin is super easy to use and offers a drag-and-drop email builder along with different email templates. You can create stunning WooCommerce emails in just a few clicks and don’t need coding knowledge.

Autonami also lets you set up automated email workflows for your WooCommerce site. It helps save time, as you can automatically send an email series to new customers, recover abandoned carts, send promotional emails to selected audiences, and more.

You can even combine Autonami with an SMTP service like WP Mail SMTP. Doing so will ensure that your emails are delivered to your customers and won’t get lost or end up in the spam folder.

We hope that this article helped you learn about the best WooCommerce email customizer plugins. You may also want to see our guide on the best free business name generators and how to move WordPress from HTTP to HTTPS.

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 6 Best WooCommerce Email Customizer Plugins (Free + Paid) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking for the best WordPress training courses for beginners?

WordPress is incredibly easy to use, but training courses can help you get started much faster. Learning anything new can be scary, but these WordPress resources make it as easy as possible.

In this article, we’ll share the best WordPress training courses for beginners (both free and paid).

Who Needs WordPress Training Courses?

Anyone who wants to make a WordPress website can benefit from WordPress training courses.

WordPress is quite easy to learn, and most beginners can get started without taking any special training course.

However, we know that learning a whole new platform can be intimidating. We want to help lower the learning curve, so you can become an expert at using the world’s best website builder without becoming discouraged.

Taking a WordPress training course can help you quickly familiarize yourself with the platform, learn the basics, and get comfortable troubleshooting without struggling all by yourself.

That being said, let’s look at some of the best WordPress training courses that you can take.

Best WordPress Training Courses

This list includes both free and paid WordPress training courses. All of them are suitable for absolute beginners.

Some of them will help you familiarize yourself with WordPress basics, and how to use it to make modern websites.

Then there are WordPress development courses, which will show you how to write code and build products for WordPress.

You are free to choose your path, or you can go from top to bottom to get expert-level training in WordPress.

Here are the top WordPress training courses for beginners.

1. WPBeginner Videos

WPBeginner Videos is a collection of free WordPress video tutorials for beginners that shows you how to get started with WordPress within hours.

This WordPress video training course consists of 34 lessons or modules. Starting with the introduction, it gradually walks you through different sections.

You’ll learn how to create and manage content, add images, videos, and new users, use the block editor, create menus, install themes and plugins, and more.

Designed with absolute beginners in mind, this video series will provide you with a solid foundation to build your website.

Price: Free

2. WPBeginner on YouTube

WPBeginner on YouTube is the best WordPress YouTube channel, with over 277,000+ subscribers, 37.8 Million views, and 889+ free videos.

It is the companion channel for the WPBeginner website, managed and run by our team.

We regularly upload new videos with useful how-to tutorials aimed at beginner-level users. These videos are short, sweet, and easy to follow.

You will also get a link to the text version of the tutorial, and you can even ask questions in the comments for the support team to answer.

Joining our YouTube channel will help you stay up to date, brush up on your WordPress skills, and discover new tools and plugins for your website.

If you need guided instructions, we recommend switching to the Playlists tab, where you’ll find our videos organized in different topics. For absolute beginners, the best starting point would be our New User playlist.

Price: Free

3. WPBeginner Blog

WPBeginner is the #1 WordPress resource site for beginners with over 2000+ free WordPress tutorials and guides. We have been publishing WordPress tutorials since 2009.

For new users, you can check out our Start Here guide, which shows you how to get started with WordPress using WPBeginner’s free tutorials.

Need more specific tutorials? Try one of these entry points. All of them have been written specifically for absolute newcomers to WordPress.

How to make a WordPress websiteHow to start a blogHow to create an online storeHow to learn WordPress for free in a weekHow to find the best WordPress themeBest WordPress plugins to install on your new website

Once you have made your website, you’ll be faced with new WordPress challenges.

Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered for those as well:

The complete WordPress SEO guide for beginnersImprove WordPress performance and speedImprove WordPress security Fix common WordPress errors

Have a WordPress question? There is a good chance we may have already answered that.

Simply click on the search icon at the top right corner and type your question.

Can’t find an answer? Drop us a message using the contact form or post it on our WPBeginner Engage Facebook group. We’ll try to answer your question as quickly as possible.

Price: Free

4. OptinMonster University

OptinMonster University offers a free digital marketing training course for WordPress users and online business owners.

This course includes practical lessons that will teach you how to start with digital marketing, email marketing, converting website visitors into paying customers, and more.

This marketing course comes with practical examples, downloadable checklists, worksheets, and a complete library of ebooks and guides.

Email is one of the highest converting marketing tools out there, so new WordPress should begin learning how to build an email list as early as possible.

Price: Free to all OptinMonster subscribers

5. WP101

WP101 is a popular WordPress-focused training platform. They offer 175+ WordPress training videos and multiple WordPress courses on various topics.

All their videos are well-scripted, free of technical jargon, and professionally produced. They have content for basic-to-intermediate WordPress, as well as advanced-level topics so you can be sure to keep learning for a long time.

The training platform also gives you access to their community forums and a free WordPress sandbox website where you can practice your WordPress skills and try new things.

Price: $19 per month ($79 for a lifetime membership)

6. LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning (formerly Lynda) is an online learning platform and marketplace where industry experts and professionals offer online courses.

Now, LinkedIn Learning is not a WordPress-specific platform but it comes with dozens of WordPress courses that you can join.

Courses are created by WordPress experts and cover a wide range of WordPress-related topics from plugins and themes to PHP and JavaScript.

As a bonus, whenever you complete a course on LinkedIn Learning, you can showcase it on your profile so that your connections and potential employers can see just how much you’re learning and how dedicated you are.

Price: $26.99 per month (paid annually)

7. Udemy

Udemy is one of the most popular online learning platforms where course creators from all industries share their knowledge.

It currently has dozens of WordPress training courses offered by individual course creators and WordPress experts.

Courses range from content aimed at brand-new users and advance to expert-level coursework. You can choose which courses will be best for you so that you can cover a wide range of topics.

For example, you can start with WordPress basics and learn the platform, and then gradually take other courses on more advanced topics such as theme development or security.

Udemy also offers regular discounts on courses across the site, so you can often get very expensive courses for a fraction of the retail price.

Price: Varies on a course-by-course basis

We hope this article helped you find the best WordPress training courses for beginners. Need some inspiration? See the types of websites you can make with WordPress or explore the multiple options that you can use to make money online from your WordPress 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.

The post 7 Best WordPress Training Courses for Beginners first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking for the best monthly web hosting plans?

Most popular web hosting companies offer big discounts on annual, bi-annual, and multiple-year payment terms.

These discounts may be promoted as low monthly payments, but when you go to the checkout page, you’ll pay a hefty amount up front to buy the web hosting.

In this article, we will share some of the best monthly web hosting plans that let you truly sign up for a month-to-month hosting service.

Why Choose a Monthly Web Hosting Plan?

Many web hosting companies only offer discounts if you buy hosting for a full year or multiple years. That makes it can cost hundreds of dollars just to get started.

Plus, if you don’t like the web hosting service, you may not be able to get a full refund, and you will lose your initial investment.

A true monthly web hosting plan will be cheaper to get started. With a month-to-month hosting plan, you won’t commit to a hosting provider long-term, and it’s easier to move to another web hosting company.

This allows you to choose the best hosting provider with the features you need to host your WordPress website.

And more importantly, you will only pay a low monthly cost for the web hosting service you use.

Without further delay, let’s look at some of the best monthly web hosting plans for small businesses.

1. Dreamhost – $4.95/mo.

DreamHost is one of the most well-known web hosting companies, and they’re an official WordPress-recommended hosting provider. They offer the cheapest month-to-month web hosting plan on the market.

They provide a custom control panel to add your domain name, manage emails, and access web hosting features.

Moreover, DreamHost comes with automated website backups. These daily backups ensure the complete safety of your content.

When it comes to DreamHost’s monthly pricing, their WordPress Starter or Shared plan costs $4.95/month with a free SSL certificate, free website migration, and more. You will have to pay for the domain name separately which is fair.

But if you’re willing to commit for the year, then WPBeginner users can get up to a 72% discount on their Shared plan with a free domain name, free website builder, SSD storage, and more.

Our DreamHost coupon code is applicable on the 1-year and 3-year payment plans.

DreamHost has other web hosting solutions, including VPS hosting, managed WordPress hosting, dedicated server hosting, WooCommerce hosting, and cloud hosting.

Don’t miss our complete DreamHost review for more details on their shared hosting options and pricing plans.

2. Bluehost – $2.75/mo.

Bluehost is one of the most popular web hosting providers and an officially recommended WordPress hosting partner.

Though they don’t offer a month-to-month web hosting plan, the initial cost is so low that we couldn’t resist adding them to this list.

And you’ll save triple your investment with a free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a BIG discount on your web hosting package.

So if you’re just starting out, we recommend Bluehost as the best web hosting for beginners, startups, and small businesses.

The initial cost for your web hosting plan will be as low as $33 for the first year.

This also includes your free domain name, free SSL certificate, and a cPanel for a one-click WordPress installation.

However, on the renewal, you’ll need to pay the full cost for your web hosting plan and domain name. But by then, you’ll be able to grow your business to afford the price.

And if you still want to switch, you can easily move your WordPress site to a new web hosting company for a month-to-month hosting plan. Some web hosting providers also offer free migration services, so you’re safe anyway.

On a side note, we thoroughly tested Bluehost for its features, speed, and uptime. And we recommend it to everyone, all the time.

Most of our WPBeginner users start their websites with Bluehost web hosting and grow their businesses to the next level.

3. Hostinger – $9.99/mo.

Hostinger is one of the leading web hosting companies on the global market. It offers WordPress website hosting, shared hosting, and cloud hosting plans.

The month-to-month shared hosting plan from Hostinger starts at $9.99 for a single website.

If you’re looking for a web hosting plan for multiple sites, then we recommend their WordPress Starter plan. It comes with a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and free unlimited email accounts.

The Hostinger WordPress Starter plan costs $14.99/month.

You can use WPBeginner’s exclusive Hostinger coupon code to get a discount on your monthly web hosting plan. The Hostinger promo code offers more discounts on longer commitments.

For example, if you choose to pay for up to 48 months, the cost for the WordPress basic hosting plan reduces to $1.99/month.

And WPBeginner users get an additional discount that makes it $1.79/month.

In short, you’ll pay $85.92 at once to get WordPress hosting for four years.

Their shared hosting plans costs similar to WordPress hosting. However, you’ll need to pay an additional setup fee.

Hostinger also offers Virtual Private Server hosting (VPS hosting) plans, Minecraft server hosting, and other solutions. We ran several tests on Hostinger, and here’s our complete Hostinger review that may interest you.

4. SiteGround – $19.99/mo.

SiteGround is one of the best WordPress hosting provider. Their web hosting is optimized for speed and security. We use SiteGround to host the WPBeginner website.

Among top features, SiteGround offers automatic WordPress updates, free CDN network to improve page load time, custom web application firewall to protect your web server against malware and DDoS attacks, and more.

Their customer support team is available 24/7 to help you with any of your concerns, which you may rarely have with SiteGround web hosting.

SiteGround has data centers all over the world since they use the Google Cloud network. It’s the reason they can provide a 99.9% uptime guarantee on their web hosting platform. Over the years of using their platform, we have never had downtime for WPBeginner site.

The SiteGround’s StartUp plan costs $19.99/month.

It’s an expensive monthly web hosting plan compared to other hosting providers on the list, but it also includes functionality like free site migration, free SSL certificate, eCommerce support, basic WordPress site management, out of the box caching addons, and more.

And WPBeginner’s exclusive SiteGround coupon code lets you buy their WordPress hosting plan with an 80% discount.

This reduces the cost to up to $2.99/month for the StartUp plan.

SiteGround’s discount deal is only valid when you choose to pay for up to 12 months upfront. So you’ll pay $35.88 for 12 months and get access to all their WordPress hosting features. The best part is that they also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Aside from WordPress, SiteGround also has cheap web hosting for other content management systems like Drupal, Joomla, Magento, and basically any other Linux based app.

We have done a detailed SiteGround review which shared performance tests from various locations along with coverage of their additional services like Site Scanner.

5. WP Engine – $27 / mo.

WP Engine is the most popular managed WordPress hosting company in the market. They are typically the go-to choice for large websites, enterprise customers, as well as small businesses and developers who want a fully managed web hosting platform with speed, security, and support.

WP Engine offers monthly cloud hosting plans starting at $27 per month on a month-to-month billing which gives you access to 10GB of disk space, 50GB of bandwidth, 10 premium themes from StudioPress, free automated migration, automated website backups, and more.

All their plans come with advanced developer tools like one-click staging, dev & prod site environments, threat blocking & security, built-in CDN for turbo website speed, transferable sites for easy client handoff, activity log, and more.

WP Engine also offers managed hosting solutions for WooCommerce online stores starting at $56 per month as well as enterprise cloud hosting starting at $600 per month.

But if you use the WPBeginner’s WP Engine coupon code and pre-pay for annual plans, then you will get 3 months free.

WP Engine also offers additional services like automated plugin updates, extra SOC2 level security with managed WAF, site monitoring, and more which can be purchased separately.

We did a detailed performance test of their platform in our WP Engine review that we highly recommend you checking out.

BONUS: Other Popular Month-to-Month Web Hosting Options

6. HostGator: One of the most popular web hosting providers, HostGator offers unmetered bandwidth, a 99.9% uptime guarantee, and more. Their shared hosting plan costs $12.75 per month (including tax).

7. GreenGeeks: The eco-friendly WordPress hosting offered by GreenGeeks comes with multiple types of hosting, including reseller hosting, dedicated hosting for websites, and more. It has built-in caching for fast performance, and the price starts at $10.95 per month. You also need to pay a setup fee of $15 for the first time.

Which Month-To-Month Web Hosting Plan Should I Buy?

If you’re looking for true monthly web hosting with no long-term commitment, then DreamHost has the best monthly web hosting packages.

DreamHost’s top features include free website migration, free SSL, security, and a 97-day money-back guarantee.

With that said, when you’re starting a website, you want to get the best web hosting deal because it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be switching hosting providers every month.

Most people that choose a reliable hosting provider rarely ever switch. In the 13 years of running WPBeginner website, we have switched hosting provider only once and that was after 10 years when we outgrew our previous provider.

So in that case, what’s more important is that you choose a provider that’s giving you the best deal with one year commitment.

We recommend either Bluehost, SiteGround, or Dreamhost for those just starting out.

Bluehost doesn’t offer a monthly web hosting plan but their 12-month plan ($33/for the first year) is one of the cheapest web hosting options on the market, and you get a free domain name worth $12.99.

On the other hand, SiteGround’s StartUp plan on a 12-months upfront payment ($35.88/for the first year) is close to Bluehost’s pricing for the basic plan.

However, SiteGround doesn’t offer a free domain, but their servers are blazing fast since it’s hosted on Google Cloud, and you get tons of advanced performance and security features which is why we use SiteGround for WPBeginner website.

If you’re looking for more managed web hosting provider with enterprise support, then WP Engine is going to be your best bet since they offer monthly web hosting plans for cloud hosting.

Note: At WPBeginner, we regularly look into dozens of web hosting companies that are not listed in this article like A2 hosting, GoDaddy, InMotion Hosting, Cloudways, Namecheap, LiquidWeb (Nexcess), and others. We decided not to list them all in this article because we don’t want to cause choice paralysis. If you choose a host from our recommended list, you won’t go wrong.

We hope this article has helped you find the best monthly web hosting plan. You may also want to check out our guides on the best email marketing services for small businesses, and our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to improve your website rankings.

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 5 Best Monthly Web Hosting Plans (Starts at $4.95/mo.) first appeared on WPBeginner.

Are you looking for a social media cheat sheet that you can follow to quickly set up social media profiles the right way?

If you are serious about your website or blog, then you simply can’t ignore social media. The problem is that each of these platforms has different requirements for cover photos, profile images, article covers, etc. This makes it quite overwhelming for new users to get started.

In this article, we will share our ultimate social media cheat sheet for WordPress.

Why Do You Need a Social Media Cheat Sheet for WordPress?

If you have been running social media profiles for your WordPress blog or website, then you would notice that each platform has different requirements.

For example, Facebook has specific requirements for image sizes while Pinterest needs totally different proportions.

It can be difficult to remember all that information when creating social media images for your articles or profile.

A cheat sheet helps you quickly look up all these options. It will also ensure that you don’t miss anything important when creating a social media profile or publishing a new article on your WordPress website.

That being said, let’s get started with our ultimate social media cheat sheet for WordPress users.

Here is a quick overview of the things we will cover in this article:

Choose your social media platformsSocial media image sizes checklistSetting up social media optimization in WordPressSocial media settings for WordPress posts and pagesAdding social sharing buttons to your websiteSetting up automated social sharing in WordPress

Choose Your Social Media Platforms

There are so many social media websites, but not all of them are helpful in growing your business or bringing traffic to your website.

Apart from bigger sites like Facebook and Twitter, you can choose platforms that work best with your website’s target audience and niche.

For example, if you run a fashion blog, then you may want to use Instagram to promote your content.

A food and recipe blog may want to focus on YouTube and Yummly.

Home decor or DIY websites may find Pinterest helpful in finding the right audience.

Choosing the right platforms for your target audience will help you create an effective social media marketing strategy to grow your business.

Social Media Image Sizes Checklist

To promote your blog or business on social media, you will need to setup profiles, upload your website logo and a cover photo, and create images to accompany your articles and links.

You can see our article on how to easily create images for your WordPress blog to learn how to make beautiful images without hiring a graphic designer.

Now the problem is that each social media platform has specific requirements for these images. Not using the right size would make your images look skewed or stretched.

Here is our quick cheat sheet for social media image sizes that you can use when creating images for your social accounts.

Facebook image sizesTwitter image sizesInstagram image sizesYouTube image sizesPinterest image sizesLinkedIn image sizes

Facebook Image Sizes

Facebook has specific recommendations for images to be used in different areas.

Cover image: 820 x 312 pixels on computers and 640 x 360 pixels for smartphones. Cover images should be less than 100 KB in filesize. It could be in JPEG or PNG file format. You can create a larger image while maintaining the same aspect ratio, and Facebook will automatically create smaller sizes to display on mobile devices.

Profile image: An square image of at least 170 x 170 pixels on computers and 128 x 128 pixels on smartphones. For business pages, this is where you would ideally display your custom logo. This image will be cropped to display as a circle.

Shared Image: 1200 x 630 pixels. This image will be displayed on your page with a maximum width of 470 pixels and in the feed maximum width of 600 pixels.

Group cover image: 1640 x 856 pixels.

Twitter Image Sizes

Twitter is the internet’s conversation hub. Following are the recommended image sizes for Twitter to make your profile more engaging and professional.

Header image: 1500 x 500 pixels. This full-width image appears as the cover image of your Twitter profile page.

Profile image: 400 x 400 pixels. This square image is cropped to be displayed in a circular format. Twitter allows you to upload JPG, PNG, and GIF formats with a maximum file size of 2MB.

In-stream image: 1200 x 675 pixels. This image is displayed when you share an article, retweet, embed a tweet, upload images, and more. If you are already using Twitter Cards then Twitter will be able to pick the correct image to display with your article description and title.

Instagram Image Sizes

Instagram’s main content is already in a visual format. If you are uploading photos directly from your phone using the Instagram app, then it will automatically take care of appropriate image sizes for you.

For other uploads, you can follow these Instagram image size recommendations for the best results.

Profile image: 320 x 320 pixels. You can use larger image dimensions as long as it is a square image.

Image thumbnail: 161 x 161 pixels. This image is displayed as your thumbnails for your photos.

Shared photos: 1080 x 1080 pixels. You can use a higher resolution image as long as it is a square image.

Shared videos: 1080 pixels wide.

Instagram Stories: 1080 x 1920 pixels or minimum 600 x 1067 pixels. File size cannot exceed more than 4 GB which is quite a lot for a high-quality video.

YouTube Image Sizes

YouTube is not only the second most popular social media platform but also the second most popular search engine. Your YouTube channel image, cover image, and video thumbnails are crucial in getting more views for your videos.

YouTube Channel cover image: 2048 x 1152 pixels. You need to make sure that the image is horizontally centered so that it looks good on mobile devices where YouTube may crop the image to fit the user’s screen size.

Channel icon: 800 x 800 pixels. This image is displayed as your channel icon and may sometimes be cropped as a circular image.

Video thumbnail: 1280 x 720 pixels. Ask any YouTube creator and they will tell you that the video thumbnail is the most important part of video optimization on YouTube. This is what YouTube users will see on their homepage, in search, and in other areas. A highly optimized video thumbnail helps you get more views and grow your channel.

Pinterest Image Sizes

Pinterest is a visual social sharing platform, which means images play the most significant role in growing your Pinterest following.

Profile image: 165 x 165 pixels. You can upload a higher resolution image with a maximum file size of 10 MB.

Profile cover: 800 x 450 pixels. Select a board to feature as your profile’s cover. Pinterest will automatically fetch pins from that board to create your profile cover.

Board cover image: 222 x 150 pixels. Pinterest allows you to choose the cover image from the pins you have saved for that board.

Pinned image preview: 236 pixels wide. Pinterest automatically scales your pins to fit their grid. For best results, you need to upload the images with an aspect ratio of 2:3 to 1:3.5.

LinkedIn Image Sizes

LinkedIn can be a great source of traffic, connections, and building a brand image. It is a social networking platform for professionals and businesses, which makes it a powerful tool to help you grow your business.

Personal profile image: 400 x 400 pixels with a maximum image file size of 10 MB.

Banner image for personal profile: 1584 x 396 pixels with a maximum file size of 4 MB.

Company cover image: 1128 x 191 pixels.

Shared image: 1200 x 627 pixels.

Company profile / logo image: 300 x 300 pixels or higher resolution image with 1:1 aspect ratio.

Setting up Social Media Optimization in WordPress

Now that you have learned about proper social media image sizes, the next step is to make sure that your WordPress site is optimized for social media.

The most important aspect of this optimization is to set up automatic inclusion of Open Graph metadata. Open Graph metadata is a technology that allows you to include additional information to your web pages that social media and search engines need.

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

AIOSEO is the best WordPress SEO plugin that helps you get more traffic from search engines. It is also a complete website optimization tool including support for social media platforms as well.

Upon activation, you need to visit All in One SEO » Social Networks page. From here, you need to first add your social media profile URLs under the ‘Social Profiles’ tab.

You don’t need to add all URLs, you can simply skip the social media websites where you don’t have a profile.

Next, you need to switch to the Facebook tab. From here you can see that AIOSEO enables Open Graph metadata by default.

Below that you need to provide a default post Facebook image for your website’s front page. The image you provide here will be displayed when someone shares your website’s front page or root URL on Facebook.

Next, switch to the Twitter tab. Here you can choose the default card display for your website.

A ‘summary with large image’ option will display your Twitter share image with a summary of your article.

You can now switch to the Pinterest tab. From here you can add the Pinterest confirmation tag to your website.

You can click on the link on the screen to claim your website and get the confirmation code. For more details, you can see our guide on how to verify your WordPress site on Pinterest.

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

Social Media Settings for WordPress Posts and Pages

Just like the SEO settings for posts and pages, you can also optimize them for social media websites.

AIOSEO plugin allows you to easily set social options for your individual posts and pages.

Simply edit the blog post or page you want to optimize, and then scroll down to ‘AIOSEO Settings’ section below the editor.

Switch to the ‘Social’ tab and you can upload a custom title and description as well as an image for Facebook and Twitter shares. You can also see a preview of what your post will look like when shared on social media.

After that, you can click on ‘Publish’ or ‘Update’ to save your post or page.

Adding Social Sharing Buttons to Your Website

The easiest way to promote your website on social media is by encouraging your users to share your content. This can be achieved by adding social sharing buttons to your blog posts and pages.

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

Shared Counts is the best social media plugin for WordPress. It allows you to easily add social sharing buttons to your WordPress blog posts.

Upon activation, simply head over to Settings » Shared Counts page to configure plugin options.

From here you need to scroll down to the ‘Display’ section and select the social media websites you want to display in the ‘Share Buttons to Display’ field.

After that, you can choose a button style and location where you want to display the buttons.

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

You can now visit any post on your website to see social sharing buttons in action.

For more detailed instructions, see our guide on how to add social share buttons in WordPress.

Setting up Automated Social Sharing in WordPress

Social media platforms are great for building a following and bringing more traffic to your website. However, it can become quite time-consuming to share content across different platforms and engage with your audience.

Luckily, there are several online tools that you can use to automate the process.

Uncanny Automator is the best WordPress automation plugin that lets you connect your social media profiles with WordPress. Using the plugin, you can automatically share new blog posts on Facebook, Tweet them on Twitter, and share them on Instagram. Smash Balloon is the best social media feeds plugin for WordPress, and it allows you to create custom feeds on your WordPress site. You can easily embed posts from Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube on your site to boost engagement, increase social followers, and build trust with users. Revive Old Posts allows you to automatically re-share old blog posts to your social media profiles at regular intervals. Learn more in our tutorial on how to automatically share your old WordPress posts.Buffer is a platform that lets you set up a queue of social media updates and publish them on your preferred schedule.MonsterInsights helps you easily track social media traffic using Google Analytics. This helps you learn how your posts are performing on social media websites. For details, see this guide on how to track social media traffic with Google Analytics.

We hope this social media cheat sheet for WordPress helped you improve your social media marketing strategy. You may also want to see our list of best email marketing services and how to start your own podcast.

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 The Complete Social Media Cheat Sheet for WordPress (Updated) first appeared on WPBeginner.