How to Add Your Social Media Feeds to WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to add your social media feeds to a WordPress website?

Showing Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram feeds on WordPress can get you more followers and engagement on social media. It’s also a great way to keep your website fresh and interesting.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to add custom social media feeds to WordPress and even create a social wall that brings all your social content together in one place.

Why Add Social Media Feeds to Your WordPress Site?

Billions of people use social media every day to connect with family, friends, and even brands. According to our marketing statistics research, people spend around 2 hours and 29 minutes on social media every day. That’s plenty of time to promote your content to existing followers and connect with new people.

If you have one or more social media accounts, then you’re already off to a good start. However, it’s also smart to add these social feeds to your WordPress website.

By embedding social media posts in WordPress, you can promote your different accounts to the people who visit your website. This can get you more likes, shares, and engagement.

If visitors like what they see, they might even decide to start following you on different social networks.

Once you’ve embedded a social feed, new posts will appear on your website automatically. This can be a great way to keep your website fresh and interesting, even for regular visitors.

If you run an online store, then a social media feed can even help you get more sales. In fact, 43% of people use social media to make purchasing decisions.

With the right plugin, you can display your Facebook page reviews in WordPress, or add shoppable Instagram images to your website.

With that being said, let’s see how you can add different social media feeds to WordPress.

How to Add Social Media Feeds to WordPress

The best way to add social media feeds to your WordPress blog is by using Smash Balloon.

It’s the best social media feed plugin for WordPress and it’s trusted by over 1.5 million users. With this plugin, you don’t have to spend time dealing with jQuery code, APIs, or trying to arrange your social posts in a nice layout. Everything just works.

Smash Balloon has separate plugins for all the major social networks including YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. It even allows you to combine multiple social networks and show all of your posts in a single feed.

With that being said, let’s see how you can add different social feeds to your WordPress website. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the social network that you want to add.

Adding a Facebook Social Media Feed in WordPress

Facebook is the most popular social media platform in the world, with 2.9 billion monthly active users. No matter whether you have a small business website, a personal blog, a WordPress membership website, or something else, it’s very likely that your target audience are familiar with Facebook.

When you add a Facebook feed to WordPress, new posts will appear on your website in real-time. Visitors can also like, share, and comment on your WordPress posts, so this is a great way to get more engagement on Facebook.

The Smash Balloon Custom Facebook Feed plugin allows you to embed Facebook videos in WordPress, show photos and videos, and more.

You can even create a custom lightbox popup so visitors can see your full-sized images and watch your Facebook videos, without having to leave your WordPress website.

If you host regular in-person or online events, then it’s a good idea to create them as Facebook events on your page or group. Visitors can then mark themselves as interested or going to the event, invite other people, and share the event on their own Facebook page.

Once you’ve added these events to Facebook, you can easily promote them to the people who visit your website. Simply create a feed of your upcoming Facebook events and then add it to your WordPress website.

To learn more, please see our guide on how to add a Facebook event calendar in WordPress.

No matter what kind of Facebook feed you create, you can fine-tune how that feed looks and acts using the intuitive Smash Balloon editor.

Here, you can change the feed’s color scheme, design a custom header, add ‘like’ and ‘load more’ buttons, and much more.

For detailed step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to create a custom Facebook feed in WordPress.

Adding an Instagram Social Media Feed in WordPress

With more than 2 billion monthly active users, Instagram is a great place to promote your website, products, and services.

Depending on your industry, Instagram may even be the most important part of your social media strategy. For example, Instagram is particularly popular among top fashion blogs, lifestyle, cooking, and photography websites.

If you’re posting beautiful photos and engaging videos to Instagram, then it makes sense to post that content to WordPress too.

By adding your Instagram social feed to WordPress, you can offer visitors a highly engaging and visual experience directly on your website. This can increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.

You can add images in WordPress manually, but you’ll need to keep adding new photos as you post them to Instagram. This can take a lot of time and effort.

Since there’s no link between your WordPress website and your Instagram account, visitors can’t easily like or share these photos on Instagram. As a result, you may miss out on lots of social media engagement.

The easiest way to add an Instagram feed to WordPress is by using the Smash Balloon Instagram Feed plugin. This plugin allows you to embed a beautiful and professionally-designed Instagram feed on your website.

The feed updates automatically every time you post to Instagram, so visitors always see the latest photos.

You can even show other people’s photos on your site by creating a hashtag feed or displaying the posts that other people have tagged your account in. This can be a powerful form of social proof that encourages people to trust your website or business.

In the following image you can see an example of an online store that uses a custom Instagram feed to show user-generated content.

In this way, you can use a custom Instagram feed to create customer trust and make more money online.

For detailed step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to create a custom Instagram feed in WordPress.

Adding a Twitter Social Media Feed in WordPress

WordPress lets you manually embed tweets in WordPress blog posts and pages using the built-in Twitter block.

However, this block only lets you embed a single tweet at a time. This is a quick and easy method if you just want to show a small number of tweets. However, if you want to embed multiple tweets then we recommend using Smash Balloon Twitter Feed.

This plugin allows you to create a Twitter feed that updates automatically as you post new tweets. You can then add this feed to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

Smash Balloon Twitter Feed also lets you create hashtag feeds.

This is useful for adding context and third-party content to your blog posts. For example, if you’re starting a fashion blog then you might create feeds for popular fashion-related hashtags such as #lookbook or #OOTD.

You can even use Smash Balloon to show the Twitter feed from a third-party account. This is perfect if you have a relationship with an influencer or affiliate marketer, and want to show their tweets on your website.

For more instructions on adding a Twitter feed to WordPress, see our guide on how to embed tweets in WordPress.

Adding a YouTube Social Media Feed in WordPress

Blog posts with videos get 83% more traffic than those without videos. With that in mind, we recommend adding your YouTube videos to WordPress, too.

If you run an online store using a plugin such as WooCommerce, then videos can even get you more sales. In fact, 88% of people have bought a product or service after watching a video.

If you’ve created any YouTube videos showing your products or services, then adding them to your website could boost your profits.

If you only want to add a small number of videos to your site, then it’s easy to embed YouTube videos in WordPress blog posts. However, if you want to show more than one video, then it’s difficult to create a nice gallery layout using the built-in blocks and tools alone.

That’s why we recommend embedding your YouTube channel feed using Feeds for YouTube by Smash Balloon.

For step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to show the latest videos from your YouTube channel in WordPress.

After connecting WordPress to your YouTube channel, you can customize how the videos look with Smash Balloon’s user-friendly editor.

When you’re happy with how the feed looks, you can easily add it to any page, post, or widget-ready area using shortcode.

The Smash Balloon plugin also comes with a ready-made Feeds for YouTube block.

The free plugin has everything you need to create a YouTube video gallery in WordPress, but if you want more advanced features, then there’s also a premium Smash Balloon YouTube Feed plugin that you can use.

This plugin allows you to show videos from your favorites list, embed live streams, and more.

Adding a Combined Social Wall in WordPress

So far, you’ve seen how to add individual feeds from different social media platforms. However, many websites have multiple social media accounts, such as a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, and a Twitter profile.

If you create unique content for each platform, then you may want to combine all of that content into a single social media feed. This kind of social wall can convince visitors that you have a big presence on social media, and that you’re creating all kinds of interesting and varied content across the different platforms.

This single feed can get you followers and engagement across multiple platforms. It’s also a good choice if you have limited space, and don’t want to fill up your website with lots of separate social media feeds.

If you want to combine several social media accounts into a single feed, then we recommend the Smash Balloon Social Wall plugin.

It’s the best social stream plugin for WordPress and allows you to combine Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube social content into a single feed.

Already used the Smash Balloon plugins to create separate Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube feeds? Then you can add these feeds to your social wall with a few clicks.

Social Wall will then take your settings and automatically create a shortcode that you can add to any page, post, or widget-ready area. Simply publish your changes, and the social wall will appear on your website.

Note: To use this plugin, you’ll need to install and activate at least one of the Pro Smash Balloon plugins mentioned above. For example, if you wanted to show Facebook and Instagram content on your social wall, then you’ll need both the Social Post Feed and the Social Photo Feed plugins.

To get started, you’ll need to install and activate the Smash Balloon Social Wall plugin. For more information, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once the plugin is installed and activated, go to Social Feeds » Create a Social Wall.

Simply select each feed that you want to add to the social wall.

For example, you can combine posts from your Instagram and Facebook accounts.

On this screen you can also connect any extra social accounts that you want to use.

Simply click on a ‘Connect…’ button and then follow the onscreen instructions to connect the social media account.

After that, click on the ‘Customize’ tab.

Here, you can change the number of posts to show in the social wall, the feed layout, how often it updates, and more.

There are other settings you can use to change the wall’s color scheme, background color, button text, and more. Most of these settings are fairly self-explanatory, so it’s worth looking through them to see what changes you want to make.

When you’re finished, click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Configure Wall’ tab. Here, you’ll see a shortcode that allows you to add the social wall to any page, post, or widget-ready area.

For more information about working with shortcodes, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

After that, simply publish the page or post, or update the widget-ready area to make your social wall live.

We hope this article has helped you add social media feeds to WordPress. You may want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter, or our expert pick of the best live chat software for small businesses.

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

The post How to Add Your Social Media Feeds to WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Create a Web Directory in WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to create a web directory in WordPress?

Web directories allow you to make money from content that’s submitted by the people who visit your website.

In this article, we will show you how you can create a web directory in WordPress, and even how to accept payments for posting premium web listings.

Why Create a Web Directory in WordPress?

A web directory is like a catalog that lists businesses or individuals.

You can find information such as their location, business email address, and the services they offer.

Yellow Pages, Angi, and Yelp are all examples of popular web directories that help people find a place or service.

To help visitors find what they’re looking for, these popular directories often divide their content using topics, categories and tags, interests, and other characteristics, as you can see in the following image.

Web directories are a popular online business idea and a great way to make money online from user-generated content.

Often, you’ll find tutorials that show you how to create a directory using a web directory theme. However, this locks you into the theme forever. Instead, we recommend installing a web directory plugin that you can use with any WordPress theme you want.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at how to create a web directory in WordPress. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.

Method 1: Create a Directory Using Business Directory Plugin

This method is easiest and is recommended for most users. We will be using the Business Directory plugin. This WordPress directory plugin has everything you need to create a simple business directory.

There’s also a free version of Business Directory plugin available, but you will need to upgrade to access the more advanced features.

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

After activating the plugin, go to Directories » Settings. You will now see a popup asking your permission to create a new page.

The Business Directory plugin needs this page to work properly, so go ahead and click on ‘Create required pages for me.’

The plugin will now create a new paged called ‘Business Directory.’

By default, this page has all the controls visitors need to look through your different listings, and submit their own listings.

To start, it’s a good idea to check the plugin’s settings by going to Directory » Settings.

Here, you’ll find different sections:

ListingsEmailPaymentAppearance.

We recommend selecting each tab and then looking through the settings, to see whether you need to make any changes.

For example, in ‘Listings’ you can change how many listings the plugin shows on each page.

When you’re finished, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.

Business Directory has a standard form that it shows to visitors. You can customize that form by going to Directory » Directory Content.

In the left-hand menu, click on ‘Form Fields.’

This screen shows all the fields that make up the standard form.

To change where a field appears in your form, simply click on the little up and down arrows in the ‘Order’ column.

To remove a field, hover your mouse over it and then click on the ‘Delete’ link when it appears.

Finally, if you want to make some changes to a particular field then hover your mouse over it and then click on the ‘Edit’ link.

This opens a page where you can change the field label, mark the field as mandatory, add an optional description, and more.

When you’re finished, don’t forget to click on the ‘Update Field’ button to save your changes.

Next, it’s a good idea to create some categories that people can use when submitting their listings. These categories will also help visitors browse your directory and find what they’re looking for.

By default, this plugin has a single ‘General’ category, but you can add more by clicking on the ‘Categories’ tab. Then, go ahead and select ‘Add New Category.’

In the popup that appears, type in a name for the category.

You can also organize your categories into child-parent relationships, similar to child pages in WordPress. To turn a category into a subcategory, just open the ‘Parent Category’ dropdown and choose a parent.

To create the category, go ahead and click on ‘Add New Category.’

You can add more categories to your business directory, by repeating the same process described above.

Now, visitors can create a new listing by heading over to your Business Directory page and clicking on the ‘Add Listing’ button.

This takes them to a screen where they can type in all the information for the listing.

Then, they simply need to click on the ‘Complete Listing’ button at the bottom of the page to submit their listing.

Every time a visitors submits a listing in this way, you’ll need to manually approve it. To do this, head over to Directory » Directory Content in your WordPress dashboard.

You will now see a list of pending listings.

To take a closer look at a listing, simply hover your mouse over it and then click on the ‘Preview’ link when it appears.

This will open the listing in a new tab.

To make any changes to the listing, once again hover your mouse over the listing but this time click on ‘Edit.’

You can now make any changes you want. When you’re happy with how it looks, click on the ‘Publish’ button.

As a WordPress admin, you can also create listings in the dashboard. For example, you might want to create listings for your partners, so they don’t have to do the work themselves.

To create a listing, go to Directory » Directory Content and then click on ‘Add New Listing.’

This opens a screen where you can type in all the information.

When you’ve finished, click on ‘Publish’ to make the listing live.

Accepting Payments for Directory Listings

The Business Directory plugin allows you to accept payments for publishing a listing. By default, the plugin only supports the Authorize.net payment gateway, but you can add other gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Payfast, as part of their Pro version.

To set up Authorize.net, go to Directory » Settings, and then click on the ‘Payment’ tab.

You can then go ahead and select ‘Authorize.net.’ Here, click on the ‘Enable Authorize.net’ switch so that it turns active.

This adds some new settings where you can type in the login ID and transaction key for your Authorize.net account.

Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘General Settings’ tab.

If you’re not ready to start accepting payments yet, then make sure to enable ‘Put payment gateways in test mode?’

By default, the plugin accepts payments in dollars, but you can select a different currency using the ‘Currency’ dropdown.

You can also type in a different thank you message, which will be shown to users when they send you a payment.

When you’ve finished configuring the payment settings, don’t forget to click on ‘Save Changes’ to store your settings.

Before you can accept payments, you’ll also need to create at least one payment plan. To start, click on ‘Plans’ in the left-hand menu.

The plugin comes with a free plan and a default plan, which is $1.00 for 365 days.

To change either of the plans, simply hover over it and then click on the ‘Edit’ link.

This takes you to a screen where you can make all kinds of changes to the plan.

This includes changing the price, or even creating different prices for specific categories.

When you’re happy with the changes you’ve made, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save Changes’ button to make your plan live.

Method 2: Creating a WordPress Directory with Formidable Forms

The second method to create a business directory is by using Formidable Forms.

It is the most advanced WordPress form builder plugin in the market and helps you to create lots of different forms including surveys, payment forms, booking forms, and more.

Formidable Forms also comes with a powerful ‘Visual Views’ feature that you can use to display user-submitted data on your website. Using this feature, you can easily create directories, real estate listings, job boards, event calendars, and more.

With that in mind, let’s create a business directory using the Formidable Forms plugin.

1. Create a Form to Collect Data for Your Directory

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Formidable Forms plugin. For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll need to install Formidable Forms Lite. This free plugin provides the core foundation for the premium plugin’s more advanced features.

Once you’ve done that, go to the Formidable Forms » Global Settings page and select ‘Click to enter a license key manually.’

You can find the license key under your account on the Formidable Forms website.

After entering this information, go ahead and click the ‘Save License’ button.

Many website owners charge visitors to submit a listing. If you want to create a premium web directory and accept credit card payments, then you’ll need to install an addon and set up a payment gateway.

Formidable Forms can collect payments with PayPal, Stripe, or Authorize.net.

In this guide, we will show you how to accept payments using PayPal, but the steps will be similar for other payment gateways.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Formidable » Add-Ons. In the ‘PayPal Standard’ section, click on ‘Install.’

Later in this guide we’ll use ‘Visual Views’ to display all the information that visitors enter into our form.

With that in mind, find the ‘Visual Views’ addon and click on its ‘Install’ button, as we’ll need this addon later.

Once you’ve done that, head over to Formidable » Global Settings.

Then, select ‘PayPal’ in the left-hand menu.

On this screen, type in the email address that’s linked to your PayPal account. You can also change the currency and the URLs that will load after a visitor completes their payment or cancels their order.

After entering this information, click on the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.

Now you’re ready to create a form by heading over to the Formidable » Forms page.

Here, click on ‘Add New.’

This will bring up a list of all the form templates that you can use.

In this guide, we’ll be creating a real estate directory so click on the ‘Real Estate’ category.

You can now see all of the different templates within this category, including multiple mortgage calculator templates.

To preview a template, just hover your mouse over it and then click the little icon that looks like an eye.

To use a template, just hover over it and then click on the ‘+’ icon.

One you’ve done that, type a title into the ‘Form Name’ field and enter an optional description. This information is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.

Then, click on the ‘Create’ button.

This will open the template in the Formidable Forms editor.

From here, you can simply point and click to customize any field in the form. For example, you might click on the ‘Brief Blurb’ field and then type some new text into ‘Field Label.’

You can also add more fields by selecting ‘Add Fields’ in the left-hand menu.

Then, drag any of the fields onto the form layout. For example, you may want to add a field where the visitor can type in their name.

To continue customizing the template, simply repeat these steps.

When you’re happy with how the form is set up, click the ‘Update’ button at the top right corner of the screen.

If you want to collect payments, then you’ll need to add an action to your form. To do this, click on the ‘Settings’ tab and then select ‘Actions & Notifications.’

After that, click on ‘PayPal’ to add the action to your form.

Next, scroll to the ‘PayPal’ section.

We want to charge visitors a flat fee for creating a new listing, so click on ‘Set Amount.’

You can now type in how much you want to charge.

You can also choose whether to make this a one-off payment, a donation, or a recurring payment using the ‘Payment Type’ dropdown.

If you select ‘Subscription’ then you can use the controls to specify how often the person will be charged.

In this way, you can earn money from your listings over the long-term. You can also offer customers a free trial.

Once you’ve finished configuring PayPal, don’t forget to click on ‘Update’ to save your changes. Now, visitors will need to make a payment before they can submit the form.

2. Publish Your Form in WordPress

When you’re happy with your form, it’s time to publish it on your website by adding it to any post or page.

We’re going to add the form to a new page by heading over to Pages » Add New in the WordPress dashboard. You can now give this page a name, upload a featured image, and add any other content that you want to show on the page.

After that, click on the ‘+’ icon and type in ‘Formidable Forms.’

When the right block appears, give it a click to add it to the page.

Next, simply open the ‘Select a form’ dropdown and choose the real estate listing form.

Formidable Forms will then add the form to the post, and show a preview in the block editor.

When you’re ready to make the form live, go ahead and publish the page.

After that, it’s a good idea to add the page to your WordPress navigation menu so people can find it easily. You may also want to send a message to your email list so your audience know they can now submit listings to your website.

3. Build Your Web Directory with Formidable Views

Next, you’ll want to create a web directory so the user-submitted content appears on your WordPress website.

You can do this using the Visual Views feature, so head over to Formidable » Views and then click on ‘Add New.’

A popup will now show the different layouts that you can use for your directory.

Just click on ‘Classic’ as this allows you to create a new layout from scratch.

On the next screen, open the ‘Use Entries from Form’ dropdown and choose the real estate form we created earlier.

Formidable Forms will give your view a name based on the form you’re using as the data source. However, you can change this if you want.

When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on ‘Create a view.’

You can now type in any information that you want to appear above and below the listings. For example, you may want to add your contact information at the bottom of the page or type out a short introduction.

To do this, simply click on ‘Add Before Content’ or ‘Add After Content.’

This will open a popup where you can type in any text that you want to show above or below your listings.

To the right, there are also some parameters that you can use. Formidable Forms will replace these parameters with real values on your website. For example, it will replace [siteurl] with your site’s URL.

When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered, click on ‘Update View’ to save your changes and return to the main view editor screen.

Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to create the layout for the different listings on the directory page. To get started, click on the middle ‘+’ icon.

You can now type text into the main text editor, and select different parameters in the left-hand menu.

In the following image, we’re creating a simple layout that shows each property’s brief blurb, followed by the listing’s price and type.

Finally, we’ll show the full description.

In the following image, you can see an example of how this simple layout will look on your WordPress website.

To expand on this very simple layout, just keep adding more parameters and plain text following the same process described above.

Chances are you’ll want to show a photo of each property. To do this, go ahead and click on the ‘Advanced’ tab of the ‘Customization’ box.

Then, click on ‘Show Image,’ which displays any images that visitors submit.

While you’re working on your layout, you can preview how it will look to visitors by clicking on ‘Update View.’

This takes you back to the main editor, which shows a preview of the layout you’re creating.

When you’re happy with how the directory looks, you can add it to any page or post using the shortcode in the left-hand menu, under ‘View Name.’ Simply find this code and then click on its ‘Copy’ button.

For more details on how to place the shortcode, you can see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.

Once you’ve done that, simply visit the page or post to see the finished web directory.

We hope this article helped you create a web directory using WordPress. You may also want to see our expert pick of the best email marketing services for small businesses, and see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to improve your 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 How to Create a Web Directory in WordPress (Step by Step) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Check If Your WordPress Blog Posts Are Ranking for the Right Keywords

Do you want to check if your WordPress posts are ranking for the right keywords?

Most beginners manually check rankings for their articles by typing keywords in Google. This does not give you an accurate idea of where your articles stand for the target keyword.

In this article, we will show you how to easily check if your WordPress blog posts are ranking for the right keywords.

Why Check Keyword Rankings for Your WordPress Posts?

If you follow our complete WordPress SEO guide, then you will learn how to optimize each article on your website for specific keywords. This helps you get more traffic to your website.

Most beginners simply search on Google to see if their posts are appearing for those keywords. Even then, they usually only check the first or second page at best.

The issue is that sometimes your article might be ranking way below the first two pages or worst it may not even be ranking for the keyword that you want.

If you rely on manually checking your keyword rankings, then you are missing out on useful information that you can use to improve your SEO rankings and increase traffic.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to properly check keyword rankings for your WordPress blog posts. We’ll cover three different keyword reference tools, and then show how to use keyword ranking information to increase traffic to your site.

Method 1: Checking Keyword Rankings With Semrush

Semrush is one of the best SEO and keyword research tools on the market. It’s a comprehensive SEO suite with all the useful tools you’ll need.

It comes with a powerful organic research tool that can show keyword rankings for any domain name. You don’t need to type in URLs for individual articles. It will automatically fetch results for all URLs on that domain name.

Simply enter the domain name you want to look up and Semrush will get a ton of information. After that, click on the organic research tab to view the full list of all keywords your website is ranking for.

You can sort the results by position, URL, traffic, and more. You can also export the results to a CSV file and research offline using your favorite spreadsheet program.

You can also track specific keywords with Semrush, and they will track those keywords on your dashboard, so you can instantly see their performance.

Semrush can also do these things for any domain name. That means you can enter your competitor’s domain name and see which keywords they are ranking for.

You will also be able to see their paid search traffic, paid keywords, and other useful information that you can use to outrank them.

Method 2: Checking Keyword Rankings With Google Search Console

Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) is a set of tools offered by Google to help webmasters improve their website for search. See our guide on how to add your website to Google Search Console.

At the top of the Performance tab, you will see a graph of your website’s performance in search results.

As you scroll down, you will see the keywords data. Next to each keyword, you will see how many clicks and impressions it gets, and its position on the search results page.

You can sort this data by clicking on any column.

If you sort the list by position, then you will be able to see your top ranking keywords. As you scroll down the list, you will see keywords where your site appears lower on search engine results pages.

You can also export this data and open it with your favorite spreadsheet software.

Method 3: Checking Keyword Rankings With Ahrefs

Ahrefs is another popular SEO tool among professional marketers. It comes with an easy to use interface and tries to make information understandable even for new users.

Simply enter your website domain name in the search box, and it will create a neatly organized report with beautiful graphs and charts.

You will find all your keyword rankings under the organic keywords report.

Next to each keyword, you’ll be able to see its search volume, keyword ranking position, keyword density, and more.

Using Keyword Rankings to Get More Traffic in WordPress

Now that you have learned how to check keyword rankings for your WordPress site, let’s talk about improving your rankings.

How to Analyze Which Keywords Need Improvement

When you’re deciding which keywords to improve, it’s important to note that not all keywords are created equal.

For example, ranking #5 on a high traffic keyword is way better than ranking #1 for a low traffic keyword.

Also, appearing in the #1 position won’t always bring you the most traffic. You might notice that while some of your keywords rank pretty well, they don’t get a significant number of clicks or impressions.

During your research, you might also find some surprise keywords that you didn’t know you were ranking for.

If these keywords have a significant number of impressions and search volumes, then you should see if you can make strategic changes to your content to improve the rankings for those keywords as well.

How to Improve Rankings for Specific Keywords

After you decide which keywords you need to work on, you can go ahead and see which of your articles are ranking on those keywords and what you can do to optimize them better.

Here are a few tips.

You can find helpful suggestions on how to improve these important keywords by using the All in One SEO plugin. When editing a post, simply scroll down to the AIOSEO settings at the bottom and you will find fields for your ‘Focus Keyphrase’ and ‘Additional Keyphrases’.

Simply enter the most important keyword for the post in the ‘Focus Keyphrase’ field then click the ‘Add Focus Keyphrase’ button. You can add other keywords as additional keyphrases.

All in One SEO will now analyze your content for that particular keyphrase and will show you a score along with practical tips to improve your content for that keyphrase.

To learn more, see our beginner’s guide on how to use a focus keyphrase in WordPress.

Next, you should look for articles that are old, don’t have enough content, or contain outdated information. Updating these articles with newer information and just improving the content can give them an SEO boost.

Finally, see if you can improve your internal linking, where you link to an article from other pages of your site. Linking to an article from other related posts can give it an SEO bump. Use your target keyword as the anchor text when linking to it from other articles on your website.

For more details on this topic, please see our article on how to optimize your WordPress blog posts for SEO.

Learning What Your Visitors Do on Your Website

Semrush and Google Search Console can help you find your keyword positions, but they can’t show you how many visitors are coming to your articles, where they are from, and what they do when they are on your website.

This information is crucial when planning your content strategy to rank for certain keywords.

This is where Google Analytics comes in. It shows you the number of pageviews for your articles, your top content, your visitor information, and more.

Google Analytics can be difficult to set up for beginners, that’s why we recommend using MonsterInsights. It’s a Google Analytics plugin for WordPress that will help you easily install Google Analytics and see all reports inside your WordPress dashboard.

To learn more, see our guide on how to track website visitors to your WordPress site.

We hope this article helped you check if your WordPress posts are ranking for the right keywords. You may also want to see our list of actionable tips to drive traffic to a new WordPress site, and learn how to keep your website secure.

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 Check If Your WordPress Blog Posts Are Ranking for the Right Keywords first appeared on WPBeginner.

8 Best Typeform Alternatives for 2023 (Free + Paid)

Are you looking a Typeform alternative for your website?

Typeform is a tool that lets you create different types of forms. However, it is expensive software, especially for small businesses. There are other WordPress form plugins and other alternatives that offer more features and are extremely affordable.

In this article, we’ll show you the best Typeform alternatives. We’ll include free and paid options so that you can choose the best plugin for your business.

Why Do You Need a Typeform Alternative?

Typeform is a popular software for creating different forms for your WordPress website. You can use it to make a survey or a poll for your business. It also allows you to create quizzes, application forms, and order forms.

While Typeform offers many features and form templates, it has some drawbacks. For instance, because Typeform is a SaaS (software as a service) tool, it stores data on its external servers. This can be a security vulnerability, as you’ll be trusting someone else with your customer’s personal data.

Another drawback of using Typeform is the cost. The basic plan starts from $25 per month, which can be expensive for small businesses. Plus, you cannot remove the Typeform branding in the basic plan.

If you want more features and integrations, or if you want to use your own branding, then you’ll need to upgrade to a higher pricing plan. Not to mention that they restrict the number of responses you can collect in a month. For example if you want more than 100 responses a month, you’ll be paying $600 per year, and then the next level up is $996 per year.

This will significantly drive up the cost of running a website and make Typeform less attractive for WordPress users.

There is also a free version of Typeform, but it lacks many features. This is why most smart website owners use WordPress plugins as alternatives and get more options for free.

That said, let’s look at the best Typeform alternatives.

1. WPForms

WPForms is the best WordPress contact form plugin and offers a lot more features compared to Typeform. Over 5 million professionals use WPForms on their websites to create all types of forms.

It is super easy to use and offers a drag-and-drop form builder. Plus, you get many prebuilt form templates and multiple customization options.

Even in the free version of WPForms, you get features like spam protection, basic form fields, email notifications, and more. This is more than what Typeform’s free version offers users.

Besides that, WPForms comes with powerful addons. For instance, you can create a conversational form in just a few clicks or create stunning surveys and polls with ease. You also get interactive survey reports and advanced fields like the Likert scale, net promoter score (NPS), and star ratings.

Another advantage WPForms offers over Typeforms is that it easily integrates with popular email marketing tools, payment gateways to accept online payments, and other WordPress plugins like OptinMonster.

For instance, you can add a form from WPForms to an OptinMonster campaign and show it in a popup. Similarly, you can track form conversions and performance by integrating it with MonsterInsights.

Besides that, WPForms also offers other features that you won’t find in Typeform. For example, WPForms lets you track user journeys, collect geolocation data, track and reduce form abandonment, allow file uploads, and more.

Pricing: WPForms premium plans start from $49.50 per year. WPBeginner users can avail of an exclusive 50% OFF discount on all plans using our WPForms coupon. There is also a WPForms Lite version you can use for free.

2. Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms is an advanced WordPress form plugin and a great alternative to Typeform. You can create complex and technical forms without editing code, which is not possible in Typeform.

For instance, Formidable Forms makes it super easy to create calculators like mortgage calculators, quote request calculators, or car payment calculators.

Besides that, you can use the plugin to collect customer feedback and data by creating polls and surveys. It also makes it super easy to set up automated quizzes with grading, collect online payments, and even display form data on the front end of your website.

Other features offered by Formidable Forms include an easy-to-use drag-and-drop form builder, conditional logic, multiple form templates, visual form styler, landing pages, and more.

Pricing: Formidable Forms pricing starts from $39.50 per year. You can also use a free version of the plugin as an alternative to Typeform.

3. Gravity Forms

Gravity Forms is a popular Typeforms alternative you can use for your website. It is used by some of the biggest brands, like Nike, ESPN, NASA, and UNICEF.

Gravity Forms offers robust features and helps create complex form solutions at a fraction of the cost compared to Typeforms. For instance, you can use it to create quizzes, surveys, web directories, and accept user-generated content on the front end of your site.

Besides that, the plugin offers a drag-and-drop visual form builder, prebuilt form templates, and many customization options. You can also set up automated workflows and show or hide form fields, buttons, and form sections based on user behavior.

Pricing: Gravity Forms is a premium alternative to Typeforms, with prices starting from $59 per year.

4. HubSpot Forms Builder

HubSpot Form Builder is the next Typeform alternative on our list, and it is a powerful all-in-one marketing toolkit. It includes a form builder, live chat, analytics, popups, and other marketing tools.

Using HubSpot, you get a complete customer relationship management (CRM) platform. This helps to automatically sync your WordPress form with your contacts, easily manage them, create different segments, and more.

HubSpot Form Builder also makes a great alternative to Typeforms if you’re already using other HubSpot products, like its email marketing tool. Besides that, it easily integrates with other contact form plugins like WPForms and Formidable Forms.

Another advantage of using HubSpot is that you get to see how your forms are performing. You don’t have to integrate it with a third-party tool like Google Analytics. With built-in analytics reports, you can see which forms are converting the best.

Pricing: You can sign-up for free on HubSpot and use the CRM, live chat, and other features for free. However, their premium plans start from $45 per month (billed annually).

5. Jotform

Jotform is a popular form builder that makes it super easy to create different types of online forms. Whether you want a simple contact form or a form to collect online payments, Jotform lets you build one in just a few minutes.

What makes Jotform a great Typeform alternative is that you can customize your forms and add your own branding and logo even in all the paid plans.

Besides that, you get a lot more features in the free version of Jotform compared to Typeform. For example, you can create up to 5 forms, get 100 monthly submissions, 100MB of storage space, and more.

Jotform also offers other products along with a form builder. You can use its store builder to create an online store, add tables, build online apps, turn form responses into visual reports, edit PDF files for free, and more.

Pricing: Jotform premium plans start from $34 per month, and you get a 30-day money-back guarantee. There is also a free Jotform version you can use to get started.

6. Ninja Forms

Ninja Forms is another Typeform alternative you can use for free. It lets you create interactive online forms with no coding skills required. Plus, the drag-and-drop form builder makes it super easy to design all types of forms without hiring a designer.

Asides from that, Ninja Forms also offers premium extensions for more features. For instance, you can create conversational forms using conditional logic addon or set up a multi-step form.

Other paid addons include an advanced date picker, file uploader, PDF form submission option, and more. Ninja Forms also integrates with different payment services like PayPal and Stripe, email marketing tools like MailChimp CRMs like Salesforce, and other tools like Slack and Webhooks.

Pricing: The base plugin of Ninja Forms is free to use. However, if you want more features, then you’ll need its premium extensions. The Personal plan starts from $49 per year and includes 4 addons.

7. Zoho Forms

Zoho Forms is a premium form builder that offers lots of features and seamless integration. It is a great alternative to Typeform if you’re already using Zoho CRM and other Zoho tools.

Zoho Forms lets you create over 30 different types of forms, including contact forms, surveys, polls, and more. Plus, it offers different form templates for multiple industries, like businesses, medical institutions, eCommerce sites, and more.

Besides that, Zoho Forms also provide multiple security options. These include SSL, field encryption, form audit, CAPTCHA, and more.

Pricing: Zoho Forms prices start from $10 per month and offers 10,000 submissions per month, 500MB storage, unlimited forms and reports, and more.

8. Google Forms

Google Forms is a free form building tool by Google and is very easy to use. You can create all types of online forms, surveys, questionnaires, feedback forms, and more.

It is a great Typeform alternative if you’re looking for a basic form builder that gets the job done. It has a simple interface and offers a drag-and-drop builder.

You can also add images to your form, break up long forms into multiple steps, get email notifications in Gmail, add skip logic to form fields, and more. Plus, your form responses get organized and stored in Google Sheets.

That said, it provides limited customization options compared to other form plugins on our list. If you want more features, then do check out our guide on Google Forms alternatives.

Pricing: Google Forms is free to use.

Which Typeform Alternative Should You Use?

After going through multiple WordPress form plugins and tools, we believe that WPForms is the best Typeform alternative. It offers the most customization options and form templates, and it has a very beginner-friendly interface.

You can create all sorts of online forms for your website using WPForms. Plus, it easily integrates with other plugins, payment methods, email marketing tools, CRMs, and other tools.

The best part is that WPForms has a free version that has more features and options compared to Typeform’s free version.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to create complex form solutions like calculators, then we recommend Formidable Forms. It offers pre-built templates and customization options, which aren’t available in Typeform.

We hope this article helped you find the best Typeform alternative. You can also go through our ultimate WordPress SEO guide and how to choose the best blogging platform.

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 8 Best Typeform Alternatives for 2023 (Free + Paid) first appeared on WPBeginner.

How to Run a Virtual Classroom Online with WordPress (Tools)

Do you want to run a virtual class online on your WordPress website?

Creating an online virtual classroom may sound too technical or expensive. Luckily, there are easy tools that allow you to run a virtual classroom online without any special technical skills.

In this article, we’ll be showing you how to run a virtual classroom online class with WordPress using different tools.

Why Create a Virtual Classroom for My Business?

Almost anything can be taught online. Just type your class’s topic into YouTube’s search bar, and you’ll likely find hundreds or thousands of videos of people teaching that skill.

One great advantage of virtual classes is that you don’t have to teach them live. You can record videos in advance if you want. That way, it doesn’t matter if it takes you several attempts to explain or show something.

Taking your class online could be the best thing you’ve ever done for your business. It’ll let you reach people all around the world, and you won’t be limited by how many people can fit in your classroom or fitness studio.

This isn’t just for large classes, either. You might offer a one-to-one service, like math tutoring or career counseling. You can create an online classroom without a lot of tech skills or expensive tools.

Here’s what you’ll need.

What You’ll Need to Run Your Class Online (Virtual Classroom)

So where do you even begin to set up a virtual class? There are a few key things you need to get into place.

To run a class online, you’ll need these 3 things:

A WordPress website or online platform for your class. This is a place where students can find and access the class content.A way for students to sign up for your class, like a fillable form.A way to frequently communicate with your students, like email.

You’ll also likely want a way for students to talk and interact with each other, such as an online group or forum. Besides that, you can offer members-only recorded content such as video or audio seminars so that students can work through it at their own pace.

Your virtual classroom can also include live video content with features like interactive polls, audience feedback, screen sharing, and audience questions.

Plus, an LMS or membership site plugin is really useful for managing repeat payments, creating members-only content, and creating different levels of your class.

Don’t worry if that sounds like a lot. We’ll help you decide on the right tools and platforms for your virtual classroom. Here’s a quick outline that you can click to jump straight to a particular section in this article.

Creating an Online Platform for Your Class

It’s possible to run an online class through a private Facebook group or an email list where you link to videos you’ve posted on YouTube.

However, these aren’t great options. Not everyone uses Facebook, for instance. Plus, Facebook or YouTube could decide to ban you without any fault of your own.

An alternative is to sign up for a site like Teachable. This is a popular option, but it’s definitely not free. The most basic Teachable package costs $29/month, and you’ll pay a 5% transaction fee for each student on top of that.

Instead of third-party platforms, we recommend that you create a website for your class. There are lots of ways you can do this, but the #1 website builder in the world is WordPress. Over 43% of the websites on the internet are powered by WordPress.

The best part about WordPress software is that it’s completely free. However, you’ll need a domain name and web hosting to build a website. This is required for making any type of website.

Bluehost, one of WordPress’s recommended hosting providers, is offering our readers a great deal. You can get a free domain name and web hosting for just $2.75/month for your first year.

Note: If you are looking for a Bluehost alternative, then you can also try SiteGround, another popular WordPress hosting company that’s offering a great discount for small business owners.

Once you have signed up, you will need to install WordPress. Bluehost does it automatically for you, and other hosting companies make it super easy with just a few clicks.

After you have installed WordPress, you will need to install a few WordPress plugins to get your online classroom ready. Plugins are like apps for your WordPress site that lets you add essential features like contact forms, membership restrictions, and more.

We’re going to take a look at some important plugins to help you run your online class.

Getting Students to Sign Up for Your Class

You’ll need a way for students to register for your class. Even if you’re not charging for the class, you’ll want to know how many people are planning to attend. You may also want to get some information from them beforehand.

We recommend using the WPForms plugin for WordPress. It is the best WordPress contact form plugin and lets you create registration forms simply and easily.

The lite version of WPForms is totally free, but you may want to pay for the Pro version of WPForms, so you can integrate payments and email marketing services with your form.

Once you’ve installed and activated either version of the WPForms plugin, you can follow WPForms’ instructions to create an event registration form.

You can modify the event registration form template as much as you want. Here’s how a very simple registration form for a free class could look:

Communicating With Your Students in a Virtual Classroom

Whatever type of online class you’re running, you’ll need a way to communicate with your students.

Even if you’re just running a one-off class, you’ll still want to be able to remind students that it’s happening. You’ll also want a way to follow up, so you can let them know if you create another class.

There are lots of possible ways you could communicate with your students. For instance, you can send them messages on Facebook or WhatsApp. However, we strongly recommend using email.

That’s because virtually everyone has email. Most people are used to giving out their email addresses when signing up for things online. Asking them for their mobile number or Facebook details will put many students off from registering.

It’s important to use a reputable email marketing service to communicate with your students. That way, you can be confident that your messages will get through to them. Also, you won’t fall foul of any anti-spam laws.

We recommend using Constant Contact. They offer a free trial and excellent support.

If you’re creating a membership site, we recommend using either ConvertKit or Drip for your email service. These tools have advanced marketing automation features that you will likely find helpful.

If you’re on a very tight budget and need a free email marketing service, that’s possible too. We recommend looking at SendinBlue or MailerLite.

All of these options are good, reliable solutions for sending bulk personalized emails to your students.

If you’re using WPForms to take class sign-ups, then you can even integrate your form with your email marketing service. This means that students will be automatically added to your chosen email list when they sign up.

WPForms Lite works with Constant Contact, and if you pay for WPForms Pro, then you can choose from many other email marketing integrations as well.

For more details. please see our guide on how to create an email newsletter the right way.

Student Collaboration and Group Interactions in Virtual Classroom

Do you want your students to be able to interact with one another? If so, you’ll need to provide a straightforward and accessible way for them to do so.

There are lots of possible options here. If most or all of your students are on Facebook, then a private Facebook group could be a good option. Alternatively, you might want to create a forum on your website. We recommend using the bbPress plugin for this.

Another option is to create a private Slack channel for your students.

If you’d like students to be able to interact with one another live, then you’ll want to look at how you deliver your classes. Zoom, which we’ll cover in a moment, is a great tool for interactive live video classes.

Important: If you’re running a class aimed at children, it’s definitely not a good idea to allow them to contact one another. This could create serious legal issues. You could, however, provide a space where parents of your students can interact.

Offering Pre-Recorded Content for Online Classrooms

One way to run an online class is to record content ahead of time and add it to your site. This is a good option if you’re feeling nervous or unsure about the technology involved.

Plus, pre-recorded content is a great option for a class that you want to run over and over again. You can create it once and sell it an unlimited number of times. Students can easily take the course at their own pace.

For example, OptinMonster University offers customers access to courses that can help them make the most of the software and boost conversions. There are pre-recorded videos that users can view at their own convenience.

To get started, you’ll need a webcam if you’re recording a video of yourself. You’ll also need a microphone. You can find our microphone recommendations in our article about how to start a podcast.

If you’re on a really tight budget, you could use your computer’s built-in microphone and webcam. However, higher-quality equipment will definitely help you produce a more professional class recording.

You may also want to record your screen, perhaps to show PowerPoint slides. You can do this using specialist screen recorder software, or you could run a Zoom call and record it. We’ll cover more on Zoom in a moment.

Don’t Host Videos on Your Website

When you put your content on your website, it’s very important not to host your videos yourself. If hundreds of students want to watch it at once, then this might slow down or even crash your website.

Plus, video files are incredibly large, and they will fill up your hosting service‘s available storage in no time.

Instead, you should use one of our recommended free video hosting sites. That way, you can simply embed the video on your site, so students can watch it there without taking up your site’s valuable resources.

You can also create a subdomain and use that as a home for your videos. For example, on WPBeginner, we have a video subdomain.

If you want to password-protect your content or restrict it to members only, then we recommend creating a membership site. This also lets you charge different amounts for different levels of access.

If you’re interested in going that route, we recommend using MemberPress.

Offering Live Content in Online Classrooms

You may want to teach your class live. This could work really well for a class that you used to teach in person and are now taking online.

For live classes, we strongly recommend Zoom. It’s a tool that lets you host video calls with as many people as you want. The free plan gives you access to loads of features, with the one key restriction that your calls can’t be longer than 40 minutes.

You can schedule meetings in advance and send out an invite to your students. They can click a special link to sign in on their computer, or they can use the Zoom app on their phone.

Zoom has lots of useful options. For instance, you can use it to share your screen with students. This means you can show PowerPoint slides or demonstrate part of the lesson in real time.

Zoom lets you see your students, too. They can dial in with their cameras on if you want. They can also talk to you live, though you can mute them. We recommend that you mute everyone by default while you’re teaching your class. You can let students ask questions at the end.

There’s also a text chat feature in Zoom, which students can use to interact with one another while you’re teaching. You can even poll your students to find out what key topics they most want you to cover.

There’s also a ‘record Zoom call’ option, which lets you run a live class plus record it so students who can’t attend can watch it later.

Automatically Register Students for Zoom Webinars and Meetings

The paid version of Zoom lets you run webinars. However, manually sending out invites to webinars and class meetings can be time-consuming. A simple way to speed up the process is by automating it.

You can integrate your WPForms registration form with Zoom using Uncanny Automator. It is the best WordPress automation plugin that helps set up automated workflows.

You can think of Uncanny Automator as Zapier for WordPress websites. It lets different tools, apps, and plugins talk to each other.

The plugin lets you automatically sign people up for the webinar when they register for your class using WPForms. For more details, please see our guide on how to easily integrate Zoom meetings and webinars in WordPress.

Using an LMS or Membership Site Plugin

Do you want to turn your website into a virtual classroom? Or perhaps you want to lock content to make sure that only paid-up members can access it?

You’ll need to pay for this functionality, but it could well be worth it if you’re running a series of classes. Using your site as a learning platform works well for courses that last more than a few weeks.

For instance, you might be running a 12-week class. Students need an easy way to refer back to the earlier weeks’ material, and that will be tricky if you simply send out all the content by email.

Using LMS Plugins to Create Online Courses

With an LMS (Learning Management System) solution, you can even offer quizzes and grade students’ performance. You’ll need an LMS plugin for WordPress.

Our top recommendation here is LearnDash. It lets you create as many different courses as you like, with lessons, topics, quizzes, and categories. You can schedule lessons to be released over time if you want.

With LearnDash, you can also offer quizzes and tests for your students. You can even set assignments that you can approve and comment on. It also lets you create course-specific forums where your students can interact.

For more details, see our guide on how to create an online course with WordPress.

Restrict Access to Classes and Online Resources

What if you don’t want a whole learning environment, but instead you want to lock content on your site? You can do that with a membership site plugin.

We recommend using MemberPress as your membership site plugin. It’s easy to set up and has powerful access controls. You can restrict access not only to posts and pages but also to specific categories, tags, files, and more.

You can use MemberPress to ‘drip’ content to your students. This means they only get access to certain content after they’ve been a member for a specified period of time. You can even integrate it with LearnDash if you want.

For more details, see our ultimate guide on how to create a membership site.

We know there’s a lot to consider when setting up a virtual class. You can set up a simple class for free on your WordPress site.

You’ll only need to pay for your website domain name and web hosting, which doesn’t need to cost much. Besides that, you can use free WordPress plugins, software, and email marketing tools to connect with students, record lectures, and more.

We hope this article helped you learn how to run a virtual classroom with WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on the must-have WordPress plugins for all websites and the ultimate guide to boosting WordPress speed & performance.

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 Run a Virtual Classroom Online with WordPress (Tools) first appeared on WPBeginner.