[ad_1] WordPress started life as a blogging platform. Years later, it’s now a Content Management System (CMS) that is used with over 40 percent of the web. Along the way, some of classic blogging staples have fallen out of favor. This means there are many sites that want to disable comments in WordPress. Despite this feeling surrounding commenting, there are a lot of benefits to letting users engage with your content. Still, if you want to cut out the comments, there are a few ways to do so. As such, this post is going to show you how to disable comments in WordPress. We’ll look at the different places within WordPress you can change settings, and also discuss some extra techniques to complete rid your site of comments. WordPress’ Relationship With Commenting In 2003, WordPress was a blogging platform through and through. It had all the hallmarks you’d expect: theming, blog-specific settings, and commenting functionality. Comments are a key part of a blog, and it’s fair to say that they have become more prominent as WordPress has evolved and grown. We’ll discuss more about the benefits later, but it’s also fair to say that as WordPress has evolved, some site owners have pushed back against commenting. This is because of the gradual change from blogging platform to CMS. As WordPress became adept at creating other types of site, comments weren’t as central to some users. Because of this, the platform has functionality in place to disable commenting on your site. Again, we’ll get into this in more detail later. The Value of Comments Within WordPress Before we get into how to disable comments, it’s worth talking about why you’d want to have them for a business-focused site. It’s easy to consider them superfluous to requirements, but this isn’t the case. In fact, comments can offer more value than other forms of engagement, for a few reasons: You’re able to gauge interest in your products, services, and content direct from your users. You can see how potential customers engage with you, and pivot your offerings. Users can become part of a community, which builds brand loyalty. It can also have an impact on visibility, and your affiliate network (if you have one). While there are more benefits we could mention, this is beyond the scope of the article. Still, if you thought comments were only for a blog site, it’s worth rethinking that mindset. Comments can be a valuable marketing arm, and cultivating a readership with them is a solid strategy. Why You’d Want to Disable Comments in WordPress We’ve covered what’s good about comments, but this doesn’t mean they’re always necessary. Here are a few points on why you wouldn’t want comments on your site: Comments require moderation to stop spam and off-topic discussions. While there are plugins to help with this, it’s not always going to be a prime solution. If you’re not able to dedicate time to essential comment moderation, it makes sense not to implement them. You may like to cultivate discussions elsewhere, such as a forum or even on social media. We think there are drawbacks to this approach, but if it’s right for your business, asking for engagement direct on your blog posts will dilute the engagement on other channels. If your content marketing is not central to your promotion, asking for engagement might not be beneficial. As such, no comments are better than handfuls of unanswered entries. If you’re writing informational posts, such as news items, they may not warrant comments. Here, you have flexibility to disable comments on a site-wide basis, or only for individual posts. It’s also worth noting that there are ways to cut down on the amount of moderation and engagement you do across your site’s comments. Solutions such as closing comments after a certain period of time, and removing comment URLs are an alternative to disabling comments in WordPress altogether. Still, if it’s something you’re set on, we have the methods coming up next. How to Disable Comments in WordPress (2 Ways) For a task that’s simple on the surface, there are a lot of options for disabling comments in WordPress. Taking a broad brush, here are the two primary ways of getting the job done: Use the core options within WordPress to disable comments. Choose a suitable plugin to disable comments across your site. When we dig into these options, we’ll also detail specific settings to help you disable comments and leave no trace. To finish the article off, we’ll note how to disable media comments, and how to delete existing ones. 1. Use WordPress’ Built-In Options The first port of call to disable comments in WordPress is the platform’s own settings. To find them, head to the Settings > Discussion page within your WordPress dashboard: There are a wealth of options here that can help you. In fact, we recommend heading here when you first set up your site. The main option you’ll want to consider here is Allow people to submit comments on new posts. Unticking this will turn off commenting on a site-wide basis. If you’re working on a brand new site and you don’t want comments, your journey ends here. Though, for existing site owners, this will only turn off comments for future posts. The rest of this post will help you get rid of pre-existing comments on your site. Disable Comments for Individual Posts Although WordPress provides a full bank of options for handling comments, you can also work with them on a per-post basis. There are a few ways to do this, and the most straightforward is to access a post’s Block Editor screen. Here, click the Post menu on the right-hand side, and scroll down to the Discussion settings. The checkboxes here will let you disable comments for the post in WordPress: Note that if you don’t see this box, you’ll need to enable it from the Preferences screen accessed from the ‘traffic light’ menu in the Block Editor: This
Continue readingTag Archives: wordpress
Best WordPress Download Manager Plugin? (2021)
[ad_1] If you offer file downloads on your WordPress website, you’re probably searching for an efficient way to manage, track, and control access to those files. Although WordPress makes it simple to add downloadable files to your pages/posts, it doesn’t give you enough features to properly manage your assets. Fortunately, dedicated download manager plugins exist to help you better organize and monitor the downloads. WP File Download is a powerful download manager plugin that offers drag-and-drop file management functionality. You can use it to upload files and categorize them for easy access from within your WordPress CMS. Great, but how does it work? In this WP File Download review, we’ll take a closer look at the plugin and discuss how to utilize its different features. Overall, I enjoyed using this plugin and found the user interface easy to navigate, as the download manager is integrated into the WordPress dashboard. Let’s dig in! WP File Download Review: A Quick Look at the Features WP File Download is a one-stop solution to organize and manage all your files. It lets you: Upload new files and delete existing ones Import files you uploaded via FTP Tag files for organization Drag and drop files from one place to another Restrict file access Search files by the date they were created View version history Download files remotely As a download manager, WP File Download allows you to: Access download statistics, including data for custom date ranges Receive email alerts when certain files are downloaded Add download buttons to your front-end content Additionally, WP File Download offers third-party builder integrations. You can integrate it with Elementor, Divi Builder, Themify Builder, and more. Article Continues Below Hands-On with WP File Download Now that you have an idea of WP File Download’s features, let’s go hands-on with the plugin. WP File Download Set Up First, install the plugin by going to your WordPress dashboard and choosing Plugins → Add New. Now upload the plugin’s zip file and click Install Now. Once you install and activate WP File Download, it will ensure the plugin is compatible with your server configuration. Next, you’ll be choosing a theme from a choice of four: Next, you’ll get options to customize the theme according to your preferences. You can make some tweaks like changing the color of your download link or skip this part and proceed ahead. WP File Download Settings Before we look at the plugin’s interface, let’s go through its settings. First, open settings by going to your WordPress dashboard and click WP File Download → Configuration. Doing so will redirect you to the Main Settings tab where you can modify various settings. This includes controlling what types of files could be accessed with the frontend viewer, tracking user downloads, and more. Other settings include: Search and Upload: This setting allows you to configure the search option to make it easier to locate files. You can also use it to generate the upload file shortcode. Themes: If you want to replace or modify your existing theme, use this setting option. Email Notification: Here, you can choose to receive email alerts when a new file is downloaded or added. Next, I’ll show you how the different features of WP File Download work. Managing Files in WP File Download To manage your files, you must add them to WP File Download. Article Continues Below First, click the big New button to make a new category. WP File Manager lets you create different categories so that it’s easy to retrieve files in the future. You can put files in different categories depending on your project. Click the Select Files button to upload new files or drag a set of files straight from the desktop to WP File Download’s interface. Once the files are uploaded, you’ll see them in the interface, along with some additional information (like date added). From this point onwards, organizing your files is as simple as drag and drop: The plugin also allows you to bulk manipulate files like on a desktop. Use Ctrl + click or click Select All, then drag all the files together or use the bulk options to move your files. Editing a File WP File Download gives files their own settings. You’ll see them in the collapsible sidebar on the right. The settings let you: Change the title Add a file description Modify the published status Change the file type View download statistics Assign file to multiple categories Upload new version of the file And more Editing a Category As for files, the plugin lets you edit more detailed settings for each individual category. You can: Change the category’s order Modify the visibility Use a shortcode to show the category on the front-end File Search in WP File Download Finding files is super easy with this plugin. You can search for files by their names and choose whether to search all categories or just a specific one: Offering the Download Option for Files Coming over to the exciting stuff, WP File Download makes it easy to display a download option for files on your website. Just grab the shortcode of any file and place it on any page to allow your visitors to download that file on their PC. Article Continues Below You can also make categories available for download. This can be done by generating the shortcode for an entire category and inserting it on a webpage. In this case, users will be able to download multiple files as a zip from that category. If you’re on WordPress 5.0 and have access to the Gutenberg block editor, things are much easier. With WP File Download, you get two blocks, one for individual files and the other is categories of files. ‘ Insert these blocks and voila, you’ve created downloads without leaving the editor. Using the Classic WordPress editor? No problem. WP File Download also offers buttons in that editor to make inserting file downloads just as simple: How Downloads Look at The Front-End After
Continue readingWordPress Biratnagar Announces Plans for Ujwal Thapa Memorial Scholarship – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Earlier this week, the WordPress Biratnagar Facebook group announced a WordCamp scholarship in honor of Ujwal Thapa. The goal is to honor the legacy left behind by one of Nepal’s leaders both inside and outside of the WordPress community. Thapa passed away a month ago at age 44 from complications with COVID-19. He was a political activist, founding the Bibeksheel Nepali party, originally a peaceful movement against corruption and social injustice. He was the co-founder of WordPress Nepal, a group that has grown to 8,000 members. He was also a close friend and mentor to many in the community and helped many more launch careers in the IT industry. “After the untimely death of WordPress contributor and co-founder of WordPress Nepal Ujwal Thapa in 2021, due to COVID-19, the WordPress Biratnagar community decided on this scholarship,” wrote the WordPress Biratnagar team. “Ujwal was a dedicated patron to the WordPress community in Nepal, and the WordPress Biratnagar decided to pay applause to his memory in this way.” The scholarship will cover the following: Travel to Biratnagar from within Nepal. Hotel stay for the duration of the event. A ticket to WordCamp Biratnagar. Local transportation. Meals outside the official event. Nepal is still struggling with getting COVID-19 cases under control at the moment. The CDC lists the country as “very high” risk and recommends avoiding travel. There is no date set for a physical conference, and a WordCamp Biratnagar 2021 event is unlikely. The organizing team may not be able to grant a scholarship until next year at the earliest. WordCamp Biratnagar lead organizer Ganga Kafle said they are just waiting for the situation to return to normal but cannot be sure when that will happen. While there is no date for the next WordCamp, they are still holding regular meetups. The group is still discussing the details of the scholarship. Currently, they plan to consult with other community groups within Nepal and the global community. Any help creating and maintaining such a scholarship system would be welcome. The WordPress Biratnagar team did agree to some guidelines. Once submissions open, applicants must be Nepalese. “We believe that empowering community members is an excellent way to honor his memory and carry on his legacy,” wrote the team in its announcement. Group leaders mostly agreed to award the scholarship to those meeting the following criteria: People with disabilities. People from lower-income families. Women interested in WordPress. The group said the selection process would be completely transparent, and the awarded scholarship would be at the discretion of the current WordCamp Biratnagar organizers. Kafle said the scholarship would also be annual. The team plans to keep this going in honor of Thapa and paying respect to the man who helped jump-start many of their careers and involvement with WordPress. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingWordPress 5.8 Release Candidate Available
[ad_1] Hey, WordPress fans. We are checking in with your latest dose of weekly WordPress news. This week, the first release candidate for WordPress 5.8 is finally available. While the new version is ready, contributors can still test WordPress 5.8 features before its final release slated on July 20. Beyond that, we share some articles about what to expect from WordPress 5.8. We also have awesome tutorials and roundups for you as usual. Let’s get to all of this week’s WordPress news… WORDPRESS NEWS AND ARTICLES TUTORIALS AND HOW-TOS RESOURCES [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingWordPress Green Lights In-Person Meetup Events for Vaccinated Attendees – WP Tavern
[ad_1] After considerable discussion, the WordPress Community Team is lifting the requirements of the in-person meetup safety checklist for meetups that gather fully-vaccinated attendees. The checklist is still applicable to all meetup groups but in places where vaccines are freely available, meetup organizers can now forego its requirements if they limit gatherings to those self-reporting as fully vaccinated. When Andrea Middleton proposed adding vaccination status to the checklist in mid-May, the idea was met with a wide range of concerns and strong opinions. WordPress’ global community has experienced the pandemic in different ways, living under a spectrum of local restrictions, with disparate access to vaccines and varying responses to available vaccines. Some participants in the discussions were concerned about organizers having to request information about vaccination status from attendees, which is illegal in many places. Middleton clarified that attendance would be based on the honor system, and organizers would not be requesting any health information from individuals. “The WordPress community team is not expecting or requiring local organizers to organize in-person events for fully-vaccinated people — we’re simply removing the barrier to doing so,” she said. The decision announcement includes a flow chart for the conditions that are now in place: Middleton characterized the proposal as contentious and something that may be an unpopular decision. Participants in the discussion got heated in expressing their opinions, which varied greatly based on each person’s unique pandemic experiences and convictions. While some think it overstepping to prohibit unvaccinated people from attending meetups, others think only allowing vaccinated attendees would create a “two-tiered” meetup program. “This proposal means that multiple groups of people will no longer be allowed to attend our meetings,” Taco Verdonschot commented. “They’re limited to the meetings that are streamed online. They’re basically second class citizens in our community now. They can’t join the party, they have to watch through the window. Just this idea makes me extremely uncomfortable.” Verdonschot cited several examples of people who might be excluded by the proposal to restart meetups for vaccinated attendees: People with a low income in areas where the vaccines aren’t provided for free Younger people in countries where vaccinations are administered to the elderly first, and only slowly make their way to the younger generations (like The Netherlands) People who cannot get a vaccination for medical reasons, for example, because of known allergic reactions to vaccinations Pregnant women People with a limited immune system People whose religion doesn’t allow them to get vaccinated “I realize there are some on the team who do not agree, and I hope that these guidelines are flexible enough that you are able to disagree and commit in this case,” Middleton said in the decision announcement. “While I agree that it’s only a matter of time when fully-vaxxed-only meetups are a thing of the past, I do think it’s important to make that possible for our communities.” Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingAutomattic Releases Sketch Block for Drawing in the WordPress Editor – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Automattic released a new plugin titled Sketch Block earlier today. It is a one-off block that allows end-users to draw directly in the editor. The plugin is marked as a beta release and requires Gutenberg to be activated to use. It is a part of the company’s Block Experiments project. To be perfectly honest, I spent an excessive amount of time playing around with this block plugin today. And, if I am going overboard with that honesty, most of that time was just trying to write out my name. It was hard not to. Drawing things directly in the editor is just kind of fun. Attempts to write my name with Sketch Block. I am unsure how many practical uses the plugin actually has at its current stage, but not everything needs a purpose outside of pure entertainment. Like an embedded Block-a-saurus game and ghost-written headings, sometimes we just need reminders about the wild and whacky side of the web. We also need to experiment with new ideas from time to time, which can lead to unexpected discoveries, creating the foundation of future technological advancements. Sometimes we just need to relieve some stress and sketch out our names in a new tool. I tested the block using my laptop’s trackpad — not an ideal method for freehand drawing. Unfortunately, I did not have access to a larger touchscreen device for a more thorough test. The block offers a limited number of controls as of version 1.0.7. Users can select between three different stroke widths and choose from their theme’s color palette. The block’s height can be resized, but there seems to be a minimum of 200px. I did manage to break it a few times, running into the “This block has encountered an error and cannot be previewed” error. There also seemed to be an unknown minimum width, which could not be adjusted. My goal was to create a columnized team page with each member’s signature beneath their profile photo. However, the Sketch block kept breaking outside of my columns. In the end, I created a single-member bio section: Creating a profile card with Sketch Block The plugin is built on top of the Perfect Freehand JavaScript library. When comparing Automattic’s block implementation to the library’s demo, the plugin falls short of offering the same experience in block form. Perfect Freehand’s demo felt smoother. I was able to consistently draw with more accuracy using my laptop’s trackpad. I do not know if just the size of the drawing area made a difference or if the editor interfered with the feeling. Drawing in the Perfect Freehand demo. The JavaScript library has a ton of extra options too. Users can transform even the worst drawing into something a bit cleaner with the thinning, smoothing, streamline, and other controls. I would love to see the Sketch Block plugin integrate the full suite of tools available through Perfect Freehand. Despite a few bumps, the plugin is a solid first release for a beta project. I am eagerly waiting for what future versions have in store. I also wonder what applications it might have outside of piddling around for fun, such as notetaking or animations. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingComprehensive WordPress Vulnerability Website Scanner
[ad_1] We all know that website security is super important. Yet, Sucuri Website Hacked 2018 Report showed that 90% of the websites they scanned were infected with one or more vulnerabilities. While the WordPress core team is working tirelessly to make WordPress websites more secure, you too need to take some actions to reinforce your website’s security. In this article, I will review WPSec and will share how it can help you secure your WordPress website from thousands of vulnerabilities. WPSec Review WPSec uses deep scan technology based on WPScan to check WordPress websites for potential vulnerabilities. In addition, the service tracks and updates its database with the latest bugs and security features to make the website vulnerability scanner more robust. You don’t have to be a cybersecurity expert to use WPSec. It comes with an easy-to-use dashboard that makes running regular scans really easy. We’ll take a closer look at the dashboard later in this review. Why Secure Your WordPress Website? It does not matter if you are running an eCommerce store or a personal blog; a hacked website can cause severe damage to your business revenue and reputation. This is because hackers can use your data and confidential information like emails and passwords. On top of that, they can even install malware that can further harm your website visitors or users. In worst-case scenarios, you might end up paying ransomware to hackers just to regain access to your website. If your website does not meet the minimum security requirements, Google can even blacklist your website to protect visitors from losing their data. So to make sure Google does not end up penalizing you and your website functions appropriately, you need to pay attention to the security and protection of your users. WPSec Features Although WPSec is not a WordPress plugin, it offers many features with its vulnerability scanner to protect your website from attackers with malicious intent. Deep Scan Technology The service uses an advanced vulnerability scanner based on WPScan and their custom mechanism to check WordPress websites for any vulnerabilities. They have an extensive database of 22,000+ known vulnerabilities for WordPress websites, and more discovered bugs and security features are added to this list frequently. All-in-one Dashboard If you are managing multiple websites, keeping track of all websites individually can be a real challenge. With WPSec’s all-in-one dashboard, you can keep an eye on all your websites from a single space. You just need to add the website once, and your website will automatically be scanned for vulnerabilities regularly. Article Continues Below Instant Scans Scanning websites for vulnerabilities on WPSec is pretty straightforward. You simply need to enter the website URL, and it will be scanned automatically. If you want, you can get access to the report for free on WPSec’s homepage. Automatic Scans Not just quick scans, if you want to check if your website is safe or not regularly, you can automate the scans, and all the websites in your accounts will get scanned based on the scan frequency you set. Push Notifications The service will tell you via emails and webhooks that you need to update your WordPress website. You do not even have to be logged in to receive push notifications. Advanced Reports Once you have scanned your website for possible vulnerabilities, you will get a report stating all the improvements. The reports are easy to understand and clearly mentions what is wrong and how you can fix the issue. No Load on Website Most website vulnerability testing tools are plugin-based, which requires them to be installed on the website to function. This can add unnecessary weight and slow down your websites. While the difference is not that huge, for high-traffic websites like eCommerce sites, even a 10-millisecond improvement can boost the conversion rate. Hands-On with WPSec In this section, I’ll give WPSec’s pro version a test run and will check out its various features. Let’s dive in! Since WPSec is not a WordPress plugin, you do not need to install it. With both free and premium versions, you get access to WPSec’s dashboard. For the premium version, the dashboard looks like this: A clean and minimal layout with important details about website security on the homepage along with a left navigation section allows you to open different tabs. Let’s check out each tab. Dashboard Here you get a quick overview of all your websites, such as secure and vulnerable websites, as well as total scans performed. You also get an onboarding tab that helps you with onboarding. The second tab shows collective data with a chart on how most websites are hacked. Lastly, you get a quick link to enable or manage push notifications. More on this later. Article Continues Below Manage Scans Manage scans tab shows the websites submitted to the scanning engine. You can even add more websites with the “Add WordPress Site +” button. For every website, you get information like name, URL, date added, last scan, status, and link to view the last report for every website. View Reports To check the security reports of your website scans, you need to check the View Reports tab. You will find a list of all reports in chronological order. If you want to see the report for a specific scan, just click on the version — Web, PDF, JSON. Schedule As the name says, this tab helps you set the scan schedule for your websites. You can select between daily, weekly, or monthly scan cycles. Status In the status tab, you can get information about the checks and backend uptime. In addition, all new vulnerabilities added and bugs addressed gets added here. API Most probably, you wouldn’t be visiting this tab that often, but if you want to receive notifications about your websites’ security problems, you can set them up here. You can directly integrate them yourself, or you can use apps like Zapier or Slack to receive the JSON webhooks. Adding a New Website for Scheduled Scans Adding
Continue readingAdd Editor-Only Notes via the Markdown Comment Block WordPress Plugin – WP Tavern
[ad_1] Rich Tabor, the Senior Product Manager of WordPress Experience at GoDaddy, tweeted that he had an idea for a new block at the end of last week. Shortly after, the Markdown Comment Block plugin appeared on WordPress.org. The plugin is a one-off block. It allows users to enter notes directly into the post editor that will not appear on the front end of the site. Tabor said he came up with the idea when working on an article for building single-block plugins. There are few things I love more than simple plugins with a tight focus, performing a single function. Markdown Comment Block lands in this category. The plugin creates a new block that works nearly the same as a typical Paragraph block: Adding inline comments to a post. Users can change the text color, but they will not have access to the typical Rich Text controls. Those should be unnecessary anyway. As someone who does long-form writing almost exclusively in Markdown, the block’s use of the double percent-sign syntax for comments intrigued me. Technically, the Markdown spec does not support any sort of special characters for them. It handles HTML comments. However, those appear in the source code on the front end when the document is rendered. I have only seen the %% mark to denote comments in the Inspire Writer app for Windows. Tabor said he had seen the same in Ulysses. The feature also exists in the Iceberg editor for WordPress, which Tabor created alongside Jeffrey Carandang. The plugin also introduces the %% keyboard shortcut. Typing it directly in the editor will create a new Markdown Comment block. My primary use case for the plugin would be leaving notes for my later self. However, it could also be handy in users’ publishing flows. The block adds a “Resolve” button to the toolbar. Clicking it deletes the comment. Clicking the “Resolve” button will delete the block. The block itself will not likely offer a robust enough feature set for complex workflows. However, pairing it with a plugin like Post Descriptions could round out the experience for larger teams of writers and copyeditors. The Post Descriptions plugin allows users to add notes on the post level. These notes appear on the post-management screen, letting other team members know when to check an article. However, it may be hard to provide the full context of what issues need to be resolved before publishing. Markdown Comment Block adds an inline comments system, letting team members pass in-text notes. Theme developers should appreciate that the block uses CSS custom properties too, which makes it easy to overwrite its default style rules. In moments, I was able to make it match my theme: Custom color, font, and line-height styles. The –markdown-comment-font-size, –markdown-comment-line-height, and –markdown-comment-color variables are available for theme developers who want to add in support. The one complaint I had about the block is its title: “Comment.” It is easy to confuse it with the six other comment-related blocks already in the WordPress block list. And, there will only be more in upcoming versions. Giving it a title of “Markdown Comment” would better distinguish it from others. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue readingWhat is a WordPress Slug? An In-Depth Guide to Setting and Editing a WordPress Slug
[ad_1] It’s surprising how even a small aspect of your site has an impact. The way you set your URLs can make or break your site in some areas. For example, consider the WordPress ‘slug’ you use for each post and page on your website. It may seem unimportant, but the slug of your URL opens the door to better Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It also gives users a human-readable way of getting the context of your site. As such, this post will focus on the topic of WordPress slugs. We’ll also show you how to optimize them, to exract the maximum value. What a WordPress Slug Is In short, a WordPress slug is the portion of your URL that comes after the main domain name. For example, consider our recent Kadence theme review post: It’s a piece of identification for your post or page, and it gets its name due to its size. Though, your home page won’t ever have a slug, as that’s identified by your primary domain name. In some cases, a post or page may have multiple slugs. Consider taxonomies such as category and tag archives, and author pages: The lines get blurred here and there, because some aspects of a URL may or may not be related to the slug. On the whole, you have full control over every slug for your WordPress website. What’s more, you should exercise that control, because slugs have an important role to play. Let’s discuss this next. Why a WordPress Slug Is Important It may seem a minor concern, but a WordPress slug can help you in a few major ways: You’re able to give your post or page an SEO boost (more of which later). It offers a human-readable element that helps visitors decide if they want to click through to a post or page. You can offer a concise version of a longer post title. Again, this impact readability and context. Given the above, it’s a good idea to work on your WordPress slugs at the point of creating a post or page. We’ll have more to say on this throughout the article. For now, let’s focus on the SEO benefits you’ll get from slugs. How a WordPress Slug Can Impact Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) The main positive to working with WordPress slugs is how they can improve your SEO. Of course, the better your SEO, the greater the traffic you receive. As such, you’ll get a few benefits from optimizing your WordPress slugs: Search engine crawlers will be able to parse your content quicker. This is because a slug is clear and defined. You’ll be able to rank for the right keywords with a higher success rate. Again, the clarity of a slug means it’s as keyword-rich as possible (if you optimize it well). As we noted earlier, a well-optimized slug can help visitors ascertain what your post is about. The traffic and click-throughs that result means better metrics for your site. This will have a knock-on effect to your SEO. In a nutshell, getting your WordPress slug in an optimal condition is going to help you win the SEO battle on multiple fronts. Let’s take some time to discuss the best way to do this before showing you how to edit slugs. How to Optimize a WordPress Slug Setting a slug is not a case of letting WordPress handle the process and sitting back. While WordPress does generate a slug for you once you create a new page, it’s not going to be optimal. The good news is there are a few solid practices to consider, and they’re easy to implement: Keep the slug short. A WordPress slug should be around three to five words in length. Use your focus keyword. It seems obvious, but your slug should contain your post’s focus keyword or phrase. Only use lowercase letters. Much like filenames, keep a slug lowercase, and use hyphens to separate words rather than other punctuation. Add focus where necessary. If you’re using the focus keyword for the post or page, you’ll have natural focus in your slug. Even so, look to remove all superfluous words from your slug, so that the focus of the content is clear. Use ‘function words’ if required. Words such as “a” and “the” aren’t required in your slug, unless they help add clarity and focus. Keep the slug evergreen. In other words, don’t add time-specific elements such as the year to a slug. This helps you update a post later without changing the URL of the post. This may seem a lot, but each elements gets you close to the ultimate optimal WordPress slug. Regardless, this knowledge isn’t useful if you don’t know how to edit slugs. Let’s discuss this next. How to Edit WordPress Slugs Before we get onto specific editing steps, it’s worth seeing how WordPress helps you to generate slugs in the first place. To do this, head to the Settings > Permalinks page within your WordPress dashboard: Setting your permalink structure is one of the first tasks you should tackle when starting a site. This is because getting your URL and slug structures right from the start is better for you and your SEO. There are lots of ‘tags’ available to help you set a suitable structure, but %postname% is your slug for all intents and purposes. In previous versions of WordPress, you would have to make a change before you did anything else on your site. Though, the development team realized that the Post name permalink structure is ideal. As such, it’s now the default setting for your permalinks. When it comes to individual slugs though, there’s a different approach. As we noted, WordPress generates slugs for every post page, taxonomy, and author you create. This isn’t going to be optimal in most cases, so we have work to do. Let’s start with your posts and pages. Editing Slugs for Posts and Pages There are a few places to edit WordPress slugs
Continue readingBuddyPress 9.0 Scheduled for Short Development Cycle to Ship Block-Based Widgets Ahead of WordPress 5.8 – WP Tavern
[ad_1] BuddyPress 8.0 was just released earlier this month on June 6, but the core development team is gearing up for a short development cycle for 9.0. The release will be specifically targeted at getting BuddyPress core widgets ready for WordPress 5.8’s new block widgets experience. Contributors are aiming to hit the following timeline to ship 9.0 before the next major WordPress release: Beta: July 8. RC: July 12. Final: July 16 BuddyPress entered the world of blocks with the release of version 6.0 in May 2020, allowing users to insert a specific Member or Group into content. Version 7.0, released six months later, introduced blocks for featuring a list of members, a list of groups, and the ability to embed a public activity post. Over the next few weeks, BuddyPress contributors will continue the process of migrating the rest of the BuddyPress component widgets to blocks. These include the following: Blogs Recent Posts Widget: A list of recently published posts from across the network BP Core Login Widget: Shows a Log In form to logged-out visitors, and a Log Out link to those who are logged in BP Core Friends Widget: A dynamic list of recently active, popular, and newest Friends of the displayed member. Widget is only shown when viewing a member profile BP Groups Widget: A dynamic list of recently active, popular, newest, or alphabetical groups BP Core Members Widget: A dynamic list of recently active, popular, and newest members BP Core Recently Active Widget: Profile photos of recently active members BP Core Who’s Online Widget: Profile photos of online users BP Messages Sitewide Notices Widget: Display Sitewide Notices posted by the site administrator BP Nouveau widgets: BP Latest Activities: Display the latest updates of your community having the types of your choice BP Nouveau Navigation Widget: Displays BuddyPress primary nav in the sidebar of the site. (Must be used as the first widget of the sidebar and only once.) In addition to building a block for every BuddyPress widget, contributors are aiming to make it possible to transform existing BP widgets into their corresponding BP block. With the new block widgets screen imminently landing in WordPress, BuddyPress has to make this move forward to keep pace with the progress of the block editor’s march beyond use in the content editor. Otherwise, BuddyPress users would need to disable block widgets with the Classic Widgets plugin in order to maintain access to BuddyPress core widgets. Contributors are also working on creating a new Follow component, a frequently requested feature which would use the now abandoned BuddyPress Follow plugin as inspiration. The feature will work similar to Twitter following or the Facebook follow button that allows users to see public activity posts for those they are following. The Follow component is being built as a plugin first and will ship with 9.0 if it is ready in time. Like this: Like Loading… [ad_2] Source link
Continue reading