Well, actually, almost no-one makes calls nowadays. If the plaster cracks or there’s some decorating to do, most people simply search online for a handyman or tradesperson.

In other words, maintaining a great website is incredibly important if you offer home improvement and repair services. In fact, the design of your homepage can be the difference between being booked out, and struggling to find work.

To help you build a compelling online presence, here’s a roundup of the best WordPress themes for your handyman website.

Best WordPress Themes for Handyman Services

One key benefit of powering your business website with WordPress is that you have thousands of great themes to choose from. The tricky part is finding the right design for your brand.

This handpicked list contains various themes, from highly specialized designs to multi-purpose options. But every single entry offers the kind of functionality you need for promoting a trade business, with a head-turning design to match!

1) Terri: Best Theme Designed for Tradespeople

Designed explicitly for handymen, decorators, plumbers, and other tradespeople, Terri provides a solid start to our roundup.

This responsive and Retina-ready theme includes a slick homepage slider, containing a form for inquiries from potential customers. The one-click demo helps you get set up in minutes, and you can customize the color and fonts of the design.

We also like that this theme works with Yoast SEO, meaning you can easily optimize your content for search engines.

Key Features:

• Frontpage slider with built-in inquiry form
• Works with Google Fonts, Contact Form 7, and Yoast SEO
• Responsive design and one-click demo template

Pricing: $49 one-time purchase

2) RenoWise: Best Theme for Multiple Trades 

With nine different pre-built templates for different trades, RenoWise is a versatile theme that can work for various service websites.

The collection of templates covers painting, flooring, renovation, carpentry, and more. Each version comes with relevant imagery, and the layout of each template is honed for that particular trade.

The other great thing about this theme is the built-in features, like a cost calculator for estimates, and an element that shows homes before and after you have completed your work.

Key Features:

• Fast to load and SEO-friendly
• Nine templates for different trades
• Unique features incl. cost calculator and before/after image slider

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

3) Constructor: Best Drag-and-Drop Theme for Handyman Websites

Although Constructor comes with pre-made designs for tradespeople, this theme stands out because you can create something unique.

The content builder feature allows you to design individual pages using drag-and-drop controls. You have a variety of modules to choose from, including client testimonials and example projects. On top of this, Constructor lets you select your own color scheme and typography via the WordPress Customizer.

This theme also offers up loads of layouts, shortcodes, social media integrations, and scrolling effects. Unsurprisingly, it’s not the fastest theme here, but it’s definitely one of the most powerful.

Key Features:

• Drag-and-drop content builder with customer review modules
• Color and font options via WordPress Customizer
• Pre-built templates for trade businesses

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

4) ProRange: Best Theme for Home Decorators

With attractive colors and a clean layout, ProRange should appeal to homeowners looking for a handyman with some finesse. This theme is aimed at home decorators, and it actually feels a bit like a paint catalog.

Of course, this is only the default setup. ProRange provides over 750 customization options, so you can make it your own. You can move things around using the WPBakery Page Builder, as well.

Other integrations include Contact Form 7, MailChimp, and WooCommerce — basically everything you need for promoting your company.

Key Features:

• Modern take on web design
• Over 750 customization options
• Works with WPBakery Page Builder, Contact Form 7, MailChimp, WooCommerce, and more

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

5) BlueCollar: Best Theme for Multiple Home Services

Highly rated by Envato customers, BlueCollar is a no-nonsense theme that is well suited to small businesses.

The overall design is clean and professional, with clickable sections for your various services. Using the WPBakery Page Builder, you can also add sections for testimonials, your team, FAQs, your previous work, and your blog. You have the option to choose your color scheme, too.

But other than that, BlueCollar keeps things simple and user friendly. The underlying code is pretty clean, and you can disable any post types you don’t need.

Key Features:

• Clean, professional design
• Multiple post types incl. people, FAQs, galleries, and services
• Drag-and-drop editing via WPBakery Page Builder

Pricing: $49 one-time purchase

6) Renovate: Most Powerful Theme for Home Repair Websites

It would be fair to say that Renovate is a theme that is packed with functionality. It comes with a variety of great page builder templates, several premium plugins, and a design that is optimized for sales.

This theme is pleasing on an aesthetic level, as well. All of the default modules are clean and uncluttered, with roomy tables for pricing estimates and colorful tabs that store longer descriptions.

Plus, you can set up your own online store for accessories and service packages.

Key Features:

• Page builder, slider, and cost calculator plugins included
• 20+ page builder templates
• Unlimited custom menus and sidebars

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

7) ProHauz: Best Theme for Home Improvement Services

With six full-site templates for home improvement and maintenance services, ProHauz is a theme that you can use straight out of the box.

The pre-made designs are packed with visual interest, and you have plenty of space to insert your own images and promote your own products. In fact, you can make a pretty compelling one-page website with this theme.

If you want to create something with more depth, you have multiple headers and layouts to play with, and more than 20 elements.

Key Features:

• 6 full-site templates for home improvement services
• Highly visual design with images, icons, and parallax scrolling
• Over 20 individual elements available

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

8) Constructo: Best Theme for Building Service Websites

Even though Constucto is more aimed at construction firms, this theme can definitely work for other services and trades.

It comes with 11 pre-made demos, each with a large hero image or slider to catch the attention of potential clients. In the admin area, you will find a rich selection of customization options, and you can transform any page using Visual Composer plugin.

We particularly like the fact that this theme is 100% responsive. If someone stumbles upon your professional website on their phone, they should be able to navigate easily.

Key Features:

• 11 pre-made demos for different services
• Works with Visual Composer plugin and WooCommerce
• Design is 100% responsive and easy to customize

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

9) Plumbing: Best Theme for Handyman Plumbers

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Plumbing is one of the cleanest themes on this list. It practically sparkles like white bathroom tiles.

Just as importantly, this dazzling theme comes with three pristine site templates, an assortment of page designs, and some really useful lead generation features.

For example, this theme allows you to set up online bookings, build your own pricing tables, and fill out ready-made testimonial blocks. It works with Elementor and WooCommerce, as well.

Key Features:

• Clean, white design with three demo templates
• Online booking system, ecommerce options, testimonials
• Works with Elementor, MailChimp, and WooCommerce

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

10) MrFix: Most Versatile Theme for Home Repair Services

With 60 pre-built elements and a striking default color scheme, MrFix delivers a generous helping of professional polish.

This particular theme is designed for appliance repair businesses, but it can work for a variety of services. The package includes three homepage designs, each with a strong call-to-action. You can drag and drop modules into any order, and change the colors as you see fit.

In the admin area, MrFix helps you with SEO. The theme has been optimized for search, and it has built-in fields for your meta description, site title, and more.

Key Features:

• 3 homepage layouts and 60 pre-built elements
• Strong call to action in default designs
• Good SEO features

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

11) Boldman: Best Theme Builder Template for Tradespeople

Want to try your hand at website design? Boldman is a theme for tradespeople that works with both Elementor and WPBakery — two popular drag-and-drop page builders.

In fact, this highly rated theme enhances these plugins with over 70 custom elements, and builders for both headers and footers. You also have plenty of layouts to choose from.

If all that customization sounds like hard work, Boldman provides an easier option. With over 100 full-site templates and 25 page demos, it’s easy to see why this theme is popular with business owners.

Key Features:

• Extended support for Elementor and WPBakery page builders
• Over 70 custom elements and 100 full-site templates
• Support for WooCommerce online stores

Pricing: $66 one-time purchase

12) Renovation: Best Page Builder Theme for Construction

If you’re definitely going to use a page builder, you might want to consider using the Renovation theme. It was designed specifically for use with Elementor and WPBakery.

This theme gives you seven different homepage layouts to work with, along with three different blog layouts and 14 page templates. Each design can be rearranged using your chosen page builder, and you can build your own headers and footers.

The default look here is slick, if a little uninspiring. But it’s easy enough to change things up using the various theme options.

Key Features:

• Designed for Elementor and WPBakery page builders
• 7 homepage designs and 3 blog layouts
• Support for WooCommerce, Google Fonts, and Contact Form 7

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

13) Construction: Best Full-Screen Theme for Trade Websites

While the Construction theme offers a variety of more standard layouts, the main attraction here is the full-screen homepage.

This design allows you to display a large image related to your work, supplemented with blocks that contain key links. It’s a super-engaging template that should deliver plenty of leads.

Aside from this particular layout, you have multiple homepage designs, page templates, headers, and footers to experiment with. And as a bonus, this theme even comes with a couple of useful SEO plugins.

Key Features:

• Full screen homepage layout and other options
• Works with Elementor and WPBakery
• Fast to load, and SEO plugins included

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

14) ElectroServ: Best Theme for Electrical Services

If your trade is electrical services, ElectroServ would make a good choice for your professional website. It would actually work well for almost any trade.

As with many other themes on this list, you get page builder features, loads of pre-made templates, and plenty of customization options. The design is simple but effective, and ElectroServ works with third-party plugins like MailChimp and Visual Composer.

We also like how easily you can set up online bookings with this theme, and create good-looking forms.

Key Features:

• Page builder features and pre-made templates
• Works with MailChimp, Visual Composer, and Contact Form 7
• Easily set up online booking and contact forms

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

15) SturdyFix: Best Ready-Made Theme for Handyman Websites

While SturdyFix does work with the Elementor page builder, the real advantage of this theme comes from the ready-made templates.

All of the designs are modern and clean, with premium stock images included. This means you can publish your new site with minimal editing.

Of course, you can still adjust the colors and fonts if you want. SturdyFix also provides an extensive menu of widgets and shortcodes, including a testimonials list and a box for listing your service areas.

Key Features:

• Full-site templates with images included
• Extensive shortcodes and widgets
• Compatible with Elementor

Pricing: $79 one-time purchase

16) Yellow Hats: Best Theme for Construction Business Websites

Yellow Hats is primarily aimed at the construction industry. It comes with 35 full-site demos, each with an appealing full-width slider and prominent CTAs.

These layouts are designed using a huge array of reusable UI elements, which you can place anywhere using the Visual Composer page builder. More than 350 of these modules are available, each with its own settings.

Yellow Hats also offers loads of different menu options, several blog layouts, 15 slider presets, and plenty of theme options.

Key Features:

• 35 full-site demos and 350 UI elements
• Works with Visual Composer and WooCommerce
• Multiple homepage, menu, and blog layouts

Pricing: $49 one-time purchase

17) Fixtor: Best Modern Theme for Handyman Services

There is nothing particularly flashy about Fixtor — and that’s precisely why we like it.

This theme applies the principles of modern web design in a package that is perfect for sole traders and small home maintenance firms. The five different homepage templates are clean and efficient, with your business phone number displayed prominently or a link to your contact page.

Another nice feature is the visual layout on the services page. Using small squares in a grid, you can easily show off your talents and add some details.

Key Features:

• Clean, modern design with compelling layouts and white space
• Works with Elementor, MailChimp, and WooCommerce
• Search optimization and social media integrations

Pricing: $49 one-time purchase

18) Sway: Best Multipurpose Theme for Tradespeople 

You don’t necessarily need a specialized template to make a great website. Sway is a general small business theme that you can adapt to your trade, and it will look fantastic.

This theme comes with over 300 template blocks and 50 content elements, which you can piece together using the WPBakery page builder. The default styling is impeccable, and extensive theme options allow you to make any number of changes.

With 18 portfolio layouts and four project templates, Sway also helps you to showcase your previous work.

Key Features:

• Page builder with 300 elements and 50 content blocks
• Numerous blog, portfolio, and online store templates
• 45 full-site designs

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

19) Handyman: Best Responsive Theme for Repair Service Websites

Pretty desktop themes are great, but more than half of people now search on mobile devices. The Handyman theme will put you in prime position to catch those potential clients.

Based on Visual Composer code, the layout of this theme adapts beautifully to smaller screens, with swipe controls and mobile-friendly sliders.

The search optimization of this theme is another strength, and you get a nice selection of custom widgets to spice up footers and sidebars.

Key Features:

• Responsive design with strong mobile optimization
• SEO and ecommerce features
• Various homepage layouts, built with Visual Composer

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

20) HomeCare: Best One-Click Handyman Website Theme

If you want to create a site without putting in hours of effort, HomeCare is worth your attention.

Based on Elementor and a collection of other plugins, this theme allows you to install a clean, responsive template with a couple of clicks. You get multiple ready-made pages to choose from, and you can even use the stock images from the default design.

In terms of functionality, you can build your email list with MailChimp and set up shop with Ecwid.

Key Features:

• Ready to publish in a couple of clicks
• Easy to adapt using Elementor
• SEO friendly and responsive

Pricing: $67 one-time purchase

Best Free Themes for Handyman Service Websites

Don’t fancy paying for a premium theme? You’re in luck. The following five themes are all completely free, and they offer many of the same features as the premium themes above.

21) Chique Construction: Best Free Handyman Theme with Slider

If you compare Chique Construction with many premium themes on this list, you probably won’t notice much difference.

A child theme of the Chique theme, this freebie has a stylish image slider at the top of the homepage, and sections for testimonials and portfolio projects. It’s also responsive, and you get a decent selection of theme options.

Key Features:

• Great homepage slider
• Testimonial and portfolio content types
• Responsive design with theme options

22) Building Construction Architecture: Free Bootstrap Theme for Handyman Websites

It might not have the catchiest name, but Building Construction Architecture is a solid free choice for any trade business.

Based on Bizberg, this child theme uses the Bootstrap framework to adapt to different devices and browsers. The base design is pretty straightforward and modern, and support for Elementor means you can make it your own.

Key Features:

• Responsive design based on the Bootstrap framework
• SEO friendly
• Works with Elementor

23) Construction Kit: Best Free Page Builder Theme for Tradespeople

At first glance, Construction Kit seems like a very simple theme. But because it works with a long list of page builders, anyone can turn it into something special.

You can use this theme with Elementor, Beaver Builder, Brizy, KingComposer, and other similar apps. The responsive design works well on mobile devices, and WooCommerce support means you can set up your own online store.

Key Features:

• Works with most page builder plugins
• SEO friendly and responsive
• Supports WooCommerce

24) Blocksy: Best Free Lightweight Theme for Handyman Websites

This all-purpose theme is free, incredibly fast, and optimized for page builders.

You don’t necessarily need to use a drag-and-drop editor to get the most out of Blocksy. The basic design is super clean, and you can import various starter sites with the one-click installation.

If you’re happy to be more involved with the design process, you can work with Gutenberg, Brizy, Elementor, or Beaver Builder.

Key Features:

• Very impressive speed
• One-click starter sites available
• Works with Brizy, Elementor, and Beaver Builder

25) Construction Landing Page: Free Handyman Theme for Inquiries

Many free themes skip the features that make WordPress useful for business. Not so with Construction Landing Page.

This speedy, responsive theme slaps an inquiry form at the top of your homepage, meaning potential clients don’t have to navigate to make contact.

Visitors who want more information can visit your services and client sections, and you can build a stylish little portfolio with this theme. It has great user reviews, too.

Key Features:

• Fast and responsive design
• Call-to-action on default homepage
• Portfolio, services, and client sections

How to Build a Great Handyman Website

Of course, choosing a theme is only part of the process of setting up your site. Here’s a quick guide to building the best handyman website the world has ever seen:

• Grab a memorable domain — Register a domain that matches the name of your business. Alternatively, choose something short, snappy, and memorable.
• Find a reliable hosting provider — Dreamhost offers hosting with a 100% uptime guarantee, and some of our packages come with WordPress pre-installed.
• Optimize your site — From theme options to the site title, it’s worth taking some time to get your new WordPress website set up correctly.
• Choose your pages — You don’t need a million pages to have a great website. But for a handyman or trade business, we would recommend having services and contact pages, as a minimum.
• Decorate your site with high-quality images — It’s easy to ruin a beautiful theme with bad photos. On the flip side, adding high-quality images to your website can really grab the attention of visitors.
• Take advantage of plugins — Check out the WordPress plugin directory for instant upgrades to security, performance, SEO, and much more.
• Highlight your results — In writing and pictures, make sure to talk about what you have achieved for previous customers. You can mention years of experience, but people mainly want to know about results.

Complete each of the steps mentioned above, and you should be near to publishing your handyman or trade website. The whole process shouldn’t take you longer than a few hours; our guide to WordPress will help you with the details.

If you get stuck, remember that DreamHost is here to simplify this process for you. From WordPress hosting and custom web design to SEO and website management, our team of in-house experts can help you build the ultimate online brand.

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DreamPress Plus and Pro users get access to Jetpack Professional (and 200+ premium themes) at no added cost!

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The post 25 WordPress Themes Perfect for Your Handyman Website appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

For any writer trying to build an audience or attract professional clients, a good author website is essential.

Many writers choose to create their digital presence with WordPress. It’s easy to use and optimized for publishing, after all.

If you decide to follow this path, you will need to select a design. But with thousands of WordPress themes aimed at authors and journalists, the options can feel overwhelming.

To help you narrow down the options, we have searched high and low for the best themes for writers. Here are our top picks!

Best Themes for Authors and Novelists

To start our roundup, let’s keep it literary. The following themes are all good choices if you want to promote your author brand and sell your latest books in style.

1) Astra: Best Author Theme for Customization

Optimized for the WordPress Site Editor and third-party page builders, Astra provides a complete no-code design package.

The base theme is very clean and readable, and Pro users can choose their own fonts and colors. If you’re looking to save time, Astra Pro includes a library of 180 full-site templates.

Another key feature of Astra is performance. With a load time of half a second, you won’t keep your readers waiting.

Key Features:

• Lots of customization options
• Works with most popular site builders
• Lightweight theme with strong performance

Price: Free, Astra Pro from $47/year or $227 lifetime license

2) BookWise: Best Theme Template for Selling Books

BookWise isn’t strictly a standalone theme — it’s actually one of the default setups for the Thrive Theme builder. Much like Astra, this gives you the option to build out your own design or choose something from a vast template library.

The difference here is that the blocks and templates are aimed at authors, so you can create sections for reviews, characters, purchase links, and more.

This template’s focus is mainly on selling books. It lets you easily promote author events, and set up your own online store.

Key features:

• Drag-and-drop customization
• Template library with designs aimed at authors
• Events and e-commerce features baked in

Pricing: $99 as part of the Thrive Theme Builder

3) MyBook: Best Theme for Promoting Your Latest Release

This theme has a homepage design that really helps show off your latest title. It also includes an author bio section, and an area for placing your affiliate ecommerce links (e.g. Amazon, Bookshop).

If you prefer to sell your book via your own site, MyBook is compatible with WooCommerce. In addition, a built-in email newsletter feature makes it easy to keep in touch with your audience, and reusable content blocks allow you to build custom portfolio pages.

Key Features:

• Front page design that displays a book cover
• WooCommerce support for selling direct
• Newsletter integrations for building your email list

Price: $49 one-time purchase

4) Book: Best Author Theme for Promoting eBooks

Made for selling digital titles, Book is a premium theme that provides a visually appealing landing page design.

The default layout is made for promoting ebook titles, but you can use the built-in theme builder to create your design. This theme comes with FontAwesome and Google Fonts ready to use, as well.

You can find many more customization options behind the scenes. Given all these options, we appreciate the incredibly thorough documentation that comes with this theme.

Key features:

• Theme builder and customization options
• Strong landing page design with call-to-action
• Native support for Google Fonts, FontAwesome, MailChimp, and Twitter

Pricing:  $59 one-time purchase

5) Read WP: Best Author Theme for Readability

With an excellent choice of fonts and plenty of negative space, this premium theme is perfect for any of the minimalists among us.

If you find yourself wanting to change things up though, Read WP provides access to 600 Google Fonts and three different layouts. Professional writers will appreciate the portfolio feature, and the design is fully responsive — so it looks the part on all devices.

Key Features:

• Elegant typography that highlights your writing
• Three different blog layouts
• Dedicated portfolio section

Price: $49 one-time purchase

6) Book Author: Best Theme for Self Publishers

There’s something about the Book Author theme that feels very Penguin Classics. Perhaps it’s the bold scheme, or the particular way in which at which the books are displayed.

Nevertheless, this theme is certainly aimed at self-publishing authors — particularly folks with multiple titles or a book series. The design is crisp, with six possible layouts, an advanced homepage slider, and the ability to create an online catalog. Plus, you can sell digital downloads of your various works.

Key features:

• Multiple layouts
• Huge array of cataloging and ecommerce options
• Easy to customize with colors and fonts

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

7) Gindur: Best Theme for Online Novels

And now, for something a little different.

Gindur features medieval inspired typography, but the design is cutting-edge — Built for publishing stories, this theme is both responsive and Retina-ready. It’s snappy as all get out, too.

Most aspects of Gindur are customizable, so you can easily swap out that ornate blackletter font if you’d like. Meanwhile, built-in SEO optimization could help give you a head start on other writers in your genre.

Key features:

• Set up for online publishing
• Responsive, Retina-ready, and fast to load
• SEO optimization

Pricing: $39 one-time purchase

8) Book Landing Page: Best Free Theme for Authors

If you only want a simple one-page website to promote your writing, the free version of Book Landing Page might cover your needs.

The design of this theme lets you show off a single title alongside a big old buy button. Further down the page, you have seven sections to play with, including a tabbed box for preview snippets. It feels best suited to non-fiction titles, but you could use it for any type of book.

While it’s not the most visually distinctive template on this list, you really can’t complain for the low low price of $0.

Key features:

• Seven home page sections
• Social media integration and search optimization
• Ready for translation

Pricing: Free, with Premium upgrade available for $59

9) Novela: Best Author Theme for Readers

This innovative theme allows you to create immersive previews of your ebooks, complete with page-turning animations.

The default landing page is pretty striking, too, with a big background image and parallax scrolling effects. Just as importantly, you have sections for your author bio, and for introducing your characters.

On the business side, Novela allows you to set up and sell digital downloads. In fact, the whole theme is really optimized for ebook sales.

Key Features:

• Unique book-like preview mode
• Optimized for digital downloads
• Visually striking design with loads of customization options

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

10) Leona: The Most Powerful Theme for Authors

Featuring a dazzling assortment of shortcodes and widgets, Leona is perhaps the most powerful author focused theme in this list.

That’s not the only thing we like — this theme offers WooCommerce and MailChimp integrations, social media widgets, Google Fonts support, and a preview mode similar to the one in Novela.

Just as importantly, the design of Leona is crisp, contemporary, and completely responsive.

Key features:

• Loads of shortcodes and widgets built in
• Integrates with MailChimp, WooCommerce, and Twitter
• Modern design and excellent documentation

Pricing: $64 one-time purchase

11) Bookory: Best Online Book Store Theme

If you’re trying to create more of an online store than just another author site, consider using Bookory.

This theme allows you to choose from five handsome front page designs, each carefully honed for ecommerce. You also get five product page layouts to choose from, and dedicated templates for your author page.

Bookory lets you get even more creative via the Elementor theme builder. That said, you might want to stick with the default options, as this theme has a good PageSpeed score out of the box.

Key Features:

• Slick, responsive ecommerce store design
• Multiple front page and product page templates
• Works with WooCommerce and Elementor

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

12) Auteur: Best Blogging Theme for Authors

Blogging can be a good way to promote your next book and encourage interactions with readers. But not all blogging themes are suited to selling books.

Auteur bridges this gap with 10 stylish blogging layouts and three commerce designs. It also has everything you would expect from a dedicated author theme, such as email signup forms, individual book pages, and author bio sections.

If you want to go off-piste, Auteur lets you build layouts via the WPBakery Plugin. This makes it a little more complex to use than some other themes — and somewhat less performant if you go too wild with the page builder — but it is still very flexible.

Key Features:

• Layouts for books, blogging, and ecommerce
• Block-based theme building options
• Integrations with WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, and MailChimp

Pricing: $60 one-time purchase

13) ChapterOne: Best Page Builder Theme for Authors

For authors who want to build a website that stands out from the crowd, ChapterOne could be a good purchase.

Although this theme is really aimed at publishers, there is plenty to interest individual writers. The front page gives you ample opportunities to show off your new book and older titles. You can also set up shop with support for digital editions and even audiobooks.

Flexibility is another strength of ChapterOne, with over 800 Google Fonts, multiple blog layouts and header types, and plenty of useful shortcodes.

Key Features:

• Several homepage designs, each optimized for promoting books
• Contemporary design that can be customized
• Powerful ecommerce templates including various media types

Pricing: $79 one-time purchase

14) Brooklyn: Best One-Click Theme for Authors

Although Brooklyn offers a bewildering array of customization options, this theme makes it easy to set up an author site.

This is due to the 52 ready-made site templates that come free with the theme. In the library, you will find some great options for building your site, and you can install each design with just a click.

If you want to make adjustments, Brooklyn gives you 60 blocks to play with and over 100 customization panels to explore. It even has an advanced slider maker.

It all might be a bit overwhelming for first-time WordPress users, but power users will love it.

Key Features:

• 52 ready-made site templates
• Block-based page builder with 60 elements
• Over 2,500 individual customization options

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

15) Bridge: Author Theme With the Most Features

Designed for creatives, Bridge is another theme that packs in a phenomenal number of features. And as with Brooklyn, you have plenty of ready-made demo sites to choose from.

If you prefer to build something yourself, this theme works with two page builders. With over 200 individual elements at your disposal, you should be able to cook up something special.

This all comes in addition to e-commerce features, full integration with your social media profiles, interactive tours, powerful search, and much more.

Key Features:

• Works with two page builders, includes 200 elements
• 610 one-click demo sites
• Ecommerce, social media, and search features

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

Best Themes for Bloggers and Journalists

Of course, not every writer wants to be a New York Times bestselling author.

If you’re more interested in blogging, journaling, or journalism, the following themes should be a good fit for your online presence.

16) Typology: Best Minimalist Theme for Writers

If you really want your words to shine, Typology could be the theme for you.

The design is much more stripped back in comparison to some other themes on this list, but there is still plenty of visual impact, thanks to bold color choices.

You can change those colors if you want, and the theme provides plenty of control over ​​typography. Plus, you can’t forget the impressive performance.

Key features:

• Minimalist yet bold design with focus on written content
• Well suited to blogs, with ad units included
• Strong performance and SEO optimization

Pricing: $59 one-time purchase

17) Maktub: Best Magazine-Style Theme

At the other end of the web design spectrum, you will find Maktub. This colorful theme delivers content with some visual punch, although the focus is still on typography.

This is also a theme built for speed. It has a perfect PageSpeed score of 100, and MakTub is optimized for AMP. This functionality could be very valuable if you’re trying to attract new readers.

On top of this lightweight frame, you can add 11 custom widgets and customize various parts of the theme — with only one plugin required.

Key Features:

• Bold color scheme and strong typography
• Good performance
• AMP optimization

Pricing: $35 one-time purchase

18) Gutentype: Most Versatile Theme for Bloggers

Designed to work with the native WordPress site editor and Elementor website builder, this shapeshifting theme lets you choose from 18 different premade page layouts.

While not explicitly designed for writers, Gutentype still delivers your written content in style. The design is clean, with plenty of white space and excellent optimization for mobile devices.

Aside from the layouts, this theme allows you to get creative with custom post types, social media integrations, dozens of shortcodes, and seven widget areas.

Key Features:

• 18 different page layouts
• Clean, modern website design
• Works with WooCommerce, Elementor, and WordPress’ site editor

Pricing: $69 one-time purchase

19) Starter: Best Minimal Theme for Bloggers

One of the key selling points of the Starter theme is that it contains only 55 files.

Unsurprisingly, this means you have fewer preset layouts to choose from, but both of the available options are very easy on the eyes, and the theme delivers good performance thanks to clean code.

Even with the small size of this theme, you still get five post types, customizable colors and fonts, and a blog template that is highly readable.

Key Features:

• Lightweight theme with clean code
• Very modern, minimal design with focus on readability
• Three post layouts (left, right, without sidebar)

Pricing: $49 one-time purchase

20) Gema: Best Minimalist Theme for Personal Blogs

Opening a site made with Gema is like flicking through the pages of a glossy magazine. It’s a style of elegant fonts, white space, and large images.

We particularly like the header area of this theme. The name of your site is writ large, and the vertical menu is inset so that it blends in nicely with your latest posts.

In addition, Gema has features that will impress website visitors in other ways. Along with the usual color and font options, you can create drop caps and introduce a light hover effect wherever it feels right.

Key Features:

• Distinctive, minimalist front page design
• Interesting effects and typography
• Responsive, search optimized, good performance

Pricing: €115 (~$128) one-time purchase or €75/year (~$83)

21) Jason: Best Theme for Independent Journalists

A different theme from the same stable, Jason would work well for anyone who is trying to build a personal brand in journalism.

The design here is halfway between a simple blog and a digital magazine, with space devoted to images and nice touches of color throughout.

We particularly like the built-in logo generator, which lets you experiment with different typography to create something unique. Jason also has a good archive section, which means readers can find posts on any topic without the help of a search engine.

Key Features:

• Lively design with large images and a sidebar
• Customizable colors and fonts, and built-in logo builder
• Works nicely with WordPress’ site editor

Pricing: €115 (~$128) one-time purchase or €75/year (~$83)

22) Tove: Best Free Theme for Bloggers

This pretty little theme from Swedish designer, Anders Noren, is completely free and packed with personality.

Although originally designed for café and restaurant websites, you can easily adapt Tove for blogging. The default design is playful yet clean, with easy-to-read fonts and over 40 preset block patterns.

Because many of these elements include buttons, you could link to an external purchase page or another author platform.

Key Features:

• Playful, colorful design
• Over 40 block patterns
• Lightweight at under 200 kilobytes

Pricing: Free

Best Themes for Professional Writers

If you’re the type of author who prefers to work for other people, you might need a slightly different type of website.

In this final section, we’re going to focus on themes that should work for professional copywriters, ghostwriters, and content marketers.

23) Corner: Best Portfolio Theme for Writers

A key part of securing work as a writer is impressing potential clients with your body of work. Corner has a dedicated portfolio section for this purpose, with various layout options to choose from.

There is nothing very flashy about this theme. The look is clean, refined, and polished. But with Elementor integration and plenty of customization options, you can easily make it your own.

Key Features:

• Clean, professional design
• Portfolio feature with several layouts
• Block editor support plus Elementor and Google Fonts

Pricing: $49/year

24) Sydney Pro: Best Professional Theme for Writers

Everything about Sydney Pro has been finely tuned with creative professionals in mind. This freemium theme lets you choose from a variety of layouts, headers, and footers, each promoting your brand in a different way.

The design here is razor sharp and stripped back, although there are splashes of color for key elements. Sydney Pro also lets you create a compelling blog, utilize pre-made sections, and build multiple sidebars.

Plus, it works with tools like HubSpot, Tutor LMS, WooCommerce, and Toolset.

Key Features:

• Refined, professional design with pre-built sections
• Multiple homepage, blog, and sidebar layouts
• Works with a range of third-party platforms

Pricing: Free version available, Pro from $69/year

25) Neve: Most Flexible Theme for Professional Writers

Used by a wide range of business owners, Neve is fast and flexible.

You can choose from over 100 default layouts, all of which deliver good performance. Alternatively, you can use a theme builder of your choice. Neve works with Beaver Builder, Elementor, Visual Composer, and many more.

What’s more, Neve adds features to these third-party plugins — so you get an extended version of Elementor and WooCommerce with this theme. It’s pretty nifty if you want to make something unique.

Key Features:

• Fast, lightweight theme with 100 preset designs
• Works with Elementor, Brizy, Beaver Builder, Visual Composer, and more
• Extends popular plugins like WooCommerce

Pricing: Free version with limited features; Pro version is €69/year (~$77)

How to Build a Great Author Website

Each of the themes mentioned above can provide a great starting point for building your author website.

But if you want to maximize the impact of your new site, there are a few tasks you should complete before you launch. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide:

1. Register a unique domain name — Use your name, your brand, or even your tagline; just make sure it’s something memorable.
2. Choose a reliable host — At DreamHost, we offer 100% Uptime Guarantee to ensure that your readers can always access your author site.
3. Optimize the design for readability — Don’t worry about dazzling design; make sure readers can enjoy your work.
4. Include a call to action on your homepage — Don’t be shy about selling your book; make sure to put at least one buy button on your homepage.
5. Add social proof — Sharing testimonials is a proven way to persuade potential customers.
6. Create a blog — Most of the best author websites include a blog, and publishing regular posts can be an effective book marketing strategy.
7. Ask people to opt-in — Start building your email list so you can share news with readers, like a new book release or guest podcast appearance.
8. Let your readers get in touch — Fans of your work might want to send their appreciation or ask questions, so make sure to include appropriate contact information or even a standalone contact page.

We hope this guide has given you some ideas for your website and the confidence to start building your brand. Just remember: if you get stuck, we have a team of expert web designers ready to help!

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There’s a simple reason for this: Community.

WordPress has managed to tap into the international web design and development community at a scale that no other platform comes close to.

Over the last two decades, this community has contributed tens of thousands of themes, plugins, and other assets to the platform, giving it new ways to customize the look, feel, and functionality of your website or blog.

Customization is an essential part of the WordPress experience, with themes playing a huge role. So let’s take a look at some top tips and tricks to help you choose the perfect theme for WordPress.

How to Install a WordPress Theme

Once you have your website up and running on WordPress — complete with its own domain and hosting — installing a theme is actually very simple.

Just access your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Theme > Appearance tab. Once there, select the Add New button at the top of the page.

WordPress will then allow you to upload the .zip file that you received after purchasing your theme or download whichever WP theme from the that you chose. When the theme is in place, all you have to do is go to the Themes tab and hit the Activate button, and your new theme is ready to go.

#1 What Is Your Website’s Purpose?

“Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you.”

Tyrion Lannister was clearly on to something here. While he wasn’t talking about WordPress websites specifically, it’s clear that aligning yourself on the purpose and reason behind your website can be just as important.

Just ask yourself these two very important questions before you do anything else:

• What’s the point of my website? (Example: Personal blog, ecommerce store, bragging rights, small business, or educational nonprofit.)
• Who is my intended audience? (Example: Accounting professionals, vintage toy collectors, or kombucha enthusiasts.)

#2 Prioritize Performance and Speed

If there’s one thing people hate, it’s a slow website. There are a lot of factors that can affect your site’s speed, but the theme you pick will play a significant role. Some themes are better optimized than others, so they tend to be faster across the board.

It can be hard to gauge a theme’s level of optimization without taking it for a test drive, but you can look at existing reviews and run a speed test (via WebPageTest or GTmetrix) on the theme’s demo website to get a quick idea.

#3 Look through Competitor Websites

In many industries, you’ll find that websites tend to share very similar styles. If your audience expects a specific aesthetic, you’ll need to consider whether you want to provide what they’re looking for or try to give them something unexpected.

If you’re all out of inspiration, check out Awwwards and Lapa.Ninja for some award-winning websites specific to your industry and space.

But it’s not enough just to look at these websites. Examine their design aesthetic and look for patterns in their visual style. For example, here are some things to be on the lookout for:

• Color schemes
• Typography choice
• Graphic design
• Visual hierarchy
• Important functionality

#4 Check for SEO Friendliness

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is key to your website performing well in search results. The quality and consistency of your content and the optimization of your metadata affect your page ranking.

Why does rank matter? Well, the higher your website falls on the search engine results page, the more people will visit your website.

And you guessed it: your theme matters when it comes to SEO. WordPress sites that perform quickly, are responsive (see above), and are built with clean code are great for SEO.

#5 Ascertain Ease of Use

A user-friendly backend allows you to manage and update your website content more efficiently. This saves time and lets you focus on other aspects of your business or project.

While you may want to buy that fancy-looking multipurpose WordPress theme with a live customizer built in, it’s much better to look for something simple and functional if you are new to WordPress. Keep it simple, smarty! Make sure that your theme is complimentary to your level of expertise and comfort with WordPress.

#6 Confirm Relevant Plugin Support

Plugin compatibility issues can manifest in many ways. If you are picky about the theme and plugins you use, these problems should be few and far between. That being said, if you have specific plugins in mind for powering key functionality on your website, it’s worth checking to ensure your top theme options are compatible.

For example, WooCommerce is the number one plugin for implementing ecommerce functionality. As such, WooCommerce theme integration is a key consideration if you want to start an online store.

A few other popular WordPress plugins and features that you might want to consider include:

• Elementor
• MemberPress
• BuddyPress
• LifterLMS

#7 Look for Customization Options

Usually, the first thing you’ll notice about a theme is what it looks like — if it fits your idea of what you want for your website. In most cases, you’ll need to make some changes to any theme you choose in order to get it looking just right.

Let’s say you’ve done your research and found a theme that’s 90 percent perfect. For instance, you like the layout of the pages, how the menus function, and the overall theme design, but the fonts aren’t quite what you had in mind.

Fear not, it still might be a good choice for your website. One of the great things about WordPress sites is that they are incredibly customizable, especially when you use plugins. Check out our guide to customizing a WordPress theme to get started!

#8 Analyze Reviews and Ratings

A theme’s reviews and ratings are a valuable indicator of what to expect. When it comes to popular themes, you’d be surprised at how many user ratings you can find.

All themes in WordPress.org’s Theme Directory are ranked from one to five stars and feature customer reviews. Look for themes that speak to your site’s purpose and aesthetic ideal, then read the reviews to see what people are saying.

#9 Confirm Regular Developer Support

If you run into any issues with your theme, it’s always nice to know that you can turn to its developers for advice on how to solve it. Ideally, your theme’s developers should provide you with multiple support channels, actively trying to help their user base.

But support isn’t limited to customer service. WordPress is a platform that undergoes regular updates, some of which massively change the functionality of the core platform. Themes need to be updated on a regular basis to keep up with these changes (things like the new page builder and block editor!)

#10 Check for Multilingual Functionality

There are a lot of tools you can use to translate your WordPress pages and create a multilingual website. However, for this to work, you’ll want to use a theme that’s translation ready. Try and look for compatibility with the following plugins to get started:

• TranslatePress
• Polylang
• WPML
• Weglot
• MultilingualPress

Given that English is used by only 26% of global internet users, multilingual support is a feature that’s worth investing in.

#11 Prioritize Accessible Design Practices

WordPress websites that prioritize accessibility are a win-win for everyone involved. Look for themes built to create a user-friendly experience for people with disabilities, keeping in mind things like color contrast, typography choice, and visual hierarchy.

A lot of these things can be adjusted when customizing your theme, but it still helps to have a good starting point. Also remember to test your chosen theme for compatibility with screen readers and keyboard navigation, since integrating these features into a theme that doesn’t already support it can require a lot of effort.

#12 Search for Ecommerce Support

WooCommerce is the most feature-complete WP plugin for ecommerce websites. Looking for themes that specifically support WooCommerce is a good way to ensure ecommerce compatibility for your website.

You should be looking for dedicated inner pages and templates to seamlessly showcase your products. Even if your theme doesn’t mention WooCommerce specifically, check to ensure that the theme’s demo website contains ample examples of ecommerce content like a shopping cart and checkout page.

#13 Check Pre-Built Template Variety

Pre-built templates and block patterns provide ready-to-use designs for various page layouts, such as the home page, landing pages, blog pages, or contact pages. This can save you significant time and effort when setting up your website, as you won’t need to create these layout options from scratch.

When evaluating a new theme for your website, look for the number of pre-built templates and block patterns available within the demo content. Then, prioritize themes with a good collection of templates that match both the layout and the aesthetic you’re looking for.

#14 Stick to Reputable Sources

Themes from reputable sources are less likely to contain malicious code, security vulnerabilities, or hidden backdoors that could compromise your website’s safety. Reputable theme developers also invest more time and effort into creating high-quality themes that adhere to design and coding best practices.

Here are a few examples of reputed websites for purchasing and downloading themes for your WordPress:

• WordPress Theme Directory: The WordPress.org repository offers a wide selection of free WordPress themes that adhere to strict quality and security guidelines.
• StudioPress: Known for their drag-and-drop Genesis Framework, StudioPress offers a range of SEO-friendly themes with professional designs and great customizability.
• Elegant Themes: The creators of the popular Divi theme, Elegant Themes provides a collection of well-designed and feature-rich themes backed by excellent customer support professionals and a solid refund policy.

#15 Evaluate Affordability and Pricing

When it comes to WordPress themes, one of the most critical decisions you need to make is whether to go with a free or a premium option.

Premium themes tend to pack in a lot more functionality to justify their price tags. But, WordPress.org really does offer a plethora of great themes in its directory. WordPress volunteers do an excellent job of vetting these themes, which are submitted by third-party developers, to make sure that the code is up to, well, code.

To get started, do a search to find free themes that match your site’s criteria and then check out their demos to get a sense of how the theme would look with your content.

But if you are going to invest in a paid theme, marketplaces like StudioPress and Elegant Themes offer excellent options. Just be sure to read through the developer’s refund policy and know what level of support you can expect before you go and make your purchase decision. On that note…

#16 Double-Check the Refund Policy

If you’re going to invest in a premium theme, it’s important to check the refund policy of purchase to ensure that you have sufficient time to decide on its quality. Lots of themes offer a 30-day no questions asked refund policy — so that you have plenty of time to test things and contact support should you encounter issues.

The same goes for theme builders, too. Many of them offer a free trial or have a return policy in place for handling dissatisfied customers. Just be on the lookout for this when reading through their features and terms.

#17 Take a Mobile-First Approach

Responsive design is a must-have feature for most bloggers and website owners, but the mobile-first approach takes it one step further. By designing your WordPress theme for mobile devices first, you can ensure that the devices with the trickiest design requirements, with a huge variety of screen choices and hardware options, get the most attention from your design team.

While not all industries necessitate a mobile-first approach, it’s still a great feature to be on the lookout for to ensure that mobile users have the best user experience possible when accessing your site.

#18 Ensure Modern Browser Compatibility

Although most people use the same popular browsers — such as Chrome, Firefox, and Safari — they’re far from the only options. There are dozens of browsers you can choose from, and not all of them render content and images in the same way.

Good developers know this, and ensure that their themes play nicely with most browsers by following established best practices for coding and design.

Why Is it So Important to Choose the Best WordPress Theme?

If you have any friends who use WordPress (the numbers say you probably do), ask them how long they’ve been using their current theme. In most cases, the answer will number in years.

Changing your WordPress theme can be tricky, as it will radically alter the appearance and even the functionality of your site. That’s why it’s better to make a great choice the first time around and stick with it as long as possible.

Themes are one of the key features that make WordPress an amazing platform. You have literally thousands of themes that you can choose from. Neve, OceanWP, and Astra are some great examples to look into, if you don’t know where to start.

This is not a decision to be taken lightly. Your choice of WordPress theme will impact your website’s SEO, visitor experience, conversion rates, and much more.

Are you ready to start using your new theme? You’ll first need to pick a WordPress hosting service that plays well with the platform’s unique requirements. Fortunately, we have plenty of plans for WordPress users to choose from!

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The post 18 Pro Tips for Choosing the Perfect WordPress Theme appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

Buckle up, WordPress enthusiasts! Following the successful release of WordPress 6.2, the planning proposal for the upcoming WordPress 6.3 release is now live, and the development cycle is set to jump off on April 25, 2023, with a general release date of August 8, 2023. The proposal outlines several key areas of focus, including further full-site editing (FSE) refinements, performance improvements, and accessibility enhancements.

To achieve these goals, the WordPress community is actively seeking volunteers to contribute their skills to various teams. Developers, designers, testers, and content creators are all highly encouraged to participate.

Those interested in contributing to the development of WordPress 6.3 can visit the planning proposal and add a comment to volunteer for a team that aligns with their talents. This collaborative effort is key to making WordPress 6.3 a significant and memorable release.

A Busy Year

With WordPress 6.2 having been released on March 28, 2023, and WordPress 6.3 projected to be released on August 8, 2023, this year has already been shaping up to be a very busy one for the WordPress volunteer developers.

As reported in Make WordPress Core on April 14, 2023, the timeline for WordPress 6.3’s release is taking into account two major flagship WordPress events scheduled to take place this year: WordCamp Europe in early June, and WordCamp US and the Community Summit in late August.

The developer teams hope to avoid having any major milestones like Beta 1 and RC1 conflict with the WordCamp gatherings, so they’ve proposed fitting the release process, from Beta 1 to the final WordPress 6.3 release, in a 10-week window between both WordCamps.

What’s more, regarding the Gutenberg release cadence, WordPress 6.3 is expected to bring over changes in the block editor from the Gutenberg plugin up to version 16.1, for a total of 10 Gutenberg releases since the release of WordPress 6.2.

Teamwork

In the recent announcement at Make WordPress Core, openings were announced for volunteers to lead a number of development teams: Release Coordinator, Core Tech Lead, Editor Tech Lead, Core Triage Lead, Editor Triage Lead, Documentation Lead, Marketing & Communications Lead, Test Lead, Design Lead, and Performance Lead.

Proposed Schedule

Looking Even Farther Out

Even though WordPress 6.3 is still a budding glimmer in volunteer developers’ eyes at this point, the WordPress community is already thinking ahead to the release of WordPress 6.4 and a return to a historic point in the history of WordPress.

Version 6.4’s development will be led entirely by a team of women and nonbinary creators, which harkens back to the WordPress 5.6 release, “Simone.” The release squad will be open to anyone who identifies as a woman, nonbinary, or gender-expansive, but, of course, in keeping with the WordPress collaborative spirit, all contributions from anyone, regardless of how they identify themselves, will be welcomed.

Stay Tuned for More

The planning proposal for WordPress 6.3 sets the stage for an exciting development cycle, with key focus areas such as full-site editing, performance improvements, and accessibility enhancements. As the WordPress community calls for volunteers to contribute to this highly anticipated release, stay tuned for further updates and news on the platform’s ongoing development.

The post WordPress 6.3 Development Cycle Begins Soon, Calls for Volunteers appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

Seeing an error when you load a page makes it very clear that something has gone wrong with the website — But most of us haven’t got the faintest clue about what “405 Method Not Allowed” means, let alone how to fix it.

That’s why we wrote this handy-dandy guide! A 405 error isn’t any reason to panic; there are just a few steps to restore your website back to working order.

Over the next few pages, we will explain what this error is all about and show you how to make it disappear.

What Is the 405 Method Not Allowed Error?

The 405 error is a type of HTTP status code — This means it’s a message that a server sends to your web browser, explaining why it can’t deliver the content you asked for.

A persistent 405 status code is a problem for anyone running a website. If multiple users see the same error, that means there’s something misconfigured on your website.

Until you fix the problem, visitors won’t be able to access the page where the error code is displayed.

This error code may appear as:

• 405 Method Not Allowed
• 405 Not Allowed
• Method Not Allowed
• HTTP 405 Error
• HTTP Error 405 – Method Not Allowed
• HTTP 405 Method Not Allowed

What Causes the 405 Error?

Let’s get a bit more technical.

Whenever you try to visit a specific web page, your browser asks the hosting server to send over the content. Typically, the server sees this request and shoots the page straight to your device in a fraction of a second. Success!

This whole process is regulated by HTTP, or Hypertext Transfer Protocol. This protocol uses a series of status codes to track progress and problems.

Codes in the 400s relate to client-side errors. And the 405 Method Not Allowed error code means that your browser has sent an HTTP request (GET, POST, PUT, etc.) that isn’t allowed for that specific resource, or URL.

In many cases, this is triggered by something the user does. The most common cause is inputting the wrong URL.

However, the 405 error code can also appear when something has gone wrong with the configuration of your website. We will explore some of those issues later.

What Is the Difference Between 404 and 405 Errors?

Both 404 and 405 errors prevent users from accessing content on your website, but they relate to different problems.

The 404 error code shows up when someone visits a URL where no context exists. For example, this sometimes happens when pages are removed, or domains are changed.

In contrast, the 405 error means that your server is rejecting an HTTP request from a browser. The content is there, but the server refuses to provide access because the request was made in the wrong format.

How to Fix the 405 Method Not Allowed Error

Understanding what causes the 405 error is an important step in solving the issue.

However, this status code doesn’t tell us exactly what’s wrong. The only way to identify the precise problem is by troubleshooting.

Ready to get started? Here’s a checklist of potential fixes:

1) Check Your Links

When you spot a 405 error in the wild, there’s a strong chance that you simply visited the wrong page.

For security reasons, web servers are typically configured to accept only specific types of requests on each URL. If you visit a page that is not open access, you may end up seeing the 405 error message.

If visitors to your site consistently see 405 error codes, it might be because they are following a bad link.

One way to prevent this is by checking your site using the Dead Link Checker or a similar free tool. And make sure that none of your social links and landing pages point towards private pages.

2) Check Your Updates

Have you updated your content management system, your theme, or even a plugin recently? That might be why you’re suddenly seeing 405 Method Not Allowed error messages.

Updates are essential for maintaining good website security. They can also fix existing bugs, and give you access to new features. But just occasionally, fresh updates introduce new gremlins.

If you’re unsure if you’re due for an update, log into your admin account and navigate to Dashboard > Updates page. Here, you’ll see a timestamp of the last time WordPress checked for updates. If need be, you can click “Check again” to manually check for updates.

Unfortunately, sometimes an update might break your website. To fix this, you can simply roll back to the previous version of the system, theme, or plugin that might be causing problems.

The exact process here depends on what you need to downgrade. For instance, WordPress users can use the WP Downgrade plugin to revert to a previous version.

For some websites, the easiest route is simply to restore your entire site from a backup — see step 10 for more.

How to Downgrade WordPress Plugins and Themes

If you believe that a specific theme or plugin is causing the problem, we recommend using the WP Rollback plugin. Once activated, this gives you the option to downgrade any plugin or theme you have installed.

Simply open up Plugins > Installed Plugins or Appearance > Themes inside your WordPress Admin area, and you will see a little “Rollback” button under each plugin or theme.

Click this, and WP Rollback will allow you to choose the exact version you want to restore.

Once the downgrade is complete, make sure to hit Activate on the plugin or theme to put the old version into action.

3) Uninstall New Plugins, Modules, and Themes 

Just as updates to existing plugins and themes can mess things up, so can brand new additions to your site.

With this in mind, it’s worth deactivating new plugins, modules, and themes if you start seeing 405 Method Not Allowed errors on your site.

Once again, the process here will depend on the content management system you are using.

In WordPress, you can do this through the Admin area. Navigate to Plugins or Appearance > Themes, and you should see a little red Deactivate button next to every plugin and theme.

Not sure which plugin is causing the problem? You can disable all your plugins within a minute via FTP or SSH:

1. In your FTP/SSH client, head to your WordPress site directory
2. Navigate to wp-content and right-click on plugins
3. Select Rename
4. Change the name of the folder to /plugins_OFF

This will immediately cut off all plugins. When you want to reverse the process, simply follow the steps again and rename the folder as plugins.

If you want to delete themes through FTP/SSH:

1. Visit your site directory
2. Navigate to wp-content/themes directory.
3. Delete the folder of the theme you want to remove

Just bear in mind that you might want to keep a backup of this folder, just in case the theme is not to blame.

4) Restore Your Database 

Plugins and themes usually need at least some access to your database to perform their duties.

Sometimes they get a little unruly and start making changes to parts of the database that are none of their business. These changes can cause 405 errors.

Even if you remove the offending plugin or theme, the changes they made will remain. There are only two ways to fix these issues:

• Look through your database logs for problematic changes
• Restore a previous version of your database

Database Logs

To access the database logs for your website, head to the control panel of your hosting provider. Usually, you will only be able to access logs if you have a private server.

For databases hosted with DreamHost, head to MySQL Databases to find the name of your MySQL Databases, and then get in touch with technical support to get access.

If you know exactly when the 405 errors started appearing, you may be able to find the offending database change by sorting the logs by time. You’re looking for “INSERT”, “UPDATE”, or “DELETE” changes.

Just be aware that you need a strong knowledge of web development to identify potential problems here. If you’re not sure what you’re looking at, avoid making modifications and consult a professional.

Restore Your Database

If you don’t have developer-level skills, restoring your database to a previous version is probably a more realistic option.

As with site data, DreamHost automatically creates a backup of your database every day. To restore one of these backups:

• Visit the MySQL Databases page in your account
• Click the Restore DB button to the right of your database
• Choose the time of the backup you want to restore
• Under When restoring, select option 3 or 4 depending on your CMS; choose option 4 for WordPress

5) Read Your Server-Side Logs

Just as your database logs can reveal problems that will lead to 405 errors, we can also find clues in the server-side logs.

The files we’re looking for here are named error.log and access.log. With DreamHost, you can view them via SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol):

• In your FTP client, visit the /logs directory in your user folder
• Open the site you want to check
• Open the most recent directory with a name that starts with http
• Open the log file inside, using your preferred text editor

When you examine the files, check for errors relating to server configuration or changes to your web application code.

6) Confirm Your Web Server Configuration

As we mentioned earlier, the 405 Method Not Allowed error occurs when a web server rejects a request.

Most of the time, this is helpful. If your server did not block certain request methods, your site could easily be overwhelmed with unwanted attention.

But just like an over-aggressive club doorman, sometimes web servers block the wrong kind of requests, or wrongly restrict access to certain content. This is usually caused by incorrect server configuration. The result is that visitors are redirected to an error page.

To figure out whether this is the problem with your site, you will need to visit your server configuration file. The exact file name will depend on whether your web server software is Apache, Nginx, or Cloudflare.

We use Apache by default at DreamHost, so you’re looking for the .htaccess file in the root directory of your site. On VPS plans, you have the option to switch to Nginx hosting; in this case, your configuration file will be nginx.conf.

After finding the relevant file, open it with your preferred text editor. Next, search for Rewrite commands. These are associated with Apache’s mod_rewrite module.

This module allows you to modify URLs that are requested by users, before they are processed by your server. This can be useful when you want to redirect users to a different page, divert certain types of traffic, or just display a more user-friendly URL.

The problems usually involve commands like this in your configuration file:

RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http: //example.com [R=405, L]

This makes the server return a 405 HTTP response status code when someone visits the URL mentioned in the command.

If you’re struggling with persistent errors, try commenting out such commands in your config file. You can do this by adding a # at the start of the line you wish to comment out.

Alternatively, you can change the directive from RewriteEngine ON to RewriteEngine OFF.

7) Fix File Permissions

Another reason why a server might be blocking access to certain content is because your site permissions are misconfigured.

For instance, your server may allow an admin to use a specific HTTP method. But when a general site visitor tries the same request, they are blocked and handed an error code.

The fastest way to check and manage permissions is usually through your panel. DreamHost users can utilize the built-in file manager:

• Visit Manage Websites and tap the Manage button
• Open the directory for your website
• To view permissions, right click on any file and choose CHMOD

You may just discover that one of your important files does not have public read access.

If you’re running your own private server or VPS, it’s also worth checking the configuration settings. Your server might be set up to accept only certain HTTP request methods for specific file types.

8) Debug Your Code

Ultimately, the cause of your 405 errors might be that something is wrong with the code of your website or web app.

To diagnose such problems, you will need to follow a full debugging process. This usually involves creating a complete local copy of your website, and then trying to recreate the error. Alternatively, you can use an online development environment.

The exact process you will need to follow is dependent on the CMS, scripts, and programming languages you’re using. If your site runs on WordPress and you are confident in the command line, you could try using WP-CLI.

9) Restore Your Whole Website

Sometimes in life, you need to know when to accept defeat and, as the kids say “take the L”.

If you’ve tried other fixes and nothing seems to work, you might just need to restore your site to how it was before the client errors arrived.

When you host any website with DreamHost, we always recommend making regular backups and keeping a copy of those files offline. But we do keep daily backups of every website that is hosted on our servers.

This means you can restore your website to how it was yesterday with a couple of clicks.

To achieve this, head to Hosted Domains, and click the Restore button on the right-hand side.

Then, choose how far you want to go back in time, and select the “Make backup copy live” option. This will replace your current live site with your chosen backup.

If you’re using DreamPress, you can complete the same process by visiting Managed WordPress and tapping the Manage button beside your domain.

Next, select the Backups tag and hit Restore on the archived version you want to use. Confirm with Start restore, and your site will soon be back to the way it was, without the 405 error.

10) Double-Check Your A Records

One final tip: make sure the A records for your domain are configured correctly.

In some cases, you may see 405 errors if your A records are pointing towards the wrong server. For instance, a server that is set up for hosting your website might have different rules than one set up for hosting an API (Application Programming Interface).

If your domain is registered or managed via DreamHost, you can check your A records by visiting Manage Websites:

• Tap on the three dots
• Select DNS Settings from the menu

Bonus: Stop 405 Errors on Your API Calls

If your site relies on a connection with an external API, you might come across a 405 error because the API server is refusing your request. This is often down to incorrect request formatting.

To prevent this from happening, make sure to include a “Content-Type” header with your POST requests. Here are some examples:

• Java/PHP – Content-Type: application/json
• HTML – Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
• XML – Content-Type: application/xml

It’s also a good idea to include an “Accept” header:

• Java/PHP – Accept: application/json
• HTML – Accept: text/html
• XML – Accept: application/xml

Be sure to check API documentation, as well. You might find out that the type of request you’re making is not supported by the API. Likewise, your site or application logs may reveal the underlying problem here.

How to Stop the 405 Error From Returning

Working through all of the steps mentioned above is no small task. But if you’re willing to put in the effort, you should be able to banish all 405 errors that are showing up on your website or app.

Want to make sure you don’t go through the whole thing again? Here are a few key tips:

• Test your site – Whenever you install new plugins or themes, make sure to run some tests. If the change is going to cause 405 errors, it’s good to know early!
• Pay attention to authentication – Always keep an eye on who has access to what resources on your server.
• Help your users to troubleshoot – In the majority of cases, 405 errors are isolated to a specific user. Consider setting up custom error pages that include information about how users can fix the problem themselves.

With a little persistence, you can conquer the 405 error once and for all, and provide a seamless browsing experience for your visitors!

The post Your Guide to Fixing the 405 Method Not Allowed Error appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

What happened?

Hackers gained access to Target through a third-party vendor that lacked a CAPTCHA or any kind of authentication to ensure there was a human — not a malicious bot — entering their system.

From there, it didn’t take long for the bot to infiltrate this third-party vendor’s organization and work its way into the major retailer’s payment network.

What’s the lesson here?

If bad actors want a way into your website, a CAPTCHA can be a powerful first line of defense, and even convince them to move on to an easier target (pun *highly* intended).

Intrigued by this CAPTCHA concept?

Then read on to learn:

• The difference between CAPTCHA and reCAPTCHA (and what all those letters mean!)
• The core types of CAPTCHAs in use today
• How CAPTCHAs can help website owners avoid spam and abuse
• A few downsides to consider with CAPTCHAs
• Two ways to add a Google reCAPTCHA to your WordPress site

What is reCAPTCHA?

Get ready folks, because this one’s got layers.

Let’s start with a basic definition: “reCAPTCHA is a service from Google that helps protect websites from spam and abuse.”

reCAPTCHA from Google is a popular, branded version of CAPTCHA. The original idea of CAPTCHA was envisioned at Carnegie Mellon University around 2000. reCAPTCHA was also created by developers at the same university, then purchased by Google around 2009.

Now for the next layer: What do all the letters in “CAPTCHA” actually mean?

The phrase CAPTCHA is short(ish) for “completely automated public Turing Test to tell computers and humans apart.”

And that explanation brings us to a final, logical layer to peel back: What’s a Turing Test?

If you’re like us, your primary exposure to the Turing Test comes from the 2014 movie The Imitation Game, featuring mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing.

Alan Turing developed the Turing Test (which he originally dubbed the imitation game — humble) to answer the question, “Can machines think?”

Today, Turing Tests are primarily used to tell humans and bots apart by testing a bot’s capacity to display the same intelligent behavior a human would. Bots, in this case, refer to automated software programs, often powered by artificial intelligence (AI).

CAPTCHAs help prevent spam and abuse on websites by blocking bots with challenges that are relatively easy for us humans to figure out and accomplish, but often expose bots for the programs they are.

Now that you know enough to definitely write a novel on the background of the CAPTCHA, let’s talk about all the different ways we see this concept appear in everyday life.

Different Types of CAPTCHAs

CAPTCHAs have developed in various directions over the years in an attempt to make the distinction between humans and bots. Today, there are several common types of CAPTCHAs which require different forms of reasoning and input.

Text-Based CAPTCHAs

Text-based CAPTCHAs show characters in odd arrangements, using unusual fonts, and on colorful backgrounds.

These CAPTCHAs require reasoning and translation to sort out what each letter and number is meant to be — an intelligent task that many pre-programmed bots can’t do.

Image-Based CAPTCHAs

With an image-based CAPTCHA, the website user must identify which displayed photos match the provided prompt. By using similar-looking photos that require a level of logic to distinguish, this option can also outsmart bots.

Google’s reCAPTCHA tests use this method quite often — which makes sense considering its vast source of photos from Google Street View.

Audio-Based CAPTCHAs

With audio-based CAPTCHAs, sound is the medium. This method is often paired with others, like text and visual CAPTCHAs.

Audio CAPTCHAs are not only more accessible to people with vision impairment – they are also a powerful bot-blocker as they rely on how tricky it can be to distinguish actual words from background noise.

Checkbox-Based CAPTCHAs

While these CAPTCHAs may seem simple on the surface, they’re actually assessing how website users interact with the checkbox itself.

Bots fill out forms and complete checkboxes instantly, whereas humans navigate through this process more slowly.

This method may be combined with other CAPTCHAs if you want even more assurance that a user isn’t secretly a software program cleverly disguised as a human wearing sweatpants and drinking Starbucks.

Behavior-Based CAPTCHAs

The thing is, software has gotten so smart that a lot of the above CAPTCHAs can be bypassed these days.

That’s why the newest version of reCAPTCHA — Google’s reCAPTCHA v3 — changed the game with a CAPTCHA method that runs in the background.

reCAPTCHA v3 is a mostly invisible reCAPTCHA, which uses a JavaScript API and machine learning-powered, adaptive risk analysis engine to score users based on their behavior as they interact with your web pages.

Behind the scenes, reCAPTCHA v3 gives each user a score that attempts to determine whether they’re human or bot. Of course, in some cases, this monitoring may not be enough to stop the really intelligent bots.

In addition, in an age when the pendulum is swinging back toward privacy on the internet, this method can be controversial as it monitors your on-site activity, with the only warning often being the small reCAPTCHA badge.

What we’ve talked about here are just the most common CAPTCHAs. Other types of programs do things like ask the website user to drag objects to a specific point on the screen, play a “microgame,” and so on. Check out more CAPTCHA examples here.

Use Cases: Where to Apply CAPTCHAs to Prevent Spam

AI-powered automated software has a lot of extraordinary applications, such as helping businesses complete mundane, repetitive tasks to save workers time.

However, hostile actors have certainly found ways to use this technology to attack websites.

Here are some of the best use cases, where applying CAPTCHAs can protect your site from spam and abuse.

Polls and Questionnaires

Businesses use polls and questionnaires for all kinds of reasons.

Externally, they can help you gather feedback and new ideas for products, services, marketing, branding, content, and everything else user-facing.

Internally, polls and questionnaires can help ensure employee happiness and collect insights on new policies and offerings.

You wouldn’t want to skew those results with an overwhelming number of automated, false responses, now would you?

Well, bots certainly might.

User Logins

Bots are often deployed to help hackers access websites through existing accounts that users have already set up.

Typically, they do this via brute force attacks that use software to automatically guess hundreds of passwords in seconds.

Why would they want to access these accounts? Sometimes it’s so they can steal information from accounts and use it to hack into other online properties. Hacking often happens in sequential events.

Other times, it’s so they can use the account to post promotional material or other information they know they’ll get quickly blocked for.

Comment Sections

You’ve probably seen plenty of spam popping up in comment sections across websites and social media.

Bots are used to leave comments en masse to spread advertising, a particular point of view (such as a political one around election time), or links to nefarious sources where hackers are waiting to steal visitor information.

Forms

Just like comment sections, forms that aren’t protected using CAPTCHAs can be overrun with false submissions from bots programmed to try to sell you something, spread a specific narrative, or even phish for sensitive data.

Checkouts

There are several reasons hackers would want to sic their bots on a website’s checkout page.

The first is obvious: buying out tickets or other inventory at a rate humans can’t keep up with. And then, probably, reselling them elsewhere for higher prices. (We’re not bitter about missing out on Taylor Swift tickets at all…)

Secondarily, bots can use unprotected checkout flows to do something called card testing. This is when they run automated scripts in your checkout system to test whether stolen credit card numbers are usable or not.

By requiring CAPTCHAs to be solved before the above actions are completed — your website should be able to identify and shut down most automated abuse carried out by bots.

Potential Downsides of Using CAPTCHAs

While CAPTCHAs clearly have their benefits, there are some downsides to consider when you’re setting up this system on your website:

• CAPTCHAs can make your website less accessible for people with hearing and/or vision impairment, or those who don’t know the language your CAPTCHA features.
• CAPTCHAs may interrupt the user experience, and if they’re too difficult, they may prevent engagement even from human users.
• CAPTCHAs are not completely foolproof, so website owners shouldn’t be lulled into a false sense of security — we still need to remain watchful for signs of spam and attacks.

In addition, there are some elements of Google’s reCAPTCHA in particular that website owners should know about:

• reCAPTCHA v3 can feel invasive to users because it monitors site-wide behavior in order to work, which may cause privacy-minded individuals to avoid using your site.
• Google’s business model is using or selling data for advertising, which can put off website owners (and users) who don’t want their behavior or data monetized.
• reCAPTCHA capitalizes on user labor by harvesting data from user interactions to train Google’s visual identification systems, with which some people may be uncomfortable.
• Google is sometimes blocked in countries such as China, so installing Google technology can severely limit a website’s global reach.

How to Add reCAPTCHA to WordPress via Plugin (6 Steps)

Preface: CAPTCHAs of all varieties can be added to websites of all kinds.

However, since WordPress is one of the most popular website platforms and reCAPTCHA from Google is powerful, free (up to a million assessments), and very popular — integrating these two is what we’re going to focus on today.

Now, let’s get to protecting your site.

Step 1: Register Your Site

First things first, register your WordPress site in Google’s reCAPTCHA admin panel. To complete this step, you must sign into or create a Google account.

During registration, you’ll fill out information like what you want to call your website, which type of reCAPTCHA verification you want to use, etc.

Step 2: Grab Your Keys

With registration submitted, Google will provide both a site key, and a secret key. These are how you’ll get your Google reCAPTCHA to talk to your WordPress website.

Copy them, because we’re going to put them to use soon.

Step 3: Install WordPress Plugin

Now, log into WordPress.

If you don’t already have a reCAPTCHA plugin installed, head to Dashboard > Plugins > Add New and search for “reCAPTCHA.” reCaptcha by BestWebSoft, CAPTCHA 4WP, and Contact Form 7 are all popular options.

Once installed, most of these plugins will walk you through connecting your website to your Google reCAPTCHA. We’ll carry on the rest of this tutorial using Contact Form 7 as an example of how approachable it can be.

Step 4: Turn on reCAPTCHA

With Contact Form 7 installed, head to Contact > Integration in WordPress. Locate the reCAPTCHA integration box and begin the setup process.

You will be asked to paste in the site and secret keys you just got from Google. Once those are added and changes saved, reCAPTCHA will be up and running on your site.

For a walkthrough of setting up Contact Form 7, check out our Knowledge Base article on Troubleshooting WordPress contact forms.

Step 5: Add reCAPTCHA to a Form

Now that your reCAPTCHA functionality is turned on, you’ll need to add it to any forms you want to protect from bot submissions.

To do so, go to Contact > Dashboard in WordPress and add a new form.

Here, you’re going to lightly edit the code of the form template to inject a reCAPTCHA.

Add “[recaptcha]” right before the “[submit “Submit”]” line. Once you save, you should see a shortcode appear under the form title.

Step 6: Publish Your reCAPTCHA Form to Your Website

Copy that shortcode you just created.

Now, go forth and paste that code into posts, pages, or text widgets to install a new form complete with a reCAPTCHA!

How to Add reCAPTCHA to WordPress Manually (4 Steps)

As an alternative to the plugin route, you can add a reCAPTCHA manually to any form on your website.

This will take a bit of code tinkering. If you’re squeamish with things like head tags and JavaScript snippets, then you may feel most comfortable sticking with an out-of-the-box option.

But if you’re ready to roll up your sleeves, getting things set up is pretty easy on a scale from super easy (launching a new website with DreamHost) to super difficult (solving the three-body problem).

Let’s get into it.

Step 1: Register Your Site and Grab Your Keys

Just like with the plugin route, you’ll need to start by signing up for reCAPTCHA from the Google website.

You can do that in two quick steps:

1. Register your WordPress site in Google’s reCAPTCHA admin panel and select the reCAPTCHA type.
2. Copy both your site key and secret key for future use.

Now, let’s get back to the website at hand. There are three core pieces that make reCAPTCHA work:

• The JavaScript library (reCAPTCHA API)
• The HTML form element
• The response verification code

We’ll kick things off with the reCAPTCHA JavaScript library.

Step 2: Add the reCAPTCHA JavaScript Library

To get started, we need to add the JavaScript library to your website. This is a small snippet of code that needs to be added to every page that will use reCAPTCHA:

“<script src="https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js" async defer></script>”

The easiest way to make sure this is accessible on all of the necessary pages is to add it to your universal header before the closing “</head>” tag.

You can do this one of two ways:

1. Manually, by accessing the header.php directly within the WordPress admin, or the file manager inside your hosting dashboard
2. By using a plugin to add the code to your header

Adding the Code Manually

If you choose the first route, you’ll need to use either the theme file editor inside WordPress or your file manager to access the header.php directly.

Important Note: Editing your theme files directly could break your website, and your changes could be overwritten whenever you update your theme. If you’re not experienced with editing the theme files directly, skip ahead to “Using a Plugin to Add the Code” for a less risky solution.

Your file manager will look different depending on your host, but if you’re using DreamHost, navigate to WordPress > Managed WordPress in the sidebar. Find the domain to which you want to add a reCAPTCHA and select Manage.

Then, click on the Manage Files button in the Details section.

Open the folder that has your domain name on it. From there, you’ll navigate to wp-content > themes and find the folder for your current WordPress theme.

Find the file called header.php, open it up, and find the closing <code>“&lt;/head&gt;”</code> tag within the code.

Copy and paste the reCAPTCHA JavaScript snippet right before that line.

Using a Plugin to Add the Code

If the above seems like too much, don’t worry. We’ve got you covered.

Instead, you can install a WordPress plugin that will automatically add code directly to your header with no hacking required.

Using a plugin like WPCode, you can easily add relevant code snippets to key parts of your WordPress theme.

From your WordPress admin panel, go to Plugins > Add New and search for WPCode.

Click Install, then Activate.

Once WPCode is activated, you should see a new section in your left-side menu called Code Snippets.

Go to Code Snippets > Header & Footer.

Inside the Header & Footer page, paste the JavaScript code into the Header section and save your changes.

Boom — code added!

Step 3: Add reCAPTCHA to Your Form

Now, we’re going to adjust the code on the actual form where you want to see your reCAPTCHA.

Again, you can use a file manager, the WordPress editor, or even FTP.  It should live inside the wp-content folder, which houses all your plugins, themes, and media.

In the form code, paste the following code before the submit line to add the reCAPTCHA:

“<div class="g-recaptcha" data-sitekey="your_site_key"></div>”

Here’s an example of how it might look:

Replace “your_site_key” with the site key you received from Google.

Step 4: Handle the Response

Perhaps the trickiest part of the process is adding code to handle the response from reCAPTCHA. This basically tells your site whether to process the form or block it.

To configure this, you’ll need to add another snippet of code to the form (the callback function):

$secretKey = "your_secret_key";
$response = $_POST['g-recaptcha-response'];
$remoteIp = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];

$url = "https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify?secret=".$secretKey."&response=".$response."&remoteip=".$remoteIp;
$response = file_get_contents($url);
$responseKeys = json_decode($response,true);

if(intval($responseKeys["success"]) !== 1) {
    // Handle reCAPTCHA validation failure
} else {
    // Process form submission
}”

In this code, you’d need to replace “your_secret_key” with the secret key provided by Google.

This is just one example of an implementation that would allow you to customize how the submission is handled. There are many other methods for handling the server-side validation and callback functions.

For more info on how to handle this part of the process, refer to the official documentation from Google.

Goodbye Spam, Hello Security

While we must reiterate that reCAPTCHA and CAPTCHAs are not the be-all and end-all when it comes to website security, they’re a crucial step in helping you fend off automated bots and hackers with ill intent.

For more tips on securing your WordPress website and beyond, stay tuned to the DreamHost blog. We’re always posting resources to help you keep your website safe, fast, and online so you can impress site visitors and search engines alike.

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The post Say Goodbye to Spam! A Complete Guide to reCAPTCHA appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

Worse still, 401 errors are often caused by reasons that have nothing to do with the visitor, making them extra frustrating to encounter. But not to worry! Here are a few simple steps you can take as a website owner to troubleshoot the 401 error before it starts impacting your website’s trust.

What is the 401 Unauthorized Error?

The 401 Unauthorized error is an HTTP status code indicating that the client is not authorized access to the requested resource.

What that actually means: 401 – Unauthorized is an authentication error, which means that the web page you are trying to visit is password-protected, and you don’t have the correct permissions to access it. This can happen when the user enters a wrong password or when there’s a restriction on accessing the web page from the user’s geographic location.

Of course, 401 errors can also be false positives, meaning that the error can occur even when the visitor has the right credentials to log into a website. It may even occur when the web page isn’t supposed to be password-protected at all. For example, it can be caused by a jittery firewall, a troublesome plugin, or an uncooperative extension added to your website.

You may notice the 401 error as one of these messages popping up in your browser window:

• 401 Authorization Required
• 401 Unauthorized
• HTTP 401 Error – Unauthorized
• Access Denied
• HTTP Error 401

401 Unauthorized: Potential Causes of the HTTP Error Code

401 errors occur when a web browser has trouble authenticating the visitor’s login credentials with the website’s server. Here are a few common causes why that might happen:

• Error or typo in the website’s URL.
• Outdated cookies or browser cache.
• IP address restrictions on-site access.
• Errors in server configuration.
• Incompatible plugin or website theme.
• Incorrect login attempts by the user.

401 errors are normally client-side errors, meaning they can often be fixed by clearing your browser’s cookies or inputting the correct password. However, server-side issues like plugins and firewalls can also cause these errors, making it very important for site admins to be aware of potential conflicts.

But these are all surface-level explanations. If you want to know what causes a 401 error, you must understand how authentication works in web development.

When a client (i.e., a web browser) requests access to a protected resource on a website, the website will need the client to provide some form of valid authentication. These credentials could be in the form of API keys, a username and password, digital certificates, or something else — depending on the authentication scheme used by the site.

The website then processes the authentication credentials to verify their validity. This could involve checking the credentials against a stored database of users and passwords, contacting an external authentication provider, or performing some other form of validation.

If the authentication is successful, it returns a 200 status code, and the website will generate a session token for the client. This identifies the authenticated client and tracks the client’s interactions within the website. The session token is often stored in a cookie in the client’s browser or as a header in any subsequent requests.

However, if the authentication is unsuccessful, the website will return an HTTP error message, such as the 401 error code. The 401 error message typically includes a WWW-Authenticate header, which explains how to authenticate with the server in the user’s browser. This header can include more context about the 401 error, such as the type of authentication required (e.g. Basic, Digest, or OAuth).

How to Diagnose the 401 Error as a User or Administrator

401 access control errors are pretty common when logging into a membership site or accessing a protected web page. Luckily, they are also very easy to fix most of the time. Here are a few things you can do to address this error, both as a website visitor and a web administrator:

Client-Side Solutions

401 error pages are sometimes caused by client-side issues like login credentials or even the web browser used to access your website’s password protection system. These can be fixed with a few simple steps from the visitor’s end:

• Check User Credentials: Make sure you entered the correct username and password combination. Double-check your authentication credentials for the slightest typo. Remember, usernames and passwords are case-sensitive.
• Clear Browser Cookies: If the website uses cookies for authentication, the error may be because of invalid or expired cookies. Normally, cookies have an expiration date or just expire when the browser is closed. If you’re having trouble accessing a website, clear browsing data by following the instructions for your specific web browser to help solve the issue.

• Verify URL: Make sure the URL you’re trying to access is correct and up-to-date. Otherwise, the DNS server may not be able to find the website and instead return the 401 error. If you’re following a link from another website, it’s quite possible that the link is using the wrong URL.
• Rate Limiting: If the website server is rate limiting requests from the same IP address, this can lead to a 401 Unauthorized Error. Make sure that you don’t exceed the number of login requests allowed by the server. The limit is often indicated in the login form.

DNS Flushing

DNS Caches help improve loading speed and website performance when browsing the internet, but they can sometimes become corrupted and result in an authorization error when accessing specific web pages. Fixing this is as easy as flushing (clearing) your DNS server, which can be done a few different ways:

Windows: To flush your DNS on Windows 10/11, follow these steps:

• Open the Command Prompt by pressing Windows+R and typing “̌cmd” (without quotes) into the Run dialog box.
• Now type in the command “ipconfig/flushdns” inside Command Prompt.
• If you are a Windows PowerShell user, you can do this by opening PowerShell and typing in “Clear-DnsClientCache” (without quotes).
• This will flush the DNS and clear all the records from the local DNS cache.

MacOS: If you’re using a Macbook or iMac, you can flush your DNS cache using Terminal.

• Open Terminal on your Mac by using Spotlight Search or pressing Command+Space and typing Terminal into the search box.
• Inside Terminal, type in “sudo dscacheutil -flushcache;sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder” (without quotes).
• Your DNS cache has now been flushed on your Apple computer.

Google Chrome: If you’re using Google Chrome, the browser has its own DNS cache that’s independent of the Operating System (Windows or Mac). To clear Chrome’s DNS cache:

• Type “chrome://net-internals/#dns” into the address bar.
• Now, click on the “Clear host cache” button to clear your DNS records.

WordPress Plugins

Plugins are a staple for WordPress websites, but they can sometimes also cause errors if configured improperly. This can happen when the plugin contains code that creates a website security issue or conflicts with the platform’s core functionality.

So, what can a site admin do to fix this issue? Well, the first step is to identify which plugin or plugins are causing the issue. Usually, this can be done by disabling each plugin one-by-one and checking if the error still appears. Once the plugin causing the issue is identified, you can either update, reconfigure, or permanently remove it. Common culprits may include:

• CDN services like Cloudflare and KeyCDN.
• Web firewalls like Sucuri and Wordfence.
• Poorly built WordPress themes.

Follow these simple steps to enable or disable plugins on your WordPress site:

• First, log in to your WordPress dashboard.
• Click on the “Plugins” option in the left-hand menu.
• Find the plugin you want to enable or disable and click on the “Activate” or “Deactivate” button below the plugin name.
• If you want to disable multiple plugins at once, check the box next to each plugin and select “Deactivate” from the “Bulk Actions” drop-down menu.
• If you want to enable multiple plugins at once, check the box next to each plugin and select “Activate” from the “Bulk Actions” drop-down menu.

In some cases, it is also possible to fix the issue by disabling or reconfiguring specific settings within a plugin. For example, if your website uses a caching plugin, it’s worth trying to clear the cache and check if the error still appears.

WWW-Authenticate Header

In a few rare cases, 401 errors can result from a server error. You can find out more about this by looking at your WWW-Authenticate Header.

The WWW-Authenticate Header is a response header sent by the server that contains information on the authentication methods supported by the site. This header helps the user’s browser decide which authentication protocol to use when requesting data from the server.

The header is also used to send additional information about the authentication process. This may include the domain being protected by the authentication scheme, or the algorithm used by the server.

To check the WWW-Authenticate Header, open Chrome, navigate to the URL causing the 401 error, and right-click anywhere on the page. From the drop-down menu, select ‘Inspect’. This will bring up the Developer Tools window.

Select the Network tab once inside the Developer Tools window. Here, you’ll see all the requests the browser sends when loading the page. If the response from the server contains a WWW-Authenticate header, it will be visible in this tab.

By inspecting the WWW-Authenticate header, you can get a better understanding of the authentication process used by the server. Next, check that the response was sent and identify what authentication scheme was used to send it. That’ll help you narrow down the problem before looking for a specific solution. Here are a few authentication schemes found in the WWW-Authenticate Header, along with descriptions of how they work, for reference:

• Basic: This scheme uses a base64-encoded username and password separated by a colon. This is considered the least secure authentication method and should only be used over HTTPS.
• Digest: This scheme uses a challenge-response protocol to authenticate clients. The server sends a nonce value to the client, which the client uses to create a response based on the username, password, and request information.
• Bearer: This scheme is used for OAuth 2.0 authentication. The client receives a token from the server, which it uses to authenticate subsequent requests.
• Negotiate: This scheme is used for Kerberos authentication.
• AWS4-HMAC-SHA256: This authentication scheme is used to authenticate requests to Amazon Web Services (AWS) using an AWS access key and a secret access key.
• Token: This scheme is used to authenticate with a token-based system.

.htaccess File

If you’re experiencing a 401 error on your website, one possible cause could be an issue with your .htaccess file. The .htaccess file is a configuration file used by Apache web servers to control access to your website’s directories and files. Here’s how to check your .htaccess file for causes of a 401 error:

• Connect to your website’s server using an FTP client or file manager.
• Navigate to the directory where your .htaccess file is located. This is usually the root directory of your website.
• Download a copy of your .htaccess file to your computer.
• Open the .htaccess file in a text editor (like Notepad++) and look for any lines that specify access controls or authentication requirements. Specifically, you’ll want to look for the following parameters: AuthUserFile, AuthName, AuthType, and Require.
• Check that the access controls or authentication requirements specified in the .htaccess file match the settings you intend to use for your website. For example, if you have recently updated your website’s authentication mechanism (AuthType), you may need to update the corresponding settings in your .htaccess file as well.
• Save the changes to your .htaccess file and upload it back to your website’s server.
• Test your website to see if the 401 error has been resolved.

If You’re Still Having Trouble, It’s Time to Contact an Expert

HTTP response codes offer little context on their own, which makes them troublesome to navigate without the proper technical assistance. It’s part of the reason why DreamHost offers 24/7 support to help you troubleshoot downtime on your website and domain.

If you’re having trouble diagnosing or fixing a 401 error on your website, you can try contacting your hosting provider for support. It’s also possible to contract a technical expert, such as a web developer, for help with the issue.

401 errors can be jarring for the end user, but they are often an easy fix. If you’re contacted by someone unable to access your website due to this error, walk them through the common client-side solutions before looking into any potential server issues, such as WordPress plugins or the WWW-Authenticate header. If you’re still having trouble, you can always bring in some technical help to diagnose the issue.

The post 401 Unauthorized Error: What It Is & How to Fix It appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

It’s super easy to monetize your WordPress website with Google AdSense. Better yet, it’s a hassle-free approach since Google matches you with relevant companies and lets you integrate ads seamlessly into your pages.

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at using ads to monetize your site. Then, we’ll introduce you to Google AdSense and show you three ways it can help you make serious money from your WordPress website. Let’s get started!

The Different Types of Ads You Can Sell on Your Site

Typically, you can choose from four main ad types on your site. This section will explain each of them to help you pick the best option for your pages.

CPC/ PPC Ads

CPC (Cost Per Click), also known as PPC (Pay Per Click) ads, are some of the most popular options. In short, you make money every time a user clicks on one of your advertisements.

For example, you might price your ad space at $2 per click — When a brand approaches you with a PPC/CPC campaign of $2000, it’s essentially paying for 1000 clicks on your site. The company will pay you every time the ad is clicked on until they’ve exhausted all of its budget.

CPM Ads

Cost Per Mille (CPM) ad pays you for every 1,000 impressions. Typically, “impression” refers to the number of times the ad is viewed on your site. Therefore, this advertisement tends to work best on high-traffic websites.

These ads are popular with advertisers because they only need to pay you once their ads have been viewed. Like PPC ads, a $2000 campaign with an ad cost of $2 enables brands to gain 1 million impressions (or views) on your site.

CPM ads are often cheaper than PPC ads because they require less effort on your part. All you need to do is advertise on your pages, and you’ll get paid when visitors land on your site.

Affiliate Ads

Affiliate ads are also known as CPA (Cost Per Action) because they rely on user behaviors. However, advertisers can be super selective about the action(s) they want to be completed.

For example, some businesses will only pay you when a user clicks on the ad and completes a purchase. However, some companies will pay you just for generating a lead. This means that users only need to click on the advertisement.

Affiliate ads are much more expensive on a CPA basis. While you can find PPC ads going for $2, affiliate ads tend to be at the higher end of the scale at around $50 per action.

This means there’s the potential to generate higher earnings than other ad types. However, there’s no guarantee that your visitors will complete the desired action.

Flat-Fee Ads

Flat-fee ads have the most straightforward pricing model, so they’re popular with advertisers and website owners who don’t want to mess about with calculations.

Just as they sound, flat-fee ads pay according to a predetermined price. For instance, you might set your rate at $2000 per month for a banner ad on your website.

Unlike other ad types, your earnings aren’t based on views or actions — Once the company stops paying the fee, you take the ad down from your website.

Why You Should Consider Monetizing Your Website with Ads

Although it might sound like a lot of work, there are many reasons to consider monetizing your website with ads. For starters, at the most obvious level, it’s one of the easiest ways to start making passive income.

This is especially true for high-traffic sites that could be generating plenty of revenue. Plus, placing ads enables you to make money without significant changes to your business or content.

Moreover, ads are great for content creators and bloggers with no physical services or products to sell:

Of course, the downside to running advertisements is that you risk annoying your visitors and disrupting the User Experience (UX). However, since ads are so widely used now, most web users expect to see them at some point while browsing.

Better yet, with advanced targeting algorithms, it’s now easier to find ads that fit your branding and customer base. That way, you can display advertisements that offer value, making them less annoying.

An Introduction to Google AdSense

There are many different ways to sell ads on your website. For instance, you might sell ad space directly if you want to handle negotiations. However, this approach can be a little intimidating for many website owners.

Alternatively, you could reach out to specific advertisers you want to work with, which can be a great way to form authentic collaborations with brands you admire. However, this option works best if you’ve already established a strong presence or have some valuable connections.

The easiest way to sell ads on your site, though, is to use an automated advertising network like Google AdSense:

Google AdSense is a network of advertisers and websites, all vetted by Google. The platform matches you with suitable advertisers that fit your brand and audience. Plus, Google handles all of the payment processing.

Therefore, it’s a super simple way to get started. This makes Google AdSense a popular choice for website owners that prefer to focus on building their businesses or creating great content.

Additionally, this approach enables you to display more relevant advertisements to your visitors. This is because Google runs different ads based on factors such as cookies and demographics.

How You’ll Get Paid with Google AdSense

The way you get paid with Google AdSense depends mainly on the types of ads that you run. As stated before, if you choose PPC/CPC, you’ll get paid every time a visitor clicks on your advertisement. The rates vary according to your website quality, niche, ad size, and more.

On the other hand, if you opt for CPM ads, you’ll be paid just for advertising on your web pages. These advertisements tend to pay less than PPC bids because they require far less effort on your part.

With an Active View CPM, the impression must be measured as “viewable” — It works similarly to the CPM model but with additional criteria.

For example, at least 50% of the ad needs to be shown for at least a second. Therefore, the bid for Active View CPM tends to be higher than traditional CPM ads.

Finally, you can get paid for CPE (Cost Per Engagement) ads. In this instance, your earnings are generated according to the level of user activity on your site, such as clicking or hovering over a lightbox.

How to Monetize Your WordPress Website with Google AdSense (3 Ways)

To get started with Google AdSense, you’ll first need to create an account with Google. If you use a service like Gmail, Docs, or Drive, you might already have one. If not, you can create a new account by visiting Google AdSense.

Before you continue, it’s important to know that there are specific eligibility requirements for Google AdSense. For instance, you’ll need to ensure that your content complies with the AdSense program policies, and you must be the website owner.

If you meet all the criteria, you can create your Google AdSense account by clicking on Get Started. This will take you to a short signup page where you’ll need to fill in some details about your website:

Complete all the fields and select Start using AdSense at the bottom of the page.

You’ll have to wait for your account to be approved, which might take a little while. If your site isn’t approved, it might be too new, or you don’t have enough content yet. Other reasons for declining your account include plagiarized material, security issues, or problems with your website’s code.

Once your account is approved, log in to Google AdSense to retrieve your ad code. You’ll need it to display ads on your site.

There are a few different ways to implement Google ads on your pages. Firstly, you can insert your ads manually. Otherwise, you might use a plugin or enable Google AdSense auto ads. This way, Google will decide when, where, and how many ads to show on your pages.

Method 1: Manually Implement Google AdSense Ads in WordPress

The manual route might be the best option if you’d prefer to place ads individually on your website. This way, you’ll get more control over the placement and display of the advertisements.

To get started with this method, head to your Google AdSense account and click on Ads in the menu to the left. Then, select By ad unit:

Here, you’ll be able to select your ad types, such as display, in-feed, or multiplex. Display ads are the most common because they can go anywhere on your site. Meanwhile, in-feed advertisements sit in a list of articles or products on your pages, in-article ones display within your content, and multiplex ads display in a grid.

Make your selection. Then, you’ll be taken to a new screen where you can give your ad a name and select the appropriate size:

It’s also a good idea to make your ad responsive. That way, you can optimize your content for mobile devices and tablets.

At this point, click on Create, and Google will generate your ad code:

Now, you can insert your ad code within a new post or page in WordPress. Alternatively, you can add it as a widget by going to Appearance > Widgets in your dashboard.

Whichever way you choose, you’ll need to add a new block (or widget) and select Custom HTML:

Then, enter your code and save the changes.

Method 2: Use an Ad Management Plugin to Display Google AdSense Ads in WordPress

If you’re a beginner, you might not want to mess around with code on your site. Fortunately, you can use a plugin to display Google ads.

There are several plugins available to help you display ads in WordPress. Here are some of the best tools to consider:

• Adsanity: Enables you to manage direct and automated ads in WordPress.
• Ad Inserter: Adds the advertisement code in optimal positions on your site, such as opt-in forms, header scripts, and JavaScript.
• Ads by WPQuads: Integrates with all Google AdSense ads, including display, in-feed, and automated advertisements with fixed and responsive sizes.
• WPCode: A great option for displaying banner ads in headers and footers.
• Google Site Kit: Google’s official WordPress plugin.

All of these plugins provide an easy way to display Google AdSense ads on WordPress sites. We’ll guide you through a quick tutorial on how to get started with Ad Inserter.

Display Google AdSense Ads with Ad Inserter

To get started with Ad Inserter, you’ll need to install and activate the plugin in WordPress. First, head to Plugins > Add New.

Then, search for “Ad Inserter” and click on Install Now > Activate:

Ad Inserter supports several ad networks, so you’ll need to configure the plugin’s settings. To do this, head to Settings > Ad Inserter:

The plugin enables you to display up to 16 advertisements on your site, each with its own ad block. Better yet, you can determine specific page(s) where you want your ads to appear and even choose the exact location on each page.

For instance, if you want ads to appear in your posts, check the box that says Posts. Then, use the Insertion dropdown menu to specify the precise placement for the advertisement, such as before images, after content, or between comments:

Then, paste your Google AdSense code into Block 1 and adjust the display settings below. In our example, our ad will display after the second paragraph of our posts:

Make sure to save your settings before exiting the plugin.

Method 3: Enable Google Auto Ads in WordPress

If you’re short on time or don’t know the best locations for ads, you might prefer to use Google auto ads. This way, you only need to add one code snippet to WordPress, and Google will take care of the location, size, and type of advertisement you’ll display.

To enable Google auto ads, log in to your Google AdSense account and click on Ads. Then, switch to the By site tab:

Now, select Get code to generate the auto-ads code, and copy it:

All you need to do now is add the code snippet to the pages where you want to display your ad. For example, you might insert the code into your theme’s header between the <head></head> tags. However, it’s important to note that this snippet will disappear if you switch or update your current theme.

Therefore, it can be a better idea to use a child theme or a plugin like WPCode to manage your Google auto ads:

This also tends to be a simpler way to do things since you don’t need to edit HTML code on your pages manually.

Once you’ve installed and activated the plugin, head to Code Snippets > Header & Footer, then paste your Google auto ads code into the editor:

Now, click on Save Changes. At this point, your Google AdSense code will be added to all pages on your site.

Google AdSense Best Practices

You’re now ready to start monetizing your website with Google AdSense. Remember the following important considerations to get the most out of your ads:

• Don’t click on your own ads. Clicking on your ads is fraudulent and can result in Google disabling your AdSense account.

• Avoid placing ads on e-commerce sites. If you sell products or services, you won’t want to redirect potential customers elsewhere to spend their money.
• Experiment with different ad units. Straight off the bat, you’re unlikely to know the types of ads that will resonate with your users best. Therefore, it’s a good idea to try out different ad sizes and placements and see which gets the best results.
• Track your results. It’s important to measure the performance of your ad spaces to identify areas you can improve. Tools like Google Site Kit enable you to analyze and optimize your site.

Additionally, Google has its own list of ad best practices that you can check out to improve your campaigns.

Monetize Your Website with Google AdSense

Monetizing your website with ads allows you to make a passive income without lifting a finger. Plus, Google AdSense provides an easy way to earn money from your site using relevant advertisements that won’t harm your UX.

To recap, here are three ways to monetize your WordPress website with Google AdSense:

1. Manually implement Google AdSense ads in WordPress using HTML.
2. Use an ad management plugin such as Ad Inserter.
3. Enable Google auto ads in WordPress.

If you want to sit back and let your website run itself, we recommend switching to managed hosting. At DreamHost, we’ll take care of your site maintenance tasks, including automated backups, optimizing your site’s speed with in-built caching, and software updates. This way, you will have more time to focus on growing your business. So check out our plans today!

Do More with DreamPress

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Check Out Plans

The post How to Add Google AdSense to Your WordPress Website appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

Refinements and significant improvements, as well as ease of use, are the main focus areas of WordPress 6.2. Among those improvements are a revamped approach to navigating between templates and template parts, an additional way to manage menus with the navigation block, and the ability to import widgets to block themes.

The base block experience will also receive improvements, including features like a new distraction-free writing mode and a scaled block settings experience.

Let’s dive right in and check out what you and other WordPress users have to look forward to!

Full Site Editing Becomes a Breeze

The Site Editor will now center the entire structure of your site starting with the homepage. Whereas in the past when you’d be dropped into a single template, various features will now come together to make it easier to navigate across your site and take the actions you want. In addition, you’ll be able to:

New Site Editor Features

• Experience a refreshed Site Editor with the new Browse mode.
• Easily identify template parts and reusable blocks with added colorization.
• Write without interruption with the specially designed distraction-free editing mode.
• Insert media directly from your Media Library using the Inserter.
• Quickly add images from Openverse to your posts using the Inserter, with the option to disable this feature.
• Keep an eye out for the updated Block Settings icon, an indicator of additional forthcoming changes.
• Migrate your widgets to block themes with ease.
• View your list view and document information all in one unified panel.

Distraction-Free Mode

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Reimagined Site Editor

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Leveling-Up Individual Blocks

Individual blocks, particularly the Navigation block, have also received some desperately needed upgrades. Like many other features and functions of WordPress, their capabilities and the user experience have continued to improve. Furthermore, overall block settings have been iterated upon with more complex blocks in mind, with a split between Styles and Settings tabs.

New Block Features

• Enhance your editing experience with the new list view for the Navigation block, accessible within the block settings sidebar.
• Limit editing of the Navigation block’s inner blocks (links and submenus) for a more curated experience.
• Enjoy the convenience of various in-built fallbacks for the Navigation block.
• Elevate your block customization with split Styles and Settings, optimized for compatibility with a growing range of design tools.
• Keep blocks at the root level in sight with the “Sticky” block position option in the inspector.
• Fine-tune the width of blocks within a Row block.
• Easily choose between a row or stacked layout during Group block setup.
• Utilize the aspect ratio tool for custom image dimensions.
• Modify captions for Audio, Video, and Image blocks directly from the block toolbar with ease.

Design on Your Terms With Updated Block Patterns

Since they were introduced, Block Patterns have been one of the most popular features of WordPress. They’re a collection of predefined blocks that you can insert into pages and posts and customize with your own content. They make it possible to quickly and easily create standout pages on your WordPress site with very little effort.

Now, in WordPress 6.2, a redesign of the patterns Inserter makes it easier to pick and choose between patterns, including newly bundled Header and Footer options. Developers and Site Builders who create and provide patterns can expand where they can be used, including an option to register patterns specifically for templates.

New Block Patterns Features

• Streamline your pattern selection with the improved Pattern Inserter and refined categorization.
• Effortlessly switch between Header and Footer patterns bundled with Core.
• Specify the templates where patterns can be used by registering them for specific template types. For instance, an Error 404 pattern should only be used with the 404 template.
• Select from a growing collection of Query Loop patterns directly from the block, with a more streamlined setup process.

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Design Takes Center Stage

If you’ve struggled with site design in the past and felt overwhelmed by the learning curve of previous WordPress releases, don’t panic! WordPress 6.2 takes the strong foundation provided by theme.json and the Styles Engine to new heights.

The new features and enhancements will allow users to experiment with different styles, preview the changes in real-time, and apply them globally or locally as needed, making the entire design process more intuitive and efficient. So, even if you have never felt confident in your site design skills, WordPress 6.2 is here to help.

New Design Features

• Create a cohesive look for your site with the Style Book, which allows you to view and style all blocks at once.
• Preview the impact of your design changes with an inline view of blocks while working with Styles.
• Get a more comprehensive glance at your template when choosing a style variation.
• Quickly make sitewide changes to a single block across your site using the “Apply Globally” control in the Advanced block settings.
• Speed up your design process by copying and pasting block styles for consistent designs.
• Customize your entire site or individual blocks with custom CSS controls.
• Make edits to block style variations from within Styles.
• Set a minimum fluid font size in theme.json for more flexible typography.
• Add shadow preset support via theme.json.

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More to Come in WordPress 6.2

In addition to all of the refinements and improvements coming to WordPress 6.2 that we’ve laid out above, there will also be a number of performance improvements, a faster plugin and theme upgrade process, further iteration on PHP 8.2.x support, and all of the expected general bug fixes and enhancements to look forward to.

Altogether, these will help take the WordPress experience to new heights! Stay tuned for more updates by subscribing below.

The post WordPress 6.2 is Coming Soon! Here’s Your First Look appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

But if you do move or delete a page, users could potentially be presented with a 404 error that prevents them from accessing your content, often leading to an exit. If you don’t properly set up redirects, you may increase your bounce/exit rates, which harms user experience (and potentially organic rankings).

Fortunately, it is easy to create 301 redirects in WordPress — by adding a 301 redirect for moved or removed pages, users (and search engines) will be whisked off to the new, updated URL. Whether you use a redirection plugin or edit your site files, building 301 redirects can effectively fix any broken links on your site.

In this post, we’ll explain what 301 redirects are and when you might want to use them. Then, we’ll show you four ways to create a 301 redirect in WordPress. Let’s get started!

An Introduction to Redirects

To get started, you’ll need to know what redirects are. Put simply, any redirect will send users and search engines to another web address. This automatically redirects the requested URL to a different location.

As a website owner, you can use a temporary or permanent redirect to prevent your visitors from seeing error pages. These “Not Found” errors, otherwise known as 404 errors, inturrupt the browsing experience and can lead to visitors exiting your website.

There are many other different redirect types as well. Each one sends a unique HTTP status code from a web server to a browser. These codes indicate how the content is being moved.

Here are the most common URL redirect types:

• 301: Permanent redirect from one URL to another.
• 302: Temporarily redirect to a new URL.
• 303: Non-cacheable redirect to temporarily replace content.
• 307: Informs search engines that the redirect may periodically update.
• 308: Permanent redirect that disallows changes from POST to GET request methods.
• Meta refresh: Client-side redirect that often appears as a refresh countdown timer.

By far, the most used redirect type is a 301 redirect. This will inform both search engines and online users that the original resource is no longer available. Instead, it will permanently redirect to a new page.

Whenever someone clicks on the original link, they’ll automatically be taken to a different URL. The redirect will seamlessly direct users to the correct pages on your website and prevent them from seeing 404 errors.

Reasons You Might Use a 301 Redirect

Since there are different redirect types, it can be difficult to know which is right for your website. Fortunately, 301 redirects are useful when performing a few essential management tasks.

One of the most common reasons to use a 301 redirect is when you’re deleting old content. If a post is no longer relevant but still receives traffic, you’ll want to take these users to an updated resource.

In this case, 301 redirects tell search engines that you’re permanently moving the URL. Since it will preserve your traffic and backlinks, this redirect can improve your Search Engine Optimization (SEO). However, keep in mind that it can take time for search bots to discover the new page and associate it with the same ranking.

Additionally, you may implement 301 redirects if you’re moving to a new domain. If you don’t redirect your URLs, you may quickly lose your current audience. However, 301 redirects will seamlessly take visitors to your new location.

Similarly, a 301 redirect can be useful when moving from an HTTP to an HTTPS connection. To make sure users visit the secure version of your website, it’s best to permanently redirect your content.

You might also want to consolidate separate posts. After compiling the information onto one page, you can redirect all the old links to the new location.

How to Create 301 Redirects in WordPress (4 Methods)

Now that you know about 301 redirects, you may want to apply them to your website. Let’s discuss some best practices when creating 301 redirects in WordPress!

Method 1: Install a Redirection Plugin

One of the best ways to extend the native functionality of WordPress is to install a plugin. Fortunately, there are many useful plugins available for creating and managing your website’s redirects.

For example, Redirection is a free tool that adds a redirect manager to your site. You can use this plugin to set up 301 redirects, track broken links, migrate permalinks, and much more:

To get started, install and activate Redirection in WordPress. Then, navigate to Tools > Redirection. On this welcome page, click on Start Setup:

For the next step, you’ll need to decide whether you want Redirection to monitor permalinks, redirects, and 404 errors on your site. If so, enable these options and select Continue:

After this, the plugin will test your REST API to see if it can communicate with WordPress properly. Once you receive a ‘Good’ rating, you can click on Finish Setup:

Now you’ll be able to create a 301 redirect! To do this, find Tools > Redirection > Add New. Then, add your source URL and target URL:

Lastly, click on the gear icon to open additional settings. Be sure to select a 301 – Moved Permanently HTTP code:

When you’re finished, hit Add Redirect. Now, whenever users visit the old URL, their browser will automatically reroute to the new resource!

Method 2: Use Your SEO Plugin

Although you can install new redirection plugins like Redirection or Simple 301 Redirects, you may already have all the tools you need to create redirects on your website. Often, SEO plugins provide redirection managers along with Search Engine Optimization features.

Rank Math is a free SEO plugin with built-in redirection tools. With this tool, you’ll be able to enable, disable, and delete any of your site’s redirects. Plus, it even imports information from the Redirection plugin:

After you install and activate Rank Math, open the dashboard. Then, find the Redirections tool and enable it:

Now you’ll have a new Redirections tab. On this page, click on Add New:

First, you can add your original source URL, which will be the content you’re redirecting from. By hitting Add another, you can paste URLs in bulk. This can be an efficient way to consolidate multiple pieces of content into one source:

Next to each URL, choose Exact Match if you want to redirect this exact link. However, you can also enter a more general term. By selecting Contains instead, every page with that keyword will be redirected:

Under Destination URL, insert the link you want users to visit. Be sure to also select 301 Permanent Move as the redirection type before hitting Add Redirection.

Method 3: Edit Your .htaccess File

If you want to avoid installing another plugin, you can also create 301 redirects manually. Since this involves editing your site files, be sure to back up your website first. This will save a copy of your current website to revert back to if anything goes wrong.

Next, you’ll need to connect to a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) client or your host’s file manager. For DreamHost users, sign into your account panel. Then, navigate to Websites > Manage Websites > Manage Files SFTP > Manage:

This will open DreamHost’s file manager. Here, you’ll need to find the .htaccess file within the root directory:

If you don’t want to back up your entire website, you can simply download this original file. If you experience any problems, you can re-upload it to the server:

Once you locate the .htaccess file, right-click on it and select Edit. If you’re using the DreamHost file manager, a text editor will automatically open:

Right below the ‘# END WordPress’ line, add this new coding to create a 301 redirect:

RewriteEngine On
Redirect 301 /new-content/ https://mywebsite.com/new-content/

Be sure to update both of these URLs so that they’re unique to your website. Keep in mind that if you already have Rewrite Engine on in your .htaccess file’s coding, you don’t need to repeat it. You can simply copy and paste the redirect code.

As we mentioned earlier, you may want to redirect your entire website to a new domain. In this case, you can use the following coding instead:

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^olddomain.com [NC,OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^www.olddomain.com [NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://newdomain.com/$1 [L,R=301,NC]

If you’re migrating your website from an HTTP to HTTPS connection, you can also do this in your .htaccess file. Simply paste this code:

RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} off
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://%{HTTP_HOST}%{REQUEST_URI} [L,R=301]

After this, save the file and close it.

Method 4: Create a Server-Side Redirect

As another alternative, you can also create 301 redirects in PHP. This will be a server-side redirect that uses header() functions.

PHP redirects are server-facing, so they can often be faster and more secure. However, this is a fairly technical process that can easily go wrong. Make sure you’re knowledgeable in PHP coding before getting started.

To properly redirect in PHP, you’ll need to write a header() function. In the location response-header field, define the URL where you want to send search engines and users:

header('HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently');
header('Location: https://www.example.com/newurl');
exit();

Be sure to include a die() or exit() function at the end of the header. Without it, search engines like Google may process the original page and ignore your new redirect.

How to Troubleshoot 301 Redirects

After you create a 301 redirect, it may not perform correctly. Sometimes, it’ll turn into a redirect chain or loop. This happens when there are multiple redirects between the original URL and the target URL.

If your website has a redirect chain, visitors can see a ‘Too many redirects’ error. Essentially, the browser won’t be able to fulfill the redirect and display the correct page.

As the site owner, you may not notice redirect chains. To check for any errors, you can enter URLs into a redirect checker like HTTP Status:

You’ll be able to paste up to 100 URLs into the text box. Then, hit Check status. At the bottom of the page, you’ll see the HTTP status code and the number of redirects:

If the page loads correctly, you’ll see a ‘200’ HTTP status code. You should also make sure there is only one redirect for every URL. Otherwise, you’ll likely have a redirect chain.

Common Redirect Mistakes

A common mistake when building website redirects is confusing 301 and 302 redirect types. Although both will redirect to a new page, they communicate with search engines in different ways. Since this can negatively impact your SEO, it’s important to know the difference.

As we mentioned earlier, 301 redirects are permanent. This will inform search crawlers to stop indexing the original content because it was permanently moved. In this case, the new content will receive the link equity of the old page.

On the other hand, 302 redirects indicate that the redirect is temporary. If you’re testing out a new redesign, you may temporarily redirect visitors to another location during development. A 302 redirect tells search engines that the original content will return, so it needs to keep its PageRank and indexing.

Additionally, you’ll want to regularly keep track of any redirects you create. If you don’t, your site could end up with infinite redirect loops that increase your bounce rate. Ultimately, you’ll want both search crawlers and online users to easily and quickly access the right content.

Lastly, make sure you redirect to updated content that is relevant to the original page. Since visitors clicked on the original link, you’ll need to provide helpful information.

This will ensure the transition is smooth, preventing users from quickly leaving and going to your competitor. Plus, it will make sure crawlers continue to understand your content so you rank higher in search results.

Permanently Redirect Old Links

If you’re trying to consolidate your online content or move to a new domain, you’ll need to set up 301 redirects. This can help you maintain steady traffic and avoid losing your high Google search ranking. Plus, redirects can prevent visitors from clicking on broken links.

To review, here’s how to create 301 redirects in WordPress:

1. Install the Redirection plugin.
2. Use an SEO plugin like Rank Math.
3. Edit your .htaccess file.
4. Create a server-side redirect with PHP.

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