Faisal Sarker - WP Hive

What is Canonical URL and Why It Is Important for SEO

Canonical URL is a term that you must have heard a lot recently. The term Canonical URL or the attribute rel=canonical is actually being spoken about very frequently in the SEO industry for quite some time now.

To catch up on the term or what exactly it does, today, we have come up with an introductory article. What’s more, we have also talked about how you can use it on your WordPress websites.

What Is Canonical URL?

A canonical URL is the preferred URL of a webpage for the search engine. But what actually does a preferred URL mean? Doesn’t a webpage has only a URL?

Actually, no.

A webpage can have multiple URLs. How? Here’s an example.

All these URLs lead to the same page. So, the search engine will pick a URL that it thinks represents your webpage best and show that on the SERP. But that might not be the URL that you want your webpage to rank.

So you can use a link tag on the head section of your page with the tag rel=canonical to help the search engines find the best URL for that webpage. And this tag is called a canonical tag. And the URL that you select for the webpage using the canonical tag, is called the canonical URL for that page.

So, Why Does Canonical URL Matter?

Canonical URLs are great for SEO. At least that is what we have told you up until now. But a question can arise that exactly how is it beneficial for your website’s SEO? What are those SEO benefits?

Avoid Having Multiple URLs for the Same Page

As a webpage can have multiple URLs, search engines have a hard time finding and ranking the right URL. Google can even rank multiple versions of the same page – thinking the URLs are for different pages. Using canonical URLs, you can specify your preferred URL. This will help search engines effortlessly choose the right URL and improving the chance of ranking higher.

Choose the Cleanest Version of URLs to Rank

With Canonical URL you can choose the cleanest version of URLs to rank on search engine. The URL “wphive.com” is certainly cleaner than “wphive.com/?ref=sample”, right?

Measure Page Performance with ease

Using a Canonical URL can help you measure the performance of your webpage, while multiple URLs can make things complicated.

Rank Only Original Website

When you syndicate your content on other websites, only the original website will be ranked for the content, not the other websites.

Apart from these, there are also other small benefits of using canonical URLs. It is no surprise, if you want to when and how you should use canonical URLs. So, let’s get into that.

When to Use Canonical URLs?

Now you might be wondering when you should use Canonical URLs and what are the appropriate use cases. Well, here they are.

Let’s start off with the obvious. When you have multiple URLs for the same page, use a canonical URL to specify your preferred URL to rank on search engines.
When you syndicate content on multiple websites or give permissions to other websites for using your content, a canonical tag should be added to the latter. This will help the search engine know that the content is originally from your website.
When you have unintentional duplicate content on your own website, you should use canonical URLs to point out the original page.
Lastly, you should always use canonical URLs for the homepage, as it is the most important page of the website, as well as most prone to have multiple URL versions.

When You Shouldn’t Use Canonical URLs?

While canonical URLs are a necessity when it comes to multiple URLs, duplicate pages, or syndicating contents, there are situations when you should not use canonical URLs.

When You Can Use 301: If you can use 301 redirect for an URL, we suggest you to do that. As 301 redirect can have the chance to pass the PageRank, it would be a better choice when compared to canonical URL if possible.
Don’t Use Canonical URLs Alongside No-Index: When you set a URL as No-Index, it ignores that URL. But if you use Canonical URL on the same page, search engine bots get confused, and it might affect the ranking of your original page.

“No, you should not combine the noindex with a rel-canonical pointing at an indexable URL (the rel=canonical says they’re equivalent, the noindex says they’re pretty much opposites). I’d pick one, but not both.”
John Mueller, Head of Spam, Google.

3. When the Contents of the Pages are Different: Sometimes you might want to use canonical URLs for pages that distantly similar. However, if the page content of the pages are not same (at least for the most part), search engine will ignore the canonical request.

How to Set Canonical URL for WordPress

Setting Canonical URLs for WordPress is rather easy. And we couldn’t just finish our article without mentioning arguably two of the best SEO plugins ever for WordPress. As you can guess, both these plugins can help you set canonical URLs on your website. Now, let’s get to know the procedure.

Setting Up Canonical URL using Yoast SEO

If you use the Yoast SEO plugin for your WordPress website, then adding a canonical URL for a page or post is rather easy for you.

Also Read: 11 Worst Yoast SEO Settings Mistakes You Should Avoid

Just enter the editor for any page or post, and click on the Yoast SEO button on the top right.

Slide down, and under the advanced section you will get a box to insert your canonical URL for that particular post or page.

Below is how it looks like.

In the Canonical URL option you have to enter the whole URL of that page. This includes the “https” or “www” part as well (if you do use the www part on your URL). However, for that firstly you need the original URL of the page. It can be found or changed from the the page/post setting, which you can find on the right sidebar of the editor.

From the page settings, copy the URL and paste it into the Canonical URL option. You can now change the URL as you want it on the search engines. Keep in mind, you have to have the URL in full form, which includes the https/http and www (if you use it).

Setting up Canonical URL Using Rank Math

As might have already known, Rank Math’s features are quite similar to Yoast SEO. The way to set up canonical URLs on Rank Math is almost the same as we did for Yoast SEO.

First, get into any existing page or post from your WP Admin Dashboard, or create one if needed.

On the editor page, you will find the Rank Math button on the top right. Click on the Rank Math button, and then click on the Advanced tab. Here you will find the option to set canonical URL with ease.

Now in the same way that you did before, find the permalink and paste it in here. After that, modify this canonical URL as you prefer.

Here’s How Canonical URL Helped People Solve Their SEO Problems

Canonical URLs proved to be the savior for SEO problems for many website owners. Here are two such case studies on the use of Canonical URLs.

1. Waterstones – The Competition Within

Waterstones was facing some difficulties with some unusual search results for one of their book, “The Bone Clocks“. Pi DataMetrics started its research on the matter and found out that the product page that consists of the hard copy of the book was regularly getting on the top 10 and then disappearing altogether soon enough and the circle was continuing for quite some time.

So they looked into the search results of the search term and found out that the product page with the paper-back version book was often getting on the top page as well. Most of the time, when the hard copy was out of the 100 search results.

Soon enough, they used canonical URL to set the paper-back version as the preferred URL for that content and started seeing results soon after. You can see the flat yellow line after the use of a canonical URL.

Impressive, right?

2. Flipkart’s Bold Move to Solve a Common eCommerce Problem

eCommerce websites often face a common problem, too many of their products contain similar characteristics. This makes them hard to rank high on search engines, as their internal pages often compete with each other on the SERP (search engine result page).

If the website is a multivendor marketplace, then it becomes even more problematic, as most multi-vendor eCommerce lets resellers sell an existing product. So, there could be literally hundreds of pages for a single product competing with each other. Just imagine that from the SEO perspective!

Now, what Flipkart did to solve their problem with products with similar characteristics is that they selected a product from a lot of similar products and set that as the preferred URL. Let us clear it to you with an example.

(Note: Nokia Lumia 520 is not available on Flipkart anymore, and they removed the canonical URLs now. But this will give you a nice idea on implementing canonical URLs.)

If you would have searched for Lumia 520 White Flipkart on Google back then, you would get a search result like below.

However, if you would have clicked on the 2nd result, which is supposed to take you to the webpage of the Nokia Lumia 520 White version, it would take you to the red version instead.

In fact, this happened with all the colors. And, no, it did not happen by mistake. What happened here, is that they added a canonical URL to all different pages with different colors of this phone. The canonical URL reads like below –

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.flipkart.com/nokia-lumia-520/p/itmeyfpbsg7tajzj"/>

This indicates that they assigned the red color as the preferred URL for all the pages. Later on, it helped them rank a single product page, which did not have to compete with internal pages.

Now, there is a problem with this approach. If you set a webpage as the preferred URL for other pages by using the canonical tag, it is not sure to be respected by Google.

Google will crawl the page and decide if the page really does have similar content as others. So if you try to do canonicalization with different pages with different content, there’s a good chance Google will deal with you with a penalty. Beware, captain!

Time to Use Canonical URLs

Although canonical URL is here for a long time and was agreed upon by multiple search engines including Google, Bing, Yahoo, its importance is only rising. With internet hosting more and more information, of which a lot are duplicates, the canonical tag can help the original content stand out among them.

In this article, we have talked about why and when you should use canonical URLs. When you should avoid using canonical URLs and how to set canonical URLs on a WordPress site. We have also shown some case studies on the use case of canonical URLs, which should be inspiring you to use this crucial tag tactically. It should really help your SEO performance.

We hope this article will help you out with the use of canonical tags. If you still have any questions, we will be answering them in the comment section.

And if you like the article and want more to show up right on your social feed, like our page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

7 Best Themes to Improve Google Core Web Vitals Score

Google announced a new set of metrics – Core Web Virals to measure the user experience on a web page in April 2020. Needless to say, the Core Web Vitals focuses mainly on website speed. But this is not all. Performance of your web pages on Core Web Vitals metrics will also impact your website ranking.

Below is what Google has to say about it –

Today, we’re building on this work and providing an early look at an upcoming Search ranking change that incorporates these page experience metrics. We will introduce a new signal that combines Core Web Vitals with our existing signals for page experience to provide a holistic picture of the quality of a user’s experience on a web page.

As Core Web Vitals become more and more important on the web, it is high time to optimize your website speed. However, making a WordPress website fast depends on many things. One of the primary things that impact the speed of a WordPress website is its theme.

So today, our article will focus on some of the best WordPress themes for Google Core Web Vitals. Keep reading!

Why Themes are Important to Optimize Your Website for Google Core Web Vitals

Themes are essential to decorate your WordPress site and give it a distinct look. Changing the overall design of your website also affects another important factor of your website, SPEED.

As a WordPress theme comes with icons, images, and a lot of elements, they impact your website speed. Having more built-in features can also slow down your site. But that doesn’t mean your theme should not be featureful.

It’s important to choose a theme that satisfies your need but doesn’t have unnecessary features. Another way to minimize the overdo of features includes choosing a theme that lets you disable the features that you don’t need.

Apart from built-in elements and features, another thing that is important to have in a theme is a clean coding structure. The clean coding structure of a theme helps to make a website load fast. Thus it also has an impact on Google Core Web Vitals.

However, for a beginner, it is not easy to understand and ensure all these things. So we tried to make it easy for you by handpicking the best themes to make your website fast. Which will also impact your performance on Google core web vitals.

Top WordPress Themes to Improve Your Website Speed

We tried and tested a lot of themes in order to find the themes that help your website do well on Google’s core web vital metrics.

Below is the list of 7 best WordPress themes to make your website blazing fast.

GeneratePress
Astra
Kadence
Schema
OceanWP
Divi
Hello Elementor

GeneratePress

GeneratePress is one of the most popular WordPress themes. With more than thousand reviews, it stands with 5 out of 5 rating on WordPress repository while we write this article.

One of the prime reasons behind the success of GeneratePress is Tom Usborne‘s effort on making this theme as light and fast as it can be. But the best thing is that, while this theme highly optimized for speed, it doesn’t really cut down on features. Speaking of features, below are some of the best of GeneratePress.

Features

Surprisingly fast and lightweight, making it one of the most optimized themes for core web vitals
You can disable features that you don’t use
Optimized for SEO. Also has schema built-in
Compatible with the top page builders
100% responsive

TRY GENERATEPRESS

View DEMO

Astra

Astra is as fast, like really fast. It claims a load time of 0.5 seconds, and our experience was quite similar to that as well. Likewise, it did well in the core web vitals test as well. Astra is packed with essential features.

It lets you customize a lot of things through the default WordPress customizer. Apart from that, it also has a dedicated header-footer builder. All in all, there is more reason to buy Astra, than not. Here are some key features to make your decision even easier.

Features

Fast loading time, particularly because of being jQuery-free
Offers a lot of customization opportunity
Popular page builders compatible
Lots of free and premium demo sites

TRY ASTRA

VIEW DEMO

Kadence

Kadence is another theme that satisfied us with its performance. The fast nature of this theme is perfect to help rank your site on Google, by getting good results on core web vitals. Kadence also comes in with a lot of useful features.

Plus, if you buy the Kadence Membership aka the pro version, you will get all the Kadence plugins with it as well. Keep in mind that the premium version is a bit pricier than most themes.

Features

Very quick loading time
Super SEO-friendly
Nifty features like scroll to top, built-in social links out of the box
Advanced customizability

TRY Kadence

VIEW DEMO

Schema

Schema is developed by the top theme development company mythemeshop. Given their experience in building themes that make websites load fast, Schema gave us hope. And, to be honest we were not disappointed with the website performance.

As the name suggests, it is actually developed with SEO performance in mind. So there’s no reason to be surprised when you see your website perform better than before in search engines after installing this theme.

Features

Amazingly fast and lightweight
Rich snippet and in-built review system for better ranking on search engine
Lots of useful shortcodes
Built-in ad management module

TRY SCHEMA

VIEW DEMO

OceanWP

Whether you are a WordPress developer, site owner or just a WordPress enthusiast, there’s a good chance that you have heard of theme OceanWP. Such is the popularity of this theme, that it already has close to 4 million downloads on WordPress.org.

It is another theme that performed extraordinarily during our tests. Plus it also has an array of exclusive features as well as essential features.

Features

Quick loading time.
Highly customizable.
Responsive theme.
Advanced mega menu.

TRY OceanWP

VIEW DEMO

Divi

Divi is a theme with full-fledged page builder in-built. This has led Divi to be one of the most popular themes for WordPress. But this is not all. Despite offering many features, Divi is lightning fast on most occasions.

It is also highly optimized for SEO performance. Due to its fast nature, Divi is a great theme to improve your core web vitals score as well. It offers some great features (mostly on its builders), and the list is only getting better.

Features

Minimalistic theme that is great for building fast websites
Well-optimized for SEO
Divi Page builder included
Countless ready-made website packs

TRY Divi

View DEMO

Hello Elementor

While there’s a common conception that Elementor slows down websites, Hello tried to prove it wrong. This theme is an example of how an Elementor-build page can load fast when you use a properly compatible theme. Hello is a theme from the developer of the popular page builder Elementor itself and it makes your website blazing fast.

While it might not be the single-best theme for Google core web vitals, Hello is arguably one of the best themes if you use it alongside Elementor. What’s more, it’s fully free!

Features

Minimalistic theme that helps your website load fast
Works like a charm with Elementor
WooCommerce builder to build an online store efficiently
Ready-made child theme for free
Developer-friendly code

TRY Hello elementor

How to Check the Impact of a Theme of Google Core Web Vitals

Checking the impact of a theme on your website in regards to core web vital is pretty easy. Google has a tool called Google PageSpeed Insights that helps you keep track of your website speed. In addition to that, you can also check your website’s performance on core web vitals.

To do that, simply visit Google PageSpeed Insights, insert your website link, and click on Analyze. Below is what kind of result you will get.

What More Can You Do to Improve Your Score on Core Web Vital (Bonus Point)

Are you are struggling to score well on Google core web vitals, despite using one of the themes above? Don’t worry, here’s a list of things you should do to make your website perform well on core web vitals.

Implement lazy loading on your website, to make above-the-fold contents load faster than the others.
Optimize your images as much as you can. Use compressed image formats like webP, if possible.
Make critical CSS and JS codes inline. Minify CSS and JavaScript code and optimize CSS delivery.
Use image placeholder video. Try not to have a video above the fold.
Use only the fonts that you need and preload them.
Consider upgrading to a faster server.
Use a modern WordPress CDN (Content Delivery Network).
Use server-side caching.

If you follow all the instructions stated above, improving your performance on core web vitals will be a matter of time.

Stay Ahead of Your Competition by Using Core Web Vital Optimized WordPress Themes

Themes play a crucial role in website speed. As WordPress is a content management system, it ideally lets you manage your content, not the backend of your website. So optimizing your website for speed is rather hard in WordPress.

So it’s important to look at as many aspects of your website as you can, and try to optimize them. As we use themes to change the styling of our website, it has a big impact on website speed and thus on Google core web vitals score as well.

If you use the themes that we have mentioned above, it will be easier for you to optimize your website for core web vitals. We hope you liked the article and it helped you in making your website faster. If so, consider liking our page on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

10 Best WordPress Themes for Selling eBooks [2021]

About 20 percent of readers in the U.S. read eBooks than hard copy. If you are planning to sell digital products to make money online, selling eBooks can be an excellent way to do so. However, we suggest you to create a site of your own to sell eBooks.

Why?

Because, platforms like Amazon take away a big chunk of your profit. And on your own site, you don’t have share your profit with anyone else.

However, creating a site dedicated to selling eBooks comes with its own set of hurdles. WordPress is right now the best platform to build a site to sell eBooks or any kind of eCommerce. Today, we will present you a list of the 10 best WordPress themes for selling eBooks that will help get your online eBook shop started in no time.

Building a WordPress Site to Sell eBooks: Before You Get Started

Best WordPress Themes for Selling eBooks

Everyone knows that we can build eCommerce websites using WordPress. In fact, more than 20% of the top 1 million eCommerce site that we see online is built using WordPress.

WordPress has become one of the best ways to build an eCommerce site to sell digital products such as eBooks, software, and more.

Using WordPress to build your online eBook store can come with all sorts of benefits. WordPress has dedicated plugins that can help you with all the important aspects of an online eBook shop.

We already know WordPress powers a lot of eCommerce sites. However, it doesn’t actually comes with eCommerce functionality by default. For that, you need to install a separate plugin. By far the most popular eCommerce plugin for WordPress is WooCommerce. It powers as much as more than 90% of the eCommerce site built using WordPress. When choosing a theme, be sure to check if the theme is WooCommerce compatible or not.

Even if you are not an expert, things like WordPress speed optimization gets very easy if you use plugins. There are a lot of free and premium WordPress plugins for speed optimization.

You don’t even have to think much about finding customers as there are loads of plugins that will make it easy for you to rank on search engines. We also covered a list of the best SEO plugins for WordPress that you can check out.

Finally, if you decide to use WordPress for selling eBooks, most hosting providers offer dedicated hosting plans for WordPress sites. The best WordPress hosting providers include Kinsta, Namecheap, Hostgator to name a few.

After getting your domain and hosting, the first thing you will need is a feature-full, good-looking theme to make your site look presentable. Below is a list of the 10 best WordPress themes for selling eBooks to help you with that part of your online shop.

Best WordPress Themes for Selling eBooks

There are countless WooCommerce compatible themes available online, from there you can choose your preferred WordPress themes for selling eBooks from your shop.

To make it easier for you, here are our top picks to built a WordPress-powered eBook shop online.

1. Astra

Astra is hardly a surprise on top of any WordPress themes list. For an eCommerce shop selling downloadabl e products like an eBook, Astra can be as good of a choice as there ever is.

Astra is lightweight, fast, and one of the best WordPress themes when it comes to SEO optimization. It has a lot of starter sites to get started and they are equally gorgeous enough to build your online eBook shop. Just choose one that you like, and your site will be up and running in no time.

try ASTRA TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE EBOOK SHOP

2. Divi

More than just another theme, Divi comes with an in-built page builder and a lot of modules. You can build a visually stunning site with Divi, which is deservingly one of the most downloaded themes to ever exist for WordPress.

Whether you buy the yearly or lifetime plan, you can use the theme on as many sites as you want, making it one of the most affordable premium themes for WordPress. With tons of features and ultra-affordable pricing Divi can be one of the best WordPress themes for selling eBooks.

explore Divi TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE EBOOK SHOP

3. Blocksy

One of the new themes in the WordPress arena to join the top names, Blocksy has certainly caught some eyes. Blocksy thrives on making websites load fast. Its free version offers features that are usually found only on premium themes.

With starter sites supporting Gutenberg, Brizy, Elementor, Beaver Builder, you can get a site running in no time. The built-in customizer will make it easy to customize almost everything on your site.

The premium version has recently come out. For advanced WooCommerce features which are quite important for building an eCommerce shop, our suggestion is to opt for the premium version instead of the free one.

try BLOCKSY TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE EBOOK SHOP

4. Neve

Neve is one of only a few third-party AMP-supported themes, developed by one of the most popular WordPress theme developer company Themeisle.

It is fast, lightweight, and building good-looking websites using it is also very easy. It is also highly optimized for multiple page builders. Highly optimized for SEO, Neve is also a great choice for eCommerce sites. For your eBook shop, Neve can be a fine pick.

explore NEVE TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE EBOOK SHOP

5. GeneratePress

Another theme that has been dominating the WordPress theme industry for a very long time. GeneratePress is a multi-purpose theme that is perfect for building any kind of WordPress theme, including eCommerce site.

With more than 300,000 websites actively using and loving GeneratePress, you can also be one of them by choosing it for your online eBook shop.

try generatepress TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE EBOOK ShOP

6. Zakra

Zakra is a multipurpose theme that helps build all sorts of websites. With Zakra’s more than 50 pre-made demos, you can choose a design that you like and build your site upon that.

Zakra supports multiple page builders and lets you build your site with a clean coding structure. That means your site will also be SEO-optimized. Last by not least, the theme is fully GDPR compliant. All in all, Zakra is an excellent choice for your online eBook shop.

explore zakra TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE EBOOK ShOP

7. OceanWP

130+ Demo, 19 Extensions, more than 3 million downloads. OceanWP is one of the most featureful theme for WordPress. It is another multipurpose theme, meaning you can build any types of websites that you want.

OceanWP is especially suited for eCommerce, with more than 40 demos built only for eCommerce. It is also quite affordable, so you can choose this for your new online shop for eBooks without any doubt.

try oceanwp TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE EBOOK ShOP

8. Phlox

If you like highly customized design, give Phlox a try. With this Elementor-focused theme, you will be able to build beautiful-looking websites without having any prior design or coding skills.

Phlox free theme offers a lot of elements for Elementor page builder, which is enough for most users to start building their site. However, the pro version is needed if you want to use the advanced widgets.

explore PHLOX TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE EBOOK ShOP

9. Tesla

Recently relaunched with modern features and advanced block editor support, Tesla is bound to be one of your favorite themes, as soon as you start using it.

The started demos provided by Tesla are some of the most eye-catchy ones that you will ever come out with. It will definitely help your journey to build an online eBook shop much easier. Tesla is a tad bit expensive as compared to the average, but it is definitely well-deserved for providing so many features.

try tesla TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE EBOOK ShOP

10. Proteo

The last one on our list, Proteo, is a free theme by YITH. It is a minimal theme that helps build lightweight and fast eCommerce sites. With compatibility with Gutenberg and popular page builders like Divi and Elementor, you can also make your site look eye-catchy if you want.

If you are on a strict budget and cut the cost on theme Proteo can be the perfect choice to build your online eBook shop.

explore PROTEO TO BUILD YOUR ONLINE EBOOK SHOP

Build Your WordPress Site Today to Sell eBooks Online

Finding an eCommerce optimized theme is not a tough task. However, only a few of the best will help make your site look beautiful, fast, SEO-optimized at the same time. So we listed out some of the top WordPress themes for selling eBooks online.

The list featured both premium and free themes, so you can choose one based on your preferred budget. So don’t wait, choose your theme, and start building your online eBook shop today.

Google Blacklist Warnings: How You Can Avoid Them

Each second, 40,000 searches are made on Google. To a large part of the world, Google is the internet. Naturally, most of the websites on the internet depend on the incoming traffic from Google. But this can all change very quickly if your site gets blacklisted by Google.

If your site gets added to Google Blacklist, whoever tries to enter your site through search engines, will see it as not secured.

This can result in a sharp traffic drop, as users will not feel comfortable visiting an unsafe website. That is why Google blacklist warnings are something that you should not take lightly.

In this guide, we will show the Google blacklist warnings and how you can protect your websites from them. If your site is already blacklisted by Google, there is good news for you as well, because we will also show you the proven ways of removing your site from the Google blacklist.

Table of Content

What Is Google Blacklist and Why Should You Care About It
Google Blacklist Warning – Signs that Your Site Is Blacklisted
How to Remove Your Site from Google Blacklist
Reasons that Your Site Can Be Blacklisted by Google
How to Protect Your Site from Being Blacklisted
Wrapping up

What Is Google Blacklist and Why Should You Care About It

Google blacklist is a part of the web safety initiative taken by Google. Every day millions of people search for information on Google. As Google is a reliable source of information for people around the world, it wants to keep its visitors safe. That’s why Google spends a lot of money on internet safety and finding unsafe websites.

Google’s safe browsing initiative includes consistently coming up with new ways to identify websites that are harmful to its users.

A site can be blacklisted by Google if it is hacked, or attacked by malware. On average, 10,000 websites get blacklisted by Google every day. The most possible aftermath for a blacklisted website is getting omitted from the Google search engine index.

That means chances are that users will no longer find your site on the search results. Even if someone tries to access your site directly, they will be welcomed with a warning like the below image.

Moreover, hundreds of web services including the popular web browser Mozilla Firefox uses Google’s transparency report to mark unsafe websites. Which only means one thing, further damage to your site.

Google Blacklist Warning – Signs that Your Site Is Blacklisted

There are a couple of signs that you will notice when your website gets blacklisted by Google. Some of the signs are very obvious and some you will notice if you research a bit. Following are the signs that will let you know that your site is in fact blacklisted by Google.

1. Safe Browsing Warning while Entering a Website

The most obvious sign of a blacklisted site is that visitors will see a warning page while trying to visit your site. If the symptoms are mild, the warning will look something like the image that we have shared above.

Apart from that, your site can also show a loud warning like the one below.

You can check all such signs and what they mean by entering chrome://interstitials/ on the Chrome address bar. Some of these warnings are overridable, while some are not.

2. Checking Google Safe Browsing Site Status

Another way to know if your site is blacklisted by Google is by checking the Safe Browsing Site Status. Just by entering your website URL on the page, you can check whether your website hosts any unsafe content or not. Unsafe content eventually results in your site getting into Google Blacklist.

3. Warning Message on Search Engine Result Page (SERP)

Another warning sign of your site getting into Google Blacklist is from Google SERP. You know your site is on Google Blacklist when you see a warning sign under your website on the Google search result page.

Users might still be able to access your website, but they will be warned once again while entering your website.

4. Sudden Drop in Traffic

Even if you don’t notice any of the warnings, you will definitely notice a big drop in visitor numbers if your site is blacklisted by Google. As most people will prefer not to visit your website when they see a warning sign on the front door, you will face a sharp drop in traffic.

If you do notice such a decrease, do check with the other sign and you will know if your site is in fact blacklisted by Google.

How to Remove Your Site from Google Blacklist

Trying to remove your site from the Google blacklist is your top priority, as soon as you notice it. However, once your site is in control of the hacker or attacked by malware, it can get quite complex to take the control back or minimize the damage that has been done.

Remove your Website from Google Blacklist

Once you are sure that your site is blacklisted by Google, here is what you need to start doing straight away.

1. Log in to Google Search Console to Identify the Exact Blacklisted URLs

Start off by taking assistance from the Google Search Console, as it can help you with some decent insights on exactly which URLs are causing the problems for your website. For that, first, log in to Google Search Console, After that, go to Security & Manual Actions > Security Issues.

From here, you can get the data of which URLs are causing the issues that resulted in the Google blacklist. This will make you ready to start doing the cleanup works to get your site off the blacklist.

2. Check Other Blocklists

Apart from the Google blacklist, there are quite a few other blocklists that can give you an idea of what went wrong with your website. They will also help you with the cleanup process. The most well-known blocklists to check are as follows –

Bing Blocklist
Yandex Blocklist
McAfee SiteAdvisor
Norton SafeWeb
BitDefender
ESET

3. Find and Clean the Malware

Once you find out the problem, you will have to get to work. There are two ways to find and clean the harmful files, codes, and links from your website.

i. Using Plugins to Clean Malware: Unless you are a web security expert, the suggested way for the cleanup process is by using a dedicated security plugin.

There are quite a few good WordPress plugins to help you clean malware from website.

ii. Clean Malware Manually: Another way to clean malware, malicious codes, files, and links from your website is by doing it yourself. However, in order to do that, you need to have good knowledge of WordPress security and the process can be quite complex. So if you are not a specialist, we suggest you not go manual.

4. Request for a Review to Remove Google Blacklist Warning

Once you are done with cleaning all malicious substances from your website, you need to head over to the Google Search Console once again. Now navigate to Security & Manual Actions > Security Issues and click on Review Request.

Google will then review your website, and if everything is okay, it will be removed from the Google blacklist.

Reasons that Your Site Can Be Blacklisted by Google

Google blacklist can be the worst nightmare for your website. As much as you want to protect your site from getting into Google blacklist, you can not do so without knowing the reasons for which your site can be blacklisted.

Below are the key reasons which can get your site to Google blacklist.

If your site is hacked, it can be blacklisted by Google.
DDOS or Bruteforce attack is a common reason for blacklisting by Google.
Spam link injection by hackers is another reason that your site can be blacklisted by Google.
Malware on your website can result in your site getting on the Google blacklist.
Your site can get blacklisted if someone injects Malicious code for spam redirection.

How to Protect Your Site from Being Blacklisted

Protect Your Website from Google Blacklist

In order to protect your website from the Google blacklist, you have to take some stiff measures. This includes some steps that directly help with site security and some steps that will help recover your site for any malware attack. Following are things you can do to protect your site from getting blacklisted.

Install a WordPress security plugin to monitor any security issue in realtime. Here is how WordPress Firewall & Security plugins can protect your website.

Consider running regular security audits.

Keep your site backed up. You will be able to restore the most recent backup copy of your site if it is attached by any malware. You can choose any one of the best backup plugins for WordPress.

Update WordPress, plugins, themes regularly. This will make it hard for any malware attack or the risk of your website getting hacked.

Wrapping up

Getting into the Google blacklist can bring all sorts of trouble for you. Not only you will be deindexed by the Google search engine, and lose a lot of organic visitors you will also be flagged by many other web services that depend on Google’s safe browsing report.

That is why regularly check if your site has any signs that indicate it is blacklisted by Google. If your site is already on the Google blacklist, you can follow the steps that we described in this article to bring it out from the blacklist.

However, first and foremost, harden the security of your website to make sure it never gets into the Google blacklist in the first place.

We did not cover a comprehensive security guide in this article. But if you own a WordPress site, and would like to get some tips on WordPress security, so that you can tighten up the security of your website, click on the link below for a detailed guide to do that.

comprehensive WordPress security guide

How to Reset phpMyAdmin and WordPress Admin Password

Nothing can be worse than forgetting passwords. If it comes to your phpMyAdmin and WordPress admin password, it can get even more frustrating.

While you can reset phpMyAdmin password in a couple of ways, we have shown you how to do that on XAMPP, which is one of the most popular software packages to create a local WordPress site. You can easily do the same using other localhost services or web services as well.

On top of the above, we have also guided you on how to reset the WordPress admin password on phpMyAdmin, using XAMPP.

The Real Scenario behind Resetting phpMyAdmin Password and WordPress Admin Password

Having access to phpMyAdmin is essential when you manage a WordPress site. WordPress uses MySQL as its database management system. We use phpMyAdmin to handle the administration of MySQL. With the help of phpMyAdmin, we can create, update, drop, alter, delete, import, and export MySQL database tables.

So you might find yourself desperately looking for ways to reset your phpMyAdmin password if you forget it. As without phpMyAdmin, you can not perform the important database-related tasks.

Another important topic that we will go through today, is how to reset the WordPress admin password. As WordPress admin is the person who administers a WordPress site, admin forgetting the password and losing access to the website can be catastrophic.

If you have already lost your password for either phpMyAdmin or WordPress Admin dashboard, then stay with us for the easy and step-by-step guide to reset it.

How to Reset phpMyAdmin Password on XAMPP

Now let’s get to the point. In order to reset phpMyAdmin password using XAMPP, first launch the XAMPP control panel. Wait till the following screen opens up.

Once this screen pops us, Start the Apache and MySQL service. After that, click on the Admin button of the MySQL.

Now you will be redirected to the login page of phpMyAdmin page. From here, we can log in to phpMyAdmin page.

However, we are assuming you lost the password, so let’s get back to the XAMPP control panel popup.

Now click on the Config option of the Apache service. You will find a couple of settings. From here, choose phpMyAdmin (config.inc.php).

Now set your password to anything you want. Also, make sure to set the auth_type as cookie.

Once you successfully reset phpMyAdmin password, login with the newly set password and your existing user name.

You can easily reset phpMyAdmin password using other localhost services or web services by following the same procedures.

Resetting WordPress Admin Password from phpMyAdmin

Learning how to reset WordPress admin password from phpMyAdmin can be useful for a couple of reasons. You might want to set a new admin password. You might also forget the password, while also losing access to the mail connected to the account. In times like these, resetting the WordPress password from the database can become the last resort.

Thus you might want to use phpMyAdmin to enter the database and reset your password.

You can access the phpMyAdmin in a couple of ways. Follow whichever method is preferable to you. Here, we will access the phpMyAdmin through XAMPP. Now let’s get to the tutorial.

In order to reset phpMyAdmin password, first launch the XAMPP Control Panel and start the Apache and MySQL services.

Now click the Admin option of MySQL service and it will lead you to the login page to get inside the phpMyAdmin dashboard.

If you haven’t set up authentication, you will be directed to the phpMyAdmin dashboard straightaway. Now click on the Databases option.

Find the database of your website and click on it.

Finding WordPress Database from phpMyAdmin

Go inside wp_users and you will be able to see all the users of your site. You will also find an option called user_pass, which contains the passwords of all the users.

You can double-click on the admin password and reset it easily.

Congratulations! You have successfully done the job of resetting the WordPress admin password from phpMyAdmin.

Conclusions

If you are an avid user of WordPress, then you have to remember a lot of passwords. Thus, it’s not very uncommon to forget passwords from time to time. Forgetting phpMyAdmin and WordPress account passwords are two very common occurrences.

While it is very easy to reset phpMyAdmin password and WordPress account password, you might have to face unnecessary hassle if you don’t know how to do it.

So we showed you the way to reset phpMyAdmin password, as well as the way to reset the WordPress password. We have used XAMPP or local sever to do both. You can do it on your cPanel or another web server in the same way.

If you have any trouble with the whole process or need further assistance, please feel free to ask for help in the comment box.

And if you like the blog and it helps you in any way, consider liking WP Hive Facebook Page or follow us on WP Hive Twitter Account.

How to Install a WordPress Theme (Three Easy Ways for Beginners)

The first hurdle for a beginner like you is to make a site looks good. Luckily, there are countless ready themes available in the WordPress repository to turn your ordinary-looking site into a beautiful one.

You don’t even need to write a single line of code to design your site. All you need to do is, download, install and activate a theme on your website.

However, as easy as it may sound, installing a theme can get a bit tricky for beginners. That is why how to install a WordPress theme is one of the questions that we often get from people who are new to WordPress.

So we have put together a detailed step-by-step guide to install a WordPress theme. Carry on reading, as at the end of the article, we have also added a section with some great themes that we think can be your starting point.

How to Install a WordPress Theme: Three Easy Ways

Let’s get to the point straightaway. As the title suggests, there are three easy ways that you can follow to install a WordPress theme.

Now, let’s get started with the first point. And don’t forget to check –

Install Theme from WordPress Theme Directory

While you might not find some of the top premium themes, WordPress.org still has the best WordPress themes collection. The themes of the WordPress repository are free to use, so you certainly don’t have to think about any cost. If you want to buy a theme, trying out the free version of that theme from WordPress.org can also be a choice.

To install a theme from the WordPress.org theme directory, you need to log in to your admin dashboard first. Once you are logged in, navigate to Appearance > Themes.

From here, click on Add New, and you will be on the Add Themes page. From this page, you can search if you already have a preferred theme.

However, if you don’t have a preferred theme yet, and you’re looking for a theme that suits the type of your website, you can look for it on the Featured, Popular, or Latest theme section. One option that we suggest you to use, is the Feature Filter.

The Feature Filter lets you choose the subject of your website, the features that you want, and the preferred layout of the website and show the themes that match your selection.

This way you can easily find the most suitable theme for your website.

Once you find the perfect theme for you, just hover your mouse over it and you will find the Install button. Do keep in mind that installing a theme doesn’t necessarily mean that the theme is active on your website. In order to activate the theme, you have to click on the Activate button, which can be found once you install the theme.

Once you are done with activating the theme. You can further customize the looks from Appearance > Customize. Some themes also have a setup wizard that follows after you activate the theme.

How to Install a Theme Manually Using Zip File

The second way that we will talk about, is installing a theme from a Zip file. If you download your WordPress theme from elsewhere other than the WordPress repository, you will get a Zip file to install it on your WordPress website.

To install the Zip, navigate to Appearance > Theme once again.

From here, click on Add New and then Upload Theme. The upload theme button will trigger a new section on the page, which allows you to upload the downloaded Zip theme file.

After uploading and installing the Zip file, activate the theme just like before.

Activating the theme will make it your current theme. Depending on the theme, you may or may not find a setup wizard afterward. After that, you can start customizing your theme as you want.

Install WordPress Theme from Your FTP

This is the last and final method that we will talk about. The reason behind talking about this method, at last, is because it is by far the most complex way to install a theme for a beginner.

To install a theme from your FTP, you need to have a WordPress site set up on web hosting.

At first, unzip the Zip theme file on your PC and extract on a folder.

Then login to your FTP and go to /wp-content/themes

Here, you can find all the themes that are currently installed on your website. Upload your folder here, and your theme will be installed on your website.

Now logout from your FTP and login to your WordPress Admin Dashboard. From here, navigate to Appearance > Themes, and you will see your theme ready to be activated.

Activate the theme and it will be set as the default theme of your site.

So these were the three methods you can follow to install themes on your WordPress site. However, with so many themes that are available for WordPress, you can’t just install a random theme on your website. You have to consider and ensure some crucial things when choosing a WordPress theme.

Wondering what they are? Below are some expert tips.

Things to Consider When Choosing a WordPress Theme

Things to Consider While Choosing a WordPress Theme

Here at WP Hive, we experiment with a lot of plugins and themes and check their impact on WordPress sites. As per our experience, the following are the points that should be on top of your mind while choosing a WordPress theme.

Lightweight and Fast: If you are creating a website, you want to get noticed by people. And people like to visit websites that are fast and super-responsive. Choosing a lightweight theme means that you are getting an edge on creating a fast website. Website speed is also an issue that is highly valued by Google as a core web vital.

SEO Optimized: Even if the coding structure of a theme is unorganized, it can look perfectly well from the frontend. But for SEO, this can be disastrous, as search engine spiders will have a hard time crawling and finding information from a site built with such a theme. So it’s very important to know if the theme is well-optimized for SEO before using it on your website.

Customization Opportunity: The ability to customize a theme for your website is a must-have requirement. Many themes have separate options for customizing everything from the header, footer, navigation bar, and more. These types of customizability give you more design freedom.

Responsive Design: Gone are the days of only focusing on desktop. With more and more people connecting to the internet with smart handheld devices like smartphones and tablets, it’s quite mandatory to use a theme that supports responsive design.

After-Sale Support: A lot of things can go wrong when building a WordPress website. Things like a plugin can collide with your theme, an update to the theme can cause the site to crash. Good after-sale support from your theme developer can come in really handy in disastrous times like these.

That’s why we decided to share some themes with you that are well-known for great customer support while also have some great features to make your site look good.

Let’s a take look at these themes, and know why we think they are great for a beginner.

5 Best Themes for WordPress Beginners

So, you know how to install a theme, right? It’s time to pick one and make it ready to use.

Here are the top 5 themes that are perfect for a beginner like you.

1. Astra

Astra is a theme that has been the choice for hundreds of thousands of website owners. Want to know why? That’s because it is fast, highly customizable, and packed with modern features. If you want to spend less time, yet come up with a great design with great features for your website, Astra can be an easy choice.

The price of Astra starts at a highly competitive $49/ for the premium version.

GET ASTRA TO BUILD YOUR WordPress WEBSITE

2. Divi

Another bestseller theme that people love. Termed as one of the best multipurpose themes for WordPress, this is one such theme that is suited for all.

Divi is fast, responsive, and highly optimized for SEO. With its large number of ready-made starter sites, you can just install and use the theme right away. But if you want to customize Divi also has one of the most powerful WordPress page builders, that will allow you to do so.

The price of the Divi starts at $89, which include the cost for premium support.

GET Divi TO BUILD YOUR WordPress WEBSITE

3. Blocksy

A modern theme that has it all. Blocksy free offers more options than most of the premium themes in the market. It is a minimalistic, featureful, Gutenberg block-based theme that has a custom theme customizer that is appraised by the whole WordPress community.

It has not been around for a long time and the pro version just launched in November 2020. The pro costs $49 for a single site, which we think is a great deal for such a great product.

GET Blocksy TO BUILD YOUR WordPress WEBSITE

4. Tesla

Tesla is another veteran in the WordPress market that matured well with age. With time, Tesla has become easier for WordPress site owners of all experience levels.

It can be used in many types of websites. Whether you want a business website or a personal portfolio website, Tesla is a theme you can trust to build it. It provides a lot of simple and easy customization options that will help ease the pressure of a beginner.

Tesla pro starts at $79 per year.

GET Tesla Pro TO BUILD YOUR WordPress WEBSITE

5. Ultra

Here at WP Hive, we love multi-purpose themes. Especially for beginners, popular multipurpose themes can be the easier choice, as they usually offer a couple of demo sites for a faster installation and setup process.

Ultra is one such theme from Themify. One of our most favorite themes, Ultra lets you take control of every aspect of your website. The end result is often beautiful while also maintaining a proper coding structure.

Ultra starts at just $59, just like any other theme at Themify. This price also includes the Themify Builder, an intuitive page builder that helps you build beautiful webpages in minutes.

GET Ultra TO BUILD YOUR WordPress WEBSITE

FAQ on WordPress Theme Installation

There are a few common questions that we get from our readers regarding how to install WordPress theme, so here are the answers to those questions.

What are themes in WordPress?

Themes are a collection of files that determine how your WordPress site will look. These files are usually kept together in a Zip file or folder for a smooth and fast installing experience.

How do I manually install a WordPress theme?

To manually install a WordPress theme, simply login to your WordPress Admin Dashboard, and go to Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload

From here, upload the Zip file, install and activate it.

Why doesn’t my WordPress theme look like the demo?

The demo sites are usually full of content and professional photograph that makes them looks appealing. However, naturally, your new site does not have any content, which might make it look a bit underwhelming.

How do I make a theme look like a demo?

Premium themes often come with a one-click demo importer or some starter sites that lets you import all the content that you see on the demo site. Importing those files will make your site look exactly like the one you see on the demo.

Why does my WordPress site look like a blog?

WordPress sites usually have a sidebar by default, which makes it look quite like a blog site. Removing the sidebar might work well to make your site look like a regular one rather than a blog.

Finishing up

If you a regular reader of WP Hive, you know we like to share information that is truly helpful. That’s because we try and test every aspect of it before writing it down for you.

How to install a WordPress theme is a true beginner’s guide, where we showed you three different methods to install themes on your WordPress site. They are – installing themes from WordPress Theme Directory, installing a theme manually using Zip file, and installing a theme from your FTP.

Apart from that we also showed you some important aspects that you should look out for while selecting a WordPress theme, while also sharing the 5 best WordPress themes for beginners.

We hope this article helps you on your journey to learning WordPress.

Also Read: How to Install a WordPress Plugin – Step by Step for Beginners

The Ultimate Guide to Content Repurposing in 2021

Content is the king, unless they are ordinary.

It’s not every day that you can create content that stands out among the rest. One single content like that can outperform a hundred ordinary ones.

So rather than creating more and more ordinary new content every day, isn’t it better to recreate contents that are already proved to be share-worthy? We think you already know the answer to that question.

Today we will let you know the ways to utilize your best content to a hundred percent by recreating them, in a lot of different ways. This is the ultimate guide to content repurposing and how it can help get the best out of your content.

We also have a bonus for you in the end – 5 Great examples of content repurposing that will inspire you to start doing it from today!

Why Should you Repurpose your Content?

What if you know that one of your content has a greater chance to perform well even before you publish it? This may happen when you decide to start repurposing content, as those content are already proven to perform well.

So there’s two major reasons for repurposing content.

Content Repurposing saves time: Repurposing old content means that you will save a considerable amount of time that would go into researching.
Greater chance of success: As you will mostly choose your popular contents for repurposing, there’ll be a better chance for that content to perform well in the new format as well.

Content repurposing is a great way to utilize your popular content.

If you’re still unsure about the benefits of content repurposing, let us tell you a story.

Internet Business Mastery was a popular podcast, ran by Jeremy and Jason. They also had their individual blogs. On their podcast, they ran an experiment where they read and recorded their most popular blogs. Those podcasts (or audio blogs) saw 60-100% more downloads than their regularly featured podcasts.

Yes, that is what you can achieve through content repurposing.

Now, if the term “content repurposing” is something new to you, let’s take a jump back to the definition before showing you the most effective ways to repurpose your content.

So, What is Content Repurposing?

Ultimate Guide to Content Repurposing in 2021

If you are someone new, it’s easy to get confused between content repurposing and content republishing. However, they are not actually the same.

Content repurposing means the process of making different versions or formats of a content by using the same or some elements of the existing content.

For example, you can take a popular blog post from your site and make a video using the same information. In that case, you don’t have to do any extra research while making the video, as all the information you need is already scouted.

How to Find Contents that You Should Repurpose?

Every content that we develop has a specific goal. When you decide to repurpose content, we will once again have to find the goal of the campaign. If you know what product you are trying to sell, or what you are trying to achieve, then choosing the right content for repurposing becomes very easy.

However, there is a set of ways to find repurpose-worthy content. Let’s have a loot at those.

Find Your Timeless Content
Analyze and Find Your Most Popular Contents

Find Your Evergreen Content

There are some contents that never become old. They are always relevant and thus we call them evergreen or timeless content. Evergreen contents are perfect for repurposing. Why you ask?

It is because evergreen contents are always popular, so your effort will be duly appreciated even after a long time.

Another reason to choose evergreen content is that they require less modification or update, to it takes little to no further research before you can start converting them into another format. It’s always nice to get a head start, right?

Analyze and Find Your Most Popular Contents

It is the easiest way to find contents that you should repurpose. Your most popular contents are your asset that needs to be in front of more people, and there is no better way to do that other than repurposing them.

Depending on the type of content, there are many tools that will help you find your most popular content. Google Analytics and YouTube Analytics are two of the most used tool to find the most popular blog and YouTube video content.

Here’s a sample landing page report from Google Analytics showing the top pages of a website. From here, you can easily handpick the blogs that are most popular and relevant to your campaign goal.

You can find an almost similar interface for YouTube analytics as you can see below.

For other types of content, there are respective metrics and tools to check and find the most popular ones.

Once you know the exact content that you want to republish, then it’s time to decide in which formats you want to turn them into and how.

How to Repurpose your Content- The Most Effective Strategies

Repurposing content needs clear thinking and you need to pick the right strategies to make them successful.

Below we have listed out some of the best ways and strategies to repurpose content. It’s better to choose the one that fits your content most.

Republish Your Existing Content to Get New Readers
Repurpose Content For Guest Posts
Split Your Content into Pieces
Turn your Articles into Videos
Make Podcasts from your Text Contents
Turn Group of Contents into an eBook or Online Course
Make Infographics, Quotation Image Using Your Articles

1. Republish Your Existing Content to Get New Readers

Let’s start with the easiest and most used content repurposing strategy. Republishing is publishing your existing content in the same format with additional information or targeting a new group of audiences.

For example, let’s say you have a popular blog that you want to republish. You can add new information to the blog, update it to cater to a larger audience.

2. Repurpose Content For Guest Posts

Guest post is another way of content repurposing method that can help you reach more people with your existing content. Just by republishing with some minor changes on your popular content, you can reach a whole new array of audiences, if you do guest posts with them. Alex Turnbull from GrooveHQ reached more than 1 million people by guest blogging. Imagine how many you can reach with your contents that are already proven to be crowd-pleaser?

Moreover, guest posts are a great source of generating backlinks. And repurposing your old content is by far the easiest way to make some guest post up and ready in no time.

3. Split Your Content into Pieces

Another great way of repurposing a content is by simply splitting them into smaller bits. For example, long content like a blog might work great on your website but can fail miserably on platforms like Facebook. So what you can do is take a popular blog from your website and post only a small and highly engaging part on Facebook and couple it with an image, and you got the perfect mixture for success!

The same can be told about videos, as longer ones are often the most favored by YouTube audiences and get more YouTube views but they are not much popular by the Twitter or LinkedIn audiences. So splitting down your popular videos into some engaging pieces and posting them on social platforms can help you reach more people.

4. Turn your Articles into Videos

Not everyone likes to get their information in the same way. Some people like to read while some prefer videos. The more formats you can convert your content into, the better. However, turning your popular articles into videos surely yield greater result than most of them.

Making a script from a blog is fairly easy, once you start on it. As blogs cover information in a descriptive way, what you can do is break them down into small bullet points and give a summary to all the points taking your info from the blog. Next up, shoot the video and upload it on video and social media.

How do you like the double reach with the same content?

P.S. Same can be done in the opposite direction as well. Yes, you can also turn a blog version of your popular video and get similar result.

5. Make Podcasts from your Text Contents

Another way you can use your existing article or text content is by making a podcast. If you haven’t noticed, the popularity of podcasts, be it business podcasts or general, is rising all over the world. So making a podcast from a topic your blog readers liked can also bring you a similar response if you make a podcast discussing the same topic.

So what’s stopping you from making yours?

6. Turn Group of Contents into an eBook or Online Course

When you are done creating a lot of contents in a certain genre, it is a great way to utilize them by turning them into an eBook or Online Course. Making eBooks from your text contents is particularly a lucrative way to repurpose your content. As not only that your content will reach more people, you will also have the chance to earn some extra bucks selling it.

The same goes for online courses as well. People like taking online courses and you have the resources, perfect reason to start repurposing your contents into an online course, don’t you think?

7. Make Infographics, Quotation Image Using Your Articles

Let us tell you a fact. Did you know, our brains can process a visual content 60,000 times faster than text? Well, apparently it does.

So it’s not really that hard to suggest you to make images from the most notable part of your text contents. Two of the most popular way to represent your blog into images are infographics and quotations from your blog.

Once you are done, share the image on social media and experience the magic.

5 Great Examples of Content Repurposing

Many people have seen tremendous results from content repurposing. So we thought of sharing some of the most prominent handpicked examples of content repurposing.

Aladdin Happy’s Amazon eBook Masterclass

Aladdin Happy, one of the most famous Growth Hackers, used to publish growth hacking ideas on GrowthHackingIdea.com. For his first amazon book, he decided to republish his existing popular contents and filter out 101 of them to feature on the eBook called “Top 101 Growth Hacks”.

The book was highly popular. So much so, that people who subscribed to his invite-only service from Amazon become paying customers at a 2000% greater rate than subscribers from any other channel.

Backlinko’s Story of Social Reach from Case Study

Brian Dean of Backlinko received a great case study from a user. Promoting the case study on its own didn’t seem to be an effective plan, so he decided to add it to an old post and promoted that updated content instead. The updated content with the case study saw a 111.37% increase in organic traffic.

Copyblogger – Why Not Turn it to a Presentation?

Copyblogger’s innovative writers are renowned to write some of the most engaging contents on many topics related to marketing. They also follow the strategy of repurposing content very seriously. One such example is the blog, The 3-Step Journey of a Remarkable Piece of Content, which they transformed into a presentation and uploaded to SlideShare.

The presentation now has 95k+views.

SEMrush’s Success with Blog to Infographics

One of the blog posts from SEMrush, “Your Ultimate Social Media Checklist” was getting popular to their audience. To further utilize the traction they were getting, they designed an infographic based on the article and published it on Pinterest and a couple of other platforms as guest posts. The action performed great and boosted their brand awareness as well as brand expertise.

Buffer’s Bold Attempt at Repurposing Contents

This is perhaps one of the boldest content repurposing campaigns that you can come across. In 2015, Buffer announced the “No New Content” challenge. They announced, for one month they will not publish new content but repurpose the old ones by updating and converting them into different formats.

It still remains one of the best success stories of content repurposing, as, during the experiment, they were able to grow their organic search traffic by more than 4%. Moreover, their repurposed SlideShare presentations generated more than 100,000 views, while one particular post reached the Top 20 posts on Medium.

Get the Best Out of Your Content by Repurposing Them

As Neil Patel says, “Write Less, Promote More”. This should be the motto of every writer and marketer.

Create resourceful content and make as many versions as you can. Get your content to as many people as you can. Because ultimately, it’s not about how much content you can produce in a month or year, but how many people you can reach and help.

With repurposing, you can reach more people with the same amount of research. Repurposed content also has more chances to be successful than your regular ones. And if you have trouble finding content to repurpose, you can just pick your most popular and evergreen content.

We have covered the most effective ways to repurpose your content and some examples of successful content repurposing. So now, all you got to do is just start with one content and see the result by yourself.

When are you planning to start repurposing your content? Cause you know what they say, “The sooner the better!”

learn How to create a content marketing plan

The White House Uses WordPress to Relaunch Their Website (With a Stunning Dark Mode)

2021 is a fresh start on many perspectives. One of the biggest of them is a new administration on the White House. However, with this came a piece of good news for WordPress. The White House has relaunched their website with a new design and for the second time in a row, the White House administration chose WordPress to build their website.

So many talented people worked their tails off to get the new https://t.co/9wqlgOK5bi brand & website launched last Wednesday. Our express goal was to give the new Biden-Harris Administration a seamless, fresh start (and do our best to make it all look easy). 1/? https://t.co/k40mnTazX5
— Ben Ostrower (@benostrower) January 25, 2021

The website relaunched on the same day that the new administration took over. The new slick and clean design immediately caught the eyes of many and became a talking point for the tech enthusiasts.

Here at WP Hive, our team loved the all-new look. If you are a WordPress lover, join us, as we talk about the new design, what changed from the previous one, and what this relaunch means for the WordPress community.

When Did the White House Start Using WordPress?

The White House website www.whitehouse.gov has been powered by CMS for a long time. It was Drupal, which was the choice of successive administrations from 2009 to 2017. However in 2017, the new administration closed the door for Drupal, and it was time for WordPress to power the prestigious White House website.

It was December 15, 2017, that the White House first launched their website with WordPress, which was an auspicious occasion for the WordPress community. The move was welcomed by many as WordPress is arguably the most stable CMS out there.

Why White House Uses WordPress – What We Think

Why WordPress is preferred by the White House is a question that can be asked in the opposite way, as well. Why wouldn’t WordPress be the choice for the White House?

By 2017, WordPress was already the engine that powered by more than 30% of the website out there. It was and still is the developer’s choice, as you can see from more than 50,000 plugins available on the WordPress repository (higher than any other CMS) and countless free and premium themes. Add to that the world-class security plugins, and you are all set for a powerful and stable website.

Andrew Nacin, one of the WordPress lead developers, joining White House’s U.S. Digital Service was thought to be one of the prime reasons behind the White House’s move to WordPress, although he later said that he didn’t have any part to play in the transformation.

I wasn't involved in this. I work on public-facing digital services like veterans applying for health benefits or immigrants applying for citizenship.
— Andrew Nacin (@nacin) December 20, 2017

However, even if Nacin did not have many roles in the process, it was not a hard decision to make. Because of the advancement that WordPress made on all fronts, starting from Functionality, SEO, Speed Optimization, Security, to Stability, it was in fact an easy choice to make.

What’s New – White House Website Relaunch with WordPress

The recently depreciated White House website, as seen in the image below, was already a simple one.

However, the new website is even cleaner looking. With all new navigation bar, and the option to translate the whole website into Spanish make it more meaningful. The website is as follows:

If you look closely, you will see that there are two little buttons on the left side of the screen. What are those? We have solved the puzzle for you. Those two buttons are there to let you toggle between “Large & Small Font Size” and “High & Low Contrast Mode“.

Wait a minute, what does High Contrast Mode mean? Well, yes you have guessed it right, the White House now has Dark Mode support.

However, as you know we like a bit of Sherlock Holmes here at WP Hive, naturally, we sneaked under the page source and found this for you. See the green texts?

Yes, inside the source code, there’s a recruitment message by the United States Digital Service. Don’t look at us like that, we were equally surprised seeing the Easter Eggs!

Apart from the dark mode support, new design, they also did quite brilliant work optimizing the website. As you can see from the tweet from @webos, the new website is rocking on all fronts. Hats off to the White House development team!

https://t.co/hoaioTVqE3 scoring super well on lighthouse, has dark mode and font size selector

h8ers gonna be mad that it's wordpress and jQuery tho pic.twitter.com/tyMNjdmnTH
— Wes Bos (@wesbos) January 20, 2021

How Does This Affect Us All

If you search on Google, you will find countless articles on why you should not use WordPress to build your website, terming it as slow, insecure, or even outdated. Yet, WordPress is being used more than ever, and now powering more than one and a half quarter of all the websites.

What’s more, WordPress is now in the middle of a multiple-year-long modernization project that will make it even more appealing to build websites using WordPress in the near future.

As more and more important sites like the White House uses WordPress, it is becoming even more apparent that WordPress is becoming a more reliable way of building and managing all sorts of websites.

So if you are a WordPress lover, this means that all your love is not going in vain. If you are not quite fond of WordPress as of yet, it is perhaps the time to acknowledge the big stride WordPress is making. And if you are interested to build your next website with WordPress, we have a comprehensive guide to do just that!

How to create a blog using WordPress

Best WordPress Chrome Extensions that you Must Have in 2021

In 2008, there was no Chrome. In 2021, Chrome now has a market share of more than 7o%. Chrome has always been one of the most feature-packed browsers that helped users to choose it more than just browsing websites. One of the ways Chrome achieved this feat is through the Extensions.

There are more than 190000 extensions in the Chrome Web Store

Therefore you can now get all sorts of features right in your browser. WordPress being one of the most used website builders, there are now many extensions built solely targeting this user base.

Today our article is about the best WordPress Chrome extensions that you must have in 2021. This is an always-updated list, so make sure to check it out from time to time, if you are a WordPress user and interested in finding some nifty extensions for everyday use.

Quick Navigation

Why You Need WordPress Chrome Extensions

Chrome extensions can do literally everything. And we mean it!

Whether you want to check your grammar right when you are typing something on your browser window, or need to take the screenshot of a portion of the page, or even when you need to secure yourself by using a VPN, all of them have something in common.

Yes, all of them can be done using chrome extensions!

Here is a pie chart with chrome extensions per category. A huge list, to be honest. But a big chunk of them, specifically 24.9% is categorized to improve productivity, while 7.2% is categorized as developer tools.

If it weren’t for the chrome extensions, you would have to use individual app for all the features that we have pointed out here. This is how Chrome extensions helps us out with useful functionalities.

Even when it comes to WordPress, it has some exciting extensions to offer, and that is what we will cover in this article. Ready for it? Let’s start with the list then!

13 WordPress Chrome Extension that You Should Have as a Marketer

Finally, we are at the point of sharing the selected extensions. But you do have the chance to share any extensions that you like in the comment section, and if we think they are a must-have, we will add them to our blog.

So without wasting any further time, let’s get to the list.

1. WP Hive

Yes, we now have a chrome extension for WP Hive, and we have featured this extension on top of our list. Before you start raising your eyebrows, hear me out!

We are a team of WordPress enthusiasts and the reason behind building WP Hive was to help you find the plugins from tons of options and get crucial insights, which we were tired of doing.

Well, WP Hive chrome extension will help you do that even more easily.

Best WordPress Chrome Extensions that you Must Have in 2021 2

Once you install this extension, whenever you visit any plugin page in the official WordPress repository you will see the key insights of that plugin in the sidebar, just like the image above.

And if you need more detailed insight about the plugin, you can click on More Insights button or Compare Plugin button, if you want to compare the plugins with any other.

This chrome extension is available for free, just like all our features. And there’s no reason for not downloading this extension today.

GET WP HIVE CHROME EXTENSION

2. BuiltWith Technology Profiler

If you are a WordPress enthusiast, or even someone who is remotely interested in what web technology is used to build a website, BuiltWith is an extension that you will surely love.

Using this extension, you can get to know the technology used to build a website. This includes whether the website is built with a CMS (i.e. WordPress) or not. If yes, which are the themes and plugins powering the website. All this information is presented in a very simple and intuitive way.

As you can see from the image, by clicking on the bw icon from the menu bar, you can get to know the technology behind the website you are currently in.

This is also a free extension, available in the chrome web store.

3. Grammarly

This is an extension that everyone should have, and if you are someone who uses WordPress as a medium to publish blogs, Grammarly is even more important.

Grammarly will help you with grammar, spelling, and even your spelling tone. It also helps you avoid errors in writing and suggest better words in a sentence. What’s more, you’ll get real-time feedback. Grammarly is available on Gmail, Google Docs, Twitter, LinkedIn, and of course on WordPress!

GET Grammarly CHROME EXTENSION

4. FATRANK

For a marketer, FATRANK is the kind of tool that you need every day. It helps you track the SERP ranking of a webpage or blog for a certain keyword. To get such kinds of functionalities in the browser is almost unbelievable, but thanks to this chrome extension, you can do that with ease.

Have a look at this image, where we checked the ranking of one of our blogs for a certain keyword, and it gives back the result in a flash.

GET FATRANK CHROME EXTENSION

5. SimilarWeb

SimilarWeb is a popular web traffic analysis tool. With this tool, you can get all in one website analytics & compare website traffic and performance. Which can help you with your future strategies.

And with the extensions of SimilarWeb, you can literally do it all without even leaving the website you are in.

6. WPADMIN : WordPress Site Manager

WPADMIN, known more by the name WordPress Site Manager is another chrome extension that you must need in 2021. If you own multiple WordPress sites, it can come in super handy.

This WordPress Site Manager lets you add multiple WordPress site credentials so that you don’t have to input the credentials every time. If you’re like us, you know the hassle of remembering and inserting the credentials every time, so this extension will surely come as a relief.

7. WP Sniffer

Ever visited a WordPress site and liked the design so much that you wanted to know the theme being used to design the website? Well, you’re not alone. We found ourselves in the same situation quite often.

This sniffer has a nose like a bear and can tell you the theme being used to build the website if it is built with WordPress. If it is available in the WordPress theme repository, you’ll also get the link to that. If not, the button will redirect to the Google search page with the term “Theme name + WordPress theme”.

(N.B: Some website owners disable the option to display the theme name, WP Sniffer will be unable to sniff the theme in that case, even if the site is running WordPress.)

8. WhatFont

Sniffing theme isn’t enough for you? Fancy another website’s font as well? Well, we hate to disappoint you, so here’s an extension to that!

WhatFont is an excellent extension for marketers and developers alike. This extension can find out which font is being used on a website. It will also help you get information about font size, weight, style, and even a link to the font.

Still not using the extension? Now’s the time to install it.

GET WHATFONT CHROME EXTENSION

9. WPintel – WordPress Vulnerability Scanner

Ever visited a website and thought to yourself, whoa! I need some intel on that. Well, neither did we.

But as WordPress enthusiasts, we did felt the need to know the WordPress version in use for the site, if it has any vulnerabilities, which plugins & themes are being used, and who are the users using this website.

However, this free extension often fails to acquire the information, if the site owner block anyone from accessing these data.

10. Keyword Surfer

Remember Keyword Everywhere? Doesn’t matter if you didn’t know about it, Keyword Surfer is as good of Keywords Everywhere alternative as there can be.

With Keyword Surfer installed, every time you search something on Google, you will see the search volume of that term. Moreover, you will also get the related search keyword volumes.

As you can see from the image above, Keyword Surfer also presents some nice keyword ideas from time to time. Besides, article length and estimated monthly traffic for the domain is also something that can help any marketer.

GET Keyword surfer CHROME EXTENSION

11. Check My Links

Whether you are a content editor, marketer, or SEO specialist, you need this extension on your browser. Because of all the things, broken links are a kind of thing that you don’t want on your webpage.

And if you ever manually checked broken links on your website, you know how much of a hassle it is. Check My Links is your instant solution to this time-consuming problem.

Check My Links checks all your links and finds those that are going nowhere, which eventually hamper your ranking. Broken links are not something that you want on your site and if you are as tired of searching for broken links as we are, add this to your browser today.

12. Post to WordPress

Post to WordPress is a relatively lesser-known chrome extension, but we don’t mind that as long as it brings convenience for you.

With this extension, you can connect your blog and publish articles to it without even accessing your site. Once you are logged in to your WordPress site with adequate permission, all you have to do is insert a title, content, select categories (right from your blog) and tags and then publish your blog. You can also save the post to draft.

Beside that you can source images for the blog you are publishing from the page you are currently in. Pretty nifty, right?

13. Eye Dropper

We sniffed themes and font, so why not sniff the colors as well? Eye Dropper is an excellent plugin that helps pick out colors from a web page.

After adding the extension, all you need to do is hovering your mouse over a part of your page and you will get to know the color with codes at the bottom of the page. The plugin is absolutely free, so you can install this extension without thinking of spending a penny.

GET EYE Dropper CHROME EXTENSION

Finishing Up

Behind the ever-growing popularity of Google Chrome, usage of extension is termed as of the main reasons. There are a lot of extensions that are available in the chrome web store right now, and with huge demand, the number of WordPress chrome extensions also increased. So we picked out the chrome extensions that we think are a must if you are a WordPress enthusiast, marketer, or even a web developer.

Got any plugins that you think deserves a shoutout here? Let us know in the comment below!

WordPress Full Site Editing: What it is & How It Can Shape the Future of WordPress

Are you a WordPress Enthusiast? Then you might already know about the 10 years long WordPress Roadmap, that will change the way we see WordPress. Phase 1 of this project is already finished, where we saw the release of Block Editor. Phase 2 is not too far away, and it is one of the things that we all were looking for, for a long time now.

Yes, we are talking about WordPress Full Site Editing, or simply FSE. And our wait is almost over.

According to Matt Mullenweg’s speech on State of the Word 2020, we will be seeing this long-awaited feature in 2021.

Phase 1 and Phase 2 is also very related to each other, as Gutenberg blocks will be in the core of WordPress Full Site Editing. If you’re not used to Gutenberg yet, now would be the time to do so. Because, Gutenberg is not just the block editor that helps you edit your blog, it is meant to be the forerunner of the modernization process of WordPress. So the importance of Gutenberg can not be ignored.

However, for most people, WordPress Full Site Editing is one of the most important parts of the process that we are talking about. Now that it is almost here, it is natural to worry about the impact of FSE on your existing site, whether you are using a third-party theme or a page builder. So bear with us, as we tell you all about WordPress Full Site Editing, why is it so important and what are the impacts of this particular feature that we are rating so highly.

Why is WordPress Working on the Full Site Editing?

WordPress Full Site Editing What it Is & How It Can Shape The Future of WordPress

WordPress started out as a platform for bloggers looking for a free way to publish their texts online. But over the years, its true potential slowly revealed, as people started to build all kinds of sites using WordPress. In fact, WordPress is used by so many people that it powers over 39% of the web that we see today.

But the truth is, WordPress with its proven technologies was getting outdated. Just at the right time, it was decided that WordPress would get a step-up by using modern technology and offer a more customer-friendly way of developing. Thus, the inception of the Gutenberg project.

In total, 4 major phases of the Gutenberg project were planned. It is a project that is supposed to change the publishing of content on the web. In the first phase of the project, the block editor was released in late 2018, with the second one supposed to be launched in the latter part of 2021. Full Site Editing, the second phase is likely to change how we design the whole outlook of a WordPress website.

With the page builder plugins like Elementor, Beaver Builder, Divi becoming more and more popular, the default way of designing a WordPress website was becoming kind of obsolete. So the WordPress Full Site Editing will come as a blessing and offer the developers and site owners a more modern and dynamic site-building experience. The full site editing will rely on WordPress REST API, React, GraphQL on its core, so there’s no doubt about the availability of cutting-edge web developing experience.

These are the prime reason for WordPress to opt for offering the full site editing feature.

A Sneak Peek into the WordPress Full Site Editing

WordPress Full Site Editing will unlock new potential for a new era of web development. It will be easy to use and highly customizable. We have already crossed the era of the classic editor, where we could only publish some text on our blogs and add some media that doesn’t align with how you wanted it to be. Gutenberg block editor gave us the chance to add blocks to our blogs. Whereas each block like text, image, button, video, column, table, and others are independent components that unite together to complete a beautiful blog post. Now this will not be just for the blog but for the entire site.

So how will the interface look? We have tried a beta theme that supports WordPress full site editing (FSE) and tried to know exactly that.

Here is a image of how a homepage editing can look like. If you have prior experience with Gutenberg block editor, you won’t have the slightest problem using this.

Home Page Editing

Reusable Blocks & Templates

You can save a specific block as a custom template, making them reusable later on. Below is an example of that. But does this also indicates that the block editor will now impact the theme file? We’ll get to that later!

WordPress Full Site Editing: What it is & How It Can Shape the Future of WordPress 3

New Blocks

As full site editing has a lot of scopes, it will also come with a whole lot of new blocks to handle them.

There are a lot of new blocks like Site Logo, Site Tagline, Query, and many more that we are noticing. We can only expect a lot more new blocks to come when WordPress Full Site Editing finally launches later this year.

Something that we wanted to mention specifically is that we also noticed some dynamic blocks which will be exciting to try out once fully released.

Global Styles

Global styles will be another crucial part of WordPress Full Site Editing. This will handle the global typography, font size, font color, page color, and background color, helping you create a brand identity for your website with ease.

Setting up a global color palette and style is super easy and intuitive, at least as much as we used till now.

However, it is left to be seen exactly how much improvement we will get on the global style. Anything on top of the existing one will be more than welcome, and I’m eagerly waiting for that.

There are many more features that are rolling out and will be rolled out in the days to come. For now, it does look like exciting prospects from what we have seen using the beta version.

If you would like to know more about the general functionalities of the Full Site Editing program, then you can visit Anne’s post on “FSE Program: Answers about general functionality“

WordPress Full Site Editing: What it is & How It Can Shape the Future of WordPress 4

Will WordPress Full Site Editing Affect the Existing Plugins & Themes?

This is a question that might be hovering over many developer’s and site owner’s minds. Will the WordPress Full Site Editing have a bad impact on the plugins and themes?

We can not yet tell you that it will have a disastrous impact or not. But while using the FSE (Beta) using the Q Theme, we did have to reactive a few plugins before we were able to use it.

But this can be a glitch they will solve, or a new guideline might be coming towards us, so that the developers and site owners can be prepared for a possible change that they have to make to make their plugins and sites compatible with the WordPress full site editing.

As for the themes, I talked above about the new reusable custom templates and their impacts on the themes. But what we noticed is that templates are not being stored in the theme itself, rather it is saved globally. So even if you use a different theme, later on, you can use that templates again.

But for making the themes compatible with the block-based editor, theme developers will have a lot of tasks ahead, that is for sure.

Is it a Big Threat for the Page Builders?

Page builders are the direct competitors of the WordPress full site editing feature, no doubt about that. But the most popular drag & drop page builders like Elementor, Divi, or Beaver has a lot of features and pre-made templates that are popular with millions of people.

We are not expecting them to vanish overnight, rather their ease of use will make them a good contender along with the WordPress full site editing. And they will surely get the fast mover advantage. But as Gutenberg improves and provides as much function as the likes of Elementor, while being a core part of WordPress, we are not yet sure if the page builder will stay relevant in the far future.

What Does The Future Hold for WordPress?

WordPress was lacking behind in terms of customization, offering modern design, and using modern technologies. But this revamp plan is surely getting me and many other WordPress enthusiasts hopeful and excited.

The Gutenberg project was not well received by the users initially, but it is something that we have seen over and over again, that it is not easy for people to accept change in the big platforms. The new Facebook design is another good example of that. But as we’re seeing more and more of Gutenberg, we now know that it is not just a block editor for editing the blog posts but a part of a big future that will change how we see and use WordPress to build websites.

Like the Gutenberg printing press technology that changed the printing industry, the WordPress Gutenberg project will transform how we publish content online and transform it for better.

While WordPress now powering more than 39% of websites worldwide, to keep up with the stiff competition with the uprise of drag and drop CMS’s like Wix.

The future looks bright and promising, and I’m waiting eagerly with my finger crossed, just like you all are.