Reviews - WP Hive

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.

Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Really Simple SSL Plugin

Among the hundreds of thousands of published WordPress plugins, it is one of the few that have already received more than 4 million active installations yet to date.

If you are a WordPress user, then you have heard the name Really Simple SSL plugin. Really Simple SSL lets you automatically detect your settings, configure your website to run over HTTPS, scan mixed content, secure cookies, and so on.

Among the hundreds of thousands of published WordPress plugins, it is one of the few that have already received more than 4 million active installations yet to date. Yeah! You heard it right.

However, why users think that the Really Simple SSL plugin is reliable for the WordPress website?

To answer this question we are going to look more deeply in such as performance, simplicity, consistency, pros and cons, features, and limitations. So, let’s get started!

Quick Navigation

The Role That Really Simple SSL Plugin Plays In Your WordPress Website

In 2018 Google announced a plan to improve overall web security by encouraging website owners to switch from HTTP to HTTPS. As part of this plan, their popular Chrome web browser started marking the websites without an SSL certificate as “Not Secure.”

Google also said that websites with SSL would also see SEO benefits and higher rankings.

You might have noticed that when you visit an HTTP website using the incognito window, it marks as Not Secure. When you visit an HTTP website in regular mode and try to fill out a contact form or another form, then the website is marked as insecure.

When your readers and customers see this notice, it gives them a bad impression of your business. This is why all websites need to move from HTTP to HTTPS and install SSL immediately. Not to mention, if you want to accept payments online on your eCommerce website, then you need SSL.

In general, an SSL plugin will automatically:

Redirect all incoming requests to HTTPS
Change the site URL and home URL to HTTPS
Fix the content that is replaced from http:// urls to https://
Handle all SSL issues you might have on the website

These are the important things that Really Simple SSL plugin can handle for your WordPress website.

Really Simple SSL Plugin Key Features

Really Simple SSL plugin comes with some really cool features for your WordPress website. Once you installed and activated this plugin, enable SSL with a single click. Then get familiar with the below-mentioned features.

Extensive Scanner: It enables you to detect the source of mixed content that couldn’t be fixed automatically, with a fix button. It also shows you what you have to do if you don’t have the secure lock yet

Mixed Content Fixer: With the mixed content fixer in the Really Simple SSL plugin you will get the secure lock. It allows you to check for errors that can occur after forcing SSL.

HTTP Strict Transport Security: Most of the visitors request for an HTTP version of a website rather than its HTTPS counterpart. So chances are their browsers load the unsecured HTTP version. That’s why this plugin has introduced HTTP strict transport security, which forces browsers to load the HTTPS version. With the help of this feature, no visitor sees the HTTP variant of your site.

Premium Support: This WordPress plugin also comes with premium and responsive email support. Whenever you encounter any issues with the plugin, all you have to do is send them a mail. Boom! Your problem will get solved right away as they give the highest priority to their customers’ emails.

Secure Cookies: Http only and secure flags to make cookies secure and encrypted.

Really Simple SSL Plugin Performance Test

WP Hive was introduced so that users can make data-driven decisions while choosing a plugin based on real-time data. That is why we are going to check Really Simple SSL plugin’s performance using WP Hive and see if it is really worth the trust of all the users.

Performance tests alone can make a difference to use or not to use a plugin. So, after analyzing the performance of the Really Simple SSL plugin. We have come to know that it consumes 128.31KB memory on average that is less than 99% of plugins. And it has an average page loading time of 0.07s that is faster than 99% of plugins.

You can know more about the Really Simple SSL plugin performance here.

As we said earlier, this plugin can automatically detect all of your settings and can configure your website to go over HTTPS. And each of the incoming requests will be redirected to HTTPS.

Unfortunately, the options are a little limited with this plugin but the developers did this in order to keep Really Simple SSL lightweight which will make your site run more smoothly.

Really Simple SSL vs SSL Insecure Content Fixer: A Short and Easy Comparison

You may have heard the name of the SSL Insecure Content Fixer. With 2M+ downloads and 300K+ active users, it is one of the most renowned SSL plugins to compare with the Really Simple SSL plugin.

That is why we are going to use the unique Compare function of WPHive to find out which one is the best choice for your website.

Memory Usage: Really Simple SSL consumes 128.31KB memory on average. On the contrary, SSL Insecure Content Fixer consumes 20KB memory on average. So, SSL Insecure Content Fixer is the winner in terms of memory usage.

performance test of Really Simple SSL plugin

Page Speed: SSL Insecure Content Fixer and Really Simple SSL plugin has -0.06s and +0.07s page speed respectively. So, here too the SSL Insecure Content Fixer is the winner in the case of Page Speed.

Page speed test of Really Simple SSL plugin

Really Simple SSL vs SSL Insecure Content Fixer Overview: Really Simple SSL plugin has 4M+ active installations and 32M+ downloads yet to date. On the other hand, SSL Insecure Content Fixer has 300K+ active installations and 2M+ downloads. Here is the more parameter to look to identify who is the real winner.

We can clearly see that in some cases, the Really Simple SSL plugin is a better choice than the SSL Insecure Content Fixer plugin.

Apart from this one, there are several SSL plugins are available out there for WordPress users. You can make a real-time comparison among those most familiar and top-rated SSL plugins.

You will be amazed to know that WPHive lets you compare any WordPress plugin you want to. So, choose any of the plugins and make a real-time comparison to get a more crystal clear idea about which plugin is more suitable for your website.

let me compare other ssl plugins With Really Simple SSl plugin

Pros & Cons Of The Really Simple SSL Plugin

Pros and Cons is a common part when we are reading or writing a review, right? So, here we will discuss the pros and cons of the Really Simple SSL plugin for a WordPress website.

Pros of Really Simple SSL Plugin:

Checks the website for an SSL certificate
Shows you what you have to do if you don’t have the green lock yet
Provides premium email facility to its customers
Insecure content reference is parsed and fixed automatically
You can get an email when your SSL certificate is about to expire
This plugin works with all kinds of SSL certificates
Handles common issues with SSL on WordPress
Forces WordPress to load HTTPS instead of HTTP
It allows you to check for errors that can occur after forcing SSL

Cons:

It may not permanently fix old content
You’ll have to keep the plugin active at all times
You might see a slight performance impact

Really Simple SSL Plugin Pricing Plans

If you choose Really Simple SSL plugin pro over the free version, you will get these pro features for your website.

There is an option for a mixed content fixer for the back end
You can configure your site for the future HSTS preload list
It provides detailed feedback on the future configuration page.
It boasts a certificate expiration check, which means that you can get an email if your SSL certificate is about to expire.

Pro version comes with three pricing plans as shown below.

Beginner's Guide to WordPress Really Simple SSL Plugin 2

Check Really Simple SSL Pro Features

Final Verdict: Use or Not to Use?

As Google announced that without an SSL certificate your site will not get a higher ranking and mark as “Not Secure”. So you must use a plugin that ensures an SSL certificate. That means you need a plugin that redirects every request to HTTPS.

As you know, there are several plugins that can do that job. But among them, we just found out that the Really Simple SSL plugin is the best choice from the comparison segment.

So, we strongly recommend you to choose Really Simple SSL plugin over other SSL plugins. As it comes with a free version, why not give it a try on your website!

try Really Simple SSL Free Features

If you have tried this plugin before, then share your feedback through the comment box below. It will surely be helpful for the new users.

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.

Best URL Shortener Plugin for WordPress in 2021

Posting a never-ending URL with unnecessary numbers and characters is not somewhat a good practice. Why? Because, it is unprofessional, ugly looking, and also doesn’t create any sense for a visitor.

Instead, you can use pretty and short URLs that make sense of what’s the link is about and become handy while posting it on your social channels like Facebook, Linkedin, and especially Twitter where there is a word limit. It also helps you to track the click stat of that link.

Now you might be wondering how you can create short URLs. No worries! Like every other task on WordPress, there is a set of plugins to create short URLs as well. And today we have planned this article based on the best URL shortener plugins for WordPress. So, let’s get started!

Why Do You Need to Use URL Shortener Plugin

Maybe you have got a shallow foresight of the purposes of using the URL shortener plugin from the above paragraph. However, it’s time to turn your shallow foresight into a crystal clear idea by showing the actual purposes of using URL shortener plugins.

Easy to Share: With URL shorteners, you can make simple URLs for your complex links. These custom URLs are easy to share in your emails, text messages, social networks, and so on.

Improve CTR – Bit.ly is one of the most popular link shorteners on the web. It published a study showing that branded short URLs boost click-through rates (CTR) by 34%.

Tracking Options: Most URL shortening services also offer tracking options. This way, you can manage links and keep track of your marketing campaigns more easily.

Doesn’t Affect SEO: When someone clicks on the custom short link made by a URL shortener, it always redirects to the correct page. Shortened URLs follow the regular 301 redirects, so they don’t affect your SEO rankings at all.

Affiliate Link Cloaking: Affiliate links usually become too long which can scare away the readers. No one is supposed to click on “www.yoursite.com/product/B00UL43110?ref=site.com&tag=Associates_ID” rather than click on “www.yoursite.com/amazon-books“.

Now you want to pick a URL shortener plugin for your WordPress blog or affiliate links, right?

How do I know? Magic! Well, let’s put some light on the best URL shortener plugins for WordPress now.

Best URL Shortener Plugin for WordPress

Long story short. We have reviewed the 5 best URL shortener plugins that are top-rated, most downloaded, and packed with modern features. So, these are our top 5 plugins;

Pretty Link Lite
Easy Affiliate Links
URL Shortener by MyThemeShop
ThirstyAffiliates Affiliate Link Manager
Bitly’s WordPress Plugin

As we said earlier, a URL shortener is a tool that you can use to customize your long URLs and convert them into small, shareable links. Though the purpose of every URL shortener plugin is the same, then again their features, working procedures, and compatibility may differ from one another.

That is why we have reviewed these plugins with the aim that this review will guide you to choose the perfect plugin for you.

Pretty Link Lite

Pretty links - WordPress url shortener plugin

Pretty Link Lite is the most popular and top-rated WordPress plugin for creating short links. More than 300,000 users are actively using the free version of this plugin on their sites. And more than 800 people think this plugin deserves a rating of 4.8 out of 5 for its amazing features and services.

Using this plugin, you can easily create short links and cloak your ugly-looking affiliate links in no time. It also helps you to track each hit on your URL and obtain a full, detailed report of where the hit came from. And more surprisingly you can download that report as a CSV file if you want to.

Main Features of Pretty Link Lite

Generates random 3-4 character slugs for your URL or allows you to name a custom slug for your URL
Shows click details including ip address, remote host, browser (including browser version), operating system, and referring site
Tracks the number of hits and number of unique clicks per link
Supports cookie-based system for tracking visitor activity across clicks
Enables you to send your pretty links via Email directly from your WordPress admin

Active Installations: 300,000+

User Ratings: 4.8/5 (800+ Reviews)

Let Me Check Pretty Link Lite

Easy Affiliate Links

The name suggests it all that it’s an easy-to-use URL shortener WordPress solution that can create short links within few clicks. You can use this plugin with both the Classic editor and Gutenberg Block editor.

It also allows you to import links from XML and CVS files and export links to XML files. So, links importing and exporting task become easier with this plugin. And needless to say that you can track your link click rate through this plugin.

Main Features of Easy Affiliate Links

Compatible with both the Classic Editor and new Gutenberg Block Editor
Shows the information of monthly and lifetime click counts
Imports affiliate links from XML and CSV, also exports your links to XML
Use regular links or affiliate HTML code
Leave specific links uncloaked for Amazon compatibility

Active Installations: 10,000+

User Ratings: 4/5 (25+ Reviews)

Explore More About Easy Affiliate Links

URL Shortener by MyThemeShop

URL Shortener by ThemeShop is a free WordPress plugin to create short links. It’s lightweight and fast, which means it won’t slow down your site. You can use this plugin to create custom short links for social sharing, emails, and more.

This plugin lets you manage and organize all your custom URLs from a single dashboard. Like other URL shortener plugins, this one too keeps a track of total clicks on your short links. Thus you can identify which link is performing well and in which link you need to work more.

Key Features of URL Shortener by MyThemeShop

Creates short links that fit any social media including Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and many more
Provides the option to add ‘REL= “NOFOLLOW”‘, and ‘REL= “NOREFERRER”‘
Keeps track of the number of clicks on each short link
Organizes short links in categories
Add links using shortcodes

Active Installations: 10,000+

User Ratings: 4.2/5 (10+ Reviews)

Check Everything About URL Shortener

ThirstyAffiliates Affiliate Link Manager

Thirsty Affiliates - WordPress url shortener plugin

ThirstyAffiliate is another WordPress short link creator plugin that helps you easily cloak your affiliate links. With this plugin, you can not only beautify your links and make them look appealing, but you can also import links, track statistics accurately, and much more.

If you’re dedicatedly thinking to cloak affiliate links and start monetizing your WordPress blog, ThirstyAffiliate could be your perfect choice. You can use this plugin to create branded links and replace specific keywords with your original affiliate link.

Key Features of ThirstyAffiliates Affiliate Link Manager

Provides inbuilt link Cloaker or affiliate link shorter
Tracks click stats and shows reports
Inserts standard links, shortcodes, or even images
Enables to set no-follow and open new tab settings
Allows to customize the URL prefixes

Active Installations: 30,000+

User Ratings: 4.5/5 (150+ Reviews)

Take Me to The Thirsty Affiliates

Bitly’s WordPress Plugin

Bitly is a powerful URL shortener tool that comes with a range of powerful features. It lets you create short and manageable links with a single click. It provides complete link management and detailed insights for every click, too.

With hundreds of integrations, Bitly offers endless possibilities to create custom short links to share in social media, text messages, emails, or anywhere you need. Moreover, you don’t even need to think about security as it provides full encrypted links.

Key Features of Bitly’s WordPress Plugin

Creates links for everything from a personal blog to an eCommerce store and everything in between
Enables you to track click stats right from your WordPress site
Bitly saves new links for reference and deeper analysis
Creates short links to share via social, SMS, or email

Active Installations: 4,000+

User Ratings: 4.7/5 (15+ Reviews)

Let Me Check More About Bitly

Bonus: How to Create Short URL Using a WordPress Plugin and Track Your Clicks Rate

After exploring all these URL shortener WordPress plugins, if we ask you which one you want to use to your website for creating short links, what would be your answer?

Keep thinking about your answer, if you haven’t already come up with which one you should use, and meanwhile let us show you how to create short links using the Pretty Link Lite plugin.

You might be wondering why we have used the Pretty Link Lite plugin for making this tutorial part. Because the number of active installations and ratings are more than any other plugins in this category. Also, the performance is significantly better than other short link creator plugins.

Step 01: Install and Activate the Pretty Link Lite Plugin

Installing and activating the Pretty Link Lite plugin is like installing some other WordPress plugin.

First go to WP Dashboard > Plugins > Add New
Type Pretty Link Lite on the search box
Find your searched plugin in the search result and click on the Install Now button
After completing the installation part, click the Activate button to activate the plugin so that you can use the plugin right away.

Install and activate Pretty link lite plugin

Step 02: Create Short Links Using Pretty Link Lite Plugin

After activating the plugin, it’s time to create short links using that plugin. To do that, follow the below steps.

Go to WP Dashboard > Pretty Links > Add New

You will get an interface to customize and create short links.

Give a name of your pretty link
Choose what type of Redirection you want to set
Paste or write your target URL
Set Pretty Link (you can write anything you like to)
Create Notes if you want to mention anything

Now go to the Advanced tab
Tick the No Follow box if you want to make your link as no-follow
If it’s a Sponsored link, click on the box
If you want to forward the parameter, click on the box
Tick the Tracking box to track the link click stat

Advanced options of Pretty link lite plugin

Finally, click on the Update button to live your link.

Step 03: Track Your Click Rate

After creating the short link, share it through your emails or blogs, or any other social channels. And to check how your link performing, check the stat right from your WordPress dashboard.

Go to WP Dashboard > Pretty Links > Clicks

You’ll get this interface where you can see the click rate of your short link. It will also allow you to download this stat as a CSV file. To do that just simply click on the Download CSV button.

That’s all! You have successfully created a short URL using a WordPress plugin and learned the way to track it.

When you’re using the Pretty Link free plugin, you might be missing some features. Like, using the free version, you will get Temporary (301), (302), and (307) Redirects. But, with the pro version, you will get Cloaked, PrettyBar, Javascript, and Meta Refresh Redirects.

Apart from it, using the free version, you will be able to track your Click Rate but using the pro version, you will get some extra features like Link Categories, Conversion Reports, Expiring Links, and many more.

LET ME get PRETTY LINKS PRO FOR MORE FEATURES

Choose a URL Shortener Plugin and Create Short Links Instantly

It goes without saying that short URLs have more advantages than long URLs in the digital world we live in.

Creating short links using a WordPress URL shortener plugin isn’t that hard. All you need to do is choose an easy-to-use plugin from our list, set up it to your site, and create custom links as many as you need.

Having said that how do you shorten your URLs? If you think we have missed out on your favorite URL shortener plugin in our list, you can suggest that plugin through the comment box below. Cheers!

Top WordPress Speed Optimization Plugins for 2021

Website speed is a leading factor that affects your site’s growth and success. If your site is fast-loading and smooth, then your visitors may love it and possibly take the required action, like buying a product. But if it takes an eternity to load, then they’ll just leave your site and may never come back.

That’s where speed optimization plugins come in to avoid such incidents.

In this article, we’ll tell you about the best WordPress speed optimization plugins that will improve the performance of your website. But first, let’s look at why you would want to have a speed optimization plugin for your site.

Why Do You Need WordPress Speed Optimization Plugin

When we visit a website, if it takes too long to load, we leave that site without checking the reason why we visited that site. It increases the bounce rate of that website and decreases the impression as well.

There are some crucial factors that you can’t deny if you are serious in your business.

53% of mobile users bounce if the website takes more than three seconds to load.
Upwards of 87% of carts are abandoned if the load time is two seconds or more.
79% of users who have a negative experience with a website are less likely to buy again.
47% of consumers expect a web page to load within two seconds or less.
40% abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.
One second delay reduces conversions by 7%.

So, you can’t ignore the necessity to speed up WordPress site if you want to get a better conversion rate from your visitors.

Top WordPress Speed Optimization Plugins for Your Site

Top WordPress Speed Optimization Plugins for 2021 3

You already know that there are numbers of speed optimization plugins available in the WordPress repository. Among them, we carefully pick a few plugins that are superior to others.

For doing that we have maintained some criteria like features, the number of active installations, reviews, ratings, updates, and a few more things. Eventually, we have come up with a list that you can rely on without any hesitations. So, let’s check the list.

LiteSpeed Cache
Autoptimize
Imagify
SG Optimizer
WebP Express
A2 Optimized WP
Google Pagespeed Insights
WP Fastest Cache
WP Super Minify

This is our handpicked best WordPress speed optimization plugins list that will speed up your WordPress site instantly.

LiteSpeed Cache

LiteSpeed Cache is one of the most popular site speed optimization WordPress plugins with more than 1 million active installations. It offers server-level cache and a collection of optimization features.

LiteSpeed Cache supports WordPress Multisite and is compatible with the most popular plugins, including WooCommerce, bbPress, and Yoast SEO. Also, it supports WordPress multisite i:e you can create multiple websites and even manage them all from a single WordPress dashboard.

Key Features of Litespeed cache

Database cleaner and optimizer
Page speed score optimization
Browser Cache Support
Attractive, easy-to-understand integration
Lazy load images/ Images optimization
Automatic page caching, a purge of related pages based on certain events.
API system for easy cache integration
Separate caching of desktop and mobile views

Active Installations: 1+ Million

Average User Ratings: 4.9/5

Download LiteSpeed cache free

Autoptimize

Autoptimize is another top-rated and most downloaded WordPress speed optimization plugin that has already touched 1+ million active installations. It comes with an easy to use user interface that makes even a newbie user capable to optimize his site easily.

It combines all scripts and styles in one file. Minify and compress them, add expires headers, and cache them. It also moves style to page head and script to footer. It minifies HTML code and saves extra bits from bandwidth.

Key Features of autoptimize

Minify and cache scripts and styles
Injects CSS in the page head by default
Inline critical CSS and defer aggregated full CSS
Moves and defers scripts to the footer and minifies HTML
Lazyload images (and convert to WebP)
Optimize Google Fonts
Asynchronously load non-aggregated JavaScript
Removes WordPress core emoji cruft

Active Installations: 1+ Million

Average User Ratings: 4.7/5

Download autoptimize free

Imagify

Imagify is the most advanced tool to optimize images. It can directly resize your images, you won’t have to lose time anymore on resizing your images before uploading them.

After enabling it, all your images including thumbnails will be automatically optimized when uploaded into WordPress. You can also use Imagify to convert WebP images, which will additionally reduce the size of your website making it faster.

Key Features of imagify

Compatible with WooCommerce and NextGen gallery
Converts WebP images for free. WebP is an image format just like png, gif, etc.
Directly resize your images
Optimizes all your existing images with just one click
Offers three levels of compression, e.g Normal, Aggresive, and Ultra
Provides backup, you can restore the image to the original version, and optimize it using another compression level among the three mentioned above

Active Installations: 400,000+

Average User Ratings: 4.5/5

Download imagify free

SG Optimizer

SG Optimizer only works if you use SiteGround’s hosting. Although SiteGround’s web hosting in itself is optimized for speed, you can use this plugin to work on optimizing the front-end of your website too.

SG Optimize lets you enable or disable the minification of your HTML, JavaScript, and CSS resources. You can also remove the emoji support and query strings from your static resources. Plus, you have the option of optimizing your newly uploaded images and bulk optimize the old ones.

Key Features of SG Optimizer

Caching (static, dynamic, memcached)
Minify & combine HTML, CSS, JS
Gzip compression
Database Cleanup
Prefetch External Domains
Optimize Google Fonts
Defer render-blocking JS
Compress new + existing images
Lazy load images, videos, iframes, Gravatars, thumbnails, widgets, mobile

Active Installations: 1+ Million

Average User Ratings: 4.5/5

Download SG Optimizer free

WebP Express

If you want a plugin that dedicatedly works for optimizing images without losing the quality, WebP Express would be your first priority. With more than 100,000 active installations WebP has already proved how relevant it is for optimizing site speed.

WebP Express ensures much faster load time for images in browsers that supports webp. The converted images are typically less than half the size (for jpeg) while maintaining the same quality. Bear in mind that for most websites, images are responsible for the largest part of the waiting time.

Key Features of webp express

Better user experience
Better ranking in Google searches
Less bandwidth consumption – makes a huge difference in the parts of the world where the internet is slow and costly
Super-easy user interface
Helps to serve autogenerated webp images to browsers that support it
Also, serve jpeg and png files to browsers that do not support webp.

Active Installations: 100,000+

Average User Ratings: 4.5/5

Download webp express free

A2 Optimized WP

If you have ever tried to configure the W3 Total cache and got lost in the mess of configuration pages, it’s time to use the A2 Optimized WP plugin. It has broken it down into the most valuable optimizations and will automatically configure W3 Total Cache for what works best in most shared hosting environments.

It has a significant improvement in page load times, especially on pages that can not use full page cache such as wp-admin. It also provides google reCAPTCHA on both the Login form and comments. This plugin automatically compresses images that are uploaded to save bandwidth.

Key Features of a2 optimized wp

Enable Page, Object, and Database caching with W3 Total cache in one click
Page Caching stores full copies of pages on the disk so that PHP code and database queries can be skipped by the web-server
Object Caching stores commonly used elements such as menus/widgets and forms on disk or in memory to speed up page rendering
Database cache stores copies of common database query on disk or in memory to speed up page rendering
Gzip Compression
Minify HTML, CSS, and JS files

Active Installations: 50,000+

Average User Ratings: 2.9/5

Download a2 optimized wp free

Google Pagespeed Insights

Google Pagespeed Insights is a WordPress speed optimization plugin that empowers you to turn your slow website into a blazing fast website with a few clicks.

Through the addition of advanced data visualization, tagging, filtering, and snapshot technology, Google Pagespeed Insights for WordPress provides a comprehensive solution for any webmaster looking to increase their site performance, their search engine ranking, and their visitors browsing experience.

Key Features of Google Pagespeed Insights

Sort your page reports by their Page Speed Score to prioritize the largest areas of opportunity on your site
Page reports utilize easy-to-read visualizations that allow you to quickly focus on the most important data to improve the performance of your site
Displays your average Page Score, largest areas for improvement across ALL reports, as well as best and lowest performing pages
Report summaries can be filtered to narrow results by Pages, Posts, Categories, Custom URLs, and Custom Post Types

Active Installations: 30,000+

Average User Ratings: 4.7/5

Download google pagespeed insights free

WP Fastest Cache

WP Fastest Cache is another free WordPress plugin that will speed up your website. Just like any other caching plugin, it creates static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress site.

To reduce the size of files, the plugin minifies HTML and CSS files. It also allows you to disable emojis on your site. It effectively implements browser caching to reduce page load times for repeat visitors and combines many CSS files into one to reduce the number of HTTP round-trips.

Key Features of WP Fastest Cache

Generates static HTML files from your dynamic WordPress blog
Minify HTML / CSS
Enable Gzip compression
Leverage browser caching
Combine CSS
Combine JavaScript
Disable Emoji
CDN support/Cloudflare support
Preload cache and cache timeout

Active Installations: 1+ Million

Average User Ratings: 4.9/5

Download WP Fastest Cache free

WP Super Minify

WP Super Minify gives you the option to disable compression of JavaScript and/or CSS just in case there are any conflicts. The idea of minifying is to combine JS, HTML, and CSS files so that they can be compressed and served to visitors in a way that reduces website loading times.

You can check whether this plugin works properly, simply view your site source or press Ctrl + U from your keyboard.

Key Features of WP Super Minify

Minifies JavaScript, CSS and HTML
Option to disable compression of CSS/JavaScript
Extremely straight forward and easy to use

Active Installations: 10,000+

Average User Ratings: 4/5

Download wp super minify free

Comparison at a Glance

If you’re still in confusion about which plugin to choose, check the comparison table to get more clear idea.

Note: In terms of “Memory Usage and Page Speed” lower is better that means if a plugin consumes less memory and less time to load, then that plugin is better than others.

	Memory Usage	Page Speed	Latest WordPress Support	Active Users	Ratings
LiteSpeed	483KB	0.37s	Yes	1M	4.9
Autoptimiz	414KB	0.39s	Yes	1M	4.7
Imagify	434KB	0.62s	Yes	400K	4.5
SG Optimizer	417KB	0.45s	No	1M	4.5
WebP	385KB	0.51s	Yes	100K	4.5
A2 Optimized	396KB	0.52s	No	50K	2.9
Google Pagespeed	499KB	0.5s	Yes	30K	4.7
WP Fastest Cache	393KB	0.65s	Yes	1M	4.9
WP Super Minify	492KB	0.5s	Yes	10K	4

You can make a more vivid comparison among plugins using the WPHive Plugin Comparison feature.

take me to the plugin comparison feature

Bonus: How to Check Your WordPress Site Speed

To check your site speed, you need a neutral speed checker that will show you the real page loading speed of your site. We are gonna use Free Speed Test Tool here to check our site speed.

Browse that tool and put your site name to the selected area.

You will see the result of how your site is performing. Remember a good page should load in under 2 seconds.

If you aren’t comfortable with the above-mentioned tool, you can choose its alternatives. The following three tools are used extensively across the web:

After checking your site speed, if it takes more than 2 seconds to load, immediately take steps to make it faster than it was.

Conclusion

Everyone on the web who has a WordPress site is fully concerned about speeding up his site. So. don’t let anything hold you back. Choose any of the plugins from our list and start working now.

If you are already been using a WordPress speed optimization plugin, here is a quick question for you, Which free plugin makes your WordPress site faster?

Please share your experience with us, and don’t forget to share with your followers.

31+ WordPress Security Tips – Ultimate WordPress Security Guide [2021]

Secure your WordPress website against scripts injections, hacking attempts, and other vulnerabilities. The ultimate WordPress Security Guide.

Looking for WordPress security tips and the ultimate WordPress Security Guide? Keep reading.

Why Do I Need to Worry About WordPress Security?

WordPress Security is one of the major concerns for everyone right now. Each year thousands of WordPress built websites get hacked, lose data, lose access to the website.

Let’s face it. There is no 100% secured system in the world. That is why you need a WordPress Security Guide!

There will always be some risks in your system. However, you must take preventive actions, mitigate risks to make sure your website is not vulnerable to attacks.

Continue reading “31+ WordPress Security Tips – Ultimate WordPress Security Guide [2021]”

Delicio Theme Review- A WordPress Restaurant Theme You might Look for

You are looking for a WordPress theme that will help you to create a yummy-looking restaurant website, right? If so, then why don’t you try the Delicio theme? It’s a Premium Food & Restaurant Theme ideal for creating a restaurant website.

The theme comes with a drag and drop interface which helps you to manage the theme with ease. Also, you can customize every element as per your need right from its advanced theme options panel.

Seems interesting, right? But that’s not all! There are lots more amazing features to unbox. Let’s do it together.

Note: The theme doesn’t have any free version.

Features of Delicio

Delicio Restaurant theme comes with lots of advanced features so that you can take full advantage of creating a WordPress business website. The top-level flexibility will gear up your motivation to use any color style, background, font style, custom widgets, and all other stuff.

Here is a list of some amazing features that you’ll get with the Delicio theme.

Live Customizer to Customize Your Page Instantly
Food Menu Page for Creating Eye-catchy Menu
Reservation System to Allow Your Customers Reserve Foods and Tables
Page Builder for Creating Pages As Per Your Needs
WooCommerce Support to Allow Your Users Pay Online
Responsive and Retina Ready Layout

Whether you want to add a custom Restaurant Menu, Reservation Page, or Contact Page, you will find special options to manage everything. Thus, you can launch and manage your restaurant website using Delicio even if you are a WordPress beginner.

Live Customizer to Customize Your Page Instantly

Using the WordPress live customizer provided with the Delicio theme, you can easily change your website color, layouts, fonts, and everything without knowing any coding. This restaurant WordPress theme gives you the freedom to pick the right color skin for your website and all elements that complement your brand.

You have the freedom to select logo image, background image, homepage widget, and other stuff.

Delicio Theme Review- A WordPress Restaurant Theme You might Look for 4

Customizer is not limited to styling only, you can utilize it to edit slider height, fade opacity, widgets, and all other stuff.

You can watch these changes live on your site instantly.

Food Menu Page for Creating a Eye-catchy Menu

Creating a personalized food menu page is easy using the Delicio theme. You can add single or multiple menu items at once from the menu management page. Apart from that, you can also change menu sections and move food items with drag and drop features.

The back-end section of the Delicio theme will show you the “Food Menus” section from where you can manage everything related to the restaurant menu page.

Reservation System to Allow Your Customers Reserve Tables

Without allowing the users to reserve a place like a table from your restaurant, you won’t be able to hold your customers too long.

The Delicio theme allows you to let your customers make reservations. The booking form of the Delicio theme works on all handy devices so any user can send reservation inquiries from anywhere using any internet device. This type of feature can not only boost your leads but also create a great impression on the client’s mind.

Page Builder for Creating Pages

Creating and designing a page is no more the sole task of the developer, as page builder allows us to do that without writing a single line of code. The Delicio restaurant theme comes with an easy-to-use page builder that provides plenty of shortcodes and media elements.

As a result, you can easily prepare many page templates just within a small time. No need to touch any code, just insert content elements from the page builder and you can add multiple columns for each section. This way, you will get the opportunity to highlight Team Members, Testimonials, Menu items, Contacts, and other details.

WooCommerce Support to Allow Your Users Pay Online

As it’s a restaurant business, so you need to let your users order foods and pay for them online. The Delicio theme allows you to that by offering WooCommerce support.

So, if you want to let your users order foods through your website, you can do it using the WooCommerce compatible Delicio theme.

Responsive and Retina Ready Layout

Delicio theme features a fluid, responsive layout, so your pages will display perfectly across mobile and tablet devices. Images and galleries scale seamlessly when resizing the browser window.

Every detail of your website will look perfect and professional with this WordPress restaurant theme, regardless of what resolution or screen size visitors have.

Other Key Features of Delicio Theme

Apart from all these amazing features, there are also a few key features that you need to know.

Sticky Menu: Keep your menu always visible
Custom Header (background image) and Layout Options
Tiled Gallery: Display food items or restaurant photos
Menu Template: Flexible options
Full-width Home Slider: Large space
News Page: Start blog section
Multiple widget columns on Footer area
Instagram and Social widgets
2 pre-made homepage layouts
1 click widget setup

All these ready-to-use features are exceptionally planned to assist you to create an eye-soothing restaurant website so that visitors will never get bored while visiting your site.

Delicio Theme Pricing

Delicio offers three different pricing plans. It starts with Yearly, then Lifetime, and finally All Theme Package. Yearly will cost you $79, Lifetime is for $159, and All Theme Package is available for $99.

As per the Deilcio website, Lifetime pricing plan is the best option for anyone who wants to kickstart their restaurant business website.

So, if you value your money, we recommend you to choose the Lifetime planning of the Delicio theme pricing.

Take me to the pricing page

Use the Delicio Theme and Create Your Food Paradise!

Create your restaurant website using the Delicio theme and present your foods in a tempting way so that people become more tempted to try your food.

People all over the world are following the trend to order food online and these numbers are going crazy over-times. So, get this leverage by launching your own business website.

And don’t forget to let us know if you face any complications while launching your own website using the Delicio theme.

Do Not Miss These 15 Best WordPress Photography Plugins [2021]

15 Best WordPress photography plugins that will help you to manage your photography more efficiently

Nowadays, the art of photography is a more popular medium to express the insight of the nature, perception, and notion of humans. Photography is now used to tell stories. But photographers need a medium to showcase their work. If you are looking for the best WordPress photography plugins, keep reading.

Smartphones have caused a photography boom.

In May 2017, Google announced that Google Photos has over 500 million users, who upload over 1.2 billion photos every day. (Source: Wikipedia)

Best WordPress Photography Plugins — A total of 1.2 trillion digital photos will be taken worldwide this year, that is roughly 160 pictures for every one of the roughly 7.5 billion people inhabiting planet earth.

As today’s world mostly runs on digital photography, so it is essential to have a digital gallery that is appropriately managed. In that case, a personal website is a handy solution for passionate photographers. You know, it is really easy to create a blog using WordPress. You can set up a fully-fledged website with domain and hosting just by a few clicks.

As photographers are always busy with photo editing and taking photos, it would be very tough for them if they have to spend more time on website management than content creation.

WordPress is one of the most easiest CMS out there. It is secured, easy to optimize for SEO, has tons of plugins, themes. Even industry leaders are using WordPress to manage their workflow.

There are many WordPress photography plugins and themes available that make the lives of photographers easy. Below, we are going to discuss 15WordPress photography plugins for photographers. The WordPress photography plugins will help photographers to manage their WordPress sites more efficiently.

This is a list of the best WordPress photography plugins.

15 Best WordPress Photography Plugins

1. Post Thumbnail Editor

The default WordPress featured image technique usually crops the featured image just right from the middle. It is very annoying for a photographer as it eliminates out some of the most visually striking parts of your image.

Post Thumbnail Editor

But if you use Post Thumbnail Editor, then you don’t have to worry. You can crop an image in whatever size you want, save it, and then can use it as a thumbnail. Ultimately you will have full control over your thumbnails.

2. Envira Gallery

Think about a situation where the image gallery is not fully customized and taking more time to browse. It’s tedious, and no one wants to get that type of feeling.

Without a great image gallery plugin, you cannot build a great photography website.

Gallery Plugin for WordPress – Envira Photo Gallery

Envira Gallery is one of the most search engine friendly plugins that creates responsive image galleries. The plugin can create mobile-friendly, responsive image galleries. Also, the plugin has options to add metadata on the image which can improve your site SEO. Envira Gallery is one of the best WordPress photography plugins out there.

3. Imsanity / ShortPixel Image Optimizer

No one wants to increase the website loading time. So, adjusting the image size with the responsiveness of the website is always crucial. As we suggested in our top 10 ways to boost WordPress site speed, you should always optimize your images before uploading.

Top 10 Ways to Improve PageSpeed on WordPress Websites [2021]

Both Imsanity and Short Pixel Image Editor do the same thing. They automatically optimize your WordPress images when you upload images. There are many options both the plugins offer, such as

Setting the highest image width/height images can have
Optimization ratio
Lossless optimization or lossy optimization

Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide [2021] | 22+ WordPress SEO Tips

It not only will decrease the website’s loading time but also give faster user experience. Faster experience means you will get better SEO results. If you want all those facilities in one hand, you can use the Imsanity plugin with no more confusion. Both are one of the best WordPress photography plugins.

4. SEO Framework / Yoast

Yoast is one of the great SEO plugins out there. It will help you to optimize your pages properly when they are shared on Social Media sites. However, as we mentioned in our best WordPress plugins list, we prefer SEO Framework more than Yoast. SEO plugins are a must as WordPress photography plugins.

The SEO Framework

27+ Best WordPress Plugins You Must Have [2021]

5. Pinterest Pin It Button

Pinterest is a unique platform where people can pin images from all around the web. Pinterest stores all sorts of exciting web stuff with a picture. If you use this plugin, a user will be able to add the image to Pinterest with a backlink. Every backlink eventually helps you to increase your traffic.

Weblizar Pin It Button On Image Hover And Post

Pinterest Pin It Button is a great WordPress photography plugin that increases your chance to be shared on Pinterest.

6. Better Click to Tweet

Everyone wants to show off their work to the world and for that social media is a great tool. There are different social platforms, and among them, Twitter is one of the best as it allows users to share their opinion with a hashtag.

Better Click To Tweet

By using the click-to-tweet button, a user can easily share your photograph if they like from your website to Twitter.

7. Instagram Feed

Instagram is a photo-sharing platform where a user can share their picture, events moment and other selective photos. You can display photos from multiple Instagram accounts in the same feed or in separate feeds.

Smash Balloon Social Photo Feed

This plugin uses a shortcode that you can use for any image, post or sidebar widget on your WordPress website.

8. Image Watermark

How does it feel when someone uses your image without your consent? Feels bad, right? Image Watermark is a plugin that allows users to add a watermark to their photos. The plugin can add a watermark to the whole media gallery of WordPress.

Image Watermark

9. Regenerate Thumbnails

WordPress saves the images on multiple sizes by default. But if you want to regenerate different sizes for one or more images, the regenerate thumbnails plugin is one of the best solutions.

Regenerate Thumbnails

Regenerate Thumbnails allows you to regenerate all thumbnail sizes for one or more images that have been uploaded to your Media Library.

10. WP Super Cache

For a website that contains content like the image, in most of the cases, the speed of those sites gets lower. To improve that situation, a plugin like WP Super Cache can help you the most. You can read the WordPress speedup guide to know more about WordPress site speed and how to increase it. WP Super Cache was also featured in our annual list of best WordPress plugins.

See our comparison of the best WordPress caching plugins and choose yours.

27+ Best WordPress Plugins You Must Have [2021]

11. Slider by Soliloquy

There have many different ways to show yours in a lucrative mood. The slideshow is one of them. By using that plugin, you make slideshows for your image content and place them in whatever place you want.

Slider by Soliloquy – Responsive Image Slider for WordPress

Soliloquy allows you to create beautiful responsive image sliders for your WordPress site in minutes, not hours!

12. weForms

If your content is right, then obviously people will look forward to you. But how can they find you? No worries, the weForms plugin will help you to create any forms including a contact form, email subscription form, etc.

weForms – Easy Drag & Drop Contact Form Builder For WordPress

weForms was also featured in our best WordPress plugins list!

13. OptinMonster

Everybody wants to stay in touch with their followers. In that case, you need contacts to keep in touch with your visitors.

Marketing Toolkit by OptinMonster – Popups, Email Optin Forms & Newsletter Subscribers

This plugin will help you to convert your visitors and customers to subscribers by adding their e-mail list to your directory.

Wrapping Up on WordPress Photography Plugins

These are some of the best WordPress photography plugins which we have discussed here. It is also very much essential to prevailing the quality of the website by better optimization.

Overall, you can make your site better and comprehensive by using those plugins. It will also help to stand out your website among others.

So, what are you waiting for! Just use those tools and keep buzzing on the online world.

11+ Best Elementor Addons [Free And Paid]!

Only the best Elementor addons!

Elementor is one of the most popular WordPress page builders in the WordPress community. It offers users a unique web designing experience. There are a ton of third-party Elementor add-ons that extend the core plugin even further. In this article, I’ll give some of the best Elementor addons that you can install even on the Elementor free version.

Since 2016 Elementor has completely taken over the WordPress industry. If you are not familiar with it, let me give you a brief on it. With Elementor you can just drag & drop cool elements and create an amazing website in just a few minutes. You don’t require any coding knowledge.

Elementor page builder also provides ready-made templates for users to instantly apply on the website & get started.

The Reason For Choosing Elementor

11+ Best Elementor Addons [Free And Paid]! 5

Elementor is not only popular for its rich features but also the easiest to use. It is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) type page builder that even non-technical persons can fully use.

In the conquest to bring the most basic users to WordPress, Elementor is far way ahead of the competition. Just look at the following statistics:

Elementor Popularity — Information Courtesy **codeinwp**

The Elementor and Beaver Builder users numbers come from WordPress.org, while Divi Builder’s user’s number comes from the Elegant Themes website. Also, the Divi Builder’s user number refers to the overall number of customers that Elegant Themes serves.

Divi vs Elementor vs Beaver Builder – Best Landing Pages Plugin for WordPress Compared

The content editing interfaces in different page builders:

Why You Might Want to Use the Best Elementor Addon?

It’s not so easy to satisfy everyone’s requirements. Though Elementor offers 80+ Fantastic Elements, you may want something even more advanced & unique. That’s why third-party developers have decided to expand the Elementor functionalities & develop their Elementor addons.

Right now, there are almost 135 Elementor add-ons available in the marketplace. So, you have lots of options to choose from and start using the right extension for your website.

These addons allow you to enhance your website design with its amazing features & layouts. Besides, you can also create a special vibe by using the best Elementor extensions.

By the end of this article, you will no longer be in a doubt about where to get started with the best Elementor add-ons. Because I’m going to discuss the best addons you need to enhance your page-building experience.

Most Popular and Best Elementor Addons

With tons of add-ons available, there’s a lot you can accomplish with Elementor right off the bat.

If you’re looking to take further control over your design capabilities, you can do so with the best one. Here are the best free and paid addons to do that.

1. Happy Elementor Addons

Happy Addons for Elementor is a powerful widget. It created a buzz in Elementor users due to its unique custom designs and flexibility. Also, it comes from the same company which builds other awesome WordPress plugins like Dokan, WP ERP, and weMail. It is suitable for all types of websites to create beautiful designs with advanced features.

Currently, 45+ widgets are available in the free bundle. The add-ons are:

Card
Gradient Heading
Info Box, Icon Box
Image Compare
Team Member
Review, Skill Bars
Dual Button, Testimonial
Justified Grid, Logo Grid
Number
Slider
Carousel and
Some of the popular Form Builder’s widgets like Contact Form 7, weForms, WPForms, Caldera Forms, and more.

To enhance the Core of the Elementor Page Builder it has two amazing Happy Effects. They are:

Floating Effects, and
CSS Transforms

Pros

100K+ active installations
Compatible with WordPress 5.7 and higher
Integrate modern design trends in every widget
Fully responsive with all devices
Advanced coding system keep it fast
Built-in motion effects for amazing animation
Lessen designing time
Easy adaptable and customizable with any exciting site
24 hours of professional customer support
Very easy to use

Also, Happy Elementor addons is introducing some exciting features like cross-domain copy-paste and presets. Also, it has got the approval of the popular WordPress community member, Adam Preiser.

There are a few big things that make this add-on package different than others.

Module Presets: When using a happy add-ons module, there will be multiple presets to speed up your workflow and design better websites. *you will also be able to save your own presets for modules
Cross-domain Copy / Paste: You will be able to copy anything from one website to another; the exact way you already copy and paste in Elementor.

On top of those 2 features, there are animations, unlimited section nesting, and a bunch of other features.

Cons

The card element button to a modal element option is not available.

Download Happy Elementor Addons

2. Ultimate Addons for Elementor

With Ultimate Addons for Elementor, you can do much more than just add pricing to a services page or improve the appearance of WooCommerce product pages.

This plugin will give you the following elements:

Informational boxes
Modal popups
Fancy header stylization
Dual-color headers
Before and after sliders
Google Maps
Contact forms 7 and Gravity Forms
Pricing lists, boxes, and tables
WooCommerce add-to-cart
Instagram feeds
Timelines
White labeling
And much more

Pros

Equally friendly for developers, designers, and beginners
Fully responsive
Great Support Staff
Over 45 New Modules
100+ Page Templates

Cons

Using an add-on package for a page builder can be a risky business if the developer is not on top of keeping everything compatible.

Price: There is no free version. The premium plan starts a bit pricey at $55 for unlimited websites (Without ready-made templates).

Download Ultimate Addons For Elementor

3. Exclusive Addons for Elementor

Exclusive Addons for Elementor brings you the most modern and trendy design to your Elementor page building experience.

11+ Best Elementor Addons [Free And Paid]! 6

The plugin is new in the market but has some great widgets and add-ons.

Pros

Very fast loading
30+ widgets
Inline Editing
Fully Customizable

Cons

Low number of widgets.

Download exclusive addons for Elementor

4. Elementor Essential Addons

With over 300,000+ active users, Essential Addons for Elementor is the most popular Elementor plugin. It offers the highest number of elements which are divided into six specific groups.

Content Module: Lets you build excellent content by using elements like Info Box, Creative Buttons, ToolTip, Content Toggle, etc.
Dynamic Content Bundle: Allows you to show post, data table, gallery, product, and content dynamically.
Marketing Bundle Includes conversion-optimized pricing tables, call to action boxes, and price menu.
Create Bundle: Includes elements such as Image Comparison, Countdown, Divider, Lightbox & Module, etc.
Form Styler Bundle: Allow you to connect powerful email marketing tools and form builder plugins.
Social Bundle: Includes social elements like Facebook feed, Twitter feed, etc.

Here are some of the great features you can use to improve professional website designs:

Creative CTAs
Timer countdowns
Testimonial blocks
WooCommerce product grids
Contact form integration (works with Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, Caldera Forms, and weForms)
Dual-color headlines
Pricing tables
Data tables
Social media feeds (for Facebook and Twitter)
Accordions
Tooltips
Lightboxes
MailChimp integration

Pros

Compatible with WordPress Version 4.0 and higher
100+ ready-made blocks
Ultralight and instant loadable
Completely customizable

Cons

None. The plugin has all types of addons with competitive pricing.

Price: Pricing starts from only $29.97. All 3 available packages and other custom offers come with 14 days money-back guarantee.

Download essential addons for Elementor

5. PowerPack for Elementor

PowerPack is another premium addons plugin for Elementor. It has 60+ unique elements in four widget categories.

Form Styler Elementor Widgets: This category lets you design Gravity Forms, Caldera Forms, Ninja Forms, Contact Form 7, and WP Forms.

Creative Elementor Widgets: This category gives you the option to create and design Countdown Timer, Popup Box, Table, Team & Logo Carousel, Promo Box, Image Gallery, and many more.

Elementor Content Widgets: This option lets you add Advance Menu, Recipe, Content Toggle, Google, Maps, Tabs, etc.

WooCommerce Widgets: It lets you create Woo Products, Woo Categories, Add to Cart, Woo Cart, Woo Checkout and more WooCommerce related button.

Pros

6000+ active installation
Compatible with WordPress 4.7 and higher
Lightweight, fast loading and easy to use
Wide range of designing and styling options
Regularly updated with the latest version of WordPress and Elementor
Available customer support

Cons

It concentrates more on creating unique and creative widgets rather than adding more widgets.

Price: They offer two different packages for Yearly subscription at $59.

Download powerpack for Elementor

6. Element Pack

Element Pack has the highest number of widgets (100+) for the Elementor page builder. It also has 60+ page templates and 100+ block templates.

There are far too many widgets in the list. But some of the unique ones are:

Carousel
FAQ
Table of Content
Accordion
Modal
Slideshow
Cookie Consent
Member
User Login
Weather
Easy Digital Downloads Purchase History
TablePress
WooCoomerce
Sticky section

It also supports some 3rd partly plugins like WooCoomerce, The Event Calendar, Gravity Forms, EDD, TablePress, etc.

Pros

100+ widgets for elementor
Superfast response to customers problems
Provide video tutorials to educate the users
Built-in WooCommerce compatibility

Cons

You will have to pay $24 for unlimited updates and 6 months’ support.

Download element pack for Elementor

7. Livemesh Addons for Elementor Page Builder

Livemesh addons come with a huge collection of premium features and highly functional capabilities.

The plugin comes with the following addons or extensions in Elementor.

List of services
Pricing plan
Team profiles extensions
Portfolio Grid add-on
Blog post grid
Odometers/Counters
Bar charts addon
Animated pie charts
Testimonials
Testimonials Slider
Post Carousel
Client Lists

Pros

70,000+ Active Installation
Compatible with WordPress Version 4.5 and higher
Unique design for individual niche
Fast loading time
Responsive with all screen size
Regular release update
Full-time client support for paid users

Cons

To get all the widgets, you have to pay $37 for a single site.
With the premium plugin, you’ll be able to unlock additional features related to image and video integration.

Download Livemesh Addons for Elementor

8. NavMenu Addon For Elementor

NavMenu Addon For Elementor plugin is specially designed for the Elementor Page Builder.

This add-on enables users to get more creative with menu layouts, search bar integration, and branding. So you won’t have to be restricted by your template’s default menu structures or options.

Pros

Best for non-technical people who want to customize and style their WordPress menus
Widgets type like menu elements (mega menu, default menu, overlay menu, branding elements, search box)

Cons

Blocks are limited
It does not work correctly when the site change to RTL

Download NavMenu Addon For Elementor

9. Elementor Addon Elements

This plugin is good if you want to animate your site a bit, but you can also use it to add a professional note to your business. Unlike other free Elementor add-ons, it’s mainly just focused on giving you cool new ways to manipulate regular content.

It adds new widgets to Elementor Page Builder. Current Addon Elements are:

Progress Bar
Dual Button
Animated Background Color and Text
Timeline
Info Circle
Comparison of Table, Price Table
Filterable Gallery
Background Slider
Modal Popup
Text Separator
Google Map
Twitter
Shape Separator

Pros

It is very easy to use with no confusing functions
This add-on is good if you want to animate your site a bit
You can add advanced maps to your contact page

Cons

Comparing to other plugins on the list, it has a very few numbers of elements.

Download Elementor Addon Elements

10. Elementor Extras

Elementor Extras is another premium plugin that has 30+ useful widgets and extensions. While other plugins focus on creating so many widgets, this plugin only offers eye-catching elements.

Here are just some of the elements you will have access:

Entrance animations
Progress bar timers
Timeline widget for engaging storytelling
Breadcrumbs navigations
Tables
Tooltips
Creative image galleries
Image comparison sliders
Image and text transitions

Pros

25,000+ active installation
Offers only highly usable and unique features
Easy to design creative template
Fully customizable and flexible to design your brand
Fast and reliable customer support

Cons

It offers only useful widgets and extensions.
There is no free version. The price starts at around $30 for a single site.

Download extras for Elementor

11. Elementor Addons & Templates – Sizzify Lite

This plugin adds several elements to help Elementor work better with WooCommerce, as well as some other helpful elements.

For WooCommerce, it adds different buttons that you usually find in a store sidebar like:

Product categories
Recent products
Best selling products
Popular products
Featured products
On Sale products

Elementor Addons & Templates – Sizzify Lite

Besides WooCommerce-related widgets, this plugin also provides two post-related add-ons (recent posts and posts by category) and six new options for:

Post grid
Pricing table
Services
Contact form
Newsletter form and
User registration form

Some even more interesting functionalities are coming.

Pros

Compatible with WordPress Version 4.4 and higher
Specially designed for WooCommerce sites
Initially has 10+ custom widgets and more on the way
20+ ready web page templates

Cons

To enhance your page building experience you have to purchase the comparatively expensive premium version.

Download Elementor Addons & Templates – Sizzify Lite

12. Void Contact Form7 Widget For Elementor Page Builder

To easily drag and drop contact form 7 forms from a drop-down list, you may need a plugin. This plugin is perfect to solve the purpose. You can drag and drop the widget inside the elementor builder & choose your contact form.

From the elementor screen, you can define the style for input, label, send button, success, etc. You can also add a custom page. You can have multiple forms of the same single contact form 7 form with different rules and design with this.

Void Contact Form 7 Widget For Elementor Page Builder

Pros

Easy use of contact forms created with Contact form 7 plugin inside elementor live editor.
Add CSS directly from Elementor live preview to your contact form 7 for different field types.
Add any WordPress page like thank you page directly from the elementor edit screen.
Use Single contact form 7 with different Style & redirect rule on the same page.

Cons

This plugin is an addon of Elementor Page Builder and will only work with Elementor Page Builder installed.

Download Void Contact Form7 Widget For Elementor Page Builder

13. Fullwidth Templates for Any Theme & Page Builder

This plugin is an essential add-on for anyone who likes to build web pages without the limitation of automatic page borders, headers, and footers.

If you wish you can work from a blank canvas and utilize more of the page’s height and width.

Fullwidth Templates for Any Theme & Page Builder

Blank Template

Removes the header, footer, sidebar, comments, title and leaves you with a plain and simple canvas.
Awesome for landing pages where you need complete control over your design and layout.

Full-Width Template

Removes the sidebar, page title, comments and stretches the layout to full width
Ideal if you’re using a Page Builder widget

Bonus – No Sidebar Template

Just removes the sidebar
Perfect if your theme does not have any sidebar option.
The rest of the layout & styling will remain intact.

Pros

It is very easy to use
Compatible with WordPress 4.2 or higher

Cons

It doesn’t offer a proper full-width template that just simply removes the sidebar

Download Fullwidth Templates for Any Theme & Page Builder

14. Elementor – Header, Footer & Blocks

Elementor – Header, Footer & Blocks plugin allows you to create a layout with Elementor and set it as a header or footer easily on your website.

You just have to:

Design a layout with Elementor page builder
Decide whether it should be applied as header or footer and
The template will be automatically applied as header or footer

Few of the great features are:

Create attractive pages and templates to be used as a header or footer.
Usefully customized header and footer across the WordPress website.

Pros

Best for Neve, Hestia, GeneratePress, OceanWP, Astra, and Genesis users who need fresh headers and footers, or want to be able to create blocks
Widgets type like header & footer elements (title, excerpt, date, author, terms, featured image, custom field, comments)

Cons

Out of the millions of WP themes, this only supports 7 of them.
“Before Footer” only available with Astra theme

Download Elementor – Header, Footer & Blocks

Conclusion: Which Elementor Add-on Should You Choose?

As I mentioned earlier, Elementor is an incredibly useful page builder when you’re designing WordPress websites, blogs, and eCommerce stores. Elementor is free to use, which means there are some limitations in terms of how far you can customize. Thanks to the 13 Elementor addons above to overcome the limitations, though, there are also some more.

Expert Recommendation

There’s no one-size-fits-all recommendation here. The closest one I can recommend is Happy Elementor Addons. Its deep level customization will give you the full freedom to enhance your design with Elementor. They have stunning demos for every widget and it will help you to find out the use case of the widgets. So, if you want a trendy and speedy website without writing a single line code then it can be your best bet.

But if you are looking for ready-made templates, then Ultimate Addons for Elementor or Element Pack can be a better solution.

We also covered a massive collection of Elementor addons before.

checkout the list of 90+ elementor addons

7 Best 404 Redirect Plugins for WordPress [2021]

Covering seven of the best 404 redirect plugins for WordPress for 2019!

If you are working with WordPress for some time, you have definitely found yourself having to move URLs of your content at some stage.

If you are managing an extensive website, redirection is a common practice. Broken links are a risk. Because broken links are bad for SEO and user experience. Redirects are an excellent way to solve broken links and give your users a better user experience.

What is a Redirect in WordPress?

Redirection is a way to send your visitors from one page to another page, without informing. For example, if you have a post at example.com/a and but you want that whenever people enter example.com/a, they will be taken to example.com/b – redirection is the way to do that.

Continue reading “7 Best 404 Redirect Plugins for WordPress [2021]”