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The HubSpot Blog’s 2022 Video Marketing Report [Data from 500+ Video Marketers]

More than ever, social media channels are putting video content front and center on their feeds, as audiences increasingly turn to TikTok, Reels, and live videos to be entertained, discover products, and even learn about exciting new brands.

And for marketers, leveraging video not only offers the highest ROI of any media format, but it plays a key role in helping marketers exceed their goals.

To learn more about the top strategies and opportunities in video marketing today, we surveyed over 500 professionals that specialize in this field. Immediately, the effectiveness of video marketing became obvious.

→ Access Now: Video Marketing Starter Pack [Free Kit]

But where in the world of video marketing should you focus your efforts first? To help you determine your next steps, we gained insights from video marketers about all sorts of topics and tactics including:

Let’s dive in.

Video Marketing Survey Findings

Video Marketing Benchmarks

If no one sees your video, was it even worth making?

We first asked video marketers how many views their videos get on average. Here’s what we found:

38% of marketing videos average less than 10K views
16% average under 1,000 views
16% average over 100K views

But views aren’t the only metric marketers track. There’s a long list of data points you could be keeping your eyes on, so let’s take a look at which are the best measure of your video’s performance.

The Most Prioritized Video Marketing Metrics

Once you begin to get views, you’ll also want to build on your strategy by looking at and improving on a few other metrics.

Among video marketers, video engagement, conversion rate, and click-through rate are among a handful of other KPIs marketers look at, with engagement rate being prioritized by 60% of marketers, and conversion and click-through rates being a focus of 56% and 52% of marketers respectively.

Below, we’ll dig a bit deeper into the importance of each major metric.

1. Engagement Rate

According to 60% of video marketers, engagement is the most important metric to watch. After all, when a video sees high engagement, that means it is resonating with your audience enough to make them want to drop a like, write a comment, or share it with their friends.

2. Conversion Rate

Conversion rate comes in at #2 and can be a great indicator of how successful your video is at getting viewers to take the desired action.

3. Click-through Rate Speaks to Your Thumbnail and Title/Caption

Click-through rate (CTR) comes in at #4 and can tell you how effective your thumbnail is at getting people to watch the video in the first place. Before watching a video, your audience is also seeing the title or caption attached to it, which your CTR will also reflect.

4. Follower and Subscriber Growth

If you are gaining followers/subscribers from a video, that means it’s resonating with viewers and they want to see more from your brand.

If one of your videos grows your following more than usual, try to think about what set this video apart from the rest and replicate it. Also, check your analytics for helpful information on how these new subscribers/followers found your video. How can you keep providing them with valuable content?

5. Average View Time

Average view duration is key to understanding which parts of your video are highly engaging and which sections needed more work or should have been cut out entirely. While the overall average can offer useful insights when comparing similar-length videos, if possible, check the percentage of viewers watching at key moments throughout the video.

For example, if a high percentage of viewers stick around through the introduction, you successfully hooked them. However, if you see a huge dropoff halfway through, the video may have been too long.

Speaking of video length, we also asked video marketers how long a marketing video should be. Let’s take a look at what they told us.

How Long Should a Marketing Video Be?

A whopping 96% of marketers agree that the optimal length of a marketing video is under 10 minutes.

the optimal length for marketing videos Beyond that, opinions start to differ, with the largest chunk of them (36%) saying videos should be between 1-3 minutes, while 27% think the sweet spot is between 4-6 minutes. Another 16% say the optimal video length is under 60 seconds. On the other hand 15% advocate for videos between 7-9 minutes long.

At the end of the day, the length of your video will largely depend on which type of video best suits your goals. So let’s dive into video marketers’ top goals in 2022.

Video Marketing Goals

The top three video marketing goals include increasing revenue (focused on by 33% of respondents(, raising brand awareness and advertising products/services (with 32% of marketers focusing on each).

More than one-fourth of marketers are also focused on improving customers’ understanding of products/services, while 23% want to improve customer service and retention with video.

As I mentioned at the very start, our survey shows video marketing is highly effective for reaching all of these goals, so let’s dive into some of the strategies video marketers are using to succeed.

Video Marketing Strategies

The Top Tactics for Creating Effective Videos

The most important factors for creating effective marketing videos are effectively promoting your video, capturing viewers’ attention in the first few seconds, and keeping your videos short/concise.

Why Video Promotion Is Key

It can be tempting to dedicate all of your time to crafting the “perfect” video with slick edits, high production value, and an irresistible thumbnail. While these things are important, they lose their power without effective video promotion.

In fact, in a recent trends survey, we found that 78% of consumers say it is more important for marketing videos to be authentic and relatable than polished and high-quality. That doesn’t mean you should neglect video/audio quality, but it isn’t going to make or break a video’s success.

whats most important when watching videos

On the other hand, ineffectively promoting your video can cause your video to flop, so let’s take a look at a few strategies video marketers use to make sure that doesn’t happen.

How to Promote a Marketing Video

The most effective video promotion strategies are sharing them on social media, adding videos to your website/blog, running paid ads for your videos, optimizing your title/description for search, and integrating videos into your email campaigns.

Whichever channels you choose for video promotion, remember that simply sharing a video isn’t enough. Effective video promotion begins before a video is even complete and continues long after a video is published.

For example, if your video is going live on YouTube in the next 24 hours, hop on Instagram and start a countdown on your story. Share the thumbnail and title 3-5 hours before the video drops to generate more interest. Prepare a teaser to hook viewers in and share that on social media as soon as your video releases.

Once the video is out, you can run an interactive poll related to your video on social media to engage your core audience and pique the interest of those who haven’t seen it yet. You can also set up an email campaign to go out announcing your video a few hours later, or add a banner to your website linking to the video.

Lastly, make sure to continue promoting when the opportunity arises. For example, if you see a Reddit or Twitter thread related to the topic of your video and think your content could add value to the conversation, drop it in the comment section.

Now that you’re up to speed on video marketing goals and strategies, let’s take a look at which video formats are most effective.

The Top Video Marketing Channels

1. Social Media

Social media is used for video sharing by 76% of video marketers and has the biggest ROI of any video marketing channel, by far. It is also the most effective channel for generating leads from marketing videos.

which channels offer the biggest roi for video marketing Use of social media for sharing marketing videos will grow significantly in 2022, with, 61% of all video marketers planning to invest more in sharing videos on social media than any other channel this year. Additionally, almost 2 in 3 of those who never used social media for sharing videos plan to do so for the first time this year.

2. Blog/Website Pages

A blog or website is used by 55% of video marketers to share their videos, has the 2nd highest ROI, and is the 2nd most effective at generating leads.

which video marketing channels drive the most leads

Use of a blog or website for sharing marketing videos will also grow in 2022, with 59% of video marketers planning to try it for the first time, and 18% of all video marketers investing in using their blog/website for sharing marketing videos over any other channel.

3. Email

Email is used by 44% of video marketers to share their videos and nearly tied with blog or website for ROI.

40% of video marketers plan to share videos through email for the first time in 2022, and 11% plan to invest more in sharing videos through email than through any other channel this year.

While all these channels can be effective for sharing marketing videos, social media is the clear winner. So let’s dive into which social media apps are most effective for video sharing.

The Best Social Media Channels for Sharing Videos

1. Instagram

Instagram is the top social media platform for ROI, engagement, and lead generation for sharing marketing videos and will see significant investment from video marketers in 2022.

Use of Instagram by video marketers will grow significantly in 2022, as 24% of them will invest more into sharing videos on Instagram than on any other platform. Additionally, 42% of those who don’t use Instagram for sharing videos will do so for the first time this year.

which social channels will video marketers invest in

2. YouTube

While YouTube comes in at #2 behind Instagram for ROI and lead generation, it is the most used app for video sharing, with 70% of video marketers leveraging it.

social media platforms for sharing video

YouTube will also see the most investment from video marketers in 2022, with 27% investing more into sharing videos on YouTube than any other platform. On top of that, over half of those who don’t use YouTube for sharing videos will do so for the first time in 2022.

3. Facebook

Facebook is used by 60% of video marketers when sharing marketing videos (tied at #2 for usage with Instagram), though it comes in 4th for ROI, engagement, and lead generation.

35% will invest in sharing videos on Facebook for the first time in 2022 and 16% of video marketers will invest more in sharing videos on Facebook than on any other platform this year.

4. TikTok

While TikTok has the 3rd highest ROI and comes in 2nd for engagement, only 35% of video marketers currently share videos on the app, and just 20% plan to start for the first time in 2022.

social media platforms and sharing videos

Which social media channels have low video performance?

Reddit, Tumblr, Twitch, Snapchat, and Pinterest are consistently the worst channels for sharing marketing videos and will see the least investment from video marketers in 2022.

Another consideration when sharing videos on social media is whether you will pay for ads or share your content organically. Let’s take a look at which video marketers are using.

Should you use paid or organic video posts on social media?

55% of video marketers leverage a mix of organic and paid content when posting videos on social media, while 24% use organic only, and 21% use paid only.

Now that we’ve looked at how marketers are sharing their videos on social media, let’s compare two of the most common platforms for hosting videos – YouTube and Vimeo.

Hosting Videos on YouTube vs. Vimeo

We asked video marketers who use both YouTube and Vimeo to compare the two, and not only do 78% of them say YouTube is more effective for reaching their overall business goals, but YouTube is far superior in every category.

Vimeo comes close to being as effective as YouTube for privacy options, storage, video/audio quality, and video player customization, but still lags behind or is considered about the same as YouTube.

What are the Top Content Types for Marketing Videos?

1. Content Showcasing Your Products and Services

Content showcasing products/services is the most leveraged type of video content and has the highest ROI of any content type, with 66% of participants reporting high returns. It is also the most effective at generating leads and gets the 2nd most engagement of all content types we asked about.

Product and service content will also see the most investment of any video content type this year, with 17% planning to invest in it more than any other, while 36% plan to leverage it for the first time in 2022.

2. Content That Reflects Your Brands Values

Content that reflects a brand’s values is the second most leveraged type of video content and the 2nd most effective for generating leads and engagement.

3. Trendy Content

People generally don’t want to watch videos that feel out of date or out of touch, but they’re drawn to videos that discuss topics that they’re currently intreested in, like trends or news related to their industry or hobbies. This is likely why “trendy content” has the second-highest ROI and gets the most engagement.

4. Relatable Content

Relatable content will see the most new investment in 2022, with 40% planning to leverage it for the first time, while 12% will invest more in it than any other content type.

content types video marketers will begin testing

5. Funny and Interactive Content

Both funny and interactive content have high ROI and will be leveraged by 29% and 27% of video marketers for the first time in 2022, respectively.

Next, let’s look at the different styles of videos you can use, and which are most effective.

Viral Videos

Getting one of your videos to go viral might seem like a pipe dream, but it isn’t as out of reach as you might think.

63% of video marketers have created a viral video – so let’s take a look at exactly how they did it so your next video can blow up too.

How to Make a Video Go Viral

The most effective strategies for creating a viral video are making retable content, keeping videos short/concise, and capturing viewers’ attention in the first few seconds.

Let’s dig a little deeper into these top three strategies and how you can use them.

1. Making Relatable Content Means More Engagement

Making relatable content is key to getting viewers to engage with your video. Whether they comment on your video or share it with a friend, the algorithm takes notice and boosts your video to more viewers, increasing its chances to go viral.

2. Shorter Is Better

Keeping videos short is also crucial to virality. According to 47% of video marketers, short-form videos are the most likely to go viral.

which videos are more likely to go viral

But how long is a short-form video exactly? Our video marketing trends report found that the consensus among video marketers is under 60 seconds, with the biggest chunk (33%) saying the optimal length is 31-60 seconds.

3. Capture Attention Immediately

Capturing viewers’ attention in the first few seconds is the third most effective way to make a video go viral.

This could be as simple as starting a video with a colorful animation, an intriguing question, showing text on-screen, or even with physical movements like hand motions or jumping out of your chair to set a video off.

Now that you know the top strategies to make a video go viral, let’s take a look at which platforms you should use.

Which Platform are Videos Most Likely to Go Viral On?

YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook are the platforms that video marketers say are most likely to have a video go viral.

Screen Shot 2022-06-09 at 12.03.25 PM If you have a social media presence on any of those three, they can be powerful for scoring a viral video. But if you’re not leveraging them yet, it might be time to finally give TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts a shot.

Which Type of Video Content is Most Likely to Go Viral?

Funny, trendy, and relatable videos that reflect a brand’s values are most likely to go viral.

viral video content by type Combine these top content types by creating a funny, relatable, and on-trend video for the best chance of going viral.

Lastly, we’ll take a look at the different video styles and which is most effective for a viral video.

Which Style of Video Content is Most Likely to Go Viral?

Live-action videos are most likely to go viral according to 49% of video marketers, but animation is also effective for 31% of respondents.

If you can, use both. Keep viewers engaged by switching back and forth between your live-action shot and animation with a voiceover.

Video Marketing Benefits & Challenges

Video Marketing Benefits

The biggest benefits of creating marketing videos are that they help customers understand a product/service, get more engagement than other marketing content, and lead to more sales/conversions than other marketing content.

While this seems perfectly in line with video marketers’ goals, those benefits also come with a few challenges.

Video Marketing Challenges

The biggest challenges video marketers face are a lack of time to create video content, difficulty creating an effective video strategy, and inadequate budget to create video content.

The great news is that video marketing is simpler than ever, with 57% of video marketers describing video marketing as easy.

On top of that, 46% of those who started making videos in the past year did so because creating marketing videos became less time-consuming, and 38% said they started because videos became easier to make in-house. 1 in 2 also started making marketing videos in response to the pandemic.

Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been making videos for a while, budgeting can be a stressful part of the process. To help you navigate your video marketing budget, let’s take a look at how other marketers are budgeting for their videos.

Video Marketing Budgets

81% of video marketers have a dedicated budget for video marketing. Here’s what those budgets look like:

20% of companies spend over $100K on video marketing per quarter
Around 1 in 4 spend under $20K
42% spend between $20K-$100K

We also asked video marketers how their budget changed from 2021 to 2022, and found that 52% of video marketers saw a budget increase in 2022, while 46% saw no change. Just 2% saw a decrease.

Marketers who saw an increase in their video budget generally received a substantial boost in their budget, with 41% of video marketers getting an increase of over 51%.

You may also be wondering what percentage of total marketing budgets goes towards video marketing, so let’s take a look at that too.

what percentage of total marketing budgets go to video?

It turns out that 44% of companies spend 31-60% of their total marketing budget on video marketing.

How Much Does Creating a Marketing Video Cost?

91% of marketers’ companies spend under $50,000 to create a marketing video, and over half spend under $10,000. how much does it cost to create a marketing video

With the total cost of making a marketing video in mind, let’s look into how much video marketers are spending on each step in the video creation process.

Production takes up 24% of the average video marketer’s budget, followed by pre-production and post-production tied at 20%. Another 18% is spent on talent and video promotion/distribution.

We also asked video marketers which part of the video creation process is most expensive, and 65% of them say production is the costliest step.

the most expensive part of video creation Lastly, let’s talk about how long it takes to create a marketing video and which parts are most time-consuming.

How Long Does it Take to Create a Marketing Video?

86% of marketing videos are created in 3 weeks or less, and 40% are made in under a week.

The most time-consuming part of the video creation process is pre-production (coming up with ideas, writing script, casting, etc.), according to 38% of those who make marketing videos in-house.

More Insights From the HubSpot Blog

Whether you’re just getting started with video marketing or a seasoned video professional, keeping up with the latest trends and marketing strategies is key.

While video marketing is currently one of the top marketing strategies, there are a few others that have even better ROI – luckily, you can incorporate most of them into your video marketing strategy for even better results.

If you’re ready to take your video marketing strategy to the next level, check our Marketing Trends and Social Media Trends research from earlier this year!

Just getting started with video? You can also download our free Video Marketing Starter Pack below.

Discover videos, templates, tips, and other resources dedicated to helping you launch an effective video marketing strategy.

Source :
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/video-marketing-report

5 Social Media Tips Every Small Business Needs [+ Free Tools]

POV: You’re new in the market and you’re wondering just how your small business can stand out among the millions of brands currently on social media.

In this article, you’ll learn how to use social media for small businesses and which (free) software you should have in your toolbox.

Why social media is important for small businesses?

The biggest benefit to using social media is that it’s a low-cost strategy to increase your brand awareness.

While you, of course, have to invest time and resources in building out your content, you can create high-quality content with a reliable phone and a few tools at your disposal.

In addition, with social media, you have the potential to reach your target audience for a fraction of what you would pay in targeted ads.

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=martinabretous&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1440017349621522435&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.hubspot.com%2Fmarketing%2Fsmall-business-social-media&sessionId=8329fe61621ccd2fb62e5eecd30ea8ab6b92475e&siteScreenName=HubSpot&theme=light&widgetsVersion=b45a03c79d4c1%3A1654150928467&width=550px

For instance, you may spend $100 developing creative assets for a video that ends up reaching 100,000 users. To reach those same users with an ad, you will likely have to invest much more money.

In addition, social media allows you to:

Drive more traffic to your website and generate leads.
Promote products and services.
Build a community.
Connect with and learn from your target audience.

When you get down to it, the way you use social media as a small business isn’t much different from how you’d use it as a mid to large-size business. In both cases, you’re sharing, engaging, monitoring, and optimizing.

The key difference is that a small business is likely focused on growth while an established brand may prioritize expansion.

Social Media Tips for Small Business

1. Be consistent.

The best thing you can do as a small business when starting out on social media is to be consistent.

Too often, brands get discouraged if they don’t see results within a few weeks. The truth is social media growth can be slow but like most things, if you remain consistent, you will generate results.

This means posting high-quality content on a regular basis (at least once a week). You do this for a few reasons.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7046452643429911814?lang=it-IT&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.hubspot.com%2Fmarketing%2Fsmall-business-social-media

The first is that when a user does land on your profile, you want them to get a clear picture of your brand. If you have little to no content, users will quickly lose interest and leave. The same is true for scattered posts.

Social media is an opportunity to tell a story. When you prioritize consistency and cohesiveness, users will know what to expect from your page, what your voice is, and what you offer. And that’s how you’ll attract your target audience.

2. Diversify your content.

On social media, there’s so much room to be creative and experiment. Too often, brands find one strategy that works and stick to that.

While there’s a lot of truth to the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” social media is constantly evolving. What worked yesterday may not work today, as these platforms implement new features and user behavior changes.

With this in mind, play around with content formats whenever possible. For instance, on TikTok, you can only post videos. However, on Facebook, you have the option of going live, posting images, conducting polls, and more.

Here are some formats you should leverage:

Photos
Videos
Illustrations
Stop-motion
Live streams
Polls

With content, the limit truly does not exist.

Our social media report revealed that small businesses get the best ROI from creating educational and relatable content. Meanwhile, mid-size and large businesses report better results with funny and interactive content.

which social media content types have the biggest ROI

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This data point makes sense for many reasons. Larger brands have likely already built a strong following and know what their audience likes. That’s why they’re able to do interactive polls and be creative with their content.

Small businesses, on the other hand, still have a lot to prove. They want to add value to their audience and grow a following, and the easiest way to do that? Make content that educates and/or resonates.

This isn’t to say that small businesses should stick to these two types of content. In fact, they should experiment with all content to narrow down what their audience likes. However, this can serve as a strong starting point.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

How-tos
Customer spotlights
Industry facts and updates
Behind the scenes
Trends (viral sounds and dances)
Product highlights
Q&As

3. Focus on quality instead of quantity.

This applies not only to the content you post but also to which platforms you post.

From a content perspective, while it is encouraged that you post often on social media, there’s a caveat. Everything you post should add value.https://www.instagram.com/p/CcLdmLULXBe/embed/?cr=1&v=14&wp=540&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fblog.hubspot.com&rp=%2Fmarketing%2Fsmall-business-social-media#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A2176.600000000093%2C%22ls%22%3A1543.5%2C%22le%22%3A2142.5%7D

If it doesn’t meet that criteria, consider another strategy, such as reposting brand-related content from a non-competitor or sharing user-generated content (UGC).

In fact, 33% of small businesses surveyed (those with 1-25 employees) report getting the best ROI on social media from leveraging UGC.

Now onto the platforms.

If you’re a small business with limited time and resources, you may not able to manage an account on every single social platform. And that’s OK.

It’s much more valuable to focus on one to three platforms that have your target audience’s demographics and go from there.

According to our 2022 social media marketing research, small businesses are prioritizing Facebook and YouTube in 2022 (even though they report that Facebook and Instagram generate the highest quality leads).

However, if your audience is Gen-Z, you may choose to focus your efforts on TikTok and grow your audience there.

4. Find trends.

This is another piece of advice that relates to both content and platform.

Our research found that many small businesses are exploring live audio chat rooms and short-form videos for the first time – two of the biggest trends of the last two years.

Yes, trying out a new platform demands a lot more than trying out a new format or type of content.

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For a while, brands were wary of TikTok. They saw it as a non-serious platform meant to entertain Gen-Z. Now, brands realize that it’s another highly valuable network that can broaden their reach and increase their brand awareness.

This is all to say that you don’t have to jump on every trend when it first appears, that’s not the recommendation here. Instead, you want to monitor them and their evolution. Because while some trends die off, others turn into staples.

https://listen.hubspot.com/embed/v2/smallPlayer/9dbce735

Social Media Tools for Small Business

1. Google Analytics for Analytics

When asked about the tools they use to track social media metrics, 75% of small businesses said Google Analytics.

social media tools for small business: snapshot of google analytics

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The platform allows you to track the impact of your social media accounts on your traffic, specifically:

How many visitors are coming from social media
How long their sessions are
Which landing pages are getting shared most on social media
Conversion rates from social media compared to other channels
Which social campaigns are generating traffic and conversions

There are both free and paid versions of the app – the free version offers so many features that as a small business, there is little need for the upgrade.

2. Canva for Graphic Design

Don’t have money to hire a graphic designer? Don’t fret – Canva to the rescue.

social media for small business: canva homepage

This graphic design platform offers thousands of free social media templates that you can use to build a consistent visual identity.

You can also find stock images and videos that are free to use for commercial and non-commercial use.

Note: While Canva is incredible for creating branded templates, avoid using it for logos, as you may struggle to find unique designs.

3. Asana for Content Planning

Asana is a project management tool that makes social media planning easy.

With the free version, you can:

Integrate it with 100+ tools, including Slack, Google Calendar, Adobe, Canva, MailChimp.
Create unlimited projects and tasks.
Tag social platforms, content, and more for easy sorting.
Have up to 15 users to facilitate collaboration.

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With all of these features, you can map out your content for the month and create tasks to track your progress. This makes scheduling a piece of cake and allows others to get a clear understanding of your plans.

Growing your social media presence as a small business is an exciting time. Use these tools to get you on track and remember, slow and steady always wins the race.

Source :
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/small-business-social-media

Corporate Development vs Business Development: What’s the Difference?

As a business, your overall goal is likely to achieve growth and remain competitive in your market.

Corporate development and business development are two practices that help businesses achieve growth through different means. Read on to learn the difference between the two and how they relate to your business operations.

Free Download: Sales Plan Template

What is corporate development?

Corporate development is the process of achieving growth for a business through internal restructuring and external opportunities for acquisitions and mergers, investments, and divesting assets. All corporate development processes increase the value of a business.

Internal restructuring is typically changing the current management to increase efficiency, such as hiring new staff, combining existing positions, or removing other positions.

An example of internal corporate restructuring can be combining two senior positions that are closely related. An external growth example is a larger company acquiring a smaller company that offers something beneficial to its offerings, like PayPal acquiring Venmo, a money sending service meant for friends and family.

Corporate development indirectly relates to sales as management restructuring and acquisitions will increase a business’s ability to serve customers and drive sales, but the processes come long before a customer receives a receipt.

What is business development?

Business development is identifying opportunities to develop relationships with similar companies to achieve key business objectives and bring value to customers. These relationships are usually developed with companies with similar goals and related offerings.

For example, a restaurant partnering with local delivery services so people can order their favorite food for delivery. The delivery business can make more money through a new client base, and the restaurant can increase its number of orders when customers have more ways to get its food.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ywMM2lceNyA%3Ffeature%3Doembed

Business development is closely related to sales because partnerships increase value for customers and inspire them to make purchases. The business dev process also begins through market research and qualifying prospects (companies) that it makes sense to partner with.

Difference Between Corporate Development and Business Development

Business development and corporate development are the same in that they focus on activities to help companies grow. Both processes bring a competitive advantage, as their end goal is to help a business increase the value it can provide to a target audience. Both can also involve relationships with external organizations, and business dev teams can exist within corporate dev teams.

They are different in that business dev is external relationships, and corporate dev is external growth through internal changes. While corporate dev involves finance, it does not directly increase sales as financial transactions include acquisitions and mergers and hiring new staff.

Business development is more closely related to sales because partnerships with external businesses drive more sales among consumers.

How do business development and corporate development work together?

Both processes can, however, work together.

For example, a corporate development team may hire a new vice president of marketing to oversee all marketing operations. This new hire brings along unique perspectives for expansion that help the company grow.

The new ideas impact business development as they involve new markets and new relationships with other relevant businesses in those markets.

Over To You

Most businesses should have corporate development and business development teams rather than one over the other. While each one helps your business grow and increase sales, both do so in different ways that are required for your company to succeed.

Source :
https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/corporate-development-vs-business-development

How to Fix and Prevent XSS Attacks in WordPress

Are you worried about hackers attacking your website?

Cross-site scripting, also called XSS, is one of the most common attacks on WordPress sites. Hackers find vulnerabilities on your site and use them to steal information and misuse your website.

What’s worse is that if you don’t fix it immediately, these hacks could lead to more severe damage – the kind that’s really hard to recover from.

You can prevent these hacks by installing a firewall on your WordPress site.

If your website is already under attack, we’ll show you how to fix it right away in simple beginner-friendly language. We’ll keep cybersecurity jargon to the bare minimum in this tutorial. We’ll also show you how to prevent future attacks.

First, let’s quickly understand what happens in an XSS attack so that you’ll be better equipped to handle it.

What is an XSS Attack in WordPress?

XSS stands for Cross Site Scripting which is a kind of injection attack where hackers inject malicious scripts into a website.

These scripts are disguised as good code on a trusted website. Next, when a user lands on this website, their browser executes all the code, including the malicious script, because it thinks it’s all trusted instructions.

In simpler terms, imagine you’re a spy and you’ve just received an official email from the government about a top-secret mission. It contains all the instructions you need to follow down to the T.

What you don’t know is that someone intercepted that email and added a few more instructions of their own. The government has no clue about it and you don’t bother to double check because you trust the source.

Some of it doesn’t make sense but you’re trained to obey every order to achieve your mission.

In this scenario, the government is your website, and the spy is the user’s browser. The browser follows the instructions from your website and can’t differentiate between the good and bad scripts.

These scripts are usually in Javascript, one of the most popular and widely-used programming languages. Although, these attacks can take place using any client-side language.

Now there are many ways to carry out an XSS attack. One way is to send a link to unsuspecting users to get them to click on it. Once they click on it, the attack can possibly do one or more of the following:

Redirect users to a malicious site
Capture the user’s keystrokes
Run web browser-based exploits
Steal cookie information of the user logged into an account

If the hacker is able to steal cookie information, they can completely compromise the user’s account. For instance, if you’re logged into your website’s wp-admin panel, the hacker can steal your credentials and log into your site.

What you need to do to prevent these attacks is to make sure all user data is validated and sanitized properly before it enters your website. That way, no user input can be malicious Javascript code. Added to that, you need to make sure there are no XSS vulnerabilities on your site that can allow a hacker to attack.

We’ve barely scratched the surface of XSS attacks but we hope you have a decent understanding of how a WordPress XSS attack works. Now if you suspect your site is hacked, follow our easy step-by-step tutorial below.

How to Find and Fix an XSS Attack in WordPress

To find any kind of malware or hacks on your site, you’ll need to run a deep scan on your entire website including its files and database.

We’ll be using Sucuri to scan and clean up your hacked site. Sucuri gives you a robust security setup including a firewall, malware scanner, and malware cleaner.

sucuri-security-plugin - IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector

Sucuri offers a free website malware scanner that you can install inside your WordPress site by navigating to Plugins » Add New tab.

We recommend using the premium server-side scanner. This will turn your website inside out to find any trace of malware.

Added to that, here are a few of its highlights:

Monitors spam and malicious scripts
Checks for hidden backdoors created by hackers
Detects changes made to DNS (domain name system) and SSL
Checks for blacklists with search engines and other authorities
Monitors website uptime
Instant alerts via email, SMS, Slack, and RSS

For more details, read our Sucuri Review.

Sucuri comes with a price tag of $199.99 per year. If that’s out of your budget, you can try other security plugins. See our list: 9 Best WordPress Security Plugins Compared.

While selecting a security plugin, make sure it gives you all the cyber security features you need to find and fix malware infections and protect your website.

Step 1: Scanning Your Website

To get started, you’ll need to sign up for a plan with Sucuri. Then, log in to the Sucuri dashboard where you can add your site.

Here, you’ll need to connect your website by entering your FTP credentials. If you don’t know your FTP credentials, you can get them from your web host.

When your site is connected, Sucuri will automatically run a thorough scan of your website. Once done, it will show you a detailed report under the ‘My Sites’ tab.

Now you can click on the ‘Details’ button next to the warning message. This will open up the Monitoring page where you can view the details of the hack or infection.

Step 2: Requesting a Malware Cleanup

On the Monitoring page, you can see what kind of malware has infected your site. Sucuri adds a rating to indicate the risk level. So if it’s a critical or high risk, you know that you need to fix it right away. Added to that, it will also show you if your site has been blacklisted by any search engines.

Now that you know your site is infected, you need to clean it up and Sucuri makes this really easy for you. To get started with the process, click on the ‘Clean Up My Site’ button.

On the next page, click on New Malware Removal Request button and a form will appear where you can enter your site’s details.

Simply fill out the form and submit it. Once done, Sucuri’s security experts will clean up your site for you. In case you don’t know any of the details you need for the form, you can ask your web host for them.

Now you may be wondering how long would it take to get your site cleaned.

Sucuri gives first preference to users on the Business plan. They assure a turnaround time of 6 hours. For other plans, it depends on how complex your site’s infection is and the volume of requests they have in queue.

Immediately after an attack, we strongly recommend logging all users out of your site and changing your login credentials to be on the safe side.

How to Prevent XSS Attacks on Your WordPress Site

It’s always best to protect your website and prevent these kinds of malware attacks on your site. It’s much easier and cheaper than trying to fix a hacked website. Here are our top recommended steps to prevent XSS attacks on your site.

1. Enable a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

Sucuri has one of the best firewalls for WordPress sites. It not only blocks XSS attacks but all sorts of other malware attacks like DDoS, Brute Force, Phishing, and SQL injections.

The firewall will sit in front of your website and scan every user coming through. It will identify and block bad bots before they reach your site.

To enable the Sucuri firewall, navigate to the Firewall tab on your Sucuri dashboard.

Select your site, and you’ll see setup instructions that you can follow. Sucuri gives you 2 options to set up the firewall:

1. Automatic Integration: Simply enter your hosting credentials using cPanel or Plesk. This method requires you to give Sucuri access to your website’s server to automatically set up the firewall on your site.

2. Manual Integration: You can set up the firewall on your own without granting internal access to Sucuri. To get started, click on the internal domain link and make sure that it loads.

Next, you can configure your DNS to point your web traffic at the Sucuri firewall. For this, you’ll need to access the DNS records in your hosting account. Here, you can change the ‘A’ record of your site and enter the IP addresses that Sucuri provides.

If you’re stressed that this is all too complicated, you can ask your web host for help and they will guide you through the process. Added to that, you can also raise a support ticket with Sucuri and their support team will help you change the DNS records.

To open a ticket, you’ll find a link inside the manual instructions on the same page.

Once you’re done setting up the firewall, it usually takes a few hours for the changes to reflect. You can expect a maximum wait time of 48 hours.

When you enable the firewall, it will automatically add security headers to your site to protect it from XSS attacks.

sucuri-xss-protection - IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector

If there’s an attempted XSS attack Sucuri will block it and report it to you in the Reports tab.

xss-attack-blocked-with-sucuri-report - IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector

Now what we love about the Sucuri firewall is that it’s so easy for anyone to use, including beginners. You don’t have to be a cyber security expert or know any coding.

You can enable all sorts of protection features with just a click in the Settings » Security tab.

So for instance, you can enable DDoS protection and geoblocking to make it harder for hackers to attack your site.

To enable a security feature here, all you have to do is check the box and save your settings. When you need to disable it, you simply have to uncheck the box.

Aside from this, the Sucuri plugin will:

Regularly scan and monitor for spam and malicious code
Alert you of any cross-site scripting vulnerability
Block bad bots and hackers
Check for blacklists with search engines and other authorities
Monitor website uptime
Detect changes made to DNS (domain name system) and SSL
Send you instant security alerts via email, SMS, Slack, and RSS

So your site will be protected at all times.

2. Use Secure Forms

On a vulnerable website, forms are one of the most common targets for hackers. If your form is unsecured, this means anyone can simply enter malicious code in your form fields.

Our recommendation for securing your website’s forms is WPForms. It is the #1 WordPress form builder that has built-in security so your forms are protected right from the start.

By default, the forms have anti-spam protection turned on. Plus, you can even add CAPTCHA to your forms to block spam bots.

Advanced noCaptcha and Invisible Captcha

You can enable an invisible captcha or the type where a user will have to solve a little puzzle or tick a box to prove they’re human.

3. Set User Role Permissions

When you have multiple people working on your website, it isn’t wise to give everyone admin access. It’s better to assign them roles based on what permissions they need.

WordPress lets you create roles for:

Super Admin
Administrator
Editor
Author
Contributor
Subscriber

Now if a hacker gets control over a user’s account, they’ll be limited in what they can do on your site.

4. Auto-logout Inactive Users

Hackers can gain access to user accounts by hijacking their browser sessions and stealing cookies.

You can minimize this risk by logging out inactive WordPress users.

Many security plugins have an idle session logout feature or you can use the Inactive Logout plugin.

5. Update Your Website Regularly

WordPress plugins, themes, and even your WordPress installation get updates regularly. You’ll see them inside your WordPress dashboard when they’re available:

Many website owners ignore updates for a long time but this can expose your website to hackers. Updates usually carry bug fixes, new features, and improvements to the software. They can also have security patches. You can see if an update carries a security patch by viewing the details of the update.

This means a vulnerability was found in the software that hackers can use to attack your site. When developers find security problems, they patch them up and release a new version of the software.

All you have to do is update the software on your site.

So if you see it’s a security patch, update it immediately to avoid any risk of being hacked.

One of the main reasons site owners ignore updates is that they can sometimes break your site or cause incompatibility issues. We recommend that you test the update on a staging site and then run it on your live site.

With that, you’ve learned how to fix and prevent XSS attacks on your WordPress site.

Before we wrap up, we’ll give you one more security tip. Always take regular backups of your website.

Even with the strongest security measures on your site, there are many things that can go wrong. For instance, a user can make a simple human error that crashes your website.

You can set up automated backups using a backup plugin like UpdraftPlus. For more options, see our list of the top WordPress backup plugins.

FAQs

1. Is WordPress vulnerable to cross-site scripting attacks?

The WordPress core software is developed and maintained by some of the best experts in the world. Their software is pretty rock solid but keep in mind that no software is free from vulnerabilities.

The reason WordPress websites are attacked often is that the platform is so popular. And most users install tons of third-party themes and plugins. Vulnerabilities can develop in any of these elements and hackers can exploit them to hack your site.

2. Are there different kinds of cross site scripting attacks?

Yes. There are 3 main types of XSS attacks:

Stored XSS (also know as persistent XSS): Attackers stores their payload on a compromised server, causing the website to deliver malicious code to other visitors.
Reflected XSS: The payload is stored in the data sent from the browser to the server.
DOM XSS: Here, the server itself isn’t the one vulnerable to XSS, but rather the JavaScript on the page is.
Self cross-site scripting: Attackers can exploit a vulnerability that needs really specific context and manual changes. The victim here can only be yourself.
Blind cross-site scripting: In these attacks, the vulnerability commonly lies on a page that only authorized users can access. The attacker can’t see the result of an attack.

3. How do I make sure there are no other security issues on my site?

Make sure you always have a security plugin installed on your website. This is a must for all kinds of websites including WooCommerce, blogs, and small business sites. We recommend Sucuri, but you can also check out Wordfence, MalCare, and SiteLock. See more of our top recommendations here: 9 Best WordPress Security Plugins Compared.

That’s all we have for you today. We hope this post has given you everything you need to secure your website.

For more on website security, see our resources on:

These posts will give you more ways to seal vulnerabilities and protect your website from all risks.

Source :
https://www.isitwp.com/fix-prevent-xss-attacks-wordpress/

Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics: Full Comparison 2022

Do you want to know what’s new in Google Analytics 4? How is GA4 different from Universal Analytics?

There’s a lot that’s changed in the new Google Analytics 4 platform including the navigation. Google has added new features and removed a number of reports you’re familiar with. And that means we’ll need to relearn the platform.

In this guide, we’ll detail the differences between Google Analytics 4 (GA4) vs. Universal Analytics (UA) so that you’re prepared to make the switch.

If you haven’t already switched to Google Analytics 4, we have an easy step-by-step guide you can follow: How to Set Up Google Analytics 4 in WordPress.

What’s New Only in Google Analytics 4?

In this section, we’re detailing the things that are new in GA4 that aren’t present in Universal Analytics at all. A little later, we’ll go into depth about all the changes you need to know about.

Creating and Editing Events: GA4 brings about a revolutionary change in the way you track events. You can create a custom event and modify events right inside your GA4 property. This isn’t possible with Universal Analytics unless you write code to create a custom event.
Conversion Events: Conversion goals are being replaced with conversion events. You can simply mark or unmark an event to start tracking it as a conversion. There’s an easy toggle switch to do this. GA4 even lets you create conversion events ahead of time before the event takes place.
Data Streams: UA lets you connect your website’s URL to a view. These views let you filter data. So for instance, you can create a filter in a UA view to exclude certain IP addresses from reports. GA4 uses data streams instead of views.
Data filters: Now you can add data filters to include or exclude traffic internal and developer traffic from your GA4 reports.
Google Analytics Intelligence: You can delete search queries from your search history to fine-tune your recommendations.
Explorations and Templates: There’s a new Explore item in the menu that takes you to the Explorations page and Template gallery. Explorations give you a deeper understanding of your data. And there are report templates that you can use.
Debug View: There’s a built-in visual debugging tool which is awesome news for developers and business owners. With this mode, you can get a real-time view of events displayed on a vertical timeline graph. You can see events for the past 30 minutes as well as the past 60 seconds.
BigQuery linking: You can now link your GA4 account with your BigQuery account. This will let you run business intelligence tasks on your analytics property using BigQuery tools.

While this is what’s unique to GA4, there are a lot more changes than this. But first, let’s take a look at what’s gone from the Universal Analytics platform that we’re all familiar with.

What’s Missing in Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 has done away with some of the old concepts. These include:

Views and Filters: As we mentioned, GA4 is not using Data Streams and we explain this in depth a bit later. So you won’t be able to create a view and related filters. Once you convert your UA property to GA4, you’ll be able to access a read-only list of UA filters under Admin > Account > All Filters.
Customization (menu): UA properties have a customization menu for options to create dashboards, create custom reports, save existing reports, and create custom alerts. Below are the UA customization options, along with their GA4 equivalent.
- Dashboards: At the time of writing this, there isn’t a way to create a custom GA4 dashboard.
- Custom reports: GA4 has the Explorations page instead where you can create custom reports.
- Saved reports: When you create a report in Explorations, it is automatically saved for you.
- Custom alerts: Inside custom Insights, which is a new feature in GA4, you can set custom alerts.
Google Search Console linking: There isn’t a way to link Google Search Console with a GA4 property at the time of writing.
Bounce rate: One of the most tracked metrics – the bounce rate – is gone. It’s likely that this has been replaced with Engagement Metrics.
Conversion Goals: In UA, you could create conversion goals under Views. But since views are gone, so are conversion goals. However, you can create conversion events to essentially track the same thing.

Now that you know what’s new and what’s missing in GA4, we’ll take you through an in-depth tour of the new GA4 platform.

Google Analytics 4 vs Universal Analytics

Below, we’ll be covering the main differences between GA4 and UA. We’ve created this table of contents for you to easily navigate the comparison guide:

Feel free to use the quick links to skip ahead to the section that interests you the most.

New Mobile Analytics

A major difference between GA4 and UA is that the new GA4 platform will also support mobile app analytics.

In fact, it was originally called “Mobile + Web”.

UA only tracked web analytics so it was difficult for businesses with apps to get an accurate outlook on their performance and digital marketing efforts.

Now with GA4 data model, you’ll be able to track both your website and app. You can set up a data stream for Android and iOS.

There’s also added functionality to create custom campaigns to collect information about which mediums/referrals are sending you the most traffic. This will show you where your campaigns get the most traction so that you can optimize your strategies in the future.

Easy User ID Tracking

Turning on user ID tracking in UA was quite a task. But that’s all been simplified in GA4 with the new measurement model. You simply need to navigate to Admin » Property Settings » Reporting Identity tab.

You can choose between Blended and Observed mode. Select the one you want and save your changes. That’s it.

New Navigational Menu

In GA4, the reporting interface remains familiar and the navigation menu is still on the left! That keeps things familiar but there are quite a few menu items that have changed.

First, there are only 4 high-level menu items right now. Google may add more as the platform is further developed.

Next, each menu item has a collapsed view. You can expand each item by clicking on it.

Now when you click on the submenu items, it will expand the menu to reveal more sub menus.

In GA4, you’ll see familiar menu items you use for SEO and other purposes but in different locations. Here are the notable changes:

Realtime is under Reports
Audience(s) is under Configure
Acquisition is under Reports » Life cycle
Conversions is under Configure

GA4 also comes with completely new menu items as listed below:

Reports snapshot
Engagement
Monetization
Retention
Library
Custom definitions
DebugView

Measurement ID vs Tracking ID

Universal Analytics uses a Tracking ID that has a capital UA, a hyphen, a 7-digit tracking code followed by another hyphen, and a number. Like this: UA-1234567-1.

The last number is a sequential number starting from 1 that maps to a specific property in your Google Analytics account. So if you set up a second Google Analytics property, the new code will change to UA-1234567-2.

You can find the Tracking ID for a Universal Analytics property under Admin » Property column. Navigate to Property Settings » Tracking ID tab where you can see your UA tracking ID.

In GA4, you’ll see a Measurement ID instead of a Tracking ID. This starts with a capital G, a hyphen followed by a 10-character code.

It would look like this: G-SV0GT32HNZ.

To find your GA4 Measurement ID, go to Admin » Property » Data Streams. Click on a data stream. You’ll see your Measurement ID in the stream details after the Stream URL and Stream Name.

Data Streams vs Views

In UA, you could connect your website’s URL to a view. UA views are mostly used to filter data. So for instance, you can create a filter in a UA view to exclude certain IP addresses from reports.

GA4 uses data streams instead. You’ll need to connect your website’s URL to a data stream.

But don’t be mistaken, they are not the same as views.

Also, you can’t create a filter in GA4. In case your property was converted from UA to GA4, then you can find a read-only list of UA filters under Admin » Account » All Filters.

Now Google defines a data stream as:

“A flow of data from your website or app to Analytics. There are 3 types of data stream: Web (for websites), iOS (for iOS apps), and Android (for Android apps).”

You can use your data stream to find your measurement ID and global site tag code snippet. You can also enable enhanced measurements such as your page views, scrolls, and outbound clicks.

In a data stream, you can do the following:

Set up a list of domains for cross-domain tracking
Create a set of rules for defining internal traffic rules
Put together a list of domains to exclude from tracking

Data streams will make a lot of things easier. But there are 2 things that you need to be aware of. First, once you create a data stream, there’s no way to edit it. And if you delete a data stream, you can’t undo this action.

Events vs. Hit Types

UA tracks data by hit types which is essentially an interaction that results in data being sent to Analytics. This includes page hits, event hits, eCommerce hits, and social interaction hits.

GA4 moves away from the concept of hit types. Instead, it’s event-based meaning every interaction is captured as an event. This means everything including page, events, eCommerce transactions, social, and app view hits are all captured as events.

There’s also no option for creating conversion goals. But GA4 lets you flag or mark an event as a conversion with the flip of a toggle switch.

This is essentially the same thing as creating a conversion goal in Universal Analytics. You can also create new conversion events ahead of time before those events actually take place.

In GA4, Google organizes events into 4 categories and recommends that you use them in this order:

1. Automatically collected

In the first event category, there’s no option to turn on any setting for tracking events so you don’t need to activate anything here. Google will automatically collect data on these events:

first_visit – the first visit to a website or Android instant app
session_start – the time when a visitor opens a web page or app
user_engagement – when a session lasts longer than 10 seconds or had 1 or more conversions or had 2 or more page views

Keep in mind that we’re only at the start of GA4. With Google’s ever-advancing and machine-learning technology, more automatically collected events may be added as the platform progresses.

2. Enhanced measurement

In this section, you don’t need to write any code but there are settings to turn on enhanced measurements. This will give you an extra set of automatically collected events.

To enable this data collection, you need to turn on the Enhanced measurement setting in your Data Stream.

Then you’ll see more enhanced measurement events that include:

page_view: a page-load in the browser or a browser history state change
click: a click on an outbound link that goes to an external site
file-download: a click that triggers a file download
scroll: the first time a visitor scrolls to the bottom of a page

3. Recommended

These GA4 events are recommended but aren’t automatically collected in GA4 so you’ll need to enable them if you want to track them.

We suggest you check out what is in the recommended events and turn on tracking for what you need. This can include signups, logins, and purchases.

Before we move to custom events, if you don’t see these 3 event types – automatically collected, enhanced measurement, and recommended – in your dashboard, you should ideally create a custom event for it.

4. Custom

Custom events let you set up tracking for any event that doesn’t fall into the above 3 categories. You can create and modify your events. So for instance, you can create custom events to track menu clicks.

You can design and write custom code to enable tracking for the event you want. But there is no guarantee that Google will support your custom metrics and events.

No Bounce Rate

The bounce rate metric has vanished! It’s been suggested that Google wants to focus on users that stay on your website rather than the ones that leave.

So this has likely been replaced with engagement rate metrics to collect more data on user interactions and engaged sessions.

No Custom Reports

UA properties have a customization menu for options to create dashboards, create custom reports, save existing reports, and create custom alerts.

A lot of this has changed in GA4. To make it easier for you to understand, here are the UA metrics and their GA4 equivalents:

Custom reports can be found in the Explorations page.
Saved reports are automatically created when you run an Exploration.
Custom alerts can be set up inside custom Insights from the GA4 home page.

One more thing to note is that you also won’t find a way to link Google Search Console with a GA4 property (at the time of writing). And that’s all the key differences between Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4.

Now you may be wondering whether you HAVE TO make the switch to GA4. A lot of our users have been asking us this question so we’ll tell you quickly what you need to do.

Do I Have To Switch to GA4?

Google will retire Universal Analytics in July 2023. You’ll have access to your UA data for some time but all new data will flow into GA4. If you have a US property set up, you’ll see this warning in your dashboard:

So you have to set up a GA4 property sooner or later and we recommend that you do it sooner. This is because your UA data won’t be transferred to GA4. You have to start afresh.

You can set up your GA4 property now and let it collect data. In the meantime, you can continue to use Universal Analytics and use the time to learn the new GA4 platform. Then when we’re all forced to make the switch, you’ll have plenty of historical data in your GA4 property.

If you haven’t set up your Google Analytics 4 property yet, we’ve compiled an easy step-by step guide for you: How to Set Up Google Analytics 4 in WordPress.

Want to skip the guide and use a tool? Then MonsterInsights is the best to set up GA4. It even lets you create dual tracking profiles so you can have both UA and GA4 running simultaneously.

Get MonsterInsights Now »

After setting up GA4, you can go deeper into your data with these guides:

These posts will help you track your users and their activity on your site so that you can get more valuable insights and analytics data to improve your site’s performance.

Source :
https://www.isitwp.com/google-analytics-4-vs-universal-analytics/

How to Fix WordPress Search Not Working (5 Common Errors)

Are you trying to fix issues with WordPress search not working on your website?

While WordPress comes with basic search feature, it has some common errors and limitations that can keep your visitors from finding what they’re looking for.

In this post, we’ll show you how to fix problems with WordPress search not working.

Why Do WordPress Search Errors Happen?

Most websites have a search feature that helps visitors find interesting content on your WordPress blog or products that they may want to buy on your online store.

However, WordPress’ built-in search feature is very basic.

By default, it doesn’t search all types of content such as comments, reviews, or custom post types. This may stop the visitor from finding what they’re looking for.

The built-in search also focuses on matching search words with the post or page content without paying attention to things such as tags, categories, or custom fields. This is important information that can help your visitors get more accurate search results.

Lastly, there’s no easy way to customize the built-in search. For example, if you wanted to prioritize a post’s titles over its excerpt, or exclude certain pages from WordPress search, you would need to edit the code.

With that in mind, let’s look at how you can easily fix common problems with WordPress search not working. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the issue you’re having with WordPress search.

While WordPress has built-in search feature, not all themes may come with a search bar design. If your theme doesn’t come with a search bar, then there are a few ways that you can create one.

You can add a Search block to any widget-ready area of your WordPress website such as the header or footer. This is a quick and easy way to show a search bar across every page of your WordPress site.

To add a Search block, simply go to Appearance » Widgets. You can then find the area where you want to add a search bar, and click on its arrow icon to expand.

Adding a search bar to a widget ready area

Then, just click on the + icon.

In the popup that appears, type in ‘search’ and then select the Search block.

Once you’ve done that, you can customize the Search block using the row of icons that appears above the block. This includes changing the size of the search button and adding some text.

When you’re happy with how your Search block looks, go ahead and click on the ‘Update’ button. You can now visit your website to see the search bar live.

Another option is adding the Search block to a specific page or post. For example, you might just want to show a search bar on your homepage or landing page.

To do this, just open the page or post where you want to show your search bar. You can then click on the + icon and add a Search block following the same process described above.

Adding a search bar to the WordPress homepage

WordPress’ ready-made Search block is an easy way to add basic search to your site. However, if you want complete control over how your search bar looks and acts, then you’ll need a page builder plugin.

SeedProd is the best drag and drop page builder for WordPress and comes with over 80 professionally-designed blocks including a Search Form block. This allows you to instantly add a search bar to any area of your WordPress website.

All you need to do is open SeedProd’s editor and then drag and drop the Search Form block into place on your website’s layout.

Once you’ve done that, you can customize it using all the settings in the left-hand menu.

Once you’ve added a search bar, you can use the SeedProd theme builder to design a completely custom search results page that perfectly matches your brand. For more information, please see our guide on how to easily create a custom WordPress theme.

How to Fix WordPress Search Showing 404 Error

When a visitor performs a search, your site may show a 404 error such as ‘This page could not be found!’

You can often fix 404 errors by regenerating your permalinks. This rebuilds and repairs the WordPress permalink structure without changing anything on your site.

This may sound complex, but WordPress does all of the hard work for you.

To regenerate your permalinks, simply go to Settings » Permalinks.

Then, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.

That’s it. WordPress will now regenerate your permalink structure. To make sure it worked, head over to your site and try performing a search.

For a more detailed look at rebuilding your permalink structure, see our complete guide on how to regenerate your permalinks in WordPress.

How to Fix WordPress Search Showing Irrelevant Results

Every time a visitor performs a search, you’ll want to show relevant search results. This helps visitors find interesting content, which will keep them on your site for longer and increase your sales and conversions.

However, the built-in WordPress search doesn’t always show the most accurate results. This is because it looks for the search term in your post’s title and content only.

With that in mind, we recommend installing an advanced search plugin.

SearchWP is the best custom search plugin for WordPress, used by over 30,000 websites. SearchWP can search every part of your site including custom fields, WooCommerce products, categories and tags, PDF files, and more.

You can use SearchWP to adjust your website’s search algorithm and make sure your most important content appears at the top of the visitor’s search results.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the SearchWP plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, click on the new ‘SearchWP’ button in your website’s toolbar. You can then go ahead and click on ‘Activate License.’

Activating the SearchWP WordPress plugin

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

You can now either paste or type your license into the ‘License’ box. You’ll find this key in the email you got when you purchased SearchWP.

The SearchWP advanced search WordPress plugin

After that, go ahead and click on the ‘Activate’ button.

SearchWP integrates with WordPress search automatically, so right away your site will start showing more accurate results. However, to get the best results you’ll want to customize SearchWP’s search engine settings.

Here it helps to think about the way that search engines such as Google rank their content.

These search engines use algorithms to find high-quality content that closely matches the search term. It then ranks this content to make sure the best matches appear at the top of the search results page.

With SearchWP you can build your own algorithms and set your own rules, just like Google. This can improve the visitor experience, boost your conversions, and help you make money online with WordPress.

To configure SearchWP’s settings, click on the ‘Engines’ tab.

On this screen, you’ll see sections for the different types of WordPress content such as pages and posts.

For each section, SearchWP shows the attributes it looks at when performing a search. In the following image, we can see that SearchWP searches the page’s title, content, slug, and the page’s excerpt.

There is also an ‘Applicable Attribute Relevance’ scale for each attribute. This is the weight that SearchWP gives to each attribute when ranking its search results.

In the following image, we can see that a post’s title has more weight than its URL slug.

You can make an attribute more or less relevant using its slider.

There are no settings that are guaranteed to provide accurate results for every website. With that in mind, you may want to try different relevancy settings to see what gives you the most accurate search results.

You can also add different types of content to be included in your search results. For example, you can add PDF searching and indexing in WordPress if you have PDF files you want your visitors to be able to search for.

If you have any custom taxonomies or fields, then you can also tell SearchWP to look at this content when searching your site.

To add or remove attributes, click on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.

The SearchWP Add/Remove attributes button

This opens a popup. To get SearchWP to ignore an attribute, simply uncheck its box.

If you want to add an attribute, then click to check its box.

Removing attributes from WordPress search

Want to include a custom field or taxonomy in your searches?

Simply type in the name of that field or taxonomy, and then select it when it appears.

Adding a custom field to WordPress search

Once you’re happy with your attributes, click on the ‘Done’ button.

You can now change the relevancy for your new attributes following the same process described above.

To learn more, please see our step by step guide on how to improve WordPress search with the SearchWP.

Once you’ve finished customizing SearchWP’s settings, make sure to click on the ‘Save Engines’ button to save your changes.

Saving your WordPress custom search settings

SearchWP will now use these new settings for all of its searches.

It’s worth visiting your site and performing a few searches just to check that you’re getting accurate results.

If you don’t see any improvement, then your WordPress theme may be performing its own search. This is known as a redundant search.

The easiest way to check whether this is happening with your theme, is by opening its search.php file.

To access this file, you’ll need an FTP client, or you can use the file manager of your WordPress hosting cPanel. If this is your first time using FTP, then you can see our complete guide on how to connect to your site using FTP.

Once you’re connected to your site, you can use FTP to open the wp-content/themes/ folder.

Inside the ‘themes’ folder, find the theme you’re currently using on your WordPress website. You can then open this folder and find the search.php file.

Next simply click on the search.php file and select ‘View/Edit.’

This will open search.php in your computer’s default text editor.

Now, check this template for any queries that contain query_posts, new WP_Query, or get_posts. This usually means that your theme is performing a redundant search.

If search.php has any of these queries, then we recommend switching to an alternative WordPress theme. To help you out, we’ve created a list of the most popular and best WordPress themes.

Another option is to hire a WordPress developer who can write a new template that doesn’t perform a redundant search.

How to Fix WooCommerce Product Search Not Showing Accurate Results

If you have a WooCommerce store, then search results can help customers find products to buy. To sell more products, you’ll need to display accurate product search results.

However, by default WordPress doesn’t look at your product reviews, attributes, or the product description when performing its searches.

SearchWP can easily fix the problems with WooCommerce search.

You can set up SearchWP by following the same process described above.

Once you’ve done that, go to Settings » SearchWP. You can then click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.

In the popup, make sure you check ‘Products.’

After that, just click on the ‘Done’ button to close the popup.

Creating a custom WooCommerce product search

You can now scroll to the new ‘Products’ section.

Here, you can customize the attributes that WordPress uses in its product searches by following the same process described above.

SearchWP's WooCommerce product search settings

For more information, please see our complete guide on how to make a smart WooCommerce product search.

How to Fix Slow WordPress Search

Fast search helps visitors find what they’re looking for in less time. This will improve the user experience and can increase your pageviews and conversion rate.

Unfortunately, the built-in WordPress search isn’t particularly fast. As you add more content, you may notice that your site takes longer and longer to return the search results.

The good news is that there are ways to speed up your site’s search. If you’re using an advanced search plugin like SearchWP, then you’re already off to a great start.

SearchWP is designed to deliver search results, fast. It’s also fully customizable, so you can ignore some of your site’s content when performing a search. For example, you may tell SearchWP to ignore your media metadata. This can speed up your search by reducing the amount of content it has to look through.

You can also improve the search experience by adding live Ajax search to your WordPress site. This is a dropdown that guesses what visitors are searching for as they type, which can make your searches feel instant.

For more information, please see our guide on how to add live Ajax search to your site.

Anything you do to improve your website’s overall performance will also speed up your search. You can see our ultimate guide on how to speed up your WordPress site and boost performance.

We hope this article helped you learn how to fix problems with WordPress search not working. You may also want to see our guide on how to get a free SSL certificate for your website, or our expert comparison of the best chatbot software for small business.

Source :
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-fix-wordpress-search-not-working-common-errors/

How to Accept Google Pay in WordPress (The Easy Way)

Would you like to accept Google Pay on your WordPress site?

When you allow your customers to choose their preferred payment method, you’ll build trust and increase conversions on your website.

In this article, we’ll show you how to accept Google Pay in WordPress.

Why Accept Google Pay in WordPress?

If you’re selling products or services on your WordPress website or asking for donations, then it’s important to let your visitors pay using their preferred method.

Often they will want to pay by credit card or PayPal, but newer methods like Google Pay and Apple Pay are becoming more popular.

Google Pay is available in 40 countries around the world and makes online payments simple. However, your customers can only use it if they’re on an Android device running version Lollipop 5.0 or higher, so you’ll probably want to include additional payment options for people using other devices.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to accept Google Pay in your online store.

Note: We’ll cover how to add a Google Pay option in WordPress without adding a full eCommerce cart, but we will leave other helpful resources at the end of this article for those looking for full eCommerce solutions.

How to Accept Google Pay in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the WP Simple Pay plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

WP Simple Pay is a simple yet powerful WordPress invoicing and payments plugin. The best part is that WP Simple Pay does not charge you any additional transaction fees, and you can set it up without the complexity of a cart system.

It lets you add Apple Pay, Google Pay, credit card as well as ACH bank payments, so you can give users multiple payment options which improves conversion.

While there is a free version of the plugin, you need the Pro plugin to accept Google Pay, create on-site payment forms, and more.

Upon activation, the WP Simple Pay setup wizard will start automatically. You simply need to click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button to continue.

On the first page, you’ll be asked to enter your license key. You can find this information from your account on the WP Simple Pay website.

After that, you need to click the ‘Activate and Continue’ button to move to the next step.

You’ll Be Asked to Enter Your WP Simple Pay License Key

On the second page, you will need to connect WP Simple Pay to Stripe. Stripe is a popular payment gateway, and it’s the easiest way to add Google Pay to your website. It also supports all top credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, ACH payments, and more.

Simply click the ‘Connect with Stripe’ button, and from there you can log in to your Stripe account or create a new one. Anyone with a legitimate business can create a Stripe account and accept payments online.

You Need to Connect WP Simple Pay to Stripe

Note: Stripe requires your site to be using SSL/HTTPS encryption. If you don’t already have an SSL certificate for your website, then please see our step by step guide on how to add SSL in WordPress.

Once you’ve connected to Stripe, you’ll be asked to configure your WP Simple Pay emails.

The options for payment and invoice emails to your customers have already been enabled for you. So is the option for sending payment notification emails.

You just need to enter the email address where the notifications should be sent.

Once you’ve done that, you need to click the ‘Save and Continue’ button to complete your setup of WP Simple Pay.

Google Pay is enabled by default when using Stripe Checkout, and will be automatically offered to Android users in participating countries.

If you decide to disable Google Pay in the future, then you will need to change the payment method settings in the Stripe Dashboard.

Creating a Payment Form in WordPress

Next, you need to create a payment form.

You can do that by clicking the ‘Create a Payment Form’ button on the last page of the setup wizard. This will automatically take you to the WP Simple Pay » Add New page.

You’ll be shown a list of payment form templates. You need to scroll down until you locate the Apple Pay / Google Pay template.

Simply hover over the template and click the ‘Use Template’ button when it appears.

Select the Apple Pay / Google Pay Template

This will take you to the payment form editor.

If you like, you can rename the form and give it a description. After that, you need to select the ‘Stripe Checkout’ option under Form Type.

After you’ve done that, we’ll move on to the Payment tab.

Here you can set the payment mode to either live or testing. Testing mode will let you make payments that are not actually charged so you can make sure your form is working properly and emails are being sent.

Don’t forget to change this to ‘Live’ when you’ve finished testing and are ready to start receiving payments from your customers.

You can also add the products or services that you offer, along with their prices and whether they are a one-time payment or a subscription.

Simply click the ‘Add Price’ button until you have added as many prices as you need. After that, you will need to add a label and price for each one. You can also select other options, such as recurring payments, or the user can determine the price, as in a donation.

Add Your Products and Services to the Payment Form

You can show or hide a price by clicking the small arrow on the right.

Next, we’ll move on to the ‘Form Fields’ tab. Notice that the essential fields have already been added to the form, including an ‘Apple Pay / Google Pay’ button, credit card details, and a checkout button.

The Essential Form Fields Have Been Added For You

Using the ‘Form Fields’ drop down, you can choose additional fields and add them by clicking the ‘Add Field’ button. Options include name, phone number, address, and much more.

Finally, the ‘Stripe Checkout’ tab allows you to select additional payment methods and tweak the checkout form that is displayed after the user clicks the ‘Pay’ button.

For this tutorial, we’ll leave those settings as they are.

Select any Additional Payment Methods and Tweak the Checkout Form

When you are happy with your payment form, click on the ‘Publish’ button to store your settings and push the form live.

Now we can add the form to a post or page on your website.

Adding the Payment Form to Your Website

WP Simple Pay makes it super easy to add forms anywhere on your website.

Simply create a new post or page, or edit an existing one. Then, click on the plus (+) sign at the top and add a WP Simple Pay block in the WordPress block editor.

Insert a WP Simple Pay Block and Choose the Correct Form

After that, select your order form from the dropdown menu in the WP Simple Pay block.

Once you’re finished, you can update or publish the post or page, and then click on the preview button to see your form in action.

When your users click the Pay button, the Stripe checkout form will be displayed.

If they are using an Android device running Lollipop 5.0 or higher, then the Google Pay option will be displayed at the top of the form. Otherwise, the Google Pay option will be hidden, and your customers can pay using a credit card.

If you’re looking for other ways to add Google Pay in WordPress, then you can use full eCommerce solutions like Easy Digital Downloads or WooCommerce. Both of them have support for Apple Pay and Google Pay options.

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to accept Google Pay in WordPress. You may also want to learn the right way to create an email newsletter, or check out our expert pick of the best contact form plugins for WordPress.

Source :
https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-accept-google-pay-in-wordpress/

How to Switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress (The RIGHT Way)

Are you looking to switch to the latest Google Analytics version?

Google is now recommending website owners to move to the new Google Analytics 4 because they will be sunsetting the previous Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023. After the sunset day, you won’t be able to track data in the older version.

In this article, we’ll show you how to easily switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress.

Why Switch to Google Analytics 4?

Google Analytics 4 (GA4) is the latest version of Google Analytics. It lets you track your mobile apps and websites in the same account, and offers new metrics, reports, and tracking features.

If you haven’t created a GA4 property yet, then now is the best time to switch to the latest version. That’s because Google announced that it will be closing down the old Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023.

What this means is that Universal Analytics will no longer receive data from your WordPress website, and it will eventually stop working after the sunset date. That means that all your old analytics data will be lost.

Switching to Google Analytics 4 as soon as possible will protect you from starting from scratch with no historical data.

To do this right, a lot of smart website owners are using the dual tracking method which allows you to continue using the current Universal Analytics while start sending data to GA4.

This way, you can future-proof your data while giving yourself plenty of time to learn the new Google Analytics dashboard and features.

That being said, let’s see how you can switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress with dual tracking.

Video Tutorial

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8dihyjwMNnE%3Fversion%3D3%26rel%3D0%26fs%3D1%26showsearch%3D0%26showinfo%3D1%26iv_load_policy%3D1%26wmode%3Dtransparent

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If you’d prefer written instructions, just keep reading.

Creating a Google Analytics 4 Property

If you already have an existing Google Analytics account using the old version, then you can eaily create a new GA4 property and start sending stats to GA4.

First, you’ll need to visit the Google Analytics website and login to your account.

After that, head over to the ‘Admin’ settings page in the bottom left corner.

If you’re on classic Google analytics, then you’ll see the option to setup GA4.

Go ahead and click on ‘GA4 Setup Assistant’ under the Property column.

In the next step, the setup assistant will give you 2 options. You can create a new Google Analytics 4 property or connect an existing one.

Since we’re setting up a new property, simply click the Get Started button under the ‘I want to create a new Google Analytics 4 property’ option.

A popup will now appear with the details about the setup wizard.

If you’ve implemented your Universal Analytics using the Global Site Tag (gtag.js) code, then you’ll see an option to Enable data collection using existing tags.

This uses the existing tracking code on your site to collect information. That said, if you don’t already have the right tracking code on your website, we’ll show you how to add it to your WordPress blog below.

For now, you can go ahead and click the ‘Create property’ button.

The setup wizard will add a new GA4 property and copy the Universal Analytics property name, website URL, timezone, and currency settings.

You can now view your new Google Analytics 4 property in the GA4 Setup Assistant.

Next, you’ll need to click on the ‘See your GA4 property’ button to see your Google Analytics tracking code.

After clicking on the button, simply click on the ‘Tag installation’ option to retrieve your tracking code.

You should now see your new GA4 property under Data Streams.

Go ahead and click on your new property.

A new window will slide in from the right, and you’ll be able to see your web stream details.

Note: Google Analytics 4 uses both ‘data stream’ and ‘web stream’. These both simply mean the flow of analytics data that Google Analytics receives from your website.

Simply scroll down to Tagging Instructions section and click the Global site tag (gtag.js) option to expand the settings. You’ll now see your Google Analytics tracking code that needs to be added to your WordPress site.

One thing you need to know is that Google Analytics 4 reports are quite different than what you’re used to in Universal Analytics.

They have introduced new terminology, and many familiar metrics and reports are missing completely. Basically if you were using common reports like the Top Landing Pages report or others, then you’d have to recreate those from scratch in Google Analytics 4.

That’s why we recommend using MonsterInsights Pro or even the free version of MonsterInsights.

It will help you see all the familiar analytics reports right in your WordPress dashboard, and it also lets you use both Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 at the same time.

Not to mention, with MonsterInsights you get all the powerful tracking features such as outbound link tracking, author tracking, and more which can be enabled without writing any code.

Let’s take a look at how to easily set up Google Analytics 4 on your WordPress site with MonsterInsights.

Adding Google Analytics Tracking Code to WordPress Site

The best way to add Google Analytics tracking code to your WordPress website is by using MonsterInsights. This is the plugin that we use on WPBeginner.

MonsterInsights is the best Analytics solution for WordPress, and it’s trusted by over 3 million websites because it lets you easily setup advanced tracking without any coding skills.

You can use the MonsterInsights Lite version to set up Google Analytics in no time. There are also premium MonsterInsights plans that offer more features like custom dashboard reports, email summaries, scroll tracking, eCommerce tracking, premium integrations, and more.

MonsterInsights also offers dual tracking, meaning you can use both Universal Analytics and Google Analytics 4 at the same time. This is available in both the free version as well paid, and we highly recommend using this to ensure that your transition to GA4 goes smoothly.

First, you’ll need to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll be taken to the MonsterInsights welcome screen in your WordPress dashboard. Simply click the ‘Launch the Wizard’ button to add Google Analytics to your site.

After clicking the button, the setup wizard will ask you to choose a category that best describes your website.

You can choose from a business website, publisher (blog), or online store. Once you’ve selected a category, click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.

In the next step, you’ll need to connect MonsterInsights with your WordPress site.

Go ahead and click the ‘Connect MonsterInsights’ button.

Once you click the button, you’ll need to sign in to your Google Account.

Simply select your account and click the ‘Next’ button.

Next, MonsterInsights will require access to your Google Analytics Account.

MonsterInsights App needs these permissions, so it can help you setup analytics properly and show you all the relevant stats right inside your WordPress dashboard.

You can click the ‘Allow’ button to continue.

After that, you’ll be redirected back to the MonsterInsights setup wizard.

To complete the connection, select your Google Analytics 4 property from the dropdown menu and click the ‘Complete Connection’ button.

Next, MonsterInsights will connect Google Analytics with your WordPress website.

On the next screen, you’ll see some recommended settings like file download tracking and affiliate link tracking.

You can use the default settings in the setup wizard. However, if you’re using an affiliate link plugin, then you’ll need to enter the path you use to cloak the affiliate links.

Next, you can scroll down and select who can see reports and add different WordPress user roles.

Once you’re done, click the ‘Save and continue’ button.

After that, MonsterInsights will show different tracking features that you can enable for your website.

You can scroll down and click the ‘Skip for Now’ button.

Choose which tracking features to enable

Next, you’ll see a checklist showing that you’ve successfully connected Google Analytics to your website.

For example, it will show that you’re successfully connected to Google Analytics, the tracking code is properly installed, and the data is being collected.

That’s it, you’ve added Google Analytics 4 property to your WordPress site.

Creating a Measurement Protocol API Secret

If you want to MonsterInsights to track eCommerce purchases, form conversions, and more advanced tracking in Google Analytics, then you’ll need to create a Measurement Protocol API Secret.

First, you’ll need to go back to your Google Analytics account and then go to Admin settings. Next, click on the ‘Data Streams’ option under Property column.

Then you’ll need to select the Google Analytics 4 property that we created earlier.

Go ahead and select your property under Data Streams.

After that, you can scroll down to the ‘Advanced Settings’ section.

Simply click the ‘Measurement Protocol API secrets’ option.

Select measurement protocol API secrets option

A new window will now slide in with your Measurement Protocol API secrets.

You will have to click the ‘Create’ button.

After that, enter a nickname for your API secret so it’s easily identifiable.

When you’re done, click the ‘Create’ button.

You should now see your Measurement Protocol API secret.

Simply copy the API secret under the ‘Secret value’ field.

After that, you can head back to your WordPress website and navigate to Insights » Settings from your dashboard.

Now click on the ‘General’ tab at the top.

Next, you will have to scroll down to the ‘Google Authentication’ section.

Go ahead and enter the Secret value you just copied in the Measurement Protocol API Secret field.

Enter measurement protocol API secret in MonsterInsights

You’ve successfully added Measurement Protocol API Secret in MonsterInsights.

Setting Up Universal Analytics Dual Tracking

Now that you have setup GA4, the next step is to enable dual tracking for Universal Analytics, so it can run alongside your Google Analytics 4 property in WordPress.

With MonsterInsights, you can easily set up dual tracking and simultaneously track both properties without writing code.

Note: If you already have Universal Analytics tracking code added to your WordPress website, then we recommend disabling it first. Otherwise, it could lead to double-tracking and can skew your data.

To start setting up dual tracking properly, you can head to Insights » Settings from your WordPress admin panel and then click on the ‘General’ tab.

Next, you’ll need to scroll down to the ‘Google Authentication’ section.

Now under the Dual Tracking Profile, enter your Universal Analytics (UA) code.

You can easily find your UA code in Google Analytics Admin settings.

Simply go to the Admin settings page in Google Analytics of your Universal Analytics property.

Then click on ‘Property Settings’ under the Property column.

You should see the Tracking Id, and it will look like this: UA-123856789-5

You’ve now successfully set up dual tracking on your WordPress website.

To see how your website is performing, simply go to Insights » Reports. Here you’ll find all the data you need to make the right decisions to grow your website.

We hope this article helped you learn how to switch to Google Analytics 4 in WordPress. You may also want to see our ultimate WordPress SEO guide to improve your rankings, or see our comparison of the best email marketing services for small business.

Source :
https://www.wpbeginner.com/wp-tutorials/how-to-switch-to-google-analytics-4-in-wordpress/

2022’s Most Popular and Best WordPress Themes (Expert Pick)

Are you looking for the best WordPress themes of 2022?

With thousands of free and premium WordPress themes available, it’s hard for beginners to choose the right WordPress theme for their site.

In this article, we will share our expert picks of all the best and most popular WordPress themes of 2022.

The Most Common Traits of All Popular and Best WordPress Themes

WordPress themes are either niche-based or multipurpose in terms of features and options.

You can use a niche-based theme that’s designed especially for your industry, such as a restaurant theme.

Alternatively, you can choose a multipurpose theme that’s highly flexible and can work for any kind of website.

Regardless of the type, all the best WordPress themes have the following features and traits:

Mobile-responsive design: The theme designs are responsive and retina-ready, so your WordPress website looks great on all screen sizes and mobile devices.
SEO optimization: The theme follows the best SEO (search engine optimization) practices, so your website can rank higher in search results.
Page builder support: The theme is compatible with popular WordPress drag and drop page builders. This helps you create custom landing pages whenever you need them.
Speed and performance: Your theme plays an important role in the speed and performance of your website. You should look for themes that are well-designed to keep your site fast.
Customer support: The best themes include documentation and instructions that are easy to follow, are updated often, and are backed by a great support team to help you out if you get stuck.

These are the essential features that you should look for in a theme before selecting it for your website. Every theme in our list comes with many other useful features aside from the main ones that we mentioned above. You can read about these features in their descriptions.

Now that we have discussed the common traits of all popular themes, let’s take a look at our expert pick of the best themes of 2022.

Note: Looking to start a new website, blog, or online store? Follow our step by step guide on how to start a blog, how to create a website, or how to start an online store.

You can even have our team set up your blog or WordPress site for free with our free blog setup service.

1. Divi

Divi is one of the most popular WordPress themes and is owned by Elegant Themes. It includes an ultimate page builder. It has multiple visual elements and modules that help you create a beautiful website.

The theme comes with hundreds of free ready-made layouts for multiple industries and niches. The 1-click demo importer lets you import professionally designed pages and blog layouts to get started quickly. You can then replace the content with your own using the frontend editor.

With the built-in drag and drop page builder, you can move elements, save and manage custom designs, and use global styles on all your website pages. You can easily add testimonials, too.

Divi gives you complete control of the layout design, inline text editing, and custom CSS on your site. It’s highly flexible and easy to use. Plus, it’s SEO friendly to help your site rank well in Google and other search engines.

Elegant Themes offers great customer support if you have any problems with the theme.

Get the Divi theme today!

2. Astra

Astra is a modern WordPress theme designed to create any website. It works with all the popular drag and drop page builders seamlessly.

The theme comes with several starter sites that you can use to launch your website quickly. These ready-made websites are perfect for small businesses, startups, blogs, and WooCommerce stores.

Astra has tons of amazing features, including page headers, mega menu, multiple layout choices, Google Fonts, unlimited color customization options, separate blog page layouts, and custom widgets.

Plus, Astra offers powerful integration with the WooCommerce plugin to create an online store. Their WooCommerce theme includes infinite scrolling, quick product view, shop page, product gallery, and cart options.

It also integrates with popular learning management systems like LearnDash. Astra has built-in SEO optimization to help your website rank well in Google and other search engines.

Get the Astra theme today!

3. SeedProd

SeedProd is the best WordPress website builder on the market. It lets you design your custom theme layout with a visual drag and drop builder, without writing code.

SeedProd comes with several professionally-designed theme templates. These templates include all the page layouts that you need for your website, as well as high-converting landing pages. They can be used as-is, or completely customized to suit your needs.

You can use the SeedProd page builder to customize the layout and design of all of your theme pages. It shows a real-time preview of all the changes, so you can see how your website will appear to users before it’s even published.

Besides the theme builder, it also offers coming soon and maintenance mode templates. When you’re making your website, you can enable the coming soon page to engage your users and grow your email list.

SeedProd’s visual builder is powerful yet beginner-friendly. Whether you want to design a custom landing page or a complete website, it’s easy to set up with the drag and drop option.

Get the SeedProd theme builder today!

4. Ultra

Ultra is a powerful multipurpose WordPress theme built to help you easily make a website. It comes with dozens of ready-made sites for niches such as lifestyle, magazines, restaurants, photography, fashion, and more.

It also includes the Themify page builder that you can use for customization. Ultra has several builder addons to add advanced elements like progress bars, counters, pricing tables, an audio player, and more.

Other notable features include smart layout options, color choices, crisp typography, section-based scrolling, image filters, and portfolio options.

Ultra is also a perfect theme to start an online store as it has full WooCommerce compatibility. It’s easy to set up and customize your site with the live WordPress theme customizer.

Get the Themify Ultra theme today!

5. OceanWP

OceanWP is a free responsive WordPress theme. It comes with a 1-click demo content importer and hundreds of ready-made sites to launch a website instantly.

The theme has multiple extensions to add features to your website like a login popup, an Instagram feed, a sticky footer, a featured posts slider, and more. It’s translation ready to create a multilingual website.

The OceanWP theme supports WooCommerce out of the box. It has built-in SEO features to help improve your website rankings.

Get the OceanWP theme today!

6. Breakthrough Pro

Breakthrough Pro is a minimalist WordPress theme. It’s built on top of the Genesis Framework by StudioPress which makes it powerful and robust.

The theme is ideal for any business website. It comes with 9 custom widgets, 3 layout options, landing page templates, and a custom header. It works with the WordPress block editor (Gutenberg editor) to customize posts and pages smoothly.

StudioPress is now part of WP Engine, the most popular managed WordPress hosting company. You can get this theme and all 35+ other StudioPress themes when you sign up for WP Engine hosting to build your website.

Bonus: WPBeginner users also get an additional 20% OFF. Get started with WP Engine today!

Get the Breakthrough Pro theme today!

7. Hestia Pro

Hestia Pro is a modern multipurpose WordPress theme that’s optimized for speed. It has both one-page and multi-page layouts to make any type of website.

With a slick design, Hestia Pro lets you showcase your business and services professionally. It integrates with popular page builders like Beaver Builder, Elementor, Visual Composer, and more.

Hestia Pro is fully compatible with WooCommerce, and it allows you to create beautiful products and shop pages easily. It also ships with multiple starter sites for eCommerce stores and other business niches.

Get the Hestia Pro theme today!

8. Nozama

Nozama is a WordPress WooCommerce theme built to start an online store quickly. It’s highly customizable to display your featured products on the homepage.

It comes with a built-in storefront to create product filters, custom product layouts, and more. Other features include social media integrations, color customization, and header visibility.

Get the Nozama theme today!

9. Eclipse

Eclipse is an advanced WordPress photography and personal blog theme. It’s well-suited for photographers, bloggers, and authors.

The theme comes with a featured slideshow, widgetized columns, Instagram image carousel, ad placement spaces, and more. It’s beginner-friendly and easy to set up.

Get the Eclipse theme today!

10. Sydney Pro

Sydney Pro is a fantastic WordPress multipurpose theme. It uses the custom Elementor blocks for a carousel slider, pricing tables, and a timeline.

Other notable features include page templates, header choices, customizer options, and a video header. The theme is translation ready and allows you to create a multilingual website easily.

Get the Sydney Pro theme today!

11. Storefront

Storefront is a high-quality and popular WordPress WooCommerce theme. It comes with an intuitive and flexible layout to create an online store.

It works with all WooCommerce extensions seamlessly. The theme is fully customizable for background, colors, and font using the WordPress customizer that shows your changes in real-time.

Get the Storefront theme today!

Bonus: see our guide on the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your store.

12. Inspiro

Inspiro is a stylish WordPress theme. It comes with a fullscreen video background slideshow that supports YouTube, Vimeo, and custom videos.

The theme is perfect for a portfolio, small business, or eCommerce website. It ships with a gallery module to display your images, videos, and work portfolio beautifully.

Don’t miss our article on the best portfolio WordPress themes.

Get the Inspiro theme today!

13. Neve

Neve is a modern WordPress multipurpose theme designed to create all kinds of websites easily. It’s highly flexible and easy to use.

This theme is compatible with popular page builders, including the Divi website builder, Beaver Builder, and more. Neve also supports the WordPress block editor to customize your pages and posts.

Get the Neve theme today!

14. Authority Pro

Authority Pro is a powerful WordPress theme. It’s built with a multipurpose approach to let you create any professional business website or online store.

The theme is highly scalable and works equally well for small to large business websites. It supports the WPForms plugin to create a contact form or any other form quickly.

Get the Authority Pro theme today!

15. News Portal

News Portal is a free WordPress magazine theme. It has a widgetized layout and multiple ready-made magazine templates to launch your online magazine instantly.

It comes with multiple color schemes, category color options, background colors, and more. The theme is easy to set up and manage with the WordPress live customizer. Plus, you can easily add widgets and shortcodes to the widget areas.

News Portal is also retina ready and uses responsive design, meaning your site will look great on all devices.

Get the News Portal theme today!

16. Shoptimizer

Shoptimizer is a fast WordPress WooCommerce ready theme. It comes with multiple features to set up and grow your eCommerce store quickly.

The theme has a beautiful layout, custom header, featured content section, cart options, a wishlist, and more. It’s optimized for SEO and speed performance. Plus, it’s designed to boost conversions.

Related: You should check out our article on the best WooCommerce WordPress themes.

Get the Shoptimizer theme today!

17. Gema

Gema is a beautiful WordPress theme designed specifically for photographers, personal bloggers, authors, lifestyle, and fashion websites.

It comes with a custom logo, a classic navigation menu, buttons, post layouts, and a style manager. The Gema theme is beginner-friendly and easy to set up.

Get the Gema theme today!

18. Tusant

Tusant is a unique WordPress podcast theme well-suited for musicians, bands, podcasters, vlogs, and any audio or video streaming website.

It allows you to embed videos and audios from multiple sources. The theme has several layout choices, crisp typography, and custom background color. You can also use the drag and drop page builders for customization.

Related: If you want to check out other options, then take a look at our handpicked list of the best WordPress themes for podcasters.

Get the Tusant theme today!

19. Saved

Saved is a WordPress church theme ideally built for non-profits, churches, and fundraising websites. It comes with a built-in homepage builder to set up your website’s homepage quickly.

It comes with a Church Content plugin that lets you add sermons, staff profiles, events, and locations. Other useful functionality includes custom page templates, sticky menu, font choices, color schemes, and more.

Get the Saved theme today!

20. Didi

Didi is a WordPress theme designed specifically for fashion, lifestyle, and wellness blogs. It comes with a white background that makes your content stand out.

It offers multiple layout choices, custom page templates, sidebar layouts, and video support. The Didi theme is compatible with WPML to create a multilingual website.

Get the Didi theme today!

21. Travel Way

Travel Way is a modern WordPress theme ideally built for travelers, travel bloggers, and travel photographers.

It features a fullscreen custom header background with call-to-action buttons, social icons, logo, navigation menu, and other details. The theme has multiple sections to display your favorite locations beautifully.

You should also check out our article on the best WordPress themes for travel blogs.

Get the Travel Way theme today!

22. Fitness

Fitness is an elegant WordPress theme beautifully crafted for personal trainers, gyms, yoga instructors, and any health-related business.

It allows you to create custom pages for trainers and fitness classes, such as online yoga classes. With the 1-click demo content importer, you can import a ready-made website and get started quickly.

Looking for more options? Check out our experts’ pick of the best WordPress themes for crossfit and gym.

Get the Fitness theme today!

23. Foodica

Foodica is a modern WordPress theme for food bloggers, food critics, chefs, and food recipe websites. It comes with a minimalist layout and 10 color schemes.

On the homepage, Foodica has a beautiful featured slider, featured recipes section, multiple ad placement spaces, and more. The theme integrates with WooCommerce to start an online food delivery service quickly.

Related: You should also check out our article on the best WordPress restaurant themes.

Get the Foodica theme today!

24. Kale Pro

Kale Pro is a premium WordPress food blog theme. It has a beautiful layout that you can also use to create a lifestyle blog, a fashion website, or an online magazine.

It features recipe index templates to showcase your recipes stylishly. Other features include a sticky navigation menu, an image slider, custom fonts, color schemes, and a background image.

You should also check out our article on the best WordPress magazine themes.

Get the Kale Pro theme today!

25. Kea

Kea is a WordPress hotel theme designed for hotels, resorts, BnBs, and accommodation businesses. It offers a fullscreen image background on the homepage.

Kea allows you to integrate a reservation and booking service to manage your online bookings easily. The theme supports a fullscreen video or carousel slideshow to display your hotel rooms, lobby, and services.

Get the Kea theme today!

26. Elite

Elite is a creative WordPress fullscreen theme packed with tons of features that you can use to launch a powerful eCommerce store. It allows you to showcase your products in beautiful image galleries and increase your sales.

It comes with image and video galleries, a custom logo option, Google Fonts, page layouts, and more. The Elite theme is easy to set up using the WordPress customizer with a live preview.

Get the Elite theme today!

27. Essence Pro

Essence Pro is a beautiful WordPress theme designed specifically for health, wellness, and lifestyle niches. It features an eye-catching fullwidth custom header image to create a powerful first impression.

The theme is built on top of the Genesis Framework, which makes it rock solid and robust. It ships with the Atomic Blocks and WPForms plugin to help you get started quickly.

Other notable features include 6 layout options, custom widget areas, landing pages, and more. It’s translation ready and supports WooCommerce out of the box.

Get the Essence Pro theme today!

28. Panoramic

Panoramic is a free WordPress multipurpose theme to create any website. It has a minimal layout with a simple and clean design that makes a great first impression on your visitors.

The theme integrates seamlessly with popular WordPress plugins like WPForms, SiteOrigin’s page builder, and WooCommerce. It comes with a homepage slider and flexible theme options that you can manage using the WordPress live customizer.

Get the Panoramic theme today!

29. Agama

Agama is a free WordPress theme designed specifically for digital agencies, corporate businesses, photographers, freelancers, and portfolio websites.

It has a white background with a beautiful color selection for fonts, links, and buttons. The theme is SEO-ready and compatible with the WPML plugin to translate your website easily.

Get the Agama theme today!

30. Silk

Silk is a modern WordPress fashion blog theme. It comes with an attractive layout and a featured content slider on the homepage.

With this theme, you get an Instagram feed display, social tools, custom post layouts, an image slider, and a mega menu. It has color choices, animations, fonts, and custom backgrounds.

Related: Check out our complete article on how to start a fashion blog and make money.

Get the Silk theme today!

31. Blockchain

Blockchain is a crypto business WordPress theme. It’s ideally built for financial traders, investors, advisors, and consultants.

The theme includes cryptocurrency exchange tables, post types, unlimited color schemes, custom widgets, and more. It fully supports drag and drop page builder plugins and the WordPress WooCommerce plugin.

Get the Blockchain theme today!

We hope this article helped you find the best and most popular WordPress themes. You may also want to see our handpicked list of the best free and premium plugins for all WordPress websites, or see our guide on how to register a domain name and get it for free.

Source :
https://www.wpbeginner.com/showcase/best-wordpress-themes/

How to Remove the Remember Me Option from WordPress Login

Do you want to remove the remember me option from your WordPress login page?

The ‘Remember Me’ option is a small checkbox that lets you and your users save their username and password on the WordPress login screen.

In this article, we’ll show you how to remove the ‘Remember Me’ option, step by step.

How to Remove the Remember Me Option from Your WordPress Login (2 Ways)

Why Remove ‘Remember Me’ from Your WordPress Login Screen?

When you or your website users check the ‘Remember Me’ box on the WordPress login page, it will store that information in a browser cookie for 2 weeks.

That means that next time they’re on your site, they can access the dashboard right away without having to go to the login page again.

Although it makes logging in faster, it could be a potential security risk for people accessing their WordPress admin area from public computers and WiFi networks.

By disabling the ‘Remember me’ checkbox, you and your users will have to log in every time the web browser is closed. They can still save their username and password in their browser’s storage or a password manager app so they don’t have to type it in every time.

Overall, this improves your WordPress security and helps to keep your website safe from hackers.

With that said, let’s show you how to remove the ‘Remember Me’ option on your WordPress login page. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.

The easiest way to remove the remember me option from the default WordPress page is by using the Remember Me Controls plugin.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: We’ve tested the plugin as of this post’s last updated date, and it works with WordPress 6.0 with no issues.

Upon activation, navigate to Settings » Remember Me to configure the plugin settings.

Then, simply check the box in the ‘Disable the “Remember Me” feature’ section and click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Now, you can log out of your WordPress site.

When you return to the login screen, the ‘Remember Me’ checkbox will be disabled.

If you’re creating a custom WordPress login page for your WordPress membership site or online store, then you can hide the ‘Remember Me’ option by using SeedProd.

SeedProd is the best drag and drop WordPress page builder in the market used by over 1 million websites. You can use it to create a completely custom WordPress theme without writing any code.

Aside from create custom WordPress themes, SeedProd also comes with the ability to create custom WordPress login pages, custom 404 pages, and more.

First, you will need to use SeedProd plugin to create a custom login page. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to create a custom login page.

Then, when you’re customizing the login page, you can disable the ‘Remember Me’ option by clicking on the ‘Additional Options’ drop down in the left-hand options menu.

Click additional options in page builder

Next, delete the text in the ‘Remember User Label’ box.

Then, click the ‘Save’ button and select the ‘Publish’ drop down to make your login page live.

Now, you can visit your custom login page to see the ‘Remember Me’ option is gone.

We hope this article helped you learn how to remove the remember me option from your WordPress login page. You may also want to see our ultimate guide on how to speed up WordPress, and our expert picks of the best business phone services for small businesses.

Source :
https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-remove-the-remember-me-option-from-your-wordpress-login/

Video Marketing Survey Findings

Video Marketing Benchmarks

The Most Prioritized Video Marketing Metrics

1. Engagement Rate

2. Conversion Rate

3. Click-through Rate Speaks to Your Thumbnail and Title/Caption

4. Follower and Subscriber Growth

5. Average View Time

How Long Should a Marketing Video Be?

Video Marketing Goals

Video Marketing Strategies

The Top Tactics for Creating Effective Videos

Why Video Promotion Is Key

How to Promote a Marketing Video

Top Video Formats

1. Short-form Video

2. Long-Form Video

3. Live Videos/Live Streams Metrics And Benchmarks

The Top Video Marketing Channels

1. Social Media

2. Blog/Website Pages

3. Email

The Best Social Media Channels for Sharing Videos

1. Instagram

2. YouTube

3. Facebook

4. TikTok

Which social media channels have low video performance?

Should you use paid or organic video posts on social media?

Hosting Videos on YouTube vs. Vimeo

What are the Top Content Types for Marketing Videos?

1. Content Showcasing Your Products and Services

2. Content That Reflects Your Brands Values

3. Trendy Content

4. Relatable Content

5. Funny and Interactive Content

Top Video Styles

1. Live-Action (Videos Featuring Real Footage)

2. Animated Videos

3. Screen-Capture or Screen Recording

Viral Videos

How to Make a Video Go Viral

1. Making Relatable Content Means More Engagement

2. Shorter Is Better

3. Capture Attention Immediately

Which Platform are Videos Most Likely to Go Viral On?

Which Type of Video Content is Most Likely to Go Viral?

Which Style of Video Content is Most Likely to Go Viral?

Video Marketing Benefits & Challenges

Video Marketing Benefits

Video Marketing Challenges

Video Marketing Budgets

How Much Does Creating a Marketing Video Cost?

How Long Does it Take to Create a Marketing Video?

More Insights From the HubSpot Blog

Why social media is important for small businesses?

Social Media Tips for Small Business

1. Be consistent.

2. Diversify your content.

3. Focus on quality instead of quantity.

4. Find trends.

Social Media Tools for Small Business

1. Google Analytics for Analytics

2. Canva for Graphic Design

3. Asana for Content Planning

What is corporate development?

What is business development?

Difference Between Corporate Development and Business Development

How do business development and corporate development work together?

Over To You

What is an XSS Attack in WordPress?

How to Find and Fix an XSS Attack in WordPress

Step 1: Scanning Your Website

Step 2: Requesting a Malware Cleanup

How to Prevent XSS Attacks on Your WordPress Site

1. Enable a Web Application Firewall (WAF)

2. Use Secure Forms

3. Set User Role Permissions

4. Auto-logout Inactive Users

5. Update Your Website Regularly