If you’ve ever dabbled in e-commerce, then you know that WooCommerce is one of the best platforms for creating an online shop.

This open-source WordPress plugin is easy to install and super flexible. It’s great for beginners, and powerful enough for website owners who want full control.

Many developers now offer specialized WooCommerce themes, allowing you to set up a professional storefront in minutes and easily customize it. If you’re thinking about building an online store, these templates can save a lot of time.

Not sure which one to choose? With some expert insights from top developers, we’ve identified 10 WooCommerce themes that will increase your traffic and drum up more sales.

The 10 Best WooCommerce Themes You Can Get Today

With the e-commerce industry projected to generate a staggering $6.3 trillion worldwide this year, now is a great time to get your online shop up and running. Perhaps the easiest way to achieve this is by setting up a WordPress site, installing WooCommerce, and grabbing a great theme.

Here are 10 WooCommerce themes we recommend for your e-commerce store:

1. Neve

Over time, more and more websites are built using page builders. Elementor alone can be found on 14% of WordPress sites. It’s easy to see why — these plugins allow you to create the perfect design without writing any custom CSS.

Neve is a lightweight, modern theme made for drag-and-drop editing. It offers impressive integrations with popular page builders like Elementor, Brizy, Beaver Builder, Divi Builder, and Thrive Architect— so you can choose your favorite tool and get to work!

Just as importantly, Neve has a very close relationship with WooCommerce.

The pro version of this theme offers quick-view pop-ups, floating mini carts, product sliders, and multiple catalog layouts. Off-canvas sidebar menus help customers find what they’re looking for, and you can maximize conversions by switching up your checkout layout. The list of features matches that of any dedicated WooCommerce theme.

The beauty of Neve is that you don’t need a page builder to use it. The theme provides plenty of design options, from alternative blog layouts and custom header designs to typography and theme colors. You also have over 100 starter templates to choose from.

Under the hood, the code is super clean. This theme hits 100% on Google PageSpeed, and it weighs only 28KB on a default WordPress install.

No wonder Neve has been installed on over 30,000 sites to date.

Key features:

• Works with multiple drag-and-drop builders.
• Deep integration with WooCommerce.
• Good speed optimization.

Price: Freemium; WooCommerce features require a premium license starting at $69/year.

2. Make

Not yet fluent in code? That’s not a problem with Make, a highly customizable theme that’s user-friendly for website owners of all technical abilities.

“E-commerce is super easy with Make,” says Scott Rollo, a designer from The Theme Foundry. “We don’t just support popular e-commerce plugins, we’ve actually designed fully integrated WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads builder sections. Make users just install their favorite plugin, and a new e-commerce section appears which they can tweak and drag and drop into place.”

Convenient, right? Better still, Make comes pre-installed for DreamPress customers. Score!

Make’s ease of use allows even beginners to create and maintain an attractive online store. And you can count on the quality of this theme — After all, it’s been refined more than 5,000 times.

“Make is different from a lot of ‘page builders’ out there,” says Rollo. “It’s completely free and open source. And we’ve seen nearly 800,000 makers start their business sites with it.”

It’s an impressive record, built on some excellent work behind the scenes. “We like to think that’s because we make a point of writing rock-solid code that lives up to the high expectations of the WordPress community,” says Rollo. “We don’t use shortcodes, and we keep the design of Make as close to WordPress’ core styles as possible. We really want Make users to feel right at home from the get-go.”

Along with being easy to use, Make is mobile-friendly. The theme features a responsive design, with a grid-based structure that renders perfectly on all screens.

This could be really important for your business.

Mobile e-commerce generated $2.2 trillion in 2023, accounting for around 60% of all online sales. Given the importance of smartphone shopping, it’s no surprise that 40% of consumers say they would switch to a competitor if they had a bad experience. In fact, 84% of shoppers say they have struggled to make purchases on their phones.

Choosing a theme like Make can help you avoid the pitfalls and capitalize on rival sites’ shortcomings.

Key features:

• Very easy to set up.
• Open source with over 5,000 iterations.
• Mobile-first design.

Price: Freemium

3. Flatsome

Branding is super important in e-commerce. Research shows that 62% of consumers factor brand values into their purchase decisions, outweighing discounts (26%) considerably.

If you want your online brand to attract customers, it’s key to create a visually distinctive store. With a remarkable selection of customization options, Flatsome is a premium WooCommerce theme that helps you achieve the perfect look.

From the extensive theme options panel to the header builder tool, this theme allows WooCommerce store owners to tweak every part of their site.

For site owners who want to get creative, Flatsome offers a raft of elegant e-commerce design elements. For instance, you can choose from various product gallery styles, set up a mini shopping cart so customers can see what they’re buying, and work with section dividers in multiple shapes.

All of these shop elements can be added and rearranged using UX Builder — a front-end page builder made by UX Themes, the team behind Flatsome.

If that sounds like too much work, take heart. There’s a low-effort route — Flatsome comes with a library of over 300 custom layouts, covering a range of different store styles.

Even with all these features, Flatsome is a very lightweight theme. It hits 98/100 on Google PageSpeed, meaning visitors shouldn’t have to wait long to shop. That’s big news, considering that e-commerce conversion rates drop by up to 4.42% with every extra second of loading time.

When you add up the benefits, it’s easy to see why Flatsome lays claim to the title of best-selling WooCommerce theme on ThemeForest.

Key features:

• Proprietary page builder tool.
• Over 300 layout templates.
• Excellent performance.

Price: $59 one-time payment, including free lifetime updates.

4. Astra

Here’s a secret: you don’t actually need a dedicated WooCommerce design to set up a slick online store. The e-commerce plugin works just fine with most multipurpose themes.

Astra is one of our favorite themes in this category. It’s as fast as Usain Bolt on a Harley Davidson, versatile enough to handle pretty much any website build, and is fully compatible with WooCommerce. Plus, the base version is completely free.

Astra was designed to be used with popular page builders, like Beaver Builder and Elementor. As such, the base template is very clean and simple. With a brand new WordPress site, the theme will load in just 0.5 seconds.

That said, you have plenty of theme customization options to play with. You don’t need to mess with any code to choose custom colors and fonts. With the premium version of the theme, Astra Pro, you can also unlock multiple header and footer layouts, extended gallery options, and one-step checkouts.

For aspiring store owners on a time budget, Astra also provides a vast library of starter site templates. With a couple of clicks, you can install a complete layout that suits your style.

The pedigree of this theme is important, too. Astra was made by Brainstorm Force, a team of developers who’ve been creating popular WordPress plugins since 2009.

The company built Astra back in 2017 to solve their own problems, and it shows. Thanks to that extra TLC, the theme is now being used for 1,200 new websites every day, with over 1.6 million total active installs.

Key features:

• Very, very lightweight base theme.
• Great built-in theme options.
• Deep integration with major page builders.

Price: Freemium

5. Botiga

They say good things come in threes: musketeers, primary colors, Lord of the Rings movies…the list goes on.

The Botiga theme proves no exception to the rule.

This feature-packed WooCommerce template hits the trifecta: blazing performance, extensive customization options, and seamless integration with popular page builders. It’s basically the Swiss Army knife of WordPress themes.

Botiga absolutely excels in terms of speed. We’re talking lightning-fast loading that’ll have customers zipping through your digital aisles with reckless abandon.

But impressive load times are just the opening salvo.

Where Botiga truly flexes its muscles is with its suite of customization controls that put you squarely in the driver’s seat of your e-commerce empire.

We particularly like the variety of product card styles and checkout designs, but you can also fiddle with fonts, shuffle between custom layouts, and use the built-in header and footer builders. All these options are neatly organized within the theme options panel.

And for website owners who are hungry for control, there’s more. Botiga plays nicely with page builders like Elementor and the WordPress Block Editor, making it easy to whip up an e-commerce masterpiece.

The free version of Botiga includes all of the above. Purchase a premium license, and you can unlock wishlists, color swatches, size charts, and many other useful features that shoppers will love.

Key features:

• Impressive performance (loads in <0.5 seconds).
• Endless customization options.
• Works well with Elementor.

Price: Freemium

6. Woostroid

You can have too much of a good thing — like chocolate, or Netflix. However, in the business of e-commerce, having too many sales-boosting features is never a bad thing.

And that’s what you get with Woostroid, a WooCommerce-friendly template from Template Monster. Now in version two, this theme is adaptable, simple, and paired with 24/7 user support. “It is easy to use, even as a beginner,” says Max Deep of Jetimpex. “Almost anyone will be able to add content and create different page layouts with the intuitive drag-and-drop page builder.”

And that’s not all.

“The Woostroid template comes SEO optimized, providing smooth promotion for online store and business websites,” says Deep. “And considerable attention is given to user experience. Our team equipped Woostroid with a classy design, and flexible appearance settings, to give the users the true power of choice.”

This mix of features means you can put your best foot forward to potential customers.

“A website is a kind of calling card that represents its owner,” says Deep. “And in our case, the owner has all the means to make his or her online store stand out from the others and attract tons of attention. One of the most important factors in choosing a template is its wide functionality, as well as its efficiency. All these features can be found in Woostroid.”

Key features:

• Easy setup with drag-and-drop.
• SEO-optimized for visibility.
• Flexible and sophisticated design.

Price: One-time fee of $84.

7. Avalon

From boutique WordPress theme development firm Anariel Design comes the WooCommerce block theme Avalon.

Something we appreciate about Avalon is that it prioritizes accessibility for folks who may not have tons of time or tech savvy — all without skimping on power or customizability.

We say that because of how easy its builders have made it to start working with Avalon. A built-in import wizard means you can add the entire demo right to your site in a few clicks, content, layouts, and all.

Once you’re up and running with Avalon, you’ll be able to take advantage of lots of other features. Of course, there’s nearly endless flexibility in the colors, button design, type choices, and every other element of the overall look. Accessibility and translatability are core to the theme’s design, so you don’t ever have to worry about alienating any part of your audience. On top of that, Avalon was created with mobile users in mind, making it highly responsive no matter what kind of device your target consumer is using.

Bloat-busting design means you can also expect quick performance. If anything does go wrong, Anariel Design is equipped with tons of documentation for each theme, along with helpful videos, answers to their most common FAQs, and a support system that promises an answer within 24 hours during the business week.

Key features:

• Easy-to-import demo template.
• Robust documentation and support (especially for a small agency).
• Unique focus on accessibility and translation.

Price: $79/year subscription or a one-time purchase of $179.

8. Woostify

Imagine heading to your local hardware store with a list in hand.

The items you need are spread throughout the store. Unfortunately, the lack of signage makes it really hard to navigate. You wander around for 15 minutes, searching for your items in vain. It’s a frustrating experience, and likely to make you think twice about returning.

The same principle applies to your website. A whopping 88% of shoppers are less likely to visit after a bad user experience, and mobile users are 62% less likely to make a future purchase.If you want to avoid these pitfalls, Woostify might be the right theme for your store.

This lightweight theme is built for performance, boasting impressive load times and minimal resource usage. That means your customers won’t be left drumming their fingers while your pages load.

But don’t let the trimmed-down footprint fool you. Woostify hasn’t achieved its slender physique by skimping on gym time. Beneath that minimalist exterior, this e-commerce theme has plenty of power.

As a store owner, you can choose from multiple product page styles, listing layouts, and checkout workflows. You can also configure different cart layouts, set up video galleries, and use the live theme customizer to select color options. All of these features are included in the free theme.

The premium version of Woostify provides plenty more: mega menus, smart product filters, Elementor integration, cross-selling, custom widgets, and more. If you don’t fancy setting up these features yourself, you can just use one of the provided starter sites instead.

To top it off, Woostify is ready to go global. The theme supports translations and RTL scripts, so you can create a welcoming site for customers around the globe.

Key features:

• Modern design for excellent user experience.
• Almost endless e-commerce features.
• Supports translations for worldwide selling.

Price: Freemium

9. Divi

No list of WordPress themes would be complete without mentioning Divi.

Used on 3.8 million sites, this highly flexible theme set the scene for the page builders we see today. It truly is the granddaddy of drag-and-drop templates.

As you might expect, the modern version of Divi offers plenty of customization options. The live front-end editor allows you to tweak every aspect of your site, and see the changes in real-time. That includes spacing, animations, image effects, and much more.

The same kind of granular control extends to WooCommerce setups. Divi offers tight integration, with hundreds of design elements to play with.

You can also add extra functionality through modules. These add-ons allow you to introduce product listings, cart pages, checkout processes, and more. You can drag and drop these modules into place to build your store piece by piece, or use Divi’s pre-built layouts and templates as a starting point.

Beyond the design of your store, Divi offers some great tools for sellers. The theme comes with built-in marketing and lead generation features, such as split testing, conditional display, email list building, and social sharing integrations.

All this bulk means you might sacrifice a little speed. But much like a monster truck, this theme could help you flatten the competition.

Key features:

• Powerful visual editor with hundreds of elements.
• Live editor for styling.
• Built-in marketing and lead gen tools.

Price: $89/year

10. Porto

When you’re just starting out, keeping things simple makes sense. But for established sellers, it’s worth choosing a theme that’s loaded with useful features. This means you can scale your store using the tools already baked into your chosen template, rather than relying on plugins.

That is what you can expect from Porto, one of the top-selling WooCommerce themes on ThemeForest.

This premium theme is loaded with a mind-boggling array of features, covering both the basic design of your site and other e-commerce aspects.

The foundation of Porto is the WPBakery page builder and is also compatible with Elementor, which offers powerful drag-and-drop editing. This tool comes with a huge selection of elements, from social media icons to image carousels.

As you construct your site, you have the option to start from scratch or install one of the many pre-built demos. The latter option is particularly useful if your store fits one of the starter sites, which include fashion clothing stores, jewelry brands, and gadget stores.

Phew, that’s a lot of features. And we haven’t even talked about WooCommerce yet!

Porto offers tight integration with our favorite e-commerce plugin. You can adjust pretty much every aspect of the shopping experience, from how product details are presented to shipment tracking. Live product search is a standout option here, allowing your customers to find exactly what they want.

It’s also cool to see artificial intelligence in a WordPress theme. Porto can now generate SEO-optimized content for you, which should help you to start selling faster.

The downside of all this functionality is extra complexity behind the scenes. Thankfully, we’re glad to note that Porto comes with extensive theme documentation and good technical support.

While it might take a while to understand this theme, it should provide a return on your time investment in the long run.

Key features:

• Vast array of customization options.
• Strong WooCommerce integrations.
• Extensive theme documentation.

Price: $59 one-time payment, including updates.

Choosing The Right WooCommerce Theme For Your Store

All of the themes mentioned above are capable of powering a successful online store. The question is, which one is right for your e-commerce project?

Here are the key factors to think about when making your final decision:

• Your niche: Think about the main audience you are targeting with your online store. Are you selling physical products or digital products? Will you need features like product filters, wishlists, or pre-orders? Some themes cater better to certain types of stores.
• Design and branding: Customization options are crucial for creating a site that resonates with your audience. Consider the style, layout options, color schemes, and whether the template feels like a good fit.
• Performance: Site speed and mobile optimization are essential for delivering a good user experience. Look for lightweight, fast-loading themes with responsive designs that work well on any device.
• Ease of use: If you’re not technically inclined, look for a user-friendly theme that has a drag-and-drop editor or simple theme options. With freemium themes, you can install the free version to test the backend yourself.
• Features: Make a list of must-have features like product galleries, mini-carts, custom checkouts, and page builders. Ensure your chosen theme has those capabilities covered, or you can add them via plugins.
• Support: Reliable support and regular updates are vital for keeping your site working properly. Check each theme’s ratings and documentation, along with reviews of the developer.
• Cost: Finally, consider your budget. Many great free themes exist, but premium themes often unlock more advanced features. This can be a worthwhile investment in the longer term.

With these principles in mind, here’s a recap of the top WooCommerce themes mentioned in our guide:

Ready To Woo?

Whether you’re new to the e-commerce game or just setting up yet another store, WooCommerce provides a great foundation.

Part of the appeal is the range of Woo-optimized themes available today. Choose wisely, and you should have everything you need to deliver a great online shopping experience.

Just remember that even the best themes rely on solid hosting. If you’re looking for a reliable home for your online business, DreamHost can help.

Our dedicated WordPress hosting plans make it child’s play to set up and maintain your store, with servers that are optimized for speed. You also get one-click staging, powerful caching, managed updates, and 24/7 expert support. Sign up today to see how easy it can be to build a thriving online storefront!

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The post The 10 Best WooCommerce Themes For Your Online Store (Reviewed) appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

Almost as if in a trance, you click that Buy Now button to become the proud owner of 12 shiny, loud buttons that will soon grace your floor. And eventually, the back of a dusty closet. (I wonder how much that cost, you think, slowly coming out of your daze…)

You, my friend, have been landing page-d.

Landing pages are often used by especially astute marketers to plunk you on after you’ve clicked on an engaging ad, social media post, or blog link.

Their purpose? To tell you all about the thing you’ve shown interest in the hopes you’ll purchase it — or, to convince you to share your information so they can follow up with more information about why you can’t live without it.

When used well, a quality landing page can increase your website conversions.

Nearly everyone from beginner website owners to full-on website developers can set up effective landing pages that woo visitors and boost revenue.

However, optimizing one for maximum effect can be challenging, especially since you only have the space of a single page to work with.

That’s why the key to a strong landing page is to keep it focused, specific, and as intriguing as possible. If you include the right information at the right moments, you can win leads with an effective call to action (CTA) at the end.

So, no matter where you fall on the spectrum of marketing and website savviness, keep reading! Because in this step-by-step guide to landing pages, we’ll cover it all:

• The ins and outs of landing pages.
• Why you should care about landing pages.
• The basics of landing page design.
• Exactly how to create a landing page in WordPress.

What Are Landing Pages?

When it comes to marketing, sometimes less really is more.

Nothing proves this aphorism quite like landing pages.

A landing page is basically a one-page website, created specifically to achieve a single goal. With its focus on getting visitors to do just one thing, landing pages are powerful tools for boosting conversion rates.

A landing page is effectively the whole website conversion funnel that’s been compressed into a single page.

Through this page alone, you’ll take the user on a linear journey toward completing a particular action. That action could be:

• Sharing an email address.
• Completing a form.
• Signing up for a free trial.
• Requesting a call.
• Answering a survey.
• Making a download (coupon, ebook, etc.)

Your goal for a landing page? That could be anything, such as:

• Selling a specific product or service.
• Encouraging sign-ups for your email list.
• Gathering personal information to create more customized marketing.

Every landing page must have an explicit goal as well as a few basic elements. Stay tuned, because we’ll explore exactly how you should design your page.

Related: 30 Excellent Product Landing Pages Guaranteed To Inspire You

Why Invest Time In A Landing Page?

First, landing pages are better than any other sign-up form when it comes to collecting customer information — information that’s critical to nurturing leads, converting visitors into leads, and building the relationships that are key to retention.

In addition, landing pages are also one of the best ways to match your marketing efforts to the intent of your audience. This means less time wasted shouting into the void and more time spent on effective campaigns. Why? Because you can promote landing pages with different messaging via the specific platform that works for you.

For example, if you’re selling something expensive with a long sales cycle, you may use a more long-term marketing method, such as SEO, to get your landing page in front of the right readers. However, if you have a landing page that’s all about quick sales, it’s easy to pivot the messaging and set up a pay-per-click advertising campaign that’ll pay off when it comes to quick conversions.

Finally, landing pages are easily measurable and highly changeable. Instead of tracking visitor data from across your whole website and trying to figure out what it all means, you can simply look at the performance metrics on a single landing page for insights.

Not enough visitors making it to the bottom of the page? Not getting the engagement you expected on your CTA? If that’s the case, it’s time to A/B test. In other words, tweak one thing at a time and measure and monitor anew to see if it’s any better. In time, you’ll eventually be able to optimize your way to a high-converting landing page incrementally.

The 5 Key Elements Of Effective Landing Pages

First off, landing pages ought to be unique. Your ideal landing page content and structure all depend on its purpose!

For example, a page intended to sell a product will be focused entirely on that product. It will probably include images, a description of the product’s key features, and reviews. Most importantly, it will feature an action for the user to complete, which in this case would be making a purchase.

Lead-generating landing pages will look different. The fundamentals work the same as if you were selling a product, but instead, you’re selling the value visitors should expect to receive if they share their information with you. There will likely be lots of benefits messaging, testimonials, and perhaps even an offer such as a free trial or download in exchange for their information.

All that said, at a minimum, all of the following elements should be considered when building your very first landing page:

1. Clear Purpose

We’ve talked about this several times (hey, it’s important!) — your landing page needs to be really focused.

Everything you add to the page should work toward the goal you’ve set for it. If you’re trying to generate leads, the entire page should be devoted to information to convince a user to share their content information with you, or even reach out on their own.

Whatever the purpose, avoid any filler content, extraneous links, and other distractions that can divert attention away from it.

2. Highlighted Customer Benefits

The benefits to the user must be made clear throughout your landing page.

A visitor should be able to get all the information they need from the landing page, so they don’t have to look elsewhere on your site to understand something. This is key to keeping them engaged for long enough to convert them.

Use your own words to explain the benefits to the customer, as well as customer testimonials that provide additional social proof.

3. Logical Narrative And Structure

Consider the order in which you present content from the top of the page to the bottom. If you’ve ever heard of putting some information “above the fold” — this is where that comes into play. Put the most important elements where a visitor will see them without having to read below the newspaper fold. Or, in modern speak, before they scroll at all.

Think of the landing page as a journey you’re taking the user on. Be sure the narrative of the page makes sense, that each part follows logically from the last, and that it all builds up toward your ultimate goal: an easy-to-take action.

4. An Easy-To-Take Action

Your landing page should always end with a strong call to action.

The CTA is the ultimate goal of a landing page. By the time they’ve reached your CTA, visitors should have all the information they need, and be ready to take action.

Be sure to customize the CTA based on the audience and purpose of the page. For example, a CTA for expensive B2B software may be to sign up for a trial, but in the retail space, it may be all about the Buy Now button.

5. Distribution Strategy

With a beautiful, custom landing page fleshed out, there’s one last pivotal element to making sure it’s a success. You have to get it out there!

And you’ll be in good company. A whopping 97% of marketers have a promotion plan for their landing pages. The question is, how do they go about driving traffic?

Here are their top strategies:

• 51.5% use social media.
• 43.6% deploy email newsletters.
• 35.6% rely on search engine optimization.
• 32.7% promote via paid advertising.
• 28.7% link to landing pages from blog posts.
• 20.8% use website CTAs and banner ads.
• 17.8% rely on partner/affiliate marketing.
• 13.9% promote on YouTube.
• 7.9% deploy a link-building-based strategy.
• 5.9% use a podcast to promote landing pages.

How To Build Your First WordPress Landing Page (5 Steps)

From laying the groundwork to putting the right tools and templates in place to making those critical finishing touches, here’s exactly how to go from zero to your first-ever landing page in just a handful of steps.

1. Plan Your Page

You don’t have to get all fancy with a wireframing tool (though you can). At this stage, it’s important to know your landing page’s goal, have most of the content ready, and know how it will flow.

For this walkthrough, our goal for our landing page will be to generate leads, so the main focus will be on encouraging users to provide their contact information in some way. We don’t have to get too specific on the actual look and features at this point since we’ll be working from a template.

With that in mind, let’s get to the good stuff!

Learn more about wireframing: The Complete Guide To Creating Website Wireframes

2. Choose The Right Tools To Create Your Landing Page

Throughout this guide, we’ll be using WordPress.org, which is different from WordPress.com. That’s important to know because each has its own plugin and theme directories, and the features and functionality in each may look a bit different.

That said, there are several ways you can use WordPress to create a lead-generating landing page. Some are more manual, but we’ll make things simpler by focusing on using the already-created themes and plugins we mentioned.

There are plenty of WordPress landing page-focused plugins. For example, Elementor is a hugely popular page-building plugin that enables you to create landing pages for free, and includes various templates to get you started. There’s also the Thrive Suite of (paid) plugins, which includes the Thrive Architect plugin and more for building landing pages as well as a WordPress website that all work together seamlessly.

For tons more, visit the WordPress plugin directory and search for “landing page” to see all the offerings for creating and optimizing landing pages, from big names like ConvertKit to smaller creators like Fatcat Apps.

You’ll also need to choose a WordPress theme that can be used to construct a landing page. Luckily, today, most modern and updated themes will enable you to do so. If not with built-in features, then by working alongside landing page plugins.

Finally, you can actually build a stand-alone landing page website using any one of the hundreds of landing page themes in the WordPress theme directory.

For this walkthrough, we’ve chosen to work with the OceanWP WordPress theme.

This is because OceanWP is a free, versatile WordPress theme that contains multiple templates that can be used to create lead-generating landing pages. It can also be integrated with the above landing page builder plugins for increased functionality. As you’ll see, using this theme will enable you to create and configure the basics of your first landing page quickly, giving you a great foundation for expanding it with your own content.

Now, let’s move on to practical matters and dive into one of the most accessible approaches to building a landing page in WordPress.

3. Install Your Landing Page Theme

Need to upgrade to a modern theme to take advantage of all the newest landing page-building features? Then let’s get to downloading and installing your new theme.

Here’s how to do that with OceanWP:

What we’d recommend doing is going into your WordPress Dashboard, finding Appearance in the left sidebar, and clicking on it to locate Themes.

At the top of the Themes page, use the Add New Theme button and search for “OceanWP.”

Hover over it to find and click on the Install button. Wait a moment, then press the Activate button once it appears.

Once the page refreshes, you should see a notification at the top of the Themes page asking you to install and activate Ocean Extra. Ocean Extra is a plugin related to OceanWP that includes additional functionality.

Now, it’s time to set up a template for your landing page.

Related: How To Install A WordPress Theme (Tutorial)

4. Import A Landing Page Template

After the previous step, you should have been redirected to OceanWP inside your WordPress instance. If not, just go back to your Dashboard and look for it in your left-hand sidebar.

Now it’s time to install a landing page template, which they call “Demos.”

Click OceanWP > Install Demos in the sidebar:

Scroll down in the OceanWP Panel until you start to see the Demo options. Click on One Page to see the templates that are best for, well, one-page presentations. Choose whichever you like, but we’ll be using the Coach template for our example.

Hit Import on the Coach template, and follow the instructions to add the plugins and add-ons that will make your landing page match the demo. (FYI, a purchase is required for Ocean Sticky Header.)

After going to the next step, you can choose what sample data you want to import. This will enable you to edit the existing sample content, rather than creating everything from scratch. Keep in mind this could override any content you already have in this WordPress instance.

We’ll leave all the boxes checked, and finally, we’re ready to install the demo!

Once this process is done, the template will be installed and activated on your WordPress site. And now, it’s time to customize!

Additional reading: Decoding WordPress: Custom Templates And Template Parts

5. Customize Your Landing Page

It’s now time to apply what you’ve learned throughout this article to customize your lead-generating landing page.

We’ll be using the Elementor plugin we installed earlier for this purpose, as it’s recommended by the OceanWP theme.

To start managing your landing page, navigate to Dashboard > Templates > Saved Templates.

Select coach-home then Edit with Elementor. Now you should be looking at the intuitive Elementor page builder, where you can make changes directly to your landing page.

At the moment, the structure of the page is largely in place. You can see how this template uses many of the concepts we discussed earlier. It opens with an attention-grabbing headline and introduces the CTA right away, then dives into well-designed sections that outline everything visitors need to know from benefits to package deals to testimonials.

Of course, you’ll want to customize the visuals, text, and even some elements of the layout of this page. In the left sidebar, you’ll see Elements that can be added to the page. Any of these can be moved and deleted when you click on them.

Want a contact form? Select WPForms in the sidebar and watch it appear. It’s ready to be customized right on the page!

As you click around, you’ll also see the left sidebar update to show what can be edited in the widget you’ve clicked on.

For example, click the Make An Appointment button to change the text, the link it connects to, how it looks (under Style), and even the spacing and other effects (in the Advanced menu).

These are just a few very basic examples of how you can edit this template to suit your own needs and build a well-designed landing page. You can easily spend hours working on this if you like — have fun with it!

When you’re done, at least for the time being, at the bottom of the screen you’ll see options for checking your edits on different screen sizes, reverting to a previous version, saving your changes as a draft, or publishing them live on the internet with the Update button. After each update, we recommend visiting your live page to make sure everything is performing how you wanted.

It’s easy to get carried away here, so when you’re tweaking your landing page, don’t forget the key elements we outlined earlier. Make sure that your page’s goal and purpose are clear, that you always make the benefits to the user obvious, and that the page follows a natural structure and includes plenty of opportunities to plug your CTA.

Need Help Landing More Leads?

Now that you know what goes into making a landing page, why you should bother with it, and have a robust template to customize, you should be well on your way to creating lovely, lead-generating landing pages in no time!

Unless that pesky little time thing is still standing in your way, that is.

Many company owners and website managers need to focus so intently on the immediate income-generating aspects of business that they seldom have time to sit down and build the marketing that paves the way for the future of the business.

If you simply don’t have the time to create important marketing materials, such as landing pages for your website, we know who does. (Hint: it’s us!)

In fact, at DreamHost, we’ve created a whole department to help with exactly that.

From marketing to website design, development, and even management, our pro services providers know exactly how to match up your desires, their expertise, and DreamHost’s robust hosting packages to create wildly effective online experiences.

What do you say we partner up to land you more landing page leads?

WordPress-Optimized Hosting to Power Your Purpose

DreamHost makes sure your WordPress website is fast, secure and always up so your visitors trust you.

Choose Your Plan

The post How To Build Lead-Generating WordPress Landing Pages appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

You know exactly how you want it to look, and since WordPress is used by 43.2% of websites, you choose to start with WordPress.

But you notice some limitations to the existing layouts.

What if you could:

• Customize the layout to be exactly what you like
• Update and customize your website on the fly without relying on someone else
• Create engaging content that stands out from the competition
• Troubleshoot issues and make quick fixes, saving time and money
• Communicate more effectively with your technical team or collaborators

HTML and responsive web design techniques allow you to do all this and more while ensuring your website adapts to all device screens.

You may not have the time to learn complex coding languages or the budget to hire a web developer for every small task — But HTML is way easier than you might think!

In this guide, we’ll explore the many benefits of learning HTML, break down who can benefit from this skill (spoiler alert: everyone!), and look at the best free resources to help you learn HTML starting today.

An Introduction To HTML

HTML (HyperText Markup Language), a standard markup language created by Tim Berners-Lee, is the foundation of every website and one of the most popular programming languages.

The code tells browsers how to structure and display content like text, images, and links.

Since HTML is the foundation for online content, it’s a valuable skill to learn. 

Although you can fully design a website without code, knowing HTML can help you customize web pages from scratch. You can use it to organize every website element, including dynamic elements like images, text, and tables.

Why You Should Consider Learning HTML

HTML is the fundamental building block of the web. All websites use HTML or a derivative of it. Understanding HTML will give you superpowers when using tools like Divi or Gutenberg in WordPress, or when creating email templates for marketing campaigns.

HTML “marks up” words and gives them meaning. HTML is important for accessibility because it provides the semantic structure that assistive technologies rely on to navigate and interpret web content effectively for users with disabilities.

HTML is important for SEO as search engines also use this semantic structure to easily crawl and index your website, helping improve a site’s visibility and ranking in search results.

Understanding HTML opens the door to numerous career opportunities in the tech industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for web developers is projected to grow 16% between 2022-2032, much faster than the average across all occupations. This fundamental skill is essential not only for web development but also for roles in digital marketing, UX/UI design, and content management.

Familiarity with HTML helps you create, modify, and fix your website without depending on professional developers for every change or issue. This saves you time and money while giving you greater control over your website’s appearance and functionality.

Understanding HTML also prepares you for learning other essential programming languages, such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and JavaScript.

These languages work hand-in-hand with HTML to create dynamic, interactive websites.

A strong command of HTML sets you apart from others in your field, especially those in which coding is not a required skill set. You’ll stand out as a founder, marketer, or non-tech employee who can create and modify web content.

Getting Started With HTML

Now that you know the benefits of learning HTML, you might wonder where to begin. The good news is that you don’t need fancy software or expensive courses to start.

All you need is a basic software setup, including a computer with a web browser and an online code editor like Notepad or TextEdit, and you’re ready to start your development journey.

Step 1: Understand The Basics Of Html Structure

HTML documents comprise a series of elements, each surrounded by opening and closing tags that tell the browser what content it contains.

• Opening tags are written with the element name inside angle brackets, like this: <p>.
• Content exists within the tags, like a paragraph or some text.
• Closing tags are similar but include a forward slash before the element name, like this: </p>.

Here’s an example of how a basic block-level element in an HTML structure displays paragraphs on a webpage.

When you open a tag in HTML code, you must close it similarly.

As you learn HTML, it’s essential to understand how common and complex elements work together to create a webpage’s structure.

A typical HTML document will include:

• A <!DOCTYPE html> declaration at the top to specify the version of HTML you’re using
• An <html> element that contains the entire document
• A <head> element for metadata like the page title and stylesheet links
• A <body> element that holds all the visible content on the page

Here’s a simple code snippet of an HTML document structure:

Notice how each element has an opening tag and a corresponding closing tag and how the components are nested inside each other to create the document structure.

Step 2: Learn The Basic HTML Elements For Structure And Content

Focus on mastering the foundational elements that form most web pages. These elements help you structure your content logically, making it easier for humans and search engines to understand.

Some basic HTML elements to master include anchor elements, which can help with creating interactive tutorials and linking to online tutorials:

• Headings (<h1> to <h6>): Headings are essential block-level elements that help create a hierarchical structure for your content.
• Paragraphs (<p>): Paragraphs break your text into readable chunks, like the spaced-out text you see on this page.
• Types of Lists (<ul> and <ol>): An unordered list (<ul>) is a type of bulleted list (or unnumbered list) for creating bullet points and ordered lists (<ol>) are for numbered lists. Enclose an item within these lists in <li></li> tags.
• Links (<a>): The anchor element, one of the core interactive elements, creates dynamic links to other pages or websites. To add links, use the href attribute like this href = "link" which is one of the basic link attributes.
• Tables (<th> <tr><td>): These elements help you create basic tables where the ‘th’ stands for table header, ‘tr’ stands for table row, and ‘td’ stands for table data. You can create as many of these as necessary and the browser will automatically create the table on screen.
• Images (<img>): The image element adds visual interest and supports your content. Include meaningful alt text for accessibility.

Some common attributes added to HTML tags are class attribute, id attribute, and src attribute. These identify HTML elements on a page that can appear in multiple places.

For instance, if you want to identify a paragraph on the page that has the author’s name, you could write something like:

When styling elements, you can use this ID to select a single element and add the required styles. 

These core elements, along with some complex elements and class attributes, will help you create well-structured, meaningful HTML pages that are easy to read and navigate.

How To Learn HTML For Free Online?

You can easily learn how to code through guided practice. This can involve signing up for in-person lectures or taking an online course with modules.

These modules typically contain a combination of videos, lectures, and practice exercises.

With many different ways to learn HTML, we’ve compiled a list of some free resources. This way, you can choose the best learning experience for you.

1. Watch YouTube Tutorials

One of the simplest ways to learn HTML as a complete beginner is by following online tutorials. Many websites offer step-by-step guides that cover HTML basics and help you gain basic familiarity with the language.

Check out the quick HTML Tutorial for Beginners video by Programming with Mosh on YouTube for a quick overview. In just one hour, this video explains key concepts like tags, attributes, and how to structure a webpage.

If you want to go more in-depth, the HTML Crash Course For Absolute Beginners by Traversy Media is a great option. This series of videos thoroughly covers HTML elements and shows you how to create page content like headings, paragraphs, and lists.

You could also watch the free HTML tutorials from free CodeCamp.

The variety of free HTML tutorials available on YouTube makes it easy to find ones that match your learning style and skill level and help you get up and running with practical skills.

2. Take Free Online HTML Courses

While tutorials help learn HTML basics, online courses offer detailed tutorials. They provide structured lessons, hands-on exercises, and the ability to track your progress.

Below are some excellent free HTML resources for your studies:

Codecademy

Codecademy offers several free programs to teach you the technical skills you need. Over 50 million students have used Codecademy to learn basic HTML and coding. While the name says “basic,” this course can easily help you start building websites with HTML.

The program focuses on three main ideas: learning by doing, getting instant feedback, and putting your learning into practice. These will help you learn HTML through hands-on, guided practice. Codecademy also provides forums, chats, chapters, and events for extra help during your learning process.

Learn-HTML.org

Learn-HTML.org is a helpful source for everything related to HTML. The site has much to explore, including a free online course that guides you through coding. The site provides tutorials for HTML beginners, demonstrating how to create HTML and CSS sites from the ground up.

The tutorials begin with the fundamentals and gradually increase in complexity as the lessons progress. They cover essential elements, links, images, buttons, navigation bars, forms, video, responsive web design, app cache, local storage, drag-and-drop, and more.

General Assembly Dash

General Assembly Dash is a well-known site where you can learn HTML basics. This free online course uses projects to help you grasp HTML concepts. The program works well for beginners who want an overview of HTML fundamentals or intermediates who need a refresher.

Within the same course, you’ll also learn HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript. This will allow you to create impressive websites with various layouts and user interactions. If you want to further your education beyond this introductory course, you can with General Assembly.

3. Practice, Practice, Practice

As with any new skill, hands-on practice is the best way to learn HTML and build these foundational skills. Once you’ve gone through some introductory tutorials and feel comfortable with the basics, challenge yourself to start building simple websites from scratch.

Platforms like CodePen provide a basic work environment for experimenting with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code.

CodePen also has built-in tools for formatting your code and checking for errors by clicking on Analyze HTML:

In the simple online editor, you can write HTML, CSS, and JS and see your output in the preview pane.

Here are a few practice ideas using dynamic and multimedia elements in your projects:

1. Create a personal profile page: Build an “About Me” page using headings, paragraphs, lists, and images. Include links to your social media profiles or other relevant websites.
2. Structure a blog post: Take a sample blog post and mark it up with appropriate HTML elements like headings, paragraphs, lists, and blockquotes. Add links to related content or external sources.
3. Build modern navigation elements: Create a menu using an unordered list and anchor elements. Experiment with nesting lists to create drop-down menus.

Once you feel comfortable with individual elements, build small projects that combine multiple elements and require you to consider a page’s overall structure and layout. For example:

• Build a recipe page with ingredients, instructions, and an image of the finished dish.
• Create an online store product page with images, descriptions, and a “Buy Now” button.
• Design a portfolio page showcasing your projects, skills, and contact information.

For a more realistic experience, consider setting up a local development environment on your computer. This involves installing a web server (like Apache or Nginx), a database (like MySQL), and a server-side scripting language (like PHP) — collectively known as a “stack.”

Once your local environment is ready, you can start building websites from scratch or by modifying existing code. This hands-on practice is invaluable for applying your HTML knowledge to real-world scenarios.

At this stage, the goal is to practice using HTML to structure and present content effectively without worrying about visual design or advanced functionality. Focus on writing clean, semantic HTML and organizing your code logically.

Related: Want to Learn WordPress? Start Here.

What Jobs Can You Get With HTML?

So, knowing HTML can also open many doors to higher-paying jobs. With a thorough or even basic knowledge of HTML, you can pursue employment as a:

• Email marketing manager: Knowing HTML helps you create beautiful templates and customize them per your company’s requirements.
• Social media manager: It becomes easy to modify social cards, HTML meta, and other tags that may sometimes get messed up during updates.
• Front-end developer: While basic HTML will not land you this role, you will have an excellent foundation to learn the other required languages to get started.
• Back-end developer: Back-end development doesn’t require HTML, but it can be handy for testing a small change yourself and deploying it live to the backend.

What Are Some Other Reasons To Learn HTML

There are a few additional reasons why learning HTML is valuable:

1. Customize your website: With HTML knowledge, you can tweak your site’s layout, fonts, colors, and more to match your exact vision. No more settling for cookie-cutter templates.
2. Fix issues quickly: When something breaks on your website, understanding HTML makes diagnosing and fixing the problem much easier, saving time and money.
3. Learn other web languages: HTML, the standard markup language, is the perfect starting point for learning essential programming languages like CSS and JavaScript, which together form the backbone of dynamic websites.

After learning HTML, you can add some projects to your portfolio, and then you can begin applying for freelance work on a site like Toptal:

Learning HTML, like any new skill, takes time and patience. While you can develop a basic understanding in just a few days, becoming an expert may take much longer, considering HTML is just one piece of web dev.

Become An HTML Expert

Anyone can build a website without coding experience. However, learning HTML is a valuable skill that can help you customize different elements of your website. Plus, it can open doors to many forms of employment.

To review, here are three easy ways you can start learning HTML:

• Watch a YouTube tutorial from creators like Programming with Mosh.
• Take an HTML course on Codecademy or Learn-html.org.
• Practice HTML coding on a platform like CodePen.

If you’re just starting to design a website, you don’t want poor webhosting to slow down your development journey! With DreamHost’s shared hosting, you can use a fast, secure platform to experiment with your new HTML coding skills.

The post How To Learn HTML In 2024 appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

There’s more to it than people liking or disliking your design.

46.1% of users judge the credibility of your brand based on your website’s visual appeal alone.

The bottom line? You need a visually appealing website — there’s just no way around it. This is where CSS frameworks help.

These powerful tools can help you create stunning, responsive designs quickly and efficiently. Among the sea of options, two frameworks stand out: Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap.

But which one should you choose for your next project?

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the world of Tailwind vs. Bootstrap, exploring their strengths, weaknesses, and unique features.

By the end, you’ll have a clear understanding of which framework best suits your needs, empowering you to create websites that not only captivate users but also establish your brand’s credibility.

What Are CSS Frameworks?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of Tailwind vs. Bootstrap, let’s take a step back and remind ourselves what CSS frameworks are all about.

Essentially, CSS frameworks are pre-written collections of CSS code that simplify and speed up website development.

Instead of starting from scratch every time, you can use these frameworks to create beautiful, responsive designs with minimal effort. We can’t overstate how important responsive design is. In fact, according to a study by GoodFirms, non-responsive design is the primary reason why people may be leaving your website.

Think of it like having a toolbox filled with all the essentials you need to build a house. You could always go out and buy each tool individually, but why not save yourself the hassle and get everything in one convenient package?

That’s what CSS frameworks do for web development.

Bootstrap: The Reliable Classic

First up, let’s talk about Bootstrap.

Bootstrap has been around since 2011 and has become a staple in the web development world. It’s like the comfort food of CSS frameworks: reliable, familiar, and always satisfying.

One of the biggest advantages of Bootstrap is its extensive library of pre-built components.

From navbars and buttons to carousels and modals, Bootstrap has you covered. These components are designed to work seamlessly together, so you can create a cohesive, professional-looking website in no time.

But wait, there’s more! Bootstrap also comes with a powerful grid system that makes it easy to create responsive layouts. With just a few classes, your website can look fantastic on any device, whether it’s a desktop computer, a tablet, or a smartphone.

Another reason Bootstrap is so popular is its extensive documentation and community support. If you ever get stuck or have a question, chances are someone else has already asked (and answered) it on Stack Overflow or the Bootstrap forums. Plus, with so many developers using Bootstrap, you’ll find plenty of tutorials, templates, and plugins to help you along the way.

Of course, no tool is perfect, and Bootstrap has its limitations. Some developers argue that it’s too opinionated, meaning that it can be difficult to customize if you want to stray too far from the default styles. Others point out that Bootstrap’s file size can be rather large, which can slow down your website’s loading times.

Tailwind CSS: The New Kid On The Block

Now, let’s move on to Tailwind CSS. This relatively new framework has been making waves in the web development community — and for good reason.

Unlike Bootstrap, which relies heavily on pre-built components, Tailwind takes a different approach. It provides a set of low-level utility classes that you can use to build your own custom designs.

This means you have complete control over the look and feel of your website, without being constrained by someone else’s design decisions. However, you won’t find a lot of pre-built templates for page sections.

So, Tailwind’s utility classes might seem a bit overwhelming.

Instead of using semantic class names like btn-primary, you’ll see things like bg-blue-500 and px-4. As you get used to it, you’ll start to appreciate the flexibility and power that comes with this approach.

One of the biggest advantages of Tailwind is its ability to create responsive designs with ease. You can easily specify different styles for different screen sizes, all without leaving your HTML. This makes it incredibly easy to create complex, adaptive layouts that look great on any device.

Another thing that sets Tailwind apart is its focus on performance. The framework is designed to be as lightweight as possible, with a minimal footprint that won’t slow down your website. Plus, with features like tree-shaking and purging, you can make sure that only the classes you actually use end up in your final CSS file.

Then again, like Bootstrap, Tailwind too, isn’t perfect.

Some developers find the learning curve to be a bit steeper, especially if they’re used to more traditional CSS frameworks. And because Tailwind relies so heavily on utility classes, your HTML can start to feel a bit cluttered and harder to read.

How do you then select the right framework?

Choosing The Right Framework For Your Project

Let’s dive a little deeper into how to choose the right framework for your project. Based on what we discussed earlier, the decision depends on your specific needs and goals. To help you make the right decision, let’s explore a few key factors.

Project Complexity And Scalability

One of the first things to consider is the complexity and scalability of your project. If you’re building a simple, one-page website or a small personal blog, Bootstrap might be the way to go. Its pre-built components and straightforward grid system make it easy to get up and running quickly.

However, if you’re working on a more complex application or a large-scale website with a lot of custom functionality, Tailwind might be a better fit. Its utility-first approach allows you to create highly customized designs that can scale as your project grows.

Here’s an example of how you might create a simple button in Bootstrap vs.Tailwind:

Bootstrap:

<button type="button" class="btn btn-primary">Click Me!</button>

Tailwind:

<button type="button" class="bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-700 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded">
  Click Me!
</button>

Notice the Bootstrap example is more concise and relies on a pre-defined class (btn-primary), while the Tailwind example uses a combination of utility classes to achieve the same result.

This flexibility can be especially valuable as your project becomes more complex and requires more granular control over styles.

Note: While you can customize Bootstrap styles, it’s more work and you might just write the CSS yourself. Tailwind is quite nice in this case because of its built-in flexibility.

Design Flexibility And Consistency

If you’re working with a design team or following strict brand guidelines, Tailwind’s utility-first approach can be a great fit for you.

It allows you to create custom designs that match your exact specifications, without being limited by pre-defined components or styles.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for a more standardized, consistent look and feel across your site, Bootstrap’s pre-built components can be a good choice. They provide a solid foundation that you can customize as needed, while still maintaining a cohesive overall design.

Here’s an example of how you might create a card component with a button in Bootstrap vs. Tailwind:

Bootstrap:

<div class="card" style="width: 18rem;">
  <img src="https://getbootstrap.com/docs/5.3/assets/brand/bootstrap-logo-shadow.png" class="card-img-top">
  <div class="card-body">
    <h5 class="card-title">Card title</h5>
    <p class="card-text">Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the bulk of the card's content.</p>
    <a href="#" class="btn btn-primary">Go somewhere</a>
  </div>
</div>

Tailwind:

<div class="m-6">
<div class="max-w-sm rounded overflow-hidden shadow-lg">
   <div class="flex justify-center">
      <img class="h-16 mt-4" src="https://tailwindcss.com/_next/static/media/tailwindcss-mark.3c5441fc7a190fb1800d4a5c7f07ba4b1345a9c8.svg" alt="Tailwind CSS Logo">
   </div>
   <div class="px-6 py-4">
      <div class="font-bold text-xl mb-2">Card title</div>
      <p class="text-gray-700 text-base">
         Some quick example text to build on the card title and make up the bulk of the card's content.
      </p>
   </div>
   <div class="px-6 py-4 flex justify-center">
      <a href="#" class="inline-block bg-blue-500 hover:bg-blue-700 text-white font-bold py-2 px-4 rounded">
      Go somewhere
      </a>
   </div>
</div>
</div>

Above, you’ll see that the Bootstrap example uses the pre-defined card class and its associated sub-components (card-img-top, card-body, etc.) to create a consistent card layout.

The Tailwind example, on the other hand, uses a combination of utility classes to achieve a similar result, but with more fine-grained control over the specific styles applied.

Our take: Tailwind takes this round for its out-of-the-box customizability. If you’re just starting with designing, you may not take much notice of the design nuances when using Bootstrap. But as you start creating more complex components, the limitations start to show, and here’s where Tailwind’s utility classes can make things much easier in the long run.

Learning Curve And Developer Experience

It’s also worth considering the learning curve and developer experience associated with each framework. If you or your team are already familiar with Bootstrap, it might make sense to stick with what you know.

Bootstrap has a large community and a wealth of resources available, which can make it easier to get started and find answers to common questions.

Tailwind, on the other hand, has a bit of an uphill learning curve, especially if you’re not used to thinking in terms of utility classes. However, once you get the hang of it, many developers find that Tailwind’s approach is more intuitive and efficient in the long run.

Here’s an example of how you might create a responsive navigation bar in Bootstrap vs. Tailwind:

Bootstrap:

<nav class="navbar navbar-expand-lg navbar-dark bg-dark">
  <div class="container-fluid">
    <a class="navbar-brand" href="#">Navbar</a>
    <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarSupportedContent" aria-controls="navbarSupportedContent" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation">
      <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span>
    </button>
    <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarSupportedContent">
      <ul class="navbar-nav me-auto mb-2 mb-lg-0">
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link active" aria-current="page" href="#">Home</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link" href="#">Link</a>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item dropdown">
          <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdown" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="false">
            Dropdown
          </a>
          <ul class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdown">
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Action</a></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Another action</a></li>
            <li><hr class="dropdown-divider"></li>
            <li><a class="dropdown-item" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
          </ul>
        </li>
        <li class="nav-item">
          <a class="nav-link disabled" href="#" tabindex="-1" aria-disabled="true">Disabled</a>
        </li>
      </ul>
      <form class="d-flex">
        <input class="form-control me-2" type="search" placeholder="Search" aria-label="Search">
        <button class="btn btn-outline-success" type="submit">Search</button>
      </form>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

Tailwind:

<nav class="flex flex-wrap items-center justify-between bg-teal-500 p-6">
  <div class="mr-6 flex flex-shrink-0 items-center text-white">
    <img class="mt-1 h-5" src="https://tailwindcss.com/_next/static/media/tailwindcss-mark.3c5441fc7a190fb1800d4a5c7f07ba4b1345a9c8.svg" alt="Tailwind CSS Logo" />
    <span class="text-xl">Tailwind</span>
  </div>
  <div class="block lg:hidden">
    <button class="flex items-center rounded border border-teal-400 px-3 py-2 text-teal-200 hover:border-white hover:text-white">
      <svg class="h-3 w-3 fill-current" viewBox="0 0 20 20" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
        <title>Menu</title>
        <path d="M0 3h20v2H0V3zm0 6h20v2H0V9zm0 6h20v2H0v-2z" />
      </svg>
    </button>
  </div>
  <div class="block w-full flex-grow lg:flex lg:w-auto lg:items-center">
    <div class="text-sm lg:flex-grow">
      <a href="#responsive-header" class="mr-4 mt-4 block text-teal-200 hover:text-white lg:mt-0 lg:inline-block"> Docs </a>
      <a href="#responsive-header" class="mr-4 mt-4 block text-teal-200 hover:text-white lg:mt-0 lg:inline-block"> Examples </a>
      <a href="#responsive-header" class="mt-4 block text-teal-200 hover:text-white lg:mt-0 lg:inline-block"> Blog </a>
    </div>
    <div>
      <a href="#" class="mt-4 inline-block rounded border border-white px-4 py-2 text-sm leading-none text-white hover:border-transparent hover:bg-white hover:text-teal-500 lg:mt-0">Download</a>
    </div>
  </div>
</nav>

The Bootstrap example uses a combination of pre-defined classes (navbar, navbar-expand, navbar-light, etc.) to create a responsive navigation bar with a toggler button for smaller screens. The Tailwind example, in contrast, uses a combination of utility classes for similar results, but with a greater level of control over style and layout.

Our take: Bootstrap is much easier for beginners to pick up. The only downside to using Bootstrap is that you may create websites that look similar to others without customizing the styles. With Tailwind, the styles are independent of the components, which provides a lot more flexibility; meaning, you end up with fairly unique layouts just by combining the existing classes.

Performance Considerations

Considering that a load time of one second to three seconds increases bounce rates by 32%, it makes sense to choose the fastest framework possible.

The default Tailwind configuration comes with 36.4KB minified and g-zipped. Compared to Bootstrap at 22.1KB ,  Tailwind is 14.3KB heavier.

You may think, ”Well, it seems we already have a winner, right?”

Not so fast.

Tailwind generates your styles based on the specific utility classes you use in your HTML, rather than including a large set of pre-defined styles that may or may not be used.

So, while Tailwind is heavier by default, it offers excellent performance optimization techniques that help it perform with fewer lines of CSS code and a much smaller file size.

Also, Tailwind lets you pre-select the number of screen sizes you want to cater to. For instance, if all you want to properly cater to is a laptop screen and mobile users, just pick those.

Here’s how screen sizes can further affect your stylesheet file size:

• 5 screen sizes (default): 36.4KB
• 4 screen sizes: 29.4KB
• 3 screen sizes: 22.4KB
• 2 screen sizes: 15.4KB
• 1 screen size: 8.4KB

To further improve this, Tailwind offers PurgeCSS. This tool scans the specified files (HTML, Vue, JSX, etc.) and removes any unused Tailwind classes from the final CSS build. The result? A smaller file size and better performance.

Our take: Without optimizations, Bootstrap does load faster. But Tailwind’s designers handle this problem very effectively and the additional optimization strategies can make your overall page extremely lightweight. We have to give this round to Tailwind.

So, Why Not Both Frameworks?

“Why do I have to choose just one? Can’t I use both, Bootstrap and Tailwind, in the same project?”

The short answer is: yes, you absolutely can! In fact, many developers find that combining the two frameworks gives them the best of both worlds.

For example, you might use Bootstrap’s grid system and pre-built components for the overall structure and layout of your site, but then use Tailwind’s utility classes to fine-tune the styles and create custom elements. This approach can help you strike a balance between rapid development and granular control.

Of course, mixing frameworks can also introduce some complexity and potential conflicts. So you need to know both frameworks thoroughly before knowing what parts of each framework work well together.

For instance, since both frameworks have the same CSS classes, you may see visual glitches on different browsers and devices.

The Future Of CSS Frameworks

Being in the front-end web dev space, it’s quite exciting to see these CSS frameworks coming in and making things easy to build. Between Bootstrap and Tailwind, Google Trends shows that Bootstrap has been dropping in popularity from its peaks in 2017 and Tailwind is starting to pick up.

However, these CSS frameworks are just the beginning.

We’re also seeing other frameworks that translate JavaScript to CSS, like Emotion.sh. This helps you to write your styles directly in your JavaScript code, which can make it easier to create reusable, modular components. They’re not quite the same as traditional CSS frameworks but they’re definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Wrapping Up

Phew, that was a lot to take in! But hopefully, by now, you have a better understanding of what Tailwind CSS and Bootstrap are all about, and how they can help you create amazing websites.

At the end of the day, the choice between these two frameworks (or any others) comes down to your specific needs and preferences. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, and what works for one project might not be the best fit for another.

The important thing is to keep learning, experimenting, and pushing yourself to try new things. Whether you’re a die-hard Bootstrap fan or a Tailwind convert, there’s always room to grow and improve as a web developer.

So go forth and build something awesome! And remember, no matter which framework you choose, the most important thing is to have fun and enjoy the process. Happy coding!

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The post Tailwind Vs. Bootstrap: Which CSS Framework Do You Need? appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

But wait a second — No need to panic. There are actually several methods of removing the error or increasing the maximum execution time.

In this ever-so-simple guide, we’ll look at what the WordPress maximum execution time error is, and why it happens. Then we’ll walk you through six methods you can use to solve the problem and keep your site running like a well-oiled machine. Here’s the setlist:

• Uninstall problem software
• Use a plugin
• Adjust the wp-config.php file
• Update the php.ini file
• Edit the .htaccess file
• Contact your hosting provider

Ready to give it a go? Let’s get started!

What The WordPress Max Execution Time Error Is (And Why It Happens)

The maximum execution time error is one of the most common WordPress errors. It can pop up when you are trying to update your WordPress plugins or themes.

It warns you if your site can’t perform the updates you requested.

This error happens because of the PHP scripts on your website. Along with JavaScript, PHP is a language that is the foundation of WordPress sites. Basically, it’s the code that controls how a website runs and shows different elements to users. A PHP script’s maximum execution error has to do with how long it takes to run.

PHP scripts have a maximum execution time to keep your site functional and secure. If there were no limit, a hacker or malicious software could use never-ending scripts to dismantle your website’s hosting server and make your data vulnerable. It’s supervillain stuff, really.

PHP scripts that run for a long time can also divert resources from your server, racking up your bill and robbing you of computing power.

Plugins are most likely to trigger this error because they introduce a lot of code from external sources. Because WordPress is an open-source platform, any developer can design and upload plugins. So, if you install content from lesser-known developers, it may come with flawed code and cause issues in your site’s PHP scripts.

Themes and general WordPress updates can cause the problem as well — but this is less common.

What Is The Standard Max Execution Time?

At DreamHost, we set the maximum execution time at our end. As with most other hosting providers, the duration is usually set to 30 seconds.

This is typically enough time for most PHP scripts to run successfully. If you’re using a different hosting provider, you should be able to contact them directly to find out your site’s execution time limit.

For example, large websites with multiple resources might need slightly longer maximum execution times. Otherwise, they may not be able to complete their processes before the clock runs out.

Some developers use very long execution times of more than 300 seconds. However, we don’t recommend this for most websites, primarily because of the performance issues.

How To Figure Out If The Error Has Occurred

It’s usually pretty obvious when maximum execution time errors happen because you’ll see a notification from WordPress.

The wording does vary. For example, it may read as Fatal error or Critical error. In some cases, the notification might not mention the maximum execution time. All of the warnings, however, have similar components that can help you identify the cause.

Front-end users may also be able to see the error. If they visit the site when the update process has failed, they might see a message telling them that the website is experiencing technical difficulties.

Be aware that you don’t just get this error message if you’ve exceeded your maximum execution time. So, you’ll need to check and see if it shows up in your WordPress dashboard as well.

Finally, you may receive an email from WordPress alerting you that the maximum execution time has been exceeded.

This is thanks to the WordPress 5.2 update, which introduced PHP error protection that automatically notifies you when your site has problems with its themes or plugins. Therefore, you will know almost immediately when there’s an issue with your updates.

How To Fix The Max Execution Time WordPress Error (6 Methods)

There are a few different methods you can use to eliminate the maximum execution time error or increase your site’s maximum execution time.

Consider your comfort level when editing your site’s files and adding new code. If you’re worried about diving in yourself, other nifty options are available.

1. Uninstall The Problem Software

One of the simplest ways to fix the maximum execution time error is to uninstall the software causing the issue. One of your plugins, or your site’s theme, is likely the culprit, so you can start there.

We recommend using this method if you have a hunch that a specific application is causing the problem. For example, you may have recently added a new plugin or updated an old one.

If the error locks you out of your site, you can access the dashboard via Recovery Mode (in WordPress 5.2 and above). If you receive an email from WordPress about the failed updates, it usually includes a link to Recovery Mode, and might even tell you which plugin caused the problem.

Then, navigate to Plugins > Installed Plugins and click on Deactivate underneath the relevant one. Click on Delete to remove it.

If you don’t know what’s causing the maximum execution time exceeded error, go ahead and deactivate all your plugins and reactivate them individually. Refresh each time to check if you can find the one causing all the fuss.

You can also use Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) to remove your plugins or do it with the control panel file manager if you’ve got a fully hosted DreamHost account.

You can find all your plugins under wp-content > plugins. Delete the plugin folders one by one to find the offender!

Hopefully, this should clear up the error. If not, let’s move on to some more options.

2. Use The WP Tools Plugin

One of the easiest ways to increase the maximum execution time is by using the WP Tools plugin.

The tool allows you to increase the maximum execution time while it’s activated.

You may prefer the plugin route rather than using the previous method because it can increase your maximum execution time globally. This is particularly beneficial if you want to give functional plugins and themes a little extra time to complete their updates.

To get started, navigate to Plugins > Add New Plugin and search for “WP Tools by Bill Minozzi.” Scroll down until you see the plugin below.

Click on Install now. Once the plugin is installed, select Activate.

Next, visit WP Tools in the side menu. When you open the plugin for the first time, you will see some important instructions. Once you have read these, click I Agree.

Now, navigate to WP Tools > Settings and click on the General Settings tab. Here, you should find the option to Add Max Execution Time Limit.

With the free version of this plugin, you can increase the limit up to 120 seconds. The license can be extended further, but you’ll need to buy the Premium version.

This plugin offers a straightforward fix for the maximum execution time exceeded error — but the free version might not always solve your problem. If you’d rather save some money, keep on reading.

Related: How To Pick The Right WordPress Theme For Your Website

3. Increase The Maximum Execution Time Via wp-config.php

You can increase the maximum execution time by editing your site’s wp-config.php file. This is a core file that contains a lot of important information about your site. For example, it contains your website’s name, host’s name, login username, and password.

If you would like to customize your maximum execution time, we recommend this method. It allows you to add code directly into your WordPress directory file. It’s also relatively quick and easy to do.

Before you start editing the file, we strongly advise you to back up your entire WordPress site. The wp-config.php file is essential for your website, so you don’t want to be making mistakes. With a backup handy, you can revert to your original settings if things go sideways.

You can find the file by using the DreamPress file manager or your SFTP application and looking for wp-config.php. Right-click on it and select Edit from the drop-down menu.

Alternatively, you can click on Download, and edit the file with a simple text editor like Notepad. Once you’re in the wp-config.php file, scroll to the bottom and insert the following code:

set_time_limit(X);

“X” represents the maximum execution time in seconds. For example, you can replace it with “300” and it will extend the duration to five minutes.

Now you can save the file, and you’ve successfully changed the maximum execution time!

4. Increase The Maximum Execution Time In php.ini

You can also increase the maximum execution time by creating a new php.ini file.

This is a document that controls the PHP settings for your content management system (i.e. WordPress), such as resource limits, upload sizes, and file timeouts. Because php.ini affects all the scripts in your system, you won’t have to edit each one individually.

However, not all servers support php.ini files, so you’ll need to check first to make sure yours does. Then, you can increase the PHP execution time with this method.

In the DreamHost server, php.ini files are called phprc. First, you’ll need to create a new phprc file. Go to your SFTP dashboard and navigate to your user directory.

Locate the phprc file in your site’s version of PHP. Then right-click on it and select View/Edit to add your new code. You may see this warning:

Click on the check box next to Always use selection for all unassociated files and select OK. This will then open the file with your text editor. Next, you can enter the following code to change the maximum execution time:

max_execution_time = 500

This will give you 500 seconds to play with. To finish up, you will need to kill all existing PHP processes to update the phprc file and have the changes take effect.

5. Increase The Maximum Execution Time In .htaccess

The .htaccess file is another place where you can adjust the maximum execution time. This file controls changes across the different directories of your WordPress site. Beware though, that the .htaccess file is an elusive beast — not all servers use it, and it’s most commonly found in Apache servers.

You may want to use this method if you don’t want to play around with the wp-config.php file and if your server doesn’t support php.ini files.

Before starting, we recommend backing up your .htaccess file. This will allow you to reinstate it if you make any major mistakes.

To back up your .htaccess file, simply open your SFTP client and navigate to your home directory. Make a copy of the .htaccess file, and save it somewhere on your computer.

Then, use your chosen SFTP client to locate and edit the original .htaccess file. If you’re using the DreamHost file manager, you can right-click on it and select Edit.

Otherwise, you can open it with your text editor. Enter this code to change the maximum execution time:

php_value max_execution_time 300

You can substitute the “300” for any other value you decide on. Finally, save the changes, and the file will apply them to your site.

6. Contact Your Hosting Provider To Request An Increase In Maximum Execution Time

In case you don’t want to change the site’s files yourself, you have one more option: contact your hosting provider directly and they’ll increase the maximum execution time on your behalf.

This method could be helpful if you’re short on time, or have limited technical skills. You may have to pay extra depending on your hosting provider.

With a DreamHost account, you can contact our Professional Services team for them to make these changes for you. Navigate to the Contact Support page in your account dashboard and submit a ticket.

There, you can outline your desired changes and add any details about your site. We may ask for more details, and then we’ll start working on the changes!

Maximum Execution Time FAQs

We’ve covered all the major fixes for maximum execution time errors. Do you still have questions? Luckily, we have answers! Here are the all-important FAQs:

What is the difference between set_time_limit and max_execution_time?

The difference here is all about scope. The set_time_limit setting is designed to set the time limit on an individual PHP script, while max_execution_time sets the upper limit for all PHP scripts in your account.

How can I check my current maximum execution time value?

The easiest method is to install the phpinfo() WP plugin. This will reveal key information about your PHP setup, including your maximum execution time.

My hosting provider doesn’t allow maximum execution time changes.…what should I do?

You pretty much have three options here:

Explore alternative plugins: If the error comes from a plugin, see if there’s a more efficient alternative that does the same thing.

Contact your hosting provider: Politely explain the issue and explore whether there are temporary adjustments they can make, or if a different hosting plan is needed.

Upgrade to a better host: You could always switch to a host that lets you fix your site without getting in the way…just saying.

Bonus WordPress Error Articles

Need to resolve other technical issues on your website? We’ve got you covered! Our team has put together several guides to help you troubleshoot the most common WordPress errors:

• How To Fix Common WordPress Image Upload Issues
• How To Fix “The Site Ahead Contains Malware”
• How To Troubleshoot The WordPress “White Screen of Death”
• How To Fix The 500 Internal Server Error In WordPress
• How To Fix Syntax Errors In WordPress
• How To Fix The WordPress Not Sending Email Issue
• How To Fix The Error Establishing A Database Connection
• How To Fix WordPress Error 404 Not Found
• How To Fix White Text And Missing Buttons In WordPress Visual Editor
• How To Fix The Sidebar Below Content Error In WordPress
• What To Do When You’re Locked Out Of The WordPress Admin Area

And if you’d like a soup-to-nuts walkthrough on running a successful WordPress site, be sure to check out our WordPress Tutorials. We have over 150 guides written by our WordPress experts that will help you navigate the WordPress dashboard like a pro!

Fixing The Fatal Error: Maximum Execution Time Exceeded

The maximum execution time exceeded error in WordPress can get in the way of updating your plugins and themes. We know it can be frustrating when it happens, but there are several ways to solve the problem quickly.

Remember, you can fix the maximum execution time WordPress error with the following methods:

• Uninstall the problem item.
• Increase the maximum execution time with a plugin like WP Tools.
• Adjust the maximum execution time by editing the wp-config.php file.
• Increase the maximum execution time in the php.ini file.
• Edit the .htaccess file to increase the maximum execution time.
• Contact your hosting provider to change the file on your behalf.

Want a provider that handles all the technical issues? We’re here to help!

Our DreamPress packages come with automatic updates, daily backups, and 24/7 support from WordPress specialists.

Sign up today to try it for yourself and wave goodbye to troubleshooting!

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The post How to Fix Fatal Error: Maximum Execution Time Exceeded (In 6 Steps) appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

They’ve made the platform even easier for the non-designer, non-coder, normal ol’ business business owners and managers of the world to craft gorgeous websites.

This time, it’s thanks to something called WordPress block patterns and the new pattern directory and library where they’re organized.

Intrigued?

Allow us to introduce you to the WordPress Pattern Directory, which website owners of all technical skill levels can use to create a beautiful layout. Plus, we’ll offer several tips for choosing the right patterns to build your ideal brand experience.

What Is A WordPress Pattern?

In WordPress, a pattern is a collection of individual blocks designed to seamlessly integrate with WordPress themes.

In case you’re not familiar with blocks, let’s start there.

WordPress blocks are individual stackable elements you use to add functionality to pages and posts on your WordPress site.

In 2018, Gutenberg, a block editor, replaced WordPress’ classic editor. Since then, blocks have become the gold standard for customizing WordPress sites thanks to their powerful functionality and easy drag-and-drop configuration.

Each block is like a widget, capable of adding text, media, design, functional elements, forms, and more wherever you place it on a WordPress page or post. You can arrange blocks however you like them, and you can customize many of them to get the look and features you want.

Related: 27 WordPress Block Themes Perfect For Full Site Editing

Now that we’ve made sense of blocks, let’s dive back into patterns.

As we started saying, block patterns are predefined combinations of blocks that make up functional elements for WordPress pages and posts, such as headers and footers, newsletter subscription boxes, and e-commerce displays.

Perhaps the coolest feature of patterns is that the fonts, colors, and other styling elements of each block in a pattern automatically adapt to match your theme. You can still customize patterns every time you use them, in case you want to move or remove an element of a pattern on one page or post but not on another.

A great example would be using a singular pattern as a premade template for all of your blog posts. You want them to be decently similar, but you may want calls to action (CTAs), FAQ sections, forms, and other elements to live in different places depending on the content and audience.

Developers of popular themes have their own custom patterns, making it easy to build a beautiful and even complex layout that you know will function fully. If you’re shopping for both modern theme styles and the best patterns to power them up, this guide has a helpful list of themes and the premade patterns that work with them (free and paid).

In summary, WordPress patterns are pre-designed elements that enable website owners, managers, and developers to quickly create powerful, consistent websites.

With that, let’s talk about how to access WordPress patterns.

Understanding The WordPress Pattern Directory

Now, we can dive into the good stuff you came here to learn about today: the WordPress Pattern Directory.

But first (gotcha!) we have one more caveat: there is a WordPress Pattern Directory and a WordPress Pattern Library.

This is because there’s one for both WordPress.org and WordPress.com, which are different.

WordPress.org is an open-source platform for creating customized websites. You can download it and use it for free. However, to make your website live and accessible on the Internet, you will need to purchase web hosting.

This is where WordPress.com, an online site builder and hosting provider, comes in. The basics are free on WordPress.com, and you can access upgraded features for a fee.

The WordPress Pattern Directory, or Block Pattern Directory, exists on WordPress.org. The WordPress Pattern Library lives on WordPress.com.

Both resources hit the scene recently to provide a singular place for pattern designers and developers to share the creations that make their lives easier. Creative website owners and/or builders like you can access those resources to quickly build beautiful, functional experiments without reinventing the wheel every time.

The best feature of all? The 100s of patterns listed on the library and directory are free to use.

How To Navigate The WordPress Pattern Directory

The WordPress block pattern library and directory make it exceedingly easy to find the right pattern for your website.

Across the top of each website’s homepage, you’ll see a set of filters that you can use to narrow down the types of patterns you’re looking at.

Currently, the block pattern categories in the directory include:

• Posts: Display your blog content
• Text: Present text anywhere on your website
• Gallery: Showcase pictures
• Call to Action: Encourage site visitors to act
• Banners: Display designs at the top of pages to engage visitors
• Headers: Help with website navigation
• Footers: Appear at the bottom of websites to offer additional navigation
• Wireframe: Provide placeholders to plan and experiment with different design elements

You’ll also find a search bar to locate specific patterns. This is a quick way to find solutions tailored to your requirements.

In the directory, you can click a pattern to preview its appearance on different screen widths.

On both sites, you should see a blue button that allows you to copy the pattern.

We’ll show you exactly where this comes in handy as we dive into using a pattern on your WordPress site for the first time.

How To Get Started With The WordPress Pattern Directory

Let’s dive into implementing your first pattern on your website.

First, you need to select the post or page where you want to add a pattern. We’re going to log into WordPress, look for Posts in the sidebar, go to All Posts, and select the one we want to edit.

Once we’re inside that post, in the upper-left corner of the editing area there should be a plus button that opens both the blocks and patterns menus.

Note: Not seeing the option to add blocks or patterns on the page you’re editing? You may not yet use a theme that supports them. Our guide How To Switch From A Classic Theme To WordPress Block Themes will walk you through how to upgrade to a block theme so you can take advantage of all its modern benefits.

Once you have that menu open, switch to the Patterns tab. Here, you’ll see all the available block patterns for the theme you’re using.

Let’s say we want to add a call to action to the post. We’ll click into that category and select our chosen CTA pattern. Just like that, it will appear wherever our cursor is in the post.

Tip: Insert a pattern you’ve copied from the pattern directory or library. Just use the blue copy button on the desired pattern, come back to the WordPress page or post you want to edit, click on the screen where you want the pattern to live, and paste.

Want to move, remove, or otherwise edit your pattern? Click on it in the post to see all the pattern settings and options.

Be sure to select Save draft or Publish at the top right of the WordPress screen to save your work.

Those are the basics of using patterns on your website. Super easy, right? 

What’s The Point Of WordPress Patterns?

Patterns seem to have it all. They can supercharge the speed at which you create and build,  ensure effortless uniformity to improve your brand impression, and deliver the aesthetic you’ve always wanted your website to have.

Creation Speed

Each pattern in the directory seamlessly integrates with most modern themes. And implementing patterns is as simple as dragging and dropping your favorite elements into place.

That means you don’t have to be a WordPress designer or understand development to quickly create powerful experiences that showcase your brand, boost SEO, and even grow conversions and retention.

Website Consistency

Spending hours meticulously combing through every page on your site to change that midnight blue color scheme to navy instead?

Oof, not again.

WordPress patterns inherit font, color, and spacing settings from the theme itself. No generic presets here!

This significantly reduces the likelihood of visual inconsistencies, whether you’re updating or just experimenting with your site’s look and feel.

Beautiful Designs

Probably one of the best, and most obvious, benefits of using patterns to flesh out your business website is that they’re usually ridiculously good-looking.

Some full-page patterns practically design website pages for you. All you have to do is make a few tweaks, and you can have a customized, on-brand website that looks professionally designed.

Overwhelmed? 3 Tips For Choosing The Best Patterns

It’s a great thing that there are thousands of WordPress patterns up for grabs.

It can also be somewhat mind-boggling to sort through them and choose the best ones for your website.

So, let’s wrap up with a few tips to help you make wiser, quicker decisions when it comes to patterns.

Start With Accessibility

As much as 15% of the world’s population experiences a disability, which is why a network of laws and agencies around the world keeps website accessibility standards high.

Some tips for increasing accessibility include using readable font sizes, creating high-contrast designs, simplifying navigation, captioning graphics, and making your website structure logical. Choose patterns that improve accessibility across your site — such as text patterns with large font or design patterns with high contrast — without having to scrap the whole thing.

For a full walkthrough, be sure to read How To Design An Accessible Website (A Complete Guide). 

Decide On Your Story And Style

When it comes to designing a website, layout and appearance tell the story of your brand.

Only you can tell that story accurately. Once you have it nailed down, it should inform everything else, such as your content and the style in which you present it.

Is minimal and simple the right vibe? Or is your brand loud and vibrant? Do images take center stage when selling your product, or is content key for your service offering?

Once you know the answers to these questions, you can cut right to the chase and put together a collection of patterns that craft a website that tells your story.

Learn more about web design with Top 7 Basic Elements Of Web Design.

Peruse What’s Popular

That said, sometimes understanding your brand to the core doesn’t stir up any ideas for design. Some of us just aren’t visual thinkers.

If that’s you and you need inspiration fast, look no further than our guide to web design trends.

With a little direction, you can start picking out patterns and build a site that’s both stylish and uniquely yours.

We’ll Help You Decode The WordPress Pattern Directory

With that, you’re fully prepared to access WordPress’ directory and library and start creating the web design of your dreams.

But what if you don’t trust your design chops, don’t have time to deal with it as you field business orders left and right (congrats!), or you simply don’t wanna?

We get it.

That’s why our simple, affordable hosting plans and web dev, web design, and website management pros support website owners and managers on their missions to create SEO-boosting, conversion-making, and downright beautiful online experiences.

Launch Your Website with DreamPress

Our automatic updates and strong security defenses take server management off your hands so you can focus on creating a great website.

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The post Decoding WordPress: Build Fast With WordPress Pattern Directory appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

The good news is that you can design accessible websites without sacrificing visual impact. In fact, some of the most stunning websites out there are designed specifically to be more accessible to people with disabilities — and we could all learn a thing or two from them.

In this post, we’ll start by showing you what strong web accessibility looks like, and cover some web accessibility standards designed to help democratize access to websites. Then we’ll show you 12 of the best web accessibility examples on the internet, including some popular websites that have committed to accessibility, and see what they can teach us.

Let’s get started!

What Great Web Accessibility Looks Like

According to The World Bank, around a billion people, or 15% of the global population, have some form of disability. These can include:

• Visual impairments: Some users have a visual disability that inhibits their ability to see clearly or perceive color contrast ratios. A range of people may fall into this category, including blind users or those with color blindness. For users with visual impairments, you might use audio descriptions or accessible color combinations (for example, avoid using dark text on dark background colors).
• Hearing impairments: Users with hearing impairments may include D/deaf people and those with partial hearing loss (hard of hearing/HoH). Captions for audio content can provide these users with a more accessible experience.
• Physical disabilities: Some people have mobility impairments that can impact their dexterity and ability to make precise movements, possibly making using a mouse difficult. Those with physical disabilities may be assistive technology users. Ensure your site is properly coded for assistive devices to provide accessible content for users with physical disabilities.
• Cognitive disabilities: Some users may have cognitive impairments like dyslexia, dementia, or an auditory processing disorder. You may consider using a specific font, like Dyslexie. You should also ensure that any audio content has a transcript available for those with auditory processing impairments.

It’s important to keep all of these different abilities in mind when creating your website to make sure there aren’t barriers for disabled users. To help web designers with this, W3C has developed a set of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

Solid web accessibility means adhering to these guidelines and carefully following the four guiding principles of accessible design. These guiding principles state that all websites should be:

1. Perceivable
2. Operable
3. Understandable
4. Robust

Ensuring that your website is “operable” might mean implementing keyboard-friendly navigation for people who can’t use a mouse. “Perceivable” could mean using high-contrast colors for people with visual impairments.

Ready to see what these principles look like in practice? Below, we have 12 examples of websites that are doing accessible design right.

12 Great Web Accessibility Examples To Inspire You

Here, you’ll find some of our favorite web accessibility examples. These 12 websites are examples of accessible web design at its best.

1. Scope

Scope is a disability equality charity based in England and Wales dedicated to creating a fairer, more equal society. As a champion of disability equality, you’d expect that this organization’s website would be as accessible as possible — and it is.

Not only does it fully adhere to WCAG 2.0 and WCAG 2.1 guidelines, but the site is even customizable for individual users. For example, users can change the site’s colors, increase the text size, or even turn on text narration to have the content read aloud.

If you look at the top-left section of the home page, you’ll see an Accessibility tab. Click on this, and the site will bring you to its accessibility page, which includes instructions on how to adapt the experience to your needs, links to assistive technologies, and a list of known accessibility issues that are being worked on.

Scope uses short sentences and large, clean fonts throughout the site for maximum readability. Plus, the site is fully compatible with screen reader software.

Despite already being a fantastic example of website accessibility, the team at Scope continues to make improvements. Every four months, they test the website for accessibility and make updates wherever necessary.

2. Harvard University

Harvard’s education isn’t its only strong suit. The world-renowned university’s website also stands out for its accessibility, offering an army of reading tools, multilingual video subtitles, and carefully curated color schemes that meet the needs of color-blind visitors.

Harvard’s navigation menu also gets points for accessibility. It’s simple but effective, with large, easy-to-read text in a high-contrast color. It’s also clear and easy to find.

3. Paralympic.org

Paralympic.org is the official website of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). The IPC is a powerful advocate of social inclusion, and its website is a testament to that.

It features keyboard-friendly tab navigation and an instant “scroll-to-top” arrow button to make it easy to move around the page. Images and videos are large and prominently visible, and there’s plenty of white space to make visual elements stand out.

If you go to the home page, you’ll notice a text size adjuster in the top-right corner of the screen. This is easily visible and allows users with visual impairments to quickly customize the size of the text to meet their needs.

4. Walmart

One of the WCAG’s requirements for accessible websites is that they need to be “focus visible,” meaning that the part of the site that is in use is highlighted. Walmart’s website is a great example of this. It has a ton of interactive elements like buttons, links, and form fields — but visitors can only focus on one at a time, and the one they’re interacting with is distinctly highlighted for maximum visibility.

It’s also easy to navigate between different interactive elements, from the navigation menu to different buttons, the search bar, links to your account page and shopping cart, and more, whether you use mouse or keyboard navigation.

5. KidsWish

KidsWish is an organization that provides therapy, support services, and an annual Christmas party for children who are disadvantaged or have a disability. It caters to many people with different disabilities, so naturally, their developers built a website that was as accessible as possible.

And guess what? They nailed it. The KidsWish website is wonderfully designed, with a logical structure, keyboard-friendly navigation, high-contrast colors, and large text. Plus, it’s easy to browse with prominent, clickable elements.

The design is also very child-friendly. It boasts a bright, bold color scheme and tons of fun graphics.

6. Nomensa

Nomensa is a strategic user experience (UX) design agency based in London. They put such a focus on accessible design, that they offer a web accessibility test that their current and prospective customers can take to see how their sites measure up against international standards.

The agency then offers design services to help customers correct any issues discovered by the accessibility testing tool.

Get this: the firm’s co-founder is a co-chair of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and helped write the WCAG guidelines that direct web accessibility best practices. It’s no wonder Nomensa takes accessibility solutions so seriously!

7. Ovo Energy

Ovo Energy is a UK-based energy company. Its website features information about tariffs and bundles and includes a main login portal for customers to service their accounts.

The company has done a wonderful job of making the site accessible to all by using large readable text and a clear interface. It also incorporates keyboard navigation to make it easy to get around the site.

The designers went above and beyond to ensure that the site is accessible to visually- and hearing-impaired users. There are SignVideo services for British Sign Language users, and the color contrast meets WCAG guidelines.

Customers can also request bills in Braille and larger formats. In addition to all of this, the site is compatible with assistive technology.

8. Bleacher Report

Sports news site Bleacher Report does something different that’s extremely helpful for users who access their site using screen readers or keyboard controls. The first focus points are the cookies notification, Privacy Policy, and Terms of Use, and if you click on the external link for these, they open in a new window.

To users without disabilities, this may not seem like a big deal, but this gives all visitors to Bleacher Report’s site access to important legal information. On most sites, the legal and cookies alerts are at the bottom of the page, which means visitors who use keyboard controls or screen readers get to them at the end of their visit, after browsing through the rest of the site. This is a small change with a big impact for people with disabilities.

9. BBC iPlayer

BBC iPlayer is the BBC’s online streaming service. Users watch programs online on its website. It’s also another fantastic web accessibility example that we can all learn from.

First, the website is both very easy to navigate and compatible with assistive technology. You can move around the page by clicking on the Tab button. Navigating over the iPlayer logo brings up an option for Accessibility help, which links to a resource page with a lot of useful information for users with disabilities.

The content is logically laid out, and all buttons use a clear visual design with high-contrast colors. There are also keyboard and mouse-accessible tooltips that provide extra information for users and descriptive alt text for all images.

The video content is also accessible. All shows on BBC iPlayer feature subtitles. There are also audio-described and signed content categories.

10. Metropolitan Transportation Authority

In addition to having a responsive site that’s easy to use on devices with screens of all sizes, New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority also has a built-in search experience that helps users find the information they’re looking for more quickly and easily. How? The search function still provides results even if users misspell words or provide inputs in the wrong formats.

For example, if a user inputs an address or neighborhood into the MTA’s trip planner with a typo, the search bar will still suggest addresses based on its best guess of what the user was looking for.

11. NSW Government

The NSW Government website is the government hub for the New South Wales area of Australia. The website is designed to be user-friendly for residents from all backgrounds and abilities.

The website features tab navigation, making it simple to navigate pages using a keyboard or screen reader. Thanks to large fonts and contrasting colors, it’s also extremely readable and gets points for being compatible with assistive technology.

12. GOV.UK

GOV.UK is the central hub for all U.K. government web pages. The site provides information about everything from disability aid and benefits to visa and immigration support.

The U.K. Government has done an amazing job of making its site accessible for everyone who needs it. The website features keyboard navigation and ARIA attributes, so you can find pages easily. Furthermore, it’s designed to support 300% zoom for visually-impaired readers.

Make An Accessibility Statement

Making sure your website is as accessible as possible is both a moral and a professional obligation. It might seem like a challenge, but we promise you — it’s worth it. The examples above will guide you in creating an inclusive website that will be accessible to all users.

Ready to build your accessible website? Let us take care of the technical side for you, so you can focus more of your time and energy on what matters: the design. Sign up for our Shared Unlimited Hosting Plan and get unlimited, secure hosting for all of your websites.

Note: We do extensive research on disability-inclusive language for our articles. Remember to utilize your resources when creating accessible content, and when in doubt, always ask. 

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The post 12 Outstanding Accessible Website Examples That Raise The Bar appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

And that’s essentially what Really Simple SSL does for your site.

This super-popular WordPress plugin makes it easy for website owners to upgrade to HTTPS. In turn, upgrading helps to maintain visitor security. It also signals to search engines that your site is the hottest ticket in town. Sounds great, doesn’t it?

In this quick guide, we’ll take a look at what Really Simple SSL can do, how to install the plugin, and some of the alternatives to consider. Let’s get the party started!

What Is SSL Exactly?

Secure Sockets Layer, or SSL, is basically the secret handshake of the internet. It’s a cryptographic protocol that ensures that hosting servers and web browsers can talk to each other without any uninvited creeps eavesdropping on the conversation.

On a more technical level, SSL works like this:

• When you visit a website, the hosting server “shakes hands” with your web browser.
• The browser then asks the server for an ID.
• In response to incoming requests, the server produces a valid certificate to prove its identity.
• After the certificate has been checked, the server and browser open a secure connection via HTTPS.
• Once the connection is established, all data that’s transferred between the server and the browser is encrypted.

This process ensures that sneaky hackers can’t set up a fake server or spy on your connection to steal any personal information. Plus, search engines tend to prefer sites that are secure in this way.

Fun fact: SSL was replaced a few years ago by TLS (Transport Layer Security). However, because TLS performs the same function, we generally talk about SSL.

What Is Really Simple SSL?

Really Simple SSL is a plugin that simplifies setting up SSL on your WordPress website.

More specifically, the plugin installs a free SSL certificate, if required, and configures your site to use HTTPS. (With many of our DreamHost hosting plans, we do this for you.)

In addition to this initial set-up process, Really Simple SSL can run a security health check on your hosting server and help you mitigate WordPress’s weaknesses.

It can even notify you about vulnerabilities that pop up in the plugin, theme, and WordPress core updates.

Why Really Simple SSL Is Probably Your Best Option

What makes Really Simple SSL the standout choice? There are five main reasons:

1. It’s the simplest solution: This plugin lives up to its name. There are multiple ways to set up SSL and HTTPS, but none are as easy and straightforward as using Really Simple SSL.
2. Intelligent automation: When you set up HTTPS manually, there’s always a chance of introducing the occasional typo. Really Simple SSL helps you avoid this issue by automating much of the process. The automation also extends to troubleshooting mixed content errors and other common issues that arise when you implement SSL/HTTPS.
3. A specialized tool: Many full-featured security plugins include SSL setup as an option. But if your main goal is setting up SSL, Really Simple SSL is completely focused on WordPress HTTPS migrations.
4. Streamlined performance: While sprawling security plugins sometimes add weight to your site, Really Simple SSL is like a feather. The lightweight nature of this plugin also makes for fewer compatibility problems.
5. Outstanding reviews: Really Simple SSL has a perfect 5-star average rating, from over 9,000 submissions in the official WordPress Plugin Directory. And at the time of writing, 32 out of 34 issues raised in the past two months have been resolved.

These features are pretty compelling, aren’t they? With over five million active installations, it’s obvious users are enjoying it.

Really Simple SSL Use Cases

Not sure whether you need an SSL plugin? To make the answer crystal clear, let’s run through the main use cases for Really Simple SSL:

• New WordPress sites: If you’re starting from scratch, Really Simple SSL can help you make your site secure. The plugin ensures HTTPS is properly configured, helping you to avoid common pitfalls.
• Upgrading existing sites to HTTPS: If your existing site doesn’t yet run SSL/HTTPS, you should probably upgrade for improved security and SEO benefits. Really Simple SSL automates the transition, so content like images and links are loaded properly via the secure HTTPS protocol.
• Sites with mixed HTTP/HTTPS content: Some WordPress sites end up with an ugly mixture of HTTPS and HTTP content because of site migrations, plugin conflicts, or manual HTTPS setups. This can create security vulnerabilities and even break your site. Luckily, Really Simple SSL has a mixed content fixer.
• Subdomains that need HTTPS: Maintaining HTTPS across multiple subsites or subdomains can be complicated. Really Simple SSL supports multisite installation, meaning subsites are automatically configured to use HTTPS.

How To Set Up Really Simple SSL

Assuming your site falls into one of these categories above, you should install Really Simple SSL. Here’s your jargon-free quickstart guide:

1. Install The Plugin

To get started, log in to your WordPress Dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New Plugin via the side menu.

Next, search for really simple ssl in the search box in the top-right. This is the plugin you’re looking for:

Tap Install Now, and then Activate.

2. Basic Configuration

Once Really Simple SSL is activated, the plugin will scan your site configuration.

Most web hosts today, including DreamHost, provide SSL certificates. If this applies to your hosting plan, you can simply walk through the setup process:

From your lefthand navigation menu, select Plugins > Installed Plugins. Type really simple in the search bar and then select Settings.

Click the blue Activate SSL button on the plugin options screen.

Next, enter your web host when prompted. Then click on Activate SSL.

Choose whether you want Really Simple SSL’s additional security hardening features. When you’re done, click Enable (or you can choose to Skip at this time).

Now, enter your email address (you need to complete email verification to access certain options).

Choose whether you want to install the optional security and privacy plugins.

Complete the process by clicking Finish.

And just like that, you’re done! Your website should now be secure with HTTPS. Test it by typing your website address into your browser, and tapping the icon next to the address. The drop-down should confirm that your site is secure!

Setting Up An SSL Certificate

Unfortunately, not all web hosting providers give you SSL as a standard feature. But fear not, dear friend! Really Simple SSL allows you to generate a free certificate via Let’s Encrypt.

Here’s how to do it:

1. After the initial scan, Really Simple SSL will inform you that “No SSL certificate has been detected.” Click on Install SSL Certificate.
2. The plugin will dive deeper to check whether your site is ready for SSL. Assuming you meet the criteria, you can click Save and Continue.
3. To register your SSL certificate, the plugin will then ask you for a contact email address and a few other details. Fill these out, and then click Save and Continue.
4. Next, Really Simple SSL will ask you to add information about your hosting management software (e.g., cPanel). Fill out the form, and smash that Save and Continue button.
5. In some cases, you might be asked to verify your DNS records. The wizard will guide you through any steps you need to take.
6. Really Simple SSL will generate your SSL certificate. It might install automatically. Otherwise, follow the steps provided by the wizard to install your certificate manually.

Et voilà! You should be ready to transition to SSL.

Keep in mind that some hosts don’t allow you to generate and install SSL certificates so easily. If you’re encountering problems along the way, check this list to see if your host supports Really Simple SSL.

3. Security Checkup

Once you’ve completed the installation process, it’s worth checking that SSL is working properly. 
Start by typing in the URL of your website, with https:// at the beginning. Then click on the View site information icon to the immediate left of the address bar.

Click Connection is secure and you should see a “Connection is secure” message.

If you encounter problems here, it might be because of mixed content errors.

All good? Next, visit the Really Simple SSL plugin settings under Settings > SSL & Security. Here, you can run a quick SSL health check.

While you’re there, you can also check for any security issues under the vulnerability measures section.

Follow the instructions here to fortify your site!

Really Simple SSL Alternatives

As you can tell, we love Really Simple SSL. There are other options, though. Here are some of the key alternatives:

• Cloudflare (Flexible SSL): This CDN (content delivery network) comes with basic SSL capabilities.
• Manual installation: For advanced users who want total control, configuring SSL manually might be a better option.
• Other WordPress SSL plugins: Plugins like SSL Zen offer extra features, such as email reminders for expiring SSL certificates.

Really Simple SSL FAQs

Still have questions? We have answers! Here are some of the most questions we get about Really Simple SSL:

Is Really Simple SSL free?

All the basic features are free, yes. You only need to pay for advanced security options.

Does Really Simple SSL slow down my website?

No. This particular plugin is really lightweight. But remember, the encryption of SSL does take a little time.

Will Really Simple SSL break my site?

It shouldn’t. But it’s worth backing up your site before you install the plugin. If you have problems, try clearing your browser cache, and make sure you don’t have conflicting redirect rules in your .htaccess file.

Make WordPress More Secure

Adding SSL to your site is highly recommended, and Really Simple SSL makes it super easy. With the right hosting provider, you can upgrade your site in minutes.

At DreamHost, all our shared hosting plans come with SSL certificates. On some plans, like DreamPress, you don’t even need to install the certificate!

We also offer free daily site backups, 100% uptime, and 24/7 expert support — starting at just $2.59 per month.

Want to try it for yourself? Sign up today to give your WordPress site the hosting it deserves!

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The post Really Simple SSL: Improve WordPress Security The Easy Way appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.

As a site owner, this means spending a lot of time with photos. And when you’re regularly uploading images to your WordPress website, it’s only natural to stumble upon the occasional error message.

Fortunately, there are ways to diagnose even the fuzziest image upload issue. After running through a checklist of common fixes, you should have no problems adding beautiful, eye-catching visuals to your website.

In this article, we’ll look at why image-related errors can be tricky to diagnose. We’ll then share five solutions for you to try the next time the WordPress Media Library doesn’t want to cooperate with your creative vision. Let’s get started!

An Introduction To WordPress Image Errors (And Why They’re A Problem)

Beautiful visuals aren’t just pretty to look at. If you’re running an e-commerce store, product images are particularly important for driving sales, because they let people see what they’re purchasing. Maybe that explains why images make up around 40% of the median web page.

However, uploading images to WordPress isn’t always straightforward. Sometimes, this popular Content Management System (CMS) displays a failure to upload error. These issues are notoriously difficult to diagnose, as a number of factors trigger them. This can make it difficult to know where to start to address the problem.

The good news? We’re going to walk you through the steps we take to identify and fix image upload issues in WordPress.

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Common WordPress Image Upload Errors And How To Fix Them (5 Methods)

The last thing you want is your workflow interrupted by a vague error message. Below are five ways to fix upload errors, so you can start adding stunning images to your website. Pronto.

1. Adjust The Image File Name And File Size

If you’re only encountering issues with a specific image file, you can start by looking at the file name. If you’re using special characters ($, *, &, #) or accent letters (ñ, á, é), these can cause issues with the WordPress media library.

The image may also be too large — both, in terms of dimensions and file size. You can change an image’s dimensions using your favorite editing program. If you’re trying to upload a particularly high-resolution graphic, you can squeeze the size without impacting the quality, using a compression tool such as TinyPNG.

If you regularly encounter issues due to file size, then WordPress’s limit may be set too low. You can raise the maximum upload size by adding code to your site’s php.ini file:

upload_max_filesize = 128M
post_max_size = 128M
max_execution_time = 300

If your site doesn’t already contain a php.ini file, you can create it inside the PHP folder for the current PHP version your site is running. Then, simply add the above code at the end of the file.

2. Increase The Memory Limit Of Your WordPress Site

When you try to upload an image, you might encounter the WordPress HTTP error. This can sometimes be caused by low server resources or unusual traffic. For this reason, it’s always worth waiting a few minutes and then attempting to re-upload the image.

If the issue doesn’t resolve itself, then you may be exceeding the WordPress memory limit. You can increase the amount of memory that PHP can use on your server by connecting to your site over SFTP.

Next, open your wp-config file. You can then add the following, which will increase the limit to 256MB:

define( 'WP_MEMORY_LIMIT', '256M' );

You can also define your WP_MAX_MEMORY_LIMIT in the same way, should you want to try overriding the memory limit specifically for backend tasks.

If you’re still unable to upload visual content, your problem might be related to threading. WordPress processes images using either the GD Library or Imagick module, depending on which one is available.

Imagick was designed to use multiple threads to accelerate image processing. However, some shared hosting providers limit Imagick’s ability to use multiple threads, which can result in an HTTP error. You can often resolve this issue by adding the following to your .htaccess file:

SetEnv MAGICK_THREAD_LIMIT 1.

Remember to check with your host if you can change thread limits.

Related: How To Fix The WordPress Memory Exhausted Error By Increasing Your Site’s PHP Memory Limit

3. Deactivate Your Plugins

Third-party software can sometimes interfere with your image uploads. If you’re using any plugins, it’s always worth deactivating each one individually and testing to see whether this resolves your image upload issue.

If a plugin is to blame, you can double-check to make sure you’re running the latest version. If you’ve fallen behind on your updates, you may be struggling with a problem that’s already been resolved in recent updates.

However, if you are in fact running the latest version, we recommend contacting the plugin’s developer to make sure that they’re aware of the issue. This can also be an opportunity to ask whether they plan to solve this problem in their next release. If the plugin is critical to your site and there’s no fix on the horizon, it might be time to look for an alternative solution.

Related: The Beginner’s Guide To WordPress Plugins

4. Clear Your Site’s Cache

If you’re using a caching plugin, then clearing the cache may be enough to resolve your image upload issues. We should mention, however, that it’s incredibly rare for the cache to prevent a file upload, so we’re including this fix out of an abundance of caution.

If you think that caching could be causing the error, the steps you take will depend on your chosen caching solution. For example, if you’re using the W3 Total Cache plugin, you can clear the cache by selecting Performance > Purge All Caches from the WordPress toolbar.

If you’re unsure how to clear the cache in your specific tool, the plugin’s settings menu is often a good place to start. You can also check the developer’s official documentation for more details.

5. Try The Browser Uploader

Still having issues? If you’ve tried all of the above fixes but the problem persists, you can use your browser’s built-in file uploader. Unlike WordPress’s image uploader, the browser uploader doesn’t support multiple file selection or drag and drop. However, it can be a useful workaround when you need to upload an image quickly.

To access the native image uploader, navigate to Media > Add New Media File. You can then select the browser uploader link.

Next, click on Choose File. This launches the familiar file selection dialog, where you can upload the image as you normally would. If this workaround succeeds, we recommend trying to upload an image using WordPress’s standard image uploader afterward — just to check whether it resolved your issue.

FAQs About Fixing Image Upload Issues In WordPress

Have more questions? Luckily, we have an endless supply of answers. Here are some of the most common requests!

Why am I getting an HTTP error when uploading images?

In most cases, HTTP errors are caused by one of the following issues:

• The images you’re uploading exceed the file size limits
• Plugin conflicts are interfering with uploads
• There are problems with your browser’s cache

Why are my image files taking so long to upload?

A slow internet connection, a large file size, server performance, or high traffic on your website could all be contributing factors. Here’s a detailed guide to fixing slow image uploads.

What is the “Unable To Create Directory” error?

Normally, this problem occurs when a plugin or script can’t create a new directory within your website’s file system. This can happen if the program has insufficient permissions to write to the target location, or is using a file path that doesn’t exist. Also, it can happen when your storage is full.

Additional WordPress Error Tutorials

Once you’ve solved your image upload error, the adventure isn’t over. There’s always more to learn about WordPress! We’ve put together several tutorials to help you troubleshoot other common WordPress errors:

• How to Fix Common SSL Issues In WordPress
• How To Troubleshoot The WordPress White Screen Of Death
• How To Fix The 500 Internal Server Error In WordPress
• How To Fix Syntax Errors In WordPress
• How To Fix The WordPress Not Sending Email Issue
• How To Fix The Error Establishing Database Connection
• How To Fix WordPress Error 404 Not Found
• How To Fix White Text And Missing Buttons In WordPress Visual Editor
• How To Fix The Sidebar Below Content Error In WordPress
• What To Do When You’re Locked Out Of The WordPress Admin Area
• How To Fix The WordPress Login Page Refreshing And Redirecting Issue

Want more information on managing a WordPress site? Check out our WordPress Tutorials, a collection of guides designed to help you navigate the WordPress dashboard like an expert.

WordPress Images Made Easy

Visuals are crucial for catching (and holding) your visitors’ attention, but image upload issues are frustratingly common. By following our simple steps, we’re confident that you can get your site back on track — even when the error message itself doesn’t provide much information.

Let’s quickly recap five ways to resolve common WordPress image upload issues:

1. Rename, resize, and re-upload the image
2. Increase the memory limit
3. Deactivate your plugins
4. Clear the cache
5. Try the browser uploader

Tired of troubleshooting WordPress errors on your own? All of our DreamPress hosting packages include 24/7 customer support, so you’re always covered.

We also offer unlimited traffic, automatic WordPress updates, and daily backups to keep your site running smoothly — and plans that start at just $2.59 per month.

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The post Common WordPress Image Upload Issues And How To Fix Them (5 Methods) appeared first on Website Guides, Tips & Knowledge.