AI has become a total game-changer in recent times, bringing fresh and creative solutions to make tasks easier, enhance user experiences, and boost website performance. In 2024, the integration of AI into WordPress is even more exciting than before. There are a bunch of incredible AI plugins ready to revolutionize the way we create and engage with websites. So let’s take a dive into the world of AI plugins for WordPress in 2024.

📚 Table of contents

🤖 1. AI Engine Plugin
📈 2. Rank Math SEO
🧞‍♂️ 3. GetGenie
🎨 4. Elemenentor AI
🌟 5. Divi AI
⚙️ 6. Uncanny Automator
💻 7. CodeWP AI
💬 8. Tidio Live Chat
📚 9. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)
🔗 10. Link Whisper
💡 Conclusion

1. AI Engine Plugin

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On our journey through the world of AI-powered WordPress plugins, we can’t miss the AI Engine Plugin. This plugin is causing quite a stir in the WordPress community as it brings the power of artificial intelligence right to your website.

What is the AI Engine Plugin?

Imagine having your own virtual assistant right in your WordPress dashboard. Thanks to the AI Engine Plugin, that’s exactly what you’ll have. This plugin provides a WordPress-focused AI experience that can help you improve and manage your website in countless ways.

To get started, simply get an open AI key and add it to the plugin’s settings. This will enable you to unlock the true power of the plugin.

Key Features and Functionalities

• Virtual Assistant: The AI Engine Plugin offers a virtual assistant that focuses on tasks specific to WordPress. It’s like having your own personal helper right on your dashboard, ready to answer any questions you may have.
• Prompts and Templates: It provides a wide range of prompts and templates to assist you in creating AI-optimized and generated content. This means that you can say goodbye to writer’s block.
• Image Generator: Its image-generating feature is definitely one of its most exciting features. With just a few text prompts you can create stunning images. Once you are happy with the generated image, you can personalize it by adding a catchy title, a captivating caption, a detailed description, and even some alt text. And the cherry on top is that you can instantly add it to your WordPress media gallery or simply download it for offline use.

Pricing:

• Free version available
• Paid plans start at $49/year for one website

Don’t worry we’re just scratching the surface with this plugin. Keep reading to discover even more amazing AI tools that will take your website to the next level.

2. Rank Math SEO

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In our search for the top AI plugins for WordPress in 2024, we stumbled upon the famous Rank Math SEO plugin. This plugin has been a favorite among SEO enthusiasts for quite some time, but now it’s made it to our list thanks to its impressive new AI capabilities. These features are designed to give you even more control over the on-page SEO of your website.

What is the Rank Math SEO Plugin?

Rank Math SEO is well-known for being a great SEO plugin. But what sets it apart from other WordPress AI plugins is its incorporation of cutting-edge AI features that are designed to make your on-page SEO even more efficient.

Key Features and Functionalities

• Content AI Integration: After you’ve got the Rank Math SEO up and running, it’s time to explore its powerful Content AI. With this awesome feature, you can easily boost your content‘s SEO elements, like headings, links, and overall optimize for SEO, by just asking its Content AI to generate it.
• SEO Keywords: Its Content AI is a great tool to add SEO keywords to your pages and optimize your content for search engines. You’ll get a detailed analysis of your page’s content. This analysis will help you identify areas for improvement and boost your page’s search engine ranking.
• Providing Insights: Rank Math SEO’s AI capabilities are not limited to analyzing your content alone. It can also help you analyze your competition by providing valuable insights like CPC and search volume data for your chosen keyword. With this information, you can make better decisions about your content strategy and stay ahead of the competition.
• Content Optimization Recommendations: It has a bunch of SEO suggestions as well, that can help you improve your content’s visibility on search engines. It recommends extra keywords, while also improving headings, word count, and more, all to boost the overall quality of your content.
• Link Suggestions: It makes sure that your content has reliable sources and boosts its credibility and relevance.

Pricing:

• Free version available
• Paid plans start at $59/year for unlimited websites

3. GetGenie

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GetGenie is an exceptional writing companion that we discovered during our exploration of WordPress AI plugins. It isn’t just any ordinary writing tool, it’s an AI assistant that’s been carefully created to take your content writing skills to the next level.

What is the GetGenie Plugin?

This AI assistant is designed to help content creators in producing high-quality, unique blog posts quickly. It’s got you covered whether you’re a beginner or an advanced writer.

Key Features and Functionalities

• Templates: GetGenie offers a wide range of templates to choose from, with more than 30 options available. These templates are designed to fit different content frameworks, providing you with guidance. By using these templates, you can ensure that your content follows these proven structures and have maximum impact.
• On-page SEO Scores: It gives you live on-page SEO scores, giving you immediate feedback on how well your content is optimized for search engines.
  Genie Mode: With it, you can effortlessly create content by using prompts and get detailed responses in return. It can be a game-changer for anyone looking to create content quickly and effectively.
• GenieChat: GetGenie takes it a step further with the introduction of “GenieChat”. It’s a chatting platform that allows you to have human-like conversations with 22 unique personalities. This not only adds a personal touch to your content creation but also opens up exciting opportunities for interaction.
• Competitor Data Analysis: GetGenie goes beyond content creation by providing competitor data analysis. Which means that it shows you valuable insight to stay ahead in your niche.
• Generate Ideas: Looking for some inspiration as a blogger? GetGenie is the perfect tool to generate ideas and ignite your creativity. It’s designed to help you uncover new and exciting topics to write about.
• Multilingual Content: Easily create content in various languages and broaden your audience.

Pricing:

• Free version available
• Paid plans start at $19/month for unlimited websites

4. Elemenentor AI

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Going further on this journey of exploring the top WordPress AI plugins, we’ve come across the game-changing Elelementor AI. This AI solution is seamlessly integrated into the popular Elementor page and website builder plugin.

What is the Elementor AI Plugin?

Elementor is one of the best page and website builders for WordPress. And now with the addition of Elementor AI, it’s taking a huge step into the future of website creation. Its main focus is on transforming website creation, optimization, and design processes.
Let’s explore the amazing features that make Elementor AI a must-have for Elementor users.

Key Features and Functionalities

• Custom Code Snippets: With Elementor AI, you can easily create custom HTML and CSS code snippets without any coding skills. This feature allows you to enhance and personalize your Elementor website effortlessly, even if you are not a coding expert.
• Content Creation and Optimization: Elementor AI is the perfect writing assistant for all your content creation and optimization needs. Whether you are creating new content or rewriting existing text within the Elementor page builder, you can easily shorten, extend, or check the grammar or spelling of it. With Elementor AI you can do all this within the familiar interface of the Elementor plugin.
• Multilingual: Elementor AI is a game-changer when it comes to language diversity. With its amazing multilingual capabilities, it effortlessly translates text into more than 20 languages in real time.
• Module-Specific Prompts: These prompts adapt to the specific Elementor module you are using. So if you are working with a heading module, the prompts will be different compared to when you are using a text block module. This personalized help from its AI helps you create impactful content for each module, which ultimately assists you in improving your website1s overall impact.

Pricing:

• Free trial available
• Paid plans start at $35.88/year for unlimited websites

5. Divi AI

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Divi AI completely changes the game when it comes to creating websites on WordPress. It’s not just a helpful tool, it completely reinvents how websites are imagined and brought into existence.

What is the Divi AI Plugin?

Divi AI takes your web design experience to the next level by seamlessly integrating with Divi, a popular WordPress theme and page builder while adding the power of artificial intelligence to the mix.

Key Features and Functionalities

• Content Writing Tool: It has launched an impressive content-writing tool, that allows users to create website content with ease. With just one click, you can generate text content for your website, whether you are starting from scratch or improving existing content. Divi AI offers prompts and suggestions to make our workflow smoother.
• Image Generation: Divi AI offers image generation features, letting users create stunning visuals for their websites with ease. With built-in style prompts, the generated images are guaranteed to match the desired aesthetic.
• Analyzes Website: It learns from your website, by analyzing the information available on your website and pages. This way it can produce highly accurate and relevant results.

Pricing:

• Free trial available
• Paid plans start at $24/month ($18/month if paid yearly)

6. Uncanny Automator

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Let’s explore the world of automation with the remarkable Uncanny Automator, as we continue our search for the top WordPress AI plugins. This plugin is like Zapier for WordPress, allowing you to automate a wide range of tasks by connecting your WordPress site, plugins, and apps. And now with the integration of artificial intelligence, it’s even more powerful than ever before.

What is the Uncanny Automator Plugin?

Uncanny Automator is a powerful automation tool that makes it easy for your WordPress site, plugins, and third-party services to communicate seamlessly. It ensures that all the different parts of your WordPress setup work together smoothly.

Key Features and Functionalities

• Extensive Plugin Integrations: It’s the ultimate connector for your WordPress ecosystem, with support for more than 100 plugins and third-party services. It acts as a universal translator, allowing smooth communication between various tools.
• No-Code Visual Builder: It’s one of its most outstanding features. With its user-friendly interface, creating recipes and automating tasks has never been easier. You can integrate AI into your WordPress workflow without any complex coding, thanks to the simple drag-and-drop feature.
• Dealy and Scheduling Automation: It brings in a touch of flexibility. With this feature, you can ensure that tasks are carried out at the perfect time, enabling you to enhance the efficiency of managing your website.
• Dynamic Content: You can make use of dynamic content from different sources such as user-generated data and other generated content. This guarantees that your website’s automation process can easily adapt to the changing needs of your website.
• OpenAI Integration: Uncanny Automator made a huge step in integrating with OpenAI, which allows you to bring its incredible capabilities to your WordPress site. With the help of recipes, you can effortlessly integrate AI into different parts of your website management.

Pricing:

• Free version available
• Paid plans start at $199/year

7. CodeWP AI

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We have arrived at a special place for WordPress developers. CodeWP AI is specifically designed for those who navigate the coding realm of WordPress.

What is the CodeWP AI Plugin?

This coding assistant is a powerful accessory that provides assistance with PHP and JS, making code creation easier and solving complex tasks that could otherwise take up hours of your time.

Key Features and Functionalities

• Dozens of AI Modes: It goes beyond generic assistance and caters to the specific needs of WordPress developers. With dozens of finely tuned AI modes, the plugin is designed to provide accurate and high-quality code snippets. Whether you are using specific plugins, page builders, or products, CodeWP AI has got you covered with its wide range of AI modes.
• Compatible with Page Builders: CodeWP AI is built to be compatible with all the major plugins and page builders.
• Tutorials: Looking for guidance? CodeWp AI has a wide range of expertly crafted tutorials made just for you.
• Example Snippets: It comes with a wide range of example snippets, which gives you tested and proven code snippets to easily integrate into your projects.
• General Functions: It provides you with various general functions that can be applied in different scenarios. Additionally, it offers specialized AI modes that are specifically designed for specific tasks. This means that whether you’re dealing with a common challenge or a specialized task, CodeWP AI’s got your back.
• Designed for WordPress Users: CodeWP AI is not your average coding assistant. It’s tailored to meet the needs of WordPress users, making it a smart and effective tool for those who use WordPress on a regular basis.

Pricing:

• Free version available
• Paid plans start at $96/year

8. Tidio Live Chat

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Tidio live chat is a game-changer in the world of WordPress communication solutions. It’s an all-in-one tool that revolutionizes customer service and boosts sales. It goes beyond being a simple chat plugin, it brings a new era to your website’s customer service.

What is the Tidio Live Chat Plugin?

It offers various communication channels and makes use of chatbots. Let’s explore its standout features that make it a force to be reckoned with.

Key Features and Functionalities

• Everything in One Place: It makes communication a breeze by bringing all channels together in one easy-to-use dashboard. Whether it’s live chat, email, or messaging apps, Tidio guarantees seamless management of all your needs.
• Templates: Its chatbot templates are the perfect way to boost user engagement. You can find a variety of options from cart-saving prompts to personalized interactions with returning customers. These templates are designed to take your customers’ experience to the next level.
• Drag-and-Drop Editor: Its chatbot editor lets you customize chatbots effortlessly. It has an intuitive interface where you can easily modify the existing templates or create chatbots from scratch.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP): Its chatbots are equipped with NLP technology that allows them to recognize commonly used words and answer basic customer questions. This feature ensures it’s delivering fast and accurate responses.

Pricing:

• Free version available
• Paid plans start at $29/month

9. Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP)

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YARPP, also known as Yet Another Related Posts Plugin, is a must-have tool for WordPress website owners who want to boost their engagement and extend the reach of their content. With YARPP, you can increase page views and create a more captivating browsing experience for your visitors.

What is the YARPP?

This amazing WordPress plugin showcases visitors with related posts, pages, and custom post types. It uses advanced algorithms to connect them to content all over your website.

Key Features and Functionalities

• Advanced Algorithms: YARPP uses advanced algorithms that guarantee that users are presented with posts, pages, and custom post types that are relevant to your initial entries. This watching enhances the users’ experience by making it more personalized and captivating.
• Built-In Caching: It boosts performance by including its own catching system. This optimization guarantees that relevant posts are quickly delivered, resulting in a smooth browsing experience for your readers.
• Placement Options: With YARPP, you have the freedom to choose from a variety of placement options for displaying your related content.
• Templates: It makes it easy to showcase related content with its pre-built templates. These can effortlessly display your posts in a visually appealing way, adding a touch of style to your website.
• Language Compatibility: YARPP is built to be language-friendly, allowing it to work seamlessly with websites in different languages. This way everyone around the world can enjoy the advantages of these related posts.
• Customizable: YARPP provides customization options, which makes it easy for website owners to personalize the look and positions of their related posts. This allows them to match it to their site’s design and enhance the overall user experience.
• Free Access to Essential Features: It offers free access to all essential features, making it an affordable and effective solution for anyone looking to make use of related content without extra expenses.

Pricing:

• Free

10. Link Whisper

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Link Whisperer is truly a game-changer in the world of website optimization. It offers a simple and user-friendly solution to the problem of creating impactful internal links in your content.

What is the Internal Linking Plugin?

The proper positioning of internal links is not just to keep users engaged, but it also has a huge impact on improving SEO rankings. Link Whisper’s AI-driven plugin competently transforms this procedure by effortlessly going through your content and suggesting relevant links.

Key Features and Functionalities

• Link Suggestions: Link Whisper’s advanced AI features simplify internal linking by analyzing website content and providing relevant posts and link suggestions. This gets rid of the need for manual link creation, saving us valuable time and improving our internal linking strategy.
• Link Reporting: Besides suggestions, it lets you know about broken links and 404 errors, contributing to overall site health.
• Customize Recommendations: Users can customize link recommendations by selecting the keywords they find relevant. This gives full control over how internal links match with each content piece.
• User-Friendly Interface: Their platform is created with the goal of catering to website owners of all technical backgrounds, so everyone can benefit from their services.

Pricing:

• Free version available
• Paid plans start at $77/year for one site

Conclusion

As we come to the end of our exploration of AI plugins for WordPress it’s clear that the future of web development is here, and it’s smarter, more efficient, and more exciting than ever.

We’ve explored a wide range of plugins, each with its own special touch. From plugins that use AI to create content and generate images, to those that combat spam and provide helpful suggestions for internal links, these plugins are overlooked champions of the WordPress world.

If you’re an experienced developer exploring coding with CodeWP or just a casual user looking for a friendly chatbot companion with Tidio live Chat, there’s an AI plugin designed for everyone. These plugins go beyond mere functionality, they enhance your WordPress experience and make it truly remarkable.

These plugins are more than just extras, they are the secret ingredient that can elevate your website from average to exceptional.

The post 10 Best WordPress AI Plugins to Try in 2024 appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

Do you need a new theme or WordPress hosting? Would you like to get your hands on shiny new plugins to enhance your site? This is the best time of the year to get them! There are several great offers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday and it’s hard to keep track of everything. So here’s a post where we gathered 2023’s best Black Friday deals for WordPress for you to choose from. There will be an extensive list of WordPress plugins, themes, and services (like hosting).

Bookmark this page, check back often and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss anything.

Let’s Get To The Deals!

We aim to create the best Black Friday deals page and make it the most comprehensive list for WordPress users who are looking for the top deals. To find the deal you’re interested in simply scroll down on the page. We split the list into four main sections for easier navigation. The four sections are the following:

🔥 Featured Deals
🏗️ Plugin Deals
🎨 Theme Deals
👨‍🔧 Service Deals

🔥 Featured WordPress Black Friday Deals

WP Compress

Over 93% Off Faster Load Times for Life! WP Compress is a powerful, all-in-one performance plugin that instantly fixes slow loading websites where you can custom brand the plugin & reporting!

Deal: Over 93% Off

Coupon: SmartSlider (for an extra 30% off)

Date: 20 Nov-05 Dec

Get the Deal

PerkZilla

Over 90% Off a Lifetime of Brand Growth! PerkZilla gives you the upper hand in a competitive marketplace by converting visitors into brand advocates who are on a mission to help you grow!

Deal: Over 90% Off

Coupon: SmartSlider (for an extra 30% off)

Date: 20 Nov-05 Dec 

Get the Deal

🏗️ Best WordPress Black Friday Plugin Deals

Get ready, plugin enthusiasts! We’re about to unveil the most exciting Black Friday Plugin Deals of 2023 just for you. As we fast approach Black Friday this year, we’re on the lookout for jaw-dropping plugin deals. Stay tuned because very soon, we’ll update this space with the latest 2023 deals, and if we spot any extraordinary deals, we’ll shout them out here. This Black Friday is about to get a whole lot more exciting!

Elementor Pro

Successful designer’s best kept secret, create stunning professional websites in minutes. Use Elementor with your favorite or customized theme.

Deal: up to 30% OFF

Coupon: Not Needed

Date: 22 Nov - 28 Nov

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WPForms

The best WordPress contact form plugin with a drag & drop contact form builder interface - trusted by more than 5 million users!

Deal: up to 70% OFF

Coupon: Not Needed

Date: 22 Nov - 28 Nov

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Elegant Themes – Divi

Divi by Elegant Themes is the most popular WordPress theme and the ultimate visual WordPress Page Builder. Grab their biggest discount of the year!

Deal: 25% OFF

Coupon: Not Needed

Date: 22 Nov - 28 Nov

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WP Rocket

WP Rocket is the easiest and most powerful solution to boost your website loading time, improve your PageSpeed performance score, and optimize your Core Web Vitals in just a few clicks.

Deal: 30% OFF

Coupon: Not Needed

Date: 20 Nov - 29 Nov

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The Events Calendar

Ticket sales, attendee management & email marketing for your events. Our bundles include everything you need to set up your own events, sell tickets, and filter events.

Deal: 40% OFF

Coupon: bfcm22

Date: 21 Nov - 29 Nov

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Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads provides eCommerce businesses with tools to manage online stores, record customer data, and process payments on one platform.

Deal: Up to 65% OFF

Coupon: Not Needed

Date: 22 Nov - 26 Nov

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Show me all Plugin deals

🎨 Best WordPress Black Friday Theme Deals

Get ready to dive into the most exciting Black Friday theme deals of 2023. As Black Friday approaches, we’re on the hunt for this year’s wallet-friendly gems. And don’t worry, we’re not stuck in the past! Soon, we’ll update this space with the freshest 2023 theme deals. Keep an eye on our spotlighted section because if we spot any amazing deals, we’ll shout them out right here. This Black Friday is all about epic deals!

Astra

Astra is a lightweight WordPress theme ideal for building any type of website. It offers an ever-growing library of Starter Templates created with your favorite page builders.

Deal: up to 50% OFF

Coupon: Not Needed

Date: 20 Nov - 30 Nov

Get the Deal

ThemeIsle

Get access to super-fast, easily customizable, multi-purpose WordPress themes. Pick your favorite between Neve, Hestia ShopIsle, and Zelle.

Deal: 50% OFF

Coupon: Not Needed

Date: 22 Nov - 29 Nov

Get the Deal

Qi Theme for Elementor

Qi Theme comes with 150 superbly designed demos. You also get Qi Addons for Elementor, with 100+ custom Elementor widgets.

Deal: 50% OFF

Coupon: BLACKFRIDAY2023

Date: 21 Nov - 04 Dec

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KadenceWP

Kadence offers premium WordPress products for beautifully effective websites. Dream big with the Essentials Bundle, or go further with the Full Bundle.

Deal: 50% OFF

Coupon: Not Needed

Date: 15 Nov - 29 Nov

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aThemes

aThemes creates well-designed and easy-to-use themes. No matter what type of website you're building, you can find your Theme at aThemes.

Deal: 30% OFF

Coupon: BLACKFRIDAY22

Date: 22 Nov - 28 Nov

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ThemeGrill

ThemeGrill is a popular WordPress theme store and the author of the best-rated free WordPress magazine theme ColorMag, and other themes like Spacious, Flash, etc.

Deal: 40% OFF

Coupon: Not Needed

Date: 10 Nov - 30 Nov

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Show me all Theme deals

All WordPress Black Friday Plugin Deals

Brace yourself for an epic Black Friday plugin adventure. Our 2023 deals are here. Those old deals vanished, and we replaced them with this year’s freshest and hottest plugin deals. So, mark your calendars and gear up for an exciting Black Friday ride!

All WordPress Black Friday Theme Deals

Get ready for an exciting Black Friday theme journey. Our 2023 deals are here. The old deals vanished, making way for the freshest and most sizzling themes of the year. Stay tuned for this thrilling Black Friday journey!

All WordPress Black Friday Service Deals

Brace yourselves for a thrilling journey through this year’s Black Friday service deals. Our 2023 deals are here. The old deals disappeared, and you can find the latest and greatest service deals of the year. Stay tuned for this thrilling Black Friday ride – you’re in for a treat!

Share Your Black Friday & Cyber Monday Deals

Calling all plugin and theme developers! Have you got an awesome deal for your theme or plugin that you’d like to share? Click on the button below to submit the details of your Black Friday or Cyber Monday offer. Our team reviews every submission we receive. If the deal would be interesting to our readers we will add it to our list below.

Submit a Deal

Apart from the open submissions, we decided to create featured spots for deals again. We made 9 featured spots available for reservation. To see a preview of what each section will look like scroll down on the page. You may apply for one of these spots from the submit deal form above. All spots are on a first come first served basis.

• 3 Big featured spots: $500 each (0 available)
• 3 Normal featured spots: $250 each (1 available)

The post Best WordPress Black Friday Deals appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

We’ll go through alt tag characteristics and their essential functions in web design accessibility. This guide provides practical information for everyone in the ever-changing world of web design. This post will give you the useful tips you need to make the most of alt tags. And we’ve got you covered if you’re specifically interested in using Smart Slider 3.

It will cover writing alt text that improves accessibility, the process of checking and validating alt text for images, the significance of alt tags for background images, and even setting alt tags for various Smart Slider 3 elements. Once we get to the conclusion, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge and skills needed to design user-friendly and inclusive websites that leave an impact.

So let’s get started and see how alt tag attributes can improve your website’s design and guarantee a more inclusive online experience for everyone.

📚 Table of contents

📱 Writing Alt Text for Accessibility
🎓 Checking the Alt Text of an Image
⚡ Adding Alt Tag to Images in Smart Slider 3
💻 Do Background Images Need Alt Tag
🏗️ How to Add Alt Tags to Background Images in Smart Slider 3
✏️ How to Add Alt Tag to Images in WordPress
💡 Conclusion

Writing Alt Text for Accessibility

Providing descriptive information about images using alt text is essential for ensuring web design accessibility. When an image can’t be displayed or is not accessible to the user, “alt text”, which stands for “alternative text”, is a to-the-point and meaningful description that takes its place.

For those who use assistive technologies, like screen readers to browse the web, creating good alt text is crucial. Their ability to comprehend the information and context that images give ensures a thorough browsing experience. Alt text is also helpful for search engine optimization (SEO) since it gives search engines useful information, improving the visibility and discoverability of the website.

Take into account the following recommendations for creating meaningful alt text:

• Be descriptive: Thoroughly describe the image’s motive and content. Give relevant information that demonstrates the image’s important message.
• Keep it brief: Strive for short alt text that effectively communicates the required information without being unnecessarily lengthy. Aim for a balance between curtness and descriptive precision.
• Contextualize the image: Take into account the surrounding text and make sure that the text ties in naturally with the story or goal of the image.
• Avoid repetition: Use empty alt text (“”) to show that the image is merely decorative or inessential if it is already accompanied by neighboring text that sufficiently describes it.
• Keep in mind the purpose of the image: Make a difference between decorative and instructive visuals. While decorative ones can have empty alt text, informative images must contain descriptive alt text.

Now we can move on to how to check and verify alt text for images to ensure its accuracy and effectiveness, as we have already covered the basics of writing alt text.

Checking the Alt Text of an Image

To keep up web accessibility it’s necessary to guarantee the accuracy and the existence of alt text. Luckily, various ways are offered to us to check and verify the alt text of any image. Let’s get to the bottom of some of these useful techniques.

Manually inspect:

• To open your browser’s developer tools right-click on the image and select “Inspect” or “Inspect Element”.
• Find the image tag (<img>) in the HTML code and examine its alt attribute. You can locate the alt text inside the quotation marks after the “alt=” part.
• If it doesn’t have an alt attribute or it’s empty, then you should add it or correct the current one.

Extensions for your browser:

• There are many ways browsers can help you out with looking into alt texts.
• Explore the extension store of your browser to explore supplementary tools that fully support your purpose. You should search for extensions related to accessibility.

Online checkers:

• You can find various tools specifically designed to verify the alt text of your images among the many other tools they offer to check web accessibility. These tools are fully equipped to inspect a website and offer you different ideas for improvement of the alt text.
• Take utilizing these accessibility checkers into consideration.

Keep in mind that the purpose of this is to make sure that the alt text correctly describes the goal and content of the given image. Therefore, users with assistive technologies can fully comprehend the meaning of it. To achieve a high level of accessibility for your website check and verify your alt text frequently.

The following section will show you how to easily add alt tags to several elements in Smart Slider 3. Which is in fact a very useful plugin that helps you to create engaging and dynamic sliders for your website. So hold on, there’s more to come.

Adding Alt Tag to Images in Smart Slider 3

It’s essential to add alt tags to separate elements in Smart Slider 3 to make certain of accessibility and convenience. This slider plugin provides you with everything you need for creating fascinating sliders, from its user-friendly interface to its wide range of tools. Let’s look into some of them a little more!

Image Layer:

• Keep an eye out for the SEO section of the Content settings when you add an Image Layer to your slider. In the “SEO – Alt tag” field you can write the alt text of your image.

• Create a brief, precise description of the given image so it’s fully comprehensive.
• Users with visual impairments should fully obtain the meaning of the image through the alt text you provide.

Image Box Layer:

• This layer can display an image or an icon and text in different ways.

• It also allows you to add alt text to your image, which you can do in almost the same way as it was mentioned before.
• Find the Content settings and inside its General settings, there’s the same “SEO – Alt tag” field, where you can add your unique alt text.
• Create it in a way that correctly describes your image inside the Image Box Layer.

Caption Layer:

• This layer can show an image, however, when the mouse enters a text overlay appears.

• It’s important once again to add alt text to the image. Just find the Content settings and add the alt text to the same field as before.

• Then, provide a textual representation of your image, so it perfectly portrays the image.

Image Area, Transition Layer, Before-After Layer:

• All these layers provide a way for the users to apply alt text to its images.
• Simply find each of their particular settings and add their individual, descriptive alt texts for better accessibility.

Don’t forget to apply all the useful techniques we’ve already discussed to make the most of your alt text. These are the essential steps you need to follow in order to guarantee a more accessible and inclusive user experience. Simply incorporate these tips into your building process in Smart Slider 3.

The following part will focus on the most frequently asked questions regarding alt text. Such as whether background images need an alt tag, and actually how crucial it is to provide alt text for such images. Let’s explore this captivating part of web design accessibility.

Do Background Images Need Alt Tag

Do background images require alt tags? This is a common question when it comes to web design accessibility. Understanding the significance and motive of alt tags for various types of images, including background images will help you find the solution.

Decorative Background Images

Alt tags are not necessary for background images that are solely aesthetic, such as patterns or design elements. This enables screen readers to pass over the image and concentrate on the content that is important.

Live Preview

Informative Background Images

It’s crucial to provide alt text for accessibility if a background image assists in understanding the page’s content or conveys crucial information.

Live Preview

Live Preview

Make sure that the image’s alt text appropriately describes it so that users with visual impairments can understand its content. Depending on the information it provides and its goal, background images may or may not need alt text. Maintaining the balance between ensuring accessibility and reducing unneeded distractions for screen reader users is crucial.

We will look at how to add alt tags specifically to background images in Smart Slider 3 in the following section to make sure that even these images contribute to an inclusive user experience. Follow along for some detailed instructions.

How to Add Alt Tags to Background Images in Smart Slider 3

Smart Slider makes the process of adding alt tags to your background images easy and convenient. This helps you improve the accessibility of your content for each user. Now, we’ll look at the necessary steps we need to take in order to make sure the background images we present have proper alt text.

Slide Editor

After you have entered the Dashboard of Smart Slider 3, find the slider, then the specific slide with the background image that you would like to add alt text to. Navigate to the Slide Editor which is the interface where changes to the slide itself and its elements can be made. Then locate the Style setting where you can edit the Slide’s background image.

Add Alt Text

Now, as you have already located the background image settings, further down look for the section where you can specifically set the alt text for the background image. Keeping in mind the main concepts when writing the alt text, add an appropriate description that shows the meaning and goals of the background image.

Review and Save

Finally, make sure the text you provided fully contributes to the purpose of the image and leaves no doubt in the users’ minds. To ensure your work wasn’t for nothing don’t forget to save all your changes.

Look at that! It was really this simple to complete the process of adding alt text to your slides’ background images in Smart Slider 3. Users with visual impairments or those who utilize assistive technologies can now be a part of the browsing experience if you just follow these easy but appreciable steps.

Follow along if you would like to learn more about how to set alt text for backgrounds. Let’s find out about its implementations as well, as we dive deeper into the world of accessible web design.

How to Add Alt Tag to Images in WordPress

Adding alt text to your images in WordPress is a very simple process. WordPress offers an easy procedure to guarantee that your website is accessible and inclusive. To add alt text to photos in WordPress just follow the steps below.

Add an image:

• Firstly, when you are creating or modifying a page or post in WordPress, simply click on the “Add Media” button.
• Then, choose an image from the media library or upload it from your computer.
• Select the image once it has been added to your page or post.

Image details:

• Look for the “Alt Text” field in the image options on the editor’s right-hand side.

• Accurately represent your content with an alt text by providing a precise description of the image.
• Think back to the helpful tips we already covered about writing powerful alt text.

Take advantage of this useful tool that WordPress provides and make the browsing experience more accessible by contributing to these factors. Embrace alt text with your WordPress website and show your devotion to an inclusive and accessible interface for all users.

In the next section, we will conclude all the things we discussed throughout this post about alt text for background images. Read on for a summary of the whole journey toward creating more accessible websites.

Conclusion

In web design, not everything is about making the website visually appealing and engaging. It’s equally crucial to ensure accessibility, which enables users of all abilities to interact with your digital products.

We covered the vital functions of alt tag characteristics in web design accessibility, especially in relation to Smart Slider 3. This post showed you how necessary it is to write alt text for accessibility, and recommended practices for creating informative descriptions. When we use alternative text (alt text) in the place of images, it helps people with disabilities to understand the meaning and context of visuals. If you follow these steps, you will give users with visual impairment the ability to access and engage in the browsing experience of your website.

It was highlighted how important it actually is to frequently check alt text as we explored techniques that could help us in examining and confirming it. In addition, we covered all the necessary tools that can be of service.

Furthermore, we looked into how to add alt tags to various layers in Smart Slider 3. This slider plugin is known for its user-friendly interface and how smoothly it integrates alt text into its sliders. Additionally, you can improve your website’s accessibility which helps you with opening it up to a larger audience.

WordPress owes its success to a few factors. It’s an open-source web technology with an easy learning curve and supportive community. But that isn’t the only reason why WordPress surged in popularity to power one-third of all websites on the Internet.

It has more going for it than just that, however.

For example, WordPress is accessibility ready. Creating a WCAG 2.0-compliant website on WordPress is easy. WordPress itself requires developers to comply with accessibility policies in its WordPress Accessibility Coding Standards.

However, that doesn’t mean that all WordPress websites are accessible right out of the box. You’ll have to carefully vet your WordPress themes and plugins for accessibility issues, address problems, and commit to improving accessibility as best practices change.

Fortunately, WordPress makes this a painless process, even for non-technical web creators. Your choice of plugins, themes, and other technologies can influence how accessible your website’s user experience ultimately is. Providing an excellent user experience to people with disabilities can also make your website easier for everyone to use.

What makes a website accessible?

Accessible websites provide a simple and well-designed user experience to people with disabilities. Making your website accessible enhances its ability to reach people it would not otherwise – an estimated 15% of the global population.

Making a website accessible involves providing key functionalities that users with disabilities need. Without these accommodations, the website may be difficult or simply impossible to use properly.

There are many different types of disabilities. In fact, there is no exhaustive, universally recognized list of all disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) defines disability and identifies common medical conditions that qualify. Some of the conditions that matter most to web creators include:

• Blindness, color blindness, and other visual impairments
• Deafness and difficulty hearing
• Missing fingers, limbs, and impairments to motor skills
• Autism and intellectual disabilities of many kinds
• Neurological disorders like epilepsy and multiple sclerosis

Disabilities affect different people in different ways. For a website to be accessible, it must accommodate a wide-ranging set of potential impacts.

The best way to do this is by closely following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. These protocols describe the usability features and accommodations that most – but not all – people with disabilities can use to access web content.

Many of these guidelines establish specific accommodations necessary for people with certain disabilities. Others apply more generally to the disability community at large. Some examples of WCAG 2.0 standards include:

• Providing images with alternative text. This allows people who cannot see the image to understand what it depicts.
• Providing an appropriately strong color contrast between the website background and its foreground text.
• Allowing users to change text size without causing it to run off the screen and become unreadable.
• Writing descriptive hypertext links. This gives screen reader users context that “Click here” or “More” does not.
• Using proper HTML header tags instead of separating blocks of content with bolded text.

WordPress is capable of supporting all these accommodations. That doesn’t mean every WordPress website is automatically compliant. That depends heavily on what WordPress technologies you use and how your web pages are designed.

How can you test whether your site is accessible?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for achieving accessibility compliance. Every website works differently. The true test of website accessibility is real-world use by individuals with disabilities.

However, automated tools can help web creators identify and address some of the most common accessibility issues. These are accessibility standards that WCAG policies point out specifically. Automated accessibility checkers can help you achieve WCAG compliance, which is an important step towards guaranteed accessibility.

accessScan is an example of a powerful and comprehensive accessibility checker. It goes through every page of your website and verifies it against WCAG technical requirements. Its report tells you exactly where your website has problems, and provides you with solutions to those problems.

This gives you a key starting point on your journey towards web accessibility. Once you know the challenges your website faces, you can begin the process of addressing them.

Addressing every issue won’t guarantee that every person with every disability can use your website easily. It will get you started on the path towards accessibility by showing you some of the immediate fixes you can implement. As you deploy these changes and recheck your website, its accessibility results will improve.

How to remediate existing accessibility gaps

Running an automated accessibility checker will provide you with key data on how you can improve the accessibility of your website. Once you have a list of issues that need to be addressed, you will have to systematically go through that list and implement improvements to your WordPress tech stack.

This may require reconfiguring WordPress plugins. Not all plugins are built with accessibility in mind. Relatively few plugins offer accessible experiences to users natively. Often, they require web creators to configure their settings and enable accessibility features deliberately.

More than 70,000 WordPress plugins exist as of 2022, and there is no way to identify accessibility issues unique to each one. Plugins may interact with one another in ways that create accessibility issues they don’t have on their own, either.

If you have identified accessibility problems stemming from a single plugin, you may be able to reconfigure it successfully. If your website’s problems are more complex, you may need to dedicate more time and resources to achieving accessibility compliance.

You may be able to improve your WordPress website’s accessibility performance with an accessibility plugin. There are many different options available, from simple free plugins to sophisticated AI-powered accessibility platforms like accessiBe. The latter offers a WordPress accessibility plugin that will see your WordPress site achieving ADA compliance.

The best of these tools can help web creators address accessibility obstacles without having to painstakingly reconfigure dozens of plugins manually. This simplifies the process of remediating accessibility gaps.

Tips on creating an accessible WordPress site from scratch

Creating an accessible web experience from scratch is much easier than reconfiguring an existing one. Accessibility is best pursued during the design phase of web creation. That’s when it’s easiest to choose technologies and approaches that successfully accommodate users with disabilities.

If you want to build your WordPress website using themes, you can reliably use popular official WordPress releases. All 9000+ official WordPress themes available through the platform’s theme repository are WCAG-compliant. These include some of the most popular themes like Astra, OceanWP, Neve, and more.

However, there are tens of thousands of themes available outside the official repository, and no way to verify how many of them meet WCAG standards. Web creators who incorporate non-compliant themes may find it difficult to meet those standards.

Web creators should apply the same approach towards plugins. Not all plugins are designed with accessibility in mind. Those that are tend to showcase that fact, so look for plugins that advertise WCAG compliance.

These technologies should promote things like alt-text functionality for images, full keyboard interactivity, and accessible dropdown menus. Themes and plugins that don’t have these accommodations are not likely to be compliant.

Having your website run on 100% WCAG-compliant infrastructure is a good start. It does not guarantee the end result will be compliant as well, though. You still need to design the pages appropriately and avoid making accessibility mistakes.

There is another way to ensure WCAG compliance at the design stage of WordPress website development. Accessible website builders can provide a simple, drag-and-drop user interface that makes it easy to create accessible web pages from scratch.

WCAG-compliant website builders can provide accessible web page templates, forms, and other tools. This allows web creators to craft unique websites without running the risk of non-compliance. The site builder will make sure your web pages follow HTML structuring guidelines, show text contrast appropriately, and more.

Accessibility is an ongoing commitment

Web creators often approach accessibility as another technology they can implement once and then forget about. That isn’t a recipe for success. The Internet is constantly changing, and web accessibility standards must change along with it. Solutions that work now may not work a few years from now.

Web creators have to recognize the value that accessibility offers, and dedicate time to reaching users in the global disability community. Sometimes that will mean doing a bit of extra work. That work matters, though – and it can increase your website’s ability to reach 15% of the population.

WCAG 2.0 compliance is a good starting point for web accessibility. Web creators will need to pay attention to their users and make accommodations as they are suggested. This process is a constant one, and it will yield consistently improving user experience metrics across the board. Investing in accessibility makes your WordPress web experience more user-friendly for everyone.

The post How To Make Your WordPress Site More Accessible appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

WordPress 6.0 release stages

Every major WordPress release goes through certain release stages. This allows volunteers to thoroughly test the new version before public release. Currently WordPress 6.0 is scheduled for release on May 24, 2022. Below there are the stages of the 6.0 release:

Most important changes in WordPress 6.0

The new major WordPress release introduces significant changes and improvements. Some of the changes help moving towards WordPress being a complete site editor. One of the most important steps for this is to update the Gutenberg editor in WordPress core.

Gutenberg update

Major WordPress releases include the latest version of the Gutenberg plugin. Gutenberg was introduced in WordPress 5.0. back in December, 2018. Since then, it has become the new way to edit pages and posts in WordPress. Additionally, it has managed to divide the WordPress community as soon as it arrived. There are many users who love the new editor and are eagerly waiting to see how much it can evolve. However, there are many other users who hated Gutenberg from the minute they could start to use it.

WordPress 6.0 will integrate Gutenberg 13.0. This new version includes many improvements to help Gutenberg evolve into a site builder. Of course, there’s a long road ahead before Gutenberg can turn into a website builder. Let’s check some of the most exciting improvements Gutenberg 13.0 will bring to WordPress users!

Selecting text across blocks

The Gutenberg editor uses blocks to build content. A paragraph is a block of text, so are headings, images and other content. Previously when you tried to select texts, you could only do so within the current block you were editing. However, from now on you can select text between several blocks. It can be useful for formatting the text.

Additionally, it helps to make the editing workflow smoother. You can quickly get rid of the text you no longer need that’s divided into more blocks.

New blocks and block enhancements

Blocks help you build content, so it’s always nice to have a new selection of blocks. Gutenberg 13 includes a couple of new blocks. Some of the most interesting new blocks are:

• Stack: Lets you stack your content vertically.
• Avatar: Helps to display the avatar of a specific user or the author of the post.
• Read more: Creates a Read more button that links to the post. Useful in category pages.
• Post Author biography: Displays the biography of the post author.
• Comments query loop: This block is actually replacing the Post comments block. Gives advanced customization features to style the comment list.

Block enhancements

There are many block enhancements coming with WordPress 6.0. Here are the most notable ones:

• Featured image at media and text and cover blocks. Previously the featured image was only available at the post featured image block. From now on it’ll be possible to add the featured image to the media and text and also to the cover block.
• Lock reusable blocks. Helps to prevent (accidental) changes in a single instance of a reusable block.
• Typography options for container blocks. Group, row, and stack blocks have typography options from now on.
• Keeping block style. If you change your block type (e.g. from paragraph to heading) the block styling will stay. This includes color and typography.
• Gallery spacing. The Gallery block now offers the possibility to set the spacing between the images.

New Full site editing changes

Full site editing was first introduced in WordPress 5.9. It’s a collective term for WordPress’ new features. These new features include template and site editing. You can think of it as the first step to make WordPress a complete website builder tool. Users can edit their sites using blocks in many ways that before were only possible by writing code. However, they’ll need a block enabled theme that supports full site editing.

Keep in mind that in WordPress 6.0. Release Candidate 1 the Full Site Editing feature is still in Beta.

Theme styles

The first new feature of the Full Site Editing is the ability to switch theme styles. Each theme can have many separate theme styles which you can change by one click. For example, there might be a style which has white background and dark text colors. But the theme devs can define another style which has a blue background and light text colors. Font families, text sizes can also differ among styles.

New page templates

Due to the Gutenberg 13 integration, WordPres 6.0 will have five new page templates. The new templates are the following: author, date, categories, tag, and taxonomy.

Export block themes

WordPress 6.0 will allow you to export the created block-based theme to re-use it on other sites. It’s also a good way to have a backup of your customized theme, just in case.

Under the Hood changes

Apart from the visible changes, WordPress 6.0 comes with a bunch of under the hood improvements.

• Webfonts API. Provides an efficient way for theme authors to manage local fonts with PHP or theme.json.
• API to prevent certain blocks from appearing in Widget Areas. Not all Blocks were made to be used as widgets. WordPress 6.0 offers developers an API to prevent blocks from showing up at the widget areas.

Conclusion

WordPress 6.0 brings important changes to website owners. These changes make it easier for people to create their own site visually and customize it as they see fit. WordPress 6.0 is another small step to make WordPress a site editor, like Wix or Squarespace. However, there’s still a long road ahead but let’s be optimistic. Gutenberg editor will keep improving and unlock more and more options for site owners. As a result, WordPress can grow as well.

The post WordPress 6.0 is Coming! appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

Does that mean you don’t update your site and its components? Of course not. All you need to do is tick a few items off a checklist before you update.

What is this checklist and how do you know what to do before updating WordPress?

This article shares a must-have 7-step checklist you can use to update your WordPress site.

Checklist: Things to do before updating WordPress

A rushed update — regardless of how important it is — is a recipe for disaster. A broken website undoes all your effort so far and means additional hours wasted in restoring your site.
To avoid such complications, here are 7 things to do before updating the WordPress site:

1. Test your live website before updating

It may seem strange to test a live and functional website, but it is necessary to do so before making a major update. Why is this step required? After an update, you may notice a broken functionality or design feature on your site. The reality could be that this problem may not be related to the update and could have been present before the applied update. Checking the website will help you troubleshoot the problem quickly and accurately, instead of guessing if it was the update that “broke” your website.

Check if all your web pages are loading properly and you can enter comments, send and receive emails, and fill other online forms on your website. If you detect any functionality issues, then this is the best time to fix them before applying the update.

2. Back up your WordPress site

Now that you know that your site is working fine, make sure you take a complete backup of your WordPress site. Why are backups so important? In case your updates end up crashing your live website, you can quickly restore it using the latest backup files. Depending on your needs and the activity on your website, take a backup every week, day, hour, or even on a real-time basis. Whatever the frequency of regular backups, make sure that you do one before every update.

In addition to your website files and folders, don’t forget to back up the WordPress database. Regular database backups ensure that you do not miss any customer data records or a single user comment added to your site.

To make backups easier and faster, you can use a backup plugin like BlogVault that offers unlimited on-demand backup in addition to scheduled and automated backups. It handles backups for both your website files and database records and has a one-click restore functionality that can retrieve the latest backup file and restore your website when needed.

3. Check new update details

Before performing any updates, check the details of the new version. For example, if you are updating a plugin to the next major version (for instance, version 2.x to 4.x), check their release notes for any compatibility issues.

The same goes for the Core WordPress, plugins, and WordPress themes.
Similarly, check if the latest plugin/theme version has gone through a major enhancement or changes. This may cause a major change in your website functionality causing it to break or crash. In this case, you are better off holding on to the update until the new version has been thoroughly tested and found to be stable.

4. Check the PHP version

Every WordPress site runs on PHP software that needs to also be regularly updated to improve website performance. You need to check the PHP version that your hosting is currently using. Also, check if the updated WordPress version is compatible with your current PHP version – without which your site is likely to report incompatibility-related problems and can even crash.

How do you check the PHP version? From your WordPress hosting account, you need to navigate to cPanel >> Select PHP version. Alternatively, you can check your PHP version by installing the “Display PHP Version” plugin from the official WordPress repository.

5. Disable caching

You may not be able to see the new features or changes on your site even after a major version update. This occurs typically when you do not clear your website cache before applying the update. Hence, it is recommended that you clear your existing cache and disable the caching mechanism to observe the website changes immediately.

If you are already using a WordPress caching plugin, make sure to deactivate the plugin before the update process. This ensures that it will not interfere with the update process. At the same time, remember to reactivate the caching plugin after you have completed the updates.

6. Create a staging site

Always look to apply WordPress updates in such a way that your live site and its visitors are not affected in any way. The best way to do this is through a staging website.
A staging site is a replica of your live website and is completely independent of the main site. This means you can make and test any changes on the staging site with zero impact on the live site. Once you have tested and are satisfied that the applied updates are not breaking your site, you can then choose to merge the updates to the live website.

How can you create such a staging environment?
One option is to install a WordPress staging plugin like WP Staging or WP Stagecoach. If you do not want to invest in a separate plugin just for staging, then you can use the inbuilt staging feature that backup plugins like BlogVault offer. Since BlogVault creates and runs the staging site on its dedicated server, there is no load on your web server and no impact on your website speed.

7. Review and update plugins and themes

It is not simply enough to update your core WordPress version, you also need to update each of your plugins and themes. This is because outdated plugins/themes may cause incompatibility issues with the latest WordPress version. Before applying updates, make sure they are both compatible with each other.

Before you can update plugins/themes before WordPress, make sure to take a complete website backup to revert to their older versions in case the update process fails.

If you have installed hundreds of plugins/themes on your website, you can review and update all of them with a single click by using a WordPress management plugin like ManageWP.

Final Thoughts

Once you have completed this 7-step checklist, you can go ahead and enjoy the enhanced functionality and security that the latest WordPress versions have to offer. This is also a good time to take a fresh backup of your WordPress website and database.
We hope this handy checklist helps you take the unpredictability out of WordPress updates and make managing your WordPress website smoother and simpler.

The post Your 7-Step Checklist to Update WordPress appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

Before we dive into the ways of securing WordPress sites, it’s important to get something out of the way first.

Is WordPress secure?

The growing number of cyberattacks on WordPress sites naturally begs this question: Is WordPress secure? WordPress is secure. But here’s the catch: That does not mean that all WordPress sites are secure. Here’s why:

A WordPress website comprises of the following two components:

• The Core WordPress version (released by the WordPress team of developers)
• Additional components like the added plugins/themes, the web hosting layer, and registered users

While the Core WordPress is always kept secure through timely security fixes and patches, the same cannot be said about all WordPress plugins and themes. There’s another reason why WordPress websites get a bad rap. Most website owners fail to comply with recommended WordPress security measures, thus making their sites vulnerable to hackers.

How to secure a WordPress site

If you want to know how to secure a WordPress site, this WordPress security guide is the right place to start. Let us get started with a look at the six essential steps for securing a WordPress site:

1. Use secure hosting

The first step is to host your website on a safe and secure web hosting platform even if that comes at a higher cost. This investment will pay off given that quality hosting companies like Bluehost or Siteguard implement best practices to safeguard your website and also optimize it for good loading speed.

2. Keep your site updated at all times

Among the most recommended WordPress security best practices, this step ensures that the WordPress core and all the plugins, and themes on your site are always updated to the latest version.

Applying regular updates can be challenging if you manage hundreds of websites each with many plugins and themes. In this case, we recommend using a WordPress management tool like WPManage.

3. Regularly back up your website

Though not strictly a security measure, make regular backups of your site a part of your website maintenance plan. Having the latest backup when your site gets hacked is the only way to avoid downtime and get back to business.

You should regularly take a backup every week, day, or even hour (depending on how fast your website data changes). You can choose from reliable backup plugins like BlogVault or BackupBuddy that offer automated, scheduled, and on-demand backups.

4. Add an SSL certificate

Short for Secure Sockets Layer, adding an SSL certificate to your website makes it an HTTPS-enabled website. What does this mean for your site’s safety? HTTPS ensures that all the data exchanged between your users and your web server is encrypted. Even if hackers manage to intercept this communication, they will be unable to use it. Search engines like Google favor HTTPS sites over HTTP ones to ensure the safety of their users and place HTTPS sites higher on their results pages.

You can obtain an SSL certificate either from your web hosting company or through a third-party SSL plugin like Let’s Encrypt.

5. Secure your WordPress login page

You cannot even think about WordPress website security without taking care of your login page. This is because hackers regularly target login pages using brute force attacks. These attacks deploy automated bots to guess the usernames and passwords of WordPress accounts to gain access to them.

Here is how you can secure your WordPress login page:

• Configure strong 12-character long passwords that include numbers, special characters, as well as upper-case and lower-case alphabets.
• Restrict the number of failed login attempts on your user account.
• Use 2-factor authentication or 2FA to authenticate every user sign-on.

6. Use a WordPress security plugin

The most effective way to improve the security of your WordPress site is to use a WordPress security plugin. These plugins are specifically developed to detect and protect against the latest WordPress hacks, and are the best way to keep up with the latest methods that hackers unleash on websites.

You can choose from a variety of free and paid security plugins – although we would always recommend a paid plugin like MalCare or Sucuri for the comprehensive features they provide, such as:

• Malware scanning and removal
• Firewall protection
• Protection against brute force attacks
• Website hardening measures
• Automatic security updates

While these six measures can greatly improve the security of your WordPress site, another approach to consider is implementing a Virtual Private Network (VPN). One form that is particularly efficient at ensuring data integrity and confidentiality is the IPsec VPN. If you want to know more about this and how it compares to SSL VPNs, you can check this detailed analysis on IPsec and SSL VPNs compared. This can add an extra layer of protection for your website, keeping your data secure from potential cyber threats. In the next section, we share the top six vulnerabilities that pose a challenge to the security of WordPress sites.

What can vulnerabilities in a WordPress Site can lead to?

Here is a look at the six ways in which hackers exploit and attack vulnerable WordPress websites:

1. SQL Injection

If you are familiar with how databases work, you can guess what an SQL injection does. With this attack, hackers inject malicious code into databases through an SQL query. Once this code enters the WordPress database, it can perform multiple tasks like stealing your database records, modifying your data, or performing administrative tasks without authorization.

2. Cross-site Scripting (XSS)

Through XSS attacks, hackers take advantage of any vulnerabilities in your installed plugins or themes. These vulnerabilities allow foreign JavaScript code to be run on your website. These attacks are trickier to catch because there are simply too many types to consider. But for the sake of clarity, these can be viewed in two categories:

• One where the malicious script is executed on the browser on the client-side
• The other is where the malicious scripts are stored and executed on the server, and then served by the browser

After taking control of a vulnerable website, XSS returns malicious JavaScript code to its visitors. Hackers can use an XSS attack to steal data or manipulate how your site looks and behaves.

3. Phishing

Phishing is the practice that hackers use to send fraudulent emails that appear to originate from genuine sources to unsuspecting users. A phishing attack aims to steal sensitive information like login credentials or credit card numbers though it can lead to more sophisticated forms of attacks like ransomware or advanced persistent threats.

4. Privilege Escalation

Privilege escalation is a form of cyberattack where a hacker gains illegal entry into a user account and then obtains the elevated privileges of a user with administrator rights. These types of attacks are damaging as hackers with elevated privileges can inflict damage in several ways including stealing user credentials, installing and executing malware code, and deleting access logs.

5. Pharma hack

Imagine a high-ranking and trusted website selling illegitimate pharma products. That is what a pharma hack does. Pharma hacks are a form of SEO spam attack where search engines can list your website for search keywords like “buy viagra.”

Once “unsuspecting” users click your website link on the search results, they are redirected towards unsolicited websites selling fake pharmaceutical products.

6. Japanese keyword hack

This type of attack is similar to the Pharma hack where hackers can exploit your website’s high SEO rank to infiltrate it with spammy keywords in the Japanese language. Like pharma hacks, users searching using Japanese keywords are redirected to fake and unsolicited websites selling counterfeit products. The pharma and Japanese keyword hack can cause loss of customer trust in your brand and the risk of Google blacklisting your site or your web host suspending it.

The above list comprising just six of the many forms of attacks that hackers can inflict on your website makes a strong case for why you should protect your WordPress site from hackers.

The role of WordPress security

A successful hack can seriously cripple your website for days, if not weeks. Depending on the type of attack, your WordPress website could suffer repercussions such as:

• Loss of sensitive data like customer records
• Complete defacement of your home page thanks to pop-up ads
• Suspension or blacklisting by Google or your web host
• Loss of brand trust and customer loyalty
• Massive reduction of web traffic leading to lower sales and revenues

Despite all the best security measures in place, there is no guarantee that hackers will not target your website in the future. This is what makes WordPress security a continuous process, and not just a one-time affair. There is no 100% immunity from hackers as they keep innovating and creating new ways of compromising websites.

Of the 6 steps mentioned in this guide, investing in a WordPress security plugin like MalCare that offers multiple security benefits such as malware removal, inbuilt firewall, login protection, etc. is the best way to secure your WordPress site and prevent future attacks. What do you think is most important to keep WordPress websites safe from hackers? Are there any measures you swear by?

The post 6 Steps to Increase the Security of Your WordPress Website appeared first on Smart Slider 3 — WordPress Plugin.

📚 Table of contents

1. How to recognize the best WordPress slider plugin?
2. Slider Revolution
3. Smart Slider
4. LayerSlider
5. Master Slider
6. Meta Slider
7. Soliloquy
8. Speed test
9. Pricing
10. Final results

How to recognize the best WordPress slider plugin?

There are so many sliders out there, and of course, they all claim they’re the best sliders for WordPress. In fact, there are many great sliders but how do you find the best one? What makes a slider plugin the best WordPress slider? Well, finding the all-in-one slider solution for WordPress isn’t as hard as it seems. Simply find a plugin that matches the following criteria:

1. Interface

Even if you don’t think it’s a big deal, it actually matters how your slider plugin looks on your WordPress admin. If the UI is ugly, it’s likely hard to navigate, and creating a slider will be fiddly. So, the best WordPress slider plugin needs to have an interface that looks great and is a joy to use.

2. Ease of use

Slider plugins tend to have many options to allow you to create whatever you want. Too many options can be confusing, especially if they’re not laid out logically. The best WordPress slideshow needs to be simple to use. Having to add a new slider or slide shouldn’t stress you out.

3. Available layers

In sliders, you can create content with layers. They allow you to add text, images, buttons and other cool stuff to your slideshow. The best slider plugin needs to have layers. Additionally, it needs to have enough layers to create a modern slider.

4. Styling

It’s not enough to be able to add many layers to your slideshows. You need to be able to style them, to make the slider fit into your website nicely. So I’ll check the available styling options each slider plugins offers.

5. Slider navigation

A slider contains a bunch of slides. Your visitors need to be able to go through them in an intuitive way. For example, using arrows, bullets or thumbnails. These controls need to fit into the color scheme of your website, and also remain visible over the images. In other words, the best slider plugin for WordPress must offer customizable navigation options.

6. Post slider

Being able to create a slider from their posts is a must-have for any serious blogger. Post sliders help to showcase the amazing content they have on their site. Of course, not all websites have blog pages, but running one can have SEO benefits.

7. Effects

The best WordPress slider needs to help you deliver that wow factor. In other words, it needs to have all the fancy effects you can use to amaze your visitors. You have only 50 milliseconds to create a good impression. And your slider needs to help you with that. You need effects like Ken Burns or Parallax, which look great on any website. Also, a trendy transition effect to switch slides can make the slider more appealing.

8. SEO friendly

There’s a common misconception that sliders are bad for SEO. This might be true for some sliders, especially if they’re outdated. But it’s not so true for modern sliders. Additionally, if a slider wants to be the best WordPress slider plugin then it must be SEO friendly as well.

9. Responsive

In 2020 around 50% of all website traffic is coming from mobile phones. That’s an insane amount of small screen usage, but it’s perfectly understandable. Phones are always around in people’s pockets or bags, ready for browsing. For this reason, your website needs to look great on mobile. Similarly, you need a responsive slider, that’s a joy to look at on a small screen.

What are the best WordPress slider plugins?

The better a plugin is, the more people use it. So, it makes sense to think that the best WordPress sliders are those, which are used by most people. During my research, I found 6 super popular plugins, used by tens of thousands of people all over the globe. How do I find the best slider plugin for WordPress? I’ll compare the most popular plugins I’ve found. I’ll use the criteria listed above for my comparison and see how each plugin performs. These are the six best WordPress slider plugins I choose to compare:

• Slider Revolution
• Smart Slider
• LayerSlider
• Master Slider
• Soliloquy
• Meta Slider

As I want this article to be the most comprehensive one, I’ll be as objective as possible when I test the sliders.

Slider Revolution

If you’ve ever searched for a slider to use on your site, I’m sure you’ve come across Slider Revolution. It’s a super popular slider plugin for WordPress. It’s bundled in many premium WordPress themes which might be the reason for its fame.

People generally choose themes based on the features the theme offers. Often this feature comes from a plugin bundled into the theme. Premium themes usually bundle slider plugins, because they’re great eye candies. Thus, they make the theme more appealing to potential buyers.

But bundled plugins have a huge disadvantage: they come without a license key. As you know, you need to activate premium plugins to be able to update them. But you also need an activated copy for the premium services. These services typically include the support and the template import. So, if you use a bundled plugin, you get a premium plugin for free, but without any support. Unfortunately, this isn’t a very good bargain.

Interface ⭐⭐⭐⭐

The first thing I noticed about the Revolution Slider’s interface is that it’s incredibly dark. By default, I found it hard to read, as there are gray texts on the black background. Turning on High Contrast mode helps a lot with the legibility.

Comparing the best free WordPress page builder plugins

In this article, I’ll compare the most popular free WordPress page builders. Of course, there are many great free builders out there, but I’ll only take a deeper look at four of them. The page builders I chose to compare are Gutenberg, Elementor, Beaver Builder and Brizy. I’ve picked them because they’re popular amongst WordPress users. So I’m curious to figure out which one is the best free page builder for WordPress from these four. I’m going to analyze them based on the following criteria:

1. Interface

When you choose a page builder for your site, you always need to consider how easy it is to use the plugin. After all, you trust it to help you build beautiful pages for your WordPress site. So the plugin you choose can’t have a clumsy interface. The options need to be laid out logically, they can’t be all over the place. In other words, you need to be able to find your way around quickly. So the best free WordPress page builder needs to have an interface that’s a joy to work with.

2. Available Elements

Unless you have the right tools at your disposal, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to create a stunning website. Page builders need to give more than only the basic heading, text, image and button elements. If these basic elements are not available, it isn’t a good fit for a modern website.

3. Styling options

If a plugin wants to be the best WordPress page builder, it needs to offer more than the ability to add content. It needs to provide options to style or design this content to create something unique.

4. Templates

Being able to create what you imagined is great. But having premade layouts to choose from is always welcomed. That’s because these layouts save time and effort. Additionally, they can teach you about what you can create with each plugin, and how to do it.

5. Pricing

Most plugins have a paid version with extra features. Although, in this article, I focus on finding the best free WordPress page builder. But I have to mention the premium plugins. I’ll compare what more you get, and how much you need to pay for it.

6. Speed

The keys to a successful site are: good content, nice design and fast loading. This is why I want to compare the speed of each page builder. I’m curious to see which of them loads the page that has the same layout, content and images the fastest.

📚 Table of contents

1. Gutenberg
2. Elementor
3. Beaver Builder
4. Brizy
5. Speed
6. Pricing

Gutenberg – free page builder plugin built into WordPress

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Gutenberg is WordPress’ built-in, block-based page and post editor. It arrived with WordPress 5, back in December 2018. Gutenberg editor has come a long way since its initial release. As a result, today and in the future, it can compete with the best free WordPress page builders.

Interface of Gutenberg ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Gutenberg looks simple and minimalistic, maybe a bit basic. This makes it fast to learn and easy to use. While it’s a visual, drag and drop editor, it operates on the backend. As a result, you might not see everything the same way as they’ll appear on the frontend during editing. Although, themes can style Gutenberg’s backend editor. As a result, the backend and frontend can look as similar as possible.