01 Aug 2017

Show Category Descriptions in WordPress

If you wish to add category descriptions to your WordPress site, help is at hand. Before we look at ways to display category descriptions in WP, let’s have a quick look at some of the main reasons why WordPress has become such as popular content publishing profile over recent years.

One of the most celebrated things about WordPress is the fact that that you can change the design of your site extremely quickly without compromising the quality of its appearance. There are thousands of themes to choose from and an active global community of WP experts willing to help you out if you do ever find yourself stuck and require advice on making its many features work for you. Plugs in enable you to boost the functionality of your site massively, even if you only have the most basic knowledge of programming. More than 10,000 plugins are on offer, and new ones are being developed and launched all the time. Whether you need a plug in for social media integration, photos, SEO or many other purposes, help is available.

Updating a WP site is easy. Anyone who can create a Word document can publish an article on WP. What’s more is that the search engines treat WP sites extremely favourably, and Google has recommended WordPress for business sites.

If you do wish to display category descriptions on your site, read on. Categories are incredibly useful and can boost the WP experience not only for you but your visitors too. They enable you to organise content with ease and make it much easier for users to find it. Furthermore, they are great for SEO.

WordPress has two built-in taxonomies known as categories and tags. The taxonomies make it easy to sort content into topics. In WordPress, you can add descriptions to categories, which is something many WP users remain unaware of because they can create categories when writing posts which don’t let them add descriptions.

To get around this, go to the Posts » Categories page. If you are creating a new category, you can enter the name and description and click on the ‘Add new category’ button.

You can also add descriptions to categories that already exist by clicking on the ‘edit’ button beneath said category. Do this and you’ll be taken to the category edit screen which lets you add a description. Click the ‘update’ button so your changes are not lost.

You can go through this process again as many times as you need to until all your categories have descriptions. The same method enables you to add descriptions for your tags.

Do you need to show category descriptions on the Category Archive Page?

Whilst many WP themes automatically show the category description on the category archive pages, this is not always the case. If your theme is not showing category descriptions on archive pages, you can put things right by editing your theme files. Use an FTP client to connect to your WP site and go to /wp-content/themes/your-current-theme/ folder. Find and edit your category.php file. If your theme doesn’t have one, you can edit the archive.php file. Copy and paste the following code in the place you want your category description to be shown.

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<?php

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the_archive_description( ‘<div class=”taxonomy-description”>’, ‘</div>’ );

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?>

Save the changes and upload the file to your website. Once you have done this, you can head to the category archive page on the site to view the description.

Show Category Description in WordPress Theme

You can use the category_description template tag below to show the category description in other areas of your website.

<?php echo category_description(3); ?>

Replace 3 with your own category ID.

Use the code below to display category descriptions inside a single post.

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$catID = get_the_category();

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echo category_description( $catID[0] );

This code will get all the categories for the current post and output the category description of the first category.

You can list each of your WordPress categories with a description in list format by adding the code below to your theme’s functions.php file:

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function wpb_catlist_desc() {

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$string = ‘<ul>’;

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$catlist = get_terms( ‘category’ );

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if ( ! empty( $catlist ) ) {

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foreach ( $catlist as $key => $item ) {

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$string .= ‘<li>’. $item->name . ‘<br />’;

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$string .= ‘<em>’. $item->description . ‘</em> </li>’;

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}

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}

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$string .= ‘</ul>’;

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return $string;

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}

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add_shortcode(‘wpb_categories’, ‘wpb_catlist_desc’);

The above code will create a shortcode. This will display all categories and the descriptions that go with them in a plain list. You will then be able to use [wpb_categories] in your posts and pages. Enable shortcodes for widgets if you need to use the shortcode in a text widget.

More about Category Descriptions

The Category Description function is overlooked by many but can be incredibly useful. You may have seen the category description on many occasions without noticing it. Many people glance over this box when they are setting up and editing descriptions. Though not all WordPress site owners require or even want a category description, descriptions can provide your users with valuable information, make your site more exciting and efficient and boost the SEO of your site.

Do I need to use Category Descriptions?

Category Descriptions may prove invaluable if you regularly post about various topics and feel it would be beneficial to divide the content on your site into sections. If you don’t specify a category, your post will be filed in the default one, which is often ‘Uncategorized’. You can change your default category in the Settings » Writing screen. Posts don’t have to come under a single category – they can be filed under various different fields, which is very handy if you are posting content that suits a number of different fields. Your WP Posts can also have tags as well as categories. More and more WP users are experiencing the benefits of Category Descriptions.

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18 May 2017

How to Post to Facebook from WordPress Automatically

Want to know how to post to Facebook from WordPress? If so, read on. There are various good reasons for sending posts to Facebook automatically, and two of the main advantages of doing so is that it can boost your social media following and traffic levels. Facebook has more than a billion users, which means neglecting to tap into such a useful resource is unthinkable for anyone wishing to grow traffic levels and increase exposure.

To build up a strong following on Facebook, you need to take steps to engage with the community. There are many ways you can publish to the social media network automatically. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular ways you can do this.

Use IFTTT

IFTTT stands for ‘If This Then That’ and enables you to automate online accounts and define applets. Applets connect two online accounts, searching for triggers on one account and performing actions on the other account when they are found. To make IFTTT post automatically, you need to sign up for a new account. Once you have done this, click on your username and select ‘New Applet’. The IFFFT wizard will then be launched. You will be asked to choose a service, so look for WordPress by typing it into the search box. After this, you will be asked to connect your WP site. Click on the connect button and enter your WP site address and login details into the pop-up. You will then be able to select from various triggers, including opting for posts in certain categories to be published or simply posting all posts.

You will then need to pick the ‘that’ part of the applet, in which case will be Facebook, which you need to search for then select. You can either post to a personal Facebook account or your business or service’s Facebook Page. You will need to give Facebook permission in a pop-up. Click on ‘Create a Link Post’ and decide how you wish to post to appear on Facebook.

Use a WordPress Plugin

This process gives you extra control despite being slightly more challenging to set up. It enables you to publish posts in different categories and tags and allows you to custom post types. To get started, you can install the AccessPress Facebook Auto plugin. When this is activated, you will see a new item called ‘AccessPress Facebook Auto Post’ in the WP admin bar. Click on it to go to the settings page. Check the box by the ‘Auto Publish’ option so auto-posting can occur. You then need to enter the Facebook application ID and secret keys, which you can get from the Facebook Developers website.

Use the ‘Add a new app’ button and enter a display name for the app. You will also need to give your email address and pick a category. To continue, click the ‘Create App ID’ button. An app will then be created by Facebook. Click on the Dashboard link on the next screen to go to the dashboard and see your ID and secret keys (click on the show button for this). Copy and paste the keys to the settings page of the plugin in WordPress.

Go back to the app dashboard page and click ‘Choose Platform’. You will then be able to select a website as your platform. After this, you will be redirected to a Facebook page explaining how the app can be used on sites with few code snippets. Go to the ‘Tell us about your website’ section and key in the URL of your WP site. Click next to save the URL and the setup process will be almost completed. Go the App Review page so you can make your app public. You can now use your Facebook app on your WP site. Go back to the settings page for the plugin, enter your app ID and secret keys before clicking ‘save settings’ and click the ‘Authorize’ button to link the plugin with your FB account.

You will then be sent to Facebook and will be asked for permission in a popup. Click ‘continue’ and tell Facebook who can see the posts the apps adds. Allow permission to post. You’ll then be returned to the plugin settings page on your WP site. Add your FB account ID in plugin settings. After this, you’ll be able to auto-publish posts that come under specific categories and tags. The Facebook Auto Post plugin will then be able to share your posts automatically on the social media network.

Adding Facebook comments your WordPress site

You may also wish to add Facebook comments to your WP site. There are many advantages to doing this. Using Facebook comments can boost your site’s visibility on the network, and users can even share comments they make with their Facebook friends to give you more exposure and traffic. We actually generate a lot of traffic to our site from FaceBook. People using Facebook to comment can’t benefit from the cloak of anonymity, which makes them less likely to post spammy comments on your site. One disadvantage is that some people may feel unhappy about commenting on their social media profiles because they prefer the sense of anonymity.

Acting as the admin of the Facebook add enables you to be notified when new comments are left. There will be a Facebook comment moderation tool in your plugin’s settings page, and you can add new moderators in the settings link. Many WordPress site owners have experienced significant benefits after allowing WordPress to post to Facebook automatically and enabling Facebook users to post onto their WP sites.

Why use WordPress?

The benefits of running a WordPress are numerous. WordPress is famously easy to use and you can manage your site from any internet-connected computer or device. WP sites are looked upon incredibly fondly by search engines and you don’t need to get help from web designers when you wish to update your site. You can expand your site as your business grows and enhance the functionality of your site via a plethora of plugins.

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06 Apr 2016

How to Setup & Install Yoast SEO on WordPress

Search Engine Optimization is vital for any website to get better rankings on search engines, or, at least, get a chance to reach those higher positions. WordPress comes optimized for SEO norms, but they aren’t good enough alone.

For years, webmaster’s have been taking help from third-party plugins and there have been two very old plugins. The first one was the All in One SEO, and the second one was Yoast SEO. 

Trust me, I’ve been using these plugins for years, and I can tell you that the decision of going with Yoast SEO plugin is only going to bring results. All you need to do is to get its setup in a right way.

Install and Setup Yoast SEO on WordPress Blog

Since there aren’t many features of tweaking options available inside this plugin, you can easily get started with it. Still, a newbie might need help and that’s exactly what I’m going to bring down here.

All you need to do is to follow the simple steps as below mentioned and if you need an explanation on any individual part, it will be either available with the same or you can fire up the issues in the discussion section below.

Step 1 – Login into the Dashboard area of your WordPress website and scroll down to the Plugin option. Click on the Add New button.

Setup-Yoast-SEO-on-WordPress

Step 2 – Now, use the search tool available to find Yoast SEO plugin and once you do, click on the Install option. The moment it gets installed successfully, you need to click on the Activate option ahead. Congratulations, you’ve completed installing the plugin which brings down one step from our overall task.

Setup-Yoast-SEO-on-WordPress2

Step 3 – In the Dashboard area on the left sidebar, you’ll have a new option available labeled “SEO.” Click on the same and let the tool package loaded up.

Step 4 – Then click on Your Info tab and enter your website’s name, and select Person in the next drop down option. 

Setup-Yoast-SEO-on-WordPress3

Step 5 – Now leave other options untouched and click on Titles & Metas option, which is our next one.

Step 6 – Select the Title Separator of your choice, and hit Save Changes button. Do not touch the first option i.e., Force rewrite titles.

Step 7 – Click on the Homepage tab, where you can modify the Title template section and add a custom Meta description for your homepage. Make sure you add a worthy description as it will appear in the search engines. Click on Save Changes button and move ahead to Post Types section.

Setup-Yoast-SEO-on-WordPress4

Step 8 – Then you can put a no follow (noindex) request for individual Post or Page or Media files. I’d recommend you to keep everything as it is and do not change anything at all.

Step 9 – Moving next to Taxonomies option, you’ll find same noindex options for Categories, Tags, and Format. Personally, I prefer indexing categories of my website but not the tags and format. So, I keep it that way. You can pick according to your site’s structure. FYI, noindex clearly means that those individual pages of your websites will not be indexed in search engine, which further helps to keep the duplicate content issue from occurring. As usual, click on Save Changes button and move ahead.

Step 10 – You come to the Archives section where you need to leave first two options untouched and Enable the two options below it, i.e., putting a noindex request for the author and date-based archives which both prevent the duplicate content issue from occurring. If you want, set a custom template for Search and 404 pages or leave the default ones. Don’t forget to click on Save Changes button.

Step 11 – Now in the Other tab, I prefer keeping the first option Enabled while keeping rest of the options untouched. It is again a safety measure from staying away from the duplicate content issue.

Step 12 – Moving next are the Social settings, which if you understand correctly and wish to use, can go ahead with the on-screen options and set things up. Having a better social profile helps in achieving better search engine rankings, so do not ignore this step completely.

Step 13 – Moving onto the next XML Sitemaps option, click on the very first checkbox which enables this option. It creates a sitemap file on automation which is required to help search engine bots to get a maximum of your webpages indexed.

Setup-Yoast-SEO-on-WordPress5

Step 14 – Under the User sitemap, you can keep that option disabled, as showcasing sitemap for posts and pages are enough for search engines. Under Post Types section, you can exclude a particular type like I’ve excluded Media ones. And, finally under Taxonomies, you can keep Tags and Format away from showing up in Sitemap file. Hit the Save Changes option and move ahead.

Step 15 – Under the Advanced settings, you can enable Breadcrumbs if the native theme doesn’t provide this functionality. And, you can control Permalinks and RSS settings, and tweak them according to your usage. If you don’t understand any of these advanced options, I’ll like to keep them untouched or explain what you’re trying to achieve in the comment section below.

Step 16 – Finally, you can opt for the Premium version of Yoast SEO plugin and get more advanced and premium features. You can even connect the Search Console (Google Webmaster) tool.

That’s all guys! As I said, if you need help on any related matter, feel free to drop a comment below and I’ll come up with an explanation and required help. 

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05 Apr 2016

How to Setup W3 Total Cache on WordPress

Better WordPress performance is something most site owners strive for at some time or another. After all, the faster your sites load, the more likely you are to keep visitors on there and have them check out what you have to offer.

As with just about everything on the world’s most popular CMS, there’s a wealth of plugins to help you do just that with limited technical know-how. Remember that no matter what web hosting you have, it’s key to optimise your site as much as you can. Tracking performance (site loading times) has always been an important aspect so once you’ve found the perfect host you can continue optimising by using a caching plugin. 

Among the best of the bunch are W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache.

Both of these include tools and features designed to reduce loading speeds and deliver better all round performance. Yet whilst the latter is a simple, no-frills plugin which covers the basics, those looking for a fully comprehensive approach to improving their sites are often better suited with W3 Total Cache, a tool which -I’ll be honest- can take some getting used to.

I use W3 Total Cache on all my WordPress websites as I personally prefer this plugin over its competitors, having spent a lot of time configuring the different options available and seeing positive results. To help you do the same, I’ve put together this step-by-step guide to installing and configuring W3 Total Cache.

Setup W3 Total Cache for Better Performance

The setup procedure goes through both simple and advanced set of tools, so you need to follow each and every step with precision.

Before we go any further, it’s a good idea at this point to use a website testing tool like Pingdom or Google PageSpeed to see how your website is currently performing. Once we’re done, you can go back and run the tests again to see the difference in real time. 

Step 1

 The first obvious step is to install W3 Total Cache plugin. You can either download its package from the WordPress Plugins Directory, or search it inside the Dashboard itself. Either way, get it installed and activated.

Find W3 Total Cache Plugin on WordPress

Step 2

Now in the left-hand side list inside Dashboard, you’ll see a new column added, named Performance. You need to click on this and select the General settings first.

Setup and Install W3 Total Cache on Your Website

Step 3

You need to leave the General tab untouched and scroll down to the Page Cache section. Under this, Enable the Page Cache option and select Disk: Enhanced option from the drop down list ahead of the method.

Wordpress W3 Total Cache Disk Enhanced

Step 4

Up next is the Minify section, which again needs to be Enabled.  From there, select Auto option from the mode. Select Disk as the method and leave rest of the options as Default. In the case of using MaxCDN, you need to keep the Minify mode to Manual.

Setup WordPress Minify Options on W3 Total Cache

Step 5

Keep the Database Cache Enabled and select Disk as the method for it.

W3 Database Cache on WordPress

Step 6

Next, keep the Object cache Enabled and again keep the Disk as the method for it.

Step 7

With that done, keep the Browser cache Enabled and hit Save all settings button. The General setting section ends here and whatever is left underneath or above, is required to stay Default. 

W3 Total Cache

Step 8

Now, after making the General settings happy, we need to dive into individual ones. Starting with the Page Cache, you need to enable first, second, and second-from-last options. You can leave the remaining options untouched.

W3 Individual Cache Settings

Step 9

Scrolling down, you’ll find Cache Preload option, where you need to enable Automatically prime the page cache option and make sure to click on Save all settings button.

Step 10

Keeping the Minify, Database Cache, and Object Cache options as default, click on the Browser Cache option from the left sliding menu. Over here, Enable the first Six options and leave the rest on default.

W3 Total Cache Settings

Step 11 

Click on the Save all settings button underneath and you are good to go.

Checking your performance

Now after getting over with all these settings and tweaking, I’ll recommend to check out the current grades of your website using FTP tool of Pingdom and also using Google Page Speed insight. I’m sure you’ll find improvement in each of them.

The key thing to note here is that I never went into the details of any individual option. That’s because a lot of these things are technical in nature, and to be honest,  what’s important isn’t so much how they work as much as it is that they get the job done. If you do want to look further into how each option helps you to achieve better WordPress performance, a good technical web developer or Search Engine Optimisation blog should provide everything you need to know.

Also, if you’re still not satisfied with the performance improvements, I’d recommend using a CDN network. You can start with CloudFlare which is free to begin, offering limited options, or you can opt for much advanced MaxCDN which offers tons of features and a guaranteed improvement. This is included in most of the hosting companies that we have reviewed. The second one is paid and comes with a premium support team, always ready to help you out in any situation.

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01 Apr 2016

Self-Hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com

Introduction

Let’s be honest, in this day and age, not many of us have the time to deal with all the technical ins-and-outs of setting up a new website. So when it comes to choosing WordPress as your CMS, the difference between self-hosted and a site at WordPress.com often means all the difference between getting set up quickly, albeit sacrificing some level of control in the process.

If you do want want full control of your website and plenty of advanced features to go along with it, then picking up the self-hosted WordPress will be a wise choice, otherwise going with the WordPress.com option will get the job done.

By “job” I mean, sharing your content with rest of the world.

About Self Hosted WordPress vs WordPress.com

First, it’s worth pointing out  that there is huge confusion between these two options, and the moment we sign up for a WordPress account, the confusion increases further.

This happens as the core WordPress team asks us to create our first website, and we do it as it is extremely simple. If you still haven’t signed up for an account, then go ahead and do it.

The moment you setup the first website after getting a free account, you’ll get behind that blog and will have access to its Dashboard area.

This is where we first start to see some big differences. To explain them, let me provide a clear definition of both the options.


WordPress.com option

Have you used Blogger platform in past? It’s a Google-owned platform, allowing users to quickly setup an online blog and start sharing their thoughts. If you’ve used it or even seen it in action, then WordPress.com is almost a replica of that idea.

Wordpress.com post editor

It offers a free platform to setup a blog within half an hour (or even less, depends on how far you wish to play with the customizations) and start sharing your thoughts. It works like a normal website and can get tons of organic traffic too.

There is an inclusion of social media integration to help your thoughts share quickly, and a built-in Like system, so that other bloggers on the platform can appreciate your work.

For the record, there is also a premium option if you pick a custom domain and enjoy a few other enhanced features, though you’re still fairly limited when compared to the all-consuming web building prowess of a self-hosted WordPress site.


Self Hosted WordPress option

In this option, you need to buy a hosting server and a domain name separately, and then using some software tools (like SimpleScript), WordPress script is installed on your hosting account. This is the first and prime difference as you’ve to do the installation, manually.

Self-Hosted WordPress Dashboard

The moment that installation is complete, you gain access to the Dashboard area behind the newly created website. Go ahead, login into the system with the credentials (either you chose or using the WordPress’s default).

Now the second difference will appear,  with the WordPress dashboard presenting many more options than its .com counterpart. It can let you pick your own theme, change every possible setting, customize the way you like it, and even add third-party functionalities, better known as Plugins.

WordPress vs WordPress.com: About Plugins

When we talk about plugins, we’re essentially referring to a tool which uses code to add a particular functionality to your site which isn’t offered by the core WordPress platform.

Self Hosted WordPress Plugins Page

Now, because of this Plugin option, you can use most types of software or script into the system, which is compatible with the WordPress core inside. For example, you’re allowed to use Google Analytics to keep a track of every visitor arriving on the website and noticing its activities. Like this, there are lots of powerful tools available online which makes the web way faster, way more functional and way more enjoyable.

And, all this is possible because of Plugins.

WordPress vs WordPress.com: Themes

Plugins aren’t the only thing which can add a functionality, a powerful Theme can also be a big help in adding user interaction and visual attraction to your new site.

Wordpress themes

Assuming you’ve picked the Self Hosted option, you can install and use any sort of compatible theme available online. There are many premium and free themes available to pick and trust me, the more you spend, more functionality you can get.

Usually, the Premium theme these days come up with their own Options Panel available in the Dashboard area, which offers a GUI tool to bring possible changes into the visual and functional part of the website.

Again, this isn’t possible in the WordPress.com option. Even if you find few options to bring customizations, still they will be limited to a certain level.

So, in other words, WordPress.com is an option where the core WordPress team picks what’s best for you, and in the Self Hosted WordPress, you’re allowed to pick whatever you think is best for the website.

Making the decision

If you wish to customize, develop, and manage a website which is truly according to your taste and requirements, then go ahead with the self-hosted WordPress option, as the other one doesn’t have any such options. All it can promise you is a base platform to quickly share your content of multiple types like videos, and images.

WordPress vs WordPress.com: Which one are you picking?

So, now you’re aware of the exact differences between these two methods of starting a website (just a blog in WordPress.com case). I personally picked the self-hosted option as I’ve to learn everything about WordPress, how it works and how I can make a living out of it. If my plan was just to start a blog, I would have definitely picked the WordPress.com option.

Did I leave anything uncleared? Let me know in the comments section below and I’ll try my best to clear up the confusion.

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