This post aims to demystify the process of quickly installing WordPress and Avada. Once set up, you can customize the website as much or as little as you need to match your marketing goals and branding. Website design can be an enjoyable and satisfying activity if you have the right tools in place.
WordPress is powerful but not complicated; however, there is a small learning curve for anyone new to this platform. If you want to build a website for your business, it can be challenging to get over that initial ‘hump’ of familiarity with the world’s favored Content Management System (CMS).
The best way to harness WordPress’s power and expand its functionality is to use a tool that brings everything together in one place. Avada is not just a WordPress theme; it is more than that. It is a Website Builder and the go-to solution for more than 1009k beginners, marketers, and professionals when it comes to designing and maintaining world-class websites. In this post, we’ll show you how.
Being prepared before starting a new website is paramount because it ensures a clear direction and purpose, which guides all subsequent decisions. Additionally, preparation streamlines the entire design process, making it more efficient and minimizing the likelihood of errors or delays.
Here is a basic preparation checklist:
From a technical perspective, preparation ensures that all necessary elements, such as hosting and domain setup, security measures, and backup solutions, are in place from the start. Furthermore, integrating a clear Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and marketing strategy into the plan from the beginning helps achieve better results.
The first step assumes you have already purchased Avada on the Themeforest marketplace. If you still need to, please see this detailed help file on how to purchase Avada.
To start the installation process, you must download the correct installation files and, while at it, the purchase code to register Avada, as explained in Step 3.
Log into your Themeforest marketplace account and navigate to the downloads page. At this stage, you are presented with these options:
Download the “Installable WordPress file only” and a copy of the license certificate. For more information on what is included with your Avada purchase, please see this help file.
The next step is to log in to your website’s Dashboard. By default, you can find your login page by adding /wp-admin/ to the end of the domain where you installed WordPress (e.g., http://yoursite.com/wp-admin/).
With each vanilla WordPress installation, a default theme is set as the active theme and will change once you upload Avada.
Once logged in, navigate to Themes > Upload Theme and upload the ‘Avada.zip‘ file you downloaded from your ThemeForest marketplace account.
WordPress will notify you as soon as the Avada upload is completed, giving you three choices. Choose > Activate.
Once activated, you will be redirected to the main Avada Dashboard page.
At this point, you will be ready to proceed to the next step: installing the required plugins (Avada Builder, Avada Core), registering Avada, and getting started with customizing.
Registering Avada involves verifying your purchase. This process allows you to receive free automatic updates for life, import prebuilt websites directly from within your WordPress dashboard, and access Avada Studio prebuilt content.
Log into the Themeforest marketplace account used to purchase Avada to locate your purchase code. For detailed instructions, please see this help file (Locating the purchase code is also explained in Step 1).
The Avada Builder and Avada Core plugins are required and must be installed for Avada to work as intended. To install them, navigate to the Avada > Plugins screen.
Installation is straightforward and completed in a matter of seconds.
On the Plugins page, you will see a range of plugins divided into REQUIRED, PREMIUM, and RECOMMENDED.
REQUIRED
PREMIUM
RECOMMENDED
An Avada prebuilt website is a professionally designed website template included with your purchase of Avada. These websites, also known as “demos,” are created by the in-house Avada design team and intended to showcase the versatility and functionality of Avada and WordPress. They provide a quick and easy way for users to set up a professional-looking website without needing to design it from scratch.
There are currently 109 websites to choose from (with new websites being added regularly), arranged into various industry categories. Before the import, you can filter by category and preview each website. You can also view all Avada prebuilt websites online.
These prebuilt websites include complete layouts, styles, and dummy content that can be imported into a WordPress installation with just a few clicks. Each prebuilt website is tailored for specific industries or purposes, such as business, portfolio, e-commerce, blog, or landing pages, allowing users to choose a design that closely matches their needs.
On the import screen, you will see options. You can import all the content, import specific content types only, or remove previously imported content.
Importing an Avada website will give you layouts, pages, posts, forms, icons, global options, widgets, sidebars, sliders, and miscellaneous settings to replicate the original site accurately.
Once imported, you can customize the dummy content, layouts, and other elements to fit your unique requirements, leveraging Avada’s powerful features and flexibility to create your perfect website.
There are several approaches you can take when it comes to creating your new website, and how much and how far you customize the imported website will be entirely up to you and your goals. You may want to do low-level customization and only change the core branding, such as the logo and favicon, dummy wording, and general contact information, essentially leaving all of the imported pages and layout structure intact.
Or, you may want to go the whole hog and customize everything (header, footer, layouts, content, media, images, pages, and posts). Avada gives you the flexibility and creative freedom to design any website layout, add an e-commerce online store, and more.
In addition to the prebuilt websites, Avada offers a wide range of creative resources that will enhance and inspire your workflow. These include prebuilt Avada Studio content, tutorial videos, an advanced help center, and world-class professional support.
Getting a website up and running can seem intimidating, especially when switching to a new framework or using one for the first time. However, starting with Avada is much easier than you may think.
Following the steps in this article, you can set up a basic website in no time. From there on out, customizing and aligning the content to match your business or brand is all that would be needed.
As technology has rapidly evolved over the recent decades, so have potential customers’ broad experiences and expectations for any online business. Customers want, even expect, some level of real-time engagement concerning product support and overall buying decision-making.
The aforementioned market trends have led to online businesses incorporating front-line applications like live chat and service bots to assist their teams in providing a more well-rounded and immediate customer experience. However, installing live chat on your Avada website is not enough to guarantee a successful customer experience. You must ensure that your support team and tools are aligned to ensure that live chat is efficient and impactful to your business.
In this post, you’ll learn everything you need about live chat, how it works, and how to implement it to meet customer needs successfully.
Live chat is a website tool that connects customers with real human support reps, allowing your team to address and resolve customer queries in real-time and in a timely manner. In many cases, live chat can be considered a confidence mechanism for customers in an age where customer contact is limited or restricted. Live chat is analogous to a chatbot because both are real-time support communication tools; however, this is where the similarities end.
Live chat connects customers directly with human support representatives and is typically embedded within your website as a widget. The widget loads an icon or link on your website, typically at the bottom of the browser window. A chat window will open when clicked, allowing you to start communicating with the support representative. Most software will allow you to select which pages you’d like the live chat to appear on and customize the chat widget’s design.
A chatbot is an automated software program that simulates human conversation using predefined communication. Nevertheless, chatbots can be very helpful in beginning the customer support conversation before escalating to live chat communication with a human support agent, for example, during out-of-hours periods and during longer customer queues.
Utilizing live chat for your online business cannot be understated. Simply put, more and more customers are reaching out via live chat channels because it reduces wait times and prioritizes urgency in special cases. Some key points are:
A customer’s experience is a primary differentiator between your business and your competitors. For example, customers claim long wait times as a negative customer service experience, according to a survey conducted by HelpScout. Live chat support will help decrease the average handling time and is viewed as an available communication channel over and above a traditional website contact page and email.
Live chat ensures that customers don’t need to wait for very long for the answer to questions. And they can quickly ask follow-up questions which are particularly valuable with presales or technical assistance. In addition, there’s no need to escalate follow-up cases to get straightforward questions answered.
Because live chat is embedded directly into your website, and can be readily integrated with customer service tools such as a CRM, a Knowledge Base, VoIP Calling, Chatbots, and more. These tools automate specific processes for your sales and service departments, creating a more pleasing customer communication experience.
Chatbots are commonly integrated with live chat to funnel customer attention and automatically respond with pertinent information. In particular, for recurring and common customer questions, allowing your customer service and sales teams to focus on more complex or time-consuming cases.
It’s essential to keep your customer’s focus targeted when they visit your website. Suppose a customer needs to navigate away from the current page unnecessarily. In that case, there is a good chance might not return despite providing world-class customer service.
Live chat creates an omnichannel experience for prospective and existing customers. HubSpot’s Live chat’s seamless integration with many tools allows customers to connect directly with service or sales teams. Providing live chat as a service can reduce your website’s bounce rate, improve the customer experience, and develop opportunities to upsell and cross-sell products and additional services.
Suppose traditional email and phone calls are your business’s primary communication or sales channels. In that case, live chat will decrease the overall volume and improve the customer experience. All the while, you are freeing up team members to focus better on closing sales and following up on leads.
Now that you’re familiar with some of the benefits of using live chat on your Avada website let’s take a closer look at how to get set up using live chat.
Setting up HubSpot’s FREE live chat on your website is pretty straightforward. It will engage your customers, drive sales, generate leads, and provide real-time product and service support.
Before creating a live chat for your website, you must connect a chat channel to the conversations inbox. The chat channel allows you to customize your team’s availability and the widget’s style and appearance. To connect:
There are five simple steps to follow in preparation for launching your first HubSpot live chat instance.
For a detailed walkthrough of each of the five steps, please refer to this detailed HubSpot article. In addition, you can revisit each of these steps at any time to adjust or change your customer’s live chat experience.
Once you are done setting up the FREE live chat, in the top right, click Preview to view how your live chat will appear on your Avada website. Click to toggle the switch on to add it to your website pages.
The FREE HubSpot live chat is one of Avada’s recommended plugins and can be included with the import of any of the Avada prebuilt websites or installed on your website at any time; it is up to you to decide when you are ready. Click here to view and interact with a working live chat and Avada example.
We also have additional resources on how to get set up. So please go ahead and watch this detailed YouTube video tutorial.
Avada + HubSpot is everything you need to launch a successful marketing website that will attract customers to your business, generate leads, and improve your customer experience. We will be expanding on and detailing all of the plugin features when activated with Avada in subsequent Blog posts, so stay tuned.
Image size for websites is a deep and complex subject. There are many factors to understand and to take into account, and it’s not a topic where an easy, one size fits all answer will suffice. But if you want to know more about how images work with your Avada website, and get a general overview of the factors at play, read on.
When we speak of image size, it is useful to keep in mind the two different sides of the issue. The first one is “What size images should I upload?”, while the other side is “What affects how large my images are displayed?” And these are not independent questions. You can’t answer the first one without also considering the second.
With this Image Size Guide, we aim to give you the information you need to gauge how big or small your images should be to fit your website, as well as to ensure that they look crisp on your viewers’ screens. The size and quality of the images on your website depends on a whole range of factors, such as how big you upload them, your site width, whether they’re in columns or being used as a background image, whether you use sidebars, and even the resolution of the end user’s screen, to name just a few. Continue reading below to learn more about these factors. Also, take a look at our extensive blog article, ‘A Comprehensive Guide To WordPress Image Optimization’, to explore the basics of image optimization.
Images that are too large are one of the main causes for slow loading websites. So if you want a really slow website, just upload images straight from your phone, camera or other capture device. These are often over 5,000px in width and up to six or seven megabytes in size. This will ensure your pages take forever to load. This approach is incredibly common, yet it doesn’t take into account the size (both in pixels, and in kilobytes, or even megabytes) of the image being uploaded.
But we all want fast loading websites, and so we need to consider these things. To do this, and to determine what size our images should be, we need to understand a few things about images, and about how big the space we are adding the images into actually is. The first thing to understand is how images for the web are sized.
For a start, forget about what ppi (pixels per inch) your image is. It makes no difference in a web browser, and doesn’t affect file size either. It is a printing instruction, and can be completely ignored with images for the web. Despite this, it’s a standard to upload images that are at 72ppi.
The most important figure to understand about images for the web is the pixel dimensions. Capture devices, like cameras and phones, capture images at a fixed aspect ratio and size. The longest length of an image is usually in the range of 3,000 – 7,000 pixels, but this depends entirely on the device. But this is what you most need to consider when preparing your images for uploading to a website. We will cover more on what’s an appropriate size, but as a very rough guide, images around 2,000 – 2,500 pixels on the longest length are considered the largest size you’d ever need to upload. In many cases, images around 600 – 1200 pixels would be more appropriate. And images that are only a couple of hundred pixels in width (like logos) will be fine in small Columns, but would pixelate if added to larger Columns.
When it comes to file size, this is determined by three things – the complexity of the image (an image of the blue sky will be much smaller than the same sized image of a forest), the pixel dimensions of the image, and the compression applied to the image. There’s not much you need to know about the first one, and the second one will be determined by other considerations, but the compression is also important. This setting, available in virtually all graphics software, as well as via image optimisation websites or WordPress plugins, reduces the kilobyte size of an image, and optimizes it for the web. The more compression you apply, the smaller the file size. But quality is also reduced. So a balance between the two needs to be found. To learn more about image size and compression, read this detailed blog post.
Image size is also directly affected by your choice of image format. This is a huge topic, and way too big for a tutorial such as this, but basically, there are two major file fomats you are likely to be using on your website, as well as a few more upcoming and possible formats. There are both vector and raster image formats, and each format has their own strengths and weaknesses. For a more detailed look at image file formats, view this excellent article at HubSpot, or this one at Kinsta.
JPG (.jpg or .jpeg) is the most common image raster format for the web, most suitable for photos. It compresses well (maintains quality relatively well for the file sizes you can achieve). It doesn’t support transparency, but it’s by far the most common image format.
PNG (.png) is also a very common image format, with specific strengths. It was invented to replace GIFs, and is a lossless format and also supports transparency. This means it is great for logos and other images that require transparency. It is also a good format for high quality photos, but the comparitive file size is much bigger than a jpg.
GIF (.gif) is a lossless format, meaning that a GIF retains all the data contained in the file, but they are smaller than JPGs, specifically because they only accommodate up to 256 indexed colors. GIF also supports transparency, but for logos, PNGs are a better format. This format is slowly being replaced by the .png format, but where GIFs still shine, is that they can be animated, and so are very useful in some situations.
SVG (.svg) is a vector format, which while having wide browser support, is not yet as easy a file format to implement as the others. It is however a great choice for logos, or other graphics you want to be tack sharp. Unlike raster formats seen in JPG, GIF, and PNG, an SVG image remains crisp and clear at any resolution or size, because they are mathematically declared shapes and curves, not pixels.
WebP is the new kid on the block, this file format is developed by Google, and was developed specifically to provide better lossless and lossy compression of images. This format does not have 100% browser support at this time, but there are ways around this using image optimisation plugins like ShortPixel. For more info on how to implement WebP with WordPress, check out this post.
So, now you know a bit about resizing images, and what formats to potentially use, how do you actually decide how big your images should be? Well, it all starts with your Site Width. You’ll find this setting in Avada > Options > Layout > Site Width. This can be a percetage value, but web design is still largely pixel based, and the current default width is 1200px (this is to do with screen reslolutions, which we will get to…)
Let’s say your Site Width is 1200px. That means that all the content on your site will display across 1200 pixels of the monitor it’s being viewed on. As an example, the content on this documentation, including the sidebar, is 1300px. (You can break the content out of this Site Width by using the 100% Width setting on Containers, or a slider, but again, we will get to that…)
Therefore, if you had a full width Column with an Image Element, an appropriate size for your image would be around 1200px. To determine the image size, we just need to consider the width (in pixels) of the area it will be added to.
So now, let’s say you have two one-half columns, and you want an image to display in one of them. How big does that image need to be? Well, around half of the Site Width would be a good starting point. So, around 600px. If you optionally wanted the image to be able to be opened in a Lightbox, you might initally upload a larger version (perhaps 1000 – 1500px) and then insert a 600px version into the column, and the full size into the Lightbox option of the Image Element.
In the example below, instead of being added via the Image Element, the image has been added to the background of the Column (to enable the overlaid Text and Button Elements). But it’s still being displayed in a one-half Column, and so an image size of approximately 600px would be appropriate. You could still enable a Lightbox with this method as well, only you’d do that via the Link URL and Link Target options in the Column itself.
Now, let’s say you want to use the image in the background of a Container that’s set to 100% width, or as an image in a full screen slider? Both methods break the image out of the Site Width, and now it’s a completely different consideration we have to take. Now, what’s most important is the screen resolution (or pixel width) your users are viewing it on. This can be tricky, as there are many different screen resolutions.
The most common is still standard laptop resolution (1366px). This is why the deafult Site Width is 1200px, so that the content fits on this screen resolution. But Full HD (1920px) is the second most common resolution, and 4K monitors are gaining in popularity as well (3840px). Some iMacs even have 5K resolution (5120px). So, how do we take all these different screen resolutions into account? A common way to approach this is to use an image size of around 2,000-2,500px. This covers most screen resolutions, and it not interpolated significantly except for 5K monitors.
In the first example below, the page is using the 100% width template, which means that any container background images go full width. The container itself is also set to Full Height. And so the image size needs to be large enough to fill the screen. In this case, the image used is 1803px x 902px, which is almost the size of a HD monitor resolution. This could be bigger, but here it’s being used as a background image, and so the quality is not as important.
Note: Just to be clear, if viewed on a 5K iMac, this 1803px image would be distributed across the full 5120px of the iMac’s screen (less scrolling bars), effectively reducing the quality of the image. But on a laptop, with a resolution of only 1366px, the image would be more than big enough, and would be crisp. It’s all about finding a sweet spot between screen resolution and file size (which comes directly from your choice of pixel dimensions). If you were sure most of your users were using iMacs, you’d probably make this image closer to 4000-5000px, but it would then be a much larger file.
In the second example, the image is being used in a full screen slider. In this case, the image is sized at 2500px width, which on more than 95% of screen resolutions, would be larger than the monitor’s resolution and therefore be nice and sharp. With larger images such as these, optimisation of images using compression becomes even more important to keep file size, and therefore page load speed, down.
Once you know what the largest size is of an image you want to upload, then you need to prepare it. This simply involves resizing it to the desired pixel width, and then applying compression before uploading it to your server. To learn more about image compression, read this detailed blog post, or our own blog post on Image Optimization.
In short, you can use graphics software like Adobe Photoshop to compress your images for web as you save them. Alternatively, there are many good websites, such as Compressor. Additionally, you can also use image compression plugins, such as Short Pixel, to further compress image. A bonus is that you can also use such plugins to generate .WebP images on your site.
A well compressed image that has first been resized to the correct pixel values can be many times smaller than the original file. in the example below, you can see that the original jpg was 805kb, but that with 40% compression, the final size of the image came down to only 163kb, almost 5 times smaller.
As mentioned above, the size of the area the image will be displayed in is the major factor that determines how big it should be. Here are the main theme related areas that will affect this.
Example: As can be seen in the example below, if we start with a Site Width of 1170px (this is what the Charity Website has), but then use a dual sidebar layout, using the global option defaults, the sidebars combined take up 42% of the site width. This leaves approximately 679 pixels for the content area. And then there are the Column margins. So if adding an image in a one-half Column in this situation, it would only need to be around 330px width.
One crucial thing to understand – when uploading an image to your Media Library, a range of images of different sizes are automaically created at the same time. WordPress creates some of these (the Small, Medium, and Large Thumbnail sizes specified in WordPress > Settings > Media, and one unlisted intermediate size) and Avada itself creates a number of sizes to best suit certain situations. These image sizes are then automatically applied to different sections of the site. See the How Avada Controls Responsive Images document for more details on this.
When adding an image into the page content, such as through Elements, you’ll find the ‘Attachment Display Settings’ section at the bottom right of the Media Library. Your choices in this section also directly affects how your images display on the page, as here you are choosing which version of the image to use.
Step 1 – When you upload an image into the page content, the Media Library window will appear.
Step 2 – Select or upload your desired image. At the bottom right side of the window, find the ‘Attachment Display Settings’ section.
Step 3 – Under this section, you’ll find the ‘Size’ option. Using this option, you can select which size to use when uploading an image. You can choose between Thumbnail, Medium, Large or Full Size, plus a range of Avada size settings.
Step 4 – Choose the right image for the area you are adding the image into.
When uploading a background image to an Avada Builder Container, you may notice that only a portion of your image is displayed when viewed on mobile or tablets. This is how the theme naturally handles background images, and is not a responsive issue. The background image is first centered, then it will resize proportionally until the image’s width or height is equal to the container’s width or height (whichever is greater). For example, if you have a 500px x 500px image and a 100px x 350px container, then your background image will be resized to 350px x 350px. Please refer to the examples below for a visual representation of this.
Getting images right is a crucial part of a visually interesting and fast loading website. And there’s a learning curve to be sure. But the benefits to be had are numerous, and it’s all part of the fun of building and maintaining an Avada website!
Watch the video below for A Guide To Image Formats & Sizes for Websites.
These days, most people won’t set foot in a store or an office without looking it up online beforehand. With online directories, such as Google Maps, Yelp, and TripAdvisor, you can learn everything you need about any business from your phone.
Online business directories might seem complicated at first; however, at their core, they all require a common framework and functionality to deliver marketable information. You should be able to share business locations, reviews, photos, prices, and any other vital information with your audience. With the right WordPress theme, plugin, and approach, you can set up your online business directory as a marketing and public service powerhouse.
In this article, we’ll talk about why starting your business directory is much easier than you think. We’ll discuss what features every great directory needs and teach you how to pull it off using WordPress, Avada and the GeoDirectory plugin. Let’s get started!
At their core, business directories are all about listings. You gather the relevant information about a business, add it to your directory list, and that’s about it:
In practice, however, people expect a lot of functionality from business directories these days. To give you an idea, here’s a quick list of features we couldn’t live without:
With an online directory, you can drive sales to the businesses you want to promote, and it is a great way for businesses to boost their local SEO. Using the right tools, you can even monetize the project by charging companies and services to be listed within the directory, over and above standard advertising. On top of all that, you’re also providing a public service by giving people the information they need to find the products and services they want.
You will need a clean WordPress installation and hosting provider to get started. Once WordPress is set up and ready to go, you can move on to the next step, installing Avada.
The first thing you’ll need for your business directory site is a theme that’s both highly customizable and works well alongside the GeoDirectory plugin (which is the tool we’ll be using to add in crucial functionality). GeoDirectory has put together a comprehensive guide about setting up GeoDirectory with Avada.
Avada fits both of those criteria, on top of packing in a lot more cool features. In fact, the GeoDirectory plugin works out of the box with the Avada Builder, and you can set up and customize your website, without having to touch any code.
Please see this quick setup guide for a detailed overview of how to purchase, install Avada, and then import any of the 109 Avada prebuilt websites available.
The GeoDirectory plugin is free to use, and it also offers a lot of premium add-ons you can install to extend its functionality:
Right out of the box, this plugin packs all the features you’ll need to create a robust business directory. Including the ability to select a location such as a street or even a whole city, enable visitors to submit listings, and much more.
Let’s go ahead and install the plugin so that you can check it out firsthand. As soon as you activate it, you’ll get access to a setup wizard:
First, select the maps API you want the plugin to use. By default, it will use the Google Maps API with OpenStreetMap as an alternative choice. The OpenStreetMap option is great for most users, so let’s stick with that setting.
Next, we will move to the next step, where you can set a default location for your business directory. That’s the map that will show up on your website and will help users find the businesses they want:
The following section is for extra features. There are three free recommendations and s list of optional extras that can be purchased for an annual or monthly fee:
The final step is content. At this point, you can connect your site via an API to the GeoDirectopry servers and import content or test your directory by adding dummy data. Using dummy data is an excellent way to get an idea of what your directory might look like once it starts to grow.
In the previous screen, we opted to import dummy data. The final screen confirms a successful import. A privacy option allows you to opt into or out of sharing non-sensitive diagnostic data and usage information with GeoDirectory.
Let’s move on to step 3, creating your first directory listing.
For now, though, let’s review the process of manually adding a real listing. To do that, go to the WP Dashboard > Places and click on Add New. Now you get to create a new listing using the WordPress editor:
Go ahead and set a name and a description for your listing. Once you start scrolling down, you’ll see options to add all the other information a business listing requires that includes a location, category, contact information, social media accounts, and much more:
This information is the heart of your business directory, so you’ll want to be as thorough as possible. All listings added to the directory will show up within the WP Dashboard > Places tab:
The GeoDirectory plugin is integrated and works as expected with the Avada and the Avada Live Visual Builder. You can build your page layouts and content with the Avada Builder and use the vast array of GeoDirectory Avada Builder Elements they have hooked in to create dynamic business listing pages.
You can place these Design Elements on any page and customize them, giving you full control over how your directory looks. GeoDirectory has created two excellent tutorial posts illustrating how to design an AirBnB-style listings page and a standard directory website using Avada.
Now, all that’s left is to keep adding listings. Plus, if you’re up for it, you may want to flesh out your business website with a few more pages.
Building a successful business directory is no small feat. That is, of course, if you’re not using WordPress. With Avada and the GeoDirectory plugin, you can have your business directory set up in no time. Then it’s just a matter of attracting enough businesses, and the users will follow.
It’s been no secret to anyone using a mobile device over the past few years – webpages have become more feature-rich, while delivery speed has been sometimes lacking. While ‘mobile-first’ initiatives have been helpful in bridging this gap, more effort is necessary to bring browsing speeds into the 21st Century.
Fortunately, a number of major developers have looked to tackle the speed issue head on. Both Google and Apple have released projects to improve mobile content delivery speed (Accelerated Mobile Pages and Apple News Publisher respectively). However, one major developer has been so far conspicuous by their absence, despite their overall dominance of our web time.
Instant Articles is Facebook’s own initiative to improve mobile browsing speeds and much like the AMP Plugin for Google’s project, Automattic has stepped up to develop their own plugin for WordPress integration.
In this article, we’ll look at what Instant Articles is, its limitations and how to integrate it with your WordPress website. In our article on integrating AMP with WordPress, we explained some of the technical terms found here, so it’s worth reading through that first, to get up to speed.
If you’re ready, let’s get started!
Announced as far back as May 2015, Facebook’s Instant Articles has similar goals to both Google’s and Apple’s offerings, delivering web content quickly to mobile devices. However, while Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) was designed as an ‘open-source’ project (i.e. It enables anyone to assist with development.), Instant Articles is a ‘closed-source’ proprietary platform. As such, content is only viewable on mobile devices within the Facebook app and using Instant Articles means working completely within Facebook’s ecosystem.
Publishing articles happens directly from WordPress through an RSS feed edited with HTML5. Instant Articles are published at the same time as the desktop article and any changes or updates are automatically captured and pushed to your feed.
To actually increase content delivery speed, Instant Articles borrows the same technology used to display images and videos in the Facebook app. This, coupled with the benefits of caching, means articles may load up to ten times faster than normal.
While AMP focuses on speed at the expense of extra functionality, Facebook has given content producers a number of tools to make articles immersive and interactive:
News Feed article previews can be customized to match brand identity and can even include video. Of course, with this being Facebook, user engagement can be tracked through your page’s normal analytics screen.
While all of these features are impressive, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this extra functionality could impact page speeds. As alluded to earlier though (and much like Google itself), Facebook will cache all compatible Instant Articles on their servers, keeping the load time to a minimum.
Finally, there looks to be more good news for content providers, publishers selling adverts through Instant Articles get to keep all revenue generated. For those extending their campaigns outside of Facebook, there’s still the option to take advantage of the Facebook Audience Network, though that appears to follow the same guidelines it always has.
Now we’ve looked at what Instant Articles is, lets look at some of the format’s limitations.
While speed and the immersion tools are big benefits, Instant Articles comes with a number of limitations to consider:
Websites with less than 50 eligible posts will be rejected outright. If your site does meet this post count, your site joins the queue to be manually reviewed. As with any manual process, wading through the inevitable applications takes time, and it could be that your competitors are taking advantage of Instant Articles before you.
Publishers will need multiple solutions to show the same page via the different platforms and those solutions may not be consistent in their implementation, nor play nicely with each other. Furthermore, some of the immersion tools mentioned above will need to be coded into your pages and as far as WordPress is concerned, some plugins may also need more code to be compatible.
In an FAQ on their developer website, Facebook stated there will be no News Feed ranking benefit to Instant Articles; and because all interactions (such as reactions, comments, and shares) take place with the Facebook app, overall this could mean your Facebook user engagement rises, but your reach may not – leaving your original website article languishing from a lack of user interaction.
While Facebook’s terms (such as the aforementioned 100% ad revenue) are favorable for publishers right now, if Instant Articles has a large adoption rate, these terms may change. After all, providing a tempting sign-up offer to only lock users into a lesser deal later is not a new business move. To which, Facebook may choose to remove competitor’s ads (such as Google AdSense), replacing them with their own versions and further locking in content providers.
Finally (if you haven’t guessed by now), most aspects of Instant Articles are handled entirely within the Facebook ecosystem. The relative merits of a ‘walled garden’ approach are beyond the scope of this article, but it may be worth considering if you enjoy the freedom of using non-proprietary solutions.
Now that we’ve discovered what Instant Articles is and looked at some of its limitations, let’s look at the final step: WordPress integration.
To get your WordPress website integrated with Instant Articles, you’ll need at least two things:
While you probably have the first one, it’s the plugin, which is a a joint effort between Automattic and Norwegian developers Dekode, called Instant Articles for WP, that you may not have. Let’s take a look!
Much like Automattic’s AMP plugin, Instant Articles for WP provides no settings to tweak. All of the magic happens elsewhere. Once installed, a new RSS feed is created, which you can see by appending either /?feed=instant-articles or /feed/instant-articles (depending on your permalink settings) to your website’s URL:
http://www.example.com/?feed=instant-articles
http://www.example.com/feed/instant-articles
For the rest of the process, you’ll need to sign up to Instant Articles – enable your page on the next screen – then log into your Facebook Page, navigate to the Settings screen, and select Instant Articles from the left hand menu. The setup process has a number of steps, but you can skip most of the Initial Setup section if you want to get up and running straight away:
Step 2 involves actually submitting your articles, but this won’t be possible until you’ve connected your RSS feeds. Scroll past Step 2 and find sections to enter your RSS feeds, including a development feed if you have one, then back up to Step 2, where you’ll submit each article for review.
It’s at this point that the review process begins and once accepted, any new articles received from your RSS feed will be pushed to the readers’ devices.
Styling of your Instant Article page takes place within the Facebook Style Editor, such as font color, typography, and identity images; among other options. Facebook has provided a comprehensive design guide to what’s possible when using the Style Editor.
Mobile browsing dominates our time, but the speed at which we receive web content is sometimes left wanting. While Google and Apple have looked to address the issue with initiatives for the open web, content providers for Facebook have had nothing until now.
Instant Articles is the answer to rapid content delivery within the Facebook ecosystem. To get your WordPress website ready, you need to do the following:
Major developers are looking to drag our mobile browsing speeds into the 21st Century, but at this point you may be wondering whether you need both AMP and Instant Articles to deliver an improved experience to mobile readers. For the answers to that question, look out for a future post where we’ll compare both platforms directly.
Are you going to be an adopter of Instant Articles? How will it help your business connect with people? Give us your opinion in the comments section below or let us know if you have questions about using Avada with WordPress!
Image credit: geralt.
We may live in an age of visual media, but I’m willing to bet that text still makes up the majority of your website’s content. What many web masters don’t appreciate is that the typography you choose can make a big difference between engaging with or turning off your readers.
This is where you can make a positive difference. Learning the basics of web typography and applying your newfound skills will ensure that your website’s content is attractive, accessible and engaging. It needn’t take long either.
In this post, we’ll cover how to get started with web typography and accessibility, then show you how to apply what you’ve learned to your website using Avada’s industry leading network of options.
To begin your typographic education, you must first learn how typography has evolved from print into the digital age.
There’s one key difference to consider, which is so simple that its implications are easily passed by in the design process:
Keep in mind that when you are designing with web typography, what you see isn’t necessarily what everyone else is going to see. To truly understand how it changes, you’d need to check out your site on as many different operating systems, devices, and browsers as possible. If you do want to get into browser testing across multiple platforms, you can do so by using any of the browser testing tools listed here.
My point is, perfectionism is not the goal here. Simple, accessible typography is easier to implement than you think; you don’t need it to be ‘pixel perfect’ for your readers to readily consume your content around the world with minimal readability issues.
Web accessibility is easy to forget if you do not suffer from any disabilities, but there are numerous folks out there with a range of barriers that prevent them from enjoying the web to its fullest. You can learn more about user diversity on the web at the W3 website.
The recommended rule of thumb is to assume that your readers struggle to read online text, in one way or another. Your goal is to assist them by designing your typography to meet their needs.
Even for those who are not impaired, typography designed to be easy on the eye will be appreciated by all. Think about the way we use elevators – not all of us physically require the use of one, but it sure is nice to not have to walk up so many flights of stairs.
By paying attention to typography and designing for accessibility, you reduce the chances of users distorting your website by zooming in to read it, or simply leaving in frustration.
To be fair, becoming an expert on pairing web fonts is a skill that develops with time and practice. However, getting started doesn’t have to be difficult! Here are some basics that will help you:
Avada allows you to use Google Fonts, unlimited custom fonts, and even standard fonts. And the advanced theme options allows you to control all aspects of styling like font size, font family, line height, letter spacing and more so you are only limited to your imagination!
Choosing the right fonts is your first step, but next you need to determine how those fonts should display.
Font size is similar to how you would set your font size in a text document on your computer. However, the default for web font sizing is in pixels (px) rather than points (pt). Pixels are used to measure resolution on a screen, points are used to measure against physical media.
Line height is how far away each line of text is from the next.
When it comes to usability, small fonts may look beautiful aesthetically, but are difficult to read. Here are two simple guidelines to follow for optimal reading sizes:
You can adjust these settings with Avada in the Typography Options.
You may be noticing a trend – what works well from a purely aesthetic point of view may not be entirely functional or kind to your readers and their eyes.
Subtle colors between your text and backgrounds can be beautiful, but in the end, this design decision doesn’t serve your readers well.
In order to avoid this problem, do the opposite! Choose high contrast colors for your design. There are a number of initiatives to help create more accessible web design that provide tools to determine whether your colors are high contrast enough, such as this Contrast Checker by WebAIM.
Ready to apply this knowledge? Avada has an advanced network of options that includes Theme Options, Page Options and Builder Options. Avada’s Theme Options is the section dedicated to adjusting all aspects of the typography used on your site.
Theme Options are logically grouped into sections so everything is easy to find, and there is a search field that can quickly pull options up with a single keyword or two.
The typography controls in Avada are out of this world. Virtually every font used on your site (Headings, body font, menus, widgets, etc) can be fully controlled using Avada, and it even shows you a live preview of the font settings while you choose them! Below is an example of the advanced typography controls in Avada.
Don’t lose readers to poor typography; instead, use Avada to take control and fine-tune your website’s typography!
Let’s recap the steps we covered in this article that will help you to produce highly readable typography:
Have you taken the time to hone in your typography skills and improve the readability of your site? We’re curious to know what changes you’ve made, and how it impacted your reader’s engagement, so let us know in the comments section below!
Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons, Lindsay Henwood, Amador Loureiro
Images are among the most powerful tools in web design: they help convey emotion, reinforce your message, and lead visitors through a narrative without saying a single word. When paired with a powerful WordPress theme like Avada, leveraging images to tell a captivating story becomes much simpler and more versatile.
In this post, we’ll explore how to use Avada’s top visual features to create visually stunning stories that resonate with your audience.
Before adding any image to your website, establish a clear strategy and stick to it:
Ask yourself what story you’re trying to tell. Do you want to evoke excitement, trust, or curiosity? Answering this first will guide your image choices.
A cohesive brand image often results in higher retention. Choose a consistent style—albeit minimalistic or vivid and colorful—and stick to it across all your pages. A cohesive brand story is essential for long-term success.
Use images that show real applications of your product or service in action. Authentic, context-rich images typically outperform generic stock photos. With your strategic groundwork laid, you can then leverage Avada’s cutting-edge design features to bring your vision to life.
Avada has evolved considerably, as can be seen in this comprehensive changelog, offering powerful tools that streamline the design process and provide unparalleled customization options:
The Avada Live Visual Builder lets you modify content in real time. You can effortlessly add or adjust images, change their sizes, or customize their layout without navigating back and forth between the dashboard and the live site.
Avada provides specialized Design Elements—such as image boxes, galleries, and carousels—to elevate your storytelling. These Elements come with pre-built settings, helping you integrate images quickly while maintaining a professional look.
Uniformity is key to a cohesive brand image. Avada’s Global Options lets you apply fonts, color schemes, and spacing across the entire site in one central location, ensuring all your visuals support the same aesthetic.
Optimizing images for speed and quality means making your images look great while ensuring they don’t slow down your site. Every extra second it takes for a page to load can cause visitors to leave, so you want to balance crisp visuals with quick load times. Here’s how:
Making your images “come alive” can dramatically enhance user engagement. Avada offers numerous ways to inject flair into your visual storytelling:
Subtle hover animations can add an interactive layer to your images. This is perfect for highlighting a product feature or revealing more information. Avada includes several image-based design elements with interesting hover effects.
Whether grid-style or a carousel, a gallery display invites visitors to explore multiple images at their own pace. In the Avada Builder, you can easily add or remove images, rearrange layouts, and adjust transitions.
Set key visuals as full-width or full-screen background images to draw attention to them. Pair them with bold text to make a memorable statement on your homepage or landing page.
A live example
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but search engines can’t “see” images the way human eyes can—at least not yet. Ensuring web accessibility and SEO standards can broaden your site’s reach and improve usability:
Image ALT text provides accurate, descriptive alt text for each image. This not only aids visually impaired users but also helps search engines understand the image context.
It is essential to name your images using relevant keywords rather than leaving them as a random string of numbers or characters. For instance, “morning-coffee-mug.jpg” is much better than “IMG-2025.jpg.”
Include captions or short descriptions for images that convey essential information. Clear captions can improve engagement and clarity, especially for complex visuals or data graphics. Avada offers versatile caption options for image-based elements, such as the Avada Image Element, Avada Image Carousel, and the Avada Gallery Element to name a few.
Where and how you display your images can have as much impact as the images themselves:
Long blocks of text can be intimidating. Use images to “break up” content sections, keeping your readers engaged from top to bottom.
Avada’s Image Element allows captions for images with a title and a short description, perfect for underscoring important milestones or product features.
Parallax or static background images can set the tone for your section without overwhelming the main message. Avada’s customization options for Columns and Containers let you fine-tune opacity, overlay colors, and scroll effects for background images.
Effective storytelling hinges on your ability to evoke emotion, pique curiosity, and guide visitors along a well-structured narrative. With Avada’s ever-evolving suite of features—ranging from the intuitive Avada Builder to powerful performance and styling options—you can transform a simple collection of images into a visually immersive journey that keeps audiences engaged.
Whether designing a corporate site, a creative portfolio, or an online store, the key lies in balancing aesthetics with purpose. Choose high-quality, meaningful images, optimize them for responsiveness and speed, and customize the final look with Avada’s advanced builder tools. Doing so will ensure that each image looks excellent and is pivotal in telling your brand’s story. Embrace the power of visuals—your visitors (and your bottom line) will thank you.
Designing effective website page layouts is essential for higher reader engagement and conversions. Still, most people don’t understand how or when to use the correct type of layout for their content. By learning about a few patterns that readers on the web follow, you can create layouts that fit these patterns, making them more likely to be read and acted upon.
Using Avada and WordPress and following basic design principles, you can decide how to best structure your website content. In this article, we will examine studies performed by user experience experts to determine how reader patterns interact with the most common types of web pages to create effective page layouts. Let’s get started!
A web page layout refers to the arrangement and organization of visual elements on a web page. It defines how content, such as text, images, navigation menus, and multimedia, is structured and displayed to users. The layout is a crucial aspect of web design as it impacts user experience, readability, navigation, and the overall effectiveness of the web page.
While you can apply the techniques explained in this article to the headers, footers, and sidebars, we’ll focus on the text, media, and clickable actions unique to the Avada web page(s) you create. Each section focuses on a typical ‘type’ of web content and then explains how to lay out that content to create an engaging user experience.
Before moving on to building more complex layouts using the Avada Layout Builder, it’s good to start with the basic concept of the Gutenberg Diagram. If you’re working on a page that must consist of plain text Columns (for example: long-winded documentation, reports, or privacy statements), this layout is for you. It is one of the layouts that have been addressed the least, but it calls for your consideration.
The main idea is that attention begins in the upper left-hand corner and is drawn down to a final stopping point in the lower right-hand corner. You can visualize this as follows:
You will usually work on pages other than this, but understanding how this theory applies will improve your ability to write better content and design more complex layouts.
Using the Gutenberg Diagram is simple – you must write your content appropriately.
Indeed, plain text pages without any headings are rare, but if you are designing one, the strategies you should use are as follows. We recommend using headers and tying your content into Layout 3 below.
Regardless, the design theory that the reader’s eye naturally travels from the top left and looks for an action point on the bottom right goes far beyond plain text, as you’ll see with the following layouts.
Let’s say you’re building a homepage or landing page for your most recent product. These pages usually have many big images, videos, and strong typography, leaving out large bodies of smaller text. In these situations, create your design layout using the Z pattern design principle that capitalizes on natural eye movement and reading behavior of users in Western cultures.
The Z pattern is an extension of the Gutenberg Diagram and how it applies to readers scanning a web page when you’re offering more than plain text. You can see how similar the concept is:
Since there is more to take in on the page, the reader tends to do a full scan in a Z-shaped pattern before finally reaching the lower right corner. It fits right on top of the Gutenberg Diagram, with the strongest points being the top left and lower right corners. Here’s how it comes together in practical terms:
As a practical example, you can check out how our design team employed this tactic on the Avada homepage.
You can create an alternative visual hierarchy with strong graphics to manipulate the Z pattern. However, this is not recommended as it can create user experience friction.
Suppose you’re really into design theory and want to learn more. In that case, we recommend reading How the Human Eye Reads a Website and Understanding the Z Layout in Web Design.
Implementing the Z pattern is more complicated than writing your content in a certain way. You’ll want to plan out your content’s layout before building it on your website. This is called wireframing, and it’s a lot easier than you think! We recommend sketching out your ideas first. Here are a few resources to get you started:
Once you’ve sketched a practical layout, it’s time to implement it on your website, which is incredibly easy to do with Avada’s Layout Builder. You can go from concept to a completed page in minutes!
Your most typical scenario for the F pattern will be blog posts and articles. A strong hierarchy is created for the F pattern when using headings to split the page. This is compared to Example 1 in this article, which relates to lots of text without many headings.
Due to the nature of the content (lots of text), the reader’s attention is different here. You can see how it changes with the following graphic:
Even ignoring the differences, this pattern still borrows from some of the ideas in the Gutenberg Diagram, particularly that readers will always begin in the upper left-hand corner of the page. A few of the overarching principles to keep in mind:
The F pattern greatly benefits from adding imagery to the page. Images throughout the page help maintain attention by moving the eye through the page, much like using large and bolded text headings. It’s easiest to understand how the F pattern works by using a hypothetical heat map.
Red is where the user is likely to pay attention, while purple is where readers will spend the least time scanning the page. For further education, read Understanding the F Layout in Web Design.
From the example above, you can see that headings build a structure for the reader to scan through. Use effective headings to construct a virtual outline to help the reader understand your content’s most important ideas. Once readers know your content has what they are looking for, they’ll likely slow down and pay attention.
If you need another example, try skimming through this article, reading only the headings! We use this principle with every blog post we write.
Building an effective Avada page layout depends on what kind of content you are dealing with. Most people do not know how to recognize the reader patterns on which to build page layouts.
By understanding the type of content you are working with and how to pair it with common reader patterns, you can intentionally direct attention to the most critical elements on your page by using the principles for each pattern.
Businesses and content creators compete fiercely for user attention in today’s digital world. Websites are no longer static brochures but dynamic platforms that must constantly engage, inform, and persuade visitors. As brands strive to capture attention and foster deeper relationships with their audiences, analytics have become indispensable tools for decision-making and optimization.
While many types of web analytics are available—from basic traffic metrics (like pageviews and session duration) to complex funnel tracking—one particular method has risen to prominence: hotspot analytics. Hotspot analytics enables website owners, marketers, and user experience (UX) designers to see, in a visually intuitive manner, how users are interacting with a website. Using heatmaps, scroll maps, and click tracking, hotspot analytics reveals precisely where users focus their attention, scrolling and clicking on any webpage.
If you’ve ever wondered why visitors aren’t scrolling far enough down a page to see your call-to-action button or why users click on non-clickable elements out of confusion, hotspot analytics can help answer those questions. Armed with these insights, you can rearrange design elements, optimize layout, and tweak content placement to improve engagement and guide users toward the actions you want them to take—signing up for a newsletter, purchasing, or simply spending more time exploring your site.
This blog post offers a comprehensive guide on using hotspot analytics to boost online engagement. We’ll review definitions, tools, implementation strategies, and real-world examples. By the end, you’ll have a roadmap for harnessing hotspot analytics to create more dynamic, user-friendly experiences that captivate and convert.
Hotspot analytics is collecting and analyzing user interaction data on a webpage (or digital interface) to understand how visitors engage with elements like images, text, buttons, forms, and more. The term “hotspot” typically refers to areas of a webpage or interface that receive a high concentration of user activity—whether that be mouse movements, clicks, or scroll depth. There are multiple forms of hotspot analytics, including:
The goal of hotspot analytics is not just to generate pretty graphs or “heatmap” overlays; instead, it’s to uncover user behavior patterns. If you find, for instance, that 80% of users never scroll past the halfway mark of your homepage, you’ll know that any calls-to-action placed below that threshold might go unnoticed. This insight is invaluable for marketers, designers, and business owners alike.
Before diving deeper into hotspot analytics, it’s crucial to understand why improving online engagement matters in the first place. Online engagement metrics—from bounce rates to time on site to social shares—are direct indicators of how captivating and user-friendly your online presence is. High engagement often correlates with a variety of beneficial outcomes, including:
Engaged visitors are more likely to sign up for newsletters, purchase products, or fill out forms. Conversions typically arise when your site elements are laid out in a way that aligns with user expectations.
A website that considers visitors’ needs, habits, and preferences generally provides a smoother user experience. When users can easily find what they’re looking for, they stay longer and return more often.
People are more likely to trust and connect with brands offering intuitive, frictionless online experiences. Consistent positive experiences build loyalty over time.
Although not an official ranking factor, user engagement metrics like low bounce rates and high time on the page often correlate with better search engine rankings. When users find value in a page, they are more likely to stay, reducing the bounce rate—a signal that search engines often interpret as page quality.
Engaged users produce more meaningful data. The longer someone stays on your site and interacts with various elements, the richer your data becomes, thus enabling you to make more informed decisions about what works and what doesn’t.
In short, engagement isn’t just a vanity metric—it signals how effectively your website resonates with your audience. By leveraging hotspot analytics, you’ll gain the insights needed to tweak your site for optimal engagement and, ultimately, better business outcomes.
Hotspot analytics can be broken down into several key components, each focusing on a particular aspect of user interaction.
A heatmap is a graphical representation of data where colors depict individual values. In the context of website analytics, heatmaps are primarily used to visualize:
Heatmaps can pinpoint areas of high activity (represented in “hot” colors like red or yellow) and low activity (cooler colors like green or blue). They can visually highlight whether users are drawn to clickable elements like buttons and links or if they mistakenly click on non-clickable elements (indicative of confusion or unmet expectations).
Scroll maps show how far down a page people typically scroll. They help answer questions such as:
Scroll maps typically use color gradients or percentage indicators to mark how many users remain at different depths of a page. Suppose you notice a sharp drop-off at a certain point. In that case, that might indicate that your content isn’t engaging enough—or that it’s poorly structured, making visitors lose interest.
This type of hotspot data dives deeper into specific click behaviors. Rather than just seeing where hot and cold areas exist, click tracking maps show:
Click tracking benefits forms and e-commerce pages, where each click (or lack of click) can indicate a user’s progress through a funnel.
Various tools offer hotspot analytics features, ranging from free solutions to enterprise-grade platforms. Consider data privacy, pricing, and feature sets when choosing a tool. Combining session recordings and basic heatmaps is often enough for smaller websites.
Larger operations require more robust features, like advanced segmentation and integration with other analytics systems. Here are some popular options:
Hotjar is a widely used tool that provides heatmaps, scroll maps, click tracking, and even feedback polls and surveys. Its generous free tier makes it a great starting point.
Known for detailed heatmaps and scroll reports, Crazy Egg also offers split testing features to optimize design changes based on insights.
Mouseflow focuses on session recordings and heatmaps, letting you watch real visitor journeys. It also offers funnel analysis and form analytics.
It provides real-time analytics, heatmaps, and session recordings. Lucky Orange also includes a live chat function to help you engage with visitors in real time.
Designed for more enterprise-level data capture, FullStory records every user interaction and can generate insights about user journeys.
Good design is easy with Avada, but figuring out how to lay everything out can be difficult, and if done wrong, can cause usability problems.
Hotspot analytics plugins, in tandem with your Avada theme, will dramatically change your approach to website design and layout. By using the heat mapping technology, you will know with certainty what aspects of your site to keep and what to ditch.
It’s worth it to know exactly what your customers – both potential and retained – are engaging with on your site. If you haven’t made use of this new technology, it’s time to get on it.
Have you ever tried using any of these tools? Have you made changes on your website because of real user behavior testing? Let us know in the comments section below!
WordPress powers over 43% of all websites for a reason: it’s open source, supported by a vast community, and almost infinitely extensible. However, with great power comes responsibility and potential risk–WordPress is a target for hackers, due mainly to its popularity. Fortunately, WordPress is a highly secure platform for maintaining your installation. Maintaining a regular update schedule – including the WordPress core, themes, and plugins- is a significant security factor.
With the above in mind, this article will cover everything you need to know about updating WordPress core, themes, and plugins. We’ll start by explaining in greater detail why keeping everything updated is so important, then walk you through the best process for updating.
Staying on top of updates is crucial for any WordPress site owner. Updates not only deliver new features or design tweaks; they also fix security vulnerabilities and ensure your site’s compatibility with the latest versions of PHP, plugins, themes, and other industry-related technologies. Ignoring updates can lead to performance issues, display errors, and even security breaches. Key benefits of regular updates include:
Before you click that “Update” button, taking proactive steps to ensure nothing breaks is a good idea. Here’s how to prepare:
WordPress core updates come in two flavors: major (e.g., from 6.1 to 6.2) and minor (e.g., from 6.2.1 to 6.2.2).
Your theme controls your site’s layout, design, and overall feel. Keeping your theme updated is just as vital as updating WordPress core. Modern theme updates often deliver:
Proper preparation is key to smooth WordPress theme updates. You can avoid compatibility issues, data loss, and downtime by using a staging site, backing up your site, checking plugin compatibility, and reviewing the update changelog.
This proactive approach keeps your site secure, functional, and optimized after each update. Please check this article for a detailed overview of how to update your theme.
Plugins add functionality to your site, whether SEO, forms, eCommerce, or security. Like the core and theme updates, plugins also need attention to ensure everything stays compatible.
Regularly checking for updates to maintain security and performance and testing the plugin updates on a staging environment before applying them to the live site is good practice. Updating your WordPress plugins minimizes security vulnerabilities and ensures a seamless experience for your website visitors.
Even with careful preparation, issues can sometimes pop up. Here’s how to troubleshoot some of the most common ones:
If you’re still stuck, contact your hosting support or theme/plugin developer with the specific error message or steps to reproduce the issue.
Once your site is fully updated, it’s good practice to do a quick maintenance round:
Updating your WordPress core, themes, and plugins keeps your site secure, fast, and user-friendly. You can keep everything running smoothly without risking downtime by following a simple process—backing up, using a staging environment, and updating in small, manageable steps. With these best practices in place, your WordPress site will be ready to grow and adapt to the ever-evolving digital landscape.