In reality, both methods take less than a minute to do, so you can breathe easily. There are also many author-related plugins that could add additional methods and features.

Today, I will demonstrate how to change the WordPress Author using those two methods.

Why Change the author in WordPress?

If your blog expands past a single author, there may come a time when he or she leaves your team. In some cases, you might not want their name on your website anymore. Thus, changing the name becomes a must.

In other cases, you might have another staff member do a comprehensive rewrite to modernize the piece. At that point, listing it as the original author’s work isn’t accurate.

Your website could also utilize contributors. While credit should go where credit is due, the user may delete their account or request their name be removed from your website. Changing the author is a simple but effective solution to the problem.

I guarantee that if you have multiple authors, there will be a moment in which you need to change the author’s name.

Method 1: Changing the Author of a Single WordPress Post

This is by far the simplest and most direct. It allows you to change the author of an individual post within seconds.

To start, click on Posts and select the All Posts option.

Click on the existing post of which you want to change the author. Once inside the post, if it is not open already, click on the Settings Wheel.

Expand the Status & Visibility Section by clicking on it.

Use the author drop-down box to select which author to use.

Click on the “Update” button to finalize the changes.

Congratulations, you have successfully used WordPress to change the author of the post. You can repeat this step on other posts, but I would recommend using a bulk action if there is more than one.

Method 2: Changing the Autor of Multiple WordPress Posts

WordPress allows you to carry out multiple types of bulk actions on posts, and luckily for us, one of those actions allows you to change the author. This is very handy when you need to erase an author from your website.

Click on Posts and select the All Posts option.

Depending on how many posts your website has, you may want to expand the number of visible posts in this section. To do that, click on Screen Options.

Increase the value within the pagination box.

Use the checkboxes next to each post to select which should be affected by the bulk action.

Note: You can also use the top checkbox to select all posts. This might be quicker if there are more posts that need to be changed than ones that don’t.

Use the Bulk actions dropdown box to select the Edit option.

Click on the “Apply” button.

The Edit option allows you to make several changes to selected posts, this includes things like setting the status, comments, pingbacks, and more. In our case, we are changing the author.

Use the Author drop-down box to change the author of all selected posts.

Click on the “Update” button to apply the changes.

Congratulations, you have successfully changed the WordPress author on all of the selected posts. You can do this again at any time.

Adding Attractive WordPress Author Bios

WordPress is fully customizable, and one of the first things any blog should do is customize the author bio box. This allows you to display a short message and sometimes include contact information.

The first way to do this is by using Custom CSS, however, a much easier way is to use an author bio plugin.

Here are a few awesome ones to try.

Simple Author Box

Simple Author Box adds an author box at the end of every post. Within it, you can add the author’s gravatar, biography,  and most importantly, you can add social media icons. This helps the author increase their presence on social media and potentially find new customers.

In terms of design, the plugin is basic, so this plugin might not be for you if you’re looking for something flashier.

Starbox – the Author Box for Humans

Starbox is a very flexible author box plugin. It allows you to choose from a variety of styles to pick the perfect author box for your website. You can place the author box either at the bottom or top of the post. It also supports icons for most major social networks.

This might sound complicated, but it’s actually really easy. It will only take a few minutes to set up.

WP Post Author

WP Post Author is another excellent choice that can help you customize the author box. It allows it to appear in a variety of shapes and sizes and they can be placed via shortcode. The plugin also adds a custom widget that you can use to display author information in the widget area.

And it’s worth mentioning that social media buttons, with icons, are supported in all box types.

SEO Tips For Author Boxes

Learning how to change the author in WordPress and customize the author box is important, but you also need to make sure it is SEO-friendly.

That’s right, you even have to worry about the author box.

For instance, the length of the author’s description or biography matters. The general rule of thumb that most websites follow is to keep author bios to a 100-word maximum. This is generally 3 to 4 sentences in length and should give a brief overview of your history as a writer or role.

A big problem that most websites neglect is the author’s archives page. This is the page where WordPress displays a list of authors and some of their latest work. If your website only has one author, the page will duplicate your homepage.

Thus, in this case, you want to ensure it is not found by search engines by using a No-Follow link.

In the case of multiple authors, it is fine to have it crawled.

Show Off Your Authors

Having multiple authors allows you to create content faster and add new perspectives to your website. Thus, they dramatically increase the potential of any website. Having custom author boxes can help you make them stand out to visitors.

This is especially important if your website is participating in a collaboration. It’s common to have someone from each website write for the other’s website. Making sure their bio and contact information is front and center is imperative.

Even if you only have one author, it’s important to highlight that. Let your community know who you are by adding your own personal flair to the box. This can also help visitors realize they are talking to an author in the comments section.

Don’t be afraid to strut your stuff, or in this case, your author’s stuff.

Why did you need to change the WordPress author? What plugin do you use to style your author box?

The post How to Change the Author on a WordPress Post appeared first on GreenGeeks.

Anchor links are used in a couple of different ways. The plugin we’re going to talk about automatically creates an anchor ID on every header in a page or post. That creates a copyable link to the header. It allows visitors to save a link to a specific section of one of your pages.

The other way anchor links are used is in a table of contents. So, for example, these anchor links create a (miniature) table of contents:

• Creating Anchor Links in WordPress With a Plugin
• Creating Anchor Links in WordPress Manually

If you click them, you’ll see that you skip directly to that particular section of the article. In this case, the anchor links link to the tags that create the headers.

An anchor tag doesn’t necessarily have to link to an HTML tag on the page. It can link to any location on a page you specify.

Creating Anchor Links in WordPress With a Plugin

We’ll use the Add Anchor Links plugin to create our anchor links.

The plugin automatically creates anchor links on all the header tags on a page or in a post. Visitors can copy those links to specific parts of the page.

The plugin does not create a table of contents. But I’ll show you how to do that in the Creating Anchor Links in WordPress Manually section. You can also use the Easy Table of Contents plugin along with the Add Anchor Links plugin. However, I didn’t test the two together.

Installing the Add Anchor Links Plugin

Log in to your WordPress admin panel.

In the left column navigation, mouse over the “Plugins” link and click the “Add New” link.

In the “Search plugins…” box, enter, “Add Anchor Links.”

When you find the plugin, click the “Install Now” button.

Now the plugin is installed, but it has to be activated before you can use it.

Click the “Activate” button.

That’s all there is to it. Now let’s put the plugin to work.

Configuring Add Anchor Links

In the left column navigation, mouse over the “Settings” link and click the “Add Anchor Links” link.

The configuration options are pretty simple.

The first option, “Use your own CSS,” controls how the anchor links appear. If you check that box, the link icon will always be visible on all headers.

If you leave that box unchecked, the link icon will only be visible when a visitor mouses over a header.

The “Add anchors on” configuration lets you choose where the anchors will be created. You can choose any combination of posts, pages, or attachments.

Click the “Save Changes” button to save your configuration.

The Add Anchor Links Plugin In Action

When you mouse over a link icon, you can see the anchor link. The link is made up of the page URL, then a hashtag, and the anchor ID.

What Happens if You Uninstall the Add Anchor Links Plugin

The anchor links created by the plugin are created “on the fly.” That means the code isn’t added to the page or post. It’s inserted into the code in the browser. So if you uninstall the plugin, the anchor links will no longer be generated.

Creating Anchor Links in WordPress Manually

The Add Anchor Links plugin is a convenient way to automatically add anchor links to HTML tags. But it’s a bit limited in what it can do. To really take advantage of anchor links, you can create them manually.

I’ll use the table of contents at the beginning of this article to show you how to create anchor links.

Google likes linked tables of contents because it helps them understand the purpose of the page. As a side-benefit, using a linked table of contents improves your chances of getting sitelinks listed in search results. That’s a good thing.

We start with a list. It can be ordered (numbered) or unordered. I started with an unordered list.

Next, we add the links. The link text is the same text I’ll use in the header tags.

• Creating Anchor Links in WordPress With a Plugin
• Creating Anchor Links in WordPress Manually

Next, we add the anchor IDs. They start with a hashtag.

Take note of how I formatted them—all lower case, with hyphens in place of the spaces. You want to follow that format since the anchor IDs will become part of the URL (for that section). And since they will be part of the URL, you also want them to be descriptive.

• Creating Anchor Links in WordPress With a Plugin
• Creating Anchor Links in WordPress Manually

That completes the table of contents. Now we’ll move down the page to create the anchors on the header tags.

Go to the header you’re linking to and add id=”” to the h tag.

Inside the id quotes, we’ll add the anchor IDs from our table of contents. But don’t use the hashtag here.

Creating Anchor Links in WordPress With a Plugin

Then the second header.

Creating Anchor Links in WordPress Manually
	

This is what the markup looks like when it’s complete.

Placing Anchor Links Outside of Header Tags

I mentioned that anchor links don’t necessarily have to point to a header tag. To link to a specific section of a page, you create your table of contents links the same way we did above. But instead of adding the anchor ID to an HTML tag, create a new ‘a’ tag and place it where you want the table of contents link to lead.

So, for example, instead of doing this to jump to the header:

Creating Anchor Links in WordPress With a Plugin

You could do this:

Creating Anchor Links in WordPress With a Plugin

Note that there’s no anchor text in the ‘a’ tag.

You can place that ‘a’ tag anywhere on the page.

Using Manual Anchor Links in WordPress

If you use the manual method, you can simply paste the link code into a WordPress Gutenberg block. WordPress will know they’re anchor links.

But if you still use the “classic” WordPress editor, you have to add the code in text mode, not the default visual mode.

Linking With Google in Mind

I mentioned that Google likes linked tables of contents, so adding them is beneficial. If you want to dig more deeply, Backlinko has a pretty comprehensive article on Google ranking factors.

And there’s a great article on SEMrush that goes into detail on the subject of anchor link text. The text you use in your anchor links can help with search result rankings.

As you can see in the Backlinko article, a lot of factors go into Google search result ranking. But everything you can do to give yourself an advantage is worthwhile.

A linked table of contents doesn’t have any more “weight” than a lot of other factors in the Google algorithm. But you can see for yourself in search results that articles with linked tables of contents regularly appear in higher positions than many other similar articles.

Have you ever used a WordPress plugin to create links (or a table of contents)? Do you think you’ll try adding tables of contents to any of your future or existing articles?

I’d love to hear from you. Let me know in the comments.

The post How to Create an Anchor Link in WordPress and When to Use Them appeared first on GreenGeeks.

Have you ever been writing and designing a post or page in WordPress and wanted the ability to add different WordPress line spacing types? The default editor does not allow for this. You have the ability to single or double space text elements in those particular height increments only.

Single Space: Just as the name suggests. A single line is inserted in the editor when this function is used. To insert a single line space in WordPress, click on Shift+Enter after the end of any line.

Double Space: By default, the WordPress visual editor will provide you with a double space line every time you hit the “Enter” button. This makes it fast and easy to create a new paragraph or move down to add content with proper double spacing.

If you want to add different line spacing heights, you are not able to in the default editor. However, now you can give yourself the ability to change line spacing in WordPress to any specific space heights you want. You can accomplish this with the use of a smooth plugin that we will talk about more below.

Why Change Line Spacing in WordPress?

The formatting and overall layout of your posts and pages always matter. Proper line spacing can give your website users the ability to find certain things within the post or page more easily.

If you learn to manage WordPress line spacing the right way, then you can be better equipped to distinguish paragraphs, and put forth a more stylish and elegant post. This alone will lead to more readers and help push your website view count further up.

The use of short sentences and paragraphs is a must when it comes to readability and SEO structure within a post or page. If you have the ability to easily add line spacing variables in WordPress, then certain spacing formats can be made quickly without having to input CSS code into your site.

In order to be able to accomplish this, you need to use a solid plugin, or the already mentioned CSS style code. However, I have found a tool that will give you the ability to add as many different line spacing inserts as you want using simple WordPress space shortcode.

Let’s take a look at the plugin and see what all it does.

Spacer

Spacer is a plugin that gives you the ability to add different line spacing options to your WordPress editor. You can also enter negative spacing to allow yourself to shift content upwards if you wish.

The Spacer plugin lets you build as many different line spacing options as you want. Once the plugin is activated, it adds a button to your editor. You go create all the line spacing options you want. And then when you want to insert one, you click on the button and pick the one you want.

Note: As of this writing, the plugin does work just fine if you are using the Gutenberg block editor. It adds a button to the “Paragraph” block for you to access. Please check that when you install it.

Create your own unique library of spacers and section breaks. Once you have created them, you always have them at your disposal and can add them at any time with the click of a button.

The plugin is lightweight and is very easy to install and use. It is not hard to configure, and it gives some great functionality including:

• You can create an unlimited amount of spacers, dividers, and section breaks.
• View your spacer as you build using the live preview tool.
• Easily choose the spacer you want to add using the automatically installed editor button.
• Compatible with WordPress Multisite.
• Adds a button to Gutenberg block editor.

The plugin also allows for spacing and line adjustments for mobile. So you can create your spacers and they will look perfect on any device.

Basically, the plugin gives you everything you need and more to add and use an unlimited amount of spacers. Let’s take a look at how to install the plugin and get it going on your website.

Install and Activate Spacer Plugin

In order to add different spacers and adjust line spacing how you see fit, you first need to install and activate the plugin. You can do this by going to the Plugins page of your WordPress admin dashboard and searching for it by name.

Once the plugin has been installed and activated, click on Settings > Spacer. You will find this in the left side menu of your WordPress admin dashboard.

This will take you to the main settings page for the plugin. Here is where you can configure it how you want and add spacers as well. Let’s go over that together.

Configure Spacer Settings and Add a Spacer

At this point, you should be on the settings page for the plugin. You will see the main setup with five tabs. These include:

• Default
• Add Spacers
• Suggestion Box
• Add-Ons
• Licenses

Let’s take a look at the “default” tab.

Default

The “Default” tab acts as the main default settings for the included spacer. This means that if you have no other spacers or dividers added, this will be the main and only one available to insert.

Go ahead and configure the main spacer how you see fit.

The suggestion box tab allows you to enter suggestions for the plugin to the developers. The add-ons tab shows you available add-ons you may want to consider. The licenses tab allows you to put in licenses for pro versions of the plugin if needed. You can check all those out of you wish.

Let’s add a spacer together.

Add a Spacer

In order to add a spacer to your library, you want to click on the “Add Spacers” tab. From there, you simply fill out all of the options available to create a spacer the way you want.

Don’t forget to name your spacer so when you go to add it in a post or page later you know which one you are adding. Once you are done filling out the options for your new spacer, click on the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page and your new spacer will be automatically added to your library.

You can repeat this process to add as many spacers as you want.

Add WordPress Line Spacing in Post or Page

The final step to this process is actually adding a spacer within the post or page you are editing. Remember, the process is the same for either and it is very simple.

Go to your post or page section and open up a new one. You will see that a button to add a spacer has now been added to your editor. Whenever you want to add one of the spacers you created, simply click on that button and your library of added spacers will pop up.

Choose the spacer you want and you are done.

Final Thoughts

Having the ability to add different types of line spacing and dividers on your WordPress site is important. This is especially true if you are trying to open up your content for people to view in different aspects.

While the default WordPress editor does allow for a decent amount of functionality, it only gives you the single and double space line options. Adding the Spacer plugin will give you the ability to add as many different spacers and dividers as you want each with varying pixel heights.

This should allow you to add custom line spacing styles and give you a lot more functionality when it comes to layout and design.

Have you been able to get away with the line spacing options that the WordPress default editor gives? Do you find that the line spacing options you can apply to your posts and pages by using the Spacer plugin give you a lot more freedom?

The post How to Change the Line Spacing of Text in WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

However, as you may expect, this is not a built-in feature of WordPress. Instead, you will need to use a plugin to downgrade your current version. Before you do anything in this tutorial, I strongly recommend creating a backup of your website.

Today, I will demonstrate how to with the WP Downgrade plugin.

When Should You Downgrade WordPress?

You should not revert WordPress to the previous version on a whim. There only a few very specific reasons it should be done. The most likely include:

• If the latest version has broken something on your website.
• If you must use a backup to restore your website, but the backup is from a previous version.
• To downgrade an environment to an older version to perform tests.

There are other reasons, but these are by far the most common anyone will downgrade their current version of WordPress.Other than these, you should not revert your current version of WordPress.

Note: If you are a beginner, I do not recommend doing this at all. Downgrading WordPress, while easy to do, has a very high chance of messing up your website. Unless you have the proper knowledge of what other steps you need to do, like downgrading plugins, themes, and your PHP version, do not do it.

Why You Shouldn’t Downgrade A WordPress Version

It is very important to realize that when you roll back a WordPress update, you are making your website vulnerable. Every version update offers enhanced security that closes exploitations and keeps your website safe.

However, when you downgrade WordPress, your website is less secure. For this reason, it is not recommended to use an outdated version of WordPress.

Not only does this make your website less secure, but it may even cause themes and plugins to be incompatible if they are updated to their current version. This is because when a new version of WordPress rolls out, most plugins and themes also have an update.

This can break key features on your website and ultimately cause more harm than good in almost every situation.

Installing WP Downgrade

The WP Downgrade plugin serves one purpose, to downgrade your current WordPress version. It allows you to downgrade to any previous version of WordPress, and you can stay on it for as long as you want. However, it is highly recommended to avoid staying in an out-of-date version for a prolonged period of time.

The plugin is very simple to use, so let’s get right into it.

Click on Plugins and select the Add New option on the left-hand admin panel.

Search for WP Downgrade in the available search box. This will pull up additional plugins that you may find helpful.

Scroll down until you find the WP Downgrade plugin, click on the “Install Now” button and activate it for use.

On the left-hand admin panel, click on Settings and select the WP Downgrade option. This will pull up the main settings page.

Note: Before going any further with this tutorial, I highly recommend creating a current backup of your website. WordPress was not designed to go back to older versions, so it is very likely that if you are picking a very old version, something will not work right.

Using WP Downgrade

The plugin could not be any easier to use. There is one text box to enter the version of WordPress that you want to revert back to.

For example, if you wanted to go back to version 5.0, you would enter 5.0. If you want to go back to version 5.13, you would enter 5.13.

Enter the desired WordPress version in the available text box.

Make sure the version is correct and click on the “Save Changes” button.

Click on the “Up-/Downgrade Core” button.

This will take you to the Updates section of WordPress. Click on the “Re-install Now” button.

Your WordPress version will now revert to the one you selected in the previous step. You can change it to another version of WordPress by repeating these steps at any time.

Note:  If you decide to delete the plugin after it has served its purpose, you will be prompted to install the latest version of WordPress.

Congratulations on successfully downgrading your current version of WordPress with the WP Downgrade plugin.

An Alternative to Rollbacks

The most common reason someone will decide to rollback is when the latest version breaks something. However, this can be avoided entirely.

First, ensure that your automatic updates are turned off. Create a clone of your website and load it into a subdomain. This can be used as a testing environment.

Thus, when a new version of WordPress does come out, you can use this clone to install the latest version. And if everything works perfectly, you can let the update happen on your website.

If it does not go well, you can try to troubleshoot the problem in the testing environment, where it will not mess anything up. This saves you from having to go through the entire downgrade process altogether.

You Can Also Rollback Plugins And Themes

It is possible to assume that a core update broke a feature on your website, but it is far more likely for it to be the work of a plugin or a theme. You can use another plugin to rollback plugins and themes to a specific version.

In fact, if you are using an older version of WordPress, you may actually need to do this if you want a specific plugin to work.

Again, this is not recommended. Just like a WordPress version, this will make your website less safe. An older version of a plugin or theme will do the same thing. And it may even be more dangerous.

You May Need to Downgrade your PHP Version

Depending on how far back you decide to go with your version selection, you may need to change your current PHP version. Most web hosts will have your server installed with the latest PHP version, but they are not retroactive. Make sure you look into what version of PHP is compatible with the desired version of WordPress.

This will most definitely affect your plugins and themes. Which is why you may need to roll them back as well.

If you do not, there is a very strong possibility nothing will work.

Security First

Overall, you may find a use for this feature from time to time, but I can assure you that if you are doing this get an old feature back or because you are more comfortable with an older version, it not worth it.

This will significantly lower your website’s security. This not only puts your entire website at risk, but you could also expose personal information of your customers, which is a surefire way to scare them away.

Why are you downgrading your WordPress version? How long do you plan on using an obsolete version of WordPress?

The post How to Downgrade WordPress to an Earlier Version appeared first on GreenGeeks.

WordPress templates come in all types of forms and can display a certain page, post, and category in different ways, depending on the theme being used. If you need WordPress to get this information and show you what is being displayed, then you will want to use the plugin listed in this tutorial.

There are also a couple of other plugin options listed at the bottom if this one doesn’t suit your needs, though. These are just other options available if you prefer something different.

Finding a Current Template

Without the use of a plugin to create a shortcut or show a current template, the easiest way to view all your site files and templates is to go to the theme editor section in your WordPress admin dashboard.

Here you will find site files and current templates that the theme is running. To do this, click on Appearance > Theme Editor and that will take you to all the current site files.

However, if you are trying to figure out a current theme being used in a certain page or post you are working on, then having to dig through all that to find out is a hassle and can be very time-consuming.

So, in order to get a WordPress template much easier and faster, we are going to go over a smooth plugin I found called Reveal Template. This plugin makes finding and revealing a current template much quicker and easier. You can do so using a number of different methods.

Let’s take a look at the plugin together before installing it and getting it ready for use.

Reveal Template

Reveal Template helps both designers and developers with creation frustration by displaying the template that is currently being used when you are working on a particular page. This can be done in a number of ways when using the plugin.

The Footer: By default, a WordPress website footer shows the path to the theme template file being used when you are on a particular page or post within the site. However, when you use this template plugin, the settings within the plugin allow you to control and configure the way this is done.

Note: This will only work if the theme follows the recommended practice of calling the wp_footer() template tag) at some point.

A Widget: When you install and activate the plugin, it automatically creates a widget called “Reveal Template.” You are able to use this widget to easily display the theme template file that is being used to render a page in any of your widget locations.

Shortcode: When you install and activate the plugin, a shortcode called “revealtemplate” is automatically created. You are able to take this shortcode and use it in a page or post to display the theme template file used.

A Template Tag: Upon plugin installation, a template tag is also provided that can be used. Here is an example of that template tag:

Let’s take a look at how to install and activate the plugin and get it ready to use on your website to find a current template.

Install and Activate Plugin

In order to easily find a current template, you first need to install and activate the Reveal Template plugin. To do this, head over to the plugins page inside your WordPress admin dashboard and search the plugin name.

Once the plugin has been installed and activated, click on Appearance > Reveal Template. This will take you to the main settings page for the plugin where we can perform some quick configurations and get it going on your website.

Configure the Reveal Template Plugin

At this point, you should be on the configuration page for the plugin. There isn’t very much to configure. Let’s take a quick look at it together.

You see that the settings is actually just a one-off page with a few checkboxes and informational links. Let’s look at these together. You are going to be presented with three options to setup. They include:

• Reveal in Footer
• Output Format
• Template Path

Go ahead and make your choices here and configure the plugin how you see fit. Remember, there are different ways of finding the information you need based on how you want to do things.

Don’t forget to save your settings. Once you do, you are all set. If you need more help you can use the links on the settings page that the plugin provides to more help documentation.

If you want to use the widget, there is also a link to click that takes you directly to your widgets page.

Other Show Template Options

The Reveal Template plugin may not be your speed. It may make things overly complicated. If you want to try something else, there are indeed a couple of options available for you to look at.

Show Current Template

Simply put, the Show Current Template plugin allows you to show a current file name, the current name of the theme, and all the included theme files. All of this shows up directly in your WordPress admin toolbar once the plugin has been installed. This is a little bit of an easier plugin to use than the one above.

Which Template Am I

Perhaps the easiest plugin to install and use on this list is the Which Template Am I plugin. The other plugins above have a few more bells and whistles. That being said, this one gets the job done as well, and does it in the simplest way possible.

Activate the plugin and it will display the name of the WordPress template in use. You will see this info for the current page you are on directly at the bottom of said page. The information only shoes on the front end when you are logged in as a website admin. You can activate and deactivate the plugin to find what you need when you need it.

As stated above, this option is the easiest to use and understand out of all the ones above.

Final Thoughts

Figuring out templates that are being used while you are building and developing a website can be problematic. Using the above plugins will help you sort through all of that. They will also allow you to do it quickly and easily. The main plugin above gives you a lot more functionality, but it is more difficult to understand and use than the other two.

If you are having trouble in WordPress with your templates, and certain templates defaulting to built-in WordPress style, then go ahead and give one of the plugins above a try. You will find that you are now easily able to find a specific template. This should be the case no matter where you are on a website.

Have you used any of the plugins above before? Which one did you like the best for finding current templates?

The post How to Show the Current Template Files in the Menu Bar of WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

While this may sound inconvenient, it is really not hard to do. WordPress is always easy to install, and being on a VPS makes no difference. Today, I will demonstrate how you can install WordPress on a VPS server.

Why Install WordPress?

WordPress is the most popular CMS in the world with a staggering 35% market share. That means that more than one-third of all websites on the Internet are built using WordPress. And that number is continuing to increase year by year.

It’s all thanks to how customizable the platform is while also being easy to you. Unlike other CMS, you can make an amazing WordPress website without writing a single line of code. This makes it the most approachable platform for beginners, while the more advanced developers love the customization the platform brings to the table.

Step 1:Download the Latest Version of WordPress

The first step on this short journey is to actually download the latest version of WordPress. You can find the latest version from WordPress.org’s download page..

Click on the “Download WordPress” button.

Step 2: Upload WordPress to the VPS

Now that you have the zip file, you are going to need to upload it. This is done by accessing your cPanel account. If you have just purchased your plan, you will need to set up your cPanel account first.

You can also upload the file using FTP programs like FileZilla or CyberDuck. Whichever is convenient for you.

But for this tutorial, I’m going to use the cPanel File Manager tool. This is helpful for those who don’t know how to use or have access to FTP applications.

Log in to your cPanel account and click on the File Manager option.

Click on the public_html directory.

If this is your first time here, you will need to create a folder for your website. If you already have a folder, skip this step.

Click on the + Folder option.

Name the folder your domain name or whatever you wish.

Open the newly created folder and click on the Upload option.

Click on the “Select File” button and select the WordPress zip file you previously downloaded.

Once the file has been uploaded, click on the link below to return to the file directory.

Once you are back, reload the page and you should see the zip file you just uploaded. Select the zip file and click on the Extract option.

A popup will appear to confirm the extract location. Make sure the location is correct and click on the “Extract File” button.

WordPress should now be in your file directory.

Note: You can now safely delete the zip file from the directory.

Step 3: Move WordPress Files to the Root

Now that we have all of the WordPress files, we just need to move them to the right location. Enter the WordPress folder and select all of the files within.

Click on the Move option.

Move all of the files into the public_html directory. Click on the “Move Files” button when the location is selected.

Step 4: Create a New Database

We’re almost done! Now we need to create a database.

Go back to cPanel and click on the MySQL Database Wizard option.

You must add a name to the database. I recommend wp1 or something similar. It’ll help you remember the name in the later steps.

Click on the “Next Step” button when you are done.

Create a username and password for the database. Click on the “Create User” button when done.

You will now need to select the privileges of the account. Click on the All Privileges option and click on the “Next Step” button.

Your database has now been created.

NOTE: Make sure you write the database name, username and password down. You will need them to connect WordPress to the database.

Step 5: Edit the wp-config-sample.php File

Now that the database is created you just need to make sure WordPress will use it. All you have to do is edit the wp-config-sample.php file.

Go into your public_html directory and select the wp-config-sample.php file. Right-click it and select the Edit option.

A pop-up will appear. Click on the “Edit” button to continue. Within this sample file, you need to locate and replace 3 specific lines to make sure it connects to the database you just made.

First locate:[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]define( ‘DB_NAME’, ‘database_name_here’ );[/ht_message]

and replace database_name_here with your database name.

Locate:[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]define( ‘DB_USER’, ‘username_here’ );[/ht_message]

and replace username_here with the username you created.

Lastly, locate:[ht_message mstyle=”info” title=”” show_icon=”” id=”” class=”” style=”” ]define( ‘DB_PASSWORD’, ‘password_here’ );[/ht_message]

and replace password_here with the password you created.

The last thing you need to do is copy and paste a fresh set of Salt keys from the WordPress API. Go to the Salt Key generator and copy everything.

Replace the salt key lines in the wp-config-sample.php file with what you just copied.

Click on the “Save Changes” button.

Close the file. Now that it has been configured, it is no longer a sample. Thus, you should rename it to wp-config.php.

Step 6: Install WordPress

You are done with all of the backend stuff. All that’s left is to actually visit your website and begin the install process.

You can do this by visiting yourwebsite.com/wp-admin/install.php.

Note: If you placed the WordPress files within another, like WordPress for example, you would go to yourwebsite.com/WordPress/wp-admin/install.php.

Congratulations on installing WordPress on your new VPS server.

Just The Beginning

Manually installing WordPress may seem difficult, but it really isn’t. If you just moved from a shared hosting plan, you probably already miss Softaculous, but a VPS has a lot of benefits for you to reap.

Getting WordPress set up on your VPS is only the beginning. You now need to pick a theme, select plugins, and add content. You have a lot of work ahead of you, but none of it should be hard.

Did you run into any problems while installing WordPress on your VPS? How easy did you find manually installing WordPress?

The post How to Install WordPress on a VPS Server appeared first on GreenGeeks.

But that’s human nature, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter if a change is an improvement, we just don’t like the change of any kind. Henry Ford was supposed to have said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.” Meaning they didn’t want cars. They couldn’t see the future the way Henry could.

Well, Ford wasn’t a barrel of laughs, so it’s probably not surprising that he didn’t actually make that crack about faster horses. But the point remains, most of us generally don’t like change. The Gutenberg editor is a major change, and it’s there by default any time you install WordPress.

The Problem With Gutenberg

The pre-Gutenberg editor had been around for a long, long time. Many WordPress plugins were developed to extend its functionality and customize its operation. And if you think about working in the admin panel of WordPress, creating a new post or page, you aren’t usually in there just larking about. You have a job to do and you want to get in, do the job, and get out.

That’s not possible when the major tool that you use to do the job has been thrown out and replaced with a strange new device that has you doing Google searches just to learn how to add an image to a post.

The benevolent contributors to WordPress heard the anguished cries of the people and released a plugin imaginatively named “Classic Editor.” And in a short amount of time, millions of WordPress users had it installed.

Let’s join them and install it ourselves, I’ll show you how to do it.

Installing the WordPress Classic Editor

Log in to your WordPress admin panel.

In the left column navigation mouse over the “Plugins” link and click the “Add New” link.

In the “Search plugins…” box, enter “Classic Editor.”

Once you have located the plugin, click the “Install Now” button.

When the plugin has been installed, click the “Activate” button.

Configuring the Classic Editor

Well, actually, there is no configuration. Once the plugin is activated, Guttenberg is gone.

But it’s not really gone.

You can still use the Gutenberg editor if you want to, for a specific page or post, or just to learn how it works. Here’s how to access it.

In the left column navigation, mouse over the “Settings” link and click the “Writing” link.

In the “Allow users to switch editors” section, select the “Yes” radio button.

Scroll down and click the “Save Changes” button.

Now when you start a new post or page, on the right side you’ll see an “Editor” section.

When you click the “Switch to Block Editor” link, you’ll be taken to the Gutenberg editor.

Switching Between Editors While Writing a Post

If you’re in the Gutenberg editor and want to switch back to the classic editor, you can do that.

If you are in the middle of a post, save it before switching editors! Post content is not saved when the editors are switched.

Click the ellipses in the main Block Editor menu.

And click the “Switch to Classic Editor” link.

Back to the Future

It has to be difficult, if you look at it from the WordPress corporate perspective, to spend years developing something that you think is great and then have most of your users hate it.

I saw the father of WordPress, Matt Mullenweg, give an early demo of Gutenberg at a conference five years before it was released, so it wasn’ something they threw together overnight or bought from a developer on the dark web.

WordPress could have forced everyone to use Gutenberg, but they no doubt knew that independent plugin developers would introduce their own plugins to disable the Gutenberg editor (which they quickly did), so they bit the bullet and came up with the official Classic Editor plugin for WordPress.

You have to give them credit for that. But the fact that there are over five million active installs of Classic Editor pretty much tells the tale (the active installation count only goes up to five million, so the actual number is likely much higher).

But Is It Really That Bad?

If you look at the editor in WordPress objectively, as a tool, the Gutenberg block editor is a major improvement over the tired old TinyMCE “classic” editor.

The Gutenberg editor is more of a design tool, and maybe that’s where a lot of WordPress old-timers lose the thread. They’re used to the design part of WordPress being much more difficult, and they miss those days. 😉

Have you taken the time to learn how to use the Gutenberg editor? If you still use the “classic” editor, do you have any plans to eventually switch to the block editor?

*Named for Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, the German blacksmith who history tells us “invented” movable type for printing. That is not exactly what happened, but it’s close enough for the history books.

The post How to Use the Classic Editor in WordPress and Why appeared first on GreenGeeks.

The feature that we’re going to talk about today is the Gutenberg Block Editor “Cover” block. This block allows you to add cover images to a WordPress post or page.

The cover image feature has caused some confusion. It seems to be a lot like the featured image that has been a part of WordPress since version 2.9.

In this tutorial, I will explain the difference between the cover image and the feature image in the Block Editor. I will also show you how to add a WordPress cover image and add a WordPress featured image using the Gutenberg Block Editor.

What is a Cover Image?

A cover image is a wide image that you use for a new section in a blog post or on a page. The WordPress cover image is part of the article. You can add a WordPress cover image when you are starting a new section of your article within the block editor.

The Cover block option in the Gutenberg Block Editor also allows you to add text and color overlay to the cover image.

By adding appropriate text and color overlay to match your theme or to enhance the message you are trying to get across, you can make your article more engaging.

In the past, bloggers have used headings, or heading text, or sub-headings to separate sections in a blog post. Sometimes adding an image below the heading, sometimes not.

The Cover block option now gives you a more visually appealing way to break up your blog post into sections.

What is a Featured Image?

The featured image in WordPress, also known as a post thumbnail, is the main article image that represents all of the content. The featured image is the image you see when scrolling through blog archives and trying to pick a story to read.

It is also commonly displayed on your website on single posts. As well as on the homepage of news, magazine, and blog websites.

The featured image is also shown on your social media feeds when you share an article across your social platforms.

Featured images are usually designed or chosen to best represent the content. More often than not, they are visually attractive and give users a quick glimpse of your content and prompt them to read the entire article.

You will find a meta box in your post edit screen for adding a featured image because almost all WordPress themes support featured images.

Where and how your featured images are displayed is controlled by the WordPress theme you have chosen to use. You can also link featured images WordPress posts automatically.

How To Add a Cover Image in the WordPress Block Editor

The new WordPress block editor comes with a Cover block option that lets you add a cover image in your WordPress article.

First, create a new post or edit an existing one. On the post edit screen, click the “Add New Block” button and then choose “Cover block.”

You will find the Cover block option in the “Common Blocks” or “Most Used” sections. When you click the block, you will see the Cover block added to your content editor with options to add your new cover image.

Drag and drop an image or video in the block area to upload a new cover image. You can also select from your media files by clicking the “Media Library” button. Or you can click the “Upload” button to choose an image on your computer.

Once you have added a WordPress cover image, you can easily customize it by clicking the cover image.

You will then be shown a toolbar with customization options above the image “Write title…” field in the center of the Image and Block settings including color overlay in the panel in the panel on the right.

Working With Image Widths

Aside from the alignment option, the cover image block gives you the two width choices: “Wide width” and “Full width.”

The “Wide width” option makes the image look as wide as your content. The “Full width” option makes your image cover the entire browser window.

You can also add a title for your cover image. When you click the cover image, you will see the “Write title…” field in the center of your cover image.

Finally, on the right side of your cover image, you will find a few more settings. You can enable “Fixed Background” to create a parallax effect when users scroll down the page.

Below that, you will find the “Overlay Color” settings. From here, you will be able to change the color overlay and opacity.

And last but not least, you can add CSS code and add more styles to your cover image by clicking the “Advanced” option.

Remember, you can repeat the steps above and add as many cover images to your article as you’d like.

How To Add a Featured Image in the WordPress Block Editor

When you add a featured image to a post using the WordPress block editor, you will find that the process is still the same. If you have had a WordPress blog for a while, you already know how a featured image is added.

To add a featured image to a WordPress post, create a new post or edit an existing one.

When you open the post edit screen, navigate down to the “Featured Image” meta box located in the panel on the right.

You can upload a new image using either the drag and drop uploader or by selecting an image from your Media Library. Then you can add a title, caption, alt text, and description for your featured image. Then click the “Select” option.

That’s it. You’ve added a featured image in the WordPress block editor.

Now, if you are using the newest WordPress default theme or any modern theme, you can edit the overlay color of your featured image, to an extent.

In the left column navigation mouse over the “Appearance” link and click the “Customize” link. That will take you to the live WordPress customizer.

Click the “Colors” tab and switch the default colors of your theme.

Note: WordPress themes manage featured images, so you may not find this option if your theme doesn’t support image filters.

Cover Image and Featured Image Best Practices

Now that you understand how to add a cover image and how to add a featured image in the WordPress Gutenberg block editor let’s take a look at some best practices.

Featured Images

Featured images are popular when used by one or more of the following as post thumbnails or main article images:

• WordPress Blogs
• Online Magazines
• News Websites
• Entertainment Websites

Well-designed and attractive featured images will help drive readers to open the full article. They also work well for making your WordPress website look more beautiful and interactive.

Cover Images

Cover images are a part of your article. They are used to separate sections and create headings. Adding cover images can make your article more visually entertaining and interactive.

The best way to use cover images in the WordPress block editor is as a graphic transition between sections within a long article.

Cover images are also more unique than featured images in the fact that there is a full-width option available, and you can add text and color overlay to the picture.

When you use the cover image function correctly, you can increase and improve user engagement on your posts and pages in WordPress.

I hope this article was helpful to you. Now you should have a better idea of the differences between cover images and featured images in the WordPress block editor. You should also understand how to add both easily.

Have you started using the new Cover block in Gutenberg yet? Have you found that when used, your articles get more engagement?

The post How to Add a Cover Image or a Featured Image in WordPress Gutenberg Block Editor appeared first on GreenGeeks.

Unfortunately, not everyone takes the time to change the admin email address in WordPress. This could lead to a loss of opportunities, a loss of messages and many other issues.

For instance, the Wordfence security plugin will send email when there is a detected threat or if someone logs into the website. Without a current address, these messages are simply lost.

Today, I’ll show you three different ways to change the email address of the admin account in WordPress.

How to Change the Admin Email Address in WordPress Settings

The easiest way to change the WordPress email address is in the General settings. This is located by clicking the Settings option from the left admin toolbar. Simply add a new email to WordPress and click the “Save” button.

And if someone else installed the system for you, it may be a good idea to take a look and make sure the address is correct.

1. Click the “Settings” option in the left panel of WordPress.

2. Change the info in the “Email Address” field.

This is the default address most WordPress tools will use when sending messages. If you only have one admin, this works great for making sure messages are sent and received.

3. Click “Save Changes” at the bottom of the Settings screen.

As of newer versions of WordPress, you’ll see a confirmation message appear under the Email Address field. This is a security precaution, and you’ll need to confirm the change from the address before it goes live.

Once the new address is confirmed, the primary email account will change.

NOTE: This will not change the admin login, role or specific address related to admin accounts. This only changes the primary email address used for WordPress. If you are the only one working on the site, then this option is probably the best choice.

How to Change the Admin Email in the Accounts Section

What if you have several admin accounts on your site? Perhaps you want the site address to differ from the actual admin profile.

Changing the contact email address for specific admins is different than using the above method for the entire website.

In any case, you can easily change the address of an admin account through Users in WordPress.

1. Click the “Users” option in the left panel.

2. Click into an admin account for your website.

3. Scroll down to Contact Info and enter the new address.

4. Click “Update Profile” on the bottom of the page.

Like the method above, you’ll see the confirmation message appear under the email address. Until the email is confirmed, the old address will remain.

How to Change the Admin Email without Confirmation in the Database

While the above two methods are perhaps the easiest, not everyone wants to go through confirmation steps. Maybe you don’t have access to those accounts.

Another reason could be the WordPress admin email isn’t updating through the above methods.

In any case, you can change the admin email without confirmation by accessing the WordPress database. You can do this through phpMyAdmin from cPanel.

How to Change the WordPress Default Email

1. Find and click on the “wp_options” table in the database.

2. Click “Edit” on the admin_email field.

3. Input the new email address in the text field.

4. Make sure the drop-down is set to Save and click the “Go” button on the bottom.

Changing Specific Users in the Database

1. Find and click the “wp_users” table.

2. Click “Edit” on the account you wish to change.

3. Change the “user_email” text field to the new address.

4. Make sure the option is set to Save and click the “Go” button on the bottom.

NOTE: Users changed in this manner may need to request new passwords, or you can assign them yourself using the WordPress User screen. This depends on how you have the site set up for logins or how you’re controlling users in general.

However, you have the option to manually reset the admin password of WordPress while you’re already accessing the database.

If it’s just a simple address change, then the passwords should still remain valid.

Also, keep in mind you can add WordPress admins in the database directly should you need one. This helps when troubleshooting problems such as not being able to access the WordPress admin screen.

Keeping Email Up to Date

Changing the admin email address of WordPress is just one of those maintenance things you shouldn’t forget. It prevents losing information and makes sure you’re in the loop in regards to the website.

After all, you wouldn’t want security plugins like Wordfence to send vital messages to an address that is no longer active.

What admin tools do you use in WordPress to manage your website? How many users, admins and contributors do you manage on a day-to-day basis?

The post How to Change the Admin Email Address in WordPress appeared first on GreenGeeks.

That being said, WordPress does not allow us to choose an author URL slug. Not to mention that you can’t change the WordPress username by default.

In this article, I will show you how you can get around this and change a WordPress author URL slug.

Are Pretty Permalinks Important in WordPress?

Permalinks are somewhat of a big deal for WordPress as well as for other types of sites. The way you set up permalinks on your website tells Google how your site is structured and also allows users to see and understand the page they are on better.

There are all sorts of debates that rage online regarding permalinks and the role they do or don’t play in SEO. One of the more prominent debates is whether or not a website owner should include dates as part of a permalink structure.

While many say dates should never be added as part of a permalink, there are some instances where having the date added in can help things. A good example of this is having the date in a permalink of the content you are distributing is time-based content, like news and updates that happen constantly.

Whatever you decide to do, just know that to update an author URL, you have to access the admin dash ard and complete a few steps. The process is not difficult as long as you know what to do. Today I am going to show you how to accomplish this using a really great plugin.

Let’s take a look at the plugin in question and see what it has to offer.

Edit Author Slug

Edit Author Slug is a plugin that will give you full access and control to all user permalinks. That means you can create the names and set up that you want for any of your users and website authors. Once installed, you will be able to change both the author base portion of the URL and the author slug portion.

The plugin is very straightforward and easy to use, as you will see in the steps below. Furthermore, it is very lightweight and will not slow your site down when you decide to start using it.

Let’s get the plugin installed and set up together. From there you will be able to start changing the author slugs on your WordPress website.

Change WordPress Author URL Slug

Step 1: Install and Activate the Plugin

Before you can start changing author slugs to what you want, you first need to install and activate the Edit Author Slug plugin. You can do this by heading over to the Plugins page in the WordPress admin dashboard.

There will be a search field that is available on the page. Simply search the plugin by name using that field. When you see the plugin pop up, install and activate it right from there. You may see some other permalink and slug-related plugins. However, this is the one you need because it deals specifically with author slugs.

Step 2: Go to the All Users Page

Once you have installed and activated the plugin, you want to access the “All Users” portion of the site. From here you will see all the users displayed and you can start making the changes you want to the author slugs.

To get there, click on Users > All Users.

Step 3: Edit the Author Slug

When the username list pops up, click on the Edit link below the username you want to edit, and that will take you to the Edit User screen. You can perform this function on any user that is on your site. However, since this is for authors, try sticking with the author slugs.

Simply scroll down to the Edit Author Slug section that is now there, and you will see a number of choices that you can use as author slug. You can even enter a custom slug.

Once you have made the selection changes you prefer click on the “Update Profile” button and preview your site. You will now see that when you click on the author name in a post to view author archives.  It is using the author slug you have chosen.

Step 4: Click on Settings to Change Author Base

If you want to change the author base from /author/ to something else, then you can do that as well with this plugin. Click on Settings > Edit Author Slug and you will be taken to a compact and small settings page for the plugin.

Step 5:Change the WordPress Author Base

Here you can change the WordPress author base if you want to. You will also be able to change the author base and even choose a different author base for users with different user roles.

There are also options for automatic author slug creation and bulk update author slug selections. Be cautious when using these options, as this could have SEO repercussions on your website.

Once you are finished with selecting your settings click on the “Save Changes” button.  You will be able to view everything working on the front end of your website. Just click on an author link to see it all in action.

What is a WordPress URL Slug and Base?

Simply put, a slug is a URL-friendly title of a publicly viewable page in WordPress. Also known as permalinks (which can be customized), WordPress allows us to change what these URLs look like and make them more appealing to the public eye. Here are a few examples:

https://greengeeks.com/2019/07/this-is-a-wordpress-sample
https:// greengeeks.com /category/wordpress-hosting
https:// greengeeks.com /tags/wordpress

You can see that in these examples, this-is-a-wordpress-sample, wordpress-hosting, and wordpress are slugs for a post, category, and a tag.

You can change the post slug when you are writing a post. Slugs for categories and tags can be changed by editing an individual category and tag within WordPress.

Finally, if you look at the category URL in the example above, then you will notice that it uses the /category/ prefix for category URLs. This prefix is called a base.

You can change a category base by clicking on Settings > Permalinks and heading over to the permalinks page within your WordPress admin dashboard.

By default, WordPress will use your username as the author URL slug and will use /author/ as the base. For example, if your username is JohnDoe your author URL will look like this:

You can’t change this URL slug and base without the use of a plugin. This is the one that gets the job done for you.

Final Thoughts

WordPress has a lot of great defaults and a ton of functionality. However, changing the author slug and base is not one of them. To do this, you need to access a plugin that will do the work for you.

I hope this article showed you an easy way to change WordPress author URL slugs. Using the plugin above, you can also change the base when needed as well.

Do you have a preferred method of doing this? Are you content to leave the default author URL structure in place?

The post How To Change a WordPress Author URL Slug and Base appeared first on GreenGeeks.