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How to Plan a Holiday Sale for Your WooCommerce Store (12 Tips)
Do you want to plan a holiday sale for your WooCommerce store?
The holiday season is the busiest time for online stores across the world. By planning a sale for the holidays, you can capitalize on this demand and boost your sales and revenue.
In this article, we will share some tips on how to easily plan a holiday sale for your WooCommerce store.
Why Plan a Holiday Sale for Your WooCommerce Store?
If you have a WooCommerce store, then planning a holiday sale for it can be a great way to attract new customers.
This is because most users are looking for sales during the holiday season and offering them discount coupons can help you generate more revenue. A well-executed online store sale can even increase your brand awareness and retain existing customers.
Additionally, a holiday sale can improve your website SEO due to the increased traffic, improved click-through rates, and relevant content.
Having said that, here is our list of some of the best tips that can help you easily plan a holiday sale for your WooCommerce store.
1. Create Holiday-Themed Lead Generation Campaigns
OptinMonster is the best lead generation and conversion optimization tool that allows you to create popups, yes/no optins, banners, sliders, and more.
It comes with a drag-and-drop builder, exit-intent technology, and A/B testing, making it super easy to convert website visitors into customers.
OptinMonster even comes with premade templates for the holiday season that can be used to launch a marketing campaign in just a few minutes.
First, you’ll need to visit the OptinMonster website to create an account by clicking the ‘Get OptinMonster Now’ button.
Then, you need to visit your WordPress site to install and activate the OptinMonster plugin. For details, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, this plugin will act as a connector between your OptinMonster account and website. You will now see a setup wizard on the screen, where you have to click on the ‘Connect Your Existing Account’ button.
Once you have done that, visit the OptinMonster » Templates page from the WordPress dashboard.
Here, you will notice a list of holidays under the ‘Seasonal’ section in the left column. Now if you are planning a sale for the Christmas season, check the box next to that option.
OptinMonster will now display all the premade templates for this holiday season. You can even select a campaign type from the top including popups, floating bar, fullscreen, gamified, inline, or slide-in.
Upon making your choice, simply click the ‘Use Template’ button to launch the template in the OptinMonster’s drag-and-drop builder.
Here, you can add headings, and dynamic content, add your discount offers, configure the countdown timer, and so much more.
You can even connect your campaigns to your email marketing services. For detailed instructions, you may want to see our tutorial on how to create WooCommerce popups to increase sales.
Once you are done, you can easily publish your campaign by switching to the ‘Publish’ tab from the top.
Upon its launch, the WooCommerce campaign for holiday sales will promote the discounts that you are offering, increase engagement, help you build an email list, and even boost sales on your online store.
Apart from that, you can also schedule your Christmas campaign, check analytics, and create mobile popups, making OptinMonster a great tool for building campaigns.
2. Start a Giveaway Contest
You can also promote your holiday sales by hosting a giveaway competition on your website. This can create excitement and increase user engagement.
You can even make the giveaway competition exclusive for the customers who have bought something from your store which can convince potential customers to make a purchase.
When hosting a giveaway, keep in mind to choose a prize that may interest your entire audience, make the competition easy to enter, and announce the winner publicly.
To create and add a giveaway on your website, we recommend using RafflePress.
It is the best WordPress giveaway plugin on the market that comes with a drag-and-drop builder, premade templates, fraud protection, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) integration, and more.
Upon installing the plugin, you can navigate to the RafflePress » Add New page from the WordPress dashboard and select a template for your giveaway.
Once the template opens up in the drag-and-drop builder, you can add a name, prize, countdown timer, and a background image related to the holiday season.
For detailed instructions, see our tutorial on how to run a giveaway in WordPress with RafflePress.
Once you are done, simply switch to the ‘Publish’ tab from the top to launch it.
The holiday season giveaway will now help you grow your audience and encourage them to buy from you to return the favor for freebies.
However, you can also host competitions on your website during the season to promote sales. For detailed instructions, you can see our beginner’s guide on how to create a WooCommerce contest to boost loyalty.
3. Offer Holiday Discount Coupons to Customers
When planning a holiday sale, it is important to create discount coupons, gift cards, and loyalty programs for your customers.
Discount coupons can help you clear out the inventory, increase sales, and even attract new customers.
On the other hand, offering gift cards on a new purchase for store credits can help build loyalty among users.
Another tip is to launch a loyalty program on your WooCommerce store during the holiday season to encourage customers to purchase more products in order to gain points.
You can do all of this on your website using Advanced Coupons. It is the best WordPress coupon plugin on the market that allows you to create BOGO (Buy One, Get One) deals, loyalty programs, gift cards, and smart coupons for your WooCommerce store.
It is super easy to use and offers features like coupon URLs, scheduled coupons, auto-apply coupons, shipping coupons, bulk coupons, and more.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the Advanced Coupons plugin. For detailed instructions, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you must visit the Coupons » Add New page from the WordPress dashboard. Here, you can start by adding a name and description for the coupon.
Next, you can select a discount type and add the coupon amount next to the ‘Coupon amount’ option.
Now according to the studies, most online stores offer a discount of about 30-40% during the holiday season. While some stores also add discount offers of up to 70% for selected items only.
We recommend creating discount coupons of up to 35-40% off on all products to maximize your sales during the holidays.
Once you have added all the details, simply click the ‘Publish’ button at the top to store your settings.
For detailed instructions, you may want to see our complete tutorial on how to create smart coupons in WooCommerce.
If you also want to add a loyalty program or offer gift cards to your customers, then you can see our guides on how to create a loyalty program in WooCommerce and how to add advanced gift cards in WooCommerce.
4. Add Social Proof to Your WooCommerce Store
You can also plan and promote your holiday sale by displaying social proof on your website. It is a social phenomenon wherein people copy the actions of others in choosing how to behave in a situation.
This means that a user is more likely to purchase your products if they see testimonials or reviews from other users talking positively about them.
You can easily add social proof to your WooCommerce store using TrustPulse. It is the best WordPress social proof plugin on the market that displays real-time notifications of user activities on your site.
TrustPulse shows recent purchases or customer interactions to all the users who are visiting your online store at the time in order to convince them to make a purchase as well.
It offers actionable insights, real-time event tracking, smart targeting, and flexible design options, making it super easy to add social proof to your site.
For more detailed instructions, you can see our beginner’s guide on how to use FOMO on your WordPress site to increase conversions.
5. Add Banners to Promote the Holiday
Another amazing tip that can help promote your WooCommerce holiday sale is to add banners at the top of your website.
These banners can include your brand name, logo, and discount offers to promote the holiday season and even create a festive atmosphere on your site.
If you also run a WordPress blog separately, then adding banners there for your online store sale can help drive more traffic.
You can easily create a banner on your WooCommerce store using OptinMonster which is the best WordPress banner plugin on the market.
All you have to do is create an account on the OptinMonster website and then connect it to your WordPress site using the free OptinMonster plugin.
Once you have done that, visit the OptinMonster » Templates page from the WordPress dashboard and select the ‘Floating Bar’ campaign type.
After that, choose the ‘Christmas’ option from the ‘Seasonal’ section on the left. You can now select any of the premade banner templates for your WooCommerce store.
Once you choose a template, it will be launched in the drag-and-drop builder where you can customize it according to your liking.
After that, you must switch to the ‘Publish’ tab to activate the Christmas sale banner on your online store.
However, if you don’t want to use OptinMonster, then you can also create a banner for your store using Thrive Leads or Canva. For detailed instructions, please see our tutorial on how to make a website banner easily.
6. Start a Holiday Countdown
When planning for a holiday sale on your WooCommerce store, it is important to also add a countdown timer on your website.
This can create a sense of urgency among your customers and encourage them to make a buying decision. It can also reduce cart abandonment rates by reminding customers to complete their purchase before the sale ends.
Plus, countdown timers also help highlight your sale and make it more visible to customers.
You can easily create a countdown timer using a free plugin like Countdown Timer Ultimate or by opting for paid plugins like Thrive Ultimatum which is one of the best countdown plugins for your website.
For detailed instructions, you may want to see our tutorial on how to add a countdown timer widget in WordPress.
7. Offer Free Shipping
Offering free shipping upon purchase during the holiday season can help increase conversions by removing a purchase barrier.
This builds customer loyalty, encourages customers to spend more money, and also creates a sense of urgency because you are offering this service for a limited time only.
You can easily offer free shipping with a purchase using the Advanced Coupons plugin.
Upon activation, all you will have to do is visit the Coupons » Add New page from the WordPress dashboard. This will take you to a new screen where you can start by creating a discount coupon for the holiday season.
After that, simply check the ‘Allow free shipping’ box in the ‘General’ section to enable free shipping for customers who use the discount code on your website.
This will encourage more customers to use your discount coupons and will boost your sales during the holiday.
For more information, you may want to see our tutorial on how to offer a shipping discount in WooCommerce.
8. Run an Email Campaign For the Sale
Email campaigns can also be an effective way to promote your WooCommerce store sales.
You can send personalized emails to your existing customers to let them know about the sale or encourage users to sign up for your newsletter to stay updated about future discount offers.
You can also send automated emails to all your subscribers and launch drip campaigns for further sale promotion. This can create a buzz around your holiday sale and help generate more leads.
You can easily launch an email marketing campaign for your holiday sale by connecting your email marketing service and WordPress site using WP Mail SMTP.
It is the best WordPress SMTP plugin on the market that allows you to properly configure your email settings and improve the overall deliverability rate.
With WP Mail SMTP, the emails that you send to your customers will never end up in the spam folder, ultimately helping you gain more visitors and revenue for your online store’s holiday sale.
9. Create Attractive Landing Pages
Another way that you can plan and promote your WooCommerce holiday sale is by creating attractive landing pages that represent the holiday.
These landing pages will quickly grab the user’s attention with their visuals and eye-catching colors, encouraging users to take action.
To easily create landing pages in WordPress, you can use SeedProd which is the best page builder plugin on the market.
It comes with a drag-and-drop builder, numerous pre-made templates, and advanced WooCommerce blocks that allow you to create landing pages for online stores in just a few minutes.
First, you’ll need to install and activate the SeedProd plugin. For details, see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, visit the SeedProd » Landing Pages screen from the WordPress dashboard and click on the ‘Add New Landing Page’ button.
This will take you to the ‘Choose a New Page Template’ screen where you can select any of the premade templates for your WooCommerce store.
You can easily create a pricing page for your services, a 404 error page, a coming soon page, a products page, or a home page.
Upon making your choice, you will be asked to enter a name for the landing page that you are about to create. Once you do that, click on the ‘Save and Start Editing the Page’ button to continue.
This will launch SeedProd’s drag-and-drop page builder, where you can now start editing your page.
You can add a heading, CTA, dynamic content, images, videos, navigation menu, or anything else you like by dragging and dropping blocks. You can even use the WooCommerce blocks from the left column.
For detailed instructions, you may want to see our beginner’s guide on how to create a landing page in WordPress.
Once you are done, simply click the ‘Save’ and ‘Publish’ buttons at the top to launch your page on the store.
Tip: You can even create a fully customized theme for the holidays without using any code with SeedProd. For detailed instructions, see our guide on how to easily create a custom theme in WordPress.
10. Use Surveys and Polls to Plan Holiday Sale
You can also use surveys and polls to plan your holiday sale. These polls can help you learn more about your customers, their shopping habits, and preferences and help you plan a sale according to them.
For example, if most of the customers who filled out the survey form have said that free shipping or a 50% discount on all products encourages them to buy from the store, then you can use these suggestions for your holiday sale as well.
Adding a poll or survey form to your WooCommerce store is the easiest way to gather feedback for your holiday sale plan and make improvements where needed.
You can add polls and survey forms to your website using WPForms which is the best WordPress contact form plugin on the market. It comes with a drag-and-drop builder, spam protection, and numerous pre-made templates.
Keep in mind that you will need the Pro plan of the plugin to unlock the surveys and poll extension.
Once you do that, visit the WPForms » Add New page from the WordPress dashboard and select from the multiple Survey or Poll form templates.
WPForms will then load the template in the drag-and-drop builder where you can add, remove, rename, or rearrange fields in a few minutes.
For detailed instructions, check our tutorials on how to create a survey in WordPress and how to create an interactive poll in WordPress.
If you don’t want to create surveys for your online store, then you can use the UserFeedback plugin. It is the best WordPress feedback plugin on the market that makes it super easy to collect feedback from your users.
It shows a small prompt on the screen that you can use to ask users about their shopping habits and holiday sale preferences.
11. Plan Your Social Media Strategy
When planning a holiday sale, it is important to also build a social media strategy for it. These are tips that you will be using on different social media platforms to drive more traffic to your WooCommerce store.
To develop a solid social media strategy, you will first need to identify your target audience, and then choose the right social media platforms according to it.
For example, if you have a store that sells teen clothes, then you may want to focus on Instagram to target the younger audience.
To do this, you can start selling your products on Instagram as well, add Instagram shoppable images to your store, or add your whole Instagram feed to your WooCommerce store.
Similarly, if you sell home decor products or DIY, then Pinterest is the go-to platform for you.
Once you do that, use a content calendar to plan and schedule your social media posts, create high-quality content, use relevant hashtags and keywords, and then start promoting your holiday sale on the platforms in advance.
You can also offer discounts to your Facebook or Instagram followers, run social media contests, and so much more.
This will help drive traffic to your WooCommerce store from different social media platforms.
For more tips, you can see our complete social media cheat sheet for WordPress.
12. Start an Affiliate Program
Another great way to promote the holiday sale is by starting an affiliate program on your WooCommerce store.
A referral program lets you build partnerships with other small businesses on the market who promote your products or services on their websites to earn a small commission.
This practice can help you reach to a different audience and bring more traffic to your online store, ultimately leading to more conversions.
You can easily create an affiliate program for your store using AffiliateWP. It is the best WordPress affiliate tracking and management software that gives you complete control over your affiliate program.
Plus, it is super cost effective making it a great choice.
For detailed instructions, you may want to see our beginner’s guide on how to easily add an affiliate program in WooCommerce.
Bonus: Spread Holiday Spirit on Your WooCommerce Store
By spreading holiday spirit on your WooCommerce store, you can drive more traffic and generate more leads.
This is because customers are more likely to buy from vendors who have decorated their websites for the holidays and look as excited about the season as they are.
To spread the holiday spirit, you can use free plugins like Christmasify or Christmas Greetings to add jingle music, Santa Claus, gift boxes, and change the fonts of your store for the holidays.
This can make your WooCommerce store look more fun and approachable and users are more likely to buy from it.
For more tips, you can see our tutorial on how to spread the holiday spirit on your WordPress site.
We hope this article helped you learn how to plan a holiday sale for your WooCommerce store. You may also want to our tutorial on how to create a sales page in WordPress and our list of amazing holiday gift ideas for bloggers, designers, and developers.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
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8 Best Writing Assistant Software for WordPress (Compared)
Are you looking for the best writing assistant software for WordPress?
Writing assistant software uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help users improve their creative process. This can help you produce more polished and professional writing for your WordPress blog.
In this article, we have handpicked some of the best writing assistant software that you can use to improve the content on your WordPress site.
Why Use Writing Assistant Software in WordPress?
Using writing assistant software on your WordPress website can help you find and correct grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, which can make your writing more clear and concise.
The software can even provide feedback on the writing style and tone of your blog posts, helping you to improve your writing skills over time.
Plus, you can also brainstorm new ideas for articles, product descriptions, and copywriting using your writing assistant software.
For example, if you want to write a product description for gardening equipment that you are selling in your online store, then you can use the writing assistant to create a simple draft, make your writing easier to read, optimize it for specific keywords, and more.
Using this software can also improve your website visibility by helping you optimize your WordPress blog for search SEO, increase readability, and check your content for plagiarism.
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best writing assistant software for WordPress.
1. All in One SEO for WordPress
All in One SEO for WordPress is the best WordPress SEO plugin that can also be used as a writing assistant.
The plugin comes with a powerful keyword research tool that can help you find the right keywords to target in your content.
AIOSEO encourages authors to improve their writing by providing suggestions to use active voice, insert transition words, distribute subheadings better, and hit a specific Flesch reading score.
It is the best writing assistant that comes with a built-in content analysis tool that analyzes your blog posts for keyword density, readability, and title tags.
The plugin also comes with a headline analyzer tool that helps you write SEO headlines to drive more traffic to your website.
This tool checks the word balance, sentiment, power words, and emotional words used in the heading to help rank your blog post higher.
Pros
- The plugin allows you to generate AI titles and meta descriptions for your WordPress posts.
- All in One SEO helps you optimize your content for both SEO and readability.
- It comes with a schema markup feature for content improvement.
- It lets you add a title, description, and image for your Facebook and Twitter accounts.
- All in One SEO comes with a Chrome extension that lets you evaluate your content’s SEO on the front end.
Cons
- Its schema markup feature is only available in the paid plan.
Why we recommend using All in One SEO: All in One SEO is the best AI writing assistant on the market because it allows you to improve the overall content quality directly in the block editor. It helps you target the right keywords and improve your site’s SEO.
Plus, it also offers other features like HTML sitemaps, redirects, social media integrations, and a broken link checker. These features make it the perfect choice if you want a writing assistant tool designed specifically for search engines.
2. Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
Semrush offers a complete suite of SEO tools that help you improve your search engine rankings. It comes with an SEO Writing Assistant that provides real-time SEO suggestions for your content to improve the overall SEO score.
With Semrush’s writing assistant, you can see your content’s readability and make it more natural sounding, identify text that needs to be rewritten, and also get an estimate of the ideal content length.
It also recommends keywords, adds alt attributes to images, finds and fixes broken links, and even provides suggestions to avoid keyword stuffing.
Pros
- The SEO writing assistant comes with a plagiarism checker.
- You can easily integrate Semrush’s writing assistant with WordPress using a free plugin. For detailed instructions, see our tutorial on how to use the SEO writing assistant in WordPress.
- It is the best keyword research tool on the market.
- Semrush helps you optimize the article headline for SEO.
- Semrush’s other features include competitor analysis, site auditing, domain analysis, social media management, topic research, traffic analytics, and much more.
Cons
- Semrush’s paid plan can be expensive for small businesses.
- It has a learning curve and can be a bit difficult to use for beginners.
Why we recommend using Semrush SEO Writing Assistant: We recommend using this tool if you are looking for a powerful writing assistant that prioritizes SEO and helps increase your website’s rankings.
3. Rytr
Rytr is another AI writing assistant software that allows you to easily create high-quality content for your WordPress site.
It comes with over 40+ templates that can be used to make content for blog posts, product descriptions, social media posts, and more.
This software can easily be integrated with popular website builders like WordPress using an API.
It even optimizes your content for SEO using its powerful text editor, which automatically fixes, rephrases, and improves the sentences that you write.
Pros
- It comes with a built-in plagiarism and grammar checker.
- Rytr has keyword research and SERP analysis features for improving content for SEO.
- It comes with a Chrome extension and can also integrate with platforms like Semrush.
- Rytr has a chat mode that can be used to interact with AI in a more natural way to brainstorm content ideas and receive feedback.
Cons
- Rytr is not an ideal choice if you want to generate long-form content, as it starts creating repetitive sentences for longer blog posts.
- Its user interface is a bit clunky and can use some improvement.
Why we recommend using Rytr: Overall, Rytr has all of the features that you’ll need to boost your efficiency. The tool allows you to easily create SEO-optimized, clear, and natural-sounding content for your WordPress blog.
It also offers a free plan that lets you generate 10k characters per month, and even its paid plan is affordable.
4. Writesonic
Writesonic is an AI-powered writing assistant tool that can be used by writers, eCommerce stores, marketing teams, and entrepreneurs.
This copywriting tool comes with over 100+ templates that you can use to create content for articles, blog posts, ads, social media posts, and product descriptions.
If you have a WooCommerce store, then you can also use Writesonic to create AI chatbots that can interact with your customers.
Pros
- Writesonic can create content in around 25 languages.
- It comes with a built-in plagiarism and grammar checker.
- Writesonic has a voice-your-text command feature.
- The software has expander and shortener features that can be used to add more details or shorten your content to improve quality.
- It can integrate with popular platforms like Zapier, Surfer SEO, and Semrush.
Cons
- It can be difficult to maintain the tone and style of your content when using the tool.
- It does not offer a free plan for users.
- It only allows you to have a limited number of users on your Writesonic account.
Why we recommend using Writesonic: Writesonic is the perfect choice if you are a blogger who wants to generate more content or if you have a WooCommerce store, as the tool lets you create AI chat interfaces, images, and content easily.
5. Jasper
Jasper (formerly known as Jarvis) is another popular tool used for AI text generation.
It comes with a library of over 50+ templates that can be used to create articles, social media content, ads, landing page text, emails, video scripts, and artwork.
The tool even provides conferences, courses, and training to help new users learn how to use the AI-based writing assistant tool.
Pros
- It comes with a built-in content editor.
- Jasper offers a variety of features, including spell-checking, grammar-checking, and style suggestions.
- It comes with a content rewriter that improves the readability, clarity, and SEO of your content.
- Jasper offers a Chrome extension and can integrate with Surfer SEO and Grammarly.
Cons
- Jasper does not have a free plan and only offers a 7-day free trial.
- It struggles with creating long-form content
- Jasper is a bit expensive compared to other tools on this list, as its pricing plan starts at $49/per month.
Why we recommend using Jasper: Jasper is an ideal choice for businesses and marketers as it can help create effective marketing content like ad copy, email copy, and landing page copy. It can also improve marketing campaigns by ensuring that the right messages are communicated to the right audience.
6. Frase
Frase is a great AI writing software that can help improve your content creation process.
It allows you to research your target keywords by analyzing the top search results for them. It can even create content briefs for the top results related to a specific keyword and provide some ideas for your content.
Pros
- It offers a content analysis tool that provides suggestions and feedback for content improvement.
- It has a long-form editor that lets you write content.
- Frase optimizes your content for SEO using natural language processing (NLP).
- It tracks your content performance using a Google Search Console integration.
Cons
- The tool does not offer any live chat support.
- You cannot use the Frase AI writer without installing the Frase SEO addon.
- It does not offer a free trial.
Why we recommend using Frase: Frase is a great choice for bloggers or content marketers who want to increase their content visibility. With its Google Search Console integration, Frase helps you rank well and even shows you content decay warnings.
7. Copy.ai
Copy.ai is another popular writing assistant tool that can help you create content for blog posts, emails, sales copy, product descriptions, social media, and more.
It can create content in 25+ languages and comes with more than 90 copywriting tools to improve your content quality. It can also rewrite your existing content to improve its clarity, readability, and SEO.
Pros
- It has an intuitive user interface.
- Copy.ai comes with built-in features like a grammar-checker and paraphrasing tools.
- It offers a meta description generator, slogan generator, and content idea generator.
Cons
- Copy.ai can sometimes produce incorrect information and needs a lot of fact-checking.
- It’s difficult to create a long-form copy.
- It takes a bit longer to generate content using Copy.ai compared to other tools on this list.
Why we recommend using Copy.ai: Copy.ai is a good choice for salespeople and larger teams as its paid plan offers unlimited words, unlimited projects, and 5 user seats for a single account.
8. Grammarly
Grammarly is the best writing assistant software for language correction. This tool can be used to detect and correct grammatical, spelling, and tonal errors. Using its Chrome extension, you can edit your content directly from the WordPress content editor.
Other than that, the tool also offers suggestions for improving the clarity of your writing, such as breaking up long sentences and using simpler language.
Pros
- It comes with features like plagiarism detection, sentence rephrasing, vocabulary suggestions, and more.
- Grammarly has a Chrome extension and can also integrate with WordPress, Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and Gmail.
Cons
- The free version of Grammarly has very limited features.
- It can occasionally overlook mistakes or make inaccurate corrections in your content.
Why we recommend using Grammarly: Overall, Grammarly is an ideal choice for content creators as it helps write engaging blog posts. If your native language is not English, then you should also try out Grammarly, as it helps learners improve their writing and grammar skills.
What Is the Best Writing Assistant Software for WordPress?
In our expert opinion, All in One SEO is the best writing assistant software as it is a complete package that can help you improve your content quality and SEO.
Alternatively, you can opt for the Semrush SEO Writing Assistant, as it also focuses on your site’s SEO and improves your website rankings.
Similarly, if you have a small business, then Jasper is a good choice because it can be used to create articles, social media content, ads, landing page text, emails, and more. It can even help improve marketing campaigns.
Alternatively, if you want to create an AI chatbot for your online store, then we recommend using Writesonic.
Frequently Asked Questions About Writing Assistant Software
If you still have any questions about using writing assistant software in WordPress, then we will answer them here.
What is writing assistant software for WordPress?
Writing assistant software can help you write better content for your WordPress website.
This software can optimize your content for search engines, check for plagiarism, identify grammatical mistakes, and proofread your work. This can help you create more professional and polished content for your WordPress blog.
What are the benefits of using writing assistant software for WordPress?
There are many benefits of using writing assistant software for WordPress, including:
- The software can help you write content faster and more efficiently.
- It helps produce higher-quality content by catching errors and suggesting improvements.
- It can save you time by eliminating the need for manual proofreading.
- Writing assistant software often provides suggestions for improving your writing style, such as using better vocabulary or more concise and effective sentences.
Best WordPress Guides for Writing Blog Posts
If you are looking for more ways to write and improve your WordPress blog posts, then you can check out the following guides:
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
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How to Optimize Videos for Your WordPress Website (Expert Tips)
Do you want to optimize videos for your WordPress website?
Videos are a fantastic way to engage your audience, but video files can take up a lot of space. They can slow down your website’s performance and negatively impact the user experience. That’s why optimizing videos is so important.
In this guide, we will show you how to optimize videos for websites.
Why Optimize Videos for Websites?
The main reason you should optimize videos for your website is because they can be incredibly heavy to load.
Video files contain high-quality visuals and audio that make them large in file size. In fact, a single 1080p video that lasts 30 seconds can add about 30-50 MB to a website.
For context, at WPBeginner, we always aim to compress our images to less than 30 KB, which is way less than the average size of a 30-second video. If a file size is bigger than that, then it can negatively affect the page loading time.
A slow-loading website can create a chain reaction. First, it can frustrate users who want to access your website, which can then cause them to leave for a competitor.
If you run an eCommerce store, then slow performance can also lead to a higher bounce rate and lower conversions.
But don’t worry. If you have video content on your website, then all you need to do is follow our tips to optimize it and prevent that domino effect from ever happening.
Besides optimizing videos for your website performance, it’s also good to optimize videos for SEO. With the rise of video content platforms like YouTube and TikTok, videos have become a powerful tool to bring in traffic to your website.
When optimized properly, video search results can be more noticeable, boost your online visibility, and improve your search engine rankings.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to optimize videos for websites. You can use the quick links below to skip to different tips in our post:
1. Use a Video Hosting Service
First, you should choose a reliable video hosting platform. Our years of experience with WordPress have shown that it’s better to use a third-party video hosting provider than to self-host your own videos.
You can read our article on why you should never upload a video to WordPress for more details. But essentially, uploading videos to your media library can take up a lot of your web hosting bandwidth and resources.
Even if you use a powerful cloud or dedicated web host, it’s much easier to use embedded videos than to self-host your video content. If you host your own videos, then you will need to process them to be compatible with different devices.
Meanwhile, platforms like YouTube and Vimeo take care of this for you. There’s no need to worry about using a certain file format or resolution so long as they are supported by the platform.
Then, you can simply embed the video in your WordPress website using a Video block and the URL of your content.
You can check out our guide on the best video hosting sites if you need recommendations.
If you are displaying product videos for your WooCommerce website, then you can also read our step-by-step guide on adding WooCommerce product videos to galleries.
2. Compress Your Video Before Uploading It
Images need to be compressed before you upload them to WordPress, and so do videos. Compression is a quick and easy way to reduce file sizes so they don’t slow down your page speed.
That being said, not all video optimization tools are equal. While they may make the file size smaller, they can also compromise your video quality.
When looking for software to compress your videos, make sure that it supports the file format you are planning to use.
If you are uploading videos to YouTube or Vimeo, then most likely, you are using a popular format like MP4, WebM, or MOV. These formats are widely supported by video compression platforms.
Additionally, consider using a tool that offers adjustable compression levels. Typically, you will be able to choose between low, medium, or high video quality. You may also select a desired resolution to make the size smaller.
Finally, don’t forget to consider the platform’s pricing. There are many free software options to optimize videos for websites online, but you must test them out to see if they add a watermark.
One popular online video optimization tool is VEED.IO.
This free platform comes with basic and advanced compression settings and doesn’t add a watermark to your content. All you need to do is upload your video to the tool and select a video quality and resolution.
If you want to use a desktop tool, then you can check out HandBrake.
It’s a free and open-source video compression platform that’s compatible with all major operating systems.
3. Set Up Your Video Sitemap and Schema Markup
Reducing the video file size and quality is just one part of video optimization. If you want your videos to appear on search engine results pages (SERPs), then you need to help Google understand and index your content effectively.
One way to do this is to use the All in One SEO for WordPress (AIOSEO) plugin. It’s the best WordPress SEO plugin that can help you easily optimize your content and monitor your website’s performance.
To access AIOSEO’s Video SEO features, like the Video Sitemap and Video Schema Markup, you will need to sign up for a Pro plan.
Then, you can install and activate the AIOSEO plugin in WordPress. For more guidance, check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
After installing the plugin, you can activate the license key. Simply go to All in One SEO » General Settings from your WordPress admin area and insert the license key there.
From here, you can follow our step-by-step guide on how to set up a video sitemap in WordPress.
A video sitemap is a specialized XML sitemap that provides detailed information about the videos on your website. This data includes the video title, description, duration, thumbnail URL, and the page where the video is embedded.
By creating a video sitemap, you enable search engines to crawl and index your videos more effectively.
Another important step is setting up video schema markup. This is structured data that helps search engines understand what your videos are about.
It increases the likelihood of your videos showing up as special previews (or rich snippets) in search results, making them more noticeable to people searching online. Here’s how that looks:
To configure video schema markup on AIOSEO, just go to the WordPress post or page where your video is embedded and open the WordPress block editor.
After that, scroll down to the AIOSEO Settings and navigate to the ‘Schema’ tab. Then, click ‘Generate Schema.’
Now, the Schema Generator pop-up will appear. In the Schema Catalog tab, look for the ‘Video’ schema template.
Go ahead and click the ‘+’ button next to the Video template.
Now, you will be able to fill out your video information. In the first three fields, you can enter the video’s Name, Description, and Content URL.
For the Name and Description, feel free to use AIOSEO’s Smart Tags. These are predefined labels that can easily add existing information from your content, such as the post title, site title, and post excerpt.
As for the Content URL, you can enter the address of the video media file. That means the URL should end with the file format, like https://www.example.com/video/123/file.mp4
Google has said that providing your video’s Content URL is the best way for them to fetch your video file. But if you uploaded your video to a video hosting site like YouTube, then this may not be possible.
Scrolling down, you will find the Embed URL, Upload Date, Is Family Friendly, and Thumbnail URL settings.
You will use the Embed URL if you uploaded the video to a third-party service and don’t have access to the Content URL. Here, you need to enter the address to the video’s embeddable player, so it should look like https://www.example.com/embed/123
If you’ve uploaded the video to YouTube, then you can find the embed URL by opening the YouTube video and clicking the ‘Share’ button below the player.
After that, click ‘Embed’ in the popup window.
You will see a full video embed code in the next popup.
Note that you don’t need to copy-paste the whole thing. What you should do is block the URL that comes between the double quotes after the src= attribute.
This is your video’s Embed URL.
After that, copy-paste this URL back into AIOSEO’S Video Schema Generator.
For the Thumbnail URL, you can copy-paste your image URL into the field or upload a new image to the media library. Note that the minimum size is 112 pixels in width and height.
Once all the settings look good, simply click the ‘Add Schema’ button.
And that’s it!
Now, you should see a Video schema item in the Schema tab within the AIOSEO Settings.
4. Enable Lazy Loading
Lazy loading means your website delays loading certain content elements until someone scrolls to where the content is on the screen. When lazy loading is turned on for videos, your website will wait to load the video player and content until the viewer is about to watch it.
This makes your website load faster initially because it doesn’t have to load all the video elements at once.
To do this, you can use WP Rocket. It’s one of the best WordPress caching plugins on the market, and it comes with a feature to lazy load images and videos.
The first step is to install and activate the WP Rocket plugin. You can read our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for more information.
Next, go to Settings » WP Rocket from your WordPress dashboard and navigate to the ‘Media’ tab. Then, simply check the ‘Enable for iframes and videos’ and the ‘Replace YouTube iframe with preview image’ boxes.
What the second checkbox means is that, instead of loading the actual video player immediately when someone visits your web page, only a static image representing the video is loaded first.
If you want to lazy load images as well, then you can check out our article on how to lazy load images in WordPress.
5. Use a Video CDN
CDN is short for content delivery network, which is a service that can speed up your website.
It works by storing your website’s content across multiple servers worldwide. When someone visits your site, the CDN serves the content from the server nearest to them. This reduces the distance the data needs to travel and makes your website load faster.
A video CDN is designed to efficiently deliver video content. It optimizes video streaming by storing copies of your videos on servers located strategically around the world.
If you followed our suggestion to upload videos to a third-party service, then having a video CDN won’t be necessary. But for people choosing to self-host their own videos, we recommend using Bunny.net.
Bunny.net is one of the best WordPress CDN services with a video delivery CDN feature. Your videos will be protected in their enterprise-grade storage, and viewers can watch your videos in high quality with no buffering.
If you are interested in using a CDN, then check out our list of the best WordPress CDN services.
Bonus Tips to Optimize Background Videos in WordPress
If you need to optimize background videos for your WordPress website, then you can use the following tips.
Remove the Audio
Audio can add significant weight to a video file. If you are only using a video as a background without sound, then it’s best to strip the audio.
You can easily remove audio from video using video editing software. For recommendations, see our list of the best video editing software.
Alternatively, you can use the free audio remover for videos by Adobe Express. Simply upload your video, and the tool will handle the sound removal for you. The video will then be downloadable as an MP4 file.
Shorten the Duration
Shortening the video duration is another good way to do video compression for background or auto-play videos. This can decrease the overall file size, making it quicker to load and improving website performance.
Typically, 30 seconds or less in video length should be enough for a background video.
Again, you can use video editing software to reduce your video length. For a free online tool, you can use Canva or Adobe Express’s Video Trimmer.
Avoid Looping Forever
When using background or auto-play videos on your website, it’s essential to avoid endless looping. Looping is when the video keeps playing over and over, and it can consume a lot of bandwidth.
It’s also important to consider the context in which the video is displayed. If the video is a brief introduction or showcases a specific product, then a limited number of loops or a single playthrough is usually enough to communicate the message.
In WordPress, you can control the loop behavior of your YouTube video to reduce the strain on your website’s resources. Our guide on how to add a YouTube video as a full-screen background in WordPress shows you how.
Use a Good Contrasting Text Color
People who use an auto-playing video as their homepage background will usually put some text on top of it. In this situation, it’s good to use a text color that contrasts well with the video’s color scheme.
This way, the text remains easily readable and stands out prominently against the video background.
If you want tips and tricks on choosing a text color for your background video, visit our guide on how to choose the perfect color scheme.
Also, you can check out our article on the best WordPress themes for video websites to find designs that complement your website and video content.
FAQs About How to Optimize Videos for Your WordPress Website
Now, let’s address some common questions related to optimizing videos for your WordPress website.
1. What is the best video format for a WordPress website?
WordPress supports video file types like .mp4, .m4v, .mov, .wmv, .avi, .mpg, .ogv, .3gp, and .3g2.
It’s recommended to use MP4 with H.264 codec for the best balance between quality and file size.
2. How do I optimize a YouTube video in WordPress?
If you embed your YouTube videos, then WordPress will take care of the embedding process and ensure the video player loads efficiently.
However, you can optimize videos further by enabling lazy loading, compressing the video files, and setting up video schema markup and sitemap with AIOSEO. The last step ensures that search engines can understand and index your videos properly.
You can also check out our list of best YouTube video gallery plugins for WordPress for more features to enhance your website’s videos.
3. How do I make my WordPress video load faster?
To make your WordPress videos load faster, you can upload them to a third-party hosting service like YouTube or Vimeo. Self-hosting your own videos is not recommended, as it often requires more server resources and slows down your website.
You will also need to compress the videos to reduce their file sizes without compromising quality.
Additionally, it’s a good idea to enable lazy loading for video content. This ensures that your website loads quickly the first time, and the videos are only loaded when the visitor scrolls down to view them.
We hope this article has helped you learn how to optimize videos for websites. You may also want to check out our list of the best WordPress plugins for YouTube publishers and our tutorial on how to show the latest videos from your YouTube channel in WordPress.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
WORDPRESS
With WordPress.com, This Novelist’s Success Is No Mystery – WordPress.com News
Dan Alatorre murders people for a living. Not literally, but literarily: His thrilling mystery novels have captivated audiences around the world, landing him on multiple bestseller lists.
Like so many authors of the internet age, Dan started his writing journey with a blog. Back then, his posts were focused more on the day-to-day happenings of his life, and they eventually provided the fodder for his first book: a silly autobiographical tale about a father and his daughter.
Dan has always had many different stories to tell. He published titles in a variety of genres, such as horror, romance, humor, and science fiction, before he tried his hand at murder mysteries. It didn’t take long for his unforgettable characters and unique storytelling to captivate audiences.
“It is great when some stranger you’ve never met picks up your book and reads it. You wrote words down, they read it, and it changed their life.”
For inspiration when writing his novels, Dan looks to what has piqued his interest throughout his life–1950s film noir classics, modern-day crime shows, and mystery authors like Agatha Christie–and then puts his unique spin on things. In his most popular series, Double Blind, he’s found an equation for success: two detectives, with an underlying current of romantic tension, working to solve a murder. Each case is its own self-contained story, so it not only works as part of the series, but it also makes a good standalone novel. “Good ideas were and are everywhere for an author, so I have about twenty additional story ideas for the characters,” he says. “As long as readers enjoy reading them, I’ll keep writing them.”
His creativity unlocked, Dan was able to concentrate on that all-important but oft-ignored aspect of any creative business: marketing. His website, danalatorre.com, was already his personal space on the web but it also gave his fans a VIP entrance to interact with him. With his Readers Club, Dan is able to go above and beyond simply promoting his books, building an active community of engaged readers. That sense of connection—with other murder-mystery fans as well as with him, the author—makes each new novel even more likely to be a success.
“It’s a great way to build that rapport with your fan base. If they’re interacting with their favorite author, they’re a fan for life.”
But don’t just take his word for it. If you’re an active (or aspiring) author, there are many other reasons to carve out a corner of the internet just for yourself and your fans.
Always be writing
Since writing is already something you do, an active blog can help provide insight to your audience about your writing process, upcoming events, story ideas, and so much more. It will position you as a valuable resource for readers and potential collaborators, leaving them eager to hear more from you.
Build your brand
Your website is a distillation of your personal brand, reflecting your unique literary style, voice, and identity. Choosing the right theme for your site—from colors, to fonts, to layout, and more—can help reinforce your work as an author. A good website builds trust, and it can help you stand out like a literary beacon in the vast sea of books.
Control the story
In an age of online reviews and social media commentary, other voices can often shape the narrative. A personal website provides a platform for you to tell your own story, highlighting your work in the way that you want.
Ready to write your success story? Use coupon code wpsuccessda for 25% off annual plans. Visit WordPress.com/pricing or click below to get started:
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