John Mathews, Author at WPcademy

May 28, 2019

Easy Guide to Move GoDaddy Website Builder Site to WordPress

In this tutorial, we will learn how to move GoDaddy website builder site to WordPress.

Step 0: Getting Started

The success of your WordPress site depends on the WordPress hosting you choose. If you already have GoDaddy’s hosting service, then you can use that for your WordPress site.

Step 1: Preparing to Move From GoDaddy Website Builder to WordPress

WordPress has import tools for many services and tools like Blogger, Tumblr, LiveJournal, etc. But it does not have an import tool for Website Builder.

This is why you will need to backup your Website Builder site manually. It can be a little consuming, depending on how much content you have on your website.

Backing up GoDaddy Website Builder Content

If you have just a few pages, then you can backup by simply saving images and copying text into text files on your computer.

You can also visit each page on your website in your browser, and then press CTRL+S (Command+S on Mac) on your keyboard.

This will bring up the save dialog box. Make sure that you select ‘Webpage, Complete’ in the ‘format’ or ‘save as type’ field.

Repeat the process for all pages on your website.

Make sure that you have downloaded all your images and text. Disconnect internet on your computer and then open the files you have downloaded to double-check.

Alternatively, you can use the free HTTrack tool to copy the website on your computer.

HTTrack is a website copier. You can simply enter the URL of your website, and it will make a copy of it on your computer.

The problem is that, GoDaddy website builder and its templates store their files on different CDN servers. The name and addresses of these servers vary from one site to another.

This makes it harder to download all your image files. However, if your website is mainly based on text and you don’t mind losing images, then Httrack is the fastest way to copy your website.

Once you disable website builder, you will not be able to get back to your website. Take your time to make sure that you have a backup of all your website data.

At this time, you’re probably wondering why isn’t there an easier way. Probably because Godaddy doesn’t want you to switch. That’s why choosing the right platform is an important decision, but we’re glad that you have made the right choice to go with WordPress.

Backing up Your Link Structure

You will need to redirect people visiting old URLs of your website to the new URLs in WordPress. To do that, you need to have a list of all URLs on your website.

If you have just a few pages, then you can simply copy and paste the URL of each page on your site in a plain text file.

Alternately, you can use online tools to extract URLs from your site. You can use Klipper, a Google Chrome extension to save URLs in a txt file.

Don’t worry if you miss out a page. We will also show you how to automatically set up alerts for 404 errors in WordPress and redirect users in WordPress.

Step 2: Moving Website Builder Site to GoDaddy Shared Hosting

This step is only for users who will be using GoDaddy’s hosting service to run their WordPress site. If you are using some other WordPress hosting provider like Bluehost, Siteground, Hostgator, etc, then skip this and jump to the next step.

Disable GoDaddy Website Builder

If you want to use GoDaddy’s hosting service for your WordPress website, then you cannot install WordPress on that domain until you deactivate Website Builder service.

Simply login to your GoDaddy account and click on your username on the toolbar at top. This will display a flydown menu where you need to click on ‘Manage Website Builder’.

This will show your Website Builder account. You need to click on the options button next to your domain name.

It will bring you to the Website Builder options page. Under the overview tab, you will find a link to cancel your account. Click on it to deactivate Website Builder on your domain name.

Your website builder account will now be deactivated, and your domain would become available to host your WordPress website. It will take nearly an hour before your Website Builder account is fully deactivated.

Adding Hosting to Your Domain

Now that your domain is free from GoDaddy website builder. You still need to add hosting service to that domain.

Click on web hosting under account manager and then click on manage button next to your account.

This will bring you to the cPanel dashboard of your hosting account. You need to scroll down to the domains section and then click on Add on domains.

Now you can enter your domain name. The subdomain and document root fields will be automatically filled.

You also need to check the box to create an FTP account. Simply select a username and password for your FTP account. Finally, click on the add domain button.

That’s all you have successfully freed up your domain from Website Builder and added web hosting for your domain.

You can now jump to Step 4, to learn how to install WordPress and continue moving your website.

Step 3: Pointing Domain to Other WordPress Hosting Services

This step is for users who have their domain registered with GoDaddy and want to use it with some other WordPress hosting provider like BlueHost or Siteground.

Log in to your GoDaddy account and click on your username on the toolbar at top. This will reveal a flydown menu where you need to click on manage my domains.

Select your domain from the list and click on the Nameservers button on the top and then select set nameservers.

This will bring up a popup where you need to click on custom and then click on the link to enter custom nameserver.

A new popup will appear with two fields. You can add your new WordPress hosts nameservers here. If your WordPress host has more than two nameservers, then you can click on the Add Nameserver button to add another line.

Click on the OK button and then click on the save button to store your settings. Remember that DNS changes may take upto 24 hours to propagate throughout the internet. Although it usually only takes a few hours.

Once your domain starts pointing to your new WordPress host, you can proceed to the next step.

Step 4: Installing WordPress

By now your domain should be pointing to your hosting service and you are ready to install WordPress. Whether you are using GoDaddy or any other hosting service, the process is the same.

WordPress is famous for its 5-minute install. Most hosting companies offer 1-click installers for new WordPress websites, which allows you to install WordPress on your website with just a few clicks.

For more details, see our step by step WordPress installation tutorial for beginners.

Step 5: Importing Website Builder Content in WordPress

As we mentioned earlier that you will have to manually backup your Website Builder content. It is not possible to automatically import content from Website Builder.

By default WordPress comes with two built-in content types called posts and pages. See our guide on the difference between posts and pages.

You need to create new pages or posts on your website and copy paste your GoDaddy website builder content.

Creating posts and pages in WordPress is really simple. See our detailed tutorial on how add a new post in WordPress and utilize all the features.

Step 6: Setting up Redirects

If you have the list of links from old website builder site, then you can go right ahead and setup redirects.

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Simple 301 Redirectsplugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Settings » 301 Redirects page. Enter your old URL under the ‘Request’ field and enter the new WordPress URL for that page in the ‘Destination’ field.

Click on save changes button to store this redirect. Repeat the process for all other URLs.

For more detailed instructions and other ways to setup redirects, take a look at our beginner’s guide to creating redirects in WordPress.

Step 7: Customizing Your WordPress Site

WordPress comes with thousands of beautiful themes both paid and free. Take a look at our guide on selecting the perfect theme for WordPress.

May 28, 2019May 28, 2019

Easy Guide to Change the Color of Address Bar in Mobile Browser in WordPress

In this tutorial, we will show you how to change the color of address bar in mobile browser to match your WordPress site.

Why Match Address Bar Color in Mobile Browser?

Most popular WordPress themes are mobile responsive. This makes your site looks great on mobile devices. However, it still looks and feels like a website.

Matching the color of address bar to your WordPress site, gives it a native app-like feel. This improves user experience, which ultimately boosts sales and conversions.

However, please note that currently it only works for Google Chrome web browser on Android devices using Lollipop or newer versions.

Match Address Bar Color on Mobile Browser to Your WordPress Theme

Simply add this code in your theme or child theme‘s header.php file just before the closing </head> tag.

<meta name="theme-color" content="#ff6600" />

This line is a HTML meta tag used by Google Chrome on Android to change color of address bar in mobile browser. The content field has the hex code for the color you want to use as theme color.

Not sure how to get the hex color code?

You can get the HEX value of a color using any image editing software like Adobe Photoshop, Gimp, Paint, etc.

You can also pick a color using online HTML color picker tools.

If you want to pick a color from a web page, then you can use a browser extension like ColorZilla.

That’s all, we hope this tutorial helped you learn how to change the color of address bar in mobile browser to match your WordPress site.

May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Easily Bulk Delete All WordPress Comments

In this tutorial, we will learn how to easily bulk delete all WordPress comments.

Before you Delete All WordPress Comments

There are many legitimate scenarios when a user really needs to delete all WordPress comments without any hesitation.

For example, you filled WordPress with dummy comments on a development site just to see how they would look. You would want to delete those comments before moving to a live site.

There are many other scenarios as well, where a site owner would want to get rid of the comments from their WordPress site.

However, if you just want to delete the spam comments, then take a look at our guide on how to batch delete spam comments in WordPress. If you are upset about comment spam on your WordPress, then make sure you check these tips and tools to combat comment spam in WordPress.

If there are comments showing up on your pages, then take a look at how to disable comments on pages in WordPress.

If none of the above scenarios apply, then continue reading.

First you need to create a complete WordPress backup of your site.

Deleting all comments in WordPress is an irreversible action. You will not be able to undo it once you have deleted those comments. This is why it is important that you have a backup.

Method 1: Deleting All WordPress Comments Using Plugin

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Delete All Comments plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you need to visit Tools » Delete All Comments page. This is where you will see the total number of comments on your website, a confirmation box, and the delete button.

Clicking the delete all button will permanently delete all comments from your WordPress site. Including those in spam and trash.

You can now visit the comments page, and you will see all comments safely deleted from your WordPress site.

Method 2: Delete All WordPress Comments Using phpMyAdmin

You can also quickly delete all WordPress comments using MySQL or phpMyAdmin. This method is only recommended for more advanced users.

Inside phpMyAdmin, you will need to locate your WordPress database. You will see a page like this showing all your WordPress database tables.

Check the box next to wpprefix_comments and wpprefix_commentmetatable. The name of your comments tables may differ depending on the table prefix you choose during your WordPress installation.

After selecting comments table, locate the ‘With selected:’ drop down menu below the table list and select ‘Empty’ from the drop down menu.

PhpMyAdmin will now show you a warning asking if you really want to empty those tables.

Click on the yes button to continue. This will delete all WordPress comments from your database.

You can also delete all WordPress comments using MySQL console (command line). Simply log into your MySQL console and run this command:

TRUNCATE `wp_commentmeta`;
TRUNCATE `wp_comments`;

That’s all, we hope this tutorial helped you learn how to easily delete all comments in WordPress.

May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Add the Skype Share Button in WordPress

In this tutorial, we will learn how to easily add a Skype share button in WordPress.

First thing you need to do is install and activate Skype share plugin (see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin).

Upon activation, go to Settings » Skype share button page to configure the plugin.

The first option is to enable the share button. You must check this box to enable the Skype share button on your WordPress site.

Next, you need to choose a button size. Available sizes for the button are large share, small share, circle icon, and square icon.

Lastly, you need to choose the location of the button. You can either choose to show it on top of the article, below the article, or both.

Skype share can automatically detect the language of your WordPress site. But if it doesn’t, then you can manually select the language.

Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

That’s all, you can now visit your website to see the Skype Share button in action.

Manually Add Skype Share in WordPress Template

If you want to manually add this in your theme files, then you can follow the manual code instructions below.

First add the following script in the head section of your file. You can either do this by directly editing your header.php file or do it the proper way of adding scripts by using Enqueue scripts.

// Place this code in the head section of your HTML file 
(function(r, d, s) {
    r.loadSkypeWebSdkAsync = r.loadSkypeWebSdkAsync || function(p) {
        var js, sjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
        if (d.getElementById(p.id)) { return; }
        js = d.createElement(s);
        js.id = p.id;
        js.src = p.scriptToLoad;
        js.onload = p.callback
        sjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, sjs);
    };
    var p = {
        scriptToLoad: 'https://swx.cdn.skype.com/shared/v/latest/skypewebsdk.js',
        id: 'skype_web_sdk'
    };
    r.loadSkypeWebSdkAsync(p);
})(window, document, 'script');

After that add the following code in your single.php, loop.php, index.php, page.php, category.php, and archive.php as long as it is placed within the post loop.

<div class='skype-share' data-href='' data-lang='en-US' data-text='' data-style='large' >

You can change the data-style to large, small, circle, or square.

You can also change the language to your desire language.

Basically, the code above will allow the user to share the individual post with the post title as the message.

We hope this tutorial helped you add Skype share button on your WordPress site.

May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Add Twitter Cards in WordPress

In this tutorial, we will learn how to add twitter cards in WordPress.

How Does Twitter Cards Work?

When your tweet has a link to a site that has twitter cards enabled, there is an option to view summary. Whenever another user clicks on the tweet, they will see this summary like the screenshot below.

The biggest advantage of having twitter cards is that it increases the number of people following your twitter accounts through content attribution. Often people tweet your links without giving you proper attribution.

How to Add Twitter Cards in WordPress

There are two ways of adding twitter cards in WordPress. Let’s take a look at both of them.

Method 1: Yoast SEO plugin

If you are using WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin, then you are in luck. Yoast has built-in integration for twitter cards, so turning it on is a matter of few clicks.

Simply go to the “Social” page of Yoast SEO settings page. Enter your Twitter username and save changes.

After that click on the Twitter tab. Under the Twitter tab you need to check the box for Add Twitter card meta data. Select a default card type to choose. You can choose to show summary or summary with large image.

Next thing you need to do is go to Users » My Profile page. You will see a new field under Contact Info for your twitter username. Enter your twitter username there.

If you are running a multi-author site, then advise your authors to complete this part in their profile. This way each specific author gets credit for their work as well. See the example below:

That’s all you have successfully added Twitter Cards meta tags to your WordPress site.

This method is by far the easiest method. Since we use WordPress SEO by Yoast on all of our websites, we are using this method.

Method 2: Hard Code it yourself

This method requires adding code to your theme or child theme files. Simply open the header.php file and add this code just before the </head> tag.

ID), full );
    $twitter_thumb  = $twitter_thumbs[0];
      if(!$twitter_thumb) {
      $twitter_thumb = 'http://www.gravatar.com/avatar/8eb9ee80d39f13cbbad56da88ef3a6ee?rating=PG&size=75';
    }
  $twitter_name   = str_replace('@', '', get_the_author_meta('twitter'));
?>

<meta name="twitter:url" value="" />
<meta name="twitter:title" value="" />
<meta name="twitter:description" value="" />
<meta name="twitter:image" value="" />


<meta name="twitter:creator" value="@" />

Source: Ryan Cullen @artesea

If you don’t know how to work with PHP or running into issues with Method 2, then please use Method 1.

Final Step: Test and Validate

Before links from your WordPress site start showing Twitter Cards, you need to first check it in Twitter card validator.

Simply head over to the Card Validator page on Twitter developers website. Enter URL of any post from your WordPress site and click on preview card button.

Twitter will show you a preview of your Twitter card.

Update: Previously you had to apply for participation in the Twitter Cards. However, Twitter has implemented a system that automatically whitelists domains when you test them with the validator or just share a URL on Twitter.

We hope this tutorial helped you add Twitter cards in WordPress.

May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Use Social Media to Boost Email Subscribers in WordPress

In this tutorial, we’ll discuss why email and social media integration is so important for every business, and show you how to use social media to boost email subscribers in WordPress.

Email Marketing vs. Social Media – Which Is Better?

One of the most common questions we get asked from new business owners is which is better when it comes to email marketing vs social media?

Social media platforms offer a great opportunity to interact with your users and keep them engaged. However, nothing beats email marketing when it comes to engagement.

First, email marketing is very cost effective. For every $1 spent, email marketing generates $38 in return. On the other hand, less than half of marketers agree that social media gives them any return on investment at all.

Social platforms like Facebook tightly control your reach to your own followers. Only about 2% of your Facebook fans will see your updates. Even your tweets are visible to the user for a very short time before it gets pushed down by other tweets. Social media platforms also retain the right to block your account at any time, for any reason.

Even if social media marketing is working well for you now, that’s not guaranteed to last. Social media websites come and go (no one uses Friendster, MySpace, or Digg anymore). When they disappear, all the hard work you put into building a following is gone too.

Email gives you direct access to your subscribers. Most importantly, you own your email list and no one can take away your users.

We’re not saying that you shouldn’t use social media to promote your website. However, your focus should be more on building an email list for higher ROI and long term marketing goals.

Many successful website owners will tell you that not starting an email list was the biggest mistake they made when starting out. See our article on why building your email list is so important today for more on this topic.

Convinced about the importance of your email list? Let’s see how you can leverage your social media profiles to get even more email subscribers.

What Do You Need to Start Building Your Email List?

There are three things you will need to start building your email list.

A website or blog
An email marketing service
Lead generation software

All three of them are quite easy to set up without learning any technical skills.

If you don’t have a website or blog yet, then see our step by step guide on how to start a blog.

You will also need an email marketing service. It helps you collect email addresses, manage your email lists, and send out emails. Most importantly, using an email marketing service will help you to stay compliant with email spam laws, and ensure that your emails don’t end up in the spam folder.

We recommend using Constant Contact. It is one of the largest and most popular email marketing services in the world. For more recommendations, see our list of the best email marketing services for small business.

Once you’ve got your website, email newsletter, and lead generation software set up, you can get started with these email and social media integration techniques.

1. Collect Email Addresses From Your Facebook Page

If you have a successful Facebook page, you may have a lot of fans who have never visited your website before. An easy way to convert those fans into subscribers is by adding a prominent link right to an email signup form.

Luckily, Facebook has made this easy by introducing call to action buttons for business pages. These buttons are prominently displayed on top of your cover image and are visible without scrolling.

To add a signup button to your Facebook page, you’ll need to visit your Facebook page and click the blue Add a button button.

This will bring up a popup with multiple choices. You need to click on the Get in touch with us tab and then select Sign up.

Next, you need to provide a link to your website where users will be taken when they click signup.

The link should be to a page on your website that features an email signup form. Don’t forget to click on add button to save your changes.

That’s all! Visitors to your Facebook page will now see a prominent call to action button leading them to sign up for your email list.

2. Use Facebook Retargeting/Remarketing Pixel

Have you noticed that after you visit a website, you often start seeing their ads on Facebook?

This is called retargeting or remarketing. Those websites use Facebook’s retargeting technology, commonly known as Facebook Pixel.

The retargeting pixel does not add anything visible to your website visitors. It simply sends a browser cookie to your visitors, so that Facebook can recognize them.

After your website visitors leave your site and go on Facebook, they’ll see your ads targeted just to them.

Follow our step by step guide on how to install Facebook retargeting/remarketing pixel in WordPress. Then, check out these tips for optimizing your Facebook ads for conversions.

3. Use Facebook Ads to Promote Pages with Special Offers

Often people are hesitant to give out their email addresses, but become much more willing to share when you offer them something of value in exchange.

These special offers in exchange for email addresses are also called lead magnets. Common lead magnets include e-books, cheat sheets, templates, reports, coupons, and more. The more targeted your offer is towards a specific audience, the more email addresses you’ll get.

You can create a landing page or blog post on your website that features your lead magnet, and use an OptinMonster campaign to capture email addresses. Here’s a guide on how to create your first OptinMonster campaign to build your email list.

Then, create an ad on Facebook for your free special offer that links to your landing page. This technique is even more powerful when combined with Facebook retargeting, because you’re advertising to people who have already displayed an interest in what you have to offer.

4. Add Links to Your Signup Pages in YouTube Videos

Do you run a YouTube channel? You can stay in touch with your viewers by adding calls to action and URLs right in your videos.

Again, it’s smart to offer an incentive for users to click on the links. Many online marketers do that by offering bonus content, learning material, coupons, and special discounts.

You can easily add a link to your video by going to your Video Manager, then clicking on Edit » Cards » Add card. Then you can add a link to your website.

Once the user lands on your website, you can use a landing page with an OptinMonster campaign to show them targeted offers. OptinMonster’s referral detection feature makes it easy to target your campaign so that only your YouTube fans will see it.

5. Run Twitter Ad Campaign

Twitter Ads is another social platform that you can use to boost your lead generation efforts.

In fact, Twitter even allows you to run lead generation campaigns directly in the user’s Tweet stream. This way users can sign up for your email list without even leaving Twitter.

You can also use Twitter Ads to drive traffic to your website landing page.

6. Promote Old Posts With Targeted Optins

If you have been blogging for a while, then you already have plenty of content that your new followers may not have seen.

Sharing old posts allows you a chance to share more content with your users on social media platforms. This boosts user engagement on your social profiles, at the same time it brings more traffic to your website.

You can use the Revive Old Post plugin to automatically share your old posts on social media websites. For detailed instructions see our guide on how to automatically share your old WordPress posts.

Then, you can use targeted optins that only display to visitors who click on those older posts. You can use content upgrades, special offers, free downloads, etc.

7. Use Pinterest Boards for Lead Generation

Pinterest is another powerful social media platform that you can utilize to boost email subscriptions. Similar to Facebook and Twitter, you can offer your Pinterest followers content upgrades, coupons, and discounts.

You can also offer free downloads like ebooks, PDFs, audio or video content, and display a welcome gate to entice visitors to subscribe as soon as they visit your site.

9. Ask Influencers to Share Links to Your Special Offers

Don’t just keep your special offers limited to your own social profiles. Ask your friends, family, and followers to share your special offers.

You can also reach out to influential users that you are connected with and ask if they can help you spread the word. People love to help out, but they will not be able to do that if you don’t ask them.

Your offer becomes more valuable when it is recommended by influencers. It makes users feel that they can trust you with their information.

That’s all for now. We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to use social media to increase email subscribers in WordPress.

May 27, 2019

Easy Guide to Add Feature Boxes With Icons in WordPress

In this tutorial, we will learn how to easily add feature boxes with icons in your WordPress site.

What is Feature Boxes With Icons?

Most people when they visit websites don’t actually read them. As humans, we’re becoming professional scanners.

This means that as a business owner, you need to present important information in an easily scanable and highly engaging format.

That’s why most popular business websites usually have a large image or a slider on top with a call to action button.

Just below that, you can use a features box which allows you to showcase the important features of your product or service. Each feature box can have its own call to action which can lead users to learn more.

Here’s an example from our OptinMonster website:

Adding Feature Boxes with Icons on Your WordPress Homepage

First thing you need to do is install and activate the Advanced WP Columnsplugin. Upon activation you need to visit Settings » Advanced WP Columns to configure the plugin.

Simply scroll down to the option ‘Column class’ and enter mycolumns next to it. Don’t forget to click on the save changes button to store your settings.

Next, you will need a plugin to insert beautiful SVG icons into your feature boxes. Install and activate WP SVG Icons plugin.

You are now ready to create your feature boxes.

Start by editing the page where you want to add the feature boxes.

You will notice two new buttons on the post editor screen. The first one is the Add Icon button located just above the editor. The second button is located as the last item in the visual editor menu.

If your visual editor is only showing one row of buttons, then you need to click on the toggle toolbar button to expand it.

First, you need to click on the Advanced WP Columns button. This will bring up a popup where you need to click on Empty and then select the number of columns you want to add.

After that you need to click on each column to add some text. If you don’t add some text now, then it will be difficult to see the columns in post editor. Once you are done click on the add columns button at the bottom.

You will see the columns in your post editor now. The next step is to add icons above the text.

Take your mouse to the beginning of the text area in the first column and click on the enter button. This will move the text down and give space to insert your icons.

Now you need to click on the Add icon button, which will bring up a nice popup like this:

From there, you can select the icon you want to use by clicking on it. Next, you need to click on the span button, so your icon is wrapped inside <span> element.

Finally, click on the insert button. You will now see the shortcode for the SVG icon in your post editor. Depending on the name of the icon you selected, it will look something like this:

[wp-svg-icons icon="rocket" wrap="span"]

Repeat the process to add icons in other feature boxes as well.

Once you are finished, simply click on the Update button to save your page.

You are nearly done, but if you preview your page, then you will notice that icons are too small and your feature boxes are barely noticeable.

You will need to add a little CSS to solve this problem. Simply add this CSS snippet into your theme or child theme‘s stylesheet.

span.wp-svg-rocket.rocket { 
font-size:100px; 
} 
 
span.wp-svg-cloud.cloud { 
font-size:100px; 
} 
span.wp-svg-headphones.headphones { 
font-size:100px; 
} 
.mycolumns { 
border:1px solid #eee;
min-height:250px; 
padding-top:20px !important;
}

Don’t forget to adjust the CSS to match the names of the icons you are using.

We hope this tutorial helped you add a beautiful features boxes section on your homepage.