Do you want to create 301 redirects on your WordPress website?

When someone visits your site using an old link to a page that has moved, a 301 redirect will automatically take them to the new page so they do not see a 404 ‘page not found’ error. This provides a better user experience and will also improve your keyword rankings.

In this article, we’ll show you how to create 301 redirects in WordPress.

What Is a Redirect in WordPress?

A redirect is a way for your WordPress website to automatically send users to a new address when the page they wish to visit has been moved or replaced. This is similar to the way a post office will redirect your mail when you move house.

There are various types of redirects that are identified with numbers such as 301, 302, and 307. They automatically point your user’s web browser to a different URL when trying to visit a page that doesn’t exist.

In this beginner’s guide, we will focus on 301 redirects since they are the most important type. They tell the browser that the page has been permanently moved to the new location and that you don’t intend to move it back.

That said, let’s take a look at when you should use a 301 redirect.

When Do You Need a 301 Redirect in WordPress?

The primary reason to use a 301 redirect is when your site or a page on your site has been moved, and you want to point the user to a new page instead.

It is also needed when you plan on changing the permalink of a post or page.

If you don’t set up redirection, then it will cause your users to see a 404 error when the page is not found. This provides a bad user experience and can impact your WordPress SEO.

You can also lose valuable backlinks if there are a lot of broken links on your site. This will result in a significant drop in your domain authority and keyword rankings.

That’s why 301 redirects are very important. They allow you to tell search engines and your users that the page they are trying to reach has been permanently moved to a new location.

This way, all your old page’s traffic and backlinks are transferred to the new page.

Now, let’s take a look at how you can create 301 redirects in WordPress. We’ll show you how to do that easily with several WordPress redirect plugins, and manually using code.

• Method 1: Creating 301 Redirects with AIOSEO Plugin
• Method 2: Creating 301 Redirects With Redirection Plugin
• Method 3: Creating 301 Redirects With Simple 301 Redirects Plugin
• Method 4: Redirecting Existing Pages With Page Links To Plugin
• Method 5: Creating 301 Redirects Manually Using .htaccess

Video Tutorial

If you’d prefer written instructions, just keep reading.

Method 1: Creating 301 Redirects With AIOSEO Plugin

The simplest way to manage and create 301 redirects is through the All in One SEO (AIOSEO) WordPress plugin. It’s the best SEO plugin for WordPress and is used by over 2 million professionals to improve their site’s SEO.

AIOSEO offers a powerful redirection manager addon that makes it very easy to find broken links on your website and set up 301 redirections to fix them.

First, you need to install and configure the AIOSEO Pro plugin on your website. For more information, please refer to our step-by-step guide on how to set up All in One SEO correctly.

Once the plugin is active, you’ll need to go to All in One SEO » Redirects on your WordPress dashboard and then click the ‘Activate Redirects’ button.

Next, you can click the ‘Settings’ tab and select ‘PHP’ as the Redirect Method.

This is the simplest method for creating redirects and doesn’t require any server-side configuration.

AIOSEO also lets you select the Web Server redirect method. However, it requires configuring Apache or NGINX on your web server. This requires technical knowledge and is not recommended for beginners.

Creating 301 Redirects

Now you’re ready to create 301 redirections. To get started, head over to the ‘Redirect’ tab.

First, you need to enter the link you’d like to redirect in the Source URL field. After that, you should enter the new destination for the link in the Target URL field.

Now make sure that the Redirect Type is ‘301 Moved Permanently,’ and then click the ‘Add Redirect’ button.

If you want to redirect multiple URLs to a new location, then simply click the ‘Add URL’ button under the Source URLs field.

Next, you can scroll down to view the logs of the redirects you’ve created. It shows the number of people who visited the redirected link under the ‘Hits’ column and a toggle option to enable or disable individual 301 redirects.

Adding 301 Redirects to Fix 404 Errors

AIOSEO can also help you track 404 error pages and fix them.

To turn this option on, you have to scroll down to the ‘Redirect Logs’ section of the Settings tab. Then enable the options for ‘404 Logs’ and ‘Redirect Logs.’

You can also select the time period to keep the logs. We recommend keeping them for a maximum of one month for smooth and fast server performance.

After enabling these options, make sure to click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

You should now see a new ‘404 Logs’ tab appear in the Redirects section. This is where AIOSEO will track and show your broken links and allow you to set up redirections. You’ll also see the number of visits to the link under ‘Hits’ and the last accessed date and time.

Note: You won’t find any data when you first enable the 404 logs. The plugin only starts to record 404 error pages after the setting is enabled.

Next, click the ‘Add Redirect’ link next to 404 error URL you’d like to redirect. This is not the button at the bottom.

You’ll now see options to enter a Target URL and select the Redirect Type from the dropdown menu.

Go ahead and enter your new URL and choose ‘301 Moved Permanently’ as your redirection type. Now you should click the ‘Add Redirect’ button.

AIOSEO will now create a 301 redirect for your broken link. To see if the redirection is working properly, simply visit the old URL to check if you’re taken to the new target destination.

Adding 301 Redirects Directly From a Post or Page

AIOSEO also lets you redirect a published post or page while you are editing it.

If you scroll to the bottom of the page in the WordPress editor, you will find an AIOSEO Settings section. You need to click on the ‘Redirects’ tab.

The source URL has been filled in for you. Simply enter the new URL in the ‘Target URL’ field, and select ‘301 Moved Permanently’ from the Redirect Type drop down menu.

Also, if you change the permalink of a post while editing, AIOSEO will offer to redirect the old URL to the new one.

Either way, click the ‘Add Redirect’ button and you’re done.

Redirecting Full Websites

If you move your website to a new domain name, then your visitors may encounter broken links and your site SEO may suffer.

You can use AIOSEO to move your entire website to a new location without losing traffic or search engine rankings. This is a full site 301 redirect.

It’s important that you do this the right way, so we have created a step-by-step beginner’s guide on how to do a full site redirect with WordPress.

Method 2: Creating 301 Redirects With Redirection Plugin

Another way to add and manage redirects in WordPress is with the Redirection plugin.

First, you need to install and activate the plugin. You can follow our detailed guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Note: While setting up 301 redirects using a WordPress plugin is easy, it has some minor performance setbacks. Depending on your WordPress hosting provider, your redirects may be a few microseconds slower than other methods.

If you want to make your redirects as fast as possible, then you can do so by editing your .htaccess file using Method 5 below.

Once activated, visit Tools » Redirection and then click the ‘Start Setup’ button.

Next, you can select options to monitor permalink changes in WordPress and keep a log of all your redirects and 404 errors.

You can simply enable these options and click the ‘Continue Setup’ button.

The plugin will now automatically test the Rest API.

When the status comes back as Good, go ahead and click the ‘Finish Setup’ button.

The redirection plugin will perform a few more tasks to complete its setup. When the progress bar reaches 100% you can click the ‘Continue’ button and then the ‘Ready to Begin’ button.

The plugin is now ready for you to create your 301 redirects. To get started, navigate to the Tools » Redirection section of your WordPress panel. You should look at the ‘Add new redirection’ section at the bottom of the screen.

You’ll see the basic settings to add a redirection. However, if you click the gear icon, you’ll see more options to choose your redirection type.

Simply enter the Source URL of your old page and add the ‘Target URL’ you want to redirect to. You should also make sure the HTTP code option is set to ‘301 – Moved Permanently.’

Once you’ve entered all the details, go ahead and click the ‘Add Redirect’ button.

Method 3: Creating 301 Redirects With Simple 301 Redirects Plugin

One of the easiest ways to create 301 redirects is with the Simple 301 Redirects plugin. As the name suggests, it makes 301 redirects really simple.

To start, you’ll have to install and activate the plugin on your website.

After that, you need to visit Settings » 301 Redirects. Here you can enter the old URL in the ‘Request’ field and your target URL in the ‘Destination’ field.

Once you’ve done that, click the ‘Add New’ button to create the 301 redirect. That’s it.

Simple 301 Redirects will begin working immediately.

Method 4: Redirecting Existing Pages With Page Links To Plugin

Sometimes you may want to keep a post in your site’s feed or a page listed a certain way on your site, but have the content hosted elsewhere. This is where the Page Links To plugin comes in handy.

Once you install and activate the plugin, it adds a meta box to your WordPress editor. Here you can enter the address of the new location where you want to send your users.

When you press ‘Update’ or ‘Publish,’ WordPress will treat the post or page as normal, but when someone visits it, they will instead be redirected to the custom URL you chose.

For example, you might have a blog where you occasionally create downloadable content, but you want users on your online store site to see certain posts as products. You can use this plugin to do that without risking duplicate content penalties from Google or splitting your user base.

Method 5: Creating 301 Redirects Manually Using .htaccess

WordPress users can also set up 301 redirects by editing the .htaccess web server configuration file.

Please keep in mind that a small mistake in your .htaccess code can make your WordPress site inaccessible, and it may start showing the Internal Server Error.

That’s why it is important that you back up your .htaccess file before making any changes.

Edit Your .htaccess File Using the All in One SEO Plugin

If you have the All in One SEO plugin installed, then it offers an easy way to edit your .htaccess file.

Note: You will need All in One SEO Pro to use the .htaccess editor.

Simply visit the All in One SEO » Tools page and switch to the .htaccess Editor tab.

From here, you’ll see the contents of your .htaccess file in the editor. You can simply place any redirect code that you want to add at the bottom, after the ‘# END WordPress’ line.

Here is a simple redirect where we are trying to send a user visiting an old post to a new post.

 RewriteEngine On Redirect 301 /a-very-old-post/ http://yoursite.com/a-very-new-post/ 

Don’t forget to change the old post and new post URLs. When you’re done, click the ‘Save Changes’ button to store your settings and All in One SEO will update your .htaccess file.

Directly Edit Your WordPress .htaccess file

You can also edit your WordPress .htaccess file directly to set up any redirects.

To edit your .htaccess file, you’ll need to connect to your website using an FTP client. The .htaccess file resides in your WordPress site’s root directory.

If you can’t see your .htaccess file, then see our guide on why you can’t find .htaccess file on your WordPress site.

You can download .htaccess to your computer and edit it using a text editor like Notepad.

You can use this redirect code below to send a user visiting an old post to a new post. You should paste the code at the end of your .htaccess file, after the ‘# END WordPress’ line.

 RewriteEngine On Redirect 301 /a-very-old-post/ http://yoursite.com/a-very-new-post/ 

Make sure you change the old post and new post URLs. After that, you can save your changes and upload the .htaccess file back to the server.

Now you can test your redirect to make sure it is redirecting properly as you intended.

In addition, you can also access and edit your .htaccess file through your hosting provider’s dashboard and built-in file manager.

For example, you can find your .htaccess in SiteGround‘s file manager by going to Site Tools » Site » File Manager and navigating to your site’s /public_html/ folder.

Then, you can right-click the .htaccess file and select ‘Edit.’

Just add the 301 redirect code directly and save the file. Again, be sure to download the original .htaccess file for backup to be safe.

We hope this beginner’s guide to creating WordPress redirects helped you set up redirects on your site. You may also want to check out our guide on how to start a WordPress blog the right way, or see our list of the best email marketing services for small business.

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.

Do you want to add a link in WordPress?

There are several ways to add links in WordPress. You can add links in your posts, pages, navigation menu, sidebar widgets, footer area, and more.

In this comprehensive beginner’s guide, we will show you how to add a link in WordPress.

Why Are Links Important?

Links are the bloodstream of the internet. They interconnect websites and web pages to form a World Wide Web of information.

Imagine visiting a web page that has no links for you to click. You would have no option but to click on the back button in your browser.

Hyperlinked text, buttons, and other elements take you from one page to another or from one website to another. Links will tell visitors to your WordPress website where they can find more information on a topic.

When you use links effectively, those visitors will spend more time on your site. They’ll discover more content, purchase more products on your online store, and are more likely to subscribe to your email newsletter.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add links in different areas of your WordPress website. Since this is a detailed tutorial, please use the navigation below to quickly jump to the section you need:

• How to Add Links in WordPress Posts and Pages
• How to Automatically Add Links in WordPress Posts and Pages
• How to Add Links in WordPress Widgets
• How to Add Links in WordPress Navigation Menus
• How to Add Title and NoFollow to Links in WordPress
• How to Add Links to Buttons in WordPress
• How to Embed Linked Content in WordPress
• How to Add Affiliate Links in WordPress
• How to Manually Add a Link in HTML
• How to Add Anchor Links in WordPress
• How to Add Social Share Links in WordPress

How to Add Links in WordPress Posts and Pages

WordPress makes it easy to add links in your blog posts and pages using the block editor.

Simply edit your post or page, or create a new one.

Next, you need to highlight the text that you want to attach the link to. This selected text is called the anchor text for the link. Now you should click the ‘Link’ button in the toolbar.

You’ll see a box where you can enter a URL. A URL is a web address. For instance, WPBeginner’s guide on how to start a WordPress blog has the URL:

 https://www.csemrm.com/start-a-wordpress-blog 

You can simply copy and paste the URL of the post or page you want to link to, like this:

You’ll need to click the ‘Submit’ button or press the Enter key to insert the link into your post.

If you’re linking to content on your own site, then it might be quicker to search for the post or page. Type a word or two from your content title, and WordPress will find it:

After you click on the title of the page or post you want, the link will be automatically added.

If you want your link to open in a new tab, then you should click the ‘Open in new tab’ toggle.

Adding Links in the Classic WordPress Editor

If you are using the older classic editor instead of the block editor, then the process for adding a link is quite similar.

You’ll need to open the post that you want to edit or create a new one. Next, you should find the text you want to use as the link’s anchor and highlight it. Then, you need to click the ‘Link’ button which should appear on the toolbar.

You can then paste the URL you want to link to, or search for the post or page, as with the block editor.

Pasting your URL Directly Onto the Anchor Text

An even quicker way to add a link in both the block editor and classic editor is to simply paste the URL onto the anchor text.

First, copy the URL you want to link to. Then, highlight your chosen anchor text in your post.

Next, you can either right click and select ‘Paste’ or simply press Ctrl+V (Windows) or Command+V (Mac) to paste the URL.

WordPress will automatically detect that you’re pasting a URL and will turn the anchor text into a link.

How to Automatically Add Links in WordPress Posts and Pages

The step above covers how to manually add links to content on your own site. But, manually adding internal links can be time-consuming.

To make internal linking easier to manage, we use the AIOSEO plugin. It is the best WordPress SEO plugin used by over 3 million websites.

They have a Link Assistant feature that will crawl your entire website and automatically find internal linking opportunities.

After installing the plugin, you can go to All in One SEO » Link Assistant in your WordPress dashboard.

This will open up the link assistant dashboard where you can see an overview of the internal and external links on your site.

On the Links Report tab, you can see suggestions for relevant posts you can link to as well as the anchor text they recommend for best SEO rankings.

You can quickly add these links to your content by clicking the ‘Add Link’ button. There’s no need to open up each post individually.

If you have a lot of content on your site, then this internal linking plugin makes it simple to build a contextual relationship between your new and old posts.

How to Add Links in WordPress Widgets

WordPress allows you to add widgets to your site’s non-content areas like the sidebar and footer. Some of these widgets are automated and do not have many options. For example, the Latest Posts widget will automatically show links to your recent posts.

However, if you want to add some custom text with links in your sidebar, then you can use the Paragraph widget.

You’ll need to go to the Appearance » Widgets page and click on the blue ‘+ Block Inserter’ icon in the top left corner. After that, you should drag the Paragraph widget into your sidebar or other widget area.

You can then type in your text and add a link just as you would when adding one to a post or page. Make sure you click the ‘Update’ button to store your new widget settings.

How to Add Links in WordPress Navigation Menus

Do you want to add links to your site’s navigation menu? WordPress comes with a built-in drag and drop menu editor which allows you to create and manage navigation menus on your WordPress site.

Head over to the Appearance » Menus page. If you don’t already have a menu set up, then you can create one by entering a menu name. To learn more, take a look at our beginner’s guide on how to add navigation menus in WordPress.

Adding Internal Links to Navigation Menus

It’s easy to add links to the content on your own website.

Simply select the posts or pages you want to add to your menu on the left hand side, then click the ‘Add to Menu’ button.

WordPress will automatically link to your selected posts and pages. You can rearrange the entries using drag and drop.

Adding External Links to Navigation Menus

You can also add custom links, such as a link to another website. For instance, you could add the URL of your Twitter profile to your navigation menu.

Just click the arrow next to the ‘Custom Links’ section on the left. You can then type in the URL and the text you want to use for the link, and then click the ‘Add to Menu’ button.

When you’ve finished adding links to the menu, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Menu’ button at the bottom of the screen.

How to Add Title and Nofollow to Links in WordPress

It’s often useful to give your links a title. This is the text that appears when someone runs their mouse cursor over the link, like this:

Adding a title often makes it clear where the link leads to. It can be helpful and even reassuring for your readers.

You may also want to add a nofollow tag to external links. This tells search engines not to pass your site’s SEO score to that link because you don’t own or control that website’s content.

However, WordPress does not allow you to add titles or nofollow tags to links with the default editor. Here are two ways that you can add them.

Adding Title and Nofollow Using the AIOSEO Plugin (Easy)

The free All in One SEO (AIOSEO) plugin for WordPress lets you add title, nofollow, sponsored, and UGC attributes to links.

In the block editor, the plugin adds toggle switches for nofollow and other attributes. It also adds a field for a title.

In the classic editor, you can access additional AIOSEO settings by clicking the ‘Link options’ gear icon. This will display an ‘Insert/edit link’ popup where you can enter a title, and click checkboxes for nofollow and other link attributes.

Adding Title and Nofollow Using HTML Code

If you don’t want to use AIOSEO, then you’ll need to manually add title and nofollow attributes to your links using HTML code.

First, add your link in the usual way, and then change the editor to HTML mode.

If you are using the block editor, then you need to click on the three vertical dots at the end of the toolbar and select ‘Edit as HTML’ to view the block’s HTML code.

If you are using the classic editor, then you will have to click the ‘Text’ tab to display the whole post as HTML.

You’ll now see the HTML code for your link. A basic link will look like this:

 <a href="URL">ANCHOR TEXT</a> 

You need to add the title and nofollow attributes so it looks like this:

 <a href="URL" title="TITLE" rel="nofollow">ANCHOR TEXT</a> 

This is how it looks on our demo website (see the screenshot above):

 <p>According to a study conducted by <a href="https://acme.inc/importantstudy" title="ACME Inc Study on Roadrunner and Coyote" rel="nofollow">ACME Inc</a>, roadrunners are 80% smarter than coyotes.</p> 

You can change the title to anything you want. The nofollow attribute should always be rel="nofollow". Don’t forget the double quotation marks around the title and nofollow as your link won’t work correctly without them.

For more information, see our beginner’s guide on how to add nofollow links in WordPress.

Adding Title and Nofollow to WordPress Navigation Menus

The process for making your navigation links nofollow is a bit different.

Underneath the link’s navigation label, you’ll need to enter ‘nofollow’ in the Link Relationship (XFN) field.

If you don’t see that field, you’ll need to add it under the Screen Options tab at the top right corner of the page.

For complete step-by-step instructions, see our guide on how to add nofollow links to navigation menus in WordPress.

How to Add Links to Buttons in WordPress

Do you want to add a button to your WordPress posts or pages? The easiest way to do this is using WordPress’s built-in Button block.

Once you create a new post or edit an existing one, you should click the (+) icon to create a new block. After that, you should drag the ‘Button’ block onto the post and then type the text for the button.

After that, you can add a link using the ‘Link’ button in the toolbar. This is just the same as when adding any other link using the WordPress block editor.

To learn more ways to buttons to your posts, see our guide on how to add call to action buttons in WordPress.

How to Embed Linked Content in WordPress

You can easily embed certain types of content in WordPress by simply inserting its URL in your post. This is sometimes called creating a ‘content card’ in your post.

Just paste the whole URL into its own paragraph block.

For example, if you paste a Twitter URL, the whole tweet, including images, likes, timestamp, and more will be embedded like this:

The process is the same for YouTube videos. Simply find the video you want to use on YouTube and copy the URL from the top of your browser window.

Next, paste the link into your post or page. The video will be embedded automatically.

As well as being great for Twitter posts and YouTube videos, this method also works for many other types of content. You can find out more from WordPress’s support article on ‘Embeds’.

How to Add Affiliate Links in WordPress

Do you want to increase your site’s revenue by using affiliate links? Affiliate marketing provides a steady income to many blogs and websites.

All you need to do is add special referral links to products and services that you recommend. When your visitors purchase these products after clicking your links, you get a commission.

The problem that most beginners face is that each product or website they want to recommend has a different URL. It’s tricky to keep track of these, especially if you’re recommending lots of products.

The best way to add and manage affiliate links is by using an affiliate management plugin. We recommend using either Pretty Links or Thirsty Affiliates.

Both of these plugins work by creating redirect links that send people to your special affiliate link. They look like this:

 www.yoursite.com/refer/partnersitename 

The plugins will add a new option to your WordPress menu where you can add your affiliate links. Here’s how that looks with ThirstyAffiliates. You simply copy and paste your special affiliate link into the ‘Destination URL’ box.

You can set specific options for your link on the right-hand side, such as deciding whether to nofollow it, opening it in a new window or tab, and more.

Once you’re done, make sure you click the ‘Save Link’ button.

After you’ve set up your affiliate links, you can easily add them to your posts and pages. In a paragraph block, click the down arrow then select the ‘Affiliate Link’ option:

Next, type in the start of whatever you named that affiliate link. In our example, that’s “Our Affiliate Partner”.

You can then click the name and click ‘Apply’ to add the affiliate link to your post.

It’s easy to change an affiliate link, such as when the company you’re linking to moves to a different affiliate program.

You just change the link once in the ThirstyAffiliates or Pretty Links page of your dashboard. The link in your posts will stay the same as before, but will now redirect to the new affiliate link everywhere it’s used.

For more handy affiliate plugins, check out our post on the best affiliate marketing tools and plugins for WordPress.

How to Manually Add a Link in HTML

Occasionally, you might want to add a link to your site using HTML code. This could happen if you need to use a custom HTML block or widget.

You might also need to directly edit a link in a theme file. Just make sure you always use a child theme so you don’t lose your changes when you update the parent theme.

It’s easy to create a link in HTML. To try it, add a custom HTML block to a post or page. You can find this block under ‘Widgets’ or you can search for it using the search bar.

Next, you’ll see a box where you can write HTML. Copy this code into the box:

 <a href="https://www.yourlinkhere.com">Text</a> 

It should look like this:

You can click the ‘Preview’ tab to see how your code will look in your post or page:

Now click back to the ‘HTML’ tag so you can change the URL to the correct webpage. You can also change the word ‘Text’ to whichever word or words you want to use for your link.

You might like to add a title to the link as we did earlier. You’ll need to include code like this, and you can change ‘This is the title’ to anything you want.

 <a href="https://www.yourlinkhere.com" title="This is the title">Text</a> 

If you want your link to open in a new tab, then simply add target="_blank" to the HTML code, like this:

 <a href="https://www.yourlinkhere.com" target="_blank">Text</a> 

If you want your link to be nofollowed, then add rel="nofollow", like this:

 <a href="https://www.yourlinkhere.com" rel="nofollow">Text</a> 

You can include all of these at once. Here’s an example of a link with a title that opens in a new tab and is nofollowed:

 <a href="https://www.yourlinkhere.com" title="This is the title" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Text</a> 

That’s how you create a link in HTML, if you ever need to.

How to Add Anchor Links in WordPress

An anchor link is a type of link on the page that brings you to a specific place on that same page. It allows users to jump to the section they’re most interested in.

Take a look at the animated screenshot below:

These types of links are really helpful when writing longer tutorials or content, so your users can easily jump to the section they’re most interested in.

We have created a detailed guide on how to easily add anchor links in WordPress.

How to Add Social Share Links in WordPress

Want to add social share links or buttons on your site?

These links make it easy for your users to share your content on their favorite social networks. Sometimes social share links or buttons are also accompanied by total share count.

We don’t advise users to add these links manually. Instead, you should always use a social share plugin. We have a step by step guide on how to add social share buttons in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add a link in WordPress. You may also want to see our beginner’s guide on how to create a professional business email address, and how to start an email newsletter to grow your audience.

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.

Do you want to learn how to use WordPress block patterns on your website?

Block patterns allow you to quickly add commonly used design elements to your post or page layouts.

In this article, we’ll show you how to use WordPress block patterns and find more patterns to use on your website.

Here are the topics we’ll cover in this guide.

• What are WordPress Block Patterns
• How to Use Block Patterns in WordPress
• Finding More Block Patterns to Use on Your Website
• How to Create and Share Your Own Block Patterns
• Creating WordPress Block Patterns Manually
• Remove a Block Pattern in WordPress
• What’s The Difference Between Reusable Blocks and Block Patterns

What are WordPress Block Patterns?

WordPress block patterns are a collection of pre-made design elements that you can use for creating custom content layouts faster.

WordPress comes with an intuitive editor commonly known as the block editor. It allows users to create beautiful layouts for their posts and pages using blocks for common content elements.

However, not all WordPress users are designers or want to spend time creating layouts each time they need to create a post or page.

Block patterns provide an easy solution to that problem. WordPress now comes with a bunch of useful block patterns by default.

Popular WordPress themes also provide their own patterns that you can use when writing content.

These patterns include items like pre-built multi-column layouts, media and text patterns, call-to-action patterns, headers, buttons, and more.

You can find even more patterns on the WordPress.org website, and you can even create and share your own patterns as well.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily use block patterns in WordPress to create beautiful content for your website.

How to Use Block Patterns in WordPress

By default, WordPress comes with a bunch of useful block patterns that you can use on your website. Your WordPress theme and some plugins may also add their own patterns.

To use block patterns, you need to edit the WordPress post or page where you want to use the block pattern.

On the post edit screen, click on the Add Block button to open the block inserter. From here, switch to the Patterns tab to view available block patterns.

You can scroll down to see available block patterns.

You can also view block patterns in different categories like featured, buttons, columns, header, and more.

Alternatively, you can also click on the Explore button to view block patterns.

Here you can see larger previews in a popup.

Once you find a pattern you want to try, you can simply click to insert it to the content area of your post or page.

After that, you can simply point and click on any block inside the pattern to edit and change its contents to your own requirements.

You’ll still have all the options you normally have for each block. For instance, if it is a cover block, then you can change the cover color or background image.

You can add as many patterns as you need for your blog post or page. You can also simply delete a pattern to remove it from a post or page like you would delete any WordPress block.

By using block patterns, you can quickly make beautiful layouts for your articles and WordPress site.

Ultimately, block patterns help save you time that you would otherwise spend on manually arranging blocks each time you need to add a header, gallery, buttons, and more.

Finding More Block Patterns to Use on Your Website

By default, WordPress comes with a few commonly used block patterns. WordPress themes may also add their own patterns to your website.

However, you can find a lot more block patterns than the ones available under the block inserter on your website.

Simply go to the WordPress Patterns Directory website to view many more block patterns.

Here you’ll find many more block patterns submitted by the WordPress community.

To use one of these block patterns, simply take your mouse over to the block pattern and click on the Copy button.

Next, you need to go back to your WordPress blog and edit the post or page where you want to insert this block pattern.

On the post edit screen, simply right-click and select Paste in the browser menu or press CTRL+V (Command + V on Mac).

How to Create and Share Your Own Block Patterns

Want to create and share your own WordPress block patterns and share them with the world?

WordPress makes it super easy to create block patterns and use them on your own websites or share them with all WordPress users across the globe.

Simply visit the WordPress Pattern Directory website and click on the ‘Create New Pattern’ link.

Note: You’ll need to sign in or create a free WordPress.org account to save your patterns.

Once signed in, you’ll reach the block pattern editor page. It is identical to the default WordPress block editor, and you can use it to create your pattern.

Simply add blocks to create your pattern layout.

You can use layout blocks like group, cover, gallery, and more to organize your layout.

There are also royalty-free images available to use in your media blocks. The WordPress media library will allow you to easily find and use these images in your patterns.

Once you are satisfied with your block pattern, you can save it as a draft or submit it to the pattern directory.

Before you can submit your block pattern for the pattern directory, make sure that you have read block pattern directory guidelines.

You can manage all your block patterns by clicking on the My Patterns link. It will show all block patterns you have shared, draft patterns, and patterns you have favorited.

If you only want to create block patterns for your own use, then you can save them as drafts. After that, you can simply copy and paste them from My Patterns page to your WordPress website.

Creating WordPress Block Patterns Manually

You can also create block patterns manually and add them to your WordPress theme or custom snippets plugin.

Simply create a new post or page in WordPress. In the content area, use blocks to create a custom layout or block collection that you want to save as a pattern.

After that, switch to the Code Editor mode and copy all content you see in the code editor.

Next, open a plain text editor like Notepad and paste that code in there. You’ll need it in the next step.

Now you are ready to register your blocks as a pattern.

To do that, simply copy and paste the following code into your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

 function wpb_my_block_patterns() {     register_block_pattern(         'my-plugin/my-awesome-pattern',         array(             'title'       => __( 'Two column magazine layout', 'my-theme'),             'description' => _x( 'A simple magazine style two-column layout with large image and stylized text', 'my-theme' ),             'categories'  => array( 'columns' ),             'content'     => ' Your block content code goes here'             )     ); } add_action( 'init', 'wpb_my_block_patterns' );  

Now copy and paste the raw blocks data you copied earlier as the value for the content parameter. In other words, you’ll need to replace the text that says ‘Your block content code goes here’ with your block code. Be sure to leave the single quotes surrounding the text in place.

Lastly, don’t forget to change the title and description to your own and save your changes.

You can now visit your website and edit and post or page. You’ll now be able to see your newly registered block pattern in the block inserter.

Remove a Block Pattern in WordPress

You can easily remove or unregister any block pattern in WordPress. Let’s say you want to remove the block pattern you created in the above example.

All you need to do is copy paste the following code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

 function wpb_unregister_my_patterns() {   unregister_block_pattern( 'my-plugin/my-awesome-pattern' ); } add_action( 'init', 'wpb_unregister_my_patterns' ); 

In this example, 'my-plugin/my-awesome-pattern' is the name of the pattern we used when registering it.

You can use this code to unregister any block pattern created by your theme or a plugin. All you need to know is the name used to register the pattern.

Remove Core WordPress Patterns

The core WordPress patterns are available to all WordPress users. This means they may be over used and might not even match rest of your WordPress theme.

If you don’t want to use a pattern, then you can simply avoid adding it to your content. However, if you run a multi author WordPress site, then you may want to prevent all users from using these core patterns.

To remove all core WordPress patterns, you need to add the following code to your theme’s functions file or a site-specific plugin.

 remove_theme_support( 'core-block-patterns' ); 

What’s The Difference Between Reusable Blocks and Block Patterns?

Block patterns and reusable blocks both intend to solve a similar problem: provide users with options to easily add commonly used blocks.

However, they are quite different from each other.

For instance, reusable blocks can be edited and saved right inside the post editor, but they are not as flexible as block patterns.

One big difference is that if you make a change to a reusable block, it changes the block on every post or page you’ve used it on.

For more details, see our tutorial on how to use reusable blocks in WordPress.

On the other hand, if you insert a pattern and edit it, then those changes only apply to the post or page where you have added that pattern.

Block patterns can also be registered by your WordPress theme or plugins such as block plugins. This allows those developers to offer you a lot more design options to create your post and page layouts.

We hope this guide helped you learn how to use WordPress block patterns on your website. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best web design software, or our expert pick of the best email marketing services for small business.

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.

Do you want to add rich snippets on your WordPress site?

Rich snippets allow you to have custom search listings for special content such as reviews, recipes, events, and more. These search listings will stand out and help get more traffic to your site.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add rich snippets to your WordPress site, step by step.

Why Use Rich Snippets on Your WordPress Site?

Rich snippets use what’s called schema markup to provide extra information about your content to the search engines.

The search engine bots use this data to show additional information about your posts and pages in the search results.

This helps to make your posts and pages stand out more in the search results, which can improve your organic click through rate and help you increase your blog traffic.

It also helps you build authority in your niche, as your site becomes more visible in the search.

Rich snippets are not just for review sites or recipes. You can use rich snippets for events, products, people, video, music, apps, articles, blog posts, and more.

That being said, let’s show you how to add rich snippets to WordPress. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.

• Adding rich snippets in WordPress with a WordPress plugin (Recommended)
• Adding rich snippets in WordPress by adding code to WordPress

Method 1. Adding Rich Snippets in WordPress Using a WordPress Plugin

The easiest way to add rich snippets to WordPress is by using the AIOSEO plugin. It’s the best WordPress SEO plugin in the market used by over 3+ million websites. 

It helps you easily optimize your site for the search engines without the need to hire an SEO expert. Plus, you can set up rich snippets on your site in a couple of clicks.

Note: You’ll need the pro version of AIOSEO since it includes schema markup functionality and other features like XML sitemaps, a redirection manager, and more. There is a free version of the plugin you can use to get started. 

First thing you need to do is install and activate the AIOSEO plugin. For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll immediately be taken to the AIOSEO setup wizard. You need to click the ‘Let’s Get Started’ button. 

If the setup wizard doesn’t immediately show up, then simply go to All in One SEO » Dashboard.

From here, you can click the ‘Launch the Setup Wizard’ button. This will walk you through the steps of setting up the plugin for your website. 

As you go through the setup wizard, you’ll need to activate the ‘Advanced Rich Snippets + Schema Markups’ addon.

Simply check the box so it turns blue, then click the ‘Save and Continue’ button.

On the final screen, you need to enter your license key and then click the ‘Connect’ button.

You can find this information under your account page on the AIOSEO website. 

For more details, see our ultimate guide on how to set up AIOSEO for WordPress correctly.

After that, you can go to AIOSEO » Search Appearance in your WordPress admin panel, and then click on the ‘Content Types’ tab.

Then, you can set the schema markup type for your posts and pages.

Simply click the ‘Schema Markup’ menu option, then you can choose the schema type from the drop down.

You will be able to see different content types that you can create with the plugin. The list includes:

• Course
• Product
• Recipe
• Software/App
• FAQ
• Web page
• Profile
• Article

Clicking on any content type will show you the fields that will be available.

These settings will be the default settings when you add a new blog post. However, you can change these on an individual post basis too.

Below the post schema markup, you can also control the default schema for your pages.

Simply select the ‘Schema Type’ from the drop down. Then, you’ll have additional options for the schema type you select.

Once you’re finished making changes, click the ‘Save Changes’ button before you leave the page. 

Adding Rich Snippet Information to Your Posts and Pages

Now, you can add schema information to your individual posts and pages, so they’ll display with unique rich snippets in the search results.

To do this, simply open up a blog post and scroll down below the post editor. Here you’ll see a meta box called ‘AIOSEO Settings’.

You need to click the ‘Schema’ tab and then select the proper schema for the post from the ‘Schema Type’ drop down.

There will be different fields available, based on the option you select. For example, the ‘Software Application’ schema type includes fields for the name, price, description, review, and more.

Once you’re finished, make sure to click ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ to save your changes.

Adding schema markup to individual WordPress pages is similar. You need to open up the page you want to edit and then scroll down to the ‘AIOSEO Settings’ meta box below the page editor.

Then, click the ‘Schema’ menu option and select your page schema type from the’ Schema Type’ drop down.

Different options will appear depending on the type of schema you select. 

Just like above, you need to click ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’ to make your changes live. 

Adding rich snippet information won’t make a difference on the front end of your WordPress blog. However, you’ll be giving the search engine bots extra data to display with your posts and pages in the search results. 

Method 2. Adding Rich Snippets by Adding Code to WordPress

Another way to add rich snippets to WordPress is by adding code to WordPress. If you haven’t done this before, then see our guide on how to copy and paste code in WordPress.

Rich snippets or structured data markup can be written into three different vocabularies. These vocabularies are microdata, RDFa, and JSON-LD. You can use any of them on your site. However, most beginners find RDFa to be more beginner friendly.

Here is an example of a user’s about page in WordPress. Normally the text of the page will look something like this:

 John Smith <img src="johnsmith.jpg" alt="Photo of John Smith"/> Support Technician 342 Acme Inc. 101 Washington Avenue Eagleton IN 98052 (425) 123-4567 <a href="mailto:johnsmith@example.com">johnsmith@example.com</a> Website: <a href="http://www.example.com">example.com</a> 

This can be easily transformed with rich snippets.

If you are familiar with HTML, then you can easily understand the following example:

 <div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Person">   <span property="name">John Smith</span>   <img src="johnsmith.jpg" property="image" alt="Photo of John Smith"/>   <span property="jobTitle">Support Technician</span>   <div property="address"  typeof="PostalAddress">     <span property="streetAddress">       342 Acme Inc.       101 Washington Avenue     </span>     <span property="addressLocality">Eagleton</span>,     <span property="addressRegion">IN</span>     <span property="postalCode">46818</span>   </div>   <span property="telephone">(425) 123-4567</span>   <a href="mailto:johnsmith@example.com" property="email">johnsmith@example.com</a> Website   <a href="http://example.com" property="url">example.com</a> </div> 

For each content type there are some special properties that need to be defined.

Schema.org is the organization that helps maintain the standard for different content types. You will find extensive documentation with examples for each schema content type on their website.

Here is another example of a recipe with rich snippets.

 <div vocab="http://schema.org/" typeof="Recipe">   <span property="name">Mom's World Famous Banana Bread</span>   By <span property="author">John Smith</span>,     <img property="image" src="bananabread.jpg"     alt="Banana bread on a plate" />   <span property="description">This classic banana bread recipe comes   from my mom -- the walnuts add a nice texture and flavor to the banana   bread.</span>   Prep Time: <meta property="prepTime" content="PT15M">15 minutes   Cook time: <meta property="cookTime" content="PT1H">1 hour   Yield: <span property="recipeYield">1 loaf</span>   Ingredients:   - <span property="recipeIngredient">3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed</span>   - <span property="recipeIngredient">1 egg</span>   - <span property="recipeIngredient">3/4 cup of sugar</span>   ...   Instructions:   <span property="recipeInstructions">   Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix in the ingredients in a bowl. Add   the flour last. Pour the mixture into a loaf pan and bake for one hour.   </span> </div> 

If you are manually adding rich snippets into your WordPress posts, then you will need to manually add HTML to WordPress. For more details, see our beginner’s guide on how to edit HTML in WordPress code editor.

You may also need to refer to Google’s Developer resource on structured data to understand which properties are required for each content type.

Testing Your Rich Snippets and Schema Markup

If you’re adding rich snippets manually, then you’ll want to make sure you’ve added the structured data to your WordPress website properly.

To check your rich snippets, simply head over to the Google Structured Data Testing Tool. Then, there are two different tests you can run to test your structured data.

First, click the ‘Go to the Rich Results Test’ button. This will see what rich results can be generated for your page.

Then, enter your page or post URL into the box.

Next, click the ‘Test URL’ button.

This will automatically generate a report to see which rich results features can appear when that page or post is listed in the search results.

It will give you any errors or warnings, so you can improve your structured data. You can click the drop down arrow next to any warning and you’ll get detailed instructions for how to fix it.

Next, you can test your schema markup by going back to the Google Structured Data Testing Tools page.

Then, click the ‘Go to the Schema Markup Validator’ button.

Next, enter your URL or code snippet into the ‘Test your structured data’ popup.

Then, click the ‘Run Test’ button.

The tool will automatically analyze your code to see if there are any errors.

You’ll want to see 0 errors on the right hand side of the page.

We hope this article helped you learn how to use rich snippets on your WordPress site. You may also want to see our guide on how to choose the best domain name registrar and our expert picks of the best AI chatbots software for your website. 

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.

Every WordPress installation comes with Akismet plugin pre-installed, but it’s not activated by default.

Often users ask us what is Akismet and whether you really need to activate this plugin on your WordPress.

In this article, we will explain what is Akismet and why you should start using it right away.

What is Akismet?

Akismet is a comment spam filtering service for WordPress. Automattic is the company behind Akismet and it was founded by the WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg.

Akismet goes through the blog comments and filters out spam using its algorithms. The algorithm learns from its mistakes and the actions taken by other websites.

For example, when several websites start reporting similar-looking content as spam, then Akismet will learn to identify that kind of content as spam in the future.

As of today, Akismet has caught more than 523 billion spam comments, and the number is still growing.

Why You Should Use Akismet?

On popular WordPress websites, the number of spam comments could get as high as 85%. This means that out of every 100 comments, only 15 are legitimate.

Besides that, comment moderation is a time-consuming task. You would have to spend countless hours filtering spam comments manually.

This is where Akismet can save you hours. The WordPress plugin will automatically catch spam comments before it lands in your moderation queue as pending. This allows you to focus your energy on moderating comments by real users.

When a comment is marked as spam by Akismet, it will not show the Awaiting Moderation notice like you normally see with other comments. Instead, it will automatically move them to the spam folder.

Now, let’s look at how you can configure Akismet on your website.

How to Set up Akismet in WordPress

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the Akismet Spam Protection plugin for WordPress. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you can navigate to Settings » Akismet Anti-Spam from your WordPress dashboard. Next, go ahead and click the ‘Set up your Akismet account’ button.

Now, a new tab or window will open in your browser, and you’ll see the Akismet pricing page. Akismet offers free and premium pricing plans.

If your site is not for commercial purposes, like it doesn’t run ads, then you can choose the Personal plan. Otherwise, you’ll need to select one of the commercial plans.

For the sake of this tutorial, we’ll be using the Personal plan.

On the next screen, you’ll need to enter your email address, name, and website URL to create an account, along with choosing a price you want to pay for your account.

By default, the price will be set to $36 per year. However, you can move the pricing slider under ‘What is Akismet worth to you’ to any price from 0 to $120 per year.

Aside from that, Akismet will also ask you to check the boxes if you’re not running ads, selling products and services, or promoting a business on your site.

Once that’s done, simply click the ‘Continue with Personal Subscription’ button.

Next, you’ll need to enter the confirmation code that you received in the email address provided upon signup. After entering the code, click the ‘Continue’ button.

Akismet will verify the code and then show you a page with additional instructions to complete the signup process.

To complete the configuration, you can head back to your site’s WordPress dashboard and navigate to the Settings » Akismet Anti-Spam page.

Now go ahead and click the ‘Manually enter an API key’ button.

When you click the button, a new field will appear where you’ll need to enter the API key. You can find the API Key in your email inbox.

After entering the key, simply click the ‘Connect with API key’ button.

Once the API key is connected, Akismet will start protecting your website from spam comments.

You can also tweak the settings in Akismet. For instance, the plugin lets you display the number of approved comments beside each comment author, review spam comments or automatically discard them, and show a privacy notice under comment forms.

When you’ve made the changes, go ahead and click the ‘Save Changes’ button.

Next, you can review spam comments by navigating to Comments from your WordPress dashboard and then selecting the ‘Spam’ tab.

If you feel that a legitimate comment has been marked as spam, then you can simply click the ‘Not Spam’ button under the comment.

You can also permanently delete comments or click the ‘Empty Spam’ button to clear the spam folder.

We hope this article helped you learn what is Akismet and why you should start using it right away. You can also check our guide on how to create a free business email address and the best live chat software for small businesses.

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.