Sacredia | Church Multipurpose and Non-profit WordPress Theme

The Story Behind Sacredia: A Religious & Non Profit WordPress Theme

Sacredia is a Religious & Non-profit WordPress theme that facilitates the use of digital technology to help sustain organizations that rely heavily on connecting to the right people. Developed with the help of an active pastor, Sacredia helps churches, mosques, synagogues, temples and nonprofits increase their annual donation and tithe rates. This theme is packed with features that are targeted towards congregation growth, such as paid & free membership portals, personalized dashboards for pastors and members, a multi-cause donation portal, sermons (audio, video, text, .PDF), ministries, and events sections, a YouTube live stream option, a Mega Menu, and so much more!

Packed with 150+ Features

• Page Builder by WPBakery Included (A $64 value!)
• Revolution Slider Included (Save $26)
• Video Parallax Background Save $12)
• .PSD Files Included (Save $12)
• Live Stream option included (YouTube)
• Mega Menu
• Shop Included
• Powerful Personalized Admin & User Dashboard Portal
• 31 Home Pages & counting
• Membership Portals (Paid & Free) PayPal / Stripe / Authorize.net integrated)
• Crisp & Clean Design
• Fully-Responsive Across Devices
• Beautiful Home Page with All Necessary Pages
• Functional Ministries, Sermons, Donations, Causes & Events Pages
• Redux Framework Theme-Options Panel
• GIve Donation Plugin Integrated
• Contact Form 7 Integrated
• Easy to use – no coding knowledge required
• Large collection of home and inner pages
• Retina Ready
• Extensive typography options
• Compatible with The Events Calendar plugin
• Compatible with the GiveWP – Donation Plugin
• Events List
• Events Slider
• Cause List
• Cause Slider
• Donation
• Dual Stack Showcase
• Audio Playlist
• Twitter List
• Instagram List
• Portfolio List
• Portfolio Category List
• Portfolio Slider
• Portfolio Project Info
• Product Info
• Product List
• Product List Simple
• Product List Carousel
• Pricing List
• Full Screen Sections
• Gallery Blocks
• Animation Holder
• Video Button
• Call to Action
• Custom Font
• Image With Text
• Infographic elements
• One Page site – anchor functionality
• Multiple Blog List Layouts
• Blog Masonry Layout
• Blog Standard Layout
• Blog List shortcode
• Custom Post Formats: Audio, Video, Standard, Gallery, Link, Quote
• Blog Slider shortcode
• Instagram Feed Widget
• Twitter Feed Widget
• Blog List widget
• Social Icon widget
• Social Icons Groups widget
• WooCommerce Dropdown Cart widget
• Social Share functionality
• Integrated search
• Back to Top button
• Enable sepator border around website
• 3 Header Types
• Standard Header type
• Divided Header type
• Minimal Header type
• Three Header behavior types
• Sticky header behavior
• Sticky on scroll up header behavior
• Sticky on scroll up/down header behavior
• Separate mobile header styling options
• Set size of logo on mobile devices
• Multiple logo versions (for mobile header and sticky header)
• Dark and Light Logo variants
• Multiple Widget Areas in Header
• Multiple footer widget areas
• Customizable Footer with optional 1-4 Columns
• Footer top and footer bottom
• Customizable Google Map shortcode
• Choose your grid size
• Boxed layout option
• Video backgrounds
• Translation Ready
• Customizable Mega Menu
• Smooth Scroll
• Smooth Page Transitions
• Icon With Text shortcode
• Font Awesome Icon Font Pack
• Font Elegant Icon Font Pack
• Ion Icons Icon Font Pack
• Linea Icons Icon Font Pack
• Linear Icons Icon Font Pack
• Simple Line Icons Icon Font Pack
• Dripicon Icon Font Pack
• 800+ Google Fonts
• Custom Widget Areas
• Contact Form 7 plugin compatibility
• Set multiple contact form styles
• Child Theme included
• Mailchimp Integrated
• 5 Custom Post Options
• 16+ Custom Page Builder Addon Plugins
• One-Click Demo Installation
• Translation Ready (English, Arabic, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese, French, Dutch)
• Easily Customizable
• Extensive Documentation Included
• 40+ Step-by-Step Video Tutorials
• Cross-Browser Compatible (IE10+, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera)
• Lifetime Support
• Fast Setup and Easy to Configure
• 15+ short codes and counting
• Unlimited Colors
• App view mobile page
• 300+ Google Fonts
• User Profile
• Custom Width
• Google Maps Ready
• Google AdSense ready
• 100’s of additional options!

Churchvill| Church and Religious WordPress Theme + WPML

Masjida| Islamic Center & Mosque WordPress Theme

Masjida WordPress theme is a brand new and comprehensive WordPress theme perfectly suitable for Islamic center, Mosque, Islamic Shop, and any non-profit Islamic organization or community.This WP theme is built having in mind profiles of these companies and individuals and their needs, presentation wise. This WordPress theme packed with features, well designed homepages, and an amalgamation of several plugins with different functionalities All of the theme’s pages are easy to customize to fit your style and you can always import our theme demo – pages, posts, images with just one click. It saves time and then you can simply start add your unique content.Each and every available website component is 100% responsive and adapts perfectly for any mobile device. Masjida WordPress theme includes a donation portal, Khotba portal, Events and Blog, Mawlad Custom post type, mosque members post type, testimonials and a seamless contact form.

Shaha | Islamic Mosque WordPress Theme

Muslim WordPress theme Shaha to an Islamic centre, Mosque, and any non-profit Islamic organization or community and supplied it with the niche specific features:

•  To help you spread the word and convey the message, we made the theme translation ready and supplied it with the RTL version, in case you wish to switch to some other language.
•  If your community accepts donations, you may want to enable them on your website using ThemeREX Donations Plugin already included into the theme package.
•  Finally, Shaha features handy and easy-to-use Event Calendar to showcase what’s coming up in your centre, various layouts of the news and photo galleries.
• Also we supplied the theme with useful modules: services and educational programs.

The theme features a Prayer Times widget, which is powered by Muslim Pro. It enables you to display prayer times of any country and in any location on the globe.

The post Top 10 Best Charity And Church WordPress Themes 2020 appeared first on Hamza Shatela.

A WordPress Theme Made for Giving – Sacredia 

Sacredia was built to help churches use digital technology to spread The Word. It conveys the message of faith, hope, and the power of giving by establishing a genuine connection between churches and their congregation members. Simply put, the purpose of this theme is to help churches increase their revenue. This is made possible through donation, tithe, membership, and advertising opportunities that are part of an ecosystem that generates evergreen, passive income. Built by the award-winning web development agency Slide Sigma, every feature included in Sacredia helps churches compete in a digital environment that constantly evolves and transforms, just like their members.

• Have you had trouble raising online funds for your church?
• Do you want to foster an online environment where your congregation members feel part of a community?
• Are you unfamiliar with online tools to grow your membership and donation strategy, and need support to get started?

Sacredia offers solutions to these and many other challenges because it was specifically developed to help overcome the obstacles that churches often face when they want to make a digital impact.

Built to Overcome the Real Funding Challenges that Churches Face

How Can Sacredia Help Churches Gain Revenue?

Sacredia includes powerful features that were built to overcome the funding challenges that churches face, and to help them reach and establish a connection with their congregants online. The theme includes several features that help make the process of increasing church revenue easier. Although the common assumption is that donations are the best way for a church to increase funds digitally, nowadays there are different methods that can make as much of, if not a bigger impact. Sacredia helps churches increase their revenue not only through donations, but also through:

1. 1. Membership Options
   2. Customized Church Shop
   3. Ad-sense Revenue
   4. Advertising Opportunities

Sacredia does have a donation portal, and its powered by GIve, a platform that optimizes the donation experience and is geared towards maximizing donations. The other features mentioned above however, have the potential to earn the church thousands of dollars in passive income on a monthly basis.

Membership Options

Having digital memberships on a church’s online platform can generate solid monthly income. Sacredia comes with paid and free membership options that are fully customizable, allowing churches to offer exclusive insights or services for paying members. For example, these members may receive an exclusive weekly newsletter from the church or are granted access to certain events and receive a discount. Memberships are one route that churches can take to both build an active and engaged online community and to help increase funding through automated payments. It’s simple to establish membership options using Sacredia, but there are video tutorials and articles in its documentation that can help users set them up if they’re having any trouble.

Customized Church Shop

The shop features in Sacredia isn’t just an online shop to sell the church’s products, it can and should be used for affiliate marketing. What this means is that churches can use the shop to sell items that are provided by third-party vendors, and they make money from every sale that comes through the shop. Churches do not have to own stock, ship items, or actively sell a physical product. For example, if a shop on Amazon sells church-themed items like books, t-shirts, religious paintings, or any other item that can be used by members, these products are featured in the church shop, and the church can generate revenue the more people buy those products if they come through the website.  

Ad-sense Revenue

Churches with large congregations and an active online presence can greatly benefit from advertising on their website. Sacredia theme is compatible with Google AdSense and offer users the option of linking their Google AdSense account to the website without any coding knowledge. Selling ad space on the website can be very profitable for your church, here’s an example of what to expect in revue from Google AdSense.

Ad-sense Example

Here’s an example of how this works, based on some reasonable assumptions.

• • Revenue goal per day= $10 a day

• • Cost per click = 30 cents per click

• • Average pages/session = 1.5

• • Percent of visitors without ad block = 70%

• Average click through rate = 2%

Calculation breakdown as follows:

1. 1. Convert the revenue goal ($10) into cents: 1,000
   2. Divide the number of cents (1,000) by the average cost per click (30); this will help you identify how many clicks you need to get your desired revenue: 33
   3. Divide the number of clicks  (33) by average page click through rate (2% — 0.02) the percent of visitors without ad block (70% — 0.7); this will help you identify how many page views you need: 2,381
   4. Divide this number (2,381) by the average number of pages/session (1.5) = 1,587 visitors
   5. Result total number of visitors that you need to earn your revenue ($10) = 1,587

Advertising Opportunities

For advertising opportunities, churches can place an ad for a local business on a page (or many!) on their site, and the business pays them for that ad space based on the number of visitors, or traffic, that their website has. Users do not have to manually find these local businesses to sell them ad space. All they need to do is make it known that they have ad space available, through platforms such as buyandsellads.com, and those ads are automatically placed on the website. The more traffic the website has, the more money churches can make as a passive form of income simply by leveraging their traffic and using the numbers wisely.

Real People, Relevant Features, Constant Evolution

Sacredia is a theme built by a passionate network of creatives, with the input of real congregants and active pastors. During its development phase, Slide Sigma’s team travelled between the East and West coast over a period of four months to get to the core of the problems that churches faced in the digital world. The input from these key people was the main driving force behind the creation of Sacredia, because with the many different options available in the market, it needed to make an impact and have powerful, relevant features.   Today, Sacredia is still managed by Slide Sigma, and is consistently updated and improved to keep churches up-to-date with the trends of their congregants, and to meet their constantly evolving needs.

Additional Features

• Personalized Admin and User Dashboard
• YouTube Livestream
• Fantastic Design and Functionality
• Thorough Documentation and Outstanding Support

Personalized Admin and User Dashboard

Sacredia’s personalized admin and user dashboard is an excellent way for admins and members to connect to the church and other members, while maintaining privacy and confidentiality. The admin and user dashboards differ in terms of what the user can view. For example, only the admin or pastor can see where members are concentrated around the church by means of a map. This map is automatically updated based on the address that the members input through their accounts. Additionally, admins can also view:

• The last time a member signed in and was active on the website
• If a person has a free or paid membership
• User invoices and total number of subscriptions
• The total donation amount paid by the member

Members of the congregation also have their own personalized experience on Sacredia, and this helps them establish a connection to the site. Even if memberships are free, users still have access to their own dashboard. When members sign into the dashboard, they are able to:

• • Update or change their profile information
  • Invite new members
  • Request a prayer from members
  • View their Wishlist from the shop

Livestream Sermons Via YouTube

Sacredia’s livestream option allows churches to livestream their service via YouTube. That way, members who are unable to attend church physically can still stay connected to the church and the congregation wherever they happen to be. These videos are also saved after the service has ended, so users can always go back and watch a video if they weren’t able to see it live.

Fantastic Design and Functionality

Sacredia is updated frequently, and is a high-quality, fully-functional theme. It’s easy to use even for those that don’t have coding experience. Users can customize the theme with the following features:

• Page Builder by WPBakery
• Video Parallax Background
• Several Home Page Styles
• 5 Targeted Landing Pages
• Ministries, Sermons, Donations, and Causes & Events Pages
• Contact Forms
• 50+ Custom Post Options
• 300+ Fonts

Thorough Documentation

Slide Sigma is no stranger when it comes to outstanding quality and customer service, and Sacredia is no exception. Sacredia is fully documented, with over 40 video tutorials that cover every feature available on the theme and how to customize it. Each process or feature inside the theme is explained in an easy-to-understand manner, from how to install the theme to where to customize colors and how to change the picture on your homepage. Users are encouraged to reach out to the support team if they encounter any issues, and the Slide Sigma support team is available 24/7 for any queries.

A Theme Built to Help Churches Grow

Sacredia Church Theme is an all-in-one solution for churches looking to increase their congregation members and their revenue. With its powerful tools and fantastic support team, Sacredia constantly evolves with churches and their congregation members. For more information and a real-time view of the theme, check out the Sacredia theme demo here or learn more on Template monster.  

The post Church WordPress Theme appeared first on Hamza Shatela.

Sacredia Church & Nonprofit WordPress Theme – The Theme Made for Giving

Sacredia was initially built with the premise of spreading The Word; to digitally convey the message of faith and enhance human connection. Over time, and after a series of conversations with people from all fields and walks of life, it evolved into a theme that works for any religious or non-profit organization, one that facilitates the use of digital technology to help sustain organizations that rely heavily on reaching and connecting with the right people for a purpose or cause. This high-quality theme includes everything a church or religious organization needs to establish a strong online presence. Sacredia was built to increase funds, raise awareness about a cause, facilitate the tithing process, or create an online donation strategy for any organization, with premium features and an easy-to-use interface developed by the award-winning New York based digital agency Slide Sigma.

Why Sacredia

Because successful organizations evolve with the needs of their members or congregants, using Sacredia wordpress theme takes away the guesswork when it comes to managing and increasing online funds. Users can establish free and paid memberships, complete with automated billing and receipt options for members. Once set up, everything is fully automated, and changes can easily be applied when needed. The donation portal easily allows users to virtually donate funds to an organization or cause using GiveWP, a WordPress plugin designed to optimize the donor experience. Sacredia comes with other features that help increase funding unrelated to donations, such as ad space opportunities, Google AdSense compatibility, and a shop that can be used to promote items from third parties. This helps organizations generate profit through affiliate marketing, a highly-profitable source of income that doesn’t take a lot of time from admins. Sacredia was built through a collaborative network that involved combining the expertise of creatives with studying behavioral insights that Slide Sigma’s team gathered through input from congregation members and would-be users. Over a timespan of four months, this award-winning team met with active pastors and congregants between the East and West Coast of the United States, leading to the development of a theme that not only looked good but made a marked difference in terms of user engagement while simultaneously providing new funding opportunities for organizations. Slide Sigma remains deeply involved in the theme’s update process, offering weekly updates and active, dedicated user support if a user needs help at any time.

Sacredia Features

Sacredia wordpress theme is a fully-responsive and easily-customizable with a clean and unique design, parallax background options, and full commented code. Built with the latest WordPress requirements, it features a user dashboard that can be accessed by admins and members, providing valuable insights and shortcuts to manage and customize data to the front end as needed. Sacredia can easily be installed with one click, compatible across browsers. The theme’s features are flexible and can be used by religious or non-profit organizations, and includes event countdowns in addition to news, events, and sermon pages. It also comes with a modern blog section and four different landing pages for NGOs, donations, events, or charities.

Sacredia Support Team

Users who need help can either contact our 24/7 support team though the customer support portal and start a ticket, or refer to the Sacredia’s thorough documentation section that contains over 40 videos and mini-tutorials that cover every aspect of the theme and how to customize it. With the many available theme options available for churches and nonprofits, Sacredia stands out because it was made with the relevant input from the right people. With the goal of helping organizations generate and manage consistent progress in mind, Sacredia offers a valuable boost to any organization’s online presence and digital strategy.

The post Church & Nonprofit WordPress Theme appeared first on Hamza Shatela.

Building a Church Website with WordPress

First, you need to choose the platform that fits your church website needs, taking into consideration hosting package bandwidth and speed.  I would advise you grab a shared-hosting package to take advantage of all the powerful features of a WordPress site. I would recommend using Hostgator. They are one of the largest hosting companies in the world and they are also the official WordPress hosting partner.

Next you will need to install WordPress. If you want step by step instructions, you can follow our guide on how to start a WordPress blog.

After the installation, you will need to choose the perfect WordPress theme for your Church. You can pick a theme from our selected list below and then follow instructions in our how to install your theme into your wordpress account, every theme is accompanied by a documentation to guide you step by step on the installation and setup process.

Here are some of the premium church themes designed for church both free and paid.

1. Sacredia – Church and Nonprofit WordPress Theme

Sacredia Church & Nonprofit WP theme was developed with the help of an active Church Pastor guidance on what a digital Church requires to increase it’s annual donation and tithing, in addition to all the features which a Church can utilize to grow it’s congregation such as (Paid & Free) membership portal, personalized dashboard for Church pastor and Church Members, Multi Causes Donation Portal, (Audio, Video, Text, PDF), Ministries, Events, Live Stream (you-tube), Mega Menu, responsive design, events calendar and many more. To sum it all up, Sacredia wordpress theme is one of the top powerful themes in the market, which is built with visual composer.

• • Designed for Churches & Nonprofits

• • Causes Donation Portal Included

• Easy 1 Click Installation
• Visual Composer & Slider Revolution
• Personalized Dashboard for Members & Pastors (Unique feature)

Save more with Sacredia church theme

• Page Builder by WPBakery Included Save $46 (visual composer)
• Slider Revolution Included Save $26
• Video Parallax Background Save $12
• .PSD Files IncludedSave $12

Sacredia Theme Features

• Sermons events Live Stream (youtube)
• Mega Menu
• Church Shop Included
• Personalized Admin & User Dashboard Portal
• 05 Unique Home Pages
• 05 Unique Landing Pages
• Membership Portal (Paid & Free) PayPal/stripe/authorize.net integration
• Awesome Colorful & Clean Design
• Fully Responsive design Across All Devices
• Beautiful Home Page with All Necessary Pages
• Functional Ministries, Sermons, Donations,
• Causes & Events Post type
• Redux Framework Theme-Options Panel
• GIve Donation Plugin Integrated
• Contact Form 7 Integrated
• Mailchimp Integrated
• 5 Custom Post types
• 16+ Custom Page Builder Addons
• One Click Demo Installation
• Translation Ready 7 Languages
• Easily customizable
• Well Documented & Documentation included
• 40+ Video Tutorials, Step by Step
• Cross Browser Compatible – IE10+, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera
• Life Time Support
• Fast Setup, easy to configure
• 15+ short codes and counting
• Unlimited colors
• App view mobile page
• 300+ google fonts
• User profile
• Custom width
• Google maps
• Google AdSense ready
• Social Media feeds
• 100+ options

2. NativeChurch – Multi Purpose WordPress church Theme

NativeChurch is a Theme developed for Church, Charity, Non-Profit and Religion wordpress Websites and comes handy for Portfolio/Corporate Websites as well.

• • Prayer Wall, Event Manager, Sermon Manager

• • Causes & Campaigns Manager

• Use page templates or drag drop page builder

3. Passage | Church 

Passage is an responsive WordPress church theme built specifically for churches – with extended sermons, donations, and events management. It’s beautiful, clean and professional. We built this theme specifically for churches, and is flexible enough to use for lots projects. Passage includes easy to use live customizers and drag & drop builders and is capable of handling a ton including staff members, sermons, catalogs, custom logins, selling stuff, blogs, filterable galleries, and almost anything that you can think up! We pride ourselves on how well this theme works out of the box, so if you run into any issues, please don’t hesitate to let us know at our dedicated support forum. Check out our feature list below!

4. Church and Events

Church and Event is suitable for users with zero programming skills as well as advanced developers. The theme is built for churches and events but it is also suitable for any kind of website – conference, environmental, charity, law, agency, hosting, nonprofit, gym, medical, parallax, political, activist, cause, one page, business, spa and shop. It supports The Event Calendar Pro, Filter Bar, WooTickets.

• • 30 Days Money Back Guarantee

• • Gutenberg – WordPress 5 ready

• Free installation and set up

5. Adore Church – Responsive WordPress Theme

Adore Church is a full functional  Theme for modern Church, Charity, Religion wordpress Websites and comes handy for Portfolio/Corporate Websites as well.

• • Built In Events Manager, Sermons Manager

• • Podcasting for Sermons

• SiteOrigins Drag Drop Page Builder

6. Church WordPress | HolyCross Church

HolyCross Church WP, Church WordPress Theme, is great for church website with functional donation, sermons, events system. Responsive, fast, created with a deep down research to church actual requirement, feature packed & supported by top authors.

• • 3 Homepage Demos

• • Events & sermons

• 150+ shortcode elements styles

7. Kause – Multi Purpose WordPress Theme

Kause is a super flexible WordPress theme, charities, sporting clubs  websites. A beautifully designed multi-purpose WordPress theme, perfect for charities, churches and non-profit websites in including political campaigns. Kause is clean and minimal and puts direct focus on your message.

8. Deeds – Best Nonprofit Church Organization WP Theme

The lightweight and finely coded Deeds Church WordPress Theme 2018 is aimed at building a progressing website on multiple niches, such as modern church website, Religion wordpress,  ministry, church event, church donation or a church fundraising website. It is cleaner, quicker and easier to customize, and is perfect for the newbies. Three uniquely built Homepage Layouts, 8 innovative Header Styles and a number of built-in pages of varied utility are bound to be of special appeal for the professional web designer to design church website easily. If you are looking for the best WP theme in 2018 then Deeds church theme will surely help you make your site quickly and easily.

• • Online Donation System for Religious Causes

• Complete Event Display System + 9 Demos

9. Mission – Crowdfunding and Commerce for Churches

Mission is a church theme offering everything that a church would ever need, from podcasting to calendars to commerce and funding, mission aims to provide an advanced one stop solution for your church.

10. Life Churches – WordPress Theme for Churches and Events

Life Churches is a great theme for traditional and modern churches and religious organizations, church events and other community events, church donations, etc.

Sermons support audio and video files help to reach out and touch to your visitor’s heart. Events Support create and show upcoming events in your church with Events Calendar will showcase them to attract more visitors. Woocommerce Integration – sell goods from your church website to collect funds for your religious projects and church without having to do extra expense. If you would like to develop a model churches related theme with amazing functionality, this theme is for you.

How to use themeforest filter option to narrow your options while selecting a church wordpress theme?

While surfing themforest searching for a theme that fits your church the most, make sure you leverage the filter option to navigate between thousands of church themes in the market. You can filter by the following categories:

1. Trending Items
2. Best Seller
3. Best Rated
4. Newest Item
5. Price: Low to High
6. Price High to Low

The post Best WordPress Themes for Churches appeared first on Hamza Shatela.

Create a Free Website in Less than an Hour

A website doesn’t have to be just for business and can actually be used for other purposes. That’s why some people opt to go through the free website route, and they don’t need something complicated. For example, an engaged couple could use a website to announce their upcoming wedding date, while teachers could use one to post homework and lesson plans. Even small businesses that don’t depend on traffic could benefit from having a simple, one-page informative website. Whatever your goal is, it’s definitely possible to create a free website that looks great and gets your message across. There are several easy to use platforms that you can use to create a free website. We’ve listed the most well-known and highly-rated companies that offer this service, with a brief description of each one.

1. Google Website builder
2. WordPress free website builder
3. Wix free website builder
4. Weebly Free website builder
5. Envato Sites

Google Website Builder

If you have a Google My Business account, you have access to Google’s Website Builder, a free tool that generates a basic, one-page website. The information is updated with the data that you enter in your Google My Business account. To access this feature:

1. Login to your Google account
2. Go to your Google My Business dashboard
3. Select Website from the navigation tab (if you have multiple locations, select the location that you would like a website for)

• Select a theme from Google’s theme library
• Add your text
• Add your photos
• Select your website language
• Click Publish and done!

WordPress Free Website Builder

WordPress is the most popular CMS today, and even though there are paid options, you can a website with WordPress for free. WordPress has dozens of customizable designs and you’re guarenteed to find something that you like and suits your purpose. Here’s how you can create a free website using WordPress:

1. Go to WordPress.com
2. Click on ‘Get Started’
3. Follow the steps required by WordPress
4. Select one of WordPress free themes
5. Customize your website

If you need help configuring your WordPress website, setting it up or starting a blog for free, sign up for our free WordPress setup service.

Wix Free Website Builder

Wix.com has tons of templates and has made a name for itself in a highly competitive website builder market. Wix currently offers paid and free options and the free website templates are great for almost any purpose you have in mind. Free Wix websites do have limited options, so if you’re looking for something more complex or find that your business has grown, you can always upgrade to a paid plan. To create a free website using Wix:

1. Go to Wix.com
2. Click on get started
3. Create an account
4. Customize
5. Launch your website

Weebly Free Website Builder

Weebly has a free website option, you’ll get 500 MB of storage, SEO optimization and e-mail support when you use this platform. There are lots of templates to choose from, and paid options if you ever decide to go pro. To create a free website using Weebly:

1. Go to Weebly.com
2. Click on get started
3. Follow the steps required by Weebly
4. Customize your website
5. Publish your website

Envato Sites

The easiest way to build a website.Build and Launch for FREE, No credit card required.

• Editing made simple
• Update your look instantly
• Drive results. Integrate with apps and services to grow your business
• Look professional, effortlessly

Visit Envato Sites Click on Build a free website, register your account and get started designing your website instantly.

Pros and Cons of using a Free Website Builder

It all depends on what you’re looking for. Obviously, the benefit of using these platforms is that you pay nothing, and you can have a professional-looking site set up in a couple of hours. You don’t have to have a coding background to start, and there are tons of options to choose from. The disadvantages of using a free website builder are that the provider usually uses your website to put their own ads, the features are limited, and the subdomain of the platform is usually included in your domain name (for example, yourwebsite.weebly.com). There are benefits and disadvantages to choosing virtually any free service but for a starter site, these four platforms can serve you well all while saving you time, money and effort.

The post How to Create a Free Website appeared first on Hamza Shatela.

1. How to Add Categories and Tags for WordPress Pages Using a Plugin

The easiest and fastest ways to add categories and tags is by using a plugin (no coding experience needed)

1. Login To Your WP Dashboard.
2. Go to Plugins and then, Add New.
3. Search , Install and activate the Post Tags and Categories for Pages plugin

Once activated, navigate to Pages > Categories and you will find post categories and tags now available for your pages.

Before Adding Page Tags and Categories Plugin

After Adding Page Tags and Categories Plugin

2. How to Add Categories and Tags for WordPress Pages Without Using a Plugin

In this method we will hard code the Tags and Categories into WordPress without using plugins.

1. Login To Your WP Dashboard.
2. Go to Appearance and then, Editor.
3. Navigate to functions.php
4. Add the following snippet in your theme’s functions.php then save your changes

function add_categories_to_pages() {
register_taxonomy_for_object_type( 'category', 'page' );
}
add_action( 'init', 'add_categories_to_pages' );

To add tags taxonomy in your page, add the following code in your functions.php

function add_tags_to_pages() {
register_taxonomy_for_object_type( 'post_tag', 'page' );
}
add_action( 'init', 'add_tags_to_pages');

Once you have successfully added the above Codes, your back-end page layout should look like the image below

3. Alternative Way to Add Categories and Tags for WordPress Pages Using a Plugin

1. Enhanced Category Pages plugin
2. Categories Page Plugin
3. Add Category to Pages Plugins

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How to clean your WordPress site from unwanted elements that slow it down

Cleaning your WordPress website is important if you want to maintain search engine results rankings, and is necessary for malware removal. Like rooms, websites can build up with clutter over time, and when it comes to a website, it can seriously impact page speed and vulnerability to security threats. We’ve compiled a list of tasks that you can do to clean your site from unwanted elements that slow it down, and maintain your website security. As always, make sure that you backup up your website before you make any changes.

Start from your dashboard

1. Login to your Wp dashboard
2. Delete unnecessary posts and pages
3. Delete spam comments
4. Remove unused media files
5. Uninstall and delete unused plugins
6. Delete unused themes from your File manager in C-panel

Clean your website’s database

Databases can contain unneccessary data that can impair your site speed and its size. When you clean up the unneccessary clutter, not only can your site load faster, but you’ll also be able to back it up faster. You can do this manually, and you can use plugins to do the cleaning up for you. We use plugins because they do the trick faster and are thorough enough with the right confuguration settings. Our favorite plugin for cleaning up our website databases is WP DBManager.

WP DBManager  allows you to backup and clean your website’s database. To set up this plugin, follow the steps below:

1. Login to your hosting account
2. Select the server you are using then navigate to Wp-content/backup-db (which was created automatically by the plugin)
3. Move index.php file from Folder: wp-content/plugins/wp-dbmanagerto Folder: wp-content/backup-db/index.php if it is not there already
4. Go to WP-Admin -> Database -> DB Options to configure the database options

• If you are on Apache, move the htaccess.txt file from Folder: wp-content/plugins/wp-dbmanager to Folder: wp-content/backup-db/.htaccess if it is not there already

WP DBManager also saves you time, because you can configure it to schedule backups for your website automatically once everything is configured.

Remove unused media from your site

Unused images on your site can accumulate over time, and this causes unneccessary clutter that can easily be removed from your site. We use and reccomend Media Cleaner, a plugin that does this for you. To install Media Cleaner, follow these four steps:

1. Go to your WP Dashboard.
2. Navigate to plugins > Add New.
3. Search for Media Cleaner plugin
4. Install the plugin and Activate it

Protect and clean your site from malware

Every day, roughly one million malware threats are released into cyberspace, and they have a tremendous potential to do harm. Malware can compromise your site security, allow hackers to steal your information, and some forms of malware allow hijackers to access devices. Securi is a Free website malware and security scanner  that we recommend. It checks your website for known malware, blacklisting status, website errors, and out-of-date software. If your website is effected with malware, download Wordfence Security plugin and go through the steps to remove malware.

With these three simple steps, you’ll be able to refresh your WordPress website and eliminate any issues that may have been slowing it down. Try to perform a monthly check to see if your website is accumulating clutter, and fix issues as they arise. By cleaning up your database, removing unused media, and securing your site against malware, you’re well on your way to a faster, better-working website.

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1. Use Dynamic Widgets for Sidebar

Use dynamic widgets plugin when you’d like to customize where you want it to display. For example, you may want it to show a widget on only one page in your website but not in other sections. Make sure that your use of widgets aligns with the function of the page. For example, if you have a hotel booking website, you should disable the booking section once your users navigate to your blog section.

2. Build a Custom Sidebar for Each Category

All WordPress themes come with sidebars that are usually the same across all pages of your site. This might be fine for some users, but you may not want each category that you have on your site to have the same sidebar options. If you want to change those display options, you can use custom sidebars plugin to display your own widget configurations on your pages. Build a custom sidebar for each category that you have in your site, and after you assign them, you can start adding widgets.

3. Sticky Sidebar Widgets

There are controllable elements in your sidebar that have been proven to generate high click-through rates and have shown conversion results. One of those elements is the sidebar widget, which can “stick” to a user’s screen as they scroll through your site. After you have identified the widget that you would like to keep stuck, access its options through the plugin that you use and find the setting that lets you ‘fix’ the widget.

4. Opt-in form Email Subscription

Use your sidebar to create opt-in forms that you can use to send marketing content to your subscribers. Email marketing is alive and well and using your sidebar is actually one of the most popular ways used to create and build e-mail marketing lists. You can customize your color and font options and the display of your opt-in message. There are also tons of examples online about how successful and high-converting opt-in forms look like, so you can get inspired and see what might work best for your business.

5.  Dynamic Custom Lists for Posts

Dynamic lists can be used to display posts based on your configuration preferences. For example, you can have your posts listed in alphabetical order, or based on post type or date. You can use plugins to manage your posts and some plugins even come with list templates that help save time and are also customizable.

6. Showcase Your Best Content

Your sidebar should be used to keep people interested – you would be losing business if you have a user visit one page on your site when other content can also be of value to them. Use your sidebar to show the best posts and pages on your site and keep it in the viewer’s frame of sight. Install a plugin that you feel comfortable using the most and which presents you with the option of displaying your best posts in your sidebar.

7. Use Attractive Images

Use the default image widget provided by WordPress to upload your desired image to your page or post, but its important to attract to your audience with it, that it is relevant to your message, and that all your images are of high quality. The content of those images depends on your overall business so make sure that you choose images with the appropriate elements, tone, and subjects to keep people clicking. People are more attracted to images than text, so even if you have an excellent article or product for example, you need images to get people to click on it.

8. Showcase Social Proof

Social proof, such as testimonials, are a powerful tool for businesses with happy customers and they can be showcased with your sidebar. Customers look for reviews, and when your reviews are positive and easily showcased throughout your site, they will generate more sales from new customers who may have been hesitant to try. You can use your sidebar settings for example to showcase a glowing review about your product or service right next to the pricing list of your products.

9. User Engagement Tools

Use tools that motivate and trigger your audience through your sidebar because widgets can be used to measure their interest. You can use a series of engagement tools to monitor the performance of your site and see how your audience is interacting with it, such as adding follow and share buttons. Let’s say you’ve added a video in a widget section and you notice that the majority of your viewers watching the video stop after a certain time, or message. You can then use that insight from your widget to modify and tweak your video at that time frame, and see how people respond.

10. Fade In Last Sidebar Widget

The fade-in effect is a form of animation used by a lot of popular blogs and websites because it has been shown to increase click-through rates and it looks pretty neat! This feature allows the last widget in the sidebar to fade in and will show up as a user scrolls down your site. Fade-in is attractive to the eye, and with the proper font and coloring style, it can lead to more views for your content.

11. Use Custom Styles for Widgets

You can keep the style of your widgets the same, but for a little less redundancy or to highlight the importance of one widget as opposed to another, it’s better to use custom styles and display them differently based on the page or post. For example, a search widget should look different from a category widget or subscription. You can use your customized widget to your advantage when you’d like people to subscribe to your newsletter, and make it look different and more eye-catching than the other forms or fields on your site.

12. Enable Short-codes in Text Widgets

By default, WordPress filters out shortcodes in text widgets. You can easily disable that by adding this single line of code to your theme’s functions.php file or a site-specific plugin.

add_filter('widget_text','do_shortcode');

We hope this article helped you learn some new WordPress sidebar tricks to get maximum results on your site. You may also want to see our list of 25 most useful WordPress widgets for your site.

13. Setup Double Sidebars

When you have a lot of content or information to display, you can take advantage of having a double sidebar view and organize that content all in one place. For example, sports websites use double sidebars when they have profiles of their athletes, showcasing stats on one side and information on the other. Simply navigate to your dashboard and click on Appearance > Widgets and use the Sidebar 2 setting to create the second sidebar. A double sidebar saves time and groups all of the information you want users to see in one place.

Conclusion

These 13 tips might not all be applicable to you, but you can pick and choose the ones that can help you most based on your business and familiarity with WordPress. Sidebars and widgets are important tools to use when you want to make the most out of your web pages. You don’t have to have a lot of experience to get started on these tips, and always remember that you can make adjustments whenever you would like to your sidebar, so monitor engagement and see what works best for you.

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When Should You Upgrade To Managed WordPress Hosting?

Every website owner should have an professional WordPress support team to perform important maintenance and IT functions. This includes website / database updates, cleaning up clutter, protecting the site from malware, and consistent performance optimization. If hiring your own support team isn’t possible at the moment but you still eed those services, you should consider upgrading to a managed WordPress hosting account. When you upgrade to a managed WordPress hosting, you benefit from IT and maintenance support that’s similar to hiring our own team. Here’s a breakdown of the services you should expect, in addition to their pros and cons that can help you determine whether managed hosting is something you should consider for your online business.

By the way, if you’re concerned about cost, take a look at my article how to build a website for free on a hosting provider like hostgator, that charges only $2.75 per month and comes with a free domain. You can always upgrade your site to a managed WordPress hosting later on if you need it.

Advantages of a Managed WordPress Hosting

1. Enhanced load time and performance
2. Security
3. Backup automation
4. Support
5. Staging options
6. Scalability features
7. Premium Domain Name System (DNS)

Enhanced Load Time and Performance

Generally speaking, you’re guaranteed faster loading times with managed hosting accounts and that alone can impact your business in a positive manner. Managed WordPress hosting accounts allow your websites to perform better because their server environments are specifically optimized for WordPress websites and meant to compliment them. This means your site will perform better and load quicker, decreasing your site’s bounce rate and helping you retain clients. Managed hosting providers are competitive and come with different features and pricing plans, so that you can choose the one that is most suitable for your type of business and your website.

Security

When you choose the right managed host, you’re able to benefit from premium security features like malware and spam removal, site hack attempts, and protection from vulnerabilities. Some providers use software to identify and remove pre-existing security issues on your site at no additional cost, so they basically take care of the clean-up part for you. Some services are already included in your pricing options, but others you may need to pay extra for so always make sure that you know what your options are and what the provider is offering.

Backup Automation

Having a consistently updated and saved backup file of your website is invaluable, because even the most secure websites can experience vulnerabilities or errors that can cause it to go down. To always make sure that your data is safe, you need to backup your site constantly and often, manually. Save time and protect your site when you sign up for a managed hosting account through backup automation. Managed hosting providers usually offer automated backup services for free, which is invaluable if anything happens to your site and which takes the job off of your shoulders.

Support

Managed WordPress hosting accounts come with support teams. Depending on the team, you might be able to communicate with them through e-mail, chat boxes or over the phone. Try to choose a company that goes the extra mile when it comes to their process and knowledgeability. Support teams in this domain usually pride themselves on their award-winning service and those are the types of teams that can really help get things moving you when you encounter an issue that can’t wait.

Staging Options

If you’re trying something new on your site and don’t want it to be published just yet, you can benefit from staging options that come with managed hosting accounts. Staging sites can be built from scratch, or can be copies of your live, published site. Staging allows developers to conduct tests and see how the website or page will look before it becomes public, and is a very useful tool when you’re making adjustments or changes.

Scalability Features

Scalability means that your WordPress website is able to tackle changes in volume of traffic and its response to resource use. With a managed WordPress hosting, your website will be able to adapt to changes in traffic and this limits issues like your website crashing and / or freezing due to an unexpected traffic surge. A website with a moderate to heavy amount of traffic needs to be scalable, because it allows for better performance and analysis of analytics.

Premium Domain Name System

With a Premium DNS, managed hosting providers put your DNS information on their (unique) premium network and distributes it to servers around the world. When international users visit your site, they access it from the closest server to them. This increases load time and speed for international users, and enhances their experience. Some managed hosting providers also allow you to choose your own DNS zones. A Premium DNS also means enhanced security for your site, but we do recommend relying on more than one just in case something happens.

Disadvantages Of Managed WordPress Hosting

1. Limited plugin accessibility and control
2. Higher price tag

Limited Plugin Accessibility and Control

Not all plugins are supported by Managed WordPress hosting providers and some are blacklisted altogether. You may have a specific preference for using certain plugins, so this may be a limitation that you should take into consideration. Another thing to consider is that you have overall, less control over the back-end features simply because they are being managed for you. This isn;t necessarily something negative, but should be mentioned in case you have specific preferences.

Higher Price Tag

Managed WordPress hosting accounts range in price from $30.00 to the thousands, so it ultimately depends on your business, the amount of traffic to your site, and what you’re looking for in terms of features. If you’re looking to grow your business and are an established professional, then making the investment is certainly worth it.

Top Managed WordPress Hosting Providers

Is managed WordPress hosting worth it?

If you are a small business owner or startup, you can still manage your site manually with a basic shared hosting plan for the time being. Keep in mind that with basic hosting plans, you have to be comfortable managing your own WordPress website. When you’re looking to go pro and your business is growing, we definitely recommend investing in a managed WordPress hosting. It’s the right choice for large businesses with growing websites, influencers, online directories and e-commerce sites. Finding the right hosting provider is key, one which focuses on the features that are most important to you such as speed, security, and support.

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WordPress Website / Blog Setup Checklist

Launching a WordPress website is pretty simple, but if this is your first time using the platform, it helps to have a WordPress setup checklist you can refer to before launch. Before we start, make sure that you have chosen the right hosting plan for your business type. Most sites are fine with basic WordPress hosting, but those that have a large volume of data or require a bigger bandwidth might need a managed WordPress hosting plan. The articles below can help you compare top hosting providers or determine whether you need to upgrade to a managed hosting account:

• Compare top hosting providers
• Managed WordPress hosting

After you’ve chosen the most appropriate hosting plan, it’s time to make sure you’ve got everything covered before you launch your site and make it public. This WordPress checklist can act as a guide to make sure that you’ve covered all the setup steps. If you haven’t installed it yet, you can install WordPress through this link.

Checklist

1. Secure your WordPress login and admin area
2. Check your site for dead links (404 errors)
3. Setup permalinks
4. Check all forms on your website
5. Test social integrations
6. Performance and page speed tests
7. Install Google Analytics
8. Check SEO settings
9. Test your website coding’s W3C compliance
10. Confirm your SSL
11. Removed unused plugins
12. Delete unused themes
13. Install a WordPress backup solution
14. Backup your website

1. Secure WordPress login and admin area

Similarly to how you would protect your brick-and-mortar business from thieves and vandals, your login and admin areas are just as important to secure from virtual ones. Think of your login as the gatekeeper to the admin area, which is your virtual headquarters. Your username and password not only need to be unique, they need to be too difficult to encourage guesswork. Don’t use generic usernames like “admin” or a weak password like 123456. Alternate between capital letters, numbers, characters and make it difficult for hackers. We also recommend limiting login attempts and enabling two-step authentication for login. As for your admin area, try to limit the access to your dashboard to the people who absolutely must to use it. The more you secure your headquarters, the less vulnerable to hacking attempts your site will be.

1. Check Your Site for dead links (404 Errors)

Dead links, broken links, and 404 error pages can impact your traffic and lead to issues in terms of your search engine rankings. Major search engines penalize sites that have too many broken links by showing your site less to users. It’s all about the quality of search results yielded and to stay competitive, search engines have to ensure their results are the best possible solutions to the user’s query. It’s always important to perform a run-down of your site to make sure that you don’t have this problem. Although it can be done manually, there are a lot of software programs that can perform this service for you and help you identify and remove dead/broken links.

3. Setup permalinks

A permalink is a permanent URL that is used to index different posts and pages on your site. Users need permalinks to be directed to a specific post on your site, and search engines use them to index your website. Based on the type of website you have, you can start by creating a permalink structure that you can follow. For example, you might want to include dates in the permalinks of news or blog articles and continue that pattern for future posts. Just make sure that they are SEO friendly and that your strategy is one that is simple enough for you to follow for every post.

4. Check all forms on your website

Web forms are a simple and effective way to not only receive valuable input from your clients but can also be a great way to establish relationships with them. You can either have forms custom built by developers for you, or you can download form plugins and use pre-made templates. When you include forms on your website, make sure that they actually work, or it can cost you potential business. For example, if you have an opt-in newsletter, send a test e-mail and make sure that you are receiving the e-mail. If users send you a message, send one to yourself through the form to make sure you receive correspondence from others.

5. Test Social integrations

Social integration on your website means using social media and your website to strengthen your brand. It includes options such as like and share buttons, social login options, and video. If you’ve integrated social media with your site, test your features before going public because social media has become one of the strongest ways to connect with your audience, reach a potential audience, and spread your message out there. Also constantly check to make sure that any social media plugins you’ve installed are updated and functioning well.

6. Performance and page speed tests

The way your website looks and functions and how fast it loads is a big factor in retaining clients and ranking on search engines. Virtually every business nowadays has become highly competitive, and the longer your site takes to load or the more frustrating it is to use it, the more likely your target audience will take their business elsewhere. There are many ways that you can check your page speed and your site performance, and you can do it manually as well. Just make sure you check performance and page speed often because performance can fluctuate based on different factors.

7.  Install Google Analytics

Google Analytics is considered to be the most widely-used analytics tool on the internet and is an incredibly useful tool that helps you understand the behavior of people on your site. Google Analytics tracks the quality of your landing pages, your conversions, which devices your users are accessing your pages from and where they are, and has insights and features that can help you generate campaigns and make the modifications and adjustments necessary to increase your traffic. We highly recommend that you create a Google Analytics account and use it to monitor your site’s performance.

8. Check SEO settings

In order for you to be visible in search engine results, your website needs to be search engine optimized. There are a lot of ways that you can optimize your site, and it’s an effort that is maintained throughout your site and in different parts of it, from the front-end to the back-end. There are a lot of plugins that can help you with SEO optimization, such as Yoast. When you’re doing things manually, check your general settings, make sure your titles and posts are optimized correctly, and check your sitemap and social settings.

9.  Test your website coding’s W3C compliance

When you have W3C compliant code, this means that your HTML and CSS are compliant with the standards of the World Wide Web Consortium. These standards have been set place in order to ensure that developers write clean, good code that allows your site to function properly. Bad codes are penalized by search engines because their spiders will crawl your site and if they encounter bad code, it will result in your site ranking lower in search results. There are websites and programs that you can use to check your code, so you can easily make necessary adjustments after you’ve identified where the issue is coming from.

10. Confirm your SSL

An SSL certificate is a digital certificate that authenticates your website’s identity. It sends encrypted information to other servers that can only be deciphered with the appropriate decryption key. SSL is important for site security and needs to be renewed as they expire. Every SSL certificate comes with the signature of the certificate authority, so make sure that you confirm your certificate’s validity. You can do so by using an analyzer or security checker that’s available online.

11. Removed unused plugins

Remove any unused plugins that you have on your site before you launch. This includes those who have stopped issuing updates or don’t work properly. Plugins are tricky; although they can be extremely useful and help you save time working on your website, there are some of them that can be considered security vulnerabilities and may be loopholes for hackers to access your information or site. Unused plugins cause unnecessary clutter and can impact your site’s load speed through repeated HTTP requests, so there’s really no reason to have them and slow down your page speed and site loading time.

12. Delete unused themes

Just like plugins, unused themes on your WordPress site can create security vulnerabilities, and especially if the theme developers no longer issue updates. Furthermore, themes can take up space that you can use for other types of data on your site and they can slow it down. Before you go live, it’s a good idea to delete any unused themes and stick to the ones that are consistently being updated and improved for the sake of security, speed, and efficiency.

13. Install a WordPress backup solution

There are a wealth of backup solutions available for free or paid use. Regardless of what route you opt to take, it’s never a good idea to keep backup until the end. Backing up your site ensures that you never lose any valuable data and allows you to re-upload the site back onto the server if something goes wrong.

14. Backup your website at this point

Backing-up your website at this point will save you a lot of time in the future, especially if this is your first time working with WordPress. Make sure to setup an automated website backup plan. There are several free and paid backup plugins for WordPress. Most of them are fairly easy to use, and no coding knowledge is needed, but we always suggest backing up the website manually at least once on a quarterly basis.

We hope that with this checklist, you’ll be able to tweak and fix all the important pre-launch functions and make the most out of your new site. You may not need to perform everything on this list depending on your business type, but even using a few of these tips can make a major impact on your traffic and conversion rate down the line.

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