For years, (prior to WordPress Studio), developers have navigated the challenges of local WordPress development. Setting up a local environment can be complex, and sharing progress with clients often involves cumbersome staging sites or deploying unfinished work. These hurdles can slow down projects and complicate feedback loops, turning a streamlined workflow into a series of technical obstacles.

Enter WordPress Studio, a new, free, and open-source application designed to solve these exact problems. It offers a fast, lightweight environment for building everything from plugins and themes to entire websites. But Studio is much more than just another local server. It comes packed with powerful, integrated tools that are often found only in premium, paid applications.

My goal here is to highlight four of the most surprising and game-changing features that set WordPress Studio apart.

These capabilities can fundamentally improve how you build, share, and deploy WordPress sites, all from a single, and oh yeah.., free application.

1. You Can Create Live, Shareable Previews for Free

One of Studio’s most powerful features is the ability to generate live, shareable previews of your local site. This functionality creates a publicly accessible copy of your work-in-progress, allowing you to easily share it with colleagues or clients for feedback without deploying it to a staging or production server.

The best part? This feature doesn’t require a paid plan. All you need is a free WordPress.com account to get started. Under the hood, these preview sites are powered by WordPress.com, giving you a stable and reliable way to showcase your work.

Key details of the Previews feature include:

• You can maintain up to 10 free preview sites at any given time across all your Studio projects.
• Preview sites expire after seven days since their last update, but you can refresh them as often as you need to reset the timer.
• Updates are not automatic. After making local changes, you must manually trigger an update from the Studio interface to push them to the live preview site. This ensures you control exactly what and when your client sees.

For freelancers and agencies, this feature is a significant improvement, simplifying the client feedback process. This manual push is a critical feature, not a limitation, as it gives you complete control over when the client sees new changes, preventing them from viewing a work-in-progress that might be temporarily broken.

2. It Has a Built-in AI Assistant to Speed Up Your Workflow

WordPress Studio comes with an AI tool, the Studio Assistant, built directly into the application. It’s designed to help you with coding, content creation, and site management tasks, acting as an intelligent partner in your development process.

With a free WordPress.com account connected to Studio, you get 200 prompts per month to experiment with the assistant. While it isn’t meant to replace a full-fledged AI code editor, its strength lies in its direct integration with your local site. For example, you can ask it to run a WP-CLI command to change the admin display name from “admin” to “Nick Diego,” and it will execute the command for you.

As the source material notes, the assistant has a specific and practical purpose:

Instead, it’s designed to help you make changes directly to your Studio site. It also can do things like create content and provide information about WordPress.

Users are encouraged to experiment with different prompts to discover the assistant’s capabilities and provide feedback to help the tool evolve and become even more powerful over time.

3. You Can Seamlessly Sync Between Local and Production Sites

For developers managing live client sites, Studio Sync offers a professional-grade workflow for moving data between local and production environments. This feature allows you to “pull” a production site down to your local machine to work on it safely, and then “push” your local changes back up when they are ready to go live.

This sync functionality is designed for specific professional hosting environments. It connects to sites on WordPress.com (requiring a Business or Commerce plan) and Pressable.

For Pressable sites, you just need to ensure that you have the Jetpack plugin activated and connected using the same WordPress.com account that you’re using in Studio.

The feature provides a high degree of control over the deployment process. You aren’t limited to syncing the entire site; as the documentation highlights, “you can also choose specific files and folders so you can really drill down into what you want to pull down into Studio.” This surgical approach to deployment is essential for continuous development on live sites, minimizing the risk of overwriting critical production data or configuration files while updating a theme or plugin.

4. It’s Built on Modern Tech and Is Truly Open Source

Beneath its user-friendly interface, WordPress Studio is a modern, high-performance application. Studio is a fast and lightweight application built on cutting-edge Web Assembly technology, ensuring it runs efficiently on your machine without the bloat of older local development tools.

Perhaps most importantly, Studio is both completely free and fully open source.

All the core features, including the ability to create and manage local sites, are available right out of the box without needing an account. For developers who value transparency and community-driven tools, this is a critical distinction.

This commitment to the open-source ethos is made clear in the project’s documentation:

…Studio is completely open source, and you can grab the full codebase on GitHub, and everything I just showed you is available as is with a fresh install.

This reinforces that powerful development tools don’t always have to come with a high price tag or be locked into a closed-source ecosystem. It’s a tool built for the WordPress community, by the WordPress community.

Final Takeaway and Question

WordPress Studio proves to be far more than a simple local server. With integrated features like free live previews, an AI assistant, and professional-grade site syncing, it offers an all-in-one development environment that addresses many of the long-standing challenges in the WordPress workflow.

By combining modern technology with a commitment to being free and open source, it empowers developers of all levels.

With a workflow this streamlined and powerful, what will you build next?

The post 4 Game-Changing WordPress Studio Features You Probably Didn’t Know About appeared first on White Label PLR for WordPress Training.

Let’s chat about what’s included in this release, focusing on Whats New in WordPress 6.9 (codenamed “Gene”). If version 6.8 was a fresh coat of paint, 6.9 is all about helping you work smarter, not harder. It’s packed with tools that smooth out your workflow and finally brings true collaboration right into the editor.

Grab a cup of coffee and let’s walk through the highlights.

So grab your coffee and let’s take a look at what’s new in WordPress 6.9 and walk through the highlights.

Hold Your Horses: Major vs. Minor Updates

You know the drill by now—treat your website like your car.

Minor updates (like 6.9.1) are security patches (fixes). Do them immediately to keep things secure. Major updates (like this one, 6.9) are more likely to contain new features and changes that might not have been thoroughly tested by the creators of a plugin or theme on your site.

So, it’s smart to give it a few days for the early adopters to find the glitches. And as always, back up your files and database before you hit “Update.” If things go sideways, you’ll be glad you did.

Chat Right Inside the Editor

Ever wish you could leave a sticky note on a paragraph for your editor, or a reminder for yourself, without cluttering up the actual post? Now you can.

With Block-Level Notes, collaboration feels like Google Docs. You can leave comments, tag team members, and resolve threads directly on individual blocks. No more back-and-forth emails or Slack messages to fix a typo in the second paragraph. It’s all happening right where the work gets done.

Now You See It, Now You Don’t

Have you ever wanted to hide a section of your page, maybe a holiday promo or a draft paragraph, without actually deleting it?

WordPress 6.9 introduces the ability to Hide Blocks. A simple toggle in the block settings lets you hide a block from the front end while keeping it visible (but muted) in your editor. It’s perfect for staging content or temporarily shelving a section without losing your hard work.

New Toys in the Toybox

It wouldn’t be a major release without some new blocks to play with. Here are the standouts:

Accordion Block: Finally! You can create collapsible FAQ sections or toggle-able content natively. No extra plugins required.

Math Block: For the educators and scientists out there, you can now write complex mathematical formulas using MathML directly in the editor.

Time to Read: A simple block that automatically calculates and displays how long it will take your visitors to read your post.

Drag and Drop That Actually Makes Sense

Dragging blocks around used to be a bit of a guessing game. “Will it land here? Or inside that group?”

WordPress 6.9 has polished the Visual Drag and Drop experience. You now get a much clearer preview of exactly where your content will land before you let go of the mouse. It feels snappier, more predictable, and less frustrating.

Your “Genie” in the Dashboard

The Command Palette (that search bar that pops up with Cmd+K or Ctrl+K) has broken free from the Site Editor. You can now use it everywhere in the admin dashboard. Whether you’re in the plugins menu or writing a post, you can jump to any setting or page with a few keystrokes. It’s a massive time-saver for power users.

Looking Sharp: Typography and Galleries

Designers get some love in this release, too:

Fit Text to Container: Ever struggled to get a headline to look just right in a hero section? The new “Stretchy” option for Heading and Paragraph blocks automatically resizes text to fit its container.

Gallery Aspect Ratios: You can now force all images in a Gallery block to share the same aspect ratio. No more jagged, uneven rows of photos, everything looks uniform and professional instantly.

Under the Hood: Dev-Friendly Upgrades

If you build or tweak plugins and themes, here is what you need to know:

The Abilities API: A major addition that provides a standardized way to register what your site can do, laying the groundwork for better AI and automation integrations.

PHP 8.5 Support: WordPress is staying ahead of the curve with beta compatibility for the upcoming PHP 8.5.

Interactivity API Updates: More robust tools for creating dynamic blocks that react instantly to user input without page reloads.

Cron at Shutdown: Scheduled tasks now trigger at shutdown rather than init, speeding up page load times for your visitors.

That’s the scoop on what’s new in WordPress 6.9, better collaboration, smarter blocks, and a smoother workflow. Once you’re backed up, hit Update, then try hiding a block or leaving a note for yourself to feel the difference. Enjoy!

The post Whats New in WordPress 6.9 appeared first on White Label PLR for WordPress Training.

Let’s chat about what you’ll notice once you flip the switch to WordPress 6.8. This isn’t a flashy overhaul—it’s more like a fresh coat of paint, a tune‑up under the hood, and a few neat tricks up your sleeve. Grab a cup of coffee and let’s walk through the highlights.

Hold Your Horses: Major vs. Minor Updates

You know how your car gets oil changes and tune‑ups? WordPress does, too.

• Minor updates (like 6.8.1) are your oil changes—do them right away to seal up security holes.
• Major updates (like 6.8) are more like swapping out spark plugs—give it a few days for early adopters to spot any hiccups.
• And hey—always back up your files and database before you hit “Update.” That way, you’re covered if anything goes sideways.

Pages That Pop Open Lightning‑Fast

Ever hover over a link and think, “Man, I wish this would load already”? With speculative loading, it almost does.

• WordPress quietly preloads pages when you hover, so a click feels instant.
• It’s powered by the Speculation Rules API, which means developers can tweak exactly what gets preloaded and when.
• Don’t sweat it if you’re on Safari, Firefox, or have extensions that block it—you’ll either get a speed boost or nothing at all, but never a slowdown.

Level Up Your Password Game with Bcrypt

Under the hood, WordPress has traded in its older, weaker MD5 hashing for Bcrypt. That fancy name just means your passwords are now tougher to crack.

• The switch happens automatically when each user next logs in—no dramas, no forced resets.
• It covers all your password‑related bits: login passwords, application keys, reset tokens, even the recovery‑mode key.
• Bcrypt’s “work factor” slows down brute‑force attacks, giving you peace of mind that your site’s locked tight.

A Fresh Style Book for Classic Themes

If you’re still rocking a classic theme like Twenty Seventeen, you can now peek at your site’s full Style book—colors, fonts, buttons and all—right alongside the old Customizer.

• Head to Appearance → Themes → Design to open the visual style guide.
• Patterns moved over too—find them under Appearance → Design → Patterns, keeping everything design‑related in one spot.
• It’s view‑only for now, but it’s a great way to eyeball your site’s look without clicking around.

A Smoother Styles Panel & Global Edits

When you jump into the Site Editor, you’ll spot a clean, three‑pane layout:

1. Left: your template or page list
2. Center: overall design controls (think fonts, colors, spacing)
3. Right: live preview

You can tweak global styles—fonts, colors, layouts—all in one sidebar. It feels like WordPress is getting its own workspace makeover.

Neat Design Shortcuts You’ll Love

You don’t have to dig through menus for every little thing. Here are some quick wins:

• Any image → featured image. Click your image, open the three‑dot menu, choose “Set as featured image.” Boom.
• Switch section styles on the fly. In zoomed‑out view, the block toolbar lets you flip between predefined section looks. Great for experimentation.
• Undo your image edits. Crop, rotate, resize—and if it looks off, hit Undo right from the success notice.

Query Loops, Refined

Custom post layouts just got smoother:

• In your Query Loop block, you can now Ignore sticky posts, so they don’t sneak to the top unless you want them to.
• Plus, drop in a Query Total block to show how many items your loop is pulling—perfect for archives, search results, or category pages.

One‑Click Blog‑Page Setup

Need to tell WordPress which page holds all your posts? In the Site Editor’s page list, hover a page and hit “Set as posts page.” No more hunting through Settings.

Cleaner Admin Views

Managing content in the back end just got friendlier:

• Grid view can now show a content preview—see post excerpts or page snippets at a glance.
• List view tables let you toggle between compact or spacious density. Pack ’em in or give ’em room to breathe.

Little Touches That Matter

They say the devil’s in the details—well, 6.8 chased him down:

• Buttons and menus now say “Add Item” (not “Add New Item”) for consistency.
• The Date Format screen adds two new presets—pick a style without crafting a custom string.
• Canva embeds via oEmbed—paste your Canva link right into the editor and voilà, your design appears.
• Accessibility tweaks everywhere: tighter focus outlines, clearer link text, smoother form‑control navigation.

Under the Hood: Dev‑Friendly Upgrades

If you build or tweak plugins and themes, you’ll appreciate:

• Bulk block registration with wp_register_block_types_from_metadata_collection().
• Official Interactivity API best practices for dynamic blocks.
• A new REST API filter so you can expose your menus publicly—handy for headless setups.
• Better localization for PHPMailer errors and plugin‑update emails.
• Block Hooks now work on synced patterns.
• The option to hide “Disable the visual editor” in user profiles.
• Fresh contextual body classes to fine‑tune your custom CSS.

That’s the scoop on WordPress 6.8—speed, security, style, and a handful of tweaks that make daily work a little smoother. Once you’re backed up, hit Update, then poke around in Appearance → Design, click on your images, and hover over links to feel the difference. Enjoy!

Or, you may have heard of the WordPress playground where you can spin up a free version of WordPress in your browser and test the new version of WP or most anything WordPress-related. I made a short video about the quick setup-and-run WordPress Playground:

The post What’s New in WordPress 6.8 appeared first on White Label PLR for WordPress Training.

Let’s begin with an introduction to this new release of WordPress. Then we’ll move on to the Font Library, something I called (maybe others have also) Image Cropping Override or ICO if you are one of the cool kids. Then I touch on the New Data Views wherre the site editor is getting more and more like the post and page editor. Or is it the other way around.

Oh and then it is on to the new revisions updates and then the catch-all segment that I call the miscellanious stuff.

What’s New in WordPress 6.5 – An Introduction

WordPress version 6.5 brings several exciting changes and additions. This eBook provides an overview of the key new features and improvements in the latest WordPress release.

Holding Off on Major Updates

When a major WordPress update like 6.5 is released, it’s advisable to wait a few days before updating your site. This allows time for any initial bugs to be identified and resolved.

However, minor updates that contain important security patches should be applied immediately to keep your site secure.

Backup Before Updating

Before performing any WordPress update, whether major or minor, always create a fresh full backup of your site files and database. This ensures you can restore your site if any issues occur during the update process.

Accessing the New Versions’ About Page

After updating to WordPress 6.5, you’ll see the “About” page highlighting what’s new. You can return to this page anytime by going to yourdomain.com/wp-admin/about.php or clicking the “Learn more” link in the Dashboard welcome banner.

New Features in WordPress 6.5

Font Library

The biggest addition in WordPress 6.5 is the much-anticipated Font Library. This allows you to add and manage fonts directly within WordPress for your block themes. We’ll cover this feature in-depth in an upcoming section.

Cover and Group Block Enhancements

WordPress 6.5 introduces more options for using images in Cover and Group blocks, such as:

• Drop shadow effects
• Image aspect ratio locking in Cover blocks

These improvements will be detailed in their own classes in this mini-series.

List View Improvements

The List View in the post/page editor keeps getting better with each major WordPress release. In 6.5, you can now rename (almost) every one of the blocks for improved organization.

Upcoming Changes

Some features that are still in development may or may not make it into the final 6.5 release, such as:

• Partially synced block patterns (currently a bit buggy)
• Major revisions to the Styles interface

However, there are many confirmed design, performance, and accessibility improvements we’ll highlight later in these classes.

For Developers

WordPress 6.5 brings continued iterations to the Site Editor, with the goal of creating a more cohesive editing experience alongside the post/page editor.

Developers can also look forward to:

• Interactivity API for more engaging user experiences
• Improved block registration and variations
• Updates to the HTML API and Tag Processor

For full technical details, check out the WordPress 6.5 Field Guide and release notes.

That covers the high-level changes coming in WordPress 6.5. The rest of these classes in this mini-series will take a closer look at the key new features and enhancements for users and developers.

Before we move on to those, here is my video (over-the-shoulder-style) version of the introduction to What’s New in WordPress 6.5

What’s New in WordPress 6.5: Rename Any Block in List View

WordPress 6.5 introduces an exciting update to the List View that allows you to rename any block for better content organization. This feature extends the block renaming capability first introduced for Group blocks in WordPress 6.4.

To rename a block in List View:

1. Open the List View in the block editor
2. Select the block you want to rename
3. Click the three-dot (kabob) menu on the right
4. Choose “Rename” from the dropdown options
5. Enter your desired name for the block
6. Save your changes
   This enhancement provides several key benefits:
7. Improved content structure for users – Quickly understand and navigate content by using custom labels for blocks.
8. Intuitive block editing for theme authors – Offer a more user-friendly experience within theme templates and patterns.
9. Precise content management for admins – Gain greater control and implement tailored strategies for organizing site content.

Most core blocks can be freely renamed, with a few exceptions to maintain clarity and core functionality, such as core/block, core/template-part, core/pattern, and core/navigation blocks.

For developers, block renaming is enabled by default. Third-party block authors can opt-out of allowing renaming by setting "renaming": false in the block’s block.json file.

WordPress 6.5’s block renaming improvements in List View bring a new level of flexibility and control to content organization, benefiting users, theme authors, and site administrators alike.

What’s New in WordPress 6.5: Font Library

WordPress 6.5 introduces the much-anticipated Font Library, allowing you to add and manage custom fonts directly within the WordPress Site Editor.

This feature eliminates the need for additional plugins or theme-dependence for typography customization.

To access the Font Library:

1. Go to Appearance > Editor in your WordPress admin dashboard
2. Open the Styles panel by clicking the half-circle icon
3. Select Typography
4. Click the new “Manage fonts” button on the right
   The Font Library offers three key functionalities:
5. Library tab – View all fonts from your theme and those installed via the Font Library.
6. Upload tab – Upload font files directly from your computer using the drag-and-drop area.
7. Google Fonts tab – Browse and install fonts from the Google Fonts library.

When you select a font from the Google Fonts tab, you can choose which variants to install for your website. These fonts are then stored locally in the /wp-content/uploads/fonts directory for optimal performance.

It’s important to note that the Font Library is currently only available for block themes. After installing your desired fonts, you’ll need to apply them to your site using the Styles panel in the Site Editor.
For developers, the Font Library supports registering custom font collections, allowing you to curate specific sets of fonts for your theme or plugin users.

WordPress 6.5’s Font Library feature empowers users to take control of their website typography, offering an intuitive, performance-optimized solution for adding and managing custom fonts.

Let’s have a look at this new font library.

What’s New in WordPress 6.5: Image Cropping Override

WordPress 6.5 introduces a new “image cropping override” feature for the Cover block, allowing you to maintain the aspect ratio of background images on mobile devices.

Prior to this update, the Cover block would crop background images on mobile to prioritize displaying the block’s text content. This sometimes resulted in awkwardly cropped or mostly hidden images.
Now, with the image cropping override:

1. Both the text and background image will remain visible on mobile screens
2. You can set a specific aspect ratio for the background image
3. The image will be cropped and scaled to fit the chosen aspect ratio

To use the image cropping override:

1. Select your Cover block
2. Open the block settings in the sidebar
3. Go to the Style tab
4. Scroll down to the Aspect Ratio setting
5. Choose your desired aspect ratio from the dropdown (e.g., 16:9, 4:3, square)

By setting an aspect ratio, you ensure that your Cover block’s background image displays consistently across devices, without sacrificing the visibility of your text content.

This enhancement gives you greater control over the visual presentation of your Cover blocks, enabling you to create more engaging, mobile-friendly designs.

WordPress 6.5’s image cropping override for the Cover block is a valuable addition for anyone looking to create visually striking, responsive content that looks great on any screen size.

What’s New in WordPress 6.5: New Data Views

WordPress 6.5 introduces an enhanced “data view” for the Site Editor, providing a more cohesive editing experience between the Site Editor and the post/page editors.

This update brings the Site Editor’s template management interface closer in appearance and functionality to the familiar post and page editing screens.
To access the new data view:

1. Go to Appearance > Editor in your WordPress admin dashboard
2. Click on the “Templates” option
3. Select “Manage All Templates” at the bottom of the screen
   Compared to the template management in WordPress 6.4, the new data view in 6.5 offers:
4. More information for each template on hover
5. Checkboxes for bulk actions
6. Filters for easier navigation
7. Grid view option to preview templates without opening them

The grid view, in particular, allows you to visually browse and compare different templates, making it simpler to find the one you need.

Similar enhancements have been made to the page management screen, accessible via Pages > Manage All Pages. However, the grid view for pages is still a work in progress and may not display previews consistently yet.

For developers, these updates to the Site Editor’s data view are part of a larger effort to create a more unified editing experience across all aspects of WordPress.

As WordPress continues to evolve, users can expect to see further refinements to the Site Editor interface, making

What’s New in WordPress 6.5: Revisions Update

WordPress 6.5 brings a much-improved Revisions feature, with the majority of updates focused on Styles revisions. However, there is also a small update for your Templates and Template Parts revisions. Let’s take a closer look at what’s new.

Accessing Revisions

To access the updated Revisions feature in WordPress 6.5:

1. Open the Site Editor
2. Go to Styles
3. Click the Revisions icon (clock hand with circled arrow) in the top right corner

This will display a pop-out with the number of revisions in your history. Clicking on this pop-out will show those revisions in the right sidebar.

Comparing Revisions

In WordPress 6.4, clicking on the Revisions icon for Templates or Template Parts would take you to the old revisions interface. But in 6.5, the Styles revisions interface has been greatly improved.

You can now easily toggle between different revisions by simply clicking on them in the sidebar. This allows you to quickly see what your site looked like at each saved revision point.

If you want to revert to a previous revision, it’s just a matter of clicking the “Apply” button. The selected revision will then be applied to your current site styles.

Previewing with Style Book

A handy addition in WordPress 6.5 is the ability to preview how a past revision looks on different parts of your site using the Style Book.

While in the Revisions screen with a past revision selected:

1. Click on the Style Book icon in the top toolbar
2. Toggle between different pages in your navigation

This allows you to see how that revision’s styles affect various pages across your site, giving you a more comprehensive preview before deciding to revert.

Template & Template Part Revisions

Although the main improvements are in Styles revisions, Templates and Template Parts also received a small update.

In WordPress 6.5, the Revisions interface for Templates and Template Parts now matches the updated Styles revisions interface. You’ll see the same clock hand icon and sidebar functionality for navigating between revisions.

However, this only applies if you have existing saved revisions for your Templates or Template Parts. The demo site used in this guide did not have any yet.

Overall, the enhanced Revisions feature in WordPress 6.5, especially for Styles, provides a more user-friendly and efficient way to manage and preview your site’s revision history. This improved functionality is a welcome addition for anyone regularly working with Full Site Editing.

What’s New in WordPress 6.5: Miscellaneous Updates

In addition to the major new features, WordPress 6.5 includes a variety of smaller enhancements and updates that are worth exploring. Let’s take a look at some of these miscellaneous items.

AVIF Image Format Support

WordPress 6.5 now supports the AVIF image format, alongside the existing WebP, JPEG, and PNG formats. AVIF offers better quality images at smaller file sizes compared to JPEGs.

To learn more about AVIF support in WordPress 6.5, check out the official dev note:
https://make.wordpress.org/core/2023/02/23/wordpress-6-5-adds-avif-support/

Template Previews in Post Editor

When editing a post, you can now preview what it would look like in different templates. This feature is limited to block-based themes.

To preview a post in different templates:

1. Open the post editor
2. Next to the “Template” panel in the sidebar, click on the current template name
3. Choose “Preview” from the dropdown options

This will display a preview of your post using the selected template. The preview window uses the same interface as the Site Editor.

Right-Click for Block Options

In the post/page editor, you can now simply right-click on a block to open its options menu. Previously, you had to click on the three-dot kebab menu in the block toolbar.

This small change makes accessing block options quicker and more intuitive.

Drag-and-Drop Image Galleries

When working with images in the post/page editor, you can now drag and drop an image next to an existing image block to automatically convert it into a Gallery block.

Here’s how it works:

1. Insert an Image block and add your first image
2. Drag another image from your computer and hover next to the existing Image block
3. Drop the new image when you see the blue insertion line appear

The Image block will automatically convert into a Gallery block containing both images. This enhancement makes creating image galleries faster and more streamlined.

Link Preview Improvements

WordPress 6.5 introduces an improved link preview feature in the post/page editor. When adding a link to text:

1. Select the text you want to link
2. Click the “Link” button in the toolbar
3. Start typing to search for the page/post you want to link to
4. Select the desired page/post from the search results

The link preview window now remains open after inserting a link, allowing you to easily copy the link URL or make further edits. This is an improvement over previous versions, where the window would close immediately after adding a link.

Partially Synced Patterns (Postponed)

It’s worth noting that the Partially Synced Patterns feature, which was originally planned for WordPress 6.5, has been postponed to the next major release due to some remaining bugs and issues. This feature will allow better pattern synchronization between the Site Editor and post editor.

These are just a few of the many smaller enhancements and updates included in WordPress 6.5, alongside the larger features like the Font Library and updated Revisions interface.

For a full list of changes, you can refer to the official WordPress 6.5 Release Notes and Field Guide, which provide more technical details on everything new in this release.

The post What’s New in WordPress 6.5 appeared first on White Label PLR for WordPress Training.

You have spent the last several weeks or longer building your website. You have followed all the ‘guru’ guides, so you know your site is solid.

The thing many of these guru types do not tell you is building the site is a small part of the process. That tired saying of “build it and they will come” (I did not see the movie, so I’m guessing on the exact words) is a bit of a lie. Well, as far as website traffic is concerned.

Whether you are or want to be an affiliate or content marketer, run an e-commerce store, or a blogger, you will need the traffic to get eyeballs on your content.

What do you mean there is no such thing as Free Traffic?

To begin with, you need to know is that there is no such thing as free traffic.

Wait, what?

The words ‘Free Traffic’ is in the title of this article!!

Yes, that is true but hear me out.

While you’ll not be paying for it as you would with ‘money-out-of-your-pocket’ paid traffic (for example, Google Adwords, Facebook, or YouTube advertising), you’ll still be paying for free traffic with your TIME… and effort. Remember, you can always make more money, but you cannot make more time. Everybody only has 24 hours in a day.

Make no mistake about that. There’s always a cost involved.

As they say, time is money. You’ll need to put in a lot of time if you’re using free methods to drive traffic to your site. 

There is good news: your efforts will pay off many times over in the future, and organic traffic converts better than cold, paid traffic.

Let me say that again, so it sinks in.

Organic traffic does convert better than cold, paid traffic. And organic traffic is what shows up when you put these Free Traffic Fundamentals in place.

Now let’s look at the six fundamentals you need to master.

6 Fundamentals you must get right to generate Free Traffic

1. The value should always be at the top of the list.

Regardless of what source you are using, whether it is YouTube or Facebook Groups, or Pinterest, to build a loyal audience who likes and trusts you – you MUST deliver outstanding value.

That means creating quality content that helps your niche audience. Share your best tips and techniques with others. When you do that, your audience will believe that your product is even better than what you’re offering. They’ll also be interested in your other tips. What does that mean? It means they’ll sign up for your email list, join your Facebook group, etc. They want to be kept up to date with your latest content. So do not skimp on value. Provide them with your BEST!

2. Put out lots of content.

Posting new content every week is an excellent way to keep your audience engaged. The more content you put out there, the more people will see your videos, images, and posts. As long as your posts are well optimized for the search engines on each platform, you will eventually get organic traffic. So, aim to post daily! If, for example, you are using YouTube as your free-traffic source, then a video a day is excellent, or if that’s too much, how about two videos per week? You must be consistent and frequent.

3. On-Page SEO – Pay attention to it.

On-page optimization is important, but off-page optimization is even more important. Off-page optimization includes link building, social media marketing, and other ways to get people to notice you. You should also use keywords in your title tags and description tags. Of course, there is much more to consider when talking about on and off-page SEO, but this article is about the fundamentals and not so much of a deep dive into each.

4. Put your focus on ONLY ONE traffic source at a time.

Trying to spread your efforts across several different traffic sources will only weaken your results and could even hurt them. The key to succeeding in free traffic is to focus on one traffic method at a time.

For example, if you choose YouTube as your main traffic source, then your focus should be on making engaging videos that get views. Once you’ve mastered YouTube and you’re consistently getting good results, now you may venture into testing other traffic methods (for example, social media groups).

You should ideally be earning enough from YouTube to allow you to hire someone to help you with the next step. This should free up your time so you can focus on the next step.

The goal is to keep and grow the traffic from YouTube or whatever source you choose to master first.

The YouTube example I mentioned is just to give you an idea of how to approach it. However, the principle applies to any free traffic method regardless of which one you choose.

5. Having patience will pay off big-time.

Free traffic is a long game. Unlike paid traffic, which gives you fast feedback, free traffic requires patience. When your free traffic begins to flow and it will, it is going to snowball.

I see many beginners that give up after 1 or 2 months because they think that what they have been doing is not working. They just need to give it at least eight to twelve months. That’s way too long? Well, Rome was not built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour.

With each new piece of content you post, you’ll be building up your online brand and empire. It is going to take a bit of time and effort, but nothing worthwhile comes easy. Keep working on it.

6. Always be yourself

Most platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, etc., are now very sophisticated and even intuitive. The algorithms can spot people who are trying to game the system from miles away. So, avoid taking those shortcuts by posting multiple duplicate videos on YouTube with different titles (to get more free traffic). Instead, point your focus to creating high-quality content that will attract organic views. You might just end up getting your channel shut down.

The same applies to most platforms. Always be ‘natural’ and avoid keyword stuffing. Think like the people who use the platform. Don’t think like a marketer. 

People like watching new and interesting videos on YouTube. Give that to them, and you will see success. Similarly, Instagram and Pinterest users tend to be attracted to beautiful images. You can gain lots of likes and repins by giving people what they want. It’s all about providing the right content at the right time and in the right place. The platform’s algorithm will reward you for your effort with more reach and favorable social metrics.

Since you read this far…

Here are two bonus tips and fundamentals for free traffic generation.

1. Interact, Engage & Join In

Yea, yea yea, I know they all mean the same thing but the point is to communicate with your subscribers. When using a Facebook group to drive traffic, engage with the people in your group. It’s called social media for a reason. You have to be social for this to work.

If you’re posting videos on YouTube, you need to reply to those comments on your videos, and do not forget to thank the people who engage with your video content. Doing this is how you build goodwill and loyalty. Think of how you feel when you comment on someone else’s videos, and they reply directly to you. That is the feeling you want your followers to have.

While you may not have to reply to all the comments you receive on your YouTube videos, just replying to the first five or so will show that you are present and listening to your audience.

2. Begin to or continue to build your email list.

Repeat after me – “I will NOT build my house on rented land!”

There are several high-traffic platforms you can use to pull traffic from, but you need to be careful when using them. It is smart to understand you are playing with someone else’s ball and glove (or whatever that saying is), and breaking the rules they put in place will get your account shut down pretty quick – aka, they will take their ball and glove and go home.

This kind of thing is a very real situation that has happened to many many marketers. Some of these are big-name marketers, so it can happen to anyone.

This happens all too often, so if that ball drops on your head, having an email list will lessen the feel of that gut punch. One of the best ways to prevent this from happening will be to have links in the various social media services you are using, pointing viewers/readers to one of your landing pages. This way, you can capture their emails in an autoresponder service you use. Services like Aweber, MailChimp, or ConvertKit work great for this.

The email list you build is just that – yours! It is one of your most valuable assets. 

Make sure your people coming from your free traffic sources have multiple avenues to get on your list. One of the best’ avenues’ I use is an exit-intent popup. Combine that with a free offer in exchange for their best email address, and you are on the right track.

Not only will you be able to begin and build a relationship with them, but if that social media platform you are using shuts you down, you’ll still have your growing subscriber list. So all is not lost. The power of your email list lets you continue marketing to your list while you rebuild. While this may sound tough, it is just the way things work in this online business world.

Also, do regular backups of the content you are putting into these other platforms. So if that service drops you, then you still have your content that you can put back on the same platform under a different account (as long as that is allowed) or post to a different platform altogether.

Keep these free fundamentals and tips in mind while you are working on getting that free traffic. These tips and techniques may come across as simple and almost obvious at a glance, but you would be surprised just how many marketers either flat out ignore or simply do not do them.

So let us put a bow on this and wrap things up. For you to get free traffic using social media platforms, you need to develop your profile and create intriguing and valuable content. It doesn’t take a room of rocket scientists to figure that out, but it does take hard work and consistent effort. The rewards are worth the effort, and your investment in time and energy will pay off over the long term.

The post 6 of the Best Free Traffic Fundamentals You MUST Get Right! appeared first on White Label PLR for WordPress Training.

SEO practices as we know them today are very different from what they have been over time. Not long ago, many people said that the best way to get to the top of the search engine rankings was to post as much content as humanly possible. And use a lot of keywords to the point the article made zero sense to humans but search engines loved them. It was always more on volume.

Basically, it was about quantity over quality.

Nowadays, all that has changed. The exact opposite approach is the only viable option. In this post, we’ll look at the very best SEO strategies and why they are what they are.

The thing about search engines is, they don’t care about your tricks.

Search Engines only care about what your site contains. That’s why content is crucial when it comes to SEO. There may be some days you’re having a bit of trouble with your site’s quality. But just look at how many websites get zillions of pageviews but contain almost nothing of value. If your site is not rich with valuable content, you are wasting your time getting fancy with your website design and other “tricks.”

Some experts say website design has almost no effect on rankings whatsoever.

SEO: Before and After

When Google became the number one search engine, everyone scrambled to figure out how to get to the top of the search results. Google was quite simple back then, fortunately, though, that meant it didn’t take long to decipher precisely what Google’s algorithm involved and how to exploit it.

Back then, Google used two basic methods to try and index content.

The first method was to look for inbound links. Google’s spiders would follow links to find new pages on the web and view them as testimonials. The more links your site had, the more popular it was considered to be, and the main conclusion was that this would be a reflection of quality.

At the same time, Google would search for exact keyword matches to determine the site’s subject matter. If a certain phrase was repeated enough in the text, it would mean that that phrase must be highly important, and it would make sense to show the site when people searched for that term.

But this system had the drawback of being too simple and too easy to control. It was just a matter of time before people began filling up their websites with multiple uses of the same keywords, and some of those even have lots of low-quality (often paid) links. In other words, Google’s search results pages began to fill up with spam.

What’s New with SEO?

As a result, Google had to update its algorithms, and we now see something much more sophisticated. Today, Google uses advanced algorithms that consider the time that visitors spend on every web page, the quality of their respective inbound links, and the use of synonyms and other correlated terms.

Any attempt to try and trick the system will give out a huge risk for your site to be penalized or even de-indexed. The conclusion is that Google is now much more relevant in terms of the results it brings up.

Then what are search engine optimizers supposed to do now?

Should they work smarter and think of new tricks? Should they try and work on another new algorithm? Of course, that’s what everyone is clamoring to do, but that’s all missing the point. The main point is that Google doesn’t want us to play around and mess up its results. Stop the SEO Shenanigans because if ever in the future, we find a reliable system that we can exploit to get to the top of the SERPs; then Google will just change its workings again.

If you want to ensure futureproofing in SEO, you must create a very high-quality site that is particularly relevant to your target audience. If you do that, your goals will be aligned with Google, and any future updates will only help your site perform even better!

The post SEO Shenanigans No Longer Work appeared first on White Label PLR for WordPress Training.

You’ll probably get 100 different answers if you ask that question of 100 people. The problem is that many marketing ‘experts’ are still stuck in the past regarding the best ways to get a post to the top of Google, which can result in a lot of poor content and a lot of lost time.

When creating SEO Friendly posts some of the best ways are pretty simple, so let’s read about it here and dive into what you need to know.

Adding Value to Your Article

It would be better to know a bit of the mindset of Google so you could write one of the best SEO-friendly articles. What is Google trying to attain?

The answer is simple: it wants to help its users by linking them to the highest quality and most relevant content that it can find.

As a result, any signals you can send to Google indicating that your material is of high quality and relevance will help your SEO. The question is, just how are you going to do that.

Including outbound links to other valuable resources relevant to your site’s content is a great example. Including those links would show Google that you’re interested in providing as much information as possible to your readers. It aligns you with high-quality sites and provides references to back up your claims (suggesting accuracy).

Here are ten tips from Yoast on writing an SEO friendly blog post

However, this does not mean that “every article needs at least two outward bound links.”‘. This is completely missing the point as it would generate a predictable pattern on your site that will look like manipulation. Link out when it is relevant and valuable, and don’t be skeptical about it.

It’s also for this same reason that Google likes to see lengthy content – of around 800 words+. While reports vary, people generally think that the ideal content length for SEO is about 1,800 words, which will boost your chances of being featured as News.

Get your Point Across

It’s tough to see, but some SEO companies would still think that an SEO article can only be good if they use the exact keywords repeatedly. That alone can affect many readers’ experiences. The use of keywords is usually one of the quickest ways to have your content marked as spam by visitors on your site, if not by Google.

Instead, keywords should rarely be used. A density of around 1-2% is suggested but only when appropriate and naturally fits with the content. This is another reason to write longer-form content, though, as longer posts will have more space for repetitive keyword use.

Synonyms and related terms are just as significant, if not more so than the terms themselves.
Try to write around the subject and use some associated words that fit your content naturally. This can play a more prominent and more significant role in the future.

Make a Plan for Your Articles

To make sure you have an SEO-friendly article or post, you have to develop a clear structure. This means that every post should have:

An introduction (here you provide an overview of your topic);

A body (this would be the main content and where you get to know everything about the topic);

A conclusion (a simple summary of the article and create a final statement)

This will help you create a structured and readable blog post and make things much easier for your readers.

Readability

Finally, properly space out your content and use the headings that you see fit. Use large fonts with a narrative, user-friendly structure. This will help people stay on your pages for much longer, and that’s one of the other things that Google looks for when ranking content.

The post Creating SEO Friendly Posts appeared first on White Label PLR for WordPress Training.

What Is The WordPress Customizer

While it is helpful and straightforward to use, it is very limited in what it can do.

Chances are pretty good that you are reading this inside of a web browser. Most browsers these days have a built-in tool that lets you see & inspect the source code of that site you are on.

Depending on the browser, this tool may be called Inspect (Chrome) or Inspect Element.

NOTE: The first time you look for this in Microsoft Edge, you’ll first need to use the F12 key along the top row of your keyboard.

To access this power-tool, go to your WordPress site (or any website) and right-click on it. Then usually close to the bottom of your context menu will be the option for Element or Inspect Element.

Left-click, then a separate pane opens. Here is a goldmine of knowledge for a Developer or a bunch of gibberish for most anyone else that has never seen the source code of a web site before.

Here you can make changes to the source code and

see in real-time what that change looks like WITHOUT messing up the site – even if it is not your site.

Here is a quick example of me changing the USA Todays Headline:

Okay so that was fun but seriously though, my point is that you can make on-the-fly edits using the free tools hidden in your browser.

“Neat Trick But I’m Busy – Why Should I Learn This Tool“

There a loads more things you can do with this Inspect tool.
You can see what your (or any) website looks like on different devices. What SEO keywords a site is targeting.

Maybe you want to see if your site is loading too slow if you use the Google PageSpeed test.

Maybe as a content creator, you get tired of blurring out yours or others’ email addresses and names that find their way onto your screenshots. As I demonstrated in the mini-video above, you can first pull up your screenshot area, use Inspect Element and remove the text altogether. Then take the screenshot.

Quicker and looks better.

Maybe doing the email back & forth trying to describe to a Support Agent what and/or where the problem is on your site. With Inspect Element, you can show them much more easily while saving a ton of time in the process.

Maybe you want to see what your header would look like with a shade of blue instead of that hideous pink.
I am not judging. Okay, maybe a little.

These are just a few of the things this free tool can do for you.

Here is a link to a guide from Lifewire. It mainly shows ways to access the tool within different browsers.
https://www.lifewire.com/get-inspect-element-tool-for-browser-756549

Another option is to use your favorite search engine.

Search the phrase “how to use inspect element” if you leave in the quotation marks, you will narrow the search.

The main reason I wanted to point out the power of the Instepct Element browser tool, is that any changes you make with it using CSS, you can copy that CSS code and paste it in the Additional CSS section in the WordPress Customizer as I showed in videos 31, 32 & 33 in PLR4WP Volume 14. </shamless self-promoting plug>

The WordPress Customizer is a great tool but remember the Inspect Element tool is there to help when you need it.

Comment below if you have used Inspect Element and maybe a little about what you used it for.

Steve Dougherty

The post Power Up Your WordPress Customizer With Inspect Element appeared first on White Label PLR for WordPress Training.

Security is as important to your website as the monetization of your website. Since WordPress is an open source platform, the original source code is made available to the public for modification.

You don’t want to give a hacker free access to the very power house of your website.

Do You?

Taking a few precautionary measures to protect your website is a step in the right direction.

Today I will be teaching you the basics of WordPress security.

1: Don’t use the “default” admin username

WordPress comes with a default username “admin”.

An experienced blogger or WordPress user always knows the importance of deleting this default username and coming up with a customized username.

Come to think of it, it’s just human nature to identify with originality. So for the sake of originality as well as security – don’t use ‘admin’.

Besides being very common, every hacker’s first attempt at hacking a WordPress website is trying the username ‘admin’ and then trying to guess the password.

That gives them 50% of the access right there.
That brings me to my next tip.

2: Use strong passwords

If you remember nothing else from this article, remember this:

Avoid Clowns With Red Balloons AND ALWAYS USE STRONG PASSWORDS.

Strong passwords are NOT your dog’s birthday or some easy to guess number or phrase.

A strong password is a combination of 12 or more unique characters.  Characters like upper & lower case letters, numbers and special characters like $#*!@.

Tools like RoboForm and LastPass could come in handy to help you generate strong & unique passwords, AND remembering them.

Also, don’t write passwords on post-it notes and stick them on your monitor for the world to see.

Plus it is a good idea to change that login password regularly.

I believe both RoboForm & LastPass have built-in reminders to let you know when it is a good idea to change those passwords. There are some security plugins for WordPress that can do this also & I’ll get to the plugin stuff in a bit.

3: WordPress Hosting

Recently, the big players in the website hosting industry go the extra mile in protecting their servers against threats. The onus lies on you though, to do your research and find the right hosting for your WordPress site with a reasonable level of security.

Because of the vulnerability of shared hosting, a hosting platform where multiple users share the same server, the risk of having a hacker attack a neighboring website is very high.

Hosting providers like NameHero (affiliate) and Liquid Web (affiliate) provide very reliable hosting with a good amount of security. Plus their support is top notch.

4: Install a WordPress backup solution

We understand that there is no ultimate solution to internet security. Even the White House can be hacked.

The idea is not to eliminate but to reduce the chances of being hacked.

Backup solutions help you recover your files and information in case of any problem or attack. At best, we suggest storing it on a cloud service like Amazon or Dropbox.

Do NOT store those backups on the server where the site is located.

If the site is compromised then there is a chance those backups are as well.

5: Install WordPress security plugin

For security reasons, you may want to keep track of everything that happens on your website like file integrity monitoring, failed login attempts, malware scanning, etc.

The good news is, there is a unique plugin that can take care of these and the coolest part is, it’s free! The name is Sucuri Scanner.

A quick search on WordPress.org will give you more possibilities.

6: Delete unused plugins & themes

Delete all unused plugins & themes, as this can create loopholes that hackers can use to easily gain access to your website.

Old and unused plugins and themes are some of the primary factors that can attract malware attacks and many other website issues. Only download plugins and themes from a well-known source. It is advisable to download your plugins and themes from WordPress itself since they will have been scanned before being placed on their site

There are more security items you can put in place like 2-step authentication, Web Application Firewall, and adding code to your sites htaccess file, but the items I’ve covered here will be a great start in discouraging the average hackers and get them moving on to the next less secure site.

One last thing, ALWAYS* keep your WordPress site core files up to date. Also your plugins and themes.

I would like to hear from you. What are the security challenges you are facing?

*Regarding updates to the main core files of your WordPress site. Basically wait 3 or 4 days after a major update is released before adding to your site. Apply Minor or security updates immediately. 

The post WordPress Security In 6 General Tips appeared first on White Label PLR for WordPress Training.