DrawIt – the diagram creation tool for WordPress

Hello friends,

In this post I will present to you one solution that I am certain that you are going to fall in love with. Especially if your website aims to provide detailed graphical information about processes or services or something else.

Presenting: DrawIt – the diagram creation tool for WordPress.

What is DrawIt?

This is a WordPress plugin that you can download, install and activate for free. When you do this your visual and text editors will receive new functions that will allow you to create and insert beautiful diagrams in your posts and pages.

DrawIt utilizes the draw.io website. However (according to the plugin development team) it is not affiliated with them.

This WordPress plugin is an Open Source software.

How to work with DrawIt?

I have already presented the way of getting the plugin up and running on your website. Now you have to adjust some settings which are quite optional, but still – you should check them out.

In order to do this head to the WordPress admin panel. Choose Settings -> DrawIt (draw.io).

From there you can adjust the following:

• Whether or not to create, save and upload SVG images to your WordPress website:
  Here the plugin will warn you that this file format is known for its negative security implications. This is especially true if you allow the upload of SVG files from untrusted sources. So by default this option is disabled. If you want to enable it, DrawIt recommends the installation of another WordPress plugin called Safe SVG. The latter will be able to “sanitize” the SVG files so that you can be sure that they cannot cause security issues with your WordPress website;
• Default image type:
  In case you decide not to enable the usage of SVG files the only default format will be PNG.
• Enable the frontend-based editors;
• Override other plugins disabling the frontend buttons;
• Use insecure version for SVG images:
  This will allow the links in SVG to be clickable, but introduces security holes. That is why it is recommended to leave this option disabled (in case you want to use SVG files in the first place).
• Choose the default temporary directory:
  It can be either the hosting OS temp location or the wp-content/uploads directory of your WordPress website. This folder stores images only during the process of their creation. The final image is moved to your WordPress library and can be accessed by the Media menu;

Now you can go ahead and create your first diagram directly into your WordPress visual editor. Create a new post or a page.

By clicking on the button in the toolbar you will be provided access to a new window which has all the necessary tools for the diagram creation. When you are done with your work simply click on Save and the image will be stored in the WordPress library and automatically inserted into the post or a page that you are creating.

In case you want to insert a previously created diagram you can do this from the Add Media button and proceed like you do with regular images stored in the library. However in the Media Library you will notice a new link that provides access to the diagram editor and you can create a new diagram and insert it automatically when done.

If you are a fan of the WordPress Text editor you can click on the DrawIt button and the editor will show once again.

Simple as that!

So what do you think? Will you use DrawIt for your WordPress websites? Share any thoughts and questions in the comment section below.

See you soon, friends!

*The screenshots in the post are from the WordPress.org page of the plugin.

Protect your WordPress images with Image Watermark

Hello friends,

Do you want to protect your uploaded images from theft? There are several ways to do this however one of the most popular ones is to add a watermark to them. This will not prohibit your visitors of downloading them, however the chances to use them on other websites will be highly reduced. The reason for this is because they will be popularizing your website by presenting your watermark and their visitors will know that the image is not genuine. So in other words they will have to be making free advertising for your own WordPress website on one hand and on the other – they will be confessing that they are using stolen images.

So in this post I will be presenting the plugin Image Watermark and its ability to protect your WordPress images.

What exactly is a watermark?

This is some text or image (or both) that is placed on another image. The idea is that the watermark will not prevent the users from seeing the content of the image it protects but it will make it almost impossible to steal it and modify it. The typical watermark is with reduced opacity or almost completely translucent. It is placed either in the center of the image and thus covering almost all of it or is situated in some of the image’s corners.

Another type of watermark is a non-translucent image which replaces some of the protected image’s content and is usually placed in the corners.

Bear in mind that the corner placement of the watermarks reduces the protection as the image can simply be cropped and it will no longer have a watermark. However this type of watermark protection ensures that your visitors will get a good-looking picture. So it’s up to you to decide.

How to use Image Watermark?

Download, install and activate the plugin. Then head to Settings in your WordPress admin panel. There you will get a new menu called Watermark. In it you have to adjust a few settings:

• Select the watermark image that you are going to use;
• Turn off the watermark protection if needed;
• Watermark preview – here you will see the watermark image that you have decided to use;
• Watermark size – define whether to use the original size of the watermark or some scaled or custom sizes. You have to define the latter in pixels for both width and height. The scaling of the watermark (should you choose to use this setting) needs to be defined in percentages;
• Watermark transparency / opacity – here you have to define how translucent will be your watermark. 0% means that it will be completely transparent and 100% means that it will have full opacity;
• Enable or disable watermark;
• Enable the watermark for a specific image size type or for all of them;
• Enable the watermark protection on selected post types only or everywhere on your WordPress website;

After you adjust these settings you have to save them.

Now you have to upload a new image to your WordPress media library. It will be protected with a watermark automatically! As for your previously uploaded images – simply head to the media library and manually apply the watermark to them.

Simple as that!

So what do you think, friends? Will you use Image Watermark for your WordPress websites? Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

See you soon, friends!

*The image above is embedded from the WordPress.org page of the plugin.

Responsive Lightbox by dFactory – [Review]

Hello friends,

In this post I will make a review on one plugin that will allow your website visitors to experience better image viewing on your posts and pages.

The plugin that will allow you to achieve this is called Responsive Lightbox by dFactory.

What does Responsive Lightbox by dFactory do?

It will simply add the beatiful lightbox (overlay) effect for your WordPress website. Thus your images will stand out when clicked upon. They will appear in a stylish window that will provide options for switching images and closing the current view. Also some info about the image will be presented as well.

What is so special about this plugin?

Responsive Lightbox by dFactory will not only present your images in style but it will also do this with consideration for the devices that your visitors are using to browse your WordPress website. This means that the lightbox effect will look great on any device due to its responsiveness. And let’s not forget that having an optimized responsive website is very important for SEO (especially for mobile optimization).

How to work with Responsive Lightbox by dFactory?

Begin by downloading the plugin (ether from WordPress.org or from the plugin installer system in your dashboard).

Then install and activate it. Next you need to set some settings in the admin panel of your WordPress website.

The General Settings are first.

There you need to decide what your default lightbox will look like. You can choose from SwipeBox, prettyPhoto, FancyBox, Nivo Lightbox, Image Lightbox, TosRUs, Featherlight.

Next you need to set up the rel selector that the effect will be applied to.

After this you have to decide whether or not to enable the effect for WordPress image links.

Next you can choose a single image title and then choose to display your images as a gallery or not. Speaking of galleries – Responsive Lightbox by dFactory can be enabled for them as well. You can even set the image size for them and the image title as well.

What is more important is that Responsive Lightbox by dFactory can be used to display embedded videos from YouTube and Vimeo in a stylish lightbox effect. You can read more on the topic of embedding videos from this post in our website.

Responsive Lightbox by dFactory can be enabled for widgets and comments. The plugin can be forced for different WordPress gallery replacements like Jetpack or Visual Composer galleries. Responsive Lightbox by dFactory can also replace the default product gallery lightbox from WooCommerce.

There are some other settings that you need to take care of before you go on to the next tab. Remember to save your changes.

The Lightbox tab is second.

Here you need to adjust stand-alone settings for each of the default lightbox effects. Simply select the one that you chose in the General tab and adjust its settings. The image below presents the options for SwipeBox:

Again you need to save your settings or progress will be lost. After you are done you can start enjoying your new lightbox effects.

This plugin also comes with its own *.pot file for translations.

A few words on the premium extensions for Responsive Lightbox by dFactory.

This plugin provides premium extensions that will enhance its functionality. For most website the free version will be enough but if you are aiming at providing premium experience for your visitors and you have the budget, you can consider bringing Responsive Lightbox by dFactory to another level by purchasing some (or all) of the extensions. The third tab in the plugin settings can provide more information as well as the official website of the plugin developers: dfactory.eu .

So what do you think friends? Will you give this plugin a try? Share any thoughts and questions in the comment section below.

See you soon, friends!

*The images are embedded from the WordPress.org page of the plugin

How to add animated GIF files to a WordPress post – tips & tricks

Hello friends,

In this post I will be speaking of the popular animated GIF files. You will find what are they and how can they be quite useful for your audience.

But the main thing that you are going to learn are some tips and tricks about how to add animated GIF files in your WordPress posts and pages the right way.

What are animated GIF files?

Animated GIF files are a set of slides (frames) that follow each other and thus create an animated effect. These media formats can end with a loop (i.e. start from the beginning automatically) or end when the final frame has passed. The animated GIFs can be used in various cases. I will share 3 of the most common ones:

• User avatars – quite useful especially if you are moderating a forum or a community website. Users will love to express themselves with animated avatars and GIF files are the best way of achieving this.
• Grab the users attention – animated GIFs can be used in your posts or pages as a means of grabbing your users’ attention. This can be useful only if the animation is relevant to the topic of the post.
• Demonstrations – it is said that an image is worth a 1000 words. Video is even more valuable. However making video presentations and demonstrations is not suitable for everyone who owns a website nor for every hosting. Thus the animated GIFs come to the scene. They can be used as video animations to demonstrate a specific activity (for example adding files to a WordPress post) and the can be created extremely easy by everyone. Also they can be managed as ordinary images and do not need a special hosting capabilities.

How to properly add animated GIF files to WordPress?

You can do this in several ways:

• Upload the animated GIF file as an ordinary multimedia file to the WordPress library.
• Upload the animated GIF file to a sub-domain, FTP server or some cloud storage solution and embed it in your WordPress posts and pages.
• Use the WordPress plugin Giphypress to easily search for suitable animated GIFs from Giphy and add them instantly to your posts and pages.

In case you want to go with the first option, you will have to bear in mind that WordPress will treat animated GIFs as ordinary GIF images. Therefore the different thumbnails that are going to be created will contain only the first frame of the file and it will not be animated at all.

So the solution here is to select ‘Full Size’ when adding the animated GIF file to your WordPress posts or pages as it will be the original one and it will contain all of its frames.

In case you decide to go with the second option you will have to find a reliable cloud solution or FTP server. Upload the files there or create a specified sub-domain for this purpose and use it as a storage for the GIF files. Then use the WordPress function to add multimedia from an external URL. Provide the link to the animated GIF file and add it to your post or page.

I need to inform you that the second option is my favorite one. It makes your website faster which is very important for SEO.

The third option is only suitable if you are using Giphy as a reliable source for great animated GIFs.

Simply download and install the plugin and then activate it. A new icon will appear in the visual WordPress editor that will allow you to search and add files from Giphy. Simple as that!

How to optimize animated GIFs for SEO?

An animated GIF is smaller than a video file but it still needs to be optimized. Even if you go with the second option you still need each file to be as small as possible. Try to find the most suitable combination between quality and file size when creating the GIF. Remember that smaller files result in quality loss. In case the software or the tool that you are using to create the animated GIF cannot optimize it enough you can try using this great online tool called Ezgif. It is an animated GIF editor and image editor. You will be able to create and optimize animated GIFs with ease! Remember that you still need to download the optimized file as it will soon be deleted from the Ezgif server.

When you are done simply upload it either to your WordPress website or to the external solution and you are done! Simple as that and you will have animated GIFs in your posts and pages.

That’s all folks! If you have any questions please share them in the comment section below. Don’t forget to share this post in social media as well.

See you soon!

What is CDN and how to use it to increase your website speed

Hello friends,

In this post I will share with you some useful information regarding SEO and image optimization.

And more specifically – what is CDN and how to use it to increase your website speed.

So what exactly is CDN?

CDN stands for Content Delivery Network. This type of network can help your server run faster by removing its obligation to provide static content (like images, css and javascript) when a page is loaded. This type of content is provided from various alternative server nodes that are spread worldwide. This means that if a user is trying to access/download something from your website (let’s say images for example), then they will be delivered from the nearest nodes (in geographical terms). Therefore the specific content will load faster on the user’s device and in the meantime your own server won’t be under additional pressure. It’s a win-win situation for both sides!

In other words CDN provides faster responses and content download times thanks to the effect of reduced latency.

How does a typical CDN work?

The typical Content Delivery Network consists of many servers that are geographically dispersed. The Nodes of the CDN are called edge servers. Their job is to cache the static content that you want to provide. Then your content is distributed to each of these nodes and it is stored there. Once this is done it will be accessed from the nearest to each visitor nodes and more specifically – it may be accessed from more than one node. So when a visitor lands on a specific page of your website, its loading time will be drastically reduced due to the fact that most of the content comes from the shortest distance and from different servers. And this short distance that the data travels is called reduced latency.

How to increase my website’s speed by using CDN?

First of all you have to find a suitable CDN provider. Then if you are happy with its pricing plans and features you have to tell the CDN which content should be cached on its nodes. This is also known as mirroring your data on the CDN. The next step is some basic configuration on your website so that each of the requests for accessing the chosen content are directed to the CDN and not to your own server/hosting.

If you are using a CMS like WordPress then the CDN implementation might be even easier. Most of the great CDN providers have plugins that you simply need to install and configure. This is extremely easy and after a few settings you are set up for using CDN.

Here are some honorable mentions that either have their own official WordPress plugin or are available for instant integration via most popular caching plugins or other custom/third party solutions:

• MaxCDN
• KeyCDN
• Amazon CloudFront
• CloudFlare
• Microsoft Azure CDN
• CDN77
• Jetpack Photon
• CDNify
• Fastly
• CDN.net

What are the pros and cons of using CDN?

Pros:

• Faster content delivery and response times for all visitors worldwide;
• Reduced main server load;
• Low or moderate difficulty of configuration (depends on the type of website and chosen provider);
• Provides “next-level” optimization for your website;
• Improves the overall SEO;
• Helps for higher rankings;
• There are free or cost-effective solutions which are suitable for smaller businesses or start-ups;

Cons:

• You still need to optimize your website and content;
• Some providers have high prices which might not fit into your budget;
• Your data is provided to a third-party service which might result in a loss of control and even blocked access;
• In some situations a CDN implementation might not be needed – for example if all of your visits come from near locations and your website is already fully optimized so that the responses are quite fast;
• Possible complexity when configuring CDN for some websites;
• Lack of file optimization and security risks from some providers;

Final verdict – should you use CDN or not?

By now you are aware what CDN is and how it works. You also know its pros and cons. So the decision is entirely in your hands. I am sure that in most of the cases (especially when you have a website with thousands of visits daily) you would like to use CDN.

So my advice (before you decide) is to have the following things figured out:

• Detailed information about your target audience;
• Expected website visits;
• Level of optimization before implementing CDN (focus on the website speed metrics provided from tools like GTMetrix or Pingdom);
• Budget;
• Implementation strategy;

I hope that this post has provided some clarity on the topic what is CDN and how to use it to increase your website speed. Please share any feedback in the comment section below and don’t forget to spread the word about this post in social media as well.

See you soon, friends!

7 ways to improve your WordPress On-Page SEO

Hello friends,

One very important aspect of SEO is the On-Page SEO. I even dare to say that it is the most important aspect. Some fellow digital marketeers would disagree by placing their faith on the Off-Page SEO which aims mainly on link-building. However as much as the latter is needed for better ranking, the lack of great and optimized content will reduce the value of your website in the visitors eyes. Let’s not forget that link-building is a double-edged sword. Why? Because in some cases it might ruin your SEO strategy due to a penalty by the search engines. And I believe that none of you wants this, right?

That is why in this post I will share with you 7 ways to improve your WordPress On-Page SEO. Let’s begin!

#1 – Choose a hosting provider that can guarantee you speed and high-quality backups

WordPress is great – we all know this. However some WordPress websites can grow into memory and CPU eating monsters. It happens quite a lot – especially if you are using low-quality plugins or plugins that are not working correctly with one-another (a.k.a. incompatible plugins). And while plugin management is your responsibility it is also important to rely on a high-quality hosting provider. This will ensure that your website will simply work. So the first thing to do is to check if your hosting provider gives you the quality you deserve and if not, it’s a good idea to migrate your website to another one. It’s also very important to have backups performed by your hosting provider. Additionally you might want to check some WordPress backup plugins like the ones that we have reviewed on TheCMSPlace. Check them out from here.

#2 – Create useful content with suitable selection of keywords and phrases

Without a proper keyword research your content will have little chance reaching a wider audience . This means that your SEO campaign is vital for your business. That is why you need to research all suitable keywords and phrases and use them wisely in your content. This will ensure that your target visitors will find your website in the search results. You should consider using tools like Open Site Explorer or Ahrefs for keyword research.

But having a bunch of suitable words and phrases is not the only thing that will make your content great. Let’s not forget that over-optimization with keywords is very bad for On-Page SEO. You have to use these words moderately in your content. In order to make it great, it has to be also useful and specific. This means that you have to write about topics that are strictly related to the main idea behind your website.

Great content can provide additional value to your visitors. For example a “how-to article” in which you describe the usage of a product will be extremely valuable. Also you have to make it user-friendly by writing in a style that is best accepted by your target group of visitors. Therefore it is imperative to know your audience and their needs and desires.

Last but not least – watch your grammar and punctuation and never forget that content is (and always will be) king!

#3 – Use SEO plugins

These WordPress plugins will make it extremely easy for you to manage your On-Page SEO. They will help you add all the important meta elements to your posts and pages and also to place suitable keywords and phrases in all applicable places so that your website will be crawled and indexed better. Also such plugins will allow you to optimize your content for social media as well. One of the best solutions that is suitable even for beginners is YoastSEO.

#4 – Optimize your images and multimedia

There is nothing worse than a bunch of large, unoptimized images and other multimedia content that make your website slow as a turtle. And this is something that you simply don’t want! Lucky for you we have an awesome collection of extremely easy-to-use tips for optimizing your images. Check it out from this link.

#5 – Improve your website internal and navigation links

WordPress is the king of creating internal links out-of-the-box! This is achieved with the awesome tag and category systems. By using them wisely you will get many internal links between related content. And having more of them is essential for On-Page SEO as it improves the crawling process of your website. Consider using plugins for related posts. They will automatically create even more internal links between posts with similar content.

Here are some great suggestions:

• How to display related posts in WordPress
• Methods for displaying inline related posts in WordPress
• Yet Another Related Posts Plugin (YARPP) – review

Now let’s focus on navigation. WordPress is equipped with a powerful menu system that allows you to create flawless navigation that will allow the visitors to reach the needed content quite easily. What you might want to do is to create a strategy for improving your WordPress navigation by:

• deciding which elements need to be placed in your main menu and all other menus (if needed);
• choosing suitable sub-elements;
• improving the tag and category structure of your website;
• choosing the menu(s) location(s)

To do this you have to make an audit of your pages and posts. You can use tools like SiteLiner or Screaming Frog. Choose posts and pages that contain great content and allow your visitors to reach them by using the navigation system of your website. Also consider using plugins like WP-PageNavi in order to achieve even better results.

Lastly – always check for broken links and if needed apply 301 redirects.

#6 Use the nofollow and noindex meta elements wisely

These two meta elements are very important for SEO. The first one is used when you want to tell the search engine bots not to follow a link that you have created. The second one tells them not to index the current post or page. In most cases you’d like to add a nofollow attribute to each external link (except the ones that you are sure that you want to share link juice with) while trying to keep the all internal ones “dofollow”. However there are cases in which you’d want to add nofollow attribute to some internal links as well. Based on the results from the content audit from the previous step, you should apply this to all links that point to pages/posts with little or low-quality content. Also you can set some pages to “noindex”. By doing this you can ensure that the PageRank flow will be distributed only between the most important parts of your WordPress website.

#7 Use caching plugins

W3 Total Cache, WP SuperCache or some other high-quality solution like ZenCache will boost the speed of your website. This means that the visitors will get to view your pages faster and also your hosting server won’t get overburdened. Also make sure that you have taken care of your .htaccess file by optimizing it additionally. This will ensure even better On-Page SEO results.

These are my 7 ways to improve your WordPress On-Page SEO. What do you think about them? Share any questions or feedback in the comment section below and share this post is social media as well.

See you soon, friends!

*Image source – Pixabay

How to optimize your images [Tips]

Hello friends,

In this post I will present to you several tips for image optimization. This is very important for better SEO and better ranking. That is why you should take into serious consideration how and when you will optimize the images on your website. The tips that I am going to share with you are both for WordPress websites and any other websites as well.

So, let’s not waste any more precious time and begin with the tips on how to optimize your images!

Tip #1 – Choose carefully your file format

As you know images come in the shape of files and each file has a unique format. The most commonly used formats that are also considered to be SEO friendly are:

• JPEG – suitable for pictures and other images that contain millions of colors. Provides you with high-quality compression which results in smaller file size. However the compression is “lossy” and this will result in information loss (the main reason for the smaller file size). JPEG file types are not suitable for images that contain mainly text, solid colors or graphics;
• PNG – suitable for almost any image types except pictures as some older devices might not display them correctly. This file format was created as a substitute for GIF and the quality of its compression is superior to the GIF itself. The PNG file also supports transparency which makes it ideal for background purposes as well;
• GIF – suitable for images with small, fixed number of colors. It is reduced to no more than 256 unique colors. The GIF file format provides great compression which is not that complex as the one that the JPEG file is equipped with. However this format is not suitable for pictures and other images with gradient colors due to the small number of supported colors. On the other hand the file size of a GIF file might be quite small and handy. Also the animated GIF types are gaining more and more popularity (especially for tutorial purposes) and you may consider using them in your posts;

Tip #2 – Choose a suitable resolution and DPI for your images

Now that you know which file formats you may use without any problems, you need to consider where the images will be placed and what will be their purpose. The different locations on your website might require an image with bigger or smaller resolution and DPI.

Most of you will be using either Photoshop or GIMP to create a suitable image. So here are some tips for these two softwares:

• In Photoshop you’d like to use a DPI with about 72 pixels. Always consider using the “Save for web” command (quite useful for PNG images) or as an alternative the regular “Save as” command with settings for medium quality (suitable for JPEG images);
• For GIMP – please read the official documentation on how to prepare your images for the Web;

In case you decide to use an online image editing solution or other offline software – you can take into consideration the tips for DPI that I have provided for Photoshop.

Tip #3 – Image file name

The file name should contain suitable keywords or phrases for your content. So you need to take into consideration using them as this may also improve your SEO.

Tip #4 – Image file size

By now you should have created an image with a suitable file format, resolution and DPI and file name. However this file might still be bigger than it is needed for SEO purposes. So let’s see how we can compress it a little more. You may be asking “Why is this needed?”. And the answer is – for optimal speed! The smaller the file size, the faster it will load on any device.

So here is how you can add additional compression for your images:

• You can use two command-line programs for Windows and Linux in order to compress JPEG and PNG files. These solutions are called Jpegtran (for JPEG’s) and Optipng (for PNG’s);
• You may also use various online solutions like Compressor.io or TinyPNG;

Tip #5 – If possible upload the images to another server or use a CDN provider

This will reduce the burden to your hosting even more and will result in a better speed and performance.

Tip #6 – Add alternate text, captions (if applicable) and image descriptions

So the time has finally come to use the image on your website. Before you insert it to your content, please consider using the above texts as they are extremely important for SEO purposes. You need to use unique variants for each of them and you should pay special attention to the alternate text. Use suitable keywords and phrases that may connect the image to the text content of the current page of your website. This will ensure that you get traffic from image searches as well and your content will also rank better.

Tip #7 – WordPress users might also want to use the following solutions for better image optimization:

• Jetpack – there is a free CDN service included in this suite;
• YoastSEO – this plugin will ease the creation and adding of the texts in Tip #6;
• WP Smush or ShortPixel – for additional compression when uploading image files to the WordPress media library;
• Simple Image Sizes – for in-WordPress resizing and custom WordPress image sizes;
• Regenerate Thumbnails – for regenerating your WordPress thumbnails;

This concludes the tips on how to optimize your images. I hope that you can find them useful for your websites. If you have any questions or suggestions, please use the comment form below. Don’t forget to share this post in social media in order to help users like you to find out how to optimize their website images for better SEO.

Thank you friends and see you soon!

*Image source – Pexels.com

Gallery [Review]

Hello friends,

Nowadays most websites need a great gallery plugin in order to display images with style for their visitors. That is why in this post I will present to you one solution that might be just the one you have been always looking for.

This WordPress plugin is called Gallery.

What does Gallery do?

The name of the plugin says it all. This is a gallery plugin for WordPress that will allow you to showcase your images with style. However it is not only limited to this.

Gallery is able to provide you with a set of tools and different options so that you will be able to add all of your images and also to edit them. That’s right – with this plugin you are not only uploading and adding images to posts and pages but you are also able to show them in the desired ways.

Another important feature of Gallery is that it allows you to add tags so that you can organize your images correctly. No more searching for old and long forgotten uploads – just view the appropriate tag and you are done. And speaking of organizing – tags are just part of this functionality! Gallery is able to create different albums with your images and you can also have multiple galleries into different albums as well. Then you have the option to add not only selected images to your posts and pages but also entire albums. Great, isn’t it?

The editing process for your uploads in Gallery is able to provide you with all the needed features in order to adjust your images for different views. Also this WordPress plugin is 100% responsive. Yes, this means that it is optimized for any screen on any device which is great considering the continuously growing importance of SEO optimization of any website for mobile devices.

Gallery also utilizes the power of additional plugins in order to give you a complete product that will serve you as intended. You are also presented with a number of widgets that you may add to the different widget areas on your website for aiding your user experience design strategy.

There are also different premium add-ons for Gallery.

One of them is called the Ecommerce Add-on. With it you are able to create your very own digital store for selling images and prints. The creation process is straightaway and when you are done you can manage it with different options on advanced level so that you can achieve your goals.

With the Ecommerce Add-on your new store can provide visitors with prices for your images and prints. This is achieved by the possibility to create unlimited price lists that you can easily connect with your galleries and/or individual images. You are also able to specify the ways your digital downloads are going to be delivered. More specifically – this relates to the quality of the image that is sold. This means that your customers will be able to choose from different resolutions of the image that they want to purchase and download.

Now you may be wondering how you are able to actually receive the money from each purchase (i.e. how to provide this functionality to your digital store). Well Gallery with its Ecommerce Add-on allows you to choose from Stripe or PayPal. This means that these payment systems can be integrated on your website and you can start selling and receiving money straight away. And since this is a digital store and you will be most likely selling many digital copies of your images then the access to the purchased content is instant 24/7!

What other add-ons are available for Gallery?

You may consider checking out the Facebook Integration Add-on which aims at the ability to add images from your Facebook page albums directly on your WordPress website using Gallery. Now you can do this instantly using this premium add-on.

Another interesting choice is the premium Export/Import Add-on which allows you to move images, galleries and albums from one domain to another with extreme ease. This procedure will save you tons of time and effort compared to the manual creation of the same galleries, making the same uploads and adding the same options.

Now let’s speak about the views that you can provide for your images when using Gallery.

You have various options. From thumbnails to blog style gallery view. Some of these views are available in the free version of the plugin and others are for the commercial one. All of them are displayed on the WordPress.org page of the plugin.

How to start using Gallery?

Download the free version from WordPress.org and upload it on your website. An easier alternative is to use the plugin installer in your WordPress admin panel to search for Gallery and install it. Then activate the plugin and start adjusting its options. You may find useful tips in the following video:

And that’s all friends! What do you think of this plugin? Will you try it? Share any thoughts, questions and/or feedback in the comment section below. Also don’t forget to share this post in social media as well.

See you soon, friends!

*The images and the video are embedded from the WordPress.org page of the plugin.

Show icons for your WordPress download links [Tutorial]

Hello friends,

Have you noticed that on some websites you are able to click on a download link that has an icon as well as text (or just an icon)? Do you want to add such links on your WordPress website? If the answer is “Yes” then you are on the right post at TheCMSPlace.com because in it I will show you a couple of ways to achieve this.

Let’s begin with the manual way of adding icons for your WordPress download links:

First of all you need to search the web and find a suitable icon for your download links. You can also add multiple icons if you are going to provide downloads for various documents. Another handy trick is to use only one unique icon that represents the download functionality.

Speaking of suitable icons you should consider different situations:

• Image type and size – if possible use high quality images in PNG, GIF or JPEG format and also make sure that you have optimized them in terms of image size and file size. Basically a download link should not take too much space from any page/post and it also should not burden the loading times of that page/post.
• Image license – you should only use images that have a license which has no (or few) restrictions (like CC0) or purchase images with license suitable for all types of usage (especially commercial if your goal is to monetize on your website). Respect the author rights by all means!
• Image content – here the goal is to decide whether you’d like to have one unique download image that should be suitable for all download types or use different images for the different files and documents that your visitors should be able to download from your website.

Having all of these figured out leads us to the next situation – how to add the images to your WordPress website and how to make them as download links.

The first part is quite easy – you just upload the image to your WordPress library and then add it to a post/page at a location of your choice. The “tricky”part is the download link. Basically you can also use the default WordPress functionality to add a link to an uploaded file on your website or at a different location. However in most cases the download dialogue of the browser will not show and the browser will try to open the file in a new window/tab. This might be troublesome especially with PDF files which can be read by any browse out of the box.

To evade this situation (unless of course your goal is to allow the browser to display the file in a new tab/window) you should add the following link structure:

<a href="file link" download target="_blank"><img src="YOUR FILENAME" alt="YOUR ALTERNATIVE TEXT" style="width:Xpx;height:Xpx;border:X;"></a>

This should work flawlessly with most browsers (especially Firefox and Chrome)  and should force the “Save As” dialogue instead of opening the file in new window. However in some older versions the above method may not work correctly.

In the example above you should add the filename of the image, an appropriate alternative text (very important for SEO purposes) and replace X with suitable numbers in the style section of the link structure. Bear in mind that you may need to use the WordPress Text editor to edit an already created image link so that it fits the above example.

And that’s it for this method, friends. You may find it not so much user-friendly especially for WordPress beginner users. That is why you can use another way to achieve a similar effect. In this case you will need the plugin MimeTypes Link Icons.

Download, install and activate it like you always do with WordPress links. Then head to Settings -> MimeType Icons and adjust the image size, image type, and the display position of your image links. The image types that you are able to select from are GIF and PNG. You are also able to add unique images for the different different file downloads.

The advanced settings of this plugin will allow you to modify CSS options. And that’s basically it. Now the plugin will search for any text links that may point to a file that is intended to be downloaded and will add the suitable icon next to that link.

And this information should be enough so that you can start adding download links with icons for your WordPress website. The example in the first method is also suitable for text links as well. Just use download target=”_blank (again added using the Text editor).

What do you think, friends? Do you consider this information enough? Or maybe you know some other ways of achieving this? Share any thoughts, feedback and questions on that matter in the comment form below. Don’t forget to spread the word about this post in social media as well.

See you soon, friends!