Perhaps the biggest question on your mind is choosing the suitable WordPress theme for your site.

Themes allow you to quickly and easily change the look of your new site. But deciding which ones you’ll use requires some thought and useful questions to ask yourself first. When choosing a theme, there are a few important pieces of information that can help you in the long run.

Each WordPress theme is different and works well with specific niches. There are a number of elements that you will need to be aware of when choosing a WordPress theme for your site. Understanding these concepts can help you create a unique website with a design that suits your needs.

Here are some elements to consider while you choose your WordPress theme: 

Choose simple themes

Your themes have to be attractive, no doubt. However, they don’t have to be complex. Find themes with design layouts that will help you accomplish your goal without compromising on UX.

The aim of web design is to allow users to find the info they are searching for easily while simultaneously helping website owners attain their goals.

If your theme isn’t helping you attain subscribers or clients, then it is not suitable for your business. You should also not use a theme that makes it hard for users to navigate their way around your site.

At times you will need colorful themes or themes with complex layouts and flashy animations. But most of the time, you won’t need them.

Go for responsive themes.

When you have a responsive theme, you can adjust its layout and design on any screen or device. 50% of clients say that they will use a business website less if it is not mobile-friendly.

Having a responsive theme is crucial because Google has made it mandatory for sites to be fully mobile-responsive to rank higher on Google. Without a responsive theme, you will be losing out on a lot of traffic.

Avoid free WordPress themes that use fixed-width layouts that are not responsive. You can use a tool to check if the theme is mobile-responsive.

Run a browser compatibility test

Your theme may look good in a particular browser, but it may not be compatible with another browser. Since your users are going to browse your site using different browsers, it is crucial to run a browser compatibility test.

Most WordPress theme developers usually mention whether they have tested the themes for browser compatibility on their websites. Check the theme on popular browsers such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. If you don’t see it, it is best to run a basic test yourself. Don’t skip to run the same test on mobile too.

Theme speed

Theme speed is crucial as you don’t want the theme you use to slow down your site. Not all WordPress themes are coded the same.

The way some themes are coded lets them load fast and smoothly. But in other themes, image-heavy designs are used that slows down your site. Apart from that, different code and script requests can also slow down your site.

Consider running a WordPress theme’s demo test. The test result will show if there are bad requests, poor codes, and so on.

If you find errors and still want to use the theme, first, fix the errors. But it is always better to find a well-coded theme from the start.

Use supported plugins

Does the WordPress theme you have chosen support popular WordPress plugins? With WordPress plugins, you can customize your design, boost your site’s performance, add additional features, and so on.

It is thus essential that the theme you choose supports popular plugins. Your theme developer can tell you whether it supports a particular plugin.

Also, see whether the theme you choose comes pre-installed with the plugins you are considering using.

SEO-friendliness

The WordPress theme you choose is going to impact your site’s SEO friendliness. If your site has poorly-coded HTML, it is not going to rank well in the search engines.

The best WordPress developers usually cite that their themes are coded well and SEO-optimized. If it is not cited, use tools to check your theme’s HTML5.

Check ratings and reviews.

Before you choose a theme, ensure to have a look at its ratings and reviews. If it is a free WordPress theme, look for the ratings underneath the Preview and Download buttons.

If you are buying premium themes from a third party, check for customer reviews. Be careful while reading reviews, as some people will leave a negative comment if they can’t figure out how to use a product, no matter how brilliant the product may be.

Also, it is only natural to see a few negative reviews on a WordPress theme. So, in cases when the positive reviews surpass the negative ones, then don’t worry much and go ahead with the theme.

Look for support and updates. 

Free themes usually don’t come with support. But you can always look at the WordPress.org forums for the chosen theme and observe if the developer quickly responds to queries and support requests.

But if you are purchasing a paid or premium theme, it should always offer superior support. For updates, have a look at the theme’s changelog. You will come to know whether the theme keeps developing or not.

It is crucial to install a theme that is actively maintained and keeps updating on a regular basis. It will ensure that your site stays secure and optimized. If you find a theme has not been updated for two or more years, it is better not to use it.

Wrap-Up

There are hundreds of free WordPress themes available on the internet, all offering different styles and approaches to web design. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with downloading a free theme to test it out for yourself, choosing the right one can be somewhat tricky.

You can spend hours and hours scouring through WordPress themes, or you can use these helpful tips that will help you find a suitable theme in no time.

Author Bio

Aanya Rachel is the Content Manager at The Address, a coworking space in Ahmedabad. She loves sharing her industry knowledge and insights on topics related to coworking, real estate, business, and startups. She enjoys live music, traveling, and reading comic books.

The post How to Choose the Most Suitable WordPress Theme for Your New Site appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

Customizing the WordPress website’s design has been so easy with CSS editor plugins. With CSS editor plugins, you can easily make a website that matches the specific design specifications so that your website reflects your brand.

WordPress Shortcodes Plugin — Shortcodes Ultimate

WP Shortcodes Plugin — Shortcodes Ultimate

Shortcodes Ultimate is the most popular free WordPress shortcode plugin with over 800,000+ downloads. It has a collection of visual and functional elements that you can use on the post editor, template files, and text widgets.

With this shortcode plugin, you can add custom CSS and change the appearance and design of elements of your website. The plugin has over 50 shortcodes that you can insert with one-click. You can easily build tabs, sliders, carousels, boxes, and even responsive videos with Shortcodes Ultimate.

This Gutenberg-ready plugin works with most of the WordPress themes. Its other impressive features include fully responsive design, custom widgets, translation readiness, and more.

Simple Custom CSS

Simple Custom CSS Plugin

Simple Custom CSS is a free CSS editor WordPress plugin in which you add custom CSS and override the default styles of your themes and plugins. Even if you change your theme, the CSS styles that you have done will remain unchanged on your site.

This CSS editor plugin lets you live-preview the Customizer control so that you can read the changes right while making changes. It also has Code Syntax Highlighter which will highlight its CSS code.

Other impressive features of the Simple Custom CSS free editor plugin include checking errors in codes, no unnecessary scripts, PHP 7.2 version compatibility, multisite administrator access, and so on.

SiteOrigin CSS

SiteOrigin CSS

Simple CSS

Simple CSS

Simple CSS is one of the most popular custom CSS editors for WordPress sites with over 100,000+ active installations. This free CSS editor plugin provides you an admin editor from where you can add your CSS in the customizer of your website and live-preview them.

You can also easily use Simple CSS editor on specific pages or posts of your website by using a metabox.

Notable features of the Simple CSS editor plugin for WordPress include admin CSS editor, dark and light editor template, live preview option, and metabox for specific posts/pages.

Visual CSS Style Editor

Visual CSS Style Editor

Visual CSS Style Editor is a  CSS editor free plugin for WordPress websites. With this plugin, you can easily customize your theme and any individual page without coding.

With Visual CSS Editor, you can click on elements and edit them visually. You can easily adjust the fonts, sizes, color, positions, and more with this free CSS editor plugin. It has over 60 CSS style properties.

It has advances designing tools like flexible element inspector, single element inspector, and measuring tool that will help you style your site effectively.

You can change CSS properties like margin, padding, border, radius, position, animation, transition, box-shadow, opacity, and so many more.

Final Words,

These are the best free CSS editor plugins for WordPress websites. Choose the one that you think meets your needs. Or if you have any other CSS editor plugins to suggest, you can let us know below in the comment section.

The post Best Free CSS Editor Plugins for WordPress appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

If you are working in the SEO industry for a long time, you must know all of these. But if you are not, we will be listing 15 of the best free SEO tools in this article.

There are lots of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools available in the market developed for different purposes. Some of them are free to use whereas some of them are paid. You need an SEO tool to closely monitor your website stats and performance.

SEO task is not as easy as we think as there are too many competitors in the market. On top of that, with the continuous update and improvement in the search engine algorithm, there are lots of things to take care of in order to rank higher in the SERPs.

Why use free SEO tools?

The very first benefit of using a Free SEO tool is you don’t have to pay a single penny. Moreover, these free SEO tools are super helpful for your websites to check, improve, measure, track/monitor the SEO performance and website traffic.

Some of the mentioned free SEO tools are offered by Google itself such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Google Page Insights, and Google Mobile-Friendly Test. So, these tools are something that you should not miss out on as an SEO professional. These tools do not give just the result of the website, but also guide you to improve your website for better ranking.

List of 15 Free SEO Tools

1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is one of the best tool provided by Google. It gives you in-depth insights of users, their demography, geography, intention. You can track vital information of visitors, how they came to site, where are they from, which demographics, most popular content and lots of other results. This is one of my favorite tools that I use every day of my life.

2. Google Search Console

Google Search Console is another essential tool by Google that helps you to monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results. The difference between Google Analytics and Google Search Console is, Analytics is user-oriented, providing data related to those who visit and interact with your website. Likewise, Google Search Console is search-engine focused, providing tools and insights that can help site owners improve visibility and presence in the SERPs. As an SEO professional, you must use Google Search Console to track the performance of the website in every aspect.

3. Google Keyword Planner

Google Keyword Planner is a free Google Ads tool for new or experienced advertisers that’s like a workshop for building new Search Network campaigns. You can use Keyword Planner to search for keywords and see how a list of keywords might perform. Keyword Planner can also help you choose competitive bids and budgets to use with your campaigns. This article goes over the ways you can use Keyword Planner to lay the groundwork for a successful campaign.

4. Ubbersuggest

Ubersuggest is a free keyword research tool that was previously known as ubersuggest.io. Ubersuggest is one of the best keyword research tools because it has a friendly user interface, main and related keyword suggestions, and also displays the top 100 SERPs for each clicked keyword/keyphrase. You can also get competition scores.

Using Ubersuggest, you can do competitor keyword research. All you need to do is to enter the website’s URL and check which posts receive the most traffic and what are the top keywords for the website. However, the stats are slightly off, so use it for guidance, but don’t trust it blindly.

5. Answer the Public

Answer the public is another free SEO tool that visualizes the search query that users are asking on Google. Answer the public is a clever consumer insight tool that combines the suggested searches from Google and Bing. It fetches and maps keyword suggestions that you see when you perform a Google search.

You can use this tool to develop a keyword idea so that you create content that users are searching for.

6. Google Mobile-Friendly Test

Google Mobile-Friendly tool helps you to test whether or not your website is mobile-friendly. Google strictly tests each and every site to be fitted on the mobile screen. This free tool not only gives you the mobile-friendly result but also provides you additional resources along with JS script messages.

7. Speed Test Tools – Google Page Speed/GTMetrix/Pingdom Tools

Google Page Speed or GTMetrix or Pingdom Tool is used for measuring the website speed. These tools tell exactly how fast the website is loading and also tell what caused the website to load slowly. Since the site’s loading speed plays a significant role in ranking factors, you need to closely monitor the site’s speed.

Google has indicated site speed is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages. And research has shown that Google might be specifically measuring time to the first byte when it considers page speed. In addition, a slow page speed means that search engines can crawl fewer pages using their allocated crawl budget, and this could negatively affect your indexation.

These tools are free to use and a great way to test your site’s performance.

8. SEMrush

Semrush is a freemium SEO Tool that helps you to analyze the keywords, track the keyword strategy used by your competitors.  SEMrush is trusted by internet marketers all over the world. It is also used by a number of businesses, big and small.

SEMrush is specific to finding profitable keywords. It is the best SEO tool which is highly recommended by most SEO professionals. You can get 30 months for free and later you can upgrade for more features.

9. Seobility

In the list of Free SEO Tools, we have Seobility. It is an online SEO software for better website optimization and SEO monitoring. Optimize your website for better search engine rankings. Sustainably.” Seobility is an online SEO software for better website optimization. Seobility checks your complete website, by crawling all linked pages.

10. SEO Plugins

WordPress SEO plugins are another best free tool to use for ranking better. There are many SEO plugins but among them, Yoast is a widely used plugin followed by All in One SEO Pack and RankMath. Read full comparison between Yoast SEO vs All in One SEO Pack. RankMath is also getting positive feedback from the users.

11. Siteliner

Siteliner is another free SEO tool that lets you explore your website, revealing key issues that affect your site’s quality and search engine rankings. Siteliner also gives you in-depth insight about the following issues:

• Duplicate Content – Duplicate content can lower your site’s search engine rankings, reducing the traffic to your site. Siteliner systematically checks your site for internal duplicate content, highlighting it on each page, intelligently excluding common content such as menus and navigation./
• Broken Links – Broken links can damage your site’s user experience and lower your site’s search engine rankings. Siteliner checks all internal links on your site to ensure they are working and highlight the broken links so you can fix them easily.
• Page Power – Siteliner identifies the pages that are most prominent to search engines as they crawl through your site based on the link patterns between your pages.
• Reports – Siteliner crawls and analyzes the pages on your site, revealing key information about each page. Siteliner provides a standard XML Sitemap for your site, as well as a more detailed Siteliner Report.

You can use the Siteliner tool for free up to 250 pages/month.

12. SEOSiteCheckup

SEO Site Checkup aims to make search engine optimization (SEO) easy. This free tool provides simple, professional-quality SEO analysis and critical SEO monitoring for websites. It shows you all the necessary reports needed for SEO and you can fix it for better ranking. This tool is developed by the SEO professionals by considering how algorithms, penalties and SEO factors have evolved since the early days of search.

13. Google Trends

Google Trends is a free tool by Google that is used for comparative keyword research and to discover event-triggered spikes in keyword search volume. Google Trends provides keyword-related data including search volume index and geographical information about search engine users.

Google Trends algorithm analyzes the popularity of top search queries in Google Search across various regions and languages. The website uses graphs to compare the search volume of different queries over time. You can use this data to extract the particular keyword that is searching by users.

14. Google My Business

Setting up Google My Business (GMB) previously known as Google Local is very important for any local business. It is a free and easy-to-use tool for businesses and organizations to manage your online presence across Google, including Search and Maps. By verifying and editing your business information, you can both help customers find you and tell them the story of your business.

It feeds information to a variety of places, including the local pack and Google Maps search results, but the most familiar appearance will likely be when it’s in the top right (or top on mobile) of a branded search for your business.

15.  Rich Results Test

This tool lets you check if your website if valid for Google’s Rich Results. But, getting a passing grade doesn’t mean your page will automatically display rich results in the SERPs, but think of it as the cost of admission. This tool is an updated version of Google’s previous structured data testing tool and is designed to make testing and diagnosing your page’s structured data easier.

Final Words,

Whether you are a website owner or SEO professional, you should keep tracking your website performance frequently in order to beat the ranking. Even if you are already well-ranked, it is a challenging task for you to hold the position.  For that, you should keep your website up-to-date, error-free and technically sound. So, the above-mentioned tools can help you to come in front of your competitors.

So, what di you think about this tool? How many of these tools are you familiar with? Write down your experience and suggestion in the comment section below. Also, check out our other articles on Search Engine Optimization, Website Traffic, and WordPress Themes.

Other Posts:

• 15+ On-Page SEO Techniques You Must Implement to Rank Higher
• 13 Essential SEO Tips For WordPress Website
• 10 Reasons Why You Should Build Your Site in WordPress

If you liked this article, then consider following us on Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn.

The post 15 Free SEO Tools For Website in 2024 appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

Let us now delve into the reasons for starting a blog.

1. Showcase your creativity

Do not sit on your creative talent. Blogging gives you the freedom to be as creative as you want. You get to experiment with different niches, tone and voice of writing, and writing styles. You have the freedom to let loose your creative juices since everything starts and stops with you.

There is no fear of intimidation or humiliation when blogging as long as you stick to authenticity. You can creatively combine writing with photography, graphic and web designing, and business to make blogging a fun activity. If your day job drains you, let blogging be your creative outlet.

2. Diversify your skills

Once you start blogging and stay committed to it, you stand to learn a lot along the way. You will pick as many skills as you can master. It does not matter that you do not even know how to express yourself when you initially start blogging.

The more you write, the more polished you will become. You also learn more skills than you could ever dream of such as

• Proper editing of your writing
• Formatting your photos
• Using templates
• Experimenting with the free WordPress blog themes
• Digital marketing including social media marketing
• SEO writing
Along with diversifying your skills, you will become adept with online workings and writing in general. You will have handled everything as a one-man team from writing and editing to marketing and finance. All this will make you a fulfilled and all-rounded person.

3. Gain an Online Presence

The more you continue blogging the better and more confident you become. Within no time, with consistency, you will have an audience looking up to you. If you write quality content that satisfies your readers, you will be considered an expert and therefore an authority in that subject. This will establish your online presence and boost your professional image. Blogs verify your work and help you build a reliable portfolio.

4. Mint Money

Well, not exactly minting but intentional blogging has the potential of earning you cash as time goes by. It is dependent on the quality of your content, consistency in writing and posting new blog content, and commitment. Some of the ways you can monetize your blog include:
• allowing advertisements
• sponsored posts
• affiliate marketing
• selling products or services

To earn from your blog, you need to put in a lot of hard work initially. If you set everything up well, you can earn good money from it for your entire lifetime. The best thing is that this later becomes a passive source of income giving you the freedom to establish another income stream or enjoy your freedom.

5. Attract Potential Employers

If your writing consists of high-authority content that appropriately uses WordPress SEO, optimized images, grammar, and proofreading tools, you stand to be noticed. You can attract potential employers who get impressed by your work. Apart from landing freelancing gigs and remote work, you can connect with
direct clients who pay the top dollar.

6. Live Your Life Now and Inspire Others

Blogging the right way guarantees you the freedom to live your life now. You can blog from anywhere. By blogging, your perspective of life widens. You learn a lot more about emerging trends, people’s cultures, and new technologies.
Having a wide audience attracts potential sponsors for your trips in exchange for blogging about travel for them. Such sponsors may also want to advertise on your site to take advantage of your audience. This will turn your dreams into reality granting you a life you only dreamt of.

Your blogs will be an inspiration to many others who will learn a thing or two from them. You will know you are positively affecting people from the feedback and comments you receive from them. The inspiration you give to people can change heir lives, make them productive, drop bad habits, or help others.

7. Opens You up to More Opportunities

Your blogging work can also open up opportunities that only existed in your imagination. You can catch the eye of broadcasting houses or institutions who will assign you speaking engagements. This can be for press, conferences,
seminars, or workshops.

Publishing companies may negotiate book deals with you. You may venture out into different things by repurposing your blogs in many different ways. You can use your blog content to create videos and post them on YouTube.
Make e-books from your blog content and sell. Once you have mastered the art of blogging, you can create more revenue streams like offering online training on blogging. The convenient thing is that you will already have built an audience; all you will need to do is market the course to them.

8. Interact with People Globally

Blogging opens the whole world to you. You will meet a vibrant community of helpful bloggers like you. Along the way, some will even become friends.

Through this community, you will learn the ups, downs, pros, and cons of blogging.

Sharing your blogging journeys will reinforce your resolve, hone your skills, and make you a better blogger. You can get such blogging communities on Facebook groups.

9. Provide Employment

Once you have an online presence and moneymaking opportunities beckon at you, it will be time for you to delegate duties. This will turn you into an employer, as you will have more work on your hands than you can handle alone. It will be easier for you to manage your team of employees because you will have, over time, done the entire tasks single-handedly.

Some Easy Ways to Make Money from the Blog

Most of the bloggers out there make a mistake by taking blogging only as a hobby. Blogging, in fact, can be a great source of income. Yes, you can earn thousands of dollars blogging. Here are a few ways you can make money from
your blog.

Do affiliate marketing:

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways you can make money online. Sign up with the affiliate providers and promote their product on your blog. Every time a visitor clicks on your link and purchase the product, you earn a certain commission

Do Banner Adverts:

You can allocate a space in your blog for the banner advertisement. You can place the banner on different sections like header, footer, sidebar, or in the content area.

Write Product Reviews and Sponsored Content:

You can make good money by doing a sponsored product review and accepting sponsored blog posts on your website.

Sell Digital Products:

You can create and sell your own digital products from your blog. Different kinds of ebooks, tutorials, online courses, and design templates can be sold from the blog.

Conclusion
The above reasons are enough to compel you to start a blog immediately. With proper planning, research, focus, and commitment, the outcome will be positive.

Patience is necessary, as this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Starting a fully functional blog with WordPress takes a couple of hours and with thousands of free WordPress blog themes available, you can always create a compelling blog without breaking the bank.

The post 9 Compelling Reasons to Start a Blog appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

Things to consider when getting a backlink from a high domain authority site

Below we have mentioned some of the facts to consider when getting a backlink:
⦁ The site should be relevant to your niche
⦁ The post in which you are getting the backlink should be written unique and of high-quality
⦁ The site should have high domain authority to get high-quality link. You can check DA through the online tools without any spending.
⦁ You shouldn’t pay for the backlinks to the site from which you are getting the backlink. This is because Google never allows the paid or artificial backlink.

1. Extract the Backlinks of Your Rivals

Every of your competitors is making efforts for getting the backlinks. You can easily get an overview of your rival’s backlinks and then try to restore your best backlinks.
Rebuilding the website’s backlinks is probably the sharpest approach to discovering new references and improving SEO.
Start by selecting your main competitors, the sites that position themselves in the top 5 situations for your primary keywords.
If they are appearing above than your position then there are chances that they have better relationship with other websites through backlinks while they are also making high-quality backlinks than you.
If you have chosen which candidates to keep an eye on, you need to break down their backlinks.
There are different tools like Ahrefs, UberSuggest that can help to analyze the backlinks of your competitors and this way, you can easily contact the sites to get backlink.

After you have added your basic competitors to monitor backlinks, use the analysis tools you have been given to find out which links deserve to be repeated.
Do not fall into the trap of trying to recreate each and every one of them. All sites have terrible connections, even Wikipedia.
You should only reproduce those links that have a high ranking in the search engine.

2. Guest Posting for High-quality Backlinks

Guest posting is the free posting to another website or blog in return for a link back to your own personal website.
These links can either be inserted into the author biography or used to refer to data within the content body.
This has been an established third-party link strategy for some time, as it has been a success for both destinations: one gets free content to convey its audience, while the other gets an excellent backlink.

Unfortunately, there are many cases where web masters usually publish low-quality content to just obtain a backlink which become low-quality.
They employ article writer who hardly ever deal with the topics they present, and then contrast these inferior articles with a selection of topics when the content is applicable to their audience.
This is why Google has warned against guest post.
This has discouraged a lot of site owners from using this third-party reference system – and of course.
But high-profile, significant guest posts are unique compared to the user-produced, low-quality post that were a staple of many SEO techniques a few years ago.
If done properly and with an emphasis on accommodating, excellent content, visitor posts can even now be a powerful reference tool for third parties.
If things are as they are, how can you use this strategy properly?
The first thing is that you should find the best website where you can contribute.

3. Construct Backlinks with Infographics

Infographics are not only known through social media sites such as Pinterest and Reddit, they can also significantly improve your SEO and increase web traffic.
A valid example: websites that distribute infographics have normal traffic growth of 12% more than destinations that do not.
The vast majority, however, disregard infographics on the grounds that they mistakenly assume that it takes a lot of time and effort to plan one, or to think that it would be an expensive procurement to repopulate it.

Nor should you be an expert in fashion: extravagant infographics can be created amazingly quickly with free online planning tools such as Canva, Venngage and Pictochart.
Another approach to creating attractive infographics is to redistribute them by using competent fashion designers for destinations such as Fiverr, Upwork, or Design Pickle for the chance that you have a bigger spending plan.

4. Generate the Backlink from Broken Link

Even legitimate, all-round maintained websites suffer from the negative effects of broken links.
Each link is referring the reader to another website or web page. However, since websites often move their content, some of these links will end up “breaking” or highlighting pages that do not currently exist.
At the point a customer taps a broken link, they appear on a page with 404 errors, where they learn that the content, they are looking for no longer exists.

This gives a helpless customer experience and makes it harder for web search tools to slide productively and record websites.
Broken backlinks are an incredible way to build external links to your site.
This technique involves locating broken links at different sites, identifying the content they originally alluded to, and at this point offering the site the opportunity to replace its tangled interface with a legitimate connection to relevant contents.
This content will of course be on your website.
With this approach, everyone wins. The owner of the site has fewer broken connections. His guests will see more state-of-the-art, valuable content and fewer 404s. You will also get an excellent backlink.
You can easily approach the web owner of the broken link and ask to change the broken link into referring your site.

The post Tips for Creating Quality Backlinks for SEO of a Website appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

While you may find the switch worth it considering how easy-to-use WooCommerce is in comparison to Magento, migrating from Magento to another service like WooCommerce can be tricky and error-prone.

How do you know that all your data from your previous platform transfers over completely to the new one? What if a third-party plugin your company relies on fails to function the same way in WooCommerce? Even if you do use a migration plugin or service, will it work enough for your purposes?

Let’s talk about Magento to WooCommerce migration and its possible pitfalls since many businesses are considering this switch.

Why Migrate From Magento to WooCommerce?

Magento’s developers have recently announced that support for the first version of their service has ended. Current users will have to switch to Magento 2 as a result, or they risk losing official help if they experience bugs or have digital security problems.

The time is ripe for these companies to consider either switching to Magento 2 or finding a better, more user-friendly approach to eCommerce. WooCommerce is a popular alternative that boasts the same level of customizability without the high cost, so it’s not uncommon to find businesses opt for this option instead.

Other reasons to choose WooCommerce over Magento 2 include:

● The fact that Magento 2 uses entirely different technologies from the first version, resulting in a rather complicated transition process.

● Extensions and customizations that wouldn’t always transfer over smoothly from 1 to 2.

● The entire process can take several months to complete according to third-party estimates.

● It will involve running a Data Migration Tool, configuring it through server-level commands, and checking compatibility with all your extensions and themes.

You don’t need high technical knowledge in code and databases to use WooCommerce like you do with Magento. Customizing layout, site features, and other elements can be much easier if you switch, but the trouble comes in how you can migrate everything from Magento 1 into WooCommerce without accidentally missing something.

Think about it like moving houses: it’s necessary to switch every few years, but you want to put in the effort to make sure everything transfers safely. You don’t want to forget anything during the move. Your ultimate goal is to get up and running at your new location as quickly as possible.

Common Data Migration Pitfalls

Likewise, WooCommerce(check back some beautiful themes here ) offers a lot of features for businesses of all sizes looking for a flexible, customizable tool with excellent support at an affordable price. Migration can be easy, but it’s important to follow best practices and be wary of the common pitfalls.

Creating Unnecessary Downtime

Changing a part of your business as central as the eCommerce platform is guaranteed to cause some downtime. It’s important for the company to mitigate the impact. For instance, always check and prepare for underlying problems like invalid URLs and database connection errors.

Check your server status carefully during the switch. If you see reports of URL errors, they could be a sign that your redirects are not set up correctly in WooCommerce. Check with your hosting provider or consult with a WooCommerce developer for a fast way to speed test your migrated URLs.

Appearing Unprofessional to Customers

If any problems do occur during your transition from Magento to WooCommerce, it’s important to be honest and transparent to avoid losing the trust of your consumers. Your brand’s reputation relies on how well you handle potential problems, so carefully communicate your intentions to move platforms through emails or notifications.

Issues with Front-End Development

From misaligned interface elements to images and text looking strange, moving to a new platform usually involves a lot of front-end work to ensure layouts, UI elements, and color schemes line up in the right place.

During your switch to WooCommerce, put your site into maintenance mode and make all the changes you need before hitting the publish button. This sandbox environment lets you modify your site to your heart’s content without impacting the experience your customers see.

Search Engine Optimization Woes

Search engine optimization (SEO) is not a “set it and forget it” consideration for any business. It takes several months of work to build up a high search engine ranking, and you don’t want to lose it all during your move to WooCommerce.

SEO will face an inevitable impact during this time, especially if your URLs will change. Plus, it may take some time for Google to re-analyze your webpage for ranking. While there’s not much you can do on this front, just make sure all your SEO redirects are functioning properly when your store goes live again.

Losing Transactional Data

As eCommerce tools like Magento and WooCommerce deal with your transactions and billing data, it’s important not to lose track of your customer orders and user accounts during the transition process. If you do, you risk losing pending transactions, order history, and ultimately business as a result.

The solution is to make a complete backup of all this consumer data before switching. Make sure all the fields you have saved map to an equivalent field on the new platform. Validate and test the data at the end of the process too.

Losing Track of Subscriptions

Just as important as current transactions are the recurring payments and subscriptions you have already accumulated from your clients. Changing to WooCommerce may involve a new payment gateway, so you may need to convert subscription information over. Manually recreating it may be necessary if you end up using a different platform like PayPal instead of Stripe.

The law may require that customers change their payment options over manually as well. Read up on gateway transfers carefully to avoid missing payments, and consult support from a WooCommerce developer in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, or any major city if you have any doubts at all.

Errors with Third-Party Integrations

Some third-party applications and plugins that your business relies on might experience compatibility issues when you change to WooCommerce. Thankfully, the platform comes with its own list of extensions and plugins for integration. Download these individually if necessary.

However, not all of your third-party integrations will be available, especially if you rely on multiple services. The best option is to develop your own API, contact a developer, or just find an alternative.

Timing Is Everything When It Comes To Data Migrations

There’s almost never a great time to start a data migration project. The best you can do is find the right time of the year for your company to make the switch, particularly if you have a few months when sales slow down. This way, you can minimize the impact of any downtime you might have.

Don’t forget to backup your billing data just in case. If you have any serious issues you can’t resolve, don’t forget that WooCommerce developers are available to help if you need additional support.

Now that you’re aware of the major pitfalls of switching from Magento to WooCommerce, you can start your transition today and enjoy the benefits of an affordable and easy-to-use eCommerce platform.

(We connected with leading WooCommerce developers in Toronto, New York, Los Angeles, and other major cities to create this article.)

The post Data Migration: Magento to WooCommerce Pitfalls appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

Best Free WordPress Slider Themes Of The Year

CosmosWP

CosmosWP is the most advanced free WordPress theme, which provides you so many slider options on your website. This lightweight and super-fast multi-purpose theme lets you build any kind of website including business websites, personal websites, blogs, and e-commerce websites.

The theme is built with Gutentor Page Building Blocks. It is compatible with all the popular page builders like Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, and more. So, you can pick your favorite page builder and build a website that stands out from the crowd.

The theme is widely customizable and it lets you customize every single element including the header, footer, sidebar, slider, button, border, and so on.

Features

• WooCommerce-ready
• Dozens of website demos
• Header and footer builder
• Color and typography options
• Infinite customization options
• Page builder compatible
• Gutenberg-based theme

Responsive Pro

Responsive Pro is a multipurpose WordPress theme that comes with an advanced slider and carousel. You can put the sliders on the sidebars.  There are many sidebar layouts and multiple header and footer possibilities. The theme has a custom menu, 700+ Google fonts, and unlimited color options. There are premade blog and portfolio layouts. You can customize the entire theme with just a few clicks. Responsive Pro is SEO-friendly, responsive, and translation-ready. It is available in both free and premium options.   

Features 

• 45+ ready site templates 
• Advanced sliders & carousels 
• Drag & drop editor 
• Cross-browser compatible 
• WooCommerce integrated 

Color Mag

Color Mag is a simple yet modern WordPress theme. It has a unique post system. The same post may fall into different categories and so may appear in different sections or widgets. There are mega menus, advanced typography, and unlimited color schemes. You can create various types of demos using any WordPress page builder plugin. The theme is SEO-optimized, fast-loading, and cross-browser-compatible. It is easy to load and customize. 

Features 

• Intuitive design 
• Multiple widget areas 
•  One-click demo import 
• Page builder integration 
• woocommerce compatible

Zakra

Zakra is an advanced WordPress theme that helps you to create stunning sliders on your website. Its easy integration with modern WordPress add-ons lets you design your sliders extraordinarily to catch the attention of the viewers. There are custom widgets, custom colors, advanced typography, and many layout options. The theme is SEO-friendly and responsive. You can translate it into any language.  It is multipurpose and well-documented.   

Features 

• Lightweight 
• Speed optimized  
• One-click demo import 
• AMP ready 
• Page builder compatible 

Astra

Astra is a multipurpose slider theme for WordPress. It is most suitable for blogs, portfolios, business websites, and online stores. It lets you create product sliders with amazing visual effects to pull more traffic to your site. It is schema.org integrated which makes it fully SEO optimized. You can integrate with any modern WordPress page builder. The theme is responsive and retina-ready. It is highly customizable and supports all modern browsers. 

Features 

• Lightweight 
• Fast loading 
• AMP ready 
• WooCommerce compatible
• Translation ready 

Cenote

Cenote is a responsive and creative blogging theme for WordPress. What makes it different from other blogging themes is its amazing feature that lets you create sliders on your pages. Using that you can highlight and promote your blog content. There are lots of custom widgets and a rich site library. The theme is SEO-optimized and translation-ready. It is WooCommerce compatible and supports all modern browsers.   

Features 

• One-click demo import 
• Speed optimized  
• Multiple widget areas 
• Multiple color options 
• Social media integration

Divi

Divi is an advanced WordPress visual page builder. It is as good as a professional drag-and-drop page builder plugin. You can create attractive web pages with eye-catching sliders easily with this theme. It offers you hundreds of design features. It has actually taken WordPress content creation to a different level. You can customize almost every single element of your website. Though professional, the theme is user-friendly and well-documented. It is available in both free and premium versions. 

Features 

• Drag & drop uploading 
• Keyboard shortcuts 
• Searchable setting 
• Responsive Editing 
• 40+ website elements

Rife Free

Rife Free is a creative WordPress theme for portfolio and photography. It allows you to create an image and video slider on your site to display your work. There are 450+ customization options. You can shape your website exactly in the way you want. There are multiple menu style options, lightbox settings, and many different header 0possibilities. The theme is SEO-friendly and translation-ready. 

Features 

• Responsive slider 
• Bricks gallery for photographers 
• Writing effect 
• One page mode 
• RTL support

Bard

Bard is a simple WordPress blog theme. It helps you to build a slider with just a few clicks with completely customizable background features. You get multiple design features here to create impressive web pages. The drag-and-drop interface makes it highly user-friendly. There are advanced typography and multiple color options. The theme supports all modern WordPress add-ons.

Features 

• SEO friendly 
• Responsive design 
• WooCommerce compatible 
• RTL support 
• Translation ready

AccessPress Lite

AccessPress Lite is a multipurpose slider theme for WordPress. It comes with a blog layout, gallery layout, testimonial layout, event layout, and many more. You can just select the pre-designed layout, enter your data, and create your page. The theme is social media integrated and has a flexible header and left and right sidebars. The theme is ideal for travel, photography, health, blogging, and portfolio. It is available in both free and premium versions.  

Features 

• Multiple homepage layouts 
• SEO optimized 
• RTL support 
• WooCommerce ready 
• Cross-browser compatible

Allegiant

Allegiant is a multipurpose slider theme for WordPress suitable for corporate websites and agencies. It brings you many theme options, custom backgrounds, custom menus, and custom colors. You can customize the theme easily with just a few clicks. It can be integrated with popular WordPress plugins like WooCommerce, Yoast SEO, and ContactForm7. It is responsive and retina-ready. 

Features 

• Lightweight 
• Speed optimized 
• Live theme customizer 
• Multiple layouts 
• Social media ready 

Conclusion 

We have tried to give you some relief by sharing the names of the most popular free WordPress slider themes here. Hope you found the article helpful. All the above-listed themes are user-friendly and well-documented. You can pick up any of them and move ahead. You will be able to create your slider on your own within a few minutes.   

If you liked the article, please share it on Twitter and Facebook. Leave your feedback in the comment section. We would love to hear from you. If you need any further information, please feel free to contact us. We will get back to you soon.

The post Best Free WordPress Responsive Themes With Slider In 2024 appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

How to Create the Perfect WordPress Logo?

To create an attractive WordPress logo for your website, keep the following in mind:

The Design Work

There are different ways to create a WordPress logo. You can approach a professional graphics designer in your area to create the WordPress logo if you have a good budget. If your budget is tight, then you can find a freelancer logo designer online. However, the recommended method for creating a WordPress logo on if you don’t have the cash to splash is to use a logo Maker.

A Logo Maker is an advanced software or online application that you can use to create your logo. Logo Makers are usually easy to use and can generate truly unique and premium logo designs in a matter of minutes.

Type of Logo

There are mainly three kinds of logos:

Icon-based: Icon-based logos, as the name suggests, are logos that use a unique icon. Apple and Nike are two examples of brands that use this kind of logo.

Wordmark: These logos use the brand name in the design as the main element. To make the logo attractive with the brand name alone, brands usually use attractive fonts. Examples include Coca-Cola, Visa, and Google.

Combination Mark: Combination mark logos are most popular and make for more than 75% logos available today. These logos contain both brand name and icon. They are also recommended for WordPress websites as they can be modified and customized to fit different locations of your website such as the home page, blog images, contact us form, etc.

Logo Basics

A logo, whether it’s used on a product or WordPress website, must follow certain principles. These are:
 Timelessness: Your WordPress logo should be able to age well. It means that your logo should look attractive and relevant not just today but also after a few months, and then after a few years, and so on.

 Originality: When creating a WordPress logo, most people refer to other popular WordPress websites to get ideas for their own design. This is a smart approach. However, it’s important that you study other designs merely for inspiration. You shouldn’t mimic other logos and keep your logo 100% original.

 Legibility: The brand name on the logo should be easy to read. So, you should use a font that’s attractive but not too complex either.

 Simplicity: Brands know the importance of simplicity and they reap the rewards too. This concept also applies to graphics design, including the logo design. The principle is simple- a simple logo is easy to remember and replicate. A simple logo also allows for clear and succinct messaging.

Logo Colors

Colors play a huge role in logo design. However, you should not pick colors based on your personal preferences. The colors in your logo should be picked from the color palette of your WordPress theme only. For instance, if your WordPress theme uses colors green, red, and white, then you can create a logo that uses green-red or green-white or white-red. Following your website’s color palette in all design elements across all channels is important for brand consistency. If you’re not sure a color scheme generator can help you find the perfect pallet.

Bottom Line

A WordPress website is incomplete without a premium and attractive logo. So, hire a logo designer or design the logo yourself, but create a good logo for sure. If you want to show your WordPress website visitors that you care about
your website, give your best shot to the logo design. Good luck!

The post Creating the Perfect Logo for Your WordPress Site appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

Well, AMP has been quite a hot topic these days. So, here I am with the top five best AMP Plugins for WordPress websites.

Before that, let me make you clear about what AMP is and what it does to your site. Does it benefit you? If so, in what way?

AMP, Accelerated Mobile Pages, is a project backed by Google to speed up the mobile web. AMP version of the websites load faster in mobile devices which results in increased user experience, increase website ranking, faster loading even on slow internet, and so on. Simply put, AMP offers the lightweight version of your website that loads faster.

Well, that sounds impressive! But, how does it do it?

Accelerated Mobiles Pages (AMP) control the number of javascript and CSS files that are used on posts or pages of your website. Contrary to regular pages, AMP pages are automatically cached by Google AMP cache which results in faster loading times on Google search.

Now, let’s look at some of the best free AMP WordPress Plugins with which you can create an AMP version of your site that will load faster in mobile devices.

AMP for WP – Accelerated Mobile Pages

AMP for WP is one of the most popular AMP free WordPress plugins with over 100,000+ active installations. It is designed in a way that your site loads super fast and also engages your users. It supports homepage, posts, pages, custom post types, search, and archives. It has its built-in auto AMP Page Validator.

The plugin has six pre-defined ad slots so that you can easily monetize your blog or website with advertisements. With those native AMP Ads slots, the plugin will ensure that the ads will be shown in the most visible spots.

The plugin is SEO-optimized and it is fully compatible with SEO plugins like Yoast SEO and All in One SEO Pack. It has Yoast SEO, All in One SEO, Rank Math, SEOPress integration in it.

AMP for WP has a powerful settings panel that gives you full control over all the elements of your AMP site.

The plugin has several pre-made designs in the free version and a few of them are kept in the premium version, The plugin is page builder compatible too.

AMP

AMP is the official plugin for displaying AMP content on WordPress websites. This free AMP WordPress plugin has over 500,000 active installations and it is undeniably the most popular WordPress plugin at the present.

The plugin automates the AMP-valid markup, provides validation tools and does so many works itself. So, you can have a well-secured, super-fast, and engaging website in the AMP version.

The plugin has three template modes – standard, transitional, and reader mode. So, you can choose the template mode that suits your website. Another impressive feature of the AMP plugin is that it supports the AMP Pages serving so that you can take full advantage of features like AMP-AMP linking and mobile redirection.

AMP WP – Google AMP for WordPress

AMP WP – Google AMP for WordPress is a free WordPress AMP plugin that is quite new in the market. Yet, it has already proven to be the one that will be loved by thousands of blog and website owners.

It has a powerful AMP WP Settings Panel and an AMP WP Options Panel that lets you control and customize the AMP version of your website. It supports sidebar, slider, related posts, classic/list view layout, and so on.

The plugin claims to load sites 5x faster in mobile devices.

Better AMP – WordPress Complete AMP

Better AMP is a WordPress plugin that is quite new. It is one of the fastest AMP plugins at the present. It offers a fully-functional AMP interface for your WordPress site’s pages, posts, tags, search bar, category menus, and so on.

The plugin has a demo customizer which can be quite useful to test. With its demo customizer, one can easily test his/h3er customized AMP landing page and overall structure before making the site live.  It also does your mobile page integration which is an impressive feature of Better AMP.

Overall, this is a great plugin that lets you build a clean and easy-on-the-eye AMP website easily. It is well-suited for both beginners and advanced users.

AMP on WordPress: weeblrAMP CE

WeeblrAMP is a free WordPress plugin that is something more than just a standard AMP plugin. With this plugin, you can create an AMP version of your website; it lets you create AMP posts, pages, tags, categories, and archive pages on your site.

This AMP plugin integrates seamlessly with so many plugins including Google Analytics, Disqus, WooCommerce, Contact Form 7, Gravity Forms, Jetpack, Yoast SEO, Elementor, and more.

The plugin is fully customizable and it lets you override its templates as well.

Final Words

There are only a few AMP plugins that people trust and these are the best ones. Choose any one of these and you are set to go.

The post Best AMP Plugins for WordPress appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.

Besides applying for other jobs, learning a new skill is one of the activities that will keep you occupied and help you boost your resume. So, stop wallowing on your bad luck and start doing something to take advantage of this free time. These are the skills that you can learn if you find yourself unemployed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Programming Language

The first skill you could learn is a programming language and this could help you improve your way of life by finding a new career path in the tech industry. Technology is part of our lives now and the need for tech professionals will only grow. If you learn a programming language, you will even be prepared for the time when robots replace a lot of the jobs humans do. 

There are many options and it depends on what you are interested in. For example, Java is a good option as a first language. It is used mostly for mobile development, being the official language for Android development. You can learn any coding language at your own pace or with a course, and the best Java courses are online for anyone to access at any time. 

JavaScript is another example of a programming language that is used mostly in web development. This language is mainly used to create animations and interactive features for websites, but it has other uses like to make blockchain applications. It will probably ensure you a job in the next few years, and you can learn it on your own. For example, a Kenzie Academy review revealed a free introductory course to JavaScript. 

WordPress

WordPress allows people to manage websites and blogs without having any programming or coding knowledge. You could learn WordPress basics, which includes how to use the software. WordPress offers a user-friendly and intuitive interface that makes it easier for the user to create a website.

It has the option of using pre-established templates so people can just put in their content and have a website in seconds. But it has tons of plugins that enable other functionalities. The other option is to go deeper and become a WordPress developer. In this case, you will be the one creating plugins and templates for other WordPress clients to use.  

Skillcrush has a very comprehensive WordPress development course that can be taken part-time and online. These developers have one of the most complete sets of skills in the tech industry. And the course teaches everything you need to know to create unique websites and start your path as a WordPress developer. 

Digital Marketing

Digital is the new way of marketing and companies are implementing all kinds of digital techniques to reach their customers. TV and radio are in the past. The Internet changed the marketing industry entirely and the future is digital. Digital marketers are experts in creating campaigns that bring the best results. 

Digital marketing is one of the most desired skills in the world we live in today. The best part is that all companies, no matter the industry, need marketing. You will be widening your possible market, and you could work in the marketing industry directly or for other companies to help them build their online presence. 

Digital marketing can include many niches like SEO, email, social media, or even design and advertisements. The best way to learn is by enrolling in courses online that teach the basic skills that give you a professional certificate when completed. 

Personal Finance

Personal finance is something that many people never learn throughout their lives. Most careers don’t teach personal finance, and people have economic struggles throughout their lives. If you are unemployed and don’t have savings that you can fall back on, it is probably due to your lack of financing knowledge. 

There are some things that everyone should know, like how to do taxes, keep good credit scores, save money, calculate best loan options, or how to invest. The reality is that most professionals don’t understand these definitions and terms. So, by learning about personal finance and how to manage your money, you will probably be able to have a comfortable lifestyle. 

Something as simple as creating a monthly budget could help you to survive the next few months. Many universities offer free resources like guides and online courses for anyone to use. This is a must-have skill that if you don’t already have, then you should learn it. 

Second Language

A second language is a superb skill for anyone to learn at any age. You can start by researching which other languages, besides your mother tongue, is most spoken in your city or country. Knowing a second language will open many job opportunities, like teaching, translating, transcribing, or even any other job for a company that has international clients. 

English, after all, is the language with most native speakers in the world. The second and third being Mandarin Chinese and Spanish. And in the US, the second language most spoken by Americans is Spanish. So, it doesn’t matter which language you learn; you will have new opportunities. 

Keep in mind that if you are doing it to further your career, then learning a language that will put you closer to that goal will be better. For example, if you are a mechanical engineer that wants to work for BMW in Germany, it will be a better option to learn German than Spanish. 

In Summary

It is crucial to keep yourself motivated, especially in difficult times. By keeping occupied, you will maintain an active mindset and avoid depression. Learning a new skill is a great option to take advantage of your free time, plus you will be opening new doors for your professional life.

The post Five Skills to Learn if You are Unemployed During COVID-19 appeared first on Acme Themes Blog.