Google Web Stories WordPress Plugin for More Traffic

Google Web Stories is a new way to get more traffic. Google’s official WordPress plugin makes it easier to participate.

Google announced a beta WordPress plugin that enables publishers to take advantage of Google’s relatively new Web Stories.

Web Stories is a way to rank at the top of Google search, Google images, Discover, and Google App.

What are Google Web Stories?

Google Web Stories is a new form of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). It is content that is meant to be consumed in small chunks.

Each page of a Web Story contains a maximum of 10 words. The recommended size of a Web Story is between four and 30 pages.

Publishers can monetize Web Stories with affiliate links, Google Ad Manager and Google DV360 (Beta).

Web Stories are meant to be consumed by mobile users who want to consume content at a glance. Google describes the typical content consumer as someone on a subway or having lunch.

Google Web Stories is open source and free.

Benefits of Google Web Story

Publishers are adopting the web story format because it can be featured in an attractive way for mobile users. Web Stories represents a new way to obtain a significant amount of traffic.

I recently started seeing Web Stories on Google News and on the Google App. They are interactive and attract attention to themselves.

Google Word Stories WordPress Plugin

Google announced a WordPress plugin to help publishers gain more traffic through the Web Story format. The WordPress plugin and the Web Story program are both in beta.

A final version of the Web Story WordPress plugin will be released later this summer, 2020. The current version of the plugin is missing animation and page attachment support. The final version will contain all features and be smoother than the beta version.

Related: 9 Best AMP WordPress Plugins for Speed, Search & Tracking

Snackable Content

The point of the Web Story is what Google calls, snackable content.

Videos are recommended to be no longer than 15 seconds long and they should feature subtitles.

Google specifies that videos should be shot in portrait mode, not in landscape mode. That way they will display full screen on a mobile device.

All videos must have captions so that a user can watch the video and read along with it. The presumption is that the user may not be in a situation where they are able to hear a video, such as in a public place or somewhere loud where their attention is divided.

**Google recommends that text be a minimum of font size 24 and that each page contains no more than 200 characters.

Long form content can be made available as an attachment link. This is a good feature because it allows a publisher to sneak their content to the viewers attention via a Web Story and convert them over to read the entire article if it is interesting enough for them.

#news #wordpress

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How To Customize WordPress Plugins? (4 Easy Ways To Do)

WordPress needs no introduction. It has been in the world for quite a long time. And up till now, it has given a tough fight to leading web development technology. The main reason behind its remarkable success is, it is highly customizable and also SEO-friendly. Other benefits include open-source technology, security, user-friendliness, and the thousands of free plugins it offers.

Talking of WordPress plugins, are a piece of software that enables you to add more features to the website. They are easy to integrate into your website and don’t hamper the performance of the site. WordPress, as a leading technology, has to offer many out-of-the-box plugins.

However, not always the WordPress would be able to meet your all needs. Hence you have to customize the WordPress plugin to provide you the functionality you wished. WordPress Plugins are easy to install and customize. You don’t have to build the solution from scratch and that’s one of the reasons why small and medium-sized businesses love it. It doesn’t need a hefty investment or the hiring of an in-house development team. You can use the core functionality of the plugin and expand it as your like.

In this blog, we would be talking in-depth about plugins and how to customize WordPress plugins to improve the functionality of your web applications.

What Is The Working Of The WordPress Plugins?

Developing your own plugin requires you to have some knowledge of the way they work. It ensures the better functioning of the customized plugins and avoids any mistakes that can hamper the experience on your site.

1. Hooks

Plugins operate primarily using hooks. As a hook attaches you to something, the same way a feature or functionality is hooked to your website. The piece of code interacts with the other components present on the website. There are two types of hooks: a. Action and b. Filter.

A. Action

If you want something to happen at a particular time, you need to use a WordPress “action” hook. With actions, you can add, change and improve the functionality of your plugin. It allows you to attach a new action that can be triggered by your users on the website.

There are several predefined actions available on WordPress, custom WordPress plugin development also allows you to develop your own action. This way you can make your plugin function as your want. It also allows you to set values for which the hook function. The add_ action function will then connect that function to a specific action.

B. Filters

They are the type of hooks that are accepted to a single variable or a series of variables. It sends them back after they have modified it. It allows you to change the content displayed to the user.

You can add the filter on your website with the apply_filter function, then you can define the filter under the function. To add a filter hook on the website, you have to add the $tag (the filter name) and $value (the filtered value or variable), this allows the hook to work. Also, you can add extra function values under $var.

Once you have made your filter, you can execute it with the add_filter function. This will activate your filter and would work when a specific function is triggered. You can also manipulate the variable and return it.

2. Shortcodes

Shortcodes are a good way to create and display the custom functionality of your website to visitors. They are client-side bits of code. They can be placed in the posts and pages like in the menu and widgets, etc.

There are many plugins that use shortcodes. By creating your very own shortcode, you too can customize the WordPress plugin. You can create your own shortcode with the add_shortcode function. The name of the shortcode that you use would be the first variable and the second variable would be the output of it when it is triggered. The output can be – attributes, content, and name.

3. Widgets

Other than the hooks and shortcodes, you can use the widgets to add functionality to the site. WordPress Widgets are a good way to create a widget by extending the WP_Widget class. They render a user-friendly experience, as they have an object-oriented design approach and the functions and values are stored in a single entity.

How To Customize WordPress Plugins?

There are various methods to customize the WordPress plugins. Depending on your need, and the degree of customization you wish to make in the plugin, choose the right option for you. Also, don’t forget to keep in mind that it requires a little bit of technical knowledge too. So find an expert WordPress plugin development company in case you lack the knowledge to do it by yourself.

1. Hire A Plugin Developer3

One of the best ways to customize a WordPress plugin is by hiring a plugin developer. There are many plugin developers listed in the WordPress directory. You can contact them and collaborate with world-class WordPress developers. It is quite easy to find a WordPress plugin developer.

Since it is not much work and doesn’t pay well or for the long term a lot of developers would be unwilling to collaborate but, you will eventually find people.

2. Creating A Supporting Plugin

If you are looking for added functionality in an already existing plugin go for this option. It is a cheap way to meet your needs and creating a supporting plugin takes very little time as it has very limited needs. Furthermore, you can extend a plugin to a current feature set without altering its base code.

However, to do so, you have to hire a WordPress developer as it also requires some technical knowledge.

3. Use Custom Hooks

Use the WordPress hooks to integrate some other feature into an existing plugin. You can add an action or a filter as per your need and improve the functionality of the website.

If the plugin you want to customize has the hook, you don’t have to do much to customize it. You can write your own plugin that works with these hooks. This way you don’t have to build a WordPress plugin right from scratch. If the hook is not present in the plugin code, you can contact a WordPress developer or write the code yourself. It may take some time, but it works.

Once the hook is added, you just have to manually patch each one upon the release of the new plugin update.

4. Override Callbacks

The last way to customize WordPress plugins is by override callbacks. You can alter the core functionality of the WordPress plugin with this method. You can completely change the way it functions with your website. It is a way to completely transform the plugin. By adding your own custom callbacks, you can create the exact functionality you desire.

We suggest you go for a web developer proficient in WordPress as this requires a good amount of technical knowledge and the working of a plugin.

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#customize wordpress plugins #how to customize plugins in wordpress #how to customize wordpress plugins #how to edit plugins in wordpress #how to edit wordpress plugins #wordpress plugin customization

Top 7 Post Timeline WordPress Plugins

Want to feature a brand history or storyline on a WordPress website? If yes, then read this blog thoroughly.

Many of your website visitors want to know about your brand history or the achievements of your past. For that, a timeline layout is a good solution. Showcase the story of your company or brand in chronological order with the dazzling post timeline posts. WordPress has several themes that have default horizontal timeline formats. But, to get a fully functional & beautifully designed timeline WordPress has plenty of resources of timeline plugins.

No concerns! We have assembled the best post timeline WordPress plugins. Each set of plugins have different functionalities and customization settings. Get the best one and create a timeline with the best one!

1. WP Timeline Designer Pro

WP Timeline Designer is a feature-rich plugin that provides vertical and horizontal timeline templates with lots of advanced functionalities. While showcasing a story or company history with the beautiful chart or design then timeline layout helps to easily understand and attract the readers as well. A great way to tell a story or create a post then the timeline plugin helps to create an attractive timeline.

Timeline Designer – Free

Timeline Designer – a free plugin recently launched on the WordPress repository platform. The free plugin contains in-built 6 existing customizable layouts with other customization options. Using this WordPress plugin, a user can match the look & feel of your WordPress site.

Features:

• Supports custom post type.
• Provides the customization of background color, show/hide timeline icon, template layout color, and basic animations.
• Style the post with the stunning content box.
• With the Horizontal timeline layout, a user gets the navigation option such as auto slide, number of slides, scrolling speed, etc.
• The plugin has Shortcode functionality with which a user can showcase timeline posts anywhere on the website.

WP Timeline Designer Pro – Premium

WP Timeline Designer Pro is an elegant and fantastic plugin with responsive timeline layouts. In the pro version, the plugin contains 15+ timeline templates with lots of options and tools to style and design the posts. It has in-built 20+ core demos available with which a user can showcase life story, event summary, author biography, achievements, company history, hiring process, etc in an eye-catchy timeline design.

Features:

• 12+ post animation effects on scrolling.
• Advanced filter post with the date, time period, author, post category, post status, etc.
• 10+ social sharing icons available and available in the library to change the icon settings anytime.
• The plugin allows you to add different types of pagination options such as load more buttons, pagination on scroll, etc.
• The premium plugin contains several media options for timeline posts such as hover effect on images, adjust image size, or text. link on media, custom image size, etc.

2. Post Timeline

Post Timeline plugin allows creating a timeline on 100% of the page. It allows the creation of unlimited vertical and horizontal timelines. To create a simple and single timeline, a user can use shortcode functionality.

**Post Timeline – Free **

The Post Timeline Free plugin allows you to create a timeline on the vertical layout. A user can also assign the category and tags.

Features:

• Smooth Animation & Slide Navigation is available.
• The plugin helps to create a tag-based and year-based timeline with parameters.
• The free plugin has customization offers such as color, assign different icons, etc.

Post Timeline – Premium

The pro version of the Post Timeline WordPress plugin has both vertical and horizontal timeline layouts. The plugin has inbuilt 23 timeline templates and all the timelines layout can be chosen by the admin for each timeline.

Features:

• The plugin has CSS3 animation + JS animation to make the timeline post prettier.
• Post Timeline comes with the backend template manager. It allows a user to preview the timeline on the page with the required content.
• 5 navigation options available.

3. Cool Timeline

Cool Timeline, as its name suggests, creates a complete timeline layout for the WordPress website. It is an HTML and CSS timeline plugin that helps to build awesome horizontal and vertical layouts. The new version of the plugin is very well compatible with Gutenberg.

**Cool Timeline: Free **

The Cool Timeline with the free version has 5 vertical and one horizontal timeline design. Also, the plugin allows users to showcase the stories in ascending & descending orders based on the year and date.

Features:

• It is a Gutenberg-friendly WordPress plugin with which a user can add shortcodes on any page using the Gutenberg block.
• A user can showcase the timeline images in the pop-up and link them to read a full story.
• Using this plugin, you can create a timeline both-sided as well as one-sided.

Cool TimelineCool Timeline: Premium

Cool Timeline Pro plugin has an advanced admin panel that helps to manage the timeline visibility details & other customization factors very smoothly. The premium plugin comes with 4 timeline layouts with 40+ several timeline designs.

Features:

• It provides a custom text and custom story order in/place of date and time in a timeline layout.
• Create multiple timelines in one website with the different categories
• The plugin comes with the proper navigation options, so a user can quickly navigate to a particular story.

#best wordpress timeline plugin #post timeline plugin wordpress #post timeline wordpress #timeline plugin for wordpress #wordpress post timeline plugins #wordpress timeline plugin

Top 7 Post Timeline WordPress Plugins

Want to feature a brand history or storyline on a WordPress website? If yes, then read this blog thoroughly.

Many of your website visitors want to know about your brand history or the achievements of your past. For that, a timeline layout is a good solution. Showcase the story of your company or brand in chronological order with the dazzling post timeline posts. WordPress has several themes that have default horizontal timeline formats. But, to get a fully functional & beautifully designed timeline WordPress has plenty of resources of timeline plugins.

No concerns! We have assembled the best post timeline WordPress plugins. Each set of plugins have different functionalities and customization settings. Get the best one and create a timeline with the best one!

1. WP Timeline Designer Pro

WP Timeline Designer is a feature-rich plugin that provides vertical and horizontal timeline templates with lots of advanced functionalities. While showcasing a story or company history with the beautiful chart or design then timeline layout helps to easily understand and attract the readers as well. A great way to tell a story or create a post then the timeline plugin helps to create an attractive timeline.

Timeline Designer – Free

Timeline Designer – a free plugin recently launched on the WordPress repository platform. The free plugin contains in-built 6 existing customizable layouts with other customization options. Using this WordPress plugin, a user can match the look & feel of your WordPress site.

Features:

• Supports custom post type.
• Provides the customization of background color, show/hide timeline icon, template layout color, and basic animations.
• Style the post with the stunning content box.
• With the Horizontal timeline layout, a user gets the navigation option such as auto slide, number of slides, scrolling speed, etc.
• The plugin has Shortcode functionality with which a user can showcase timeline posts anywhere on the website.

WP Timeline Designer Pro – Premium

WP Timeline Designer Pro is an elegant and fantastic plugin with responsive timeline layouts. In the pro version, the plugin contains 15+ timeline templates with lots of options and tools to style and design the posts. It has in-built 20+ core demos available with which a user can showcase life story, event summary, author biography, achievements, company history, hiring process, etc in an eye-catchy timeline design.

Features:

• 12+ post animation effects on scrolling.
• Advanced filter post with the date, time period, author, post category, post status, etc.
• 10+ social sharing icons available and available in the library to change the icon settings anytime.
• The plugin allows you to add different types of pagination options such as load more buttons, pagination on scroll, etc.
• The premium plugin contains several media options for timeline posts such as hover effect on images, adjust image size, or text. link on media, custom image size, etc.

2. Post Timeline

Post Timeline plugin allows creating a timeline on 100% of the page. It allows the creation of unlimited vertical and horizontal timelines. To create a simple and single timeline, a user can use shortcode functionality.

**Post Timeline – Free **

The Post Timeline Free plugin allows you to create a timeline on the vertical layout. A user can also assign the category and tags.

Features:

• Smooth Animation & Slide Navigation is available.
• The plugin helps to create a tag-based and year-based timeline with parameters.
• The free plugin has customization offers such as color, assign different icons, etc.
  

Post Timeline – Premium

The pro version of the Post Timeline WordPress plugin has both vertical and horizontal timeline layouts. The plugin has inbuilt 23 timeline templates and all the timelines layout can be chosen by the admin for each timeline.

Features:

• The plugin has CSS3 animation + JS animation to make the timeline post prettier.
• Post Timeline comes with the backend template manager. It allows a user to preview the timeline on the page with the required content.
• 5 navigation options available.

3. Cool Timeline

Cool Timeline, as its name suggests, creates a complete timeline layout for the WordPress website. It is an HTML and CSS timeline plugin that helps to build awesome horizontal and vertical layouts. The new version of the plugin is very well compatible with Gutenberg.

**Cool Timeline: Free **

The Cool Timeline with the free version has 5 vertical and one horizontal timeline design. Also, the plugin allows users to showcase the stories in ascending & descending orders based on the year and date.

Features:

• It is a Gutenberg-friendly WordPress plugin with which a user can add shortcodes on any page using the Gutenberg block.
• A user can showcase the timeline images in the pop-up and link them to read a full story.
• Using this plugin, you can create a timeline both-sided as well as one-sided.
  

Cool TimelineCool Timeline: Premium

Cool Timeline Pro plugin has an advanced admin panel that helps to manage the timeline visibility details & other customization factors very smoothly. The premium plugin comes with 4 timeline layouts with 40+ several timeline designs.

Features:

• It provides a custom text and custom story order in/place of date and time in a timeline layout.
• Create multiple timelines in one website with the different categories
• The plugin comes with the proper navigation options, so a user can quickly navigate to a particular story.

#best wordpress timeline plugin #post timeline plugin wordpress #post timeline wordpress #timeline plugin for wordpress #wordpress post timeline plugins #wordpress timeline plugin

Google Improves Web Stories WordPress Plugin

Web Stories for WordPress Plugin
Web stories is a new content type for the web. The idea is to provide “snackable” content, short length content, that content consumers can read in short breaks.

Web stories is a format for people who want information in quick bursts.

Abuse of Web Stories
Some publishers have adopted the format as a traffic acquisition channel by teasing an article through web stories and forcing readers to click to the main site to read the article.

#wordpress #web stories #google web stories plugin

Google Web Stories WordPress Plugin Updated With Embedding Capabilities

The block will give site owners three options for embedding Web Stories into a webpage or blog post:

• Latest Stories: Display most recent stories, with filtering and sorting options. The list automatically updates as new stories are published.
• Selected Stories: Display a list of handpicked stories.
• Single Story: Embed a single story by providing its URL.

Site owners will then be asked to choose how they want their Web Stories displayed. The options are a carousel, a grid, or a list.

#wordpress #google web stories #wordpress plugin #update #embedding capabilities