Friday, 29 November 2024

How Ben Rojas Rose From a Developer to the President of AIOSEO

Ben Rojas is the President of All in One SEO (AIOSEO) and a self-taught WordPress and PHP developer with over 25+ years of experience. Although he started as a developer at Awesome Motive, he quickly rose through the ranks to lead the entire AIOSEO company.

In this interview, Ben Rojas explains how his background in WordPress development paved the way for becoming the president of AIOSEO. He also shares his thoughts on how he would start his career if he were to start today.

“My number one piece of advice is be teachable, be adaptable … so that you can always keep learning, and then you will grow better through that.”

benjamin rojasBen Rojas – President of All in One SEO

Keep reading to get the behind-the-scenes scoop from one of our favorite WordPress leaders.

This is our new series, #MyWordPressStory, which brings you insights from some of the most successful leaders in the WordPress industry.

If you’d like to be featured in our interview series – whether you’re a plugin developer, founder, or SEO expert – feel free to reach out and let us know through our contact form.

How Ben Rojas rose from a developer to the president of AIOSEO

Video Interview with Ben Rojas

If you’d like to check out the complete video interview with Ben Rojas, then you can watch it below:

Otherwise, you can use the quick links below to read more:

Meet Ben Rojas, President of All in One SEO

Before becoming the President of All in One SEO, Ben got his start in IT and customer support. But long before that, he began his journey as a developer. In fact, he wrote his first lines of HTML code at the age of 13 after learning from library books.

When chatting with James Agar from the WPBeginner team, he fondly remembered his family limiting his computer time (kids need to go outside and play) and working around this obstacle by writing code by hand on lined paper. He’s even kept records of these early efforts!

Since then, Ben has maintained an identity as a lifelong learner, which has helped him become a leader in the WordPress community today. Next, let’s talk about how he discovered WordPress.

A WordPress Journey: From Support to Web Development to President of All in One SEO

After laying the foundations for a future in web development at an early age, Ben got a job in IT at a nonprofit organization in 2008. This was when he started tinkering with WordPress for the first time.

Soon after, he transitioned to a customer support role for a WordPress eCommerce product, which was called Cart66 (now part of WP EasyCart). His plan was to get more familiar with WordPress code.

Ben quickly started to work on his development skills and eventually became a developer on the Cart66 team. During this time, he also started his own side business of writing PayPal plugins for Easy Digital Downloads (EDD), which is now an Awesome Motive product.

Then, after a brief career shift and a departure from WordPress development, Ben returned to his roots. He reconnected with the EDD community and joined the Awesome Motive team in 2016.

He started as a software developer for Envira Gallery but quickly transitioned to OptinMonster to leverage his strengths in PHP development.

Optinmonster's homepage

At that point, he decided to start leveling up. According to Ben, during this phase of his career, he was constantly building, iterating, and thinking about how to give back to his team.

“That was my mentality. That was the effort that I put in each and every day trying to show up, do my best to be able to … get off work when I did, and go back to my family and say, I did the best I could today, and I’m going to come back at it tomorrow.”

benjamin rojasBen Rojas

At WPBeginner, we love to hear this from industry leaders!

During this enhanced phase of productivity, Ben was proactive as a contributor and helped his team transition to a new JavaScript framework to boost efficiency.

After proving himself in his role and capabilities at OptinMonster, Ben was asked to run All in One SEO (AIOSEO). “Basically, I went from just being a developer at OptinMonster straight into this role of being President at All in One SEO.”

Even though he had no management experience, Ben rose to the occasion. When discussing his early days as President of AIOSEO, he jokingly said, “It wasn’t without its challenges … it was just like drinking from a fire hydrant for the first couple of years.”

In addition to learning how to run a business, Ben talked about how his biggest challenge as president was inheriting a very outdated codebase.

The AIOSEO team had to decide whether to build on top of bad code or start over. With Ben leading the way, they chose to rebuild the code from zero, which was more challenging but ultimately more sustainable.

His team was able to rewrite AIOSEO from the ground up within 11 months. This way, they could offer users the best product moving forward.

Inside All in One SEO

Now, let’s talk more about what Ben is working on at AIOSEO today. But first, here’s a little background on the product and its evolution.

With over 3 million users, All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is one of the most popular SEO tools for WordPress. When chatting with WPBeginner, Ben also reminded us that “It was the first and original SEO plugin for WordPress.”

At WPBeginner, we love AIOSEO and use it on all of our websites. You can check out our complete AIOSEO review for more information on this powerful SEO plugin.

All in One SEO for WordPress

Since the beginning, AIOSEO has helped WordPress users improve their on-page SEO with meta tags, sitemaps, and much more.

The original plugin had a strong foundation, but Ben’s team has constantly been developing the tool and its features over the last few years. They have built out new feature sets to help users with redirects, internal links, local SEO, and much more.

Most recently, the AIOSEO team launched Search Statistics to help people see how their SEO is working for them. This new native AIOSEO tool integrates WordPress with Google Search Console.

Search Statistics overview

Here are a few things that Search Statistics can do:

Essentially, Search Statistics gives people actionable insights into how to improve their content.

Ben and his team have received a lot of positive feedback about Search Statistics. “We’ve had a lot of people who said this is what they need. They love the ability to see all of that right in their WordPress dashboard.”

When it comes to Search Statistics, we completely agree. Here at WPBeginner, our editorial team uses the tool every day to help improve our content and boost rankings.

Similarly, the new Keyword Rank Tracker helps you understand keyword rankings on a deeper level, allowing you to analyze the SERPs more effectively.

That said, the newest and most exciting feature on Ben’s mind is AIOSEO’s Writing Assistant. It integrates seamlessly with SEOBoost to give in-depth insights into your content, including scores for readability and keyword usage.

It even shows you up to 30 examples of competitor websites ranking well for a specific keyword that you’re targeting. This can give you super valuable insights and help you crack the top 10 rankings with your content.

Advice for Aspiring WordPress Developers: Ben on Adaptability and Doing Your Best

For Ben, customer support for a technical product was a great entry point into WordPress development. But when asked, he said one key piece of advice to aspiring developers is: “Get started and never stop learning.” He stressed the importance of education and using free online resources.

For beginners who want to become WordPress developers, he recommends starting by learning PHP and JavaScript to get a strong understanding of the technologies that the platform is built on.

Ben also wouldn’t recommend neglecting JavaScript since WordPress continues to rely on it more heavily, especially as it moves toward a block editing approach.

According to Ben, if you know both PHP and JavaScript, then learning all the other necessary programming languages and frameworks will be much easier. For instance, a strong grasp of JavaScript will make learning jQuery a breeze.

💡 Want to learn how to use WordPress? Check out WPBeginner’s Free Video Courses.

Ben also encourages aspiring developers to proactively seek out opportunities in development, even if it’s on a very small scale to start. For instance, he said you could offer to help friends and family who may need assistance with their website or consider the freelance route to get started.

In his opinion, this kind of experience can make you more competitive when applying for junior developer roles.

When chatting generally about advice for developers, Ben also said, “The biggest thing is adaptability.”

In practical terms, for example, if you find yourself working on a product with a codebase that doesn’t align with your preferences, adapting and writing your code to that standard will still help you learn something new.

Of course, he doesn’t think you should be afraid to ask why things are done the way they are. Instead, he said, “My number one piece of advice is: be teachable, be adaptable … and then you will grow better through that.”

“Get started and never stop learning.”

benjamin rojasBen Rojas

When we talked with Ben further about his time at OptinMonster and discussed the importance of attitude and mindset, he cited his family as a major motivator behind his work.

“I try to instill that in my children. At the end of the day, this is going to make our world better if this is the mentality and attitude that everybody has in the jobs that they’re doing.

Going to work each day with that attitude, you will change the workplace that you’re in. I know it. I’ve seen that, I’ve felt it, and that would be another piece of advice really for someone starting out … being adaptable also has to do with this … it’s not just the code.”

Looking Ahead: The Future of WordPress and All in One SEO

So what’s next for Ben Rojas and AIOSEO? Here’s what he had to say:

“We’re going to continue to work on things around our AI writing assistant, to expand that, to make that better. We’re going to add new features and improvements.

And then our keyword rank tracking tool that we just launched. We’re going to continue to improve that, make changes there as well to continue to cater to our customers.

Besides that, we do have some other amazing things in the works that I can’t really say right now, but we are very, very excited about those.”

benjamin rojasBen Rojas

In terms of the WordPress community as a whole, Ben is equally excited.

“As a developer at heart, I’m really loving what I’m seeing, the work going into security and performance improvements. I think that should have started a lot sooner, and I’m really glad that it’s happening right now.

And then the block editor—it has a lot of room for improvement, but it is being improved.“

Final Thoughts

Early on in the interview when discussing his WordPress journey, Ben jokingly said, “I’m not really the kind of person that has a 5-year plan.”

But later, when asked about what’s next in his professional life, Ben said, “I am loving what I’m doing. I’m excited to stay here. I’m gonna be here for the long haul.”

He also took this as an opportunity to talk again about his previous message of growth. “At the same time, to kind of tie back into where we started, I’m gonna be continuing to learn along the way. And I push my team to do the same thing.

At the end of the day, that’s what’s going to help us to continue to grow and to stay ahead. And that’s what I’m excited about … that is my 5-year plan.”

At WPBeginner, we’re looking forward to watching closely as Ben Rojas continues to lead the AIOSEO team with a positive, forward-thinking, and customer-centered mindset. We truly appreciate him taking the time to chat with us and for bringing us a product that helps us every day.

Bonus: Expert Guides for WordPress SEO

We hope you learned some valuable insights from Ben Rojas, the President of All in One SEO. You may also be interested in some of our guides on WordPress SEO:

A few of these WPBeginner articles were even written by Ben himself.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How Ben Rojas Rose From a Developer to the President of AIOSEO first appeared on WPBeginner.



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Thursday, 28 November 2024

WPBeginner Spotlight 06: Black Friday Deals, New AI Tools + More WordPress News

November has been a busy month for the WordPress community! It brings groundbreaking AI tools like the new WPForms AI Form Builder and WordPress.com’s AI Assistant for Studio.

Plus, there have been major updates like the release of WordPress 6.7, new plugins, and exclusive Black Friday deals from top WordPress companies. From innovative product launches like ClickSocial to beginner-friendly analytics tools like OnePageGA, this edition of Spotlight has something for every WordPress user.

Now, let’s dive into the biggest updates and features shaping WordPress this month.

WPBeginner Spotlight is your monthly roundup of the latest WordPress news, updates, and community highlights.

Have WordPress news to share? Whether it’s a product launch, a major update, or a noteworthy event, let us know through our contact form, and it might be featured in the next edition!

WPBeginner Spotlight 06: Black Friday Deals, New AI Tools + More WordPress News

OnePageGA Launches to Simplify Google Analytics 4 Reporting

A new tool called OnePageGA has been launched to help users understand Google Analytics 4.

It condenses analytics data into a single-page dashboard, offering a simplified overview of key metrics like user sessions, pageviews, traffic sources, and top-performing pages.

OnePageGA

Syed Balkhi, CEO of Awesome Motive, wrote in his announcement post:

OnePageGA is the magic button you always wish you had. With just a few clicks, it instantly turns all your Google Analytics 4 data into easy-to-use reports … no need to install a plugin or touch a line of code!  

John Turner, co-founder of OnePageGA, shared the motivation behind the tool: “You already know Google Analytics 4 is a powerful tool, but let’s face it—it’s challenging to navigate. You’re left wondering, ‘What metrics really matter?’ and ‘How can I make sense of it all without hours of training?

The dashboard addresses these frustrations by providing essential insights on one screen, meaning you don’t need to navigate GA4’s complex interface.

OnePageGA requires no technical setup and integrates directly with Google Analytics 4, making it accessible to both beginners and experienced users alike.

Smash Balloon Introduces ClickSocial: Social Media Scheduling for WordPress

Smash Balloon, known for their social media integration plugins, have launched ClickSocial, a new all-in-one social media scheduling tool designed specifically for WordPress users.

It allows users to schedule and manage social media posts directly from their WordPress dashboards. This can simplify workflows for both content creators and marketers.

ClickSocial

In their announcement post, Smash Balloon highlighted the tool’s potential: “With ClickSocial, you can finally manage your social media content without leaving WordPress, giving you more time to focus on what really matters—growing your business.

ClickSocial supports popular platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X / Twitter (more platforms will be added later). It enables users to plan and publish posts across multiple accounts from one centralized interface.

It also offers features like customizable scheduling, post previews, and analytics to track engagement and performance.

Overall, ClickSocial aims to bring the convenience of scheduling tools like Buffer or Hootsuite directly into WordPress.

🎉Don’t Miss Out on the Best WordPress Black Friday Deals! 🎉

Looking to save big on WordPress plugins, themes, and tools? Our Black Friday Deals page features 150+ exclusive discounts on top WordPress products. It’s the perfect time to grab the tools you need to grow your website or business.

From hosting to plugins, we’ve curated the best deals in one place to make your shopping easy and efficient. Don’t wait too long—these deals are only available for a limited time!

WordPress.com Introduces AI Assistant for Studio

WordPress.com has announced the release of an AI Assistant for Studio, which is its free and open-source local development app.

The AI Assistant aims to make local WordPress site development faster and more intuitive for beginners.

WordPress.com Studio AI Assistant

It does this by simplifying common development tasks, such as setting up themes, customizing plugins, and troubleshooting errors.

Plus, it leverages natural language processing to allow developers to interact with their projects through simple text-based commands.

In the announcement, WordPress.com highlighted that the AI Assistant is particularly useful for new developers learning WordPress and seasoned professionals looking to streamline their workflows. The feature integrates seamlessly with Studio’s existing local development tools, enhancing both speed and efficiency.

WPForms Launches AI-Powered Form Creation

WPForms has introduced a groundbreaking new feature: AI-Powered Form Creation.

This new functionality uses artificial intelligence to simplify and speed up the process of building forms for WordPress websites.

Users can now create complex forms by simply entering a description of what they need. The AI then generates the form structure, including appropriate fields, in just a few seconds.

WPForms AI forms in action

Whether you need a registration form, a survey, or a feedback form, WPForms’ AI assistant can take care of the heavy lifting.

Syed Balkhi, co-founder of WPForms, shared his excitement on X (formerly Twitter), saying: “The future of WordPress forms is here! WPForms AI makes form creation faster and easier than ever before.”

This feature is particularly useful for business owners and non-technical users who want to save time while creating professional-grade forms. It’s another step forward in making WordPress more accessible and user-friendly for everyone.

Uncanny Automator Unveils New Release with Stripe, Email Attachments, and More

Uncanny Automator, the popular WordPress automation plugin, has launched a new release packed with new integrations and features.

It adds support for Stripe, email attachments, and MemberMouse, which significantly expanded its automation capabilities.

Uncanny Automator

The new Stripe integration allows website owners to automate processes like creating or updating user profiles after payment.

On the other hand, the email attachment feature enables site administrators to send files directly via automated emails, which is perfect for invoices, reports, or digital products.

MemberMouse users can now also automate membership actions, meaning the plugin is more useful for subscription-based sites.

In addition, the release also brings enhancements for developers and advanced users. These include support for importing and exporting CSV, JSON, and XML files, as well as custom actions for greater flexibility in automating complex workflows.

All in One SEO Introduces AI Writing Assistant Integration

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) has rolled out their latest feature, the AI Writing Assistant. This integration aims to help content creators write and optimize their content more effectively by using AI directly within the WordPress editor.

The Writing Assistant leverages the power of SEOBoost, which is a platform designed specifically for content optimization.

By integrating SEOBoost, AIOSEO provides users with advanced tools for improving readability, tone, and overall SEO performance in real time. It also helps you generate full content briefs for any keyword with just a few clicks.

All in One SEO writing assistant

With this new tool, users can receive actionable insights while drafting, making content creation simpler and more efficient for both beginners and experienced marketers.

Ben Rojas, President of AIOSEO, explained the significance of this feature:

The Writing Assistant empowers users to create content that’s not only engaging but also optimized for search engines. It bridges the gap between creativity and SEO best practices.

The Writing Assistant seamlessly integrates into the WordPress block editor, providing actionable insights while users draft their posts. This feature is part of AIOSEO’s ongoing efforts to enhance productivity and content quality for WordPress users.

In Other News

Keep Your WordPress Site Running Smoothly with WPBeginner Maintenance Services

WPBeginner pro services

Are you tired of worrying about your WordPress site’s backups, updates, and security? Our WordPress Site Maintenance Service ensures your site stays secure, optimized, and running at peak performance so you can focus on growing your business.

  • Automattic has acquired Harper, which is a grammar-checking tool designed for developers. Elijah Potter, the creator of Harper, will join Automattic as a Code Wrangler and integrate Harper’s capabilities into products like WordPress.com, WooCommerce, and Jetpack.
  • WPCode added support for SCSS, making it easier for developers to manage styles directly within WordPress. The update also includes improved PHP debugging tools to simplify troubleshooting for custom code snippets.
  • WordPress 6.7 was released with a new default theme and significant improvements to the site editor for customization and user experience. Later, WordPress 6.7.1 was released as a maintenance update with 16 bug fixes throughout core and the block editor.
Duplicator

Duplicator – Reliable WordPress Backups Made Easy

Keep your WordPress site safe with Duplicator’s automatic secure cloud backups. Featuring military-grade encryption, it ensures your data is protected and can be easily restored.

  • WordCamp Asia has announced YouthCamp 2025 for children aged 8-17. The program aims to inspire the next generation of WordPress users and developers, and it’s free for participants whose parent or guardian holds a WordCamp Asia ticket.
  • The WordPress Core team has announced plans for three major releases in 2025: versions 6.8, 6.9, and 7.0. These releases are expected to include significant updates and features to improve WordPress’s performance, functionality, and user experience.

New Plugins

  • ClickSocial – The all-in-one social media scheduler for WordPress makes it easy to plan, schedule, and publish content across multiple platforms directly from your WordPress dashboard.
  • OnePageGA – A tool that simplifies Google Analytics 4 by providing a clean, one-page dashboard for easy access to critical metrics.
  • Lottie Lite Animations for WordPress – Released by Human Made, this plugin adds lightweight animations to your WordPress website, enhancing the visual experience without affecting performance.
  • Back In Stock – This plugin allows WooCommerce store owners to notify users when out-of-stock items become available again to improve customer retention and conversions.

That’s it for this edition of WPBeginner Spotlight. We’d love to hear your feedback and ideas on how we can improve this series.

If there are any exciting WordPress news or updates you’d like us to feature in the next issue, don’t hesitate to drop us a message.

We’ll see you again next month with more WordPress news and insights. Thank you for being an integral part of our community!

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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Wednesday, 27 November 2024

6 Best Plugins to Sell Cars with WordPress (Expert Picks)

We’ve built a lot of different WordPress websites over the past 15 years, and one thing we’ve found to be true is that people can and will sell anything on the internet. Even cars.

Although we haven’t personally sold cars online, we do know what goes into running an online business and selling physical products. And we wanted to find out how we could help our readers who run automobile websites and car rental agencies.

To make what might seem like an overwhelming task more manageable, we downloaded and tested the most popular car listing plugins and WordPress autotrader plugins so you don’t have to. We were also pleasantly surprised to discover that the popular WooCommerce platform can be used for exactly this purpose.

In this article, we will explain everything we learned while testing the best car plugins for WordPress and share our top picks, along with their pros and cons.

Best Plugins to Sell Cars with WordPress

If you are in a hurry, then take a quick look at our expert picks to make a decision.

# Plugins Best For Pricing
🥇 WooCommerce All-in-one eCommerce solution Free
🥈 Auto Listings Creating car listings $199/yr + Free
🥉 Motors Creating and accepting car listings Free
4 Business Directory Plugin Charging fees for car listings $99/yr + Free
5 Car Dealer Selling cars Free
6 CarDealerPress Connecting WordPress with DealerTrend VMS Free

How We Test And Review Car Plugins For WordPress

Using a car plugin for your online store will allow you to create and manage vehicle listings on your website. You can also add car images, manage inventory, add search forms, schedule appointments, and integrate your store with different payment gateways.

However, since there are so many options in the market, it can be confusing to choose the right one according to your business needs. We have made this easier by testing the popular car plugins for you.

When doing that, we focused on the following areas:

  • Ease of use: For this showcase, we have added WordPress autotrader plugins that are easy to use for beginners and come with extensive documentation.
  • Inventory Management: We examined each plugin’s ability to manage car listings efficiently, including features for adding, editing, and removing vehicles. This includes checking for bulk upload options and VIN decoding.
  • Search and Filter Capabilities: We tested the search and filter functions, ensuring that potential buyers can easily navigate through listings by criteria such as make, model, year, and price range for cars.
  • Integration Capability: We evaluated each tool’s compatibility with popular WordPress themes and other essential plugins, ensuring that it integrates smoothly and functions without conflicts.
  • Performance Impact: We monitored each car listing plugin’s effect on website speed and performance, ensuring it can handle large car inventories without slowing down the site.
  • User Feedback and Reviews: We saw feedback and ratings from real users to gather insights into the plugin’s performance in actual sales environments.
  • Reliability: We have only included the plugins we have tested ourselves on real websites. We also took a look at customer reviews.

Why Trust WPBeginner?

WPBeginner has a team of experts with 15+ years of experience in WordPress, eCommerce, online marketing, and more. We’ve been running online businesses for years, so we’ve done a lot of research into what it takes to successfully sell different products online.

On top of that, we extensively review and thoroughly test each plugin in the list to give you the best recommendations. For details, see our editorial process.

Having said that, let’s take a look at the best plugins to sell cars with WordPress.

1. WooCommerce

WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the overall best eCommerce platform for selling all kinds of physical products, including cars, using WordPress. It is open source and easy to set up and customize.

We have extensively tested WooCommerce over the years and have had a great experience with it. The platform is highly beginner-friendly, free to start, and extremely scalable. For more details, you can see our complete WooCommerce tutorial.

The plugin’s visual builder allows you to sell all kinds of products, including cars, and integrates with popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe, making it super easy to receive payments.

WooCommerce is also completely free and can integrate with numerous other plugins to add different functions to your site like coupons, popups, sliding carts, and more.

For details, see our top picks for the best WooCommerce plugins to grow your business.

Pros

  • We really like that you can easily add, edit, and manage your car listings under the ‘Products’ section.
  • You can also use WooCommerce to sell car parts in your online store.
  • The plugin lets you track and manage customer orders, including processing payments, handling refunds, and fulfilling orders.
  • During our testing, we found that WooCommerce creates different pages for your store by itself. Plus, it lets you add pricing variations, use categories and tags, and comes with image and gallery management.

Cons

  • WooCommerce is not specifically built to sell cars. This means that some of the options offered by the plugin may not be useful to you.
  • We don’t like that it does not offer any real-time support.

Why we recommend WooCommerce: WooCommerce is the best plugin to sell cars with WordPress because it is free, open source, and beginner-friendly. It can integrate with any payment gateway and offers numerous extensions and plugins to add different functions to your auto store.

2. Auto Listings

Auto Listings

Auto listings is a popular car listing plugin that lets you add, edit, and manage car listings right within your WordPress dashboard.

While exploring the tool, we discovered that you can add comprehensive details for each car, such as make, model, year, mileage, features list, condition, engine specifications, and VIN. This will help users make an informed decision before they contact you.

Auto Listings lets you integrate lead capture forms with your cars to collect customer information and is optimized for SEO to help your store rank higher.

Pros

  • We were particularly impressed by the plugin’s price negotiation feature, where potential buyers can submit purchase offers.
  • It allows users to shortlist and compare cars, create image and video galleries, and add a powerful search form.
  • We liked that the tool also lets you add social sharing buttons to encourage users to share cars on their social media accounts.
  • It has multilingual support and is fully compatible with any WordPress car dealership theme.

Cons

  • The Auto Listings plugin does not integrate with any payment gateways. However, you can receive payments by integrating the plugin with WooCommerce.
  • Some of the features can only be unlocked in the pro version.

Why we recommend Auto Listings: If you want to create simple car listings and don’t want to receive payments online, then Auto Listings is a great choice. It will allow users to view cars available in your physical store and submit offers.

3. Motors

Motors

Motors is a free WordPress autotrader plugin that lets you create car listings in just a few minutes. It stands out because it allows you to add a listing submission form on your website and accept information from your other car sellers. In this way, it can be used for an online marketplace.

During our testing, we found it to be an ideal solution for beginners who don’t have a big budget since it comes with all the necessary features to get started with your car business.

The plugin is super user-friendly and allows you to create categories for different vehicles, add a search form, and compare cars to help customers make better decisions.

With Motors, you can also add social sharing buttons, loan calculators, and certification logos.

Pros

  • Our research revealed that the plugin has a test drive form. You can add this to your website, and users can submit it to test drive a vehicle of their choosing.
  • If multiple users are submitting car listings on your store, then you can create public profiles for different authors.
  • Motors allows you to manage listing statuses (available, sold, pending) for better inventory organization.
  • We like its wishlist feature where users can save the cars they like for future reference.

Cons

  • You will need to integrate the plugin with WooCommerce to receive payments online.
  • It does not offer built-in contact forms, so you will have to integrate it with a popular contact form plugin.

Why we recommend Motors: If you want to create a marketplace and accept car listings from different users, then this is the plugin for you.

4. Business Directory Plugin

Business Directory Plugin

Business Directory Plugin is a popular WordPress business directory plugin that lets you create an online car sales directory and easily accept payments for your listings. This makes it a great option for creating a profitable online car marketplace.

We’ve experimented with this plugin many times for making different kinds of listing websites, and we have been impressed with the results. For details, please see our Business Directory Plugin review.

It’s very beginner-friendly, making it simple to set up and customize while still offering the advanced options needed for more complex listings.

It is a good choice if you want to accept listings from users and make money by charging them a small amount for putting their car for sale in your store.

The plugin is mobile-friendly, optimized for search engines, and comes with a robust search form, making it a great choice.

For details, see our tutorial on how to create a web directory in WordPress.

Pros

  • When researching the tool, we came across the plugin’s Mapping feature. This lets you display the location of dealerships or individual sellers for car listings.
  • You can create a marketplace for used cars by providing a platform for individual sellers to list their used cars and then connect them with buyers.
  • It can integrate with multiple payment gateways, including Authorize.net.

Cons

  • Some of the features can only be unlocked in the pro plan.
  • It is focused on listings, not sales, so we don’t recommend it if you plan to sell cars online.

Why we recommend Business Directory: If you want to create a marketplace and earn money by allowing users to put up their used car listings, then Business Directory is a great choice.

5. Car Dealer

Car Dealer

Car Dealer is a free WordPress plugin for creating car listings and selling vehicles online. It’s a great option if you run multiple dealerships and want to see your vehicles straight from WordPress.

While testing the plugin, we discovered that it comes with a bunch of premade templates for cart listings and a powerful visual builder that lets you customize your listings and see the changes in real time. You can also create custom fields to showcase car features according to your liking.

Our research revealed that Car Dealer has multilingual support, offers a price range slider, and comes with a currency manager, making it a great choice if you want to sell cars directly from your store.

Pros

  • The plugin lets you add multiple dealership locations. This feature can come in handy if you accept listings from other people as well. Users can then visit those stores to view the vehicle before making a purchase.
  • We were really impressed upon finding out that the Car Dealer shows a summary of the car when the user hovers a mouse over the car’s image.
  • It comes with easily customizable search options, custom widgets, and a flex slider gallery.
  • The plugin can also add a call to action contact form to your store.

Cons

  • It had limited features compared to other plugins on our list.
  • Many users have reported the plugin starts slowing down your website if you have a large car inventory of above 50.

Why we recommend Car Dealer: If you want to create listings and sell cars directly from WordPress, then Car Dealer is the right choice for you.

6. CarDealerPress

CarDealerPress

CarDealerPress is an open-source WordPress plugin that integrates with the DealerTrend Vehicle Marketing System (VMS). It allows you to connect your WordPress site with your VMS account to showcase your car inventory details using customizable templates.

During our evaluation, we found it to be super mobile-friendly. It also allows users to search and filter car listings, and integrate with lead capture forms offered by DealerTrend to collect customer information.

Overall, it could be a good option if you’re already using the DealerTrend VMS system.

Pros

  • You can add vehicle details and manage the availability status easily.
  • DealerTrend VMS can connect with email marketing tools and allow you to create listings using automated workflows.
  • We particularly appreciate its CRM where you can manage your customer data.
  • When we used the tool on our test website, we found that it generated reports that helped us gain insights into sales performance, marketing campaign effectiveness, and customer behavior.

Cons

  • CarDealerPress does not offer any function by itself. It only allows you to connect your website with DealerTrend VMS.
  • The paid plan for DealerTrend can be a bit expensive.

Why we recommend CarDealerPress: If you already have a DealerTrend VMS account with car listings, then you can connect it with WordPress and sell your cars using this plugin.

Bonus Entries

7. WPForms

Highlighted menu item in WPForms

WPForms is the best WordPress form builder that you can use to create all kinds of forms for your car dealership website. These include an automobile information form, car show registration form, car loan lead capture form, car maintenance service request form, car damage report form, and many more.

We’ve been using WPForms on all our websites for contact forms and surveys, and it has consistently delivered outstanding results. To learn more, check out our detailed WPForms review.

Overall, WPForms has more than 2000 templates to choose from and even ships with an AI form builder feature. The plugin makes it really simple to create forms in just a few minutes, saving you time and effort while ensuring great results.

Pros

  • We love the plugin’s amazing AI Builder feature. Simply describe the type of form you want, and the AI creates it for you and seamlessly adds it to your website. It’s a game-changer for simplifying form creation.
  • You can also style and customize forms according to your liking.
  • During our research, we discovered that WPForms offers a ‘Car Payment Calculator Form’ template. You can add it to your website to help customers calculate a car’s payment, including the interest rate, down payment, and percentage.
  • WPForms offers complete spam protection.

Cons

  • Some of the features are only available in the pro version.

Why we recommend WPForms: If you are planning to add any kind of car-related form to your website, then WPForms is the ultimate choice. Its user-friendly interface and wide range of templates make it super easy to create professional forms within minutes.

8. Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms

Formidable Forms is an advanced form builder that you can use to create complex forms for your car dealership website. For example, it enables you to create and add a car payment calculator to your site. This will allow users to get an estimate for their monthly loan payments, compare offers, and find the best deals on their car purchases.

Over the past few years, we have tested out Formidable Forms on our websites to create a wide range of forms, and our experience has been great. We’ve been impressed by its reliable performance, and the built-in integrations make it easy to connect with other tools we use. For details, see our Formidable Forms review.

You can also use the plugin to create a car listing form with a template and add it to any page. The plugin can even integrate with popular payment gateways, making it a good choice for selling online.

Pros

  • Our research revealed that the plugin can integrate with AI to create interactive forms.
  • It lets you validate user datacreate a searchable database, and create a shipping calculator.
  • Formidable Forms seamlessly integrates with third-party tools.

Cons

  • The free version does not offer the ‘Listings’ template.
  • It has a lot of features, which can be overwhelming for beginners.

Why we recommend Formidable Forms: This plugin is a good choice if you want to add a simple listings form with a car calculator.

What Is the Best Plugin to Sell Cars With WordPress?

In our expert opinion, WooCommerce is the best platform for selling cars in WordPress. It is free, scalable, integrates with most payment gateways, and has many extensions to add different functions to your store.

However, if you want to accept car listings from other users and make money from them, then Business Directory Plugin is the better choice.

On the other hand, if you want to sell cars and accept listings on your store, then we recommend Car Dealer because it has a visual builder, offers payment options, comes with custom widgets, and more.

Frequently Asked Questions About Selling Cars With WordPress

Here are some questions that our readers frequently ask us about selling cars with WordPress.

What features should I look for in a car dealership plugin?

When you are looking for an ideal car dealership plugin, here are the features that you should keep in mind:

  • Easy vehicle listing creation and management
  • Search and filters
  • Lead capture forms
  • Mobile-friendly design
  • WooCommerce integration (For selling cars)

What car plugin is best for beginners?

If you are a beginner who is just starting your WordPress journey, then you can opt for Auto Listings or Motors. Both of these plugins are free and beginner-friendly and will allow you to create a store with car listings and purchasing options in just a few minutes.

What plugin is best for established dealerships with a large inventory?

If you have a car inventory of about 50, then you can use the Car Dealer plugin.

Related Guides to Selling Cars

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post 6 Best Plugins to Sell Cars with WordPress (Expert Picks) first appeared on WPBeginner.



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Tuesday, 26 November 2024

How to Add a Super Admin User Role in WordPress Multisite

Over the years, we’ve managed several WordPress multisite networks. Along the way, we’ve learned that having the right people with the correct permissions to manage all those websites can make a huge difference. This is where the Super Admin user role can be super helpful.

However, adding a user with the Super Admin user role in WordPress multisite is slightly different from adding a new user to a single site.

This process can be a bit confusing for beginners. They may be unable to locate the option to add a super admin user.

We have also seen some people forget the login details of Super Admin users, locking them out of their WordPress multisite admin area.

In this article, we will show you how to add a Super Admin user role in WordPress multisite. We will show you two easy methods, with additional tips on securing your WordPress multisite properly.

Adding super admin user role in WordPress multisite

Here is a list of topics we will cover in this guide:

What Is a Super Admin User Role in WordPress?

WordPress comes with a built-in set of user roles. They have different permissions to do specific things on a WordPress site. For details, see our beginner’s guide on WordPress user roles and privileges.

A ‘Super Admin’ is a special user role in WordPress only available on websites that have the WordPress multisite feature turned on.

The multisite feature allows you to create multiple websites on a single WordPress installation. Each website can have its own ‘Administrator(s)’ to manage a specific website.

However, a user with the Super Admin user role can manage all websites on that WordPress multisite network. They can install plugins and themes and manage settings that affect all the sites.

Regular Administrators can only manage one site at a time. Super Admins, on the other hand, can make changes that impact every site in the network.

Be cautious when assigning the Super Admin role. Since Super Admins have access to everything, you should only give this role to people you fully trust. One wrong change can affect every site in the network.

Method 1: Adding a New Super Admin User in WordPress Multisite

This method is easy, and if you are already logged in to your WordPress multisite as a Super Admin, then you can use it to add new users with Super Admin user roles.

Simply log in to the WordPress admin area and take the mouse over to the ‘My Sites’ menu at the top left corner of the screen.

Managing network admin users in WordPress multisite

From there, navigate to the Network Admin » Users page.

Here, you can manage all the users on your site. Go ahead and click on the ‘Add New User’ button at the top.

This will bring you to the Add New User page.

Experienced WordPress users will notice that this page looks different from what you would see on a single site. Here, you can only add a username and email address, and there is no option to select a user role.

For now, you just need to add the username and email address of the user you want to add and click the ‘Add User’ button.

WordPress will now save the information and automatically send an email to the user to set their password.

Next, you need to assign this user ‘Super Admin’ privileges.

To do that, head over to the Users » All Users page and locate the user you just added.

Edit the user you just added

Take the mouse over to the username and then click the ‘Edit’ link.

This will open the ‘Edit User’ page.

Here, you need to scroll down to the ‘Super Admin’ section and check the box next to the ‘Grant this user super admin privileges for the Network’ option.

Make user Super Admin

After that, you need to scroll down to the bottom of the page.

Ensure you click the ‘Update User’ button to save your changes.

Multisite update user details

WordPress will now save the changes you made to the user account and grant them the Super Admin permissions.

You will see a success message that the user has Super Admin privileges.

Multisite now has a new super admin user

That’s all. You have successfully added a new user with the Super Admin user role in WordPress.

Method 2: Adding a Super Admin User in WordPress Manually

This method is recommended for users locked out of the WordPress admin area who cannot add Super Admin users using the dashboard.

First, you need to connect to your website using an FTP client or the File Manager app in your hosting control panel.

Once connected, navigate to the /wp-content/themes/ folder and open the folder for the theme you are using on your root site.

The WordPress wp-content folder

Here, you will see several files and templates used by your WordPress theme.

You need to locate the functions.php file and download it to your computer.

Download functions file

You can now open this file using a plain text editor app like Notepad or TextEdit.

After that, add the following code at the bottom of your functions.php file:

function wpb_create_super_admin() {
    $username = 'newuser';  // Replace with the desired username
    $password = 'password123';  // Replace with the desired password
    $email = 'newuser@example.com';  // Replace with the user's email

    if ( !username_exists( $username ) && !email_exists( $email ) ) {
        $user_id = wp_create_user( $username, $password, $email );

        if ( !is_wp_error( $user_id ) ) {
            // Assign the Super Admin role to the new user
            grant_super_admin( $user_id );
        }
    }
}
add_action( 'init', 'wpb_create_super_admin' );

Ensure you fill in the values for $username, $password, and $email with the values you want to use for the new Super Admin user account.

Finally, don’t forget to save your changes and upload the file back to your website.

You can now log in to your root site’s WordPress admin area using the details you added to your functions file.

Important ⚠️: Don’t forget to delete the code you added to the functions file after successfully logging in to your Super Admin account.

Securing Super Admin Accounts in WordPress Multisite

We have seen many beginners losing access to the Super Admin accounts of their WordPress multisites.

Some people simply forget the login credentials, and others are attacked by hackers who get access to their multisite, causing severe financial and reputational damage.

We recommend all users follow our complete WordPress security guide to protect their websites.

Here are some tips that you can implement right away.

1. Set Up Automated WordPress Backups

Make sure that you are using a WordPress backup plugin to automatically create and store backups for your WordPress site to a remote location.

We recommend Duplicator. It is easy to use and set up, creates secure backups, and safely stores them on the cloud. More importantly, it also makes it easy to restore your website with one click from a backup.

Duplicator

We use Duplicator on our own websites. For more details, see our complete Duplicator review.

Note: A free version of Duplicator is also available with limited features. We recommend upgrading to a paid plan to unlock all features, including multisite support.

For details, see our tutorial on how to back up your WordPress website.

2. Set Up Two-Factor Authentication

We use two-factor authentication for all user accounts. It adds an extra layer of security to your WordPress website, making it harder for someone to gain access to your Super Admin accounts.

Two factor authentication prompt

We have put together a complete step-by-step tutorial on setting up two-factor authentication in WordPress for beginners. Following it will only take a few minutes but will make your multisite accounts more secure.

3. Ensure WordPress Emails Are Working

We often hear from users who are unable to receive a password reset email from their WordPress websites. Their WordPress website is not set up to ensure email deliverability.

By default, WordPress sends emails using the PHP mail() function. This function can be abused to send spam, so email service providers like Gmail and Outlook consider these emails suspicious and block them.

To fix this, you need to use an SMTP service like WP Mail SMTP. It allows you to use proper SMTP protocol to send WordPress emails, ensuring all your emails are securely delivered.

Note: A free version of WP Mail SMTP is also available.

We use WP Mail SMTP on all our websites to ensure all users can get their password reset and other important emails. See our WP Mail SMTP review to learn more.

Do you need help setting it up? We have a guide that shows how to set up WP Mail SMTP in WordPress.

Bonus WordPress Multisite Resources

The following are some additional guides to help you efficiently manage your WordPress multisite network as a Super Admin:

Maintainance Service: Maintaining a WordPress multisite network can be a lot of work. If you’d rather offload the work to the professionals, then you can check out our WordPress Maintenance service. For a small fee, our team of WordPress engineers will manage WordPress updates, security, and monitoring for you 24/7.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add a Super Admin user role in WordPress multisite. You may also want to see our article on tips on customizing the WordPress admin dashboard or look at our pick of the best plugins to Improve the WordPress admin area.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How to Add a Super Admin User Role in WordPress Multisite first appeared on WPBeginner.



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