With tools like exit popups, push notifications, email reminders, and SMS follow-ups, you can bring customers back and boost conversions. In this guide, I’ll share the best cart abandonment software and solutions to help you turn abandoned carts into completed sales.

Here’s a quick comparison table before we explore each solution individually:

Top Cart Abandonment Software and Solutions

Feel free to click these links to jump to the tool you want to learn about.

1. OptinMonster
2. PushEngage
3. CartStack
4. Drip
5. LiveChat
6. Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce
7. Retainful
8. CartBounty

1. OptinMonster

OptinMonster is the best cart itabandonment software on the market. It helps you stop abandoning shoppers in their tracks by showing them special last-minute offers.

For example, Shockbyte used this OptinMonster popup to collect email addresses and encourage abandoning visitors to buy:

This and other OptinMonster campaigns helped Shockbyte more than double their sales!

This success is made possible by OptinMonster’s Exit-Intent® technology, which detects when users are about to leave your site, whether they’re on desktop or mobile.

We even regularly use cart abandonment popups on our own site:

You can trigger a popup like this specifically on your cart and checkout pages, encouraging shoppers to complete their checkout.

Features:

• Campaign types such as popups, floating bars, slide-in boxes, and more
• 700+ premade templates
• Easy drag-and-drop builder
• Exit-Intent® technology
• Page-Level Targeting
• Geo-Location Targeting
• Mobile-friendly popups
• Seamless Integrations with email marketing
• A/B Testing
• Conversion Analytics

OptinMonster Pricing:

OptinMonster’s Basic plan starts at $7 a month. However, to access Exit-Intent® technology, you’ll need at least the Pro, which starts at $29 per month.

2. PushEngage

PushEngage is a another effective cart abandonment solution for recovering lost revenue.

It helps you send targeted and personalized push notifications to your prospects. This can be done in under 10 minutes using one of PushEngage’s cart abandonment reminders.

PushEngage is also compatible with all web platforms, WordPress and Shopify included.

Best part? No coding skills required.

Features:

• Geo-Location Targeting
• Abandon Form
• Browse Notifications
• Goal Tracking & Analytics
• Cart Abandonment Reminder
• Automatic Drip Campaigns

PushEngage Pricing:

PushEngage offers a free plan with limited features, and paid plans start at $8/month. However, to use their cart abandonment reminders, you’ll need at least the Premium plan, which starts at $15/month.

3. CartStack

CartStack‘s cart abandonment software comes with a variety of features that can help you recover more sales. They offer 2 products:

• CartRecover for eCommerce, ticketing, and form abandonment
• RezRecover for hotels, vacation rentals, and bed & breakfasts.

With either tool, you can use CartStack to reach out to your prospects on multiple channels at once.

That means you have the ability to send email reminders, push notifications, SMS reminders, and tab notifications.

CartStack also integrates with all major eCommerce and Booking platforms.

Features:

• On-Site Retention Tools
• Email Reminders
• SMS Reminders
• Push Notifications
• Abandoned Tab Notifications
• Multiple Integrations

CartStack Pricing:

CartRecover: The price starts at $29/month for the Basic plan, which only includes abandoned cart email campaigns. For multi-channel features, you’ll need at least the Pro plan, which starts at $49/month. For each plan, the price increases based on the average number orders your website processes per month.

RezRecover: Pricing is based on the number of rooms across all properties, starting at $199/month for up to 100 rooms. B&B’s with less than 30 rooms pay $99/month.

4. Drip

Drip is a straightforward cart abandonment solution focused on email and SMS marketing.

Since most visitors who abandon a website never come back, Drip gives you the opportunity to reach out to them in different ways.

You can use the data you have on your prospects and customers to create multi-channel campaigns focused on reducing cart abandonment.

We use Drip in our email marketing efforts, and we recommend it to anyone looking to grow their list and increase sales.

Features:

• Multi-Channel Campaigns
• On-Site Popups
• eCommerce Playbooks
• Multiple Integrations
• Precision Targeting

Drip Pricing:

The price is varies based on the size of your email list. It starts at $39/month for up to 2,500 contacts and scales up from there. For example, 10,000 contacts costs $154/month.

5. LiveChat

LiveChat is a cart abandonment solution perfect for having live interactions with your prospects.

There’s almost no better way to reduce cart abandonment than approaching your visitor right as they are about to leave. The downside of LiveChat compared to other options we presented is the human factor.

More specifically, you need to have someone on your team ready to reach out and interact with those who are browsing your website.

However, that only applies if you want to interact 1-on-1. If not, then you can use automated responses, even if that’s going to lower the conversion rate.

Features:

• Custom Forms
• AI Automation
• Hundreds of Integrations
• Targeted Messages
• Notifications
• Reports & Analytics

LiveChat Pricing:

The price starts at $20 per agent/month for the Starter plan, and it goes up to $59 per agent/month for the Business plan.

6. Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce

Abandoned Cart Lite for WooCommerce is a cart abandonment solution specifically for WordPress.

It’s simple and easy to use. This also means it doesn’t have a wide range of features.

That being said, it still does its job well, and it reduces cart abandonment with the help of email notifications.

This particular solution is a good choice if you have a WordPress website and want to reach out to your prospects in a straightforward way.

Features:

• Identify Abandoned Orders Information
• Email Notifications
• 1 Default Email Template
• Time Intervals
• Custom Message Variables

Pricing:

The Lite version is FREE. The Pro version starts at $149/year.

7. Retainful

Retainful is a cart abandonment solution focused on email marketing.

It comes with multiple email-specific features that help you reach out to your prospects at different stages of the marketing funnel.

Retainful offers pre-built templates and workflow sequences, so it’s a good option for beginners who never used a similar software before.

Features:

• Exit Intent Popup
• Personalized Cart Recovery Emails
• Track Abandoned Carts
• Pre-Built Templates and Workflow Sequences
• Automated Email Campaigns

Retainful Pricing:

Retainful has a Free plan for sending up to 500 emails a month. For advanced features and more emails sends, paid plans start at $19/month. The price increase based on contact list size, number of email sends, and features.

8. CartBounty

CartBounty is another cart abandonment plugin for WordPress.

Similar with the other WordPress plugin we previously mentioned, CartBounty is simple and quite limited in its functionality.

This is the type of option we recommend to beginners who just started out their eCommerce business.

Features: 

• Abandoned Cart Reminder Email
• Remember Checkout Fields
• Exit Intent Popup

Pricing:

The Basic version is Free. The Pro version is priced at $98 (one-time fee) for a single website license.

What Cart Abandonment Software or Solution Should I Choose?

It all depends on how you want to handle the issue.

Our recommendation is to combine the solutions we presented. That way, you can approach your visitors in multiple ways, from different angles.

The more you address their objections, the higher your chance of success.

And don’t worry… you can do this in a way that’s not sleazy.

Even if some of your visitors get frustrated with how often you interact with them, it’s not like they were planning to stay in the first place.

Plus, know that there will always be people who won’t like your marketing approach, no matter how hard you try to do things perfectly.

In any case, we put together an actual example of how you can reduce cart abandonment by combining the software and solutions we presented.

How To Reduce Cart Abandonment (Example):

1. Use OptinMonster to create an Exit-Intent® Popup.

OptinMonster’s Exit-Intent® Technology tracks your visitor’s cursor or mobile scroll. When your visitor tries to exit the page, a popup will appear.

The goal of the popup is two-fold.

On one hand, it automatically reduces cart abandonment. On the other hand, it generates leads.

When it comes to lowering the cart abandonment rate, giving discounts is one of the best approaches you could take. You can send your visitors a discount coupon in exchange for their email address. This type of campaign converts well for most businesses.

Even if your visitors don’t use the discount coupon, you still get their contact information and you can follow-up with them later on.

And this takes us to step 2 of the example.

2. Use Drip to create a cart abandonment email sequence.

Place those who abandoned their cart in a special list. You can easily connect OptinMonster with Drip to accomplish this.

Then, create an email sequence of 3-4 emails to grab their attention and make them come back and finish their purchase.

For advice on how to write great emails, you can check OptinMonster University (FREE with an OptinMonster account).

Ideally, you would want to send the first email in maximum 60 minutes from the moment they opted in. This, of course, can be done inside Drip.

3. Watch your cart abandonment rate drop.

Just by following this simple example you can reduce cart abandonment by 10-15%. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel or test complicated strategies in order to get results.

If you don’t know how to start with OptinMonster, we’ll help you out.

Get a FREE Done-For-You Cart Abandonment Campaign With Your OptinMonster Account!

We’ll take the first step towards solving your cart abandonment issue.

How?

When you first join OptinMonster, we’ll have one of our conversion experts create a cart abandonment campaign for you. This campaign will be fully functional and personalized to your needs.

If that sounds good, register for an OptinMonster account below.

Enjoyed This Article? Give These a Try Next:

• 9+ Cart Abandonment Stats to Help You Improve Your Rate
• 14 Abandoned Cart Email Examples Proven to Boost Revenue
• 101 Best Abandoned Cart Email Subject Lines to Recover More Sales

At OptinMonster, we’re experts in lead generation, helping small businesses like yours engage potential clients and turn them into loyal customers. In fact, OptinMonster helped real estate company Woodside Communities increase their leads by 476% and revenue by $294,435 in just 2 months!

In this guide, I’ll show you how to get real estate leads with 9 powerful, easy-to-implement strategies. These tips will help you build a pipeline of qualified leads, so you can focus on what you do best: closing deals.

• What Is Real Estate Lead Generation?
• Why Online Lead Generation Is Essential for Real Estate
• 9 Best Online Lead Generation Tips for Real Estate

What Is Real Estate Lead Generation?

Real estate lead generation is the process of attracting and nurturing potential clients, whether they’re buyers, sellers, landlords, tenants, or investors. Lead generation is the first step in the real estate marketing process. Before you can sell a property, you need to connect with homeowners interested in selling. To earn commissions as a buyer’s agent, you must first identify and engage buyers looking for a new home. Essentially, lead generation is the foundation of a successful real estate business.

Because real estate transactions can take time, lead generation is an ongoing process. Some clients may take months to make a decision, and others may decide not to proceed at all. That’s why real estate professionals must maintain a steady pipeline of potential clients and always work to attract and nurture new leads.

Why Online Lead Generation is Essential for Real Estate

Real estate is a competitive industry, even when market conditions are favorable. To get more clients and sales, you need to think about ways to get more leads online.

While traditional methods like cold calling, direct mail, and open houses still play a role, they’re often limited in reach and cost-effectiveness. Online lead generation, on the other hand, allows real estate professionals to attract leads 24/7, tap into broader audiences, and build lasting relationships with potential clients.

For example, open houses allow you to meet potential buyers. However, they have limitations, as you can only be in one place at a time. Other traditional methods, like postcards, may leave an impression, but they’re costly and often overlooked.

With online lead generation, you can reach a virtually unlimited audience, many of whom are already actively searching for real estate solutions. Unlike direct mail or local events, online strategies let you connect with high-intent leads anytime, without the need for constant, hands-on effort.

By optimizing for organic search, you can attract leads at little to no cost. With the right strategies, online lead generation becomes a scalable and cost-effective way to build a steady stream of new clients.

9 Best Online Lead Generation Tips for Real Estate

Next, I’ll share my top tips for generating more leads for your real estate business. Feel free to use these links to jump to the tip you’re most interested in:

1. Optimize Your Website for SEO
2. Start an Email Marketing List
3. Add Lead-Capturing Popups and Forms to Your Real Estate Site
4. Offer a Lead Magnet
5. Target Your Lead-Generation Campaigns Based on Geolocation
6. Run Targeted Google and Social Media Ads
7. Create Dedicated Landing Pages for Ad Campaigns
8. Feature Client Testimonials for Social Proof
9. Add a Vendor Directory to Your Site

1. Optimize Your Website for SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a powerful way to attract high-quality real estate leads without the ongoing cost of ads. You can target SEO keywords like “homes for sale in [your area]” and “real estate agent in [your city].” These keywords can drive traffic from people actively looking for real estate services in your area.

Create dedicated webpages for neighborhoods or property types to showcase local expertise and improve rankings for location-specific searches. For instance, a page titled “Homes for Sale in Downtown Chicago” can attract buyers interested in that area.

Additionally, high-quality content like blog posts, neighborhood guides, and market updates can engage visitors and boost search rankings. With a well-optimized website, you’ll build a steady stream of organic traffic and attract more leads over time.

2. Start an Email Marketing List

Before you start turning your website traffic into leads, you’ll need to set up an email list. Email marketing is the marketing channel with the highest ROI, and getting started is incredibly easy.

You’ll need to sign up for an email service provider, such as Constant Contact or Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). These services let you send mass emails, segment your email list for targeted campaigns, and automate your email marketing.

You’ll also need a way for people to subscribe to your list through your website, which I’ll cover in the next step.

3. Add Lead-Capturing Popups and Forms to Your Real Estate Site

You’re driving traffic to your website, and you’re set up to start emailing your leads. Next, you need a tool to convert your website visitors into subscribers and buyers.

OptinMonster is the #1 lead generation software for growing your list of real estate leads. You can use our 700+ pre-made templates to add a variety of lead-capture campaigns to your site, such as:

• Lightbox Popups
• Floating Bars
• Fullscreen Welcome Mats
• Slide-In Scroll Boxes
• Inline Forms
• and more!

For example, you can create a popup like this one for your real estate newsletter:

With OptinMonster’s easy drag-and-drop builder, you can customize any template in minutes.

If you have a decent designer on your team, you can even create campaigns from scratch. Either way, OptinMonster makes it easy to create eye-catching popups and other lead-generation campaigns that are optimized to convert.

OptinMonster integrates with all major email marketing platforms, so your new leads will automatically be added to your email list.

You can do more than just collect email addresses for your list, however. For example, you may want to follow up with your real estate leads individually. Your OptinMonster campaign can include any kind of contact form or survey questions that you need.

Woodside Communities added this OptinMonster popup to their website:

This friendly, personal popup helped them increase their monthly new leads from 46 to 116 in just 2 months. And because they reached out to each lead individually, they increased their revenue by $294,435 in that same time span.

You might be wondering what to send to your new leads once they subscribe to your email list. Your email marketing doesn’t have to be complicated! Just share what potential buyers and sellers are most curious about:

• New listings in the area
• Recent sales in their neighborhood (including final sales prices!)
• General market conditions
• Tips for preparing their home for sale
• Checklists for moving out of or into a house
• First-time home buyer guide

4. Offer a Lead Magnet

One way to build your email list quickly is to offer a lead magnet. A lead magnet is something you give subscribers in return for their contact information. So rather than simply asking them to subscribe, you make a compelling and valuable free offer.

Some lead magnet ideas for real estate include:

• Home sale checklist
• Buyer documents checklist
• Preferred vendor directory
• An email course on staging a home for sale
• Personalized home valuation or market report by phone, email, or even in person

OptinMonster has multiple templates available for offering lead magnets, such as this one:

Lead magnet campaigns let you offer value in exchange for your visitor’s contact information, which incentivizes them to sign up. Once they’re on your email list, follow up with helpful content and clear opportunities to work with you.

5. Target Your Lead-Generation Campaigns Based on Geolocation

Like they always say in real estate: location, location, location! Geolocation marketing is a key part of any real estate lead generation strategy. After all, you need to specifically reach people who are looking to buy or sell in the areas you serve.

Thankfully, OptinMonster lets you target and personalize your onsite campaigns based on your website visitor’s location.

OptinMonster’s Geolocation Targeting rules let you show different campaigns and forms based on the visitor’s location. Even better? You can set up your Geolocation rules in just a few clicks.

You can also use OptinMonster’s Smart Tags to reference the location your lead lives in:

Personalized campaigns like this catch your visitors’ attention and encourage engagement. In fact, Expat.com grew its membership by 30,000 people a month using OptinMonster’s personalized campaigns.

Your onsite campaigns are only one way to use geotargeting. You can also use geolocation to target your online ads, which I’ll cover next.

6. Run Targeted Google and Social Media Ads

No matter how good your SEO strategy is, there’s a limit to how much organic traffic you can bring to your site. But you can also boost your real estate leads with pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google and social media. By focusing your ads on specific demographics, locations, interests, and behaviors, you can connect with potential clients actively seeking real estate services.

Google Ads: With Google’s audience targeting options, you can reach users based on their search behavior and online activity. Just like OptinMonster, Google lets you choose which locations you want to target or exclude from your ads. You can also create remarketing campaigns to re-engage visitors who previously explored your website. This is a great way to remind people of your services as they continue their property search. Check out our guide to retargeting your Google Ads campaigns.

Social Media Ads: Platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer advanced targeting features, allowing you to define your audience by location, age, interests, and more. Retargeting ads can remind users of properties they’ve viewed or encourage them to complete a contact form. Check out this guide on optimizing Facebook ads for conversions.

Targeted ad campaigns, especially when combined with tools like OptinMonster, can skyrocket your real estate leads and help you guide those leads through your sales funnel.

7. Create Dedicated Landing Pages for Ad Campaigns

If you’re running ads to drive traffic to your site, make sure to send that traffic to dedicated landing pages instead of your homepage. A landing page is a standalone webpage on your site, created for a specific ad or campaign and focused on a singular goal.

A targeted landing page can dramatically boost your conversion rate by matching the ad’s message and focusing on a single, clear call-to-action (CTA).

For example, if you’re running an ad targeting first-time homebuyers, create a landing page specifically for them. Include a headline like “Start Your Homeownership Journey” and a call-to-action encouraging visitors to schedule a consultation or download a first-time buyer’s guide. This approach keeps the experience relevant and increases the chances of turning visitors into leads.

Need an easy way to create landing pages fast? SeedProd is the best landing page builder for WordPress, giving you everything you need to create high-converting, professional landing pages.

Its drag-and-drop editor is easy to use, and it comes with pre-made templates optimized for conversions. You can quickly add elements like testimonials and contact forms, which are ideal for capturing leads on real estate pages.

With SeedProd, you get a streamlined way to create dedicated landing pages that align perfectly with each ad campaign, helping you capture and convert more real estate leads. Get started with SeedProd.

8. Feature Client Testimonials for Social Proof

Client testimonials are essential for generating real estate leads. By sharing real stories of satisfied clients, you build trust with potential buyers and sellers and show them exactly why you’re the right choice for their real estate needs.

Testimonials are powerful examples of social proof, the psychological concept that people are influenced by the actions and opinions of others. Social proof statistics consistently show that customers are more likely to sign up or buy when they see recommendations from real people.

You can add testimonials to OptinMonster campaigns, landing pages, and throughout your website. We do exactly that on our own website:

In real estate, a positive testimonial from a homebuyer or a seller who had a smooth transaction can make a huge impact. These real stories show prospects that you’re trustworthy and capable, increasing the likelihood that they’ll reach out to you.

9. Add a Vendor Directory to Your Site

Our final real estate lead generation strategy is a variation on traditional networking: publishing a vendor directory on your website.

While some real estate companies jealously guard their favorite plumbers or interior designers, we think that sharing some of your professional network is a better idea. When you publicly recommend a vendor, they’re more likely to return the favor and refer business to you.

Plus, you may be able to capture some of their search volume. Someone searching for a local electrician could end up on your vendor directory page and find other helpful information. This makes them more likely to remember and reach out to you when they’re ready to work with a realtor.

To make the directory a better list-building strategy, you could use gated content. This means that parts of the directory are hidden until someone enters their email address. You then have the perfect opportunity to send a complete vendor list to their email along with other lead nurturing content.

OptinMonster makes it easy to create gated content with a simple content-locking campaign:

Start Generating Real Estate Leads Today

With the right online lead generation strategies, growing your real estate business can be both efficient and cost-effective. By implementing these tips, you’ll attract high-quality leads who are already interested in buying, selling, or investing in real estate. Your website and ads will do lead-generation work for you, and you can focus on closing deals.

OptinMonster is here to make lead generation easy. With our powerful tools, you can create targeted campaigns, capture leads, and nurture them through automated follow-ups, all designed to help you grow your real estate business.

What are you waiting for? Start building your list of real estate leads today with OptinMonster!

Related Resources

• 32 Best Lead Generation Software and Tools
• 11 Proven Ways to Generate Organic Leads and Increase Traffic
• 14 Lead Generation Form Examples (Convert Visitors Into Customers)

WordPress, the world’s most popular content management system, powers most of the internet. But having a WordPress site isn’t enough.

To truly shine online, you must ensure your website is optimized for search engines. Enter the realm of SEO plugins.

When used effectively, SEO plugins help optimize websites and increase organic traffic, even if you’re not an SEO expert. And these tools are incredibly easy to set up and use.

But with so many options available, which is the best SEO plugin for WordPress?

In this post, I’ve handpicked the best SEO plugins for WordPress to help you implement your SEO strategy.

8 Best SEO Plugin for WordPress

1. All in One SEO – Best WordPress SEO Plugin
2. Yoast SEO
3. Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
4. Ahrefs SEO
5. MonsterInsights
6. SEOPress – On-site SEO
7. Rank Math SEO
8. WP Meta SEO

1. All in One SEO (AIOSEO)– Best WordPress SEO Plugin

All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best SEO plugin for WordPress, designed to streamline all your website optimization needs.

It offers a suite of tools that cater to both beginners and advanced users, ensuring that your site is primed for search engines.

It’s the original SEO plugin for WordPress that’s first launched in 2007 and has over 3 million active installations.

The free version of AIOSEO provides all the basic features you’d expect, but to truly excel and outrank your rivals in rankings, the pro version is packed with advanced features tailored for dominance.

All in One SEO lets you:

• Submit your sitemap: this will help Google to easily discover your content
• Enable Schema markup: add data about your content to get rich search results and increase click-through rates
• Automatic notifications: let Google and Bing know about changes made to your site
• Linking Opportunities: crawls all your pages and offers suggestions on relevant pages you can link to, as well as anchor text you can use — without needing to audit your site manually.
• Orphan pages: finds all the orphan pages (pages with zero internal links) on your site and offers linking suggestions to bolster your internal linking strategy.

If you’re starting out, you can just install the plugin and use it straight out of the box. And once you’ve got some experience under your belt, you can take advantage of their Advanced SEO features like Link Assistant.

Strategic internal linking can boost your organic traffic by as much as 40%.

To give you an easier way of managing your internal links, Link Assistant comes with a Links Report dashboard that helps you optimize your internal link-building strategy.

By giving you data on the types of links you have and how your web pages are linked together, the Links Report helps you build internal links faster and better.

AIOSEO is equipped with integrated WooCommerce SEO tools tailored for ecommerce platforms. It boasts capabilities such as dynamic optimizations, product page enhancements, SEO for product images, and additional features designed to drive increased organic traffic to your digital storefront.

This SEO plugin integrates with other SEO tools, like Google Analytics. And with the Semrush integration, you can easily discover and rank for additional key phrases you might not have known about with the click of a button.

If you only want one plugin on your website, All in One SEO is the best one to start with.

Key Features:

• Automated meta tag generation
• XML sitemap support
• Google Analytics integration
• Advanced canonical URLs
• Built-in API for extended functionality
• Local SEO
• RSS feed management
• Breadcrumbs
• Robots.txt editor
• ChatGPT AI integrations
• Google News sitemaps
• Video SEO
• Redirect manager
• 404 tracking
• IndexNow integration

It’s a comprehensive suite designed for optimal online performance.

Best for: Small business owners looking for an all-encompassing SEO solution.

Pricing: Starts at $49.60/year. A free plugin with limited features is also available.

Bonus content: All in One SEO (AIOSEO) Review: Is It the Right SEO Plugin?

2. Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO is a great SEO WordPress plugin that comes with several key features.

It allows you to generate a sitemap, add your meta description, and check content readability.

Yoast SEO’s on-page SEO analysis will tell you whether or not you’re using your keyword enough. Yoast SEO plugin also shows a snippet preview of your post in the search engine.

Compared to All in One SEO, Yoast’s premium version is expensive even though they have similar feature sets.

Key Features:

• Real-time content analysis
• XML sitemaps functionality
• Breadcrumb control
• Schema markup implementation
• Internal linking suggestions (Premium)

Best for: Bloggers and content creators focusing on content optimization and readability.

Pricing: $99/year for Premium. A limited free plugin is also available.

3. SEMRush SEO Writing Assistant

The SEMRush SEO Writing Assistant plugin integrates the power of Semrush’s content analysis tools directly into WordPress, offering real-time SEO suggestions and content optimization tips.

This tool helps you write SEO-friendly content.

You can make SEO Content templates and receive suggestions for your content, including expert SEO tips.

Key Features:

• Real-time SEO score
• Tone of voice analysis
• Plagiarism checker
• Linking recommendations
• Content readability score

The free version is very limited and Semrush is an expensive tool, so I recommend this plugin mainly for existing Semrush users.

Best for: Writers, who already use Semrush, seeking real-time feedback on content SEO and originality.

Pricing: The WordPress plugin is free, but it must be tied to a Semrush account. Free and Pro ($139.95/month) accounts can only create a Content Template once. Higher-level accounts have increased limits. Sign up for Semrush here.

4. Ahrefs SEO

The Ahrefs SEO plugin directly bridges your WordPress site and the extensive Ahrefs backlink index, ensuring your content is always optimized and competitive.

Ahrefs SEO might be too costly for business owners who are just starting out.

Key Features:

• Backlink analysis
• Keyword tracking
• Content gap analysis
• Site audit tool
• SEO audit
• Competitor benchmarking

Best for: SEO professionals and agencies needing in-depth backlink analysis and competitive insights.

Pricing: You can use the Ahrefs WordPress plugin without a paid Ahrefs account by requesting a free temporary authorization code. However, the code expires every few weeks. Ahrefs plans start at $129/month.

5. MonsterInsights

MonsterInsights connects your WordPress site with Google Analytics effortlessly, allowing you to gain insights into your traffic and make data-driven decisions.

Understanding your analytics can help you create the kind of content your audience wants. But, it can be tricky to sort through all the data. MonsterInsights helps because it presents the information in easy-to-understand reports and graphs right within your WordPress dashboard.

MonsterInsights doesn’t offer SEO tools like keyword tracking, but having easy access to your site analytics is crucial to understanding and improving your search traffic.

Key Features:

• Easy Google Analytics integration
• Real-time stats dashboard
• E-commerce tracking
• Affiliate link tracking
• Enhanced link attribution

Best for: Site owners wanting detailed Google Analytics insights within their WordPress dashboard.

Pricing: Premium plans start at $99.60/year. The free MonsterInsights Lite plugin is also available with limited features.

Bonus content: MonsterInsights Review: Is This Analytics Plugin Worth It?

6. SEOPress – On-site SEO

SEOPress – On-site SEO is a robust on-site SEO plugin that offers a clean and intuitive interface, making website optimization a breeze.

It allows you to submit a sitemap to Google and manage your titles and meta descriptions.

You will need to get the paid plan for features like viewing your Google Analytics in your dashboard.

Key Features:

• Google Local Business data integration
• Breadcrumbs control
• Redirection management
• Content analysis
• Social media previews

Best for: Businesses aiming for a streamlined on-site SEO experience with a user-friendly interface.

Pricing: SEOPress offers a helpful free plan, and their premium plans start at $49/year.

7. Rank Math SEO

Rank Math SEO is a versatile SEO plugin that combines user-friendliness with advanced optimization tools, ensuring your site ranks higher in SERPs.

It lets you do keyword research, enable Schema, detect broken links, and track your rankings.

Rank Math SEO comes with an easy to follow setup wizard and also lets you choose unlimited focus keywords

Key Features:

• Integrated LSI keyword tool
• Rich snippet support
• 404 error monitoring
• Internal linking suggestions
• SEO performance tracking
• Generate an XML sitemap
• Connect Google Search Console

Best for: Advanced users seeking a mix of user-friendly and powerful SEO tools.

Pricing: You can download the plugin for free to access limited features. Premium plans start at $6.9/month.

8. WP Meta SEO

WP Meta SEO gives you full control over your website’s meta content, from bulk editing to sitemap generation, ensuring optimal SEO performance.

In addition, it gives you keyword suggestions and you get an on-page SEO analysis.

Key Features:

• Bulk meta content editor
• Google Analytics integration
• XML and HTML sitemap generation
• Breadcrumb customization
• 404 error redirection

Best for: SEO managers needing bulk meta content editing and management.

Pricing: The plugin is free. Purchase the Pro addon for $49/year for multiple sites/domains, plus support and updates.

How To Convert WordPress Website Traffic?

While we’ve explored many powerful tools that can optimize your site’s backend, focusing on user engagement and lead generation is equally crucial, directly impacting your SEO.

This is where OptinMonster steps in. 

Beyond traditional search engine optimization (SEO), OptinMonster is a game-changer. It’s not just about driving traffic; it’s about converting that traffic into loyal subscribers and customers. 

With its advanced targeting features, stunning lead capture forms, and actionable insights, OptinMonster ensures that the hard-earned traffic you gain through SEO doesn’t just visit and leave but engages and converts.

Incorporating OptinMonster into your toolkit bridges the gap between traffic generation and conversion optimization. 

So, while investing in SEO plugins to climb the SERP ladder, don’t forget to harness the power of OptinMonster to capitalize on that traffic.

After all, what’s the point of increased visibility if it doesn’t lead to growth?

Create High Converting Optin Campaigns Today!

More on SEO

• SEO Made Simple: Where & How To Use Keywords in Your Content
• The DIY Mobile SEO Guide: How to Be Mobile-First in 2023
• Mastering Off-Page SEO: Boosting Your Website’s Visibility
• SEO Best Practices: Simple Routines for Ultimate Success
• 50+ Powerful SEO Statistics That Will Help You Boost Traffic to Your Site

FAQ

Q1) Which plugin is best for SEO in WordPress?

AIOSEO is one of WordPress’s most popular and widely used SEO plugins. It offers a comprehensive set of features to help optimize your website for search engines.

Q2) What is the easiest SEO plugin for WordPress?

AIOSEO is known for its simplicity and ease of use, especially for beginners. It provides essential SEO features without overwhelming the user.

Q3) What is the best free SEO plugin?

Both Yoast SEO and AIOSEO offer free versions that are quite robust. Rank Math is another free SEO plugin that has gained popularity due to its features and user-friendly interface.

SEO is a cornerstone of any digital marketing strategy and especially to any content marketing strategy. It’s essential to deliver traffic, authority, leads, and sales, but you’ll only get those benefits if you do it right.

If not, your business might as well be invisible online. We know it’s not always easy to stay up to date, but you can’t relax when it comes to SEO.

Google’s always tweaking its search algorithms, so there’s no guarantee that SEO practices that worked in the past will keep working in the future.

If you’re new to SEO marketing, it can feel very overwhelming. But I’m here to break it down for you.

As a Content Writer here at OptinMonster, I work every day to write, update, and optimize our blog posts to rank in search. Our team keeps a close eye on current best practices, and we’re constantly testing and tracking our results to improve our SEO efforts. I’m excited to share what we’ve learned with you.

This beginner’s SEO guide includes explanations of all the basic concepts of SEO. I’ll also share tips to boost your business with our SEO beginner’s guide. Learn the key strategies to increase your website’s traffic and sales. Improve how your web pages appear in search results, so you can  get more traffic, leads, and sales.

• What Is SEO?
• SEO Glossary: Terminology You Need to Know
• How Does SEO Work?
• Top SEO Ranking Factors
• How to Improve Your Website’s SEO (7 Tips)
• How to Use SEO for Lead Generation
• FAQs

What Is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s the practice of making your website more visible and attractive to search engines like Google and Microsoft Bing.

SEO is vital to any digital marketing strategy. You need your web pages to rank highly when users search for relevant keywords. This visibility allows potential customers to discover your website, along with the products, services, and content you offer.

At its core, SEO involves adjusting various parts of your website to improve your rankings in search results. Important adjustments include:

• Content: the words, headings, and images on your web pages
• Site architecture: how your website is structured
• Connections: links to and from your website and to web pages within your site

Search engine optimization efforts aim to increase organic traffic. That’s the traffic you get when visitors click a link in search results to get to your site. That’s in contrast to paid traffic, which comes from ads.

If you’re a beginner at SEO, reading about it can feel overwhelming. Most guides and tutorials use a lot of technical terms that can be confusing for a newbie. Before we go any further in our SEO guide, here’s a quick SEO glossary to help you find your bearings.

SEO Glossary: Terminology You Need to Know

These are some of the terms you’ll see in this guide and in other articles about SEO. I’ll discuss some of this SEO terminology in more detail throughout this post. By reading through these quick definitions now, you’ll have a better understanding of the basics as a beginner.

Algorithm: A set of rules that search engines use to determine the rankings of websites in search results. Algorithms consider various factors like content quality, user engagement, and backlinks.

Backlinks: Links from other websites that lead to your website. They are important for SEO because they signal to search engines that other websites consider your content valuable and authoritative.

Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of people who click the link to your web page after seeing it in their search results. It’s calculated by taking the total number of clicks and dividing it by the total number of impressions. Impressions are the number of times your link was seen.

Content Optimization: The process of making sure content is written and presented in a way that search engines can understand and rank it effectively. This includes using relevant keywords, creating quality content, and improving user engagement.

Domain Authority (DA): A score, typically on a 100-point scale, that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). Higher scores correspond to a greater ability to rank. This score was developed by Moz to measure a website’s online presence and trustworthiness.

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): Factors used by Google to assess the quality of a webpage. It’s crucial for a website’s ranking in search results.

Google Helpful Content Update: A recent update to Google’s algorithm aimed at promoting content that provides substantial value to users, and demoting low-quality content that doesn’t serve users’ real needs.

Keyword Research: The process of finding and analyzing actual search terms that people enter into search engines. This research helps guide content creation and marketing strategies.

Link Building: The practice of acquiring new backlinks to your website to improve search engine rankings and increase organic traffic.

Local SEO: A strategy to optimize your website to rank higher in search results for local searches, often related to a specific geographical area.

Meta Description: A brief description of a webpage’s content that appears under the webpage’s title in search results. It helps users understand what the page is about and can influence click-through rates.

On-Page SEO: Refers to the optimization of individual web pages to rank higher and earn more relevant traffic in search engines. It involves optimizing the content and HTML source code of a page, including titles, meta descriptions, content, and images.

Off-Page SEO: Involves activities done outside of your website to impact your rankings within search engine results pages. This includes tactics like link building, social media marketing, and influencer outreach, which help increase the site’s trustworthiness and authority.

Organic Search: The process of obtaining natural placements on search engine results pages (SERPs) without paying for ad placement. It relies on SEO strategies to boost rankings.

Organic Traffic: The number of visitors coming to a website from organic search results, as opposed to paid advertisements or other sources.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC): An advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time one of their ads is clicked. It’s often used to drive traffic to websites quickly, in contrast to earning traffic through organic search. Google Ads are an example of PPC advertising.

Search Queries: The words or phrases that users type into a search engine when looking for information, products, or services online.

SEO Audit: An examination of a website to identify its strengths and weaknesses in relation to SEO, and to pinpoint opportunities for improvement.

SERP (Search Engine Results Page): The page displayed by a search engine in response to a user’s search query, showing a list of results, including organic search results, ads, and other features like maps or reviews.

How Does SEO Work?

To understand how SEO works to improve search rankings, we’ll need to break it down a little. Throughout this guide, we will mostly focus on Google. Google search currently has an 81.65% market share, with the next highest being Bing at 10.65%.

Importance of Search Ranking

When you talk about search ranking in SEO, you’re talking about the position of your content on search engine results pages (SERPs).

If you have a #1 ranking, your web page appears first in SERPs. That puts it at the top of the page unless there’s a Sponsored result above it. Also, sometimes Google places special info snippets above the main search rankings

Here’s an example of a Google SERP for the search query “content marketing for libraries.” In this case, there are no ads or snippets at the top, so the first 2 items on the page are the webpages ranking #1 and #2 for that search query.

Here’s a different example, where there are 2 Sponsored results above the organic search results.

Ideally, you want your web page content to appear as one of the top 3 results. After the #1 ranking, the average click-through rate (CTR) plummets quickly.

According to 2025 data from FirstPageSage, here are the average CTRS or the top 5 search positions:

• #1: 39.8%
• #2: 18.7%
• #3: 10.2%
• #4: 7.2%
• #5: 5.1%

Their research also found that the ads at the top of the SERP pages only average a 1-2% CTR, meaning organic search results are absolutely vital to any digital marketing strategy.

Google SERP Features

Google also often places special elements at the top of the result pages. They’re generally referred to as SERP features. Unlike the Sponsored results, these are organic search results, not paid ones. That means you use SEO strategies to try to be included in these special elements.

Here are a few common Google SERP features:

• Featured Snippets (also known as Google Answer Boxes): These are quick answers to common queries and are pulled from top-ranking web pages.
• Image Packs, Shopping Results, and News Boxes: If Google believes the search query is closely related to images, products, or recent news, it will may display the search results from, Google Images, Google Shopping, or Google News on the main SERP.
• Video Boxes: Google will sometimes will feature an embedded video that it believes will be helpful for the user.
• Local Packs: If Google believes the user is searching for a local business, it may showcase a list of local businesses, often with maps and contact information.

Here’s an example of an article we’ve had great SEO success with here at OptinMonster. We currently rank #1 and have the featured snippet for the search query “email subject line.”

By earning this featured snippet, we achieved a high level of prominence on the 1st page of search results. In fact, above the fold, our article is the only direct link that searchers see.

This is an example of a huge SEO win. “Email subject line” has a monthly global search volume of 6,300, this article raises the awareness of our website and product and drives traffic to our blog.

How Does Google Search Work?

To understand SEO, you’ll also need to know how Google search works.

Google aims to deliver relevant search results as part of its bid to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”.

To do that, the search engine has to know what information is out there. Here’s how that process works.

1. Google has automated software called search bots or spiders. These bots visit web pages in a process called crawling the web.
2. Then they add the pages they crawl to Google’s index, which is a huge catalog of trillions of web pages.
3. When people search, Google shows the most relevant results from that catalog.

People usually type or say words related to what they are looking for. These are called keywords, and as you’ll see, they are an important part of SEO. We’ll look at those in more detail later in this guide.

How Google Determines Search Results

Here are the 2 main ways that Google determines how pages will rank for search queries:

1. Search Algorithm: This is the complex software program that analyzes billions of webpages and determines their ranking in search results. It considers hundreds of factors, including website content, relevance to search queries, backlinks, and technical SEO aspects.
2. Search Quality Raters: These are human specialists who evaluate search results using Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines (PDF). They focus on the concept of E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, and Authoritativeness) to assess content quality, trustworthiness, and the overall reputation of the website.

Top SEO Ranking Factors

Content Quality: This remains the king of SEO. Quality has always been important for search rankings, but Google has double-downed on its importance with its recent Helpful Content Update.

Search Intent and Content Relevancy: Understanding the “why” behind a search query (search intent) is crucial. Your content should directly address the user’s needs and provide the information they’re looking for.

Backlinks: Links from high-quality websites to yours act like votes of confidence for Google. Building a strong backlink profile is essential for good rankings.

Website Loading Speed: People (and Google) hate slow websites. Optimizing your website for fast loading speed is crucial for a positive user experience and SEO.

Mobile-Friendliness: With most searches now happening on mobile devices, having a website that’s responsive and easy to navigate on mobiles is essential.

Technical SEO: This encompasses various technical aspects that make your website crawlable and understandable by search engines. This includes factors like site structure, URL structure, and schema markup.

E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness): Google prioritizes content from websites and authors it deems credible and trustworthy. Building expertise in your niche and establishing yourself as a reliable source of information is important.

User Experience (UX): Google wants users to have a positive experience on your website. This includes factors like clear navigation, mobile-friendliness, and absence of intrusive ads.

How to Improve Your Website’s SEO (8 Tips)

Next, let’s explore a few of the most important SEO tips. We’re not trying to cover every single best practice or strategy, but these tips will put you on the right path in your SEO efforts.

1. Conduct an SEO Site Audit
2. Do Keyword Research (With Suggested Tools)
3. Find LSI Keywords
4. Write Helpful and Trustworthy Content
5. Show Experience and Expertise
6. Use On-Page SEO Best Practices
7. Build Links
8. Optimize for Mobile

1. Conduct an SEO Site Audit

Before diving headfirst into optimization, it’s crucial to understand your website’s current SEO health. An SEO site audit acts as a checkup, revealing areas that need improvement and highlighting your strengths.
Here’s what to look for:

• Technical SEO: Is your website mobile-friendly? Does it load quickly? Are there any broken links or crawl errors?
• Content Quality: Is your content informative, engaging, and relevant to your target audience?
• Google Rankings & Keywords: How are people currently finding your site through Google search?
• On-page SEO: Are your title tags and meta descriptions optimized with relevant keywords?

There are several free and paid SEO audit tools available online. The best place to start is probably Google Search Console, which is free. If you’ve never used it before, I’ve written the guide below to help you get started.

Learn MoreGoogle Search Console: Beginner’s Guide With Steps & Tips

2. Do Keyword Research (With Suggested Tools)

Keywords are the building blocks of SEO. They are the words and phrases people use to search for information online.
If you want your site to rank in search, you need to identify search terms that:

• Are closely related to your content, products, or services
• Have a high search volume
• Will be possible to rank for
• Are likely to drive interested customers to your site

Here are some excellent free and paid keyword research tools to get you started:

• Google Keyword Planner: This free tool exists within your Google Ads account. It provides insights into search volume and competition for various keywords.
• WPBeginner Keyword Generator Tool: Another free tool, you simply enter a main keyword, and it generates dozens, if not hundreds, of related keyword suggestions.
• Semrush: If you want a dive deep on your SEO, then this is the tool for you. Semrush is pricey, starting at $129.95 a month, but it’s powerful. For instance, you can enter the URLs for competitor articles to discover the keywords they’re ranking for.
• Answer the Public: This tool helps discover long-tail keywords and search queries phrased as questions. You can conduct a limited amount of research for free before upgrading to a paid plan.
• Ahrefs: Another advanced SEO tool, similar to Semrush. Plans start at $99 a month, but prices increase based on usage.

These are just a few of the keyword research tools available. Check out our complete guide to learn more:

Learn More21 Best Keyword Research Tools to Boost Your Organic Traffic

3. Find LSI Keywords

Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords are semantically related terms that expand on your main keyword. Including LSI keywords demonstrates to search engines that your content comprehensively covers a topic.
For instance, if your main keyword is “hiking boots,” some relevant LSI keywords could be “waterproof hiking boots,” “best hiking boots for men,” or “types of hiking boots.”
There are several ways to find LSI keywords:

• Google Search Suggestions: As you type in your main keyword on Google, pay attention to the suggested searches that appear. These are often excellent LSI keyword ideas. Also, look at the “People Also Ask” and “Related Searches” SERP features.
• LSI Keyword Research Tools: Many of the tools in the previous tip can help you find LSI keywords, as well. There are also tools that are more specifically dedicated to LSI, such as Several online tools like LSIGraph.com or Keywordtool.io can help you discover relevant LSI keywords.

4. Write Helpful and Trustworthy Content

High-quality content is the cornerstone of successful SEO. Google prioritizes informative, engaging, and trustworthy content that genuinely addresses users’ search queries.
Here are some tips for crafting exceptional content:

• Focus on User Intent: Understand the “why” behind a search query. What information are users looking for?
• Provide Value: Offer solutions, answer questions, and go beyond what other websites might be saying.
• Maintain Credibility: Back up your claims with data, statistics, and links to reputable sources.
• Optimize Readability: Structure your content with clear headings, bullet points, and short paragraphs for easy reading.

By consistently creating valuable content, you establish yourself as a reliable source and attract a loyal audience, which is a positive SEO signal for Google.

5. Show Experience and Expertise

Google values Expertise, Experience, and Authoritativeness (E-E-A-T) when ranking websites. Here’s how to demonstrate E-E-A-T:

• Create an Author Bio: Showcase your qualifications and experience related to your website’s niche.
• Link to Credible Sources: Cite reputable sources to support your claims and demonstrate your knowledge of the subject matter.
• Guest Blog on Established Websites: Contributing articles to well-respected websites in your niche helps build your reputation and online authority.
• Write From Your Own Experience: This can be especially important in tutorials and guides. Make it clear that the instructions, analysis, and examples you provide come from your own experience. Don’t be afraid to write in the first person!

6. Use On-Page SEO Best Practices

Here are some of the most important things you can optimize to improve your on-page SEO:

• Title Tag: This is the web page name that appears in search results and on browser tabs. Create clear, concise, and keyword-rich titles (ideally under 60 characters) that accurately reflect your page’s content.
• Meta Description: These short snippets (around 160 characters) appear under your title tag in search results. Use meta descriptions to entice users to click on your page by summarizing the content and including relevant keywords.
• Images: Reduce the file size of any large images you want to include on your web page. Use descriptive filenames and alt text descriptions. Include relevant keywords, so they’ll be more likely to show up in image searches.
• Internal Links: Add links to other relevant pages on your website. Use descriptive anchor text (the hyperlinked text that users click on) that makes it clear what the linked page is about.

7. Build Links

Link building is the foundation of off-page SEO. Backlinks are essentially links from other websites pointing to yours. In Google’s eyes, backlinks act like votes of confidence for your website’s credibility and value. Here are some strategies to acquire high-quality backlinks:

• Link-worthy Content: Develop content so informative and valuable that other websites naturally want to link to it.
• Guest Blogging: As mentioned earlier, guest blogging on relevant websites allows you to earn backlinks.
• Broken Link Building: Find broken links on websites in your niche that point to non-existent or outdated content. Reach out to the website owner and suggest your relevant content as a replacement. This is a win-win situation, as you get a backlink and the website owner gets valuable, up-to-date content.
• Industry Directories and Awards: Submitting your website to relevant industry directories or award programs can earn you valuable backlinks. However, focus on high-quality directories with good domain authority.
• Online PR and Outreach: Build relationships with journalists, bloggers, and influencers in your niche. These relationships can help you earn more backlinks.
• Social Media Promotion: Sharing your content on social media can increase its visibility and encourage others to share it on their websites, potentially leading to backlinks.

8. Optimize for Mobile

In today’s mobile-first world, optimizing your website for mobile devices is no longer an option, it’s a necessity for good SEO. Here’s why:

• Mobile-First Indexing: Since 2018, Google has primarily used the mobile version of your website for indexing and ranking. This means if your mobile site isn’t user-friendly, it can hurt your overall SEO performance.
• Improved User Experience: Most web traffic now comes from mobile devices. A website that’s slow, clunky, or difficult to navigate on mobiles will frustrate users and lead to a high bounce rate (percentage of visitors leaving shortly after arriving). This is a negative SEO signal for Google.

Here’s how to optimize your website for mobile:

• Mobile-Responsive Design: Ensure your website automatically adjusts its layout and content to fit any screen size, offering an optimal viewing experience on mobiles, tablets, and desktops.
• Fast Loading Speeds: Mobile users are even less patient with slow loading times than desktop users. Optimize images, minimize redirects, and leverage browser caching to ensure your mobile site loads quickly.
• Easy Navigation: Make sure your menus, buttons, and links are large enough for easy tapping on a mobile touchscreen. Avoid complex navigation structures that require a lot of scrolling or zooming.
• Test on Different Devices: Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool and other online resources to test your website on various mobile devices and identify areas for improvement.

By prioritizing mobile optimization, you create a user-friendly experience that keeps visitors engaged and sends positive signals to search engines, ultimately boosting your website’s SEO.

How to Use SEO for Lead Generation

Once you’ve gone through these tips, you’ll likely start getting more and more traffic on your website. But did you know that nearly half of all visitors leave a website without taking any action?

That’s called the bounce rate. It refers to people who find a web page through search, view only that page, and exit the site without clicking any links, purchasing anything, or providing any information.

According to 2023 research from DataBox, the median bounce rate across all industries is 44.82%.

How can you keep these visitors on your site for longer? Or even better, how do you collect their email addresses so you can nurture them into customers?

That’s where OptinMonster comes in!

OptinMonster is the best lead-generation software available. Our onsite marketing campaigns help you convert your website traffic into leads and sales.

You can use our lightbox popups, floating bars, inline forms, and other campaigns to collect email addresses for your email marketing list.

You can offer an incentive with a lead magnet, such as a coupon code, PDF guide, or free ebook

Our robust targeting and triggering rules help you show your campaigns to the right people at the right time. Some of these rules include:

• Exit-Intent® Technology: Capture your visitor’s email address before they leave your site
• Page-Level Targeting: Show visitors special offers based on the content they’re looking at on your site
• Timed Display and Scroll Triggers: Only show your popup when a user has spent a certain amount of time on your site or has scrolled through a specific percentage of a page’s content.

With a great email list full of high-quality leads, you’ll be able to start an email marketing strategy that will win more sales and revenue for your business.

FAQs About SEO

We’re almost done with our in-depth SEO guide, but before we go, let’s answer a few common SEO questions.

What is White Hat vs Black Hat SEO?

You may have heard the terms white hat SEO and black hat SEO. Taking its cue from old-time Westerns where the good guys wore white hats and the bad guys wore black ones, the difference between white hat vs black hat SEO is the difference between accepted SEO practices and ones that are seen as less ethical.

White hat SEO includes all the SEO practices we’ve talked about so far, which take a long term approach to site optimization and focus on the user experience and what people need.

In contrast, black hat SEO is about trying to take shortcuts and game search engines. This rarely works. And, black hat blog posts and content can get you penalized.

Black hat SEO practices to avoid include:

• Keyword stuffing
• Thin content
• Automated comment spam
• Content scraping
• Cloaking, hidden text, and doorway pages
• Sneaky redirects and malicious site behavior
• Link schemes

Learn more about white hat vs black hat SEO in our guide.

Are Google search results personalized?

Sometimes. Google encourages you to log in to your Google account and to link it to your Chrome browser. And it also collects your search history. That can result in personalized search results. If you want to avoid this, you can search in an incognito or private window so you get the true picture on SEO.

How do you get to the top of Google search results?

Here’s the truth—only 1 site can be number 1 for a particular keyword, and there’s a lot of competition out there. But optimizing your site can make a difference to which site that is, as rankings fluctuate all the time. Plus, as long as you’re in the top 3, or at least on the first page, you’ve got a chance for people to find and click, which is what you want. If you deliver what they need after the click, that increases your chances of being relevant for future searches for that term.

Why is SEO so important?

If you don’t look after SEO, you can get lost among the trillions of links out there. SEO gives you a shot at ranking for the terms your customers use, so you can do better business.

That’s it!

SEO  is a huge topic, and there’s certainly a lot more to it than we’ve covered here. However, if you’re a beginner, you now know enough of the basics to get started with a successful SEO strategy.

Want to learn more about SEO? These posts take a closer look at some of the topics we’ve explored in this guide:

• Unveiling 10 Powerful SEO Ranking Factors
• 15 SEO Tips to Boost Your Traffic & Rankings
• On-Page SEO Checklist: How to Fully Optimize Your Posts
• How to Incorporate Social Media Into Your SEO Strategy
• 50+ Powerful SEO Statistics

Don’t forget that getting traffic to your site is just the first step in an effective digital marketing strategy. Use OptinMonster to turn your website visitors into subscribers and customers!

Many small businesses and startups begin with Mailchimp because of its free plan and simply because of its name recognition. However, the free plan only allows 500 contacts and limits the number of emails you can send to 1000. That doesn’t leave much room for growth in your marketing efforts,

After moving to a paid plan, you may find Mailchimp’s email marketing features lacking and the price increases unsustainable.

Mailchimp’s pricing is based on your total number of contacts, your number of monthly email sends, and the features you need.

Mailchimp can quickly go from affordable to expensive as you grow your email list and start needing tools such as advanced segmentation and send-time optimization.

If you want email marketing software that’s better than Mailchimp and has fairer pricing, there are plenty of options out there.

In this article, I’ll share 6 of the best Mailchimp alternatives and explore the top features, pros/cons, and pricing plans for each one. Then, you’ll be able to find the option that’s best for your business and start building a winning email marketing strategy.

• How to Choose the Best MailChimp Alternative
• 1. Constant Contact
• 2. Brevo (formerly SendinBlue)
• 3. HubSpot
• 4. Drip
• 5. Moosend
• 6. AWeber
• More MailChimp Alternatives to Explore
• BONUS: Build Your Email List With OptinMonster

How to Choose the Best Mailchimp Alternative

As you decide which email marketing service is right for you, here are a few considerations:

• Ease of Use: Choose an email marketing service that matches your marketing team’s experience level. Also, consider how much time they’ll have to devote to email marketing. Find the right balance between simplicity and advanced features.
• Automation Functionality: Email marketing automation makes it possible to send welcome email series, abandoned cart emails, win-back campaigns, and more. You’ll need an email platform that makes it easy to set up an automated workflow, which allows these email campaigns to run on their own.
• Segmentation: Email segmentation is absolutely key to sending relevant content to your target audience.
• Testing Capabilities: Your email service should offer easy A/B testing for subject lines. And it’s even better if you can test your sender names and email content. If you plan to do more advanced testing, make sure you choose a platform with multivariate testing capabilities.
• Signup forms and Landing Pages: These should be easy to create and integrate, so you can effectively grow your contact list.
• SMS Marketing: Do you plan to also send SMS marketing messages? Streamline your marketing tools by choosing an email platform with an SMS add-on.
• In-depth Reporting: Go with a platform that lets you adopt a data-driven approach. Don’t even consider any Mailchimp alternatives that don’t offer detailed performance reports that let you access the strengths and weaknesses of your campaign.
• Deliverability Rates: High email deliverability rates are crucial for the success of your email campaigns. Compare the rates of different platforms to ensure your emails reach your subscribers’ inboxes.
• Integrations: Consider how well the platform integrates with any lead-generation tools, CRM (customer relationship management) software, and eCommerce platforms you may use.
• Customer Support: Lack of support is one of Mailchimp’s biggest drawbacks. Other alternative services offer excellent support by email, live chat, or phone.
• Pricing: Of course, none of these great features matter if you can’t afford the platform’s cost. If you’re a small business just getting started with email marketing, look for an option that has a free or low-cost plan but lets you scale up as you grow.

As you read through our list of top Mailchimp competitors, you’ll see information and details on many of these considerations.

But why should you trust our analysis?

Here at OptinMonster, we’ve spent over a decade helping businesses improve their email marketing. Our onsite marketing campaigns help you capture high-quality leads for your email list and segment those leads for better results.

Not only that, but we’re also experts at running our own email marketing. We’ve tested, experimented, and optimized our way to a 59% open rate and a 99.08% deliverability rate for our own email campaigns.

We know what it takes to succeed at email marketing, and we understand the tools and functionality you need when looking for services like Mailchimp.

Now, let’s dive into our list of some of the best Mailchimp alternatives. This list isn’t necessarily ranked from best to worst, as every business has different needs. Instead, this list will help you find an email marketing service that has the features you need at a price you can afford.

1. Constant Contact

Constant Contact offers a user-friendly interface and scalable functionality to meet the needs of both mom-and-pop operations and larger enterprises.

That’s why it’s our top pick for email service providers for small businesses.

Constant Contact is intuitive and feature-rich, but it’s important to note that it isn’t the most advanced software on this list. For instance, it lets you A/B test your subject lines with just a few clicks, but its testing tools don’t go much further than that.

The platform also allows you to easily set up some of the most popular email automations, such as welcome emails, birthday and anniversary offers, and cart abandonment campaigns. In fact, Constant Contact has pre-made templates set up for these workflows.

Constant Contact offers an excellent balance of features, ease of use, and cost-effectiveness. You can also easily integrate OptinMonster into Constant Contact.

Constant Contact’s Top Features:

• Extensive library of over 200 email templates
• User-friendly drag-and-drop email editor
• Easy automation functionality
• Segmentation tags
• Subject line A/B testing
• Ability to post to social media within the Constant Contact dashboard
• SMS add-on available
• In-depth campaign activity reports, including open rate, unsubscribes, bounce rates, and inactive readers
• Customizable email signup landing pages to grow your email list

Constant Contact Pros:

• One of the most thorough email template libraries available, with options for various occasions, goals, and needs
• Intuitive and attractive interface and easy campaign setup
• Strong customer support with live chat, phone, and email assistance
• Effective automation for basic email marketing functions

Constant Contact Cons:

• Only basic A/B testing capabilities, mostly limited to subject lines
• No free plan
• Custom automation paths are only available on the Premium plan

Constant Contact Is Best for:

Constant Contact is perfect for small businesses and beginners. It’s also a great choice for more experienced marketers who want to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time.

Constant Contact Pricing Structure:

The Lite plan starts at $12 a month. However, to access most functionality, you’ll need at least the Standard plan, which starts at $35 a month. The Premium plan starts at $80 a month.

These prices allow for up to 500 contacts. Each plan has tiered pricing based on your number of contacts.

Constant Contact offers a generous 60-day free trial, so you can try it with no risk.

Click here to get started with Constant Contact.

2. Brevo (formerly Sendinblue)

If you’re looking for a powerful email marketing tool with minimal startup costs, check out Brevo (formerly Sendinblue). Unlike Mailchimp and most other Mailchimp alternatives, Brevo gives free users an unlimited number of contacts.

If you’re growing your first email list or sending personalized emails to specific segments of your customer base, Brevo’s free tier can help you roll out your initial email marketing campaign. On the free plan, you can send up to 300 emails per day. And you can scale it as your mailing list grows (paid packages start at $25 a month), so you’ve always got room to expand.

Brevo’s Top Features

• Unlimited contacts for all plans, including the free tier
• SMS and WhatsApp marketing
• Advanced automation with workflow templates and custom automation
• Transactional emails, such as order and shipping confirmations
• Send-time optimization
• A/B test both subject lines and email content
• Powerful segmentation tools for creating more personalized marketing campaigns
• In-depth campaign reports, including real-time stats, heat mapping, and A/B testing

Brevo Pros

• One of the most valuable free plans
• All paid plans start with a generous 20,000 email sends per month
• Brevo also offers a sales platform and customer support platform, making these functions easy to integrate

Brevo Cons

• Fewer email templates than Constant Contact or Mailchimp
• Doesn’t offer social media posting
• Fewer native integrations than some other services, but it does integrate with OptinMonster

Brevo Is Best for . . .

If you need to get started for free, you can’t go wrong with Brevo. While you’re limited to 300 emails per day, you can work around that for a while by segmenting your list. And segmentation is available in the free plan.

Free email services like Brevo are the perfect for business owners looking to start email marketing without committing to a paid plan.

Brevo’s Pricing Structure

The free plan provides unlimited contacts, 300 emails per day, and a lot of features. The Starter plan starts at $25 a month, and the Business plan, which you’ll need for A/B testing and advanced reporting, starts at $65 a month.  These base prices give you 20,000 email sends each month and scale up from there.

Click here to get started with Brevo.

3. HubSpot

HubSpot combines the power of CRM software with email marketing. If you’re looking for an email builder and a CRM that will help you track your leads and performance, HubSpot has you covered.

HubSpot’s email marketing works for all content creators, but its focus is on businesses. It comes with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop email builder and several email templates to help you design beautiful emails.

Email marketing comes with HubSpot’s free plan, but its functionality is limited.

HubSpot’s Top Features:

• Create emails in minutes with an intuitive drag-and-drop editor
• Emails Segmentation
• Scheduled email send times
• A/B testing
• Complex automation workflows
• Advanced analytics
• Plenty of integrations, including with OptinMonster
• Ability to scale up to more comprehensive CRM functionality within HubSpot

HubSpot Pros:

• Highly customizable automation options
• Integrated CRM to streamline customer data
• Extensive reporting and analytics
• One of the most complete marketing software bundles on the market

HubSpot Cons:

• Steep learning curve
• High cost for full feature access

HubSpot Is Best for:

Large companies and advanced marketers.

HubSpot Pricing Structure:

HubSpot does have a free plan that allows for up to 2,000 email sends per month. Because Hubspot offers so many combinations of tools and products, their pricing structure is complex. Their Starter Marketing Hub plan, which includes basic email marketing, plan starts at $15 a month. Their more comprehensive Professional Marketing Hub plan starts at $800 a month.

Click here to get started with HubSpot.

4. Drip

Drip is a CRM and email marketing platform designed specifically for eCommerce. It includes tools to create personalized customer journeys and sales funnels.

Ideal for online businesses, Drip offers the perfect mixture of email marketing and lead generation. It comes equipped with all the innovative mailing tools, like intelligent automation workflows, campaign reports, and drag-and-drop email templates.

Drip’s robust and dynamic segmentation lets you combine data from your store, website visitors, and marketing to perfectly target your email campaigns. These targeted campaigns can help you maximize conversions and boost revenue.

Drip’s Top Features

• Deep eCommerce integrations with platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce
• A/B testing for up to 4 subject lines at a time
• Dynamic product blocks
• Detailed analytics dashboard that lets you monitor the revenue attributed to your campaigns and workflows
• Comprehensive, custom-tailored conversion reports
• Segmentation via on-site visitor behavior
• Integrations with marketing tools like OptinMonster to create all-inclusive lead generation/email marketing campaign.

Drip Pros:

• Industry-leading eCommerce integration
• Specifically designed for precise email targeting
• Robust analytics
• Powerful segmentation and automation feature

Drip Cons:

• No free or ultra-cheap starter plan
• More functionality means more complexity

Drip Is Best for:

Ecommerce businesses that really want to hone their email segmentation and targeted marketing campaigns. If you want to send marketing emails based on how customers interact with your online store, then Drip is for you.

Drip’s Pricing Structure

Drip starts at $39 per month for up to 2,500 contacts, and you can send unlimited emails for that price. The price scales up from there depending on your number of contacts. Drip has an exceptionally simple pricing structure without the confusing tiers of Mailchimp and many other alternatives.

Click here to get started with Drip.

5. Moosend

If you’re looking for an affordable Mailchimp alternative that comes with all of the email marketing tools you need for your small business, then check out Moosend.

Moosend offers a 30-day free trial that lets you send unlimited emails to up to 1,000 subscribers. It also offers a great deal of features in its low-priced paid plans.

Moosend’s Top Feature:

• Drag-and-drop email editor and 70+ email templates
• Easy list segmentation for sending targeted emails
• Automation workflows “recipes” for abandoned cart campaigns, loyalty sequences, and more
• Transactional emails
• SMTP Server
• Landing page templates and editor
• A/B testing for subject lines, content, and sender name
• Email and live chat support

Moosend Pros:

• Less expensive than many competitors
• More A/B testing functionality than many more expensive platforms
• A wide range of features without a huge price tag

Moosend Cons:

• Significantly fewer templates than competitors like Constant Contact
• No SMS marketing, so you’ll have to sign up for another platform if you want to send promo texts
• Some behavioral automation triggers are only available at the Enterprise level

Moosend Is Best for:

Small businesses that need automation and testing at a low price.

Moosend Pricing Structure:

Moosend is $9 for up to 500 contacts, and the price increases as you grow your subscriber list. For instance, it costs $32 for 2,001-3,000 contacts. All levels allow you to send unlimited emails. To get their most advanced features, you’ll need to get an Enterprise quote.

Click here to get started with Moosend.

6. AWeber

AWeber is a seasoned player in the email marketing and automation space. It offers a wide range of expected functionality, plus a few specialty features.

AWeber boasts a helpful Link Preview feature that is particularly useful for bloggers and other content creators. You simply drag and drop their Feedback elements into your email and enter the URL for a blog post, podcast, or YouTube video. AWeber fetches the web page’s title, description, and image to create an attractive preview, which you can adjust to suit your branding.

AWeber’s Top Features:

• Drag-and-drop email builder
• Email automation based on subscribers’ behavior
• Ability to design in Canva without leaving your AWeber account
• Link previews for content newsletters
• AI writing assistant
• Mobile app to create and edit emails and check reports
• Landing page builder with templates
• Integration with popular marketing tools, including OptinMonster.
• WordPress plugin for creating drag-and-drop customer forms

AWeber Pros:

• A free plan for beginners to get started
• Link previews and feed blocks for content creators
• Access to thousands of professional images, even at the free level
• 600+ email marketing and newsletter templates
• Dozens of landing page templates
• Autoresponders and marketing automation tools

AWeber Cons:

• Some processes are unnecessarily clunky, such as setting up split tests or choosing an automation workflow
• AWeber lacks advanced automation conditions
• Unsubscribed contacts are included in your subscriber count, which can drive up the price if you don’t regularly purge them from your account
• No SMS marketing option

AWeber Is Best for:

Small and medium-sized businesses that only need basic automation features. It’s also worth a look if you do a lot of content marketing or content creation.

AWeber Pricing Structure:

The free plan allows you up to 500 contacts and 3,000 monthly email sends. You’re limited to setting up 1 landing page and 1 email automation on the free plan.

The Lite plan starts at $12.50 per month and also limits the number of landing pages and automation you can set up. If you want the freedom to create unlimited lists, segments, landing pages, and segments, the Plus plan starts at $20 a month. Both of these prices limit you to 500 contacts, and the price goes up as your list grows.

For very large businesses with over 100,000 subscribers, the Unlimited plan is $899 a month.

Click here to get started with AWeber.

More MailChimp Alternatives to Explore

The email marketing services above are a few of the best and most popular MailChimp alternatives available. We focused on providing a list with a wide range of features, pros, cons, and price points.

However, our list is far from comprehensive. If you want to dig deeper, here are a few more email platforms to research:

• ActiveCampaign: Advanced and customizable, but with a steeper learning curve
• MailerLite: Beginner-friendly and robust, with a free plan for up to 1000 subscribers
• Klaviyo: Another more advanced option for experienced marketers
• Omnisend: User-friendly platform focused on eCommerce
• SendGrid: Sky-high deliverability rates and a strong focus on transactional emails
• ConvertKit: Flexible segmentation for highly targeted campaigns
• GetResponse: Easy-to-use interface and AI integration
• Campaign Monitor: Straightforward, comprehensive email marketing tools

BONUS: Build Your Email List With OptinMonster

With this list and a bit of research, you’ll be ready to choose the best Mailchimp alternative for your business. No matter which service you choose, every email marketing strategy starts with the same first step:

Building a great email list full of high-quality leads.

That’s where OptinMonster comes in!

OptinMonster lets you turn your website into your strongest lead-generation tool. Our popups. floating bars, inline forms, and other onsite campaigns let you show your best offers and lead magnets so you can grow your email list.

We have 100+ pre-made templates, which you can customize in our easy drag-and-drop builder.

You have precise control over who sees your campaigns and when with our robust targeting and triggering rules. These include:

• Exit-Intent® Technology: Capture your visitor’s email address before they leave your site
• Page-Level Targeting: Show visitors special offers based on the content they’re looking at on your site
• Timed Display and Scroll Triggers: Only show your popup when a user has spent a certain amount of time on your site or has scrolled through a specific percentage of a page’s content.

You can have a highly-targeted email opt-in campaign up and running on your website in mere minutes.

Want to learn even more about email marketing tools and best practices? Check out these resources:

• 29 Best Email Automation Tools to Transform Your Business
• 32 Best Lead Generation Software and Tools
• How to Create an Email Campaign (Step-by-Step Guide + Examples)
• 15 Best Practices for Email Subject Lines That Can Boost Open Rates
• OptinMonster vs. Mailchimp: Which Is Better for Lead Generation?

The process of starting a new website often goes like this:

You have a great idea for an eCommerce business. Perhaps you download WordPress because of its powerful, easy-to-use design. Now, it’s time to decide which web hosting company you want to use.

And you have no idea where to even begin.

Many site owners go with Bluehost for their WordPress hosting. After all, it’s reliable and has been serving the online community for a couple of decades without any major problems, and they have a great referral program. Plus, it’s really easy to set up and comes with a free Bluehost domain, making it an excellent choice for anyone launching their first website.

Make no mistake, I highly recommend Bluehost, especially for WordPress users. But sometimes you want more options than Bluehost offers. For instance, you might need monthly billing options, which Bluehost doesn’t offer.

Or if you’re not a WordPress user, you might want a hosting plan that offers a website builder. Bluehost only offers a builder for WordPress sites.

There are options for people looking for more variety than Bluehost offers, and you don’t have to spend a fortune for them. Here are my favorite Bluehost alternatives for your eCommerce site:

1. SiteGround
2. Rapyd Cloud
3. DreamHost
4. A2 Hosting
5. GoDaddy
6. Scala Hosting
7. HostArmada (Bonus)

1. SiteGround

SiteGround is one of the most popular Bluehost alternatives, and for good reasons. It offers flexible subscription packages, great security features, and it works especially well with WordPress and WooCommerce.

But what really makes SiteGround special isn’t its pricing tiers: it’s the loading times. Thanks to an advanced caching feature known as SuperCacher, SiteGround is one of the fastest WordPress hosting platforms available.

But if it’s SiteGround vs Bluehost, who wins?

Good question! When doing a WordPress hosting comparison, you’ll see that both provide excellent managed WordPress hosting services, but SiteGround takes it a step further by giving around-the-clock multichannel support. What’s more, they even guarantee that your website will have 99.9% uptime. Talk about unmatched dependability.

Since SiteGround will migrate your website for free, making the switch from Bluehost has never been easier. For these reasons, I recommend SiteGround to anyone who’s not happy with loading speeds and downtime associated with their current host, regardless of which host that is.

SiteGround Pricing: Starts at $2.99/month

2. Rapyd Cloud

If you’re looking for Bluehost alternatives because your website is getting very popular, Rapyd Cloud is a powerful option to consider. It’s built for speed, especially for sites where many people log in at once, like busy online stores or membership sites.

Rapyd Cloud does cost more, but the price buys you peace of mind. It’s designed to handle huge spikes in traffic, so your site stays fast even during a big sale. This makes it one of the best choices for growing eCommerce businesses that need a host that can keep up.

But that’s not all. You get top-level security features like automatic threat scanning and a web application firewall (WAF) to keep your site safe around the clock. Its simple, modern dashboard also makes it easy to manage important tools, like creating a test version of your site, handling backups, and managing WooCommerce plugins.

Overall, we’ve been more than pleased with Rapyd Cloud’s services during our testing.

If your top priority is a fast and scalable website that can handle a lot of customers, Rapyd Cloud is worth the investment. It’s perfect for dynamic eCommerce sites that have grown too big for basic hosting plans.

Rapyd Cloud Pricing: Starts at $29/month

3. DreamHost

DreamHost is one of the few independently owned hosting providers left on the web. That means when you support DreamHost, you’re empowering entrepreneurs rather than big business. What’s more, DreamHost’s privately owned and operated nature ensures that you get a more personable experience when corresponding with support staff.

When deciding between Bluehost vs DreamHost, what else does DreamHost have to offer?

For starters, they have competitive services and are upfront with their pricing structures, so you know what you’re getting at all times. Their services support shared or dedicated hosting, WordPress hosting, free setup, and even a free domain. Other benefits include:

• Around-the-clock customer support through email and live chat, 365 days a year.
• One-click WordPress install and site builder, similar to the one offered by Bluehost.
• Unlimited disk space.
• An intuitive web-based control panel designed specifically for DreamHost clients.

DreamHost even offers new subscribers a 97-day, money-back guarantee, which speaks for itself about how confident they are in their services.

DreamHost Pricing: Starts at $2.95/month

4. A2 Hosting

A2 Hosting makes it onto our list of Bluehost alternatives as one of the few companies that are truly developer-friendly. Clients using A2 are able to use a number of different tools and developer-friendly services, in addition to giving clients the option of Linux or Windows hosting.

A2 also provides top-quality support that users can access every second of the day, lightning-fast servers, and a 30-day, money-back guarantee. Moreover, if you’re unhappy with A2’s services between 30 and 90 days, they’ll give you a prorated refund for the time you didn’t use.

As for the final answer, A2 is more than capable of hosting a small company or a growing eCommerce giant. Its services can be scaled to meet the unique needs of the individual, but its real appeal is empowering developers wanting to build a site tailored specifically for their personal or business needs.

A2 Hosting Pricing: Starts at $1.95/month

5. GoDaddy

There’s a good chance you’ve already heard of GoDaddy thanks to all the Danica Patrick commercials and the fact that the platform makes web hosting easy for everyone, even those who aren’t tech-savvy.

Truthfully, GoDaddy’s services are pretty basic. Don’t expect to have access to comprehensive customizability options. But if you’re running a basic website, like a blog, portfolio, or small-to-medium online business, GoDaddy has everything you need to get started.

Its biggest selling point is simplicity. It doesn’t matter how good you are at building websites, GoDaddy makes it easy to build a fully functioning site within minutes. While not as comprehensive as platforms like A2 Hosting, GoDaddy’s website builder tools are designed to be easy to use, even if you’ve never built a website before.

Are you looking for a reliable company that offers WordPress hosting? GoDaddy is a competitive option to Bluehost, as long as you’re building a relatively simple site. For this reason, GoDaddy is great for beginners interested in claiming their first piece of virtual real estate. But if you’re creating a large-scale online business, try one of the other services, including Bluehost, instead.

GoDaddy Pricing: Starts at $5.99/month

6. Scala Hosting

Scala Hosting stands out in our list of Bluehost alternatives by making powerful cloud VPS hosting affordable and easy to manage. If your site is growing, and you feel limited by a shared hosting plan, Scala Hosting is an excellent next step.

What makes a cloud VPS (Virtual Private Server) special? It gives you your own dedicated server resources. This means your website’s performance isn’t affected by other sites on the same server, leading to faster speeds and better security, which is crucial for a busy eCommerce store.

A huge benefit for store owners is how easily Scala Hosting works with popular eCommerce platforms. Their user-friendly SPanel lets you install online store builders, including WooCommerce, PrestaShop, or Magento, with a single click. Plus, if you already have a store, their team offers a free website migration with zero downtime, making the switch completely hassle-free.

Overall, Scala Hosting is the perfect choice for website owners who are outgrowing shared hosting and want the power and speed of a VPS without the high cost or technical headaches.

Scala Hosting Pricing: Starts at $2.51/month

Bonus: HostArmada

HostArmada is a newer player in the hosting world but is quickly making a name for itself as a fast and reliable Bluehost alternative, especially for store owners who want top-tier performance without the high price tag.

What sets HostArmada apart is its fully cloud-based SSD platform, which ensures your site loads quickly and stays online. For an eCommerce business, this reliability is a must-have. They also include free daily backups, giving you peace of mind that your store’s data is safe and can be restored quickly if something goes wrong.

Plus, HostArmada offers an impressive list of free perks to make getting started easy. These include:

• A free domain name registration or transfer.
• Free website migration handled by their expert team.
• Free SSL certificates for all your domains.
• 1-click WordPress installation and a free drag-and-drop website builder.

In short, HostArmada is an excellent option for anyone looking for a host that combines lightning-fast speed with a simple, user-friendly experience. If you want a fast-loading eCommerce site with lots of free extras and a longer-than-average 45-day money-back guarantee, HostArmada is definitely a provider to consider.

HostArmada Pricing: Starts at $2.49/month

Taking the Next Step

Once you’ve secured a host and launched your site, it’s time to build those email lists, so you can use email marketing to encourage subscribers to shop on your site.

Don’t worry, getting your website off the ground was the hardest part of the journey! Innovative tools like OptinMonster make it easy to engage visitors in real-time, which increases your chances of turning visitors into paying customers. And isn’t that what running an eCommerce site is all about?

Related Resources

• 8 Best Website Builders for Small Business
• How to Make a Small Business Website
• 11 Best Free Website Builders

Advanced operators help you fine-tune your Google search queries, speeding up your research and making your job a lot easier.

As a content marketer, I use Google search to find accurate information and data, monitor competitors, and discover opportunities for new content.

These little snippets of punctuation and commands can transform your searches from chaotic guesswork into laser-focused precision. W hether you’re an SEO, a marketer, a student, or just someone trying to find that one PDF you swear you saw last week, this updated list will help you master Google like a pro.

Here are 20 up-to-date Google Search Operators that still work in 2025 and how to use them smartly.

• What Are Google Search Operators?
• Google Search Operators Cheat Sheet
• Use Cases for 9 Google Advanced Search Operators
• Disabled or Unreliable Google Search Commands

What Are Google Search Operators?

Google search operators are special commands that you can integrate into your search queries to achieve more precise and targeted results.

They function by instructing Google’s search algorithms to focus on specific elements within web pages, filtering the results based on your designated criteria. These operators offer greater control over your search and can significantly enhance the efficiency of your research process.

Google search operators are also sometimes called “Google search commands” or “advanced operators.”

Savvy content marketers use search operators when researching keywords, competitors, and blog post headlines or when checking SEO health.

Advanced operators also help you find reliable information and data for your content, helping you improve your overall SEO strategy.

Google Search Operators Cheat Sheet

I’ve put together this handy table of Google search operators. For each operator, you’ll find a brief explanation of what it does, along with a search query example.

Of these operators, I’ve found 9 of them the most useful. I’ve listed those first. You can click their links to jump down to a more detailed explanation and use case.

That’s the bird’s eye view. Now let’s take a deep dive into the first 9 of these advanced Google search operators.

Use Cases for 9 Google Advanced Search Operators

1. Quotes (“”)

Want to narrow down your search to return only results that include an exact match of a specific phrase? Put that phrase in quotation marks.

This search operator is useful for removing any irrelevant results, particularly with longer search queries.

Use Case: Check for scraped content

Let’s say I want to check and see if anyone has been stealing my content. In addition, I also want to make sure that our site’s content isn’t getting filtered out of the search results as duplicate content because someone scraped our post.

To do that, I would copy a long string of text from my post.

Next, I’ll paste it into Google and put quotes around it.

As we can see, Google is only showing the article I pulled that quote from, so I know it’s showing in Google results and hasn’t been plagiarized.

Related ResourceMake sure your content shows up in Google results with our On-Page SEO Checklist!

2. Minus (-)

Want to exclude a specific keyword from the search results? Put a minus sign in front of it.

This is useful when your query has more than one meaning.

Use Case: Research jaguars (the animal, not the car)

Let’s say I need to research jaguars. When I do an initial query, I get the following results.

The 1st result is for the Jaguar car brand, which is not what I want to see. As I scrolled through the results, they were mixed between the car and the animal. But let’s see what happens if I add “-car” to the query.

Now, the top result is the National Geographic Kids article about jaguars.

Scrolling down, almost all of the results are specifically about the animal. The results include image search results, suggested questions, and more articles, all focused on jaguars. In this instance, the minus search operator saves me time and effort in getting the exact resources I’m looking for.

3. Site:

Want to search for webpages on 1 specific site? Use “site:” in front of the URL for the domain you want to search.

This is useful for researching your competitors or checking your own website for any indexing issues.

Important Note: Do not include a space between the colon and the URL. This rule applies to most search commands that include a colon.

Use Case: Build internal links

Adding internal links to your content helps Google better understand your site structure. Plus, it can keep people on your site longer and reduce bounce rate.

The “bounce rate” article I just linked is an example of an internal link. I found it using the “site:” Google search command.

I simply searched for “site:optinmonster.com bounce rate.”

Our site has 266 results that include the term “bounce rate,” but Google gave me the article that’s specifically about bounce rates as the top result.

4. Asterisk (*)

Not sure what word(s) you need in your search query? In place of unknown keywords, add an asterisk (*) and Google will replace the asterisk with anything. The asterisk is known as the wildcard operator.

Use Case: Find list articles from competitors

This is useful for finding list posts by a specific title, when the number of items in the list can vary. For example, if I wanted to find all posts entitled, “Top X Free WordPress Themes,” I could do a search for “Top * Free WordPress Themes.”

Here are the results for the initial search example I showed: “* content upgrade ideas”:

All of the results are lists of “content upgrade ideas,” with varying numbers. One of our OptinMonster posts ranks #1, but this search operator lets me easily find other lists.

5. Inurl:

Want to see results that include your keyword in the URL? Add “inurl:” before your keyword in your query.

This is useful when you are looking for specific pages on a site.

Note: You can use allinurl: when you want to specify multiple words within a URL.

Use Case: Find guidelines for guest posting opportunities

Let’s say I want to submit a guest post for Lifehacker, but their guidelines for guest authors are difficult to find. Many popular publishers will actually hide their guidelines page because they’re already swamped with submissions.

I can search the Lifehacker site (using the “site:” search operator) and add the “inurl:” operator to search for keywords that might be in the URL, like “guidelines,” “contribute,” “submit,” “write for us,” etc.

Bingo! Now I’ve found the page that explains how I can become a Lifehacker contributor.

6. Intitle:

Want to see only pages with your keyword in the title? Use the “intitle:” search operator just before the keyword.

This is useful for competitor research, or researching a blog where you want to get published.

Note: If you want to search for titles that contain multiple individual words, use allintitle: as your operator.

Use Case: Research a target blog

Continuing with the previous use case, let’s say I want to research Lifehacker because I want to write for them. I know I want to write something about email, but I want to make sure that I pitch them with a unique angle that they haven’t covered before.

I can search Lifehacker using the “intitle:” operator with the keyword “email.” Then, I’d look at the headlines that come up.

With these search results, I can see a long list of headlines about email that Lifehacker has used in the past.

This is really helpful because now I can send them a pitch along the lines of, “I see you’ve published a post about the different types of email addresses people should set up, but you haven’t yet covered…”

Learn MoreGuest Posting 101: How to Pitch and Secure Your Next Guest Blog Post

7. OR

Want to see results for one keyword or another keyword? Place “OR” in between each keyword.

This is useful when you aren’t exactly sure which keyword will give you the desired result.

Note: You can also use the pipe symbol (|) in place of OR.

Use Case #1: Make multiple guesses at once

Remember when I wanted to find the guest posting guidelines for Lifehacker using the “inurl:” operator? I wasn’t sure exactly which keyword would reveal the guidelines page, but I had a few educated guesses.

So far, I’ve only been able to make one guess at a time. Unless I make a lucky guess right off the bat, this can be time consuming.

To streamline the process, I could use the “OR” operator and make multiple guesses all in one search query. For example, “site:lifehacker.com inurl:guidelines OR inurl:contribute OR inurl:submit”.

This will return the results for any of these guesses, and hopefully one of these keywords will hit the mark!

Use Case #2: Discover brand mentions

Want to find sites that have mentioned your brand? It’s a good idea to know who is mentioning and/or linking to your site. You can then build relationships with those companies and improve your link-building strategy.

First, you’ll want to add any different names for your brand into your search query, including any possible spellings or misspellings. Use the “OR” operator in between each. For example, “OptinMonster OR ‘Optin Monster.'”

Then, you’ll use the minus sign to exclude your own properties from the search results. For example, I can use “-site:optinmonster.com -site:wpbeginner.com.” You may also want to exclude social media sites, such as “-site:twitter.com -site:facebook.com -linkedin.com -site:youtube.com -site:instagram.com -site:reddit.com”

All put together, here’s what that query looks like:

OptinMonster OR “Optin Monster” -site:OptinMonster.com -site:wpbeginner.com -site:twitter.com -site:facebook.com -linkedin.com -site:youtube.com -site:instagram.com -site:reddit.com

When I first completed this search, a lot of the results were documentation pages about how to integrate other software with OptinMonster. To filter out those results, I added “-integration” to my search query.

And here were the results.

Now, the results focus on reviews, recommendations, and other content mentioning OptinMonster.

Now we can create an alert with this search result, so we can receive emails about new brand mentions!

To create an alert, first go to google.com/alerts. Then, paste in your search query.

Next, click on “Show Options” to customize the settings for your alerts.

Enter your email and click the Create Alert button.

That’s it! You’ll now be emailed when a new brand mention occurs so you can build valuable relationships and backlinks.

8. Define:

Want to find the definition of a specific term? Simply use the “define:” search operator.

Use Case: Topic Research & Competitor Research

This is useful for researching a topic for a blog post. Or, you may use it for competitor research to see whose page ranks for the definition you want to rank for.

9. Filetype:

Want to find a specific filetype with your keyword? Use the “filetype:” operator, followed by the type of file you are looking for (e.g. “PDF”).

Note: You can also use ext: for this same purpose.

Use Case: Find Statistics from Primary Source Studies

If you want to improve your website’s SEO, you need to demonstrate E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) in your content.

One of the best ways to do that is to provide concrete data to support your claims and to cite reputable sources for that data.

Many businesses and research firms publish their studies as PDFs, so you can use a “filetype:” search operator to help you find studies on a specific topic.

I often write about email marketing, so I can search for “email marketing study 2023 filetype:PDF” to find PDF reports on recent studies.

I can use this research to create a library of useful statistics and sources to include in my articles.

Disabled and Unreliable Google Search Commands

If you’re a long-time Google user, you may have some search operators you learned about in the past that actually no longer work.

Here are a few examples of older search operators that Google has dropped:

• inpostauthor: – Gave results written by a specific author.
• inposttitle: – Specifically searched for blog title results.
• Plus sign (+) – Let you specify that you wanted web pages that included multiple specific terms. For instance, “email + marketing” or “OptinMonster + popups.” Other operators and search functions have taken this command’s place.
• info: – Retrieved Google index information for a specific domain.
• Tilde sign (~) – Included results for synonyms of your search term.

There are also some operators that, while they haven’t officially been disabled, they’re known to be unreliable. I checked these myself, and none of them returned helpful results.

• inanchor: and allinanchor: – This operator is supposed to search for hyperlinked anchor text. I tried it out, and Google seemed to simply ignore this command. It just returned the normal results for my search term, as though I hadn’t included “inanchor:” at all.
• .. – You’re supposed to be able to use 2 periods to indicate a range of numbers or prices. I tried to search “laptops $500..$1000,” but I got results for all price points.
• daterange: – You may see this listed as a search operator to find content within a date range. If this ever was an official Google search command, it’s no longer functional.

Step Up Your Game With Google Search Operators

With this handy Google search operator cheat sheet, you have all the tools you need to improve your content marketing research.

Want to learn even more about content marketing and SEO? Check out these resources:

• How to Create a Content Marketing Strategy
• SEO Made Simple: Where & How to Use Keywords in Your Content
• Content Marketing Statistics: Everything You Need to Know
• 29 Impressive Content Marketing Examples
• 15 Best Content Marketing Tools

Once you’ve nailed your content marketing, you need to take advantage of the increased traffic to your site.

OptinMonster is the best tool available to convert your traffic into leads and revenue.

Our popups, floating bars, and other onsite marketing campaigns let you show your best offers to the right people. You’ll also get more high-quality email subscribers, helping you win more sales through email marketing.

At OptinMonster, we’ve been running a blog for over a decade, and we use many of these monetization tactics ourselves. From affiliate marketing to selling online courses, we’ve tested what works (and what doesn’t) to grow a profitable blog.

In this guide, I’ll share 12 proven ways to make money from your WordPress blog, including strategies that generate recurring revenue and passive income. Whether you’re just starting or looking to scale, there’s an option for every stage of your blogging journey.

• How Do Bloggers Make Money?
• How Can I Make Money From My WordPress Blog?
  • 1. Share Affiliate Links
  • 2. Run Paid Ads
  • 3. Sell eBooks and Digital Downloads
  • 4. Sell Online Courses
  • 5. Sell Merchandise
  • 6. Market Your Services
  • 7. Sell Sponsored Content
  • 8. Receive Donations
  • 9. Offer Memberships
  • 10. Host a Virtual Conference
  • 11. Create a Podcast
  • 12. Start a YouTube Channel
• How Do I Start a Blog to Make Money on WordPress?

How Do Bloggers Make Money?

There are 2 main ways that bloggers make money:

1. From the content itself.
2. From the audience you build around the content.

To earn revenue from your content, you can run ads through Google AdSense or similar services. Advertisers will pay you for clicks or views on ads your blog displays. You can also sign up for affiliate links and earn commission when a visitor purchases something through that link.

You can also monetize your blog audience. Readers may purchase products or services directly from you. Brands may also pay to sponsor content on your blog based on the size and interests of your audience. You can collect donations from readers or run crowdfunding campaigns. Finally, you can sell memberships or subscriptions granting access to premium content, events, or products.

Building your email list is critical if you want to make money from your blog. Email allows you to reach your readers instead of just waiting for them to wander onto your blog. Learn more ways to grow your email list with our complete guide.

How Can I Make Money From My WordPress Blog?

Now, let’s take a look at some specific ways to make money from a WordPress blog.

Need help getting started with your blog? Check out this beginner-friendly guide to starting a blog.

1. Share Affiliate Links

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money from your WordPress blog. It allows you to earn commissions by recommending products or services you trust. Every time someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase, you get paid.

How to Make Money with Affiliate Links

To be successful, focus on relevance and trust:

• Recommend Products You Actually Use: Readers can tell when a recommendation is genuine. If you’ve used a product and can vouch for it, your endorsement will carry more weight.
• Create In-Depth Reviews & Tutorials: Instead of just dropping links into posts, write detailed guides, comparisons, and case studies. Show readers how the product solves a problem.
• Use High-Converting Placement Strategies: Add links naturally within blog content, buttons, or call-to-action boxes. You can also use exit-intent popups to promote top affiliate offers.
• Disclose Affiliate Links: Be transparent by adding a disclosure statement. This builds trust with your audience and keeps you compliant with FTC guidelines.

Best Types of Blog Posts for Affiliate Links

Some of the highest-converting types of affiliate content include:

• Product Reviews: Compare pros and cons, share personal experience, and include screenshots or video demos.
• “Best of” Lists: Example: “The 10 Best WordPress Hosting Providers (Tested & Compared)” with affiliate links to recommended services.
• Step-by-Step Tutorials: Teach readers how to use a product (e.g., “How to Start a Blog with Bluehost”), and include affiliate links to tools you mention.

In this example, WPBeginner has placed an affiliate link for BlueHost in a blog post about building WordPress websites.

2. Run Paid Ads

Displaying ads on your blog is one of the easiest ways to earn passive income, but it works best if you have high traffic.

Services like Google AdSense, Mediavine, and Raptive (formerly AdThrive) automatically place ads on your site and pay you based on impressions or clicks. Mediavine requires at least 50,000 monthly sessions, while Raptive requires 100,000 monthly pageviews. But both offer higher payouts than AdSense.

To maximize earnings without hurting user experience:

• Place ads strategically: Inline ads between paragraphs can catch the attention of readers.
• Optimize site speed: Too many ads can slow your site, reducing engagement and revenue.
• Diversify income: Combine ads with affiliate marketing, digital products, or memberships for better results.

Ads can bring in extra revenue, but they work best when paired with the other monetization strategies in this list.

3. Sell eBooks and Digital Downloads

Another easy way to earn money from your blog is to sell eBooks and digital downloads.

You could compile popular blog content into an eBook that readers can purchase. The convenience of having the best content curated and formatted for easy reading would be worth paying for. Ebooks could also contain entirely new content that isn’t available on your public blog.

This strategy can also work in reverse. If you’ve already published a physical or digital book, you can write blog posts to attract people who would also like your book.

Digital downloads such as checklists, calendars, templates, or printables are easy to sell on WordPress. Use a plugin like Easy Digital Downloads to manage your digital download store.

As you can see below, Mandarin Mama offers some of her best blog posts along with new content in an eBook available on Amazon.

4. Sell Online Courses

Online courses are a great way to earn money from your blog.

Similar to eBooks, you can create online courses to teach about your content area. The advantage of online courses is that you can use video, audio, and interactive elements that aren’t available in eBooks.

You can also sell live workshops to your blog audience.

In the example below, the child development blog Play Learn Thrive offers an online course that dives deep into creating a purposeful play space.

Want to learn more about selling online courses? Check out these resources:

• How to Market Online Courses: 7+ Strategies to Reach Potential Students
• Conquering Course Creation: Top WordPress LMS Plugins Compared

5. Sell Merchandise

Loyal readers might want to show off their love for your blog with branded merchandise.

Print-on-demand companies can make T-shirts, stickers, tote bags, posters, and other products with your blog branding. These companies can even ship for you, and integrate well with Shopify and other eCommerce platforms.

You can use OptinMonster’s onsite retargeting to show repeat visitors popup campaigns for merchandise. You could even create your own affiliate program with the plugin AffiliateWP. This is a great way to reward your biggest fans for promoting your blog and merchandise.

For example, The Pioneer Woman sells blog branded merchandise online and in a brick and mortar store.

6. Market Your Services

If you run an agency or provide a professional service, your blog can share your industry or role-specific knowledge. It’s like having a public portfolio that companies can discover at any time. You could even write guest blogs for other people or businesses!

Use WPForms to create a contact form that potential clients can use to inquire about hiring you. You can also create a booking form that collects payment.

In the example below, Watershed DNA subtly promotes their coaching services at the end of a blog post on a related topic.

7. Sell Sponsored Content

A favorite way to make money from blogging is to create sponsored content.

This means that brands pay you to write content related to their product, service, or brand. Sponsored content builds brand awareness for the sponsor, and can also contain affiliate links.

Sponsored content can include product reviews, roundups that include the sponsor, or simply articles related to the sponsor’s products or brand.

When you start publishing sponsored posts, you need to disclose which posts are sponsored. Learn how to automatically add a sponsored post prefix to your post titles in WordPress. You can also use AIOSEO to optimize your sponsored and affiliate links.

For example, I’m Not the Nanny shares a post sponsored by Xfinity. The post mentions Xfinity Rewards in the context of fun family activities, which the blog’s readers are already interested in.

8. Receive Donations

You can also simply ask your readers for donations to keep the blog running. This strategy is especially effective if you don’t run paid ads or sponsored content.

Perhaps you’ve chosen not to display advertising or sponsored content to create a better reading experience or more authentic content. Either way, you can invite readers to support your blog financially.

WP Simple Pay is an easy way to accept one-time and recurring payments on your WordPress website. You don’t need to fuss with coding or setting up an entire eCommerce system.

In the example below, The Writer’s Co-op invites listeners to donate to support production costs for their podcast.

9. Offer Memberships

Another way to make money from a blog is to offer memberships. You can sell ongoing access to premium content, workshops, courses, videos, and more.

MemberPress makes it easy to sell membership programs.

For example, Good Inside is a podcast and Instagram account with millions of followers. The Good Inside membership offers access to all of the founder’s workshops, videos, scripts, and other resources in one package.

10. Host a Virtual Conference

When you’ve built up a large audience around your blog content, you can bring them together for a conference.

A virtual conference can feature workshops, speakers, resource downloads, and more. Your blog’s conference can take place in real time, with or without recordings. You can also offer pre-recorded content that attendees can access at will. Learn more about how to host a virtual conference.

For example, Cindy Wang Brandt started a parenting blog and podcast. Then she hosted a virtual conference with a series of guest speakers discussing parenting topics.

11. Create a Podcast

A podcast can be very similar to a blog, just in audio form. If you prefer speaking to writing, a podcast could be a great format for you. There are many WordPress podcast plugins you can use to display your podcast on your WordPress website.

Just like a blog, you can share affiliate links or codes in your podcast episodes. You can also accept sponsorship or sell merchandise.

12. Start a YouTube Channel

Another format for blogging is video. People often use YouTube as a search engine to find tutorials, reviews, and other content. Creating YouTube videos can help you get your content in front of more people.

You can make money from YouTube by running ads, building your influence, or selling merchandise. Another option is to take your YouTube videos and create a video membership site.

Check out these important video marketing statistics if you’re interested in creating videos.

How Do I Start a Blog to Make Money on WordPress?

You can start a blog on WordPress in just 30 minutes. Read this great step-by-step guide for starting a blog that makes money.

It’s easy to install WordPress once you have a domain name and web hosting. Bluehost even offers a free domain name with your web hosting package.

After you have WordPress installed, you can use some of our favorite plugins for making money with your blog:

• OptinMonster: the premium lead generation plugin for WordPress that helps you build your email list and sell more productsmember
• Easy Digital Downloads: the best plugin for selling digital products like eBooks, PDFs, and even software
• WP Simple Pay: the #1 Stripe payments plugin for WordPress lets you collect payment without setting up a shopping cart
• AIOSEO: the world’s best SEO plugin and toolkit helps Google and readers find your blog more easily
• MonsterInsights: the best WordPress analytics plugin lets you learn about your blog visitors so you can  optimize your content and offers to make more money

Related Resources:

• 130+ Blog Ideas to Ignite Your Creativity
• How to Write a Blog Post: Step-by-Step Guide
• Ultimate List of Blogging Statistics
• How to Grow Your Blog in 9 Easy Steps

Scarcity is one of the most effective ways to drive conversions. When people see that time is running out, they act fast to avoid missing out. Top brands use this strategy every day to boost sales, and you can too.

At OptinMonster, we’ve spent over a decade helping businesses increase website conversions. We know that countdown timers are one of the best tools for creating real scarcity that encourages visitors to act now instead of waiting.

In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to create scarcity with countdown timers on your site. In just 5 easy steps!

• How to Create Scarcity With Countdown Timers
  • Step 1: Select Your Campaign Type & Template
  • Step 2: Modify Your Campaign & Add Your Countdown Timer
  • Step 3: Configure Your Countdown Timer’s Settings
  • Step 4: Set Your Targeting Rules
  • Step 5: Integrate Your Email Service Provider

How to Create Scarcity With Countdown Timers

For this tutorial, I’ll build scarcity with countdown timers using OptinMonster:

OptinMonster is the most powerful lead generation tool on the market. It allows anyone to build professional and high-converting campaigns in a matter of minutes.

Plus, you won’t need any technical or design experience to build stunning optin campaigns, including:

• Popups
• Floating bars
• Fullscreen welcome mats
• Gamified spin wheels
• Inline campaigns
• And much more…

Each of these campaign types can get your site MORE conversions. You can add a countdown timer to every single one of these campaign types with a simple drag and drop:

Ready to follow along? Click below to start your 100% risk-free OptinMonster account today. You’ll need the Pro plan or higher to access the Countdown Timer feature.

Remember, OptinMonster can be used with any platform. So if you need some help getting connected, that’s no problem. You can get set up by following  whichever tutorial fits your specific needs:

• How to Connect OptinMonster to WordPress
• How to Connect OptinMonster to ANY Website

Now you’re ready to start building scarcity with countdown timers across your site.

Step 1: Select Your Campaign Type & Template

When you’re in the OptinMonster dashboard, your first step is to create a new campaign.

From your OptinMonster dashboard, click Create New Campaign in the upper right-hand corner of your account:

You’ll be prompted to choose how you want to create your campaign. If you want to design your campaign from scratch, choose Canvas. However, I recommend selecting Template.

Then, you’ll be able to browse OptinMonster’s 700+ premade templates, all of which are already optimized for conversions.

Select the campaign type you want a template for:

You can even filter the results for templates that already include a Countdown Timer:

If you select one of these Countdown Timer templates, you’ll need minimal editing. For example, you could start with this Flash Sale template:

Adjust the percentage if needed and perhaps change some colors to match your branding, and you’ll be ready to go.

However, you can add a countdown timer to any template, so you’re not limited to the options that already include one.

Once you’ve selected the template you want to work with, all you need to do is name your campaign and click Start Building:

Step 2: Modify Your Campaign (& Add Your Countdown Timer)

So far, you’ve chosen a campaign type and a template that fits your brand’s voice and style.

From here, all you need to do is personalize the messaging of your offer, so it resonates with your target audience.

Doing so couldn’t be easier. You can simply select the text you want to change and modify it directly in the campaign builder:

For other elements, simply click on the block to bring up editing options in the left panel:

But what if you chose a template that didn’t already have a countdown timer in it?

That’s not a problem.

You can easily add any type of block, including a Countdown block, into your campaign.

You’ll then be able to edit the styling of the Countdown block in the left panel.

You can add other features, too, like:

• Images
• Videos
• Text
• Custom HTML
• Icons
• Dividers
• And much more…

The bottom line is that OptinMonster makes it EASY to customize your scarcity campaigns.

You won’t need any coding skills, and you’ll have 100% control over the look, style, and messaging of your popup.

Now that we have a campaign with an active countdown timer, let’s find the right settings for your promotional offer.

Step 3: Configure Your Countdown Timer’s Settings

As we mentioned earlier, there are 2 types of countdown timers you can choose from:

• Static countdown timers have a fixed start and end date. These are great for holiday deals like Black Friday and Cyber Monday that have universally known stopping times. They’re also good for flash sales and limited-time offers.
• Dynamic countdown timers give every visitor the same amount of time, regardless of when they see the campaign. For example, you can display an exit popup that offers an extra discount that’s only good for 20 minutes.

You’ll need to decide which type of countdown timer is best for your offer.

Once you’ve answered that question, click on the countdown timer block in your builder. This will pull up the editing rules on the left-hand side menu.

Here you’ll be able to set your Static or Dynamic countdown type:

Depending on which you choose, you’ll have different customization options.

Static countdown timers let you change your:

• End date
• End time
• Timezone
• Unit Display Type
• And more

Dynamic countdown timers let you configure settings like:

• End date and time
• Unit display type
• Unit display position
• And more

These settings let you fine-tune your countdown timer to create the right level of scarcity for your offers.

You can also style your timer by clicking the Advanced tab in the left panel settings:

In this tab, you can adjust fonts, colors, background, and more.

Step 4: Set Your Targeting and Triggering Rules

Once you’ve built your scarcity countdown timer popup, you’ve completed half the battle.

The next step is to add a few basic targeting triggering rules, so this campaign appears in the right places, to the right people, and at just the right times in their customer journey.

Start by clicking the Display Rules tab at the top of your OptinMonster dashboard.

By default, you have 2 rules set:

• Time on page is at least 5 seconds
• Current URL path is on any page

You can change those settings and add any of OptinMonster’s powerful display rules to customize your offer.

We won’t get into much detail on all of the display rules OptinMonster has, but here are a few of the most popular:

• Exit Intent® Technology: Recover abandoning visitors as they’re actively leaving your website for good.
• Geolocation: Personalize your offers by targeting people based on their physical location.
• Page-Level Targeting: Boost conversions by matching your offer with the on-page content your visitors are reading.
• OnSite Retargeting®: Keep users engaged by showing fresh campaigns to returning visitors.

These and similar targeting rules are how companies like Crossrope grew their list by 900%.

And countdown timers are how Cracku boosted conversions by 300% AND converted 3.29% of visitors into sales.

Finally, we’re on to the last step: connecting your email service provider (ESP) to OptinMonster.

Step 5: Integrate Your Email Service Provider

This last part is optional but highly recommended.

That’s because OptinMonster gives you the ability to send new leads directly to your ESP.

That way, you can automate your email marketing strategy to save yourself time, energy, and headaches while growing your business.

From the Integrations tab in your OptinMonster dashboard, click Add New Integration:

Then select your ESP from the drop-down menu:

In most cases, you’ll simply need to enter your email provider’s API Key to get everything connected.

Don’t see your ESP on the list? No worries.

Check out this article on how to set up OptinMonster with ANY email provider with webhooks.

But now, let’s take things one step further.

If you’re trying to make the MOST of your email marketing efforts, then you should be organizing your email list into sub-groups.

This is a process called “audience segmentation,” and it’s really important for boosting conversions.

You can create different sub-groups in your ESP based on similarities in buying patterns, purchase history, demographics, and more.

This lets you personalize your messaging, so you can create better and more irresistible offers.

Then, when a user signs up, you can designate which sub-group you want your new leads to go to. And you can do all that from your OptinMonster dashboard.

Once you’ve connected your ESP, simply select the list you want your new leads to go:

And now you have a fully automated email marketing system in place.

Now all that’s left is to save, preview, and publish your campaign!

You can do that by switching to the Publish tab in your OptinMonster editor. Under the Publish Status heading, select Publish.

You’ll select your website platform and follow the instructions to add your campaign to your site.

If you use WordPress, all you need to do is log into your WordPress dashboard and go to OptinMonster > Campaigns.

Then locate your campaign and make sure the status is set to Publish:

You now have a fully functional scarcity countdown timer popup for your website.

Remember, countdown timers can be added just as easily to:

• Floating bars
• Slide-in scroll boxes
• Fullscreen welcome mats
• Gamified spin wheels
• Inline campaigns
• And more…

This gives you plenty of flexibility in creating irresistible offers with limited time for your visitors to act.

If you add one of these campaigns to your current marketing strategy, we’re confident you’ll see higher conversions and MORE sales in no time.

We hope this tutorial helped you add a scarcity countdown timer to your website.

If you enjoyed the post, you’ll definitely want to check out the following resources:

• 34 Clever Scarcity Examples to Skyrocket Your Conversions
• How to Use Urgency to Hack Your Conversion Rate
• Email Marketing Made Simple: A Step-by-Step Guide

These articles will have even more information on how you can grow your list, drive conversions, and increase sales today!

Downselling helps you turn hesitant shoppers into paying customers by offering a lower-cost alternative. Instead of losing a sale completely, you provide a product or service at a price they feel comfortable with.

In fact, DigitalMarketer converted 15% of visitors with a downselling popup from OptinMonster.

This type of downselling is a win-win: your customer still gets value, and you still make a sale.

In this article, I’ll go over 5 proven ways to use downselling to increase conversions and revenue. These strategies will help you recover lost sales, build long-term customer relationships, and boost your bottom line.

• What Is Downselling?
• 5 Ways to Boost Profits With Downselling
  • 1. Use an Exit Intent® Popup on Product Pages
  • 2. Create a Classic Tripwire Funnel
  • 3. Make Targeted Product Suggestions
  • 4. Remove Premium Features for Downsell Packages
  • 5. Use OnSite Follow Up Campaigns®

What Is Downselling?

Downselling is when you offer a more affordable product or service to a customer who hesitates to buy a higher-priced item.

When shopping for a laptop, you might find one with all the features you want, but the price is beyond your budget. Just as you’re about to leave, the salesperson shows you a slightly less powerful model that still meets your needs but at a lower price. Since the price was the only thing holding you back, you decide to buy.

That’s downselling in action, and you can use the same strategy on your website. I mentioned earlier that DigitalMarketer used this downselling popup to visitors exiting their site without making a purchase:

Every sale that this popup wins is extra revenue for DigitalMarketer, and it nurtures the visitor toward a potential larger purchase later.

Why is downselling so effective?

1. It removes price as a barrier. Instead of losing a customer due to cost concerns, you give them an option they can afford.
2. It builds trust and loyalty. Customers appreciate businesses that offer solutions instead of just pushing expensive products.
3. It increases future sales. Once a customer buys from you, even at a lower price, they’re more likely to return and buy again.
4. It’s a powerful psychological trigger. When people see a high-priced product first, a lower-cost alternative feels like a great deal in comparison.

No matter how you approach it, downselling can be a game-changer for your business. Now, let’s look at 5 ways to use it to drive more conversions.

5 Ways to Boost Profits With Downselling

Below are 5 actionable techniques you can use to generate more profits with downselling. And each of these strategies can be built with OptinMonster, the world’s #1 lead generation software.

Our mission is to give small and medium-sized businesses the tools they need to increase conversions on their site. Whether you want more sitewide traffic, more email subscribers, or more sales, OptinMonster can make sure you’re getting the highest conversions possible.

To learn more about how OptinMonster can help your business grow, check out this article: How Does OptinMonster Work? 3 Use Cases.

Ready to get started? Sign up for your risk-free OptinMonster account today!

Now let’s dive into our tips.

1. Use an Exit Intent® Popup on Product Pages

One of the simplest ways you can get into downselling is with a simple exit intent popup. Exit Intent® technology is something that OptinMonster uses to trigger popup campaigns.

When a customer is looking at your website, your popup will appear as they attempt to leave the browser page. This is a super effective method for recovering abandoning visitors.

Just check out these examples of OptinMonster clients who saw massive success with exit intent campaigns:

• Rich Page Increased Conversions by 316%
• Bonjour Lisbonne Doubled Its Email Subscribers
• Fastrack Recovers 53% of Its Site’s Visitors

But how does any of this relate to downselling?

You can target specific product pages on your website that are sold at a high price point. Then, you can create a downselling popup that contains a related product but at a lower price.

If your customers were looking at an expensive necklace, for example, you may show them this popup campaign as they’re trying to leave:

If your customers were hesitant to make the initial purchase because of the price, your downselling popup will capture their attention and make your second offer hard to refuse.

2. Create a Classic Tripwire Funnel

In the past, we’ve written about tripwire funnels and how they can be a great way of boosting sales.

If you haven’t read that article yet, we highly recommend it.

One of the key components in the tripwire funnel is the downsell offer. Here’s how tripwire funnels work:

• Your customer puts a very low-cost item in their cart
• At checkout, you show them a limited time only upsell offer (another product at a lower price point)
• If they decline the upsell, you show them a downsell offer that costs less than your upsell, but more than your original product

And here’s what makes this type of downsell so powerful: it’s actually always an upsell!

Let’s look at an example. Suppose you were selling an eBook for $5. When your customers put it in their cart, they see a popup for a private online course priced at $997.

They decide not to purchase this service, but then they see another offer for a group course at $97.

The difference in the price between these two offers makes your group course very tempting, and your customer decides to buy it.

Even though the $97 was a downsell compared to the more expensive private course, it’s still a major upsell from the original $5 eBook.

You can easily create this type of popup using OptinMonster’s Yes/No campaign. Here’s an example of what the upsell campaign would look like:

If your customer clicks Yes, they’ll get redirected to the course’s product page to make the purchase. If they click No, your downsell offer will appear:

This campaign took us less than 5 minutes to build for this demo. You can make a similar campaign and start generating more profits today.

3. Make Targeted Product Suggestions

It’s rare that any product would have everything to satisfy your customer’s needs. When someone buys a phone, they also need a charger. If they buy a suit, they’ll need a tie. Or if they buy sunglasses, they’ll likely need a case.

The point is that many products require accessories that can function as downsells.

You can create targeted product suggestions for all of your product pages. Then, when a customer adds something to their cart or makes a purchase, you can trigger your popup to show a related–but less expensive–product.

If your customer added a jacket to their shopping cart, for example, you could show them a popup recommending another item of clothing:

Again, OptinMonster allows you to make targeted product recommendations for your downselling offers in a matter of minutes.

That way, you can save time and energy to focus on other areas of your business while watching your profits grow.

4. Remove Premium Features for Downsell Packages

One form of downselling is to create product packages that are essentially stripped-down versions of more premium products.

So let’s say you have a training course that offers live support, 1:1 weekly calls, a video course, and access to group forums. This is your premium product that sells for $497.

You can easily develop a downsell offer by removing a few of the premium features and creating a more cost-friendly package. You might remove live support and the 1:1 weekly calls, for example, to sell the video course and forum access for $97.

Now you have 2 products: the premium version and your downsell offer. Here’s an example of what this kind of downsell campaign may look like:

This works particularly well for online products and SaaS companies. But this also works if you sell anything that comes in packages such as gift baskets, flower arrangements, food assortments, and more.

5. Use OnSite Follow Up Campaigns®

OnSite Follow Up Campaigns® allow you to show offers based on how users have interacted with other campaigns on your site.

That means you can use your customer’s behavior to create personalized downsell offers. If you know that a user has interacted positively with an offer for a coupon, for example, you can later target them for similar products at a lower price point.

You can also use Smart Tags to highly personalize these follow up campaigns. This allows you to grab your user’s attention by referring to them by name or location.

The more personal you can make your downsell offers, the more likely you are to increase conversions.

This type of downsell campaign could look something like this:

Onsite Follow Up Campaigns® are an incredibly effective tool for boosting conversions. In fact, it’s the exact tactic that the travel agency Travel Anywhere used to recover 56% of abandoning visitors.

And that’s it! These are 5 ways you can get more conversions through downselling.

We hope you found this article helpful. If so, you may be interested in using OptinMonster to boost profits in other ways. For that, we recommend you check out the following posts:

• How to Boost Your eCommerce Revenue With an In-Cart Upsell
• The Ultimate eCommerce Optimization Guide: 13 Steps to Instantly Boost Revenue
• 15 Smart eCommerce Personalization Examples That Boost Sales

These posts will have everything you need to learn how OptinMonster can start bringing in more profits to your business today.

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